Reggie spent a lot of time hanging out with Ray. Luke and Alex thought it was weird, but it always made him feel better. He's like the Dad Reggie never had. Well, he did have a dad, but he was a pretty shitty one. Absent alcoholics don't really make the best parents or role models.
He would spend a lot of time just sitting with him watching him work, or hanging out with him in the kitchen, having conversations. They were pretty one-sided, but that was fine by Reggie. He enjoyed it none the less. It wasn't like he had anything better to do anyway.
He liked to help him out sometimes, too. He would keep a drink from falling off the table when Ray knocked it over, or get a spice out and put it on the counter if a recipe he was using said to use it. He knew Julie and the guys wouldn't approve of him doing that, so he kept it a secret.
One day, though, Reggie was in an extra good mood from a super awesome gig the night before, so he was trying to help Ray out as much as possible. He kept putting things back in the fridge, putting used utensils and plates in the dishwasher and turned the sink on for him when he was going to wash his hands. He knew he had gone a little too far, though, when Ray exclaimed, "What the hell is going on here?" as he slammed his hands down on the counter. Reggie decided to stop helping Ray out for a while after that.
One night after the Molina's had dinner, the band was practicing for a party that they were playing at for one of Julie's friends the next night when Ray decided to stop by and check out what was going on.
Reggie was so into the music that, at first, he didn't notice that someone else had walked in. As soon as he stopped playing, he could feel himself disappear.
"Hey, what's up, Dad?" Julie asked, putting her mic in the mic stand.
"Just wanted to see how you were doing." He replied, tapping a few notes on the keyboard. "Were you testing the holograms for tomorrow?"
"Yeah, just making sure everything's in working order." Julie laughed nervously.
Ray scanned the room. "Where's the hologram projector?"
Julie made a face at Luke while her dad wasn't looking, and Luke shrugged his shoulders. "Uh, it's..." she looked around, then spotted it on the balcony. "right there!" She said, pointing at it.
"How do you make the holograms anyway?" Ray asked.
"I thought you said you didn't want to try to understand it?" Julie pointed out.
"I don't know, I'm just curious," Ray said.
"Well," Julie started, trying to come up with something on the fly. "I have the guys record themselves playing in front of a green screen, then I project the video in 3D from the projector."
"Cool." He said, then walked towards it. He grabbed the chord, which was hanging down from the balcony, and said, "Did you unplug it since I've been in here."
"Yeah." She said, her face heating up, "I don't want to waste power."
"Right." He said, a little distant.
He left without another word, and as soon as he was out of earshot, Julie said, "That was close. We need to plug that thing in at the beginning of practices from now on."
So they did.
About a week or so later, Julie and the guys were having a movie night in the living room. Reggie was sitting on the floor, leaning up against the couch, Alex was sitting on the chair, and Julie and Luke were cuddling on the couch. They had been doing that a lot lately since the boys figured out how to touch her. How they hadn't realized that they liked each other yet didn't make sense to Reggie. They would just cuddle on the couch or do some other couply thing, but then when they would ask about it the next day, they would claim they were just friends.
"That looks kind of uncomfortable, don't you think?" Ray said, startling everyone in the room.
"What do you mean?" Julie asked.
"You were like, floating on the couch or something," Ray said, gesturing to where Luke was sitting.
"Oh, heh, it's nothing." Julie laughed it off. Reggie thought about it for a second and realized that the way she was laying would have been really uncomfortable if Luke wasn't there holding her up. She probably looked like she was floating.
"Ok," Ray said, then walked out of the room. "I'll leave you to your movie."
It took a few minutes, but Luke and Julie fell into the same position they were in when Ray walked in.
Reggie, Luke, and Alex were practicing newly written music one day in the studio while Julie was at school. They knew Julie said not to, but they needed extra time to practice before a gig that weekend since it took Luke and Julie longer to write the new songs for their set than they expected. Besides, what Julie didn't know didn't hurt her. Reggie suggested they just perform one of his country songs, but Luke quickly shot that down.
They must have been playing louder than they thought, because Ray came out to the garage, and hit the stop button on the stereo, but they had already stopped playing by then. Ray looked around, confused, then left, heading back towards the house.
They turned down their amps and Alex started playing lighter, but apparently, Ray could still hear them, because he came back out and unplugged the stereo.
They stopped playing after that.
A few days later, Julie was trying to set something up to scare Flynn, who was supposed to be showing up later that day.
"Luke, let me climb on your shoulders." She said excitedly.
"How would that scare her?" Reggie asked.
"She still can't see you, so it will look like I'm flying," Julie explained.
Like crouched down, and Julie climbed up on his shoulders. She had just finished situating herself when Ray walked in.
"Julie, when's... what the hell?" He exclaimed when he saw the scene in front of him. Since he couldn't see them, it just looked like she was flying.
"Hey, dad!" She said, tapping Like on the shoulder. He crouched down, and she climbed off him.
"What was that?" He asked.
"Just testing some flying effects for a gig. I don't think we're gonna use them, though, too complicated." Julie lied.
"Julie, are you lying to me?" Ray asked.
Julie's fake smile dropped. "Yeah," she said, looking down at the ground. "I am."
"I want you to tell me what's going on right now because a lot of weird stuff has been happening since you started this band," Ray said.
"Weird? Like what?" Julie asked. Luke put a hand on her shoulder in comfort, and Reggie and Alex exchanged a glance.
"Like, the stereo will just start playing by itself, and it plays your music without you singing." Julie's face hardened. "Or, things will move around by themselves in the kitchen, like something will just randomly put itself away in the fridge or pantry," Julie shot a look at Reggie, and he resisted the urge to poof out, "and Carlos has told me he's found you talking to yourself out here all the time."
Julie sighed, then looked around at Reggie, Luke, then Alex. Luke and Alex nodded, but Reggie was just confused.
"What's going on?" Reggie asked as Luke and Alex went to their instruments.
"Get your bass, Reggie. It's time to she Julie's dad we're not holograms." Alex explained, sitting down.
"Ok, dad. This might come as a shock to you, but the guys in my band, they aren't holograms." She took a deep breath. "They're ghosts."
"Julie..." Ray started, but Julie cut him off.
"Just let me show you, please?" Julie said, and Ray nodded.
Julie looked at them and said, "Edge of Great?" They all nodded and got ready for the beginning of the song.
Julie sat down at her piano and turned it on. She looked up at her dad. "The hologram projector is over there on that table," she pointed to it, "and it isn't plugged in."
She took a deep breath and started the song. Luke, Alex, and Reggie were all nervous about how Ray would react to what he was about to see, but they started playing at their entrance anyway.
Julie kept singing through the chorus but walked up to her dad during Luke's verse.
"They're ghosts, dad. Do you see?" Ray looked around the room in disbelief.
At the end of the song, they disappeared like normal, and Ray just looked confused.
"Ghosts?" He said. It seemed like that was the only word he remembered how to say.
"That day I started cleaning out the studio, I put on an old CD," Julie explained, "for this band Sunset Curve."
"Yeah, I remember your mom talking about them," Ray mentioned, and Luke, Alex, and Reggie just looked at each other, confused.
"They just popped up," Julie went on. "Or, I guess fell in would be more accurate." The boys snickered. "We figured out that people could hear them when they played, and see them when I played with them. So, we started a band."
Reggie watched Ray as the gears turned in his head and he figured out what was going on.
"I'm not going to lie, Julie, I don't love this." He said, and she stood frozen in place. Reggie was super nervous. "But as long as your happy, I'm happy. And thank you for telling me. I can't wait to get to know these guys." He said, and she visibly relaxed. Reggie just smiled the widest he had in a while.
Life in the Molina household got pretty weird after that day. Julie put little whiteboards and dry erase markers in every room of the house so the guys could talk to her dad and Carlos while she wasn't around.
Reggie was super happy about the whole thing because his conversations with Ray weren't as one-sided anymore. He could actually talk to him. Reggie really loved having a caring father figure around since he never got one during his life.
Luke started spending a whole bunch of time with Carlos, planning pranks and other ways to mess with Julie, Ray, and the other guys. He thought that the rest of them didn't know, but everyone knew exactly what was going on every time they heard snickering coming from Carlos's room.
Alex never really talked to Ray and Carlos, but he liked that they knew that he was there. It was strangely comforting.
Julie was just happy that she didn't have to lie to her dad anymore. She didn't know how much stress it was actually causing until she didn't have to anymore, and it felt so much better. Her whole family was together, and she loved it.