~ nothing to lose : a luke patterson book ~

7. Flying Solo (part 1.)

"Wait, let's go back." Luke says. We all poof back to Julie's gym, and look up at her now alone on the stage.

"Wait, were those holograms?" The purple girl from Dirty Candy says. Julie snaps her head in her direction with wide eyes.

"Yes! Yes, they were holograms!" She lies straight through her teeth. "I plugged it into the ceiling projector before the show. I'd explain it, but it involves algorithms and science stuff." 

The whole crowd erupts in cheers and me and Alex do our handshake. I smile brightly and turn back to the other two.

"That's wild. They could see us when we were playing, but not when the music ended." Luke smiled.

"We should double check." Reggie runs up the stage stairs halfway. He moves his hips in a few circles, seeing if anyone could see the movement or not. I watch him and snort a laugh. "Yeah, I don't.. I don't think they can see us."

"I wish I couldn't see you." Alex mumbles, leaving me to kick his shin. "Ow! Would you stop!?" 

"I'm okay." I smirk. He opens his mouth to say something but a lady interrupts him.

"Okay people, show's over." She says. "Let's get back to class, please." Me, Luke, and Alex follow while Reggie stays behind to try to talk to the purple girl, but she can't hear him.

The crowd disperses in the hallway, everyone going to their assigned locker. We keep walking and talking about our performance when we get to an empty hallway, we walk down it a little bit and stop. Soon after Reggie poofs next to me, scaring me in the process.

"AH!" I scream. Alex laughs out loud and Luke stifles a laugh. I cross my arms and cut my eyes at him. "Shush."

"Sorry, Em." Reggie sulks.

"It's okay, Reg." I giggle. Luke peeks around the corner and sees Julie coming so he ushers us over to get in a pyramid. Luke is standing on Alex and Reggie's thighs while they squat down and I'm kneeling on one knee under him. Once she turns the corner and gets closer to us, we yell.

"JULIE!!" 

"AH!" She screams in surprise. "You! Stop doing that! I'm serious!"

I hop up and go stand next to Alex. The other two fist bump and me and Alex do our handshake.

"Woah! This one's on you. We were already here." Reggie says. "Well, actually, we were over there, and then we came over here."

"Are we not gonna talk about what just happened?" Luke asks.

"Yeah, the whole school saw you-" Julie starts, but I interrupt her.

"Heck yeah they did!"

"It's kinda freaking me out." She finished. 

"Okay good. Cause it's kinda freaking me out too." Alex panics. I place a hand on the small of his back, rubbing small circles trying to calm him. "You know, you could see us, and then- and then people could see us whenever we play music. And my clothes are made of air, but for some reason I'm still getting a wedgie."

I stop rubbing his back and look at him with my face scrunched up.

"TMI.." I mumble. I look over at Julie and she has the same expression I did.

"So many questions." Alex inhales sharply.

"The important thing is that we rocked that place!" Luke chimed in. "They were loving you!"

"Are you kidding? They loved us!" She says. "That was a great song, Luke. Thanks."

I turn my head slowly towards him as he looks down at the ground.