It was now time for the dance. Tessa decided to wear a light pink tank top with a floral cardigan and denim shorts. And for her shoes she wore matching blue vans that matched the floral cardigan. She had a pink purse as well that matched the outfit. She curled her blonde-hair and pulled half of it back, but left some strands of hair in the front. For her makeup she went with a simpler look and made sure it matched the dress she wore. She also wore a necklace and a bracelet.

Tessa got a ride with Julie and they were both at the decorated gym. Tessa only hoped that Flynn and her DJ skills would buy them the time they need. "Is everyone fired up for J.T and the Phantoms?" In response she got a loud cheer from the dancing students. "Great! Keep that fire 'cause that's later! We're just a little behind schedule." 

Tessa bit her lower lip nervously, not liking how Flynn sounded nervous. Knowing that Flynn was nervous only made her even more nervous. She knew Flynn was doing her best to sound cool like she wasn't nervous about the boys not being on time, but it wasn't helping her nerves calm down.

"In the meantime, enjoy these mind-blowing beats." Flynn played another song and then went backstage where her two best friends were waiting for her. 

"J.T. and the Phantoms?" Julie asked, raising her eyebrows at Flynn.

Flynn shrugs. "I had some time in French class. And you guys better like it 'cause I already registered it on Insta, Snapchat, Twitter..."

"Don't worry," Tessa speaks up, sending the dark-skinned girl a smile. "We love it."

Julie nods in agreement and smiles. "Yeah, we do. We just wished that the actual Phantoms were here."

"Hey."

Julie and Tessa turn around, both surprised to see Nick walking over to them. Tessa glance over her shoulder, noticing Flynn went back to her DJ station. "Nick!" Julie chuckles awkwardly and Tessa glances at her with raised eyebrows, an amused expression forming on her face. Julie between Flynn and Tessa, pointing at Nick. "Look, you guys, it's Nick!"

"Thanks for the introduction." Nick chuckled as he stood in front of her.

Tessa awkwardly points to the side and chuckles. "I'm just gonna..." Her voice trailed off and she nodded to herself, walking over to the cabinet near the door. She leaned her hand on it and turned her phone on, aimlessly scrolling on social media while she did her best to tune out Julie's and Nick's conversation.

"Oh. Hi, Tessa." The blonde-haired girl looks up from her phone upon hearing Carrie's voice and she resists the urge to groan. "I almost didn't see you there," Carrie tilts her head to the side, furrowing her eyebrows. "Which is odd because you're literally so tall."

Tessa glares at her. "Okay," She sassily says, pointing at the light-brunette haired girl. "I'm not that tall."

Carrie fakes a smile and nods. "Yeah, you are, Treetop." Tessa glared at her again and growled at hearing that nickname that Carrie came up with just because of her height.

"I can't tell if the crowd is getting restless or bored." Carrie remarks, moving to stand beside her boyfriend. "Never a good sign." Carrie sighs. She looks at Julie. "Oh, hi, Julie." She points at the small projector box Julie held. "Got a new bag?"

"Actually, it's our hologram projector." Julie responds. "Just did a little upgrade."

"Oh, so simple." Carrie tilts her head to the side. "You know, I was expecting something a little more...Sophisticated." 

"It's what on the inside that counts." Julie said.

Carrie snickers. "Yeah, that's what a lot of people have to tell themselves." She glances at Nick. "Come on, Nick." Tessa glared at her as she walked by and the blonde-haired girl walked over to Julie while Nick followed Carrie.

"Carrie's a jerk." Tessa spoke, standing beside Julie.

Julie nods and sighs. "Yeah, she is." She gets her phone out of her pocket and checks the time with a frown on her face. "I just hope the boys get here soon."

"It's the boys." Tessa smiles, wrapping her arm around Julie's shoulders. "They promised that they would be here."

****

Now that it was eleven o'clock Tessa was beginning to think that the boys aren't going to show up. She and Julie sat on the floor backstage, anxiously waiting for the boy's arrival. Flynn goes over to them and peeks behind the curtain. "I can only stall for so long. It's eleven o'clock." She looks at Julie and Tessa with a small smile. "I think you two should just play by yourselves. I mean, holograms or no holograms, you guys will be amazing."

Tessa sends her a small smile. "Thanks, Flynn."

Julie sighs. "You guys saw me the other day. It would just be better if they played with us. They'll be here. They have to." Flynn sympathetically smiled at her and went back to her DJ station.

"Issues?" 

Tessa glances up, a bit surprised to see Nick standing by her and Julie. She and Julie exchange a slightly panicked look before they both look at Nick. Julie nervously smiles. "Always."

Tessa moves so she's sitting near the cabinet that's by the door as Nick sits down beside Julie. "Our machine won't work." Julie explained. Tessa leaned against the cabinet, watching the two interact with a small smile. She knew of Julie's crush on Nick and she honestly though the two would be a cute couple, but she had a feeling that would never happen because of Carrie.

Julie's eyes widen when Nick goes to pick up the small projector box. "You don't have to." She sighed as Nick began searching for the problem. He pulled the power cord from Julie and found out that it wasn't plugged in.

Julie sheepishly smiles and Nick nods. "Here's...The problem." He plugs in the power cord to the plug in. Upon noticing Julie's quiet demeanor, he furrows his eyebrows. "That is unless...You didn't want it plugged in." He stands up, offering Julie a hand. Julie smiles at him and takes his hand. "Hey, don't let this crowd freak you out. What I saw the last time you guys played was insane." Nick smiles at her. "You got this. I knew you had it in you."

Tessa stands up straighter, furrowing her eyebrows when she saw Nick go out onto the stage. She quickly goes over to stand by Julie, sharing a panicked look with her. "Wait. What?" Julie asked, looking at Nick with wide eyes.

Nick takes the microphone from Flynn, facing everyone with a smile. "Hey, everybody!" The music stops and everyone turns their attention to him. "We fixed the hologram thing. Who wants to see a show? Come on." While everyone cheered excitedly, Julie and Tessa looked at each other with panic.

"Now...Give it up...For J.T. and the Phantoms!" Nick shouts and everyone cheers loudly. Nick looks at the two girls standing backstage, gesturing for them to get on stage. "Come on! Come on."

Tessa bites her lower lip nervously, glancing at Julie. "Guess we have to go out there now." She points at the back door and slowly began to walk backwards to it. "Or we could just run away and then change schools."

"As tempting as that is," Julie chuckles, grabbing Tessa's wrist to pull her back. "We sadly have to go out there." Tessa pouted, her shoulders dropping in defeat. Julie let go of her wrist as they both walked on stage.

Nick hands Julie the microphone before he gets off the stage. Tessa stands beside Julie, both of them looking at the crowd with an awkward smile. "Uh..." Julie awkwardly chuckles, waving at the crowd. "Hi."  Scattered laughter fills the air and everyone grew quiet as Julie speaks again. "So here's the thing..." She nervously chuckles. "Even though we got the machine fixed, thanks to Nick..." She gestured to the blonde-haired boy and everyone cheers for him.

Tessa awkwardly smiles, folding her hands in front of her. "The problem is that we can't link up with the guys which means we can't play."

Julie nervously chuckles. "Wifi, am I right?" She shares a sad look with Tessa before they both look at the crowd and she sighs sadly. "We're sorry, but...We're gonna have to cancel."

The crowd didn't like to hear that and they all started voicing their complaints. Tessa frowns, wrapping her arm around Julie's shoulders for comfort. Carrie walks up the steps of the stage, facing the crowd with a fake smile. "Um, anybody know the Heimlich? Julie and Tessa are choking."

Tessa didn't think she could feel any worse but here she was. She looks at Carrie with a glare along with Julie while the crowd laughed. Carrie scoffs, walking over to the two girls, and takes the microphone from Julie. "Only one way to save this dance." She looks at the crowd with a smile. "Who wants to see Dirty Candy?" She got a lot of cheers in response, and she was about to turn on her music, but Flynn beat her to it, and took off the knob that Carrie had to turn to get her music on.

"Oops!" Flynn fakes a smile, holding up the knob she had. She apologetically smiles, looking at the crowd. "Knob's broken."

Carrie looks at her with annoyance. "Okay. Two can play at this game." She turns to face the crowd with an obvious fake smile. "Party at my house!" Loud cheers filled the gym when she exclaimed that. Carrie looked at the three girls beside her with a smirk, dropping the microphone on Flynn's DJ station. She walked to the steps, offering her hand to Nick, who stood near the steps. Nick glanced at the three girls on stage with an apologetic expression and he took ahold of Carrie's hand, helping her down the steps.

Carrie gestured for everyone to follow her and Nick as they left the gym. Tessa sighed heavily, wrapping her other arm around Flynn's shoulders since Flynn now stood beside her left side. The three best friends walk over to the top of the steps, watching everyone leave with sad expressions.

 "Well," Flynn wraps her arm around Tessa's shoulders and Julie wraps her arm around Tessa's waist. "That kind of backfired." Flynn remarked.

Tessa then notices the new boy going out to the middle of the gym with a girl wearing glasses. She smiles upon seeing they were dancing. "It was a perfect night for them."

"Yeah," Flynn agrees. She smiles. "The new guy found someone." She chuckles while watching the two dance. "Little man has game!"

****

Tessa now was sitting on the floor with her legs crisscrossed and she rested her elbow on her knee, laying her chin on her hand. She sat between Julie and Flynn who were both popping balloons from the balloon decoration.

"Tess, we can never show our faces at this school again." Julie said, glancing at Tessa with a frown.

Tessa sighs sadly. "Yeah, I know." She points at Julie. "I did say that we should run away and change schools before we got humiliated." 

"Yeah," Julie nods. "I should've listened to you."

Flynn sighs, sympathetically smiling at the two girls by her. "That's what we get for depending on boys."

"I can't believe we actually got ghosted by real ghosts." Tessa mumbled, staring at the floor with a sad expression.

"I don't know if I should be mad or worried." Julie sighs. "They're ghosts." She glances at her two best friends. "We don't know what kind of trouble they can get into."

Tessa shakes her head, sitting up straighter as she points at Julie. "I don't know about you, but I'm mad and worried. I mean, they break the promise they made, and they made us get humiliated in front of the whole school."

Flynn sighs, turning to face her best friend with a small smile. "I'mma get us some ice cream from the cafeteria."

"Ooh," Tessa smiles a bit. "Yes. Ice cream fixes everything."

"Exactly what I was thinking." Flynn points at her and grins. She holds up the key she has. "I'll go get the ice cream. Fools gave me the key." She stands up, looking at her two best friends with a smile. "We can crash at my place and forget about this whole nightmare." She popped another balloon before she went to the cafeteria.

"Get me two..." Julie calls out to her. "Of everything."

"Oh," Tessa chimes in, looking at Flynn with a smile. "Same goes for me!" 

"Julie, Tessa," Tessa mentally scolded herself for being so happy to hear that voice she loves. She looks over to her right, seeing her uncle Alex, Luke, and Reggie rush into the empty gym. "We are ready to rock this dance," Reggie looks around the empty place with confusion. "Which is clearly over."

"Oh," Tessa scoffs. "Look who finally showed up." She stood up along with Julie as the boys went over to stand in front of them.

"Look, we are...So, so sorry that we bailed on you guys." Luke apologized.

"Yeah, I mean, the night really got away from us." Alex added.

Reggie smiles dreamingly. "And the twins."

Tessa knows she shouldn't feel as hurt as she does, but she can't help it. She was beginning to really like Reggie and she should've remembered that Reggie was just a flirt and that he doesn't like her the same way she likes him. She frowned, looking at the floor with a hurt expression while she crossed her arms. 

Luke notices her quiet demeanor and glances between her and Reggie. He frowns when he connected the dots and he reaches over to hit Reggie's shoulder. "What?" Reggie said, looking at Luke with offense as he outstretched his arms. Luke rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. Alex noticed his niece's reaction as well and he glared at Reggie.

"Just tell us it had nothing to do with you getting back at Carrie's dad." Julie spoke.

By the way the boys acted so nervous, Tessa had a feeling what they did involved Carrie's dad and that made her feel even more upset with them. "Of course not." Luke laughed.

"No!" Reggie chimes in. "We would never do that."

"Us?" Alex points at himself, Luke, and Reggie. "No."

Tessa exchanges a look with Julie before they both look at the boys with hurt expressions. "Seriously?" Julie asks them. "You're lying to us?"

"Why am I not surprised?" Tessa sighs. "I mean, first you break the promise you made," The three boys look at her with guilty expressions. They all felt really bad about breaking that promise. "Then you didn't show up to the dance that was important to us, and now you're lying to us."

"Okay, look, it was just something that we needed to do." Alex explained.

Luke takes a step forward. "B-But we'll do whatever it takes. We'll play the next school-"

"What?" Julie interrupts him, looking at him with teary eyes. "Another dance where you can bail on me and Tess and make us look like a fool?" She questioned, gesturing to herself and Tessa. Tessa looked down with a sad expression to avoid the boy's looks, holding her phone with both hands in front of her. Reggie frowned as he looked at Tessa. He felt really bad about what he and the other two boys did. He never meant to hurt Tessa or Julie and he hated seeing them cry. And knowing that they were crying because of him and the boys made him even more upset at himself.

"Save it." Julie scoffs. "You know what really sucks? Our songs were good. And all three of you knew what I've been through, and how tough it's been for me to play, and then you do this?" She shakes her head and frowns. "Bands don't do that to each other. Frieds don't do that to each other."

Julie swallows as tears threaten to fall from her eyes. "This was a mistake."

Tessa was a bit surprised upon seeing Luke looking a bit panicked while he takes another step closer to Julie. "You mean the school dance, right?"

"No." Julie shakes her head, looking at the three boys. "I mean joining a band with you guys."

Hearing Julie say that pricked at Tessa's heart, and she honestly couldn't believe Julie said that. She understood why the curly-haired girl said what she did because she knew Julie most likely didn't want to get hurt again. Tessa didn't blame her since to be honest she felt the same way. The blonde-haired girl avoided Reggie's sad gaze mixed with guilt when he looked at her, staring at anywhere but him and the other two boys with a sad expression on her face. 

Tessa watched with a frown when one of her best friends ran out of the gym. "Julie..." Luke goes to follow her, but stops after a few steps, watching her leave with a longing expression. "Julie!" Julie ignored him and kept on running.

Tessa goes to follow Julie, stopping to look back at the three boys with a hurt expression. "You know, I thought that you guys would never hurt us. I thought you guys were better than that." She exhales sharply, and she brought her arm up to wipe away the tears in her eyes before they could fall, and then lowered her arm back to her side. "Apparently I was wrong." The boys stay silent as she speaks, the three of them looking at her with teary eyes and a frown. "You guys knew how much this dance meant to not only me, but Julie as well." The blonde continues, shaking her head. "I don't know what hurts the most. The fact that you guys bailed on us or the fact that I trusted you guys to keep that promise." 

Her words were like a punch to the gut to the boys. They felt so bad about ditching Julie and Tessa and now they felt even worse after what Tessa said to them. They had never meant to hurt them, but they did just that by doing something they thought they needed to do which only got them into trouble.

"Well, if...If they're not in the band, then..."

"There is no band." Luke finished for Reggie. Then suddenly they all groaned in pain after feeling a jolt of pain, all holding onto their sides.

Tessa had been walking to the door, but she stopped and turned back to them after hearing them in pain. Her eyes widen and she goes back over to them. "Guys, what's going on?"

"What was that?" Alex nervously asked.

"It felt like we were dying all over again." Reggie replied.

"How can we die if we're already dead?" Luke questioned.