Julie and the Phantoms: Season 2

Episode 2

"Hey, Ray." Reggie said, hopping up onto a chair. Julie's dad was preparing a bowl of mac and cheese. "Can you help me work this phone?" Reggie held up the screen to Ray's face. "So if it says *read* it means the other person read it but didn't respond?" Ray stirred the cheese and accidentally spilled it where Reggie's hand was. "Thanks, man."

"Reggie, you ready?" Alex asked.
"For what?" Reggie replied.

"For the DIRTY CANDY REHEARSAL!" Alex cheered. "Let's go! I can't WAIT!"

All the Dirty Candy members were in the rehearsal room, plus the choreographer and Nick. Nick looks over at Reggie, squinting his eyes. "How are they here?" He murmurs. Nobody heard him. Nick inched his chair over to where Reggie was standing. Reggie was looking at one of the Dirty Candy members who was sitting on the bench.

"Alex?" Reggie asked.

"Shhhh, I'm trying to learn how to do a pirouette..." Alex replied. He tried spinning around on his feet, then gracefully fell to the floor.
"Have we met that girl?" Reggie pointed to the person on the bench.

"No, why?" Alex replied while dancing.

"She's... familiar." Reggie pursed his lips and sat down.

"Vera! Get over here!" Carrie screamed. The girl on the bench perked up and walked to Carrie.

" Vera..." Reggie whispered. Nick was still looking at him sinisterly, and this time, Alex noticed.

"Hey Reggie?" Alex said while dancing around on the floor. "Doesn't Nick seem a little weird to you?"

"No?" Reggie replied. "How long are you gonna be here??????"

"As long as it takes."

Julie was in chemistry class the next day. She was surprised to see that Nick was sitting right next to her.

"Nick? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Oh, I took the chemistry exam and passed, so I got to join your class!" He cheered. "Isn't this fun?"

"Yeah..." Julie murmured. Nick was cute, okay, she's not denying that... but something had been weird about him recently. Their assignment was to watch a video with partners and write notes, a simple enough assignment. Julie took out her colored pencils, markers, and pens and got to work.

"Wow, you do have a good array of supplies..." Nick said. "I just have a pencil!"

"You wanna borrow mine?" Julie asked, holding up a blue marker. Nick took it and drew a scribble on Julie's paper.

"Hey!" Julie laughed. She took her pink marker and scribbled all over Nick's. Nick scoffed.

"Very funny. Thanks for adding some color. We're going to have the best notes in class!" Julie laughed, smiling, and before she knew it, their faces were inches apart.

Luke climbed in through the window of the Los Feliz High School chemistry class, because he was just bored that day. Something that always cheered him up was talking to Julie. He quietly slid open the window, struggling a little bit, but soon was able to muster the strength. He jumped in through, and fell face-flat on the ground.

"Ow..." he murmured. He got up and brushed off his jacket. He scanned the room for Julie and saw her sitting next to Nick. They were laughing and having a blast- and suddenly, like a flash, their faces inched closer. And closer. And closer. Luke couldn't stand to watch, but he also couldn't leave. Julie turned around to pick up a pen she dropped. Luke promptly ducked underneath a desk.

" Phew. That was close." he whispered. "I gotta get out of here." Luke crouched down and frog-walked to the window. He put his hands up against the windowsill and took one last glance at Julie and Nick- but he saw something strange in Nick's bag. It was a book, Luke leaned on the windowsill trying to scout what it was. He squinted and jerked his head forward but nothing helped. He watched Nick carefully, and saw him go to the teacher's desk to turn in his assignment- but not just that.

Nick slipped something into his pocket- a bottle, no, a vial. The bottle was brown-tinted and judging by the look on Nick's face, it was off limits. Nick turned around and almost spotted Luke!

Luke jumped out the window, landing in a bush. He got leaves off of his forehead and ran away from the school. He had to figure out what Nick was hiding.

School ended soon after Luke left, and Luke arrived back at the Molina garage. Reggie was on Julie's laptop, staring intently.

"What are you looking at?" Luke asked, putting his chin on Reggie's shoulder.

"Oh, um, I just saw someone familiar and need to find out who they are." Reggie was on the Dirty Candy band page.

"Well we gotta go, we have to perform at the cafe!" Luke said.

"The one we played Finally Free at, right?"

"Right. You gotta help me pack up our stuff."

"Why can't Alex help you?"

"He's out roaming the streets again."

"Poor Alex," Reggie said, getting up and closing the laptop. "He's probably not doing well without Willie."

"Hey," Luke patted Reggie's back and put his hand around his shoulder. "Willie will turn up. Let's go, we can't be late to this."

At the cafe, the band played a medley of Finally Free, Stand Tall, Edge of Great, and Bright. The performance went well, except for Luke missing his cue a few times. He was still shaken from what he saw between Julie and Nick- and he didn't know why he was feeling this way. Was he jealous? No, he can't be... right?

After the band got paid, Luke mustered up the courage to go up to Julie.

"Hey, Julie!" Luke said.

"Hey!" Julie said, turning around.

"So I saw you and Nick in your class today..." He said.

"Oh, that, it was... um, just a coincidence. Like when you and Reggie are like inches apart from each other when singing, you know?" Julie replied. Luke winced when she brought up Reggie.

"Oh, okay, yeah." Luke felt like he was sweating buckets, but maintained a cool exterior. Luke needed something to eat- he gulped. He was nervous.

"Luke, it's really nothing." Julie reassured.

"No, I know, just... I'm really hungry." Luke chuckled.

"I'll get you chips."

But the chips wouldn't help- Luke's stomach was churning and he couldn't control himself. What had Nick done to him?