Melody - JATP x Soulmate AU

Chapter 15

Six am, I wake up and all I feel is exhaustion and the underlying pain I went to sleep with. There's an old blanket draped over me, but I don't remember grabbing one last night from the house. Peering at it more, I don't recognize it at all. It looks a bit like one my mom got a few years ago, but this one has a lot more wear and a slightly different pattern. How did this get here and whose is it? I don't recognize the smell at all, so it might be one of the guys, but who knows.

"Julie, feeling any better?" Sitting up, I see Luke still in the same chair as last night, sporting a worried look on his face. I'd be mad at him if I had the energy to do anything. Shaking my head, my eyes droop back down and within seconds I'm asleep again.

I should care about school, but this feeling sucks and I can't get it to go away with sleep, but the only thing I can do right now is sleep.

Three hours later is the next time I wake up, and I could have sworn I had a backup alarm that goes off at seven, but it didn't go off. I wanted to be on time for school, but that looks like it's not going to happen considering it's past nine.

"Did my alarm go off at seven?" I ask the guys who are all, miraculously, dead silent—pun not intended—and they all look guilty. I've never seen them this quiet, which means they're definitely guilty.

"It got really annoying because you weren't waking up." Are you serious? You could have shaken me.

Okay, that's my dumb blonde moment for the day.

Even if I'm not really a blonde.

Ghosts can't touch me and I can't touch them. The only reason they're still around. Because if I could, believe me, I would have slapped them all last night.

You know what the only plus was to those extra three hours of sleep? No more pain! Jumping off the couch, I change into a spare set of clothes—after forcing the guys to leave—and get ready to go to school.

Dang it. I missed my calculus test. If I just say I wasn't feeling good and will take it during lunch, maybe my teacher won't mark a zero in the gradebook. There's a chance, right? I wish I just had those ghost powers to poof anywhere I want. That sounds amazing right now. Not that I wish to be dead.

"Julie, you're feeling better, right?" Luke asks, hoping for a response to the question he's not asking.

"Yes. But the band's not getting back together just because I'm feeling better." I snip back, and his face falls. I can't bring myself to care when I've already missed two classes. That's the last thing on my mind when I have to think about classes and tests and everything else.

"Julie, please?" Luke asks, but I'm already out of the driveway, heading towards Los Feliz High School. Time to hope no one remembers last night and to do damage control for the classes I missed.

"Julie, wait. Uh, we, um, did call in to your school." And they heard you?

"And?" I wonder, seeing as this conversation just keeps getting more annoying by the second.

"You were excused. Something about a doctor's appointment." You know, I should be mad, but I'm glad they did try to help after ditching me. Seeing the smirk on Luke's face tells me that he's proud of his ability to con the school into thinking I was actually at an appointment.

"Thanks, Luke." Smiling up at the ghost, I lock my bike up and resolve that I might forgive him. But, that's not what's on my mind right now. "Now, I need to go to school." He gives up when I glare at him again, poofing out of sight. After checking in with the front office, I head to the class I'm supposed to be in right now. Luckily, my calculus class is first and it's already over. So no test today. It's almost the end of science class, one I have with very few people I know. No Flynn, Nick, or Carrie.