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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟏𝟑
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍

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"Are you gonna tell me the truth or are you gonna keep staring at me like I grew a second head?" Ryder questioned his younger sister as the music from Julie and the Phantoms began to die down.

"Keep staring at you like you grew a second head," Lexi muttered just loud enough for him to hear, causing her brother to let out a groan while running his hands down the side of his face, "look, Ry, even if I told you the truth, you wouldn't believe me whatsoever because of how crazy it is. I wouldn't believe me if I wasn't living through it."

"Since when did we keep secrets, Lexa?"

The younger of the two hesitated as she watched her older brother with guilt in her eyes. All their lives, the two of them would tell each other everything no matter how embarrassing or strange their secret may be. While the two siblings continued to have a staring contest as they waited for the other to break the silence, Cami had been watching the duo from a distance for a bit before deciding to make her way over to see if she could defuse some of the rare Daniels sibling tension. When she finally arrived, the curly-haired girl caught the end of their disagreement, which made the confusion within her grow. She and Ryder exchanged a quick look before they turned their attention back to the younger and waited for her to respond, only to receive a small sigh from Lexi then she opened her mouth to speak.

"They're ghosts. They first appeared randomly in Julie's mom's studio that day I went over there after getting Julie's urgent text. Ever since then, they've just been appearing out of nowhere and trying to get Julie and me to be in their band. Julie agreed pretty early on, I still haven't decided..."

While the youngest Daniels continued to explain her adventures with the ghost boys, Ryder's facial expression changed entirely while his arms that were once crossed over his chest fell to his sides. As Cami continued to listen to Lexi's tale with an eyebrow quirked, the Daniels boy's eyes scanned over his sister for a moment for any signs of a lie due to how crazy her explanation sounded. But all he found was her face completely free of her tells. Even though he knew his sister was telling some form of her truth, something within the eldest Daniels sibling made him want proof that a band from the past was playing on stage with one of Lexi's best friends.

"Let's just talk more about this at home," Ryder sighed as the music that once filled the room slowly began to fade, "we need to get Julie home before her dad finds out she came here."

"I think it's a little late for that," Cami said, causing the Daniels siblings to follow the curly-haired girl's gaze to see Mr. Molina angrily walking toward his daughter.

After getting home from the cafe, Lexi jumped out of the car and ran into the house and upstairs to her room faster than she ever had before. She hoped that getting to her room sooner rather than later would allow her to escape continuing their conversation. The redhead stood in front of her closed door for a long moment in an attempt to listen for the sound of her brother and his girlfriend coming up after her, only to be greeted by silence. A relieved sigh passed over her lips as she lay down on her bed and looked up at her ceiling while her mind replayed everything that happened earlier that night.

Unfortunately for Lexi, she couldn't catch a break. Just as she thought the older teens would drop their conversation from earlier, her bedroom door swung open before Ryder and Cami walked into the room. The youngest Daniels sat up so fast that she almost fell off the bed right as her older brother closed the door behind him.

"So, I think you were at the part about the ghosts of Uncle Alex and his band from the '90s were haunting you until you got up on stage," Ryder said as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall behind him.

"Can we please just drop this?" the redheaded girl pleaded with the older teens before another small sigh passed over her lips, "obviously you don't believe me and there's no way I can actually prove it to you-"

"Who said we didn't believe you?" the eldest Daniels sibling interrupted his sister, causing her to send him confused looks before the redhead boy opened his mouth to continue speaking, "look, Lexi, I've always been able to tell when you're lying. And no matter how crazy your story sounds, you're telling the truth."

"Honestly, they could've been werewolves for all I care, I'm just glad you're performing again," Cami added with a smile on her face as she leaned into Ryder's side.

"Also, a ghost band signing you up to sing tonight is much more believable than you doing it yourself. Tell them thank you for me, by the way."

After the couple sent the younger girl one last smile, they left her room and shut the door behind him, leaving the redheaded girl alone with her thoughts once again. Lexi just sat on her bed with a blank expression on her face and her mouth slightly parted as she stared at where the two older teens were standing while trying to comprehend how and why they actually believed her.

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Later that week, Lexi found herself lying on one of the outside benches after school while waiting for Flynn and Julie to finish their dance class. The Daniels girl was using her backpack as a pillow as she wrote down song ideas on one of the blank pages in her songbook. She ignored the glares from Dirty Candy when they walked past her right before a small smile formed on her face at the thought of her performance at the cafe being talked about almost as much as Julie and the Phantoms.

Just as she was about to head inside to see if she could catch her best friends' performance, Lexi's backpack was pulled out from under her head. That caused her to sit up straight and turn around to see Reggie standing beside her with a smirk on his face and her bag in his hands. After sending the ghost boy a smile, the redheaded girl snatched her backpack from him before any of her classmates could question a floating backpack. As the bassist sat down next to the songwriter, the latter put her songbook in her backpack before placing the object on the ground by her feet. It wasn't long after that when she looked back up to meet his blue eyes.

"So, now that we're friends again, can you do me a favor?" Reggie asked while Lexi turned her body toward him and pulled out her phone to make her seem less crazy.

"Depends on the favor?"

"Can you tell me what a Jar Jar is?"

Lexi looked up at him with confusion in her eyes before scanning over every feature on his face for any sign of a joke. When all she saw was his serious expression, her eyebrows came together to match the look on her face. "Jar Jar? Like from Star Wars?"

"Yeah. I saw all the posters on your walls then someone said they added Jar Jar but no one will tell me who he is," the brunette boy explained with a hint of hope in his eyes that reminded Lexi of a puppy before a small smile appeared on her face.

"Well, he's a character from the prequel series, which was made after you...you know. He was put in for comic relief," the redhead told him while the boy in front of her continued to watch her with interest in his eyes, "not that many people like him. I'm kinda neutral, I don't hate him but he isn't my favorite. It's hard for me to hate anything that has to do with Star Wars or Marvel."

"Marvel? Like the comics?"

"And the movies," Lexi said, causing the smile on Reggie's face to fall before his eyes filled with confusion as he stared back at the girl in front of him. She studied his look for a moment right as a wave of realization washed over her before her mouth slightly parted. "You guys have never seen the Marvel movies. I need to show you the Marvel movies! You, Luke, and Alex are coming over after your little performance at Julie's house so we can watch a few of them."

"Why does it seem like you're not planning on being on stage with us?" Reggie questioned with a quirked eyebrow as the girl in front of him began to mess with her fingers, something the bassist discovered both she and Alex did when they were nervous, "we want you to play with us, Annie. We just stopped asking you because we didn't wanna force you. Come by the studio and we'll teach you the song."

"Alright. Let me just text Julie and Flynn that I'm taking the bus and then I'll meet you over there."

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After arriving at her house and dropping off everything she didn't need in her room, Lexi ran downstairs and grabbed something to eat before making her way across the street to the Molina's. Her eyes scanned over all the greenery that surrounded almost every inch of their house as a small smile formed on her face before her ears picked up the faint sound of voices. Assuming it was the ghosts of Sunset Curve, the redhead picked up her pace before pushing open the small gate. However, to her surprise, she found Alex and a boy wearing a helmet having what looked like a heated conversation.

Lexi just awkwardly stood there for a moment and watched the pair then decided it was probably best to make herself known. After closing the gate behind her, she walked down the steps and towards the studio, causing both boys to turn their attention toward the shorter girl. While Alex sent her a small forced smile, the other boy just stared at her with a blank expression on his face. It wasn't long before the look on his face transformed into confusion when he realized that she wasn't looking through them but at them.

"You must be one of Alex's lifer friends."

"I have no idea what that means, but sure," Lexi responded to the boy before she turned her attention toward her uncle, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there, "who's the skater boy?"

"Oh, uh, this is Willie. Willie, this is Lexi."

"Right, uh, nice to meet you," the brunette boy said to the girl in front of him before turning his attention back to Alex, "I gotta go."

Before anyone had a chance to say another word, Willie disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Alex and Lexi standing on the driveway. Silence surrounded the duo for a moment before the redheaded girl finally looked up to meet the pink-clothed boy's eyes. She wasn't surprised when she found him staring down at his feet with sadness in his eyes while he fiddled with his fingers.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Lexi asked the blonde boy, causing all his movements to freeze before he slowly looked up to meet the girl's eyes.

The two of them just stared at each other for a long moment before the ghost let out a long sigh and opened his mouth to speak. "I met Willie a few weeks ago after that freak-out session in the studio before I disappeared. We talked a lot and I thought we connected but everything kinda fell apart after we met his friend at the Hollywood Ghost Club. I thought he was avoiding me but he keeps randomly popping up and disappearing."

"This probably isn't what you wanna hear, but forget him," Lexi responded, making the blonde boy's sad expression turn to one of confusion as he studied the redhead, "look, I don't know the whole story, but, take it from me. If he keeps leading you on and pushing you away, he isn't worth it."

"Thanks, Lex," Alex responded with a smile that Lexi happily returned before the former let out a long sigh, "now come on, if we're gonna teach you this song, we're gonna need all the time we can get."

The pair shared one last grin before they walked inside the studio together to find Reggie and Luke sitting on the couch with their instruments in hand. As soon as they saw the duo enter their music space, the brunette musicians hopped off where they were sitting and told Lexi to sit down. They wanted her to hear the song first before they showed her how to play it. The redhead sat in the chair with a smile on her face as the ghosts of Sunset Curve began playing the intro.

As they got further into the song, Alex started hitting the drums a lot harder than he should be. The grin on Lexi's face slowly fell at the sight of the pain in the blonde's eyes and the lack of his usual smile on his face. It wasn't long after that when she caught Luke and Reggie exchanging a look out of the corner of her eye. The trio continued to play for another moment before the brunettes finally stopped what they were doing. Alex continued until he realized his aggressive drum beats were the only sound that filled the room. Lexi sent her uncle a tight-lipped smile while his bandmates just stared at him before Luke finally opened his mouth to address the situation.

"Alex, you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, why?" Alex questioned while reaching over to stop his cymbal's shaking, only for Luke and Reggie to exchange another look while Lexi watched with a hint of sadness in her eyes.

"I know it's tough, man. People say you never forget your first ghost. Maybe that's true," the bassist said in an attempt to lighten the situation as he subtly glanced over at the girl on the couch, "but...I'm sure there will be others."

"Yeah. Thanks, Reg."

"And, Alex, you're a great drummer and a great guy, okay?" Luke told his friend while leaning against one of the drum's cymbals, "I wouldn't let all that stuff get in between you and what you love."

"I don't know, man. Sometimes a little fire can make things better on stage," Reggie countered Luke's argument with a teasing smile on his face before pointing to his shaggy-haired friend, "like you and Julie."

"Uh, wha...what is that supposed to mean?"

"Come on. Everyone can see the way you look at her when you sing," the boy in plaid continued while Lexi and Alex watched their interaction with small smiles on their faces, "you guys ooze chemistry."

"You should never say 'ooze' again, but yeah, I agree," Lexi said while slinging her legs over the arm of the chair to get more comfortable, "according to Flynn, the two of you are always making eyes at each other."

"Okay, no. I have chemistry with everybody that I sing with," Luke argued, only for the smile on the girl's face to grow while his bandmates stared back at him with unconvinced looks on their faces, "seriously, watch. Uh..."

The Daniels girl held back her laughter at the sight of the guitarist singing and walking closer to a very confused Reggie before their faces ended up inches away from each other. All the humor that was once in the bassist's eyes completely vanished as Luke continued to sing then the latter grabbed his lost bandmate's shoulder to pull him closer.

"Wow. I see chemistry," Alex mocked the pair after Luke finished serenading Reggie while Lexi's giggles filled the air around them.

The drummer shared an amused look with his niece as the bassist mumbled something just loud enough for Luke to hear before clearing his throat. "Girls. Am I right?"

"Yeah."

"No."

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