Revolution that's been dancing in the rain (Book 1)

8. Ghost Revenge

Julie's eyes go wide as I say this and the three boys look just as shell shocked.
The bassist who I now know is Reggie Peters gets really close to me, waving hand in my face.
"You can see them?" Julie ask's finally getting words out
"Yes I, Peters if you don't get your hand out if my face I'll make sure you never play bass again" I snap causing him to pull his hand back
"Sorry" he mumbles
"We'll he's already a ghost so you can't do much"
"Watch me Mercer, I'll figure it out."
"If anyone could it would be her" Julie laughs and I wink at her in response
"I believe it" Reggie rubs his arm as if I'd done something to it already
"Wait wait wait are we gonna ignore the face that she knows who we are and can see us" Luke jumps in
"Wait you know who we are?" Reggie asks confused
"Well tell me if I'm wrong but you three" I point to the boys "Make up 3/4 of Sunset Curve" I emphasis the band name with my hands
"Tell your friends" Reggie winks doing finger guns.
I turn to Julie with a complete straight face "friend"
"Yes friend"
"They're Sunset Curve"
"What!" Julie dramatically puts a hand on her chest
I laugh and turn back to the boys who look at our exchange with confusion or in Reggie's case delight.
"Anyway we have Alex Mercer the drummer, Reggie Peters Bassist and Luke Patterson lead singer and guitarist. Oh and you're all dead"
"That's about it yeah" Alex nods
"Wait so you could see them?" Julie asks
"Oh no, this is new. I'm guessing it might be due to me listening to your demo since that's the last thing I did."
"But their demo is" Julie gets up and opens the disc compartment for the stereo
"You took their demo"
"Sorry" I lower my head
"Wait so how do you know who we are"
I look back up to Alex
"Oh that's easy"
I sit up on the piano to start explaining as the boys stand around me
"Julie's mom and I used to listen to your demo all the time, so when I found it in the stereo last night I took it to listen to it.
The CD started making a weird screeching noise when I played it for a couple seconds so I looked for a better version online.
A picture of you three came up and I recognised you from the performance at school.
So I came down to ask Jules about it and here we are."
"And your not freaking out that you can see ghosts"
"Not really Mercer, it all kind of makes sense. I'm a bit disappointed I didn't figure it out earlier though, I mean Jul's did freak out about seeing ghosts and Carlos is inside talking about the house being haunted.
Dose he know by the way?"
"No Dad took a picture and the guys showed up as light spots"
"Cleaver boy Carlos for figuring it out though"
I smile proudly
"Wait" I turn to face her
"Is this why you were so against your dad this morning?"
"I just didn't want you out here all the time not knowing there where three ghosts guys living out here"
"Aw Jul's I appreciate that but maybe we can re-discuss it sometime now that I know"
"Okay ya" she nods
"So who else knows?"
"Only Flynn does but she can't see them."
I laugh "Bet she hates that"
Julie nods laughing slightly herself
"Well it makes sense why you guys made up so quickly.
But anyway Mercer"
I turn back to the blond
"I knew you guys weren't holograms so it's not a complete surprise"
"If you knew Julie was lying to you why didn't you say anything?"
I look up at Luke, and I do mean look up.
That boy is tall he's at least 4-5 inch's taller then me, even sitting atop the piano I still have to raise my head.
I find myself quickly looking him up and down.
So this is the guy Jul's has a thing for.
I get it he's cute, tall and is crazy good at singing and guitar.
"None of my business"
I finally respond to him "Besides she would have told me eventually" I shrug
The boys give each other look as I make my to the couch
"So since I know the big secret now can I stay and watch, I'm sick of the house" I ask flopping down onto the couch "man I love this couch"
"Yes! Always nice to have a fan around" Reggie winks at me
"Reggie Peters, from Sunset Curve flirting with me" I jokingly fan myself with my hand
He beams at this and Alex just shakes his head
"Sure" Julie nods "but don't you have school work?"
"Screw school work, it can wait. Besides Flynn is supposed to be at the school setting up for the dance but she's in your kitchen"
"Alright. Let's get started" Luke stands up with his guitar
"Oh and remind me later there's some Sunset Curve songs we want to show you"
"Oh show me now" Julie gets excited
"Yes please, I would also love to see some OG Sunset Curve"
"OG?" Reggie asks, all three boys looking confused
"It means original" I explain and he nods in understanding
"Now come on Patterson don't keep us waiting"
"Yeah okay" He bends down and picks up a black notebook I'd definitely seen before
"Home is where my horse is" He reads pulling a sheet of paper from the notebook
"Reggie stop putting your country songs in my journal"
"That was a gift"
"Thanks buddy"
"Ya, you should maybe circle back"
Luke cuts him off to talk to Julie
"Country song, cool show me I wanna see" I pat the seat beside me beckoning Reggie to sit.
He does and hands me the sheet.
I hum the tune quietly, singing the lyrics in my head
"This is great Peters"
"You like it?" He perks up
"Definitely, a country hit waiting to happen"
He put his hand out for me to shake "I know you know already but I'm Reggie"
"Jessie" I go to shake his hand but just go through it
"Right I forget" He says sheepishly
"It's okay, we can just pretend" I put my hand in front of his as if I were going to shake it, and move it up and down.
He laughs and copy's the motion.
I look up when Luke starts playing the guitar.
I recognise the song immediately
"So you wanna sample"
"What do you mean sample?"
"Sample someone else's music.
Jessie, my mom and I used to sing that song at the top of at lungs in the car all the time. It's a classic Trevor Wilson song."
"No it's a classic our song" Luke grand his journal and I get up off the couch, weary as to where this is going.
"Pure Sunset Curve, never even hear of Trevor Wilson" Reggie gets up after me
"Maybe your mixing it up with another song"
"I don't mix up songs. Jessie back me up"
"She's right it's off his first album. Jul's look him up to show them.
His older stuff was great and it does resemble Sunset Curves stuff now that I think of it, but his new stuff is shit. It's like some else is writing his music."
Julie turns her phone around to show the boys Trevor and his first album.
"That's Bobby"
"Seriously I just told you his name is Trevor"
"Bobby like your rhythm guitarist?" I ask
"Ya that's definitely him"
"Trevor Wilson was in your band" Julie scoffs
"I can't get over how old he looks"
"Oh he looks like a substitute teacher"
While Alex and Reggie marvel over their old friend the look on Luke's face tells me he's coming to the same conclusion I did.
"He stole your music. You died and he stole your music"
I say being the first one to vocalise the thought
"Jessie"
"Get lost?" I ask turning to Luke
"Yeah. I wrote that." He answers annoyed
"Long weekend?" I ask getting angrier
"Luke wrote that too"
"Crooked teeth?" Julie pipes in
"And that, it's about Reggie"
"It is? I thought it was about you. I do not like that song anymore."
"Wait this is kind of freaking me out. Trevor's songs are kind of big to us. He's the one who introduced me to rock."
"Yeah Luke introduced you to rock."
Luke starts throwing darts at the dartboard in anger.
"Luke" I say in realisation of what Alex just said
"Your name, is Luke"
I say slowly, my anger bubbling. I probably shouldn't be getting more outwardly angry then the boys are but I can't help it
"Yeah?" He says confused but Julie catches on to what I was talking about
"Oh"
"You wrote My name is Luke"
"He recorded My name is Luke. But MY name is Luke."
"All this time that song was written by you. That song got me through-" The more I speak the less I'm containing my anger "-it was important to me. And now, I find out the whole time it was stolen from a dead kid. I, I need a minute" I storm out of the studio and sit in the steps outside
I can't believe a song that impacted my life so much was stolen from the dead writer, a 17 year old.
From Sunset Curve none the less. Every good memory of that song is being replaced by guilt and pity for Luke, for all three of them.
It's one thing to have your work stole but your name, your story. That's too far.
Flynn walks past me into the studio and a moment later her and Julie walk back out to me.
"I did something stupid
I notice the boys aren't with her
"You told them when he lives"
I guess, she looks surprised letting me know I guessed correctly.
"She knows about them?"
"And she can see them"
"She can see them, thats no fair"
Flynn pouts, unsurprisingly unhappy that she's the only one who can't see them
I stand up and turn to leave
"Where are you going"
To stop three stupid, angry teenage ghosts from
doing somthing dumb. Lets go"

"The barbed wire is new."
I point out
"How do you wanna get over it?" Julie asks
"Well Jessie and I could boost you over,
then Jessie boosts me and we both pull her up."
"Or" I say as Julie starts nodding in agreement
"We could do this" I walk over to the gate and press the buzzer
"Who is it" a voice comes from the other side of the speaker a couple seconds later
"Hey it's Jessie. I'm here to drop of some choreography"
There no response but the gate opens
"Do you actually have choreography to drop off?"
"Yeah I was going to give it to her at the dance but this works."
We get to the front door and Carrie opens it after one knock
"Oh you brought them with you"
"Yeah sorry, here's the choreography" I say pulling a USB out of my jacket pocket and handing it to her
"Alright come in I'll get your money"
Julie, Flynn and I walked in behind her.
"Nick" Julie all but shouts
I turn to see Nick sitting on the couch
"Hey Nick"
"Hey guys"
Carrie walks back in with my money
"Here you go, you can leave now"
she glares at the girls behind me
"Actually could you go give it a watch, I'm not sure about one part so if you could just see what you think"
I try and get her out of the room
"Ugh, Fine I'll be back down in a minute"
She makes her way to the stairs and turns around
"don't break anything"
The girls give her thumbs up and she goes upstairs
"So you're playing the dance" Nick says just then I hear a noise I look to my left out a big glass sliding door and see a helicopter flying off and three ghost boys shouting after it.
"Would you excuse me a second I just need to step outside and make a phone call" I excuse myself out the back door
I approach the boys just as they turn around and moon the helicopter
"Very classy" I start clapping sarcastically "No really, very mature"
"Look you'd do the exact same of someone you trusted stole your music" Luke says zipping up his pants
"I'd do worse, but l not when I have a gig in a few hours. Remember, the dance?"
"He stole our legacy"
"Yeah he did but in case you guys forgot you died. It's beyond shit he didn't credit you but at least your music was heard, it brought joy and hope to people
like Julie and I"
"But" Reggie tries to but in
"No" I cut him off "no buts you guys were given something any musician could only wish for, a second chance to make your legacy, with Julie.
Don't give that up for petty revenge. You really think you need to get back at him do it tomorrow, you're on at nine. Do not let Julie down this is important to her, she's giving you a chance to earn her trust don't break it before you even have it."
"We'll be there" Alex promises seeming to be the mature one of the group
"You better be or you'll regret it"
With that I turn leaving them and walking back inside
"It's fine" Carrie says coming down the stairs
"Great we should be going
then, gotta get ready for the Dance"
Carrie walks us to the door, probably to make sure we actually leave and don't steal anything.
"So?" Julie asks as we get to the gate
"They said they'd be there"
"Good then they will, they wouldn't let me down" she says, sure of it.
"I hope you're right"
I really hope you're right