electric touch // luke patterson

bright - julie and the phantoms

GRACIE WALKED INTO SCHOOL with her hands covering her stomach. she spent the whole morning throwing up, unable to stop herself from yelling at her dad for suggesting the idea of staying home. of course, she then broke down into tears from the guilt that brought her, and jj was left to awkwardly brush his teeth in the same bathroom as the distraught girl.

"gracie, hey! you wanna sit next to me during the spirit rally?" a girl known as sally jackson asked. she had auburn hair and a bright smile that always made gracie smile along. they were in french together, the class that the spirit rally would be cutting short. gracie knew sally was only asking because she didn't have any other friends in the class, otherwise she'd sit with anyone else.

still, a sweaty guilt clawed her neck. gracie frowned, "if i can find you, sure. maybe you can find olivia, though? i sort of told julie molina i'd sit with her... i'm sorry."

sally waved her off with a small grin, "that's totally okay. i'll see you later." gracie pulled a strained smile to her lips before she continued to walk to her locker.

she was wearing a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt that she'd cut the neckline of, and she admired herself for a second in her locker mirror. adjusting the green top that had cornelia street ny, new york printed on it, gracie smacked her lips together. to anyone else she looked tired, if anything. but she felt like a hurricane was sweeping through her stomach, twisting at her gut and swooping up her throat.

gracie shut her locker after she grabbed her books, making her way to first period.

the whole walk there and then the whole class, all gracie could focus on was the nagging voice in the back of her head whispering only this class. only forty minutes. next period. only twenty minutes left. you'll sing in front of your whole grade in fifteen minutes. in ten minutes you'll have to go perform. you won't be able to do it.

at five minutes to the bell, gracie stood up and packed her things up. a few of her friends gave the girl a questioning look, but she was too anxious to say anything. she simply ignored them and walked to her teacher's desk where she asked, "may i go to the nurse?" and beelined to the bathroom as soon as she could.

julie watched dirty candy with a soft frown. flynn stood beside her, but gracie was no where to be seen. the only reason she agreed to singing bright in the first place was because luke told her that she'd be right beside her the entire time. she was starting to dislike that sassy and nosy ghost.

speak of the devil...

a poof made julie turn to see the boys beside her, watching the performance casually like they hadn't just teleported using their ghost powers.

she glanced at flynn before leaning in to whisper, "what are you doing here?"

luke grinned, "we wanna see you stick it to the man. isn't that right, boys?" only alex nodded, and when they looked over, reggie was gawking at dirty candy as the danced.

"man, i miss high school." julie rolled her eyes, over the mean girl's song and dance that seemed to hypnotize everyone.

♪ made moves on the rise now ♪

♪ run stuff get a piece of that pie now ♪

♪ we're the best, no doubt ♪

♪ check it out
yeah, we make 'em say, "wow" ♪

julie glared at carrie - a girl she used to consider her best friend. she suddenly spun to face luke, momentarily forgetting that it looked like she was facing the wall.

"where's gracie?" he asked before she could get a word in. she furrowed her brows, peering around him to the double doors.

"i was going to ask you if you could go find her. i haven't seen her since she rode in with dylan this morning." luke glanced away at the boy's name, catching sight of alex dancing along with the girls singing front and center. he glanced at julie to see her face twist into nerves and quickly hit the blond to signal his stop.