AN: Welcome to Chapter 5! I hope you enjoy the additions I've made to Episode 2's story, and feel free to leave your thoughts, reactions, and predictions in the comments, I'd love to read them.
As always, happy reading!
Kenzie's POV
"You can do it my estrellas. Love, Mom"
Estrella. Star. A word written in Mom's beautiful cursive, love and hope embedded in every letter. It was always one of her favorite nicknames for us. Her estrellas, Julie, Carlos, Flynn, Carrie, Lizzie, Lyla, and me. I remember asking her once what estrella meant, and she told me it meant star & that we were all as bright and beautiful as stars.
When I came back to myself, I was still sitting next to Jules in the studio, and I felt a tear sliding down my left cheek. I wiped it away and looked over at Julie to see how she was doing. She met my gaze and let out a watery laugh, tears shining in her eyes too.
We both lunged at each other, pulling each other into a hug, simultaneously communicating every emotion we were feeling; shock, happiness, sadness, and most of all, hope. So caught up in the moment, neither of us noticed the 3 stunned ghosts behind us, or the tell-tale sound of them poofing out soon after.
Reluctantly releasing from the tight embrace, we smiled at each other and stood up, wiping away any remaining tears, just as the studio doors were pulled open.
Flynn walked in, looking frazzled and with a few stray tears on her face, and made her way over when she spotted us by the piano.
"Carlos said you two were out here. We need to talk," she said, barely taking a breath.
Glancing at Julie in amusement, I turned back to Flynn replying, "We need to talk to you too, we actually-"
"No, it's my turn to talk. I stayed up last night thinking about it, might've drank 7 sodas, but I need to get this out. You guys can't give up music, your music is like a gift, so giving it up would be a tragedy, like canceling Christmas, and I love Christmas!" Flynn ranted, waving her arms around for emphasis.
Julie sighed fondly, shaking her head, while I tried to calm Flynn down, "Ryder, that's what we're trying to tell you, J and I-"
"Kenzie, you can't just brush this off like it doesn't matter. You need to own your talent just as much as Jules does." She sighed and winced as she rubbed her forehead. "Do either of you have any soda? My head hurts."
"No, and it wouldn't be good for you, at least not a whole bottle or can. You and Kenzie have a sweet tooth big enough for all 3 of us as it is," Julie retorted, shaking her head with a smile, as Flynn and I shot her a look of mock offense.
"Come to think of it, I wouldn't mind a soda either. As I was saying, we just played the piano and sang again," I explained with a smile, sliding the sheet music to lay in front of her on the piano top.
She picked up the pages and looked over them, reaching the last page with a small smile as she saw Mom's note. "Wow, that's beautiful," she sighed.
Nodding in agreement we all looked up at each other, hope in all of our eyes.
"So, back to business. What were you saying about me and Maisie's sweet tooth?" Flynn asked, raising an eyebrow at Jules while I smiled and slung my arm around her shoulder.
"Oh come on, you both know it's true!" Julie protested, giggling at us.
We sent each other a knowing look before going into full theatrics. We clutched our hearts with our left hands, raising our right hands to our foreheads, palms out. "How could you, Juliebean?!" I cried, taking a step back.
YOU ARE READING
The Faded Star
Fanfiction"You guys, this is amazing! I can't even count how many people have played the Orpheum and become famous! We're going to be legends!" Twenty-five years later, sophomores Julie Molina and Mackenzie Mercer are barely holding on to their former love o...
