About a half hour later, Otto's family finally came back from the concert.
"That was a close call!" Reggie exclaimed as she came down the hall with her father. "That Julie girl is totally whack, Dad!"
Raymundo chuckled. "Glad you had fun, Reg... Come on, let's get your brother. He's probably bored to tears up here."
"We had an extra ticket though..." Reggie shrugged.
"Ah, you know your brother," Raymundo opened the door. "He cares more about stunts than family bonding."
Reggie saw her brother on his bed with the laptop. "Hey, get off that, I need to publish my concert experience for The 'Zine."
Otto glared at his older sister with purple hair, a pink short-sleeved shirt with a yellow rocket on it, camouflage pants, and red shoes. "Beat it, I got social media to scroll through unlike you..."
"Give it!" Reggie grabbed her laptop. "How'd you figure out my password anyway?"
"A magician never reveals his secrets," Otto smirked. "Now keep it down, Julie's trying to sleep!"
"Oh, my bad..." Reggie rolled her eyes, then looked back to her brother. "Wait, Julie?"
"Yeah, Julie," Otto scoffed back. "She's had a long day, now, if you don't mind..."
Reggie looked to the bed to see the green-haired ex band member. Her eyes widened, then looked back to her brother. "Otto, you let a fugitive keyboard artist in our room and sleep in my bed!?"
"I'm about to let you sleep in the alley if you don't shut up!" Otto shook his fist.
"What's the problem, you guys?" Raymundo saw his children arguing yet again.
"Otto let a complete stranger into our room!" Reggie snarled.
Raymundo looked to see the sleeping Julie, then looked firmly down to his younger child. "Son, how could you? I told you thousands of times to never talk to strangers!"
"She's not a stranger, Dad, she's a celebrity." Otto wrinkled his nose.
"That makes no difference," Raymundo crossed his arms. "Wake her up and put her back outside where she belongs!"
"Yeah, she tried to kill Ami and Yumi!" Reggie added, folding her arms as well. "She's just some lame wannabe!"
"Don't talk about her like that!" Otto sounded defensive. "She's just lonely and needs a real friend, okay? I know this looks bad, but I'm gonna help her and if you don't wanna help, then I'll do it myself!"
Julie eventually woke up, coming to Otto's side and looked drowsy still. "What's going on here?"
"My dad and sister don't understand you like I do, Julie," Otto looked back to her. "You were gonna run away, let's run away together."
Raymundo's eyes widened. "Whoa, no, no, no..." he shook his hands. "No one's running away. Julie, you're not our family, you have to get out of here."
Julie heaved a sigh. "I understand, Mr. Rocket, I'll get my boots, jacket, and keytar and just get going."
"Serves you right for trying to ruin Ami and Yumi's lives!" Reggie huffed.
Julie felt broken at that and sniffled.
"Reg, can't you see she's suffered enough?" Otto put his arm around his sister's shoulder as she turned back, crossing her arms and looked cross with this whole situation. "Please, Dad, if Reggie won't, just let us take care of her... She has nowhere else to go."
"No, it's fine, I can stay in a homeless shelter." Julie insisted.
Raymundo looked firm, but his expression softened. This poor girl looked so damaged and not in a good way. "Well... Okay... She can stay but as long as she doesn't rob us or trick us like those... Amy and Yummy girls... Whatever their names are."
"Ami and Yumi, Dad." Reggie corrected, for what felt like the 10,000th time tonight.
"I promise, I won't, I really won't this time." Julie sounded honest for once in her miserable life.
Raymundo smiled. "It's alright with me... Are you okay, you look like you haven't slept or bathed in months."
"I haven't until tonight actually," Julie said as she rubbed the back of her neck. "It was tough when I was kicked out of the band last year. I even started to miss our greedy and rotten manager, Kaz..."
"Is he really as bad as they say he is?" Reggie asked, sounding interested in her for once.
"He usually made me, Ami, and Yumi do crazy stuff," Julie rolled her eyes slightly, having her side of adventures before she came back for the Puffy duo who she considered as family. "I heard that Ami and Yumi did crazy stuff too, but a lot more crazier than before I came back... Like, they had to deal with that crazy eight-year-old girl, Harmony, being the number one fan, but she didn't even know who I was!"
"Smarts..." Reggie was familiar with Harmony's status as the number one fan, she had met her in some fan conventions.
"It really did, Reggie." Julie nodded to her. "I-If I may call you that."
"Call me what you like except for 'Regina'." Reggie laughed, she was going to accept Julie now.
Julie and Reggie smiled, shaking each other's hands.
"My real name's Juliana, but you better not call me that." Julie smirked.
"Understood." Reggie gave a nod.
"Are you hungry, Julie?" Raymundo asked their guest. "I was planning on taking Reggie and Otto out for a late dinner after the concert... If you don't mind."
"I wouldn't mind at all," Julie smiled as she tightened her jacket, then sat on the bed to get her boots back on. "I haven't eaten a real meal since last week."
"You must be so hungry..." Raymundo sounded shocked.
"Starving." Julie nodded.
"Why didn't you go home and ask for some food there?" Reggie asked.
"It's a long story, Reg." Otto told his sister what Julie told him about how she had nowhere else to go and barely had a bite to eat.