STAR! luke patterson

CHAPTER THREE, entertainment is our specialty

"You okay?"

She turns around, her frustration going away a little bit when she saw it was Luke. She nods, shrugging her shoulders a bit. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm great."

Luke frowned. Even though she said she was doing great, he could tell by the look in her eyes that something was wrong. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she started speaking again.

"Okay, I lied." Stella admits, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "I'm upset. I know that Willie is keeping something from me, but he won't tell me. And we tell each other everything." 

Luke shrugs his shoulders, sending her a small smile. "Maybe he's not telling you something to protect you."

Stella nods, knowing that would be something that Willie would do. "Maybe..."

"You don't have to work right now, do you? You can hang out with me and the boys if you want." Luke offered, with another one of his charming smiles on his face and Stella was quick to learn that it was hard to say no to him.

"I would love to hang out with you boys." Stella smiled, happy that Luke wanted her to hang out with them. Being a ghost can be pretty lonely and she only has one best friend so she was more than happy that it seemed like Luke and his bandmates wanted to be friends with her.

They walk back over to the table to see that Reggie had made his way back over to them, looking awestruck. "You guys are not going to believe this, but someone just told me that they added a character named Jar Jar."

He raises his arms dramatically which made Stella giggle. "What's a Jar Jar?"

"I'm guessing you're a fan of Star Wars." Stella noticed and the boy in the leather jacket nodded.

"Yeah. But I'm not so sure if I am now." Reggie pouted while crossing his arms.

"So, can you guys tell me more about your friend Julie?" Stella asked, smiling when the boys  nodded.

"She this cool teenage girl that's good at playing piano and singing." Alex told her.

Reggie nods in agreement. "And her best friend, Flynn, also knows about us, but she can only see us when we play."

Stella starts to understand more about Julie and how the boys can be seen with Julie as they explain. She nods at them, silently urging them to continue. "They're right. Julie's like crazy talented even though she hasn't played for that long since her mom died. She was really close with her mom who was into music, and she stopped getting involved with anything with music because it reminded her of her mom." Luke explained.

Stella frowns at hearing that, knowing what it's like not to have a parent around. "Poor Julie."

"Okay, so how do you guys know her and how can Julie see you? And people can see you when you sing and play your instruments with her?" Stella raised her eyebrows, curious at how that worked.

"Well, we appeared in our old studio, which is now Julie's mom's studio because she played one of our CDs." Luke answers. He shakes his head. "Still have no idea how she has one of our CDs though. Anyways, she can see us, but no one else can. We found out when we play music with her, people can see us. Even though people can't see us when we're not playing music with Julie, they can still hear us when we play without her."

A confused expression formed on Stella's face. Luke nods. "Yeah, it's confusing, but we're not complaining. We're just happy that we get to connect with people through music."

Stella smiles at him, noticing that it seemed like music meant a lot to not only Luke but the other two as well. "That's great. And Julie seems like a great person. I hope I can meet her someday."

The brunette-haired girl looks over when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder and she automatically knew it was Caleb. She shares a smile with Caleb before he looked at the boys. "I take it you boys are enjoying yourselves."

"Yeah." Luke grins at Caleb. Alex stands up, now standing beside Reggie while Luke continues. "I mean, you'd have to be insane to have a bad time here."

Caleb smiles. "Well, entertainment is our specialty." He takes his arm off of Stella's shoulder and claps his hands together. "So now, I understand there's something I can help you with."

"Yeah, we hope so." Reggie nods. "There's an old buddy of ours that ripped us off big time, and we wanna make things right."

"Yeah," Luke agrees with him, looking at Caleb. "We wanna look him in the eyes and make him admit what he did to us."

"So, if you could make us visible, that would be perfect." Alex spoke up.

Caleb chuckles. "Well, sure I can do that, but we're at a party. Why focus on those who wronged us when we're among friends?"

"Now, I understand the three of you are talented musicians," Caleb pointed at them and Stella was starting to think that he was going to ask the boys to join his band.

"I doubt...Is to settle a score. No, your dreams are bigger than that! You're like me! Like Stella!" He gestures to the girl next to him who smiles at the boys. "Born to perform your music in front of sold-out crowds."

He snaps his fingers and a man in a white suit brings a chair over for him. "Please, sit." He gestured to the boys.

As the boys sat down, Stella sat in her chair while Caleb sat next to her. Caleb leans his arm on the table. "What if I were to tell you, that with a wave of my hand, you could share the spotlight with me...With us..." He gestured to him and Stella, smiling at the boys. "And join my house band?"

Stella wasn't surprised that Caleb asked the boys to join his band. She knew that Caleb was interested in them right away when the boys told them about their ability.

The boys look at each other and Luke chuckled. "We...We already have a band."

"Yes. Yes. But when you're done performing, you disappear." He reminds them and the smiles on the boy's faces fell in realization as Caleb continues to speak. "You cease to exist. No bows. No...No soaking up the applause. No real connection with the audience. Here, the audience knows what you are, and more importantly, they know how special you are."

Luke glances over at Stella who sent a smile his way and butterflies formed in his stomach even though he already saw that smile before. He looks back at his friends with a small smile. "Well...It-It could be cool to play here."

"Oh. It's not just here." Caleb said which gain the attention of the boys who look at him with confusion. "Tonight, Hollywood. Tomorrow, Paris."

Caleb was right. They didn't only have shows in Hollywood. They had shows really anywhere. That was one of the things Stella loved about being involved with the Hollywood Ghost Club.

Reggie grins at the mention of Paris. "Ooh, la la."

"It is...All your dreams come true forever." Caleb told them. He smiles, looking at them with a raised brow. The boys stays silent, not really knowing what to say. Caleb then stands up and the man in the white suit put the chair back to the table he got it from.

"I'll give you boys some time to think about it." Before he left, he turns back to the boys. "Oh, by the way, make sure you try the sliders. They're to die for."

Each boy looks at him with shock, but Reggie was the one to ask the question. "W-W-We can eat?"

"Here you can." Caleb nodded. As he walked off he snapped his fingers and three servers brought a platter of cheeseburgers, hotdogs, and pizza along with some plates for the boys to use.

Stella giggled at how awestruck the boys looked at the food and stood up. "I'll let you boys eat." She waved goodbye to them, taking the chair back to the table she got it from. She chuckled when the boys waved goodbye to her while their mouths were full of food.