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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟎
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄

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After hanging out with Julie and going over the song they were performing tonight, Lexi felt a bit more confident as she said goodbye to her curly-haired friend before making her way across the street to her house. Once she closed the front door behind her, she raced upstairs to her room to get ready for the dance that night. She pushed her bedroom door open and placed her bag on the floor before connecting her phone to her speaker. Music filled her room as a small smile formed on the girl's face before she made her way into the bathroom to begin to get ready for the dance.

As soon as she was out of the shower, Lexi blow-dried her hair and put it up in a high ponytail before covering her face in light makeup, something she never really did. When she was satisfied enough with how she looked, she made her way back into her bedroom to find her mom and Cami having a hushed conversation as they riffled through the younger teen's closet. The Daniels girl watched the two women with confusion in her eyes for a long moment before clearing her throat and drawing their attention to her.

"What are you guys doing?" Lexi asked while pausing the music that was emitting from her stereo before turning her full attention back to her mom and Cami, "and why do you have such determined looks on your faces?"

"Flynn told us that you were playing at the dance tonight so we wanted to help you get ready," Rachel said while scanning over her daughter before her brown eyes came back up to meet Lexi's matching ones, "makeup looks good but we're gonna need to do something different with your hair. What do you think, Cami?"

"Totally agree," the older teen responded as she turned around to face her boyfriend's younger sister, "I also might need to run home to grab something for her to wear because nothing here is comeback ready."

Just as the Daniels girl opened her mouth to respond, Ryder opened the door before catching the pleading look Lexi sent his way. A small smile formed on the older boy's lips before a chuckle escaped him as he crossed his arms over his chest while leaning against the doorframe. "I'm not helping you out of this one, Lexa. I only came up here to tell you that Dad wanted to talk to you before you left with Julie."

The only response the Daniels boy got was a glare from his younger sister, causing another laugh to escape him before he fled the room with Cami following after him to find clothes that were more suitable for the night. As soon as the two older teens were out of sight, Rachel forced her daughter back into the bathroom before ordering her to sit down in the chair that the older redhead brought into the room so she could fix her hair. Lexi watched Rachel pull out a curling iron from the cabinet before plugging it in and working her magic.

About an hour passed before Rachel announced she was finished then turned Lexi around so that she could see that her once tied-up hair was now a loose and wavy fire. Her brown eyes studied her hair for a long moment before the Daniels girl launched herself into her mother's arms and gave her a tight hug while whispering "thank you" a thousand times. Right as Lexi ran out of her bathroom to look herself over one last time in the natural light emitting from her window, her bedroom door swung open once again to reveal Cami walking in with clothing neatly folded in her arms. The redhead bounced across the room, unable to contain the excitement she was feeling, before plopping down on her bed to see the clothes that her brother's girlfriend brought.

Her eyes scanned over the different options then they landed on a few things that stuck out to her before she took them into her arms and raced back into the bathroom. She quickly changed into the black crop top and slipped on the red plaid skirt and the jean jacket. After adjusting the clothing in the mirror, Lexi sent herself a smile before making her way back into her bedroom. It wasn't long after that when Cami tossed her a pair of cherry red Converse and a matching beanie. As soon as her outfit was complete, she did a little spin for the two smiling women before their laughter filled the room while Lexi continued to look at herself in the mirror with newfound confidence.

After Rachel and Cami helped the redhead with a few finishing touches, Lexi walked out of her room and downstairs in search of her father, only to quickly find him sitting on the couch in their living room with a box tightly gripped in his hands. The youngest Daniels stood at the bottom of the staircase for a moment and watched her father stare at the object with a sad look in his eyes before she heard him muttering a few inaudible words under his breath. Confusion filled every inch of the girl's body as she made her way over to Andy and plopped down on the couch next to him.

"Everything okay?" Lexi asked her father with a hint of concern in her eyes as the man looked away from the box in his hands to meet his daughter's gaze.

"Everything's fine," he responded in an unconvincing tone while his grip around the object tightened once again before Andy let out a long sigh and handed the box over to Lexi. Her brown eyes just stared at her father in bewilderment before her attention turned to the square object and slowly opened it to reveal a pink leather bracelet with the initials "A.M." carved into it. The youngest Daniels just stared at the piece of jewelry for a long moment before looking back up at her father for some sort of explanation. "It was my brother's, your Uncle Xander's. The two of us, your mother, and the rest of the guys in Sunset Curve had matching ones. Thought you could wear it tonight for some good luck."

"Thanks, Dad. I really needed this," Lexi responded while slipping the slightly too big bracelet onto her wrist as a thought that had been running through her head since meeting her uncle came back to her, "I actually have a question. You don't have to answer if you don't want to but...why don't you talk about Uncle Xander and his friends? I mean, I didn't even know his real name was Alex or what his band was called until Ryder told me a few days ago."

The redhead watched her father's entire body tense up as soon as she finished asking her question. The two of them just sat there in silence while Andy stared off into space. It was as if he were watching something playing out in front of him before he let out a long sigh. "Alex and I got into a huge fight right before their last performance, and we never had a chance to sort it out before he ate that dumb hotdog. It's kind of hard to talk about him when the last thing you remember is yelling at him."

While Lexi took in the information her father was giving her, she thought back to the look Alex was giving her when they first discovered how they were related and the various emotions swimming through his eyes. Shock, confusion...but there was also regret. "If he's anything like you, I'm sure he'd forgive you. You were brothers, after all."

"I hope you're right."

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Julie and Lexi walked into the gym to be greeted by loud music and maroon and blue balloons and streamers all over the place as matching lights moved about the room. The two girls made their way through the dancing students and towards the stage where Flynn was DJing before the latter's eyes landed on her two best friends. The pink-clothed girl sent the two girls in front of her a large smile before gesturing for them to meet her at the edge of the stage.

"How you guys feeling?" Flynn asked the two girls in front of her, just loud enough for them to hear her over the music.

"I'm a little nervous," Julie admitted as the smile on her face grew while her grip on the machine that "projected" the boys' images tightened.

"Yeah, well, I'm a lot nervous," Lexi told her two best friends before her wide brown eyes scanned the crowd of dancing students before they landed back on Flynn, "I can't believe I agreed to do this."

"No backing out now. You guys will be fine," the raven-haired girl on stage responded with a wave of her hand before gesturing towards the stage wings, "all your gear's backstage. Come on."

The Daniels girl took one last look around at her peers before her eyes landed on Carter, who was talking to a few of his friends near the back of the gym. A wave of nerves hit Lexi as she watched the boy for a moment then she shook it off before following Julie up the steps and towards where Flynn was waiting for them.

Unknown to the ginger-haired girl, the Wilson boy glanced over in her direction as she disappeared behind the curtain while a million thoughts raced through his head. After a moment of just staring off into space, Carter turned his attention back to his friends as one of them whispered something into his ear, causing him to tense up for a moment. The boys surrounding him sent the raven-haired boy a confused look before the latter let a forced laugh pass over his lips while his mind went back to the redheaded girl.

"Oh my gosh! You guys look amazing!" Flynn exclaimed as soon as she saw her two fellow Musketeers appear from behind the curtain before she pulled the two of them in for a hug.

"Thanks! It's Cami's! She made me wear this because she said my stuff wasn't, and I quote, 'comeback ready,'" Lexi responded before taking a few steps back to show off her clothing while her two friends laughed. As their giggles settled down, the redhead turned her attention to Julie before gesturing to her rainbow attire. "I have no idea where her colorful clothing came from though."

"It's my mom's. I finally went through her stuff," Julie told them as the smile on her face grew larger than humanly possible, only for Flynn and Lexi's expressions to match the curly-haired girl's.

"She would've loved that you wore that," the redhead said while Flynn's expression turned a little more mischievous as she looked around backstage.

"Are the guys here?" she chuckled while flipping her hair a bit and continuing to scan their surroundings.

"No, but they will be. They know how important this is to me," Julie stated with a look of confidence in her eyes while the smile on Lexi's face slightly faltered before looking away from her friends to cover it up.

"They better be here," the redhead mumbled as her eyes scanned the crowd before landing on Carter once again, only to find him staring back at her with a blank expression on his face.

An hour passed since Lexi and Julie showed up at the dance and Sunset Curve was still nowhere in sight. While the Molina girl paced in the wings on the stage, her redheaded friend was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest as irritation at the boys flooded her veins, knowing that she shouldn't have put that much trust into the three ghosts.

"Is everybody fired up for Julie and the Phantoms with a special appearance by Lexi Daniels?" Flynn asked the crowd before receiving cheers in response to Flynn, "great! Keep that fire up because that's later. We're a bit behind schedule, but don't worry, just enjoy these mind-blowing beats."

Cheering cut through the air once again as Flynn turned up the volume of the music before making her way toward her two friends watching her from the wings. Once their third Musketeer joined them, the smile on Julie's face grew before a laugh passed over her lips while keeping her eyes on her grinning raven-haired friend.

"Julie and the Phantoms?" the Molina girl questioned Flynn, whose happiness quickly turned to pride at the sound of the band name she created.

"I had some free time in French class" the pink-clothed girl stated before her eyes filled with a sense of determination as she turned her full attention towards Julie, "and you'd better like it because I registered it on Insta, Snapchat, Twitter-"

"No, I love it," the curly-haired girl told Flynn, cutting her off before she continued to list social media sites.

"I'd love it more if the Phantoms were here," Lexi muttered as she leaned against the wall with her attention glued to the dancing students that filled the gym. The Daniels girl didn't move from her place while Flynn returned to djing and Julie talked to Nick and Carrie about something the redhead wasn't really interested in. Just by the look on her curly-haired friend's face, she knew she made the right decision not to get involved.

The nerves about playing the dance that seemed to vanish throughout the day began to slowly return the longer she waited for the boys to show up. Every now and then, she'd catch one of her peers staring at her and whispering something to their friends before they all laughed and continued to dance. But what she didn't notice was a certain raven-haired boy weaving his way through the crowd of dancing students and toward the stage.

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