(inspired by 'rebound' by thessalonike (starblessed) on Ao3.
i can't even explain what this is, but i hope it makes you laugh a little!)
i.
Ashlyn was standing at her locker when she heard it. Laughter was coming from somewhere in the hallway.
That wouldn't be unusual, except for the fact that the hallway was empty. It was halfway through the third period, and everyone was in class.
She grabbed the cross she kept hanging in her locker and made her way towards the course of the sound. It was coming from inside of the janitor's closet.
The laughter at this point sounded hysterical, verging on the edge of maniacal.
Ashlyn timidly knocked on the door. "Hello?" she called out. The laughter stopped.
"Is anyone in there?"
"Yeah, hold on, lemme just-" a voice replied. There was the sound of several things falling to the ground.
Ashlyn stepped back, wanting to give the person plenty of space to open the door.
But the door never opened.
Instead, a hand stuck through the door. Ashlyn screamed and swung her cross at the hand. The cross, of course, went right through the fingers, and she screamed again.
"No, wait!" The voice cried out. Ashlyn was stuck to the ground, frozen in place. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to! Let me try this-"
Then a leg was sticking through the door too. The beginnings of a torso followed, and Ashlyn wasn't' going to stick around. She'd seen enough horror movies to know what came next.
She turned and sprinted down the hall towards her classroom, not even caring about the water bottle she had left to get.
She imagined she looked a little crazy to the rest of the class, flying through the door and almost slamming it behind her. She was breathing hard, and she was sure her face was red, but she didn't care. She had just survived a ghost attack.
Reggie was bored by himself in the studio.
That in itself was dangerous; a bored Reggie was never up to any good, and leaving him to his own devices was sure to end in disaster.
He knew this, of course, so he decided to visit Julie at school.
He concentrated on the building, and when he arrived, the halls were empty. He assumed people were in class, and he knew Julie wouldn't want him popping into her classroom in the middle of a lecture.
So, he decided to do the sensible thing and wait inside the janitor's closet.
He was delighted to find that this was one of their random suddenly i'm tangible times when he smacked into the door.
Reggie took his time, relishing in the feel of the doorknob under his fingers and the force of the door opening.
It occurred to him that he probably looked very strange, and was glad no one was around to see him opening the door like it was a Christmas gift.
Once inside the closet, Reggie sat down on an upside down bucket. There was nothing to do in here. Strange, the movies always made it seem really interesting hiding inside a closet.
Tapping his fingers on his knee, Reggie contemplated their situation.
After an exhausting few weeks of trying to figure out their unfinished business, getting saved by Julie, and suddenly becoming corporeal at random times, everyone was drained.
In a good way, though; they were all at peace.
That wasn't to say the past weeks hadn't been trying. And emotional roller ghoster, if you will.
Reggie laughs at his own joke, coming up with more puns.
Julie had saved them by boo-lieving they needed a hug.
Alex still couldn't figure out how to use boo-tube.
Luke was amazing at keeping all their spirits up.
Soon Reggie was laughing by himself, in the janitor's closet. He couldn't stop, his mind replaying the same jokes over and over again until he was full on cackling.
He's sure he would have kept on laughing until Julie found him, but he was interrupted by a knock on the door.
He stopped laughing. That was strange, he was sure class didn't end for at least another ten minutes.
"Hello?" A voice called out. "Is anyone in there?"
"Oh, yeah. Hold on, lemme just-" He tried to open the door, only to find that he had gone in-tangible again. Was that a word, in-tangible?
His thoughts were interrupted by the girl screaming. Why was she screaming?
Oh, he thought as he looked at his hand, sticking through the doorknob and into the hallway. That's why.
"No, wait!" He tried to reassure her that he was fine, that she could stop screaming, but she just yelled even louder when he tried to walk through the door the rest of the way.
By the time Reggie made it fully out of the closet, the girl was gone.
Julie did not find the situation as amusing.
Luke was rolling on the floor laughing, having cracked up the second Reggie repeated his puns. Alex was smiling, but he looked more exasperated.
Julie just looked like she wanted to strangle him.
"What do you mean, she heard you?" she almost-yelled at Reggie.
"Um, she heard me laughing and then she freaked out when my hand went accidentally through the door-"
"You mean she saw you too?!"
"Um, yes?"
"Ugh!" Julie exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "What is even happening anymore?"
"I don't know," Reggie said. "But we can't ghoul around anymore."
He had to dodge several pillows thrown his way.
ii.
"Man, I wish we could eat," Luke complained.
"Yeah, we know. You've only said it fifty times today." Alex rolled his eyes. "You know, there's a lunch period now at Julie's school, you could go creepily watch there."
Luke perked up, ignoring the dig. "Great idea, Alex! Reggie, let's go!"
Alex smirked to himself as his idiot friends excitedly poofed away. Willie was coming over later, and they now had the whole garage to themselves.
Appearing in the cafeteria at Los Feliz, Reggie ran over to the nearest table. He dropped onto an empty seat next to a boy, who unnoticedly startled at the sudden appearance of Reggie.
"Luke!" The bassist called excitedly. "They're serving pizza today!"
"Aw man, yes!" Luke vaulted over Reggie's table and ran to another.
"This girl's got a bag of chips!"
They ran around the cafeteria, peering into the student's lunch boxes, pretending they could smell the different foods.
They were so caught up in imagining themselves eating again that they didn't notice everyone staring at them.
It had started as a normal day for Brett. He'd woken up late, completely zoned out in math class, and now he'd forgotten to pack a lunch.
The lunch part wasn't too bad, they were serving pizza in the cafeteria. Something about school pizza was just so good.
Anyways, as he sat at his usual table with his friends, a figure appeared in the empty seat next to him.
He jumped, and the figure turned into the shape of a person. He looked vaguely familiar, but Brett couldn't put his finger on it.
The boy turned his head back and looked like he yelled something, but no sound was coming out.
As he reached out to tap the boy on the shoulder, he suddenly disappeared. Like, into thin air.
Brett looked around his table, and his friends all had similar looks of shock on their faces. He searched the cafeteria, and found that the boy was at a different table, oblivious to the confused face of the girl next to him.
A second boy with shaggy hair appeared at a different table, and he opened the lunchbox of the girl sitting there. She screamed, and jumped away from the table. Everyone looked up at the commotion, and she stood stammering and pointing at the boy digging through her lunch.
The boy looked up and noticed everyone staring at him and his friend. His face paled, and he soundlessly called out to his friend.
The dark haired one also looked up, and he turned back to his friend with panic written all over his face.
They both disappeared from the cafeteria at the same time, causing a wave of shocked noises to run through the room.
What the heck had just happened?
Later in the studio, Luke and Reggie recounted the tale to an exasperated Alex and a barely-controlling himself Willie.
"They were all staring at us! It was creepy!" Reggie yelled from his spot on the floor, throwing his arms in the air.
"Sure, they were the creepy ones." Alex muttered, causing Willie to finally lose his control. He burst out laughing, clutching at his stomach. Soon Luke and Reggie joined in, and even Alex had a smile on his face.
"You know Julie's going to be pissed at you when she finds out, right?"
Luke and Reggie stopped laughing and stared at each other with twin expressions of horror. This just caused Willie to laugh harder and fall onto the floor.
Alex heaved his boyfriend back onto the couch with a fond eye roll. "You guys better start figuring out how you're going to explain this to her."
Luke and Reggie poofed out of the garage immediately, debating whether they should go bother Julie at school.
"Idiots," Alex murmured fondly.
Willie giggled, leaning against him. "You really think Julie's going to murder them?"
"Oh, absolutely," Alex said, then sighed. "I wish we showed up on camera so I could record it."
iii.
So, Julie had yelled at them a lot for the cafeteria incident.
Looking back, Luke realizes it was kind of creepy. He wouldn't want anyone, ghost or not, digging through his lunch either.
She was still fuming when she left for school this morning, so Luke wanted to personally apologize to her.
He wasn't about to poof into her classroom, he'd learned that lesson the hard way, so he decided to wait by her locker.
Of course, he wasn't tangible at the moment, so he just fell right through the door and into her locker.
Then, inspiration struck like lightning. He could scare Julie by popping out of the locker when she opened it!
He was a genius. Who didn't cheer up after a good jump scare? They would laugh about it, and then Julie would forget all about the cafeteria incident!
Now he just had to wait for Julie to open her locker. Luckily, he had shown at the school just minutes before the bell rang, so he didn't have to wait for long.
The hallway filled with the sounds of metal doors being opened and slammed shut, and he tried to focus on the sounds right outside Julie's locker.
He heard the telltale signs of the combination lock being turned right outside, so he pushed his head through the door.
Or, he tried to.
Instead of phasing through the door, his head slammed right into the metal.
"Ow!" He exclaimed, bringing his hand up to his forehead. That was weird.
Luke focused and tried to think about being in-tangible, and he tried to push his hand through the metal again.
No luck. He was stuck trying to push the metal door to no avail.
He was stuck.
Nononono this wasn't part of the plan!
Luke banged on the door as hard as he could. "Help! Help me, I'm stuck!"
He tried kicking the door down, but it just made a huge noise. "Julie! Anybody! Help me!" he continued hitting the door, hoping it might open or someone will hear him and let him out.
Eventually, he started to tire. His kicking slowed, and he rested his head against the door. He had to face the truth; he was stuck in here until Julie opened her locker.
The thought struck him that he could just poof out the locker, and his face flushed. God, he was an idiot.
Cheeks flaming, Luke thought of home.
This school was haunted. Lin was sure of it. They thought they'd had some evidence beforehand, but lately more and more students had been noticing strange events happening around the school.
A girl from their English class had sworn she saw someone walk through a door, and apparently the whole cafeteria had seen two boys teleporting around the room during a lunch period.
Lin wasn't skeptical that these stories were true, but they'd like to see it for themself. Luckily, they didn't have to wait very long.
They were opening their locker like any other day when a sudden noise came from the locker next to them.
Julie Molina's locker.
They felt something weird was going on with Julie; the girl had gone from not singing for a whole year to suddenly playing with a hologram band like they'd practice for months.
Lin supposed they didn't know much about cameras, though. After all, Mr. Molina was in the photography business.
Anyways, Lin was about to brush the noise off as something falling in the locker when suddenly a voice called out, "Help! Help me!"
Lin looked around, but no one else had noticed the voice. They inched closer to Julie's locker, only to jump away when something hit the door repeatedly from the inside.
"Emma, come here!" Lin called out to their friend. "Listen."
Emma looked skeptical, but she leaned in closer to Julie's locker. She jumped away, startled just like Lin, as more banging came from inside the metal box.
"I'm stuck! Please, somebody let me out!"
Lin and Emma listened as the noises increased to a frantic, almost constant source of noise. They waved over any student who walked by, eager to share their ghostly discovery with everyone.
The students who did listen were thoroughly freaked out, although some were sure that it was a hoax. The large crowd of students listened at the door of Julie Molina's locker until the noises gradually faded away.
After a few minutes of silence, they were all startled to hear a voice from behind them.
"What's going on here?"
Julie Molina was standing behind the crowd of students gathered at her locker, with Flynn at her side. Everyone rushed away (Flynn was kind of scary), except for Lin and Emma.
"We heard something from inside your locker," Lin explained. "We thought something just fell, but then a voice started talking."
Julie shared a look with Flynn, and Lin was almost certain she seemed-exasperated?
That's not how they would react if someone told them there was something in their locker.
Julie just opened her locker with calm, practiced ease though. She didn't seem scared of what she might find inside.
Turns out, she didn't need to be scared; there was nothing in her locker.
Julie muttered something that sounded suspiciously like i'm gonna kill them, before she turned to Lin.
"Thanks for letting me know," she said in what sounded like a falsely pleasant voice. "I'm sure I just left a video playing on my phone or something."
Lin wasn't so sure, but they nodded and turned to go to their next class with Emma.
Once they were out of earshot, Line turned to their friend. "That was weird, right?"
"Definitely," Emma agreed. "And Julie totally knows something too."
Lin nodded, lost in thought on their way to class.
"Julie!" Reggie exclaimed as she entered the studio later that night, then faltered as he took in the stormy expression on her face. "Um, is everything okay?"
"I don't know, Reg. Does someone want to explain why all of my classmates heard screaming coming from inside my locker?"
Alex and Reggie did a very good job at keeping straight faces, though Reggie was shaking and he looked like he was grimacing due to restraining his smile.
Luke gave himself away, though, as his cheeks painted themselves red.
"Um, no idea, Julie." Luke stuttered as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Let me ask you this, Luke," Julie said, starting to suppress a smile herself. "Did you get stuck in my locker today?"
Reggie couldn't seem to hold himself together any longer, and he burst out laughing. Alex joined him, clutching his stomach. Luke had a sheepish expression on his face, going redder than she'd ever seen him.
"Sorry, Julie." He said.
She took pity on him, feeling bad for how embarrassed he probably was right now. "It's fine. Just please, please stay away from my school. All of you."
As she turned to leave, Reggie gasped out, "Wait! That's not even the best part!"
She turned back, and was greeted with the sight of Luke shoving a pillow over Reggie's face. Reggie was flailing around and smacked Luke's nose in return.
Unfortunately, Luke had two friends he'd told about his experience.
Two friends who were very willing to betray him.
"He-he forgot he could p-poof out of the locker!" Alex said, exploding into laughter once again.
Julie stared at Luke, who had an absolutely mortified expression on his face. Then she burst into giggles, falling onto her knees.
"I hate you," Luke deadpanned. "Every one of you."
iv.
Even though Julie had made them promise not to visit her school any more, Alex liked to watch the dancers in her class. They were all very talented, and being in a dance environment again provided him a small amount of comfort.
Today he was perched on top on top of the folded up bleachers in the gym. Julie was learning a new number today, and he didn't want to distract her by improvising his way through the song.
While the students were watching the teacher demonstrate the moves, Alex allowed his thoughts to wander.
Specifically, to the night Julie had saved the three of them. He still didn't know how it happened, and it was kind of stressing him out.
The night had been a blur of pain, tears, and joy. He remembered laying on the studio floor, preparing to say his last goodbyes, until he'd felt a weird pulling sensation in his gut.
Julie had been hugging Luke, who'd been glowing, and the feeling wanted to lead Alex towards them.
He thought about it now, the sensation, and wondered if it could be replicated again. Maybe that's why they were becoming tangible at random times; Julie was thinking of them?
He concentrated really hard, and he felt the beginnings of the tug in his stomach, but he was interrupted by the sounds of screaming.
He looked up, and noticed almost everyone in the class was staring at him.
Alex froze, wondering what the hell was going on, until his eyes caught Julie glaring and trying to subtly wave at him.
He said subtly because there was nothing subtle about Julie Molina.
She pointed at the door, mouthing go!
He got the idea and poofed out of the gym before anyone could recognize him. He just hoped Julie wasn't going to murder him.
As soon as Alex disappeared, Julie sighed in relief. She was going to kill those boys, they didn't listen to a word she'd said.
Flynn was staring at her with wide, questioning eyes, and Julie gestured at her to knock it off.
Unfortunately a girl in their class, Claire, had noticed. "Julie, did you know him? He seemed to be staring at you."
Julie panicked as everyone's eyes turned to her. "Haha, no! Why would you say that? I didn't recognize him at all, nope!"
No one said anything, but she saw some people exchange glances. Damn those boys, putting her in this position. She was a terrible liar, and everyone knew it.
Flynn, being the amazing best friend that she is, gave Julie an out. "Don't we have to rehearse the number before we go?"
Luckily, the teacher seemed eager to move on with the class after the ghost sighting. "Yes, come on, girls. Let's go over this one more time…"
"Did you guys feel weird the night Julie saved us?" Alex asked as he entered the studio.
Reggie gave him a questioning look from the floor as Luke asked, "You mean almost dying, or the fact that we started glowing when Julie touched us?"
Alex rolled his eyes. "Besides that, idiot. I felt a weird… tugging feeling in my gut."
"Oh yeah, I felt that too!" Reggie says. "I just thought it was the pizza we ate coming back to haunt me."
"That doesn't… okay." Alex said. "What about you, Luke?"
The guitarist thinks, tapping his pencil against his notebook. "Yeah, I guess I did. It definitely felt stronger the closer I got to Julie."
"Okay, good." Alex exhaled, flopping onto the couch. "Because the weirdest thing just happened."
"Weirder than Luke getting stuck in a locker?" Reggie asked. Luke chucked his pencil at him, face flushed red.
"Shut up! You would've done the same thing!"
"Yeah, but I didn't-"
"Guys!" Alex interrupts. "I was thinking about that feeling and if we could recreate it and then apparently it worked because suddenly they could all see me and everyone was staring at me-"
"Woah man, take a breath." Luke placed a hand gently on his shoulder as he sat next to Alex. "What happened?"
Alex closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. "Sorry. I was, um, watching Julie's dance class-"
"Wow, you actually went back to the school?" Reggie cuts in. "That took guts, man. Julie's scary."
Luke nods in agreement before gesturing for Alex to continue.
"Yeah so I was thinking about that night and I guess I just… appeared? The girls were screaming and staring at me, so I left as fast as I could."
"Huh," Luke says.
"Yeah," Alex agrees. They sit in silence, thinking, until they hear Julie storming up the driveway.
"You shouldn't have gone back there, man." Luke says, watching him with wide eyes.
"You better run," Reggie advises. "Julie's gonna kill you. Again."
Alex decides they're probably right, and poofs out of the garage just as Julie throws open the doors.
v.
This time, they were careful. They knew Julie didn't want them in the building at the same time as her classmates, so they waited until school was over.
Boom, loophole.
Reggie was dancing down the hallway with Luke and Alex following behind him, until he came to a stop in front of the music classroom.
He turned to look at his friends with a hopeful look on his face.
Luke looked at Alex, who shrugged. Why not? It's not like anyone was still at the school, it was 3:30.
They phased through the door and summoned their instruments.
As much as Alex loved Julie and loved playing with her, it was nice to play some Sunset Curve classics sometimes.
They played through their old set list, not even needing words to communicate. It was almost like old times.
Almost. There was a hole where their fourth member should have been. Alex could sense it, and he knew the others could too, but they pushed past it. Luke filled what should have been Bobby's guitar solo with his own improv riff, Reggie bounced around with double his usual energy, and Alex kept them from straying too far into past memories.
As Luke ended their last songs with an amazing riff, Alex stretched from behind his kit. "Man, we haven't played those in forever."
"Felt good," Reggie agreed.
"Let's get back boys," Luke said. "I have an idea for a new song with Julie."
Alex rolled his eyes, because of course inspiration hits Luke as soon as they've finished playing for almost an hour straight.
He doesn't protest, though, as Reggie grabs his hand to poof them back home.
Maddie had been walking back from her snack run when she heard music coming from the music classroom. No one was in there, so she assumed someone had left the radio on inside.
When she went to open the door though, it was locked.
Making her way back to the computer lab, Maddie told the instructor what she'd heard. Mr. Pray sighed, grumbling about how kids these days are so darn forgetful.
Most of the class followed him down the hall, they were tired of staring at the computer screen while Mr. Pray droned on, and they needed a break.
As the group reached the classroom, a new song was just coming to an end.
Maddie shoved her way to the front, looking in the window of the door.
There was nobody in there, but she still heard voices. Looking around, Maddie noted her classmates heard them too.
Mr. Pray finally found the key to the room, and the class spilled inside as the door opened.
Like they had seen before, nobody was in there. They spread around the classroom anyways, plucking random notes on the instruments left around.
It was only when Mr. Pray turned around with a pale face that they paid attention.
"Uh, it appears that there is no CD player in this room. None of the devices are on in here, so…"
They shift uneasily, and Maddie looks around at her classmates. A few students look nervous, but most are excited at the prospect of a haunting.
Maddie herself is looking forward to the hunt.
v + i
Stories were told, rumors were spread around the school, and eventually a club was formed. They didn't have an official name yet, but they all knew what they were there for: hunting the ghosts in their school.
The club was mostly composed of people who had personally seen one of the ghosts, people like Ashlyn and Lin, Maddie and Brett. Some just joined for the thrill of the paranormal.
Julie Molina had been invited, seeing as her locker had been haunted, but she profusely refused to join.
"I did hear though," she whispered conspiratorially to Lin. "That they like to hang out in the cafeteria. It supposedly reminds them of their past lives."
Lin had been so excited to share the lead that they missed the smirk on Julie's face.
So here they were, the club of ghost hunters, sneaking through the cafeteria. Someone had brought in some "gear", which consisted of flashlights, night vision goggles, and a butterfly net.
They fanned out through the cafeteria, but found nothing. It was only when Maddie waved them over to the kitchen doors that they perked up.
Finally, a clue!
They crowded around the windows of the door, and saw three figures inside the kitchen.
One with shaggy hair was sitting on the counter, one had darker hair and was rifling through the freezer while a blond was rolling his eyes at them.
They appeared to be having a conversation, though no sound was coming through the doors.
They'd finally caught their ghosts.
Brett raised a hand and counted down from three. When he got to one, they pushed the doors open and ran inside.
The three ghosts startled, clearly not having been expecting anyone to be there.
The dark haired one opened his mouth in a silent scream while the blond latched his hand onto the shaggy haired ones.
The kid with the butterfly net swung it wildy, almost hitting his own classmate. The net stretched closer and closer to the ghosts with every swing, and they backed up until they were pressed into the wall.
Maddie raised the portable vacuum she had brought, but the three spirits disappeared before she had a chance to use it.
"Yes!" Lin cheered. "They know to stay away now!" Cheers followed from the rest of the classmates.
Finally, their school was ghost free.
Back in the studio, the three boys looked at each other.
"We are never, mentioning that to Julie." Alex says, dropping Luke's hand.
"Agreed," Luke and Reggie say as one.
As they settle in to start a movie, they are unaware of Julie cackling to herself from her perch outside the garage.
Finally, they'd stay away from her school.
(deleted scene: As they pushed the doors to the kitchen open, the dark haired boy startled so hard that he tipped forwards. His arms pinwheeled as he tried to catch himself, but he only succeeded in pulling to doors shut behind him as he fell into the freezer.
There was a moment of silence from all beings in the room.
Maddie shrugged. One ghost down, two to go.
/
anyways, i hope you all enjoyed this! let me know what you think!)