Wake Up| JATP

Chapter 29

The five of them stood below the Orpheum, all of them nervous wrecks. They had asked Willie for help as he was the one that got them into this mess in the first place. "Look guys, don't worry Willie said he'd get us in that marquee." Nicole was desperately hoping it didn't work. It was selfish, she knew that but she couldn't bare the thought of losing her friends again. They had asked her to play with them at the Orpheum and of course she had agreed because it was their dream but she couldn't help but wish they weren't involved in all of this, that they could live happily as ghosts. The boys groaned as they were hit with another jolt, and Nicole was about to help them but realised there was nothing she could do but watch. "Hey are you guys okay?" Willie appeared, startling the group but they turned around nonetheless. "Yeah it's nothing we haven't felt before." Willie looked extremely guilty and Nicole could tell that he really did care for Alex and it broke her heart to see the start of a good relationship come to an end so quickly. "How'd it go?" Luke pulled Nicole against him so his chest was pressed against her back, he leant his head on her shoulder. "Well, when that opening band wakes up, they're gonna find their bus 200 miles outside of Vegas, with no chance of getting back in time." Willie laughed and the tension seemed to diffuse. "That probably means there's a promoter upstairs right now freakin' out." The ghosts teleported upstairs to the main offices, trying to be as quiet as possible, however Nicole being as clumsy as she is managed to knock over a bin causing the three boys to look at her. "Sorry." They stood and watched as the promoters freaked out trying to find a backup band. That's when they came into play. Alex very gracefully knocked over the womens pen pot giving them enough time to write down their phone number and play their YouTube video. They danced in victory as the head promoter said to book them. Luke kissed Nicole in the spur of the moment and she couldn't of been happier. All the negative thoughts were pushed to the back of her brain. She wasn't going to ruin this.

It was a waiting game as they sat in the garage waiting for the phone to ring. They were all sat on the sofas leaned forward slightly ready to dive for the phone. "We should be getting the call right... now!" Alex pointed at the phone but nothing happened. He took a deep breath. "Okay, right... now!" He pointed again and the phone began to ring. Julie screamed so loud Nicole was sure her ear drums had burst. Julie finally answered the phone, putting it on loud speaker and clearing her throat. "Hello?" The band waited in silence. "Hi this is Tasha from the Orpheum in Hollywood." The group all jumped up and down in excitement screaming quietly, not forgetting the women on the phone. "Is this Julie of Julie and the Phantoms?"  Julie spread out her arms and everyone stopped mid celebration. "Yes it is." The group went back to celebrating, Nicole was grinning ear to ear like a little child. "Are you available to open for us tonight?"  "Yeah totally!" When the call ended there was a massive group hug. "We did it, we actually did it."

Luke had been freaking out non stop since they had found out they were playing. Nicole thought his veins might pop out of his head if he strained them any longer. "Julie and I were thinking we'd start with 'Stand Tall'." Reggie and Nicole stopped playing slapsies and gave theirs full attention to Luke. "Sounds good." Nicole immediately saw that them words didn't sit well with Luke. "Sounds good? Dude, wake up! I wanna hear, 'it sounds awesome!' I know this isn't how we wanted things to turn out, but we gotta be all in tonight." Nicole placed a hand on his shoulder. "We know Luke, but whilst this is amazing it's also extremely hard to forget the circumstances you're in." He sighed in defeat knowing Nicole was right. "I-I get it, I get it, but it's hard. Do we even know what's on the other side when we cross over? Do we all still get to hang together? You guys are the only family I have." Nicole looked up
teary eyed. "You're gonna be fine Reg, I promise. It won't even hurt, you'll get to hang out with each other every day, play music, do whatever the hell you want, and I'll be watching from down here." She let out a watery laugh. "Please don't cry Nicole, we really don't want to leave you." Alex pulled her into a tight hug, his lanky figure squishing her in his arms. The moment was ruined as another jolt was sent though them, Nicole could only watch in horror as she knew they really didn't have much time. She realised now that she'd have to to let them go.

Julie opened the door, a massive grin on her face holding what Nicole guessed to be her costume for tonight. "You guys ready? What's wrong?" The boys nodded. "Yeah we just got rocked pretty hard by one of those jolt things." Nicole put up a front and mustered her biggest smile, coming to stand by Luke's side. "Can you guys do me a favour?" Luke nodded. "Anything Julie, you know that." She inhaled deeply, a sad expression covering her features. "When you cross over, if you happen to see my mum, can you tell her I love her and thank her for bringing you guys to me?" Nicole smiled sadly, it must've been hard to lose her mum at such a young age. "Yeah of course." The group of five hugged in silence, appreciating one another one last time. They didn't know what brought them together but they're thankful for it, their bond will forever be unbreakable.