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𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗔 𝗠𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲ ＯＮＥ:
sunset curve

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IF THERE WAS one thing Emilia Carpenter wasn't proud of in her life, it would be the fact that she had no parents. Well, she did, but they were always out on business trips, leaving her and her twin brother Apollo behind. They gave them plenty of money for their necessities, but still . . . Emilia wished they were here. Luckily, she was close with Julie Molina's family since they were best friends. Her and Apollo often went over her house for dinner at the request of Ray so that they didn't have to worry about cooking.

Despite that setback, the thing that she was most proud of was her music. Emilia could play both the piano and guitar and sang a little bit as well. She also wrote songs, and she had to admit, some of them were kind of good. It was what helped her get into the music program at Los Feliz High School in Los Angeles.

And that's where she was now. She was walking down the hallway with one of her other best friends, Flynn, to go get Julie from her locker. The two of them had their arms linked as they approached the girl.

"Hey, underachiever," Flynn greeted.

Julie turned to them with a wide smile on her face. "Hey, disappointment. Hey, Em."

"Hi, Jules," Emilia replied.

"Okay, I know you don't want me to ask you this, but have you figured out what you're gonna do today?" Flynn questioned.

"I'll know in the moment," Julie answered.

Emilia frowned. Ever since Julie's mom passed away, the girl had lost her passion for singing and playing music. And that combined with being in the music program wasn't a very good mix. Her spot was in jeopardy, and if she didn't preform today, it would be gone.

"I know it's hard, Julie, but Mrs. Harrison said this was your last chance," Emilia urged, worry seeping into her tone. "You're one of the most talented people I know. I don't want you to just throw that away."

Julie sighed. "Thank you, Emilia. I—"

"See you at the rally!" the familiar voice of Carrie Wilson called out.

Emilia turned. Standing there was one of the most prissy girls in school, handing out flyers to the people around her. Emilia sighed and lowered her arm from Flynn. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans and stared at Carrie.

"Ugh, what is she handing out?" Flynn asked.

"Desperation?" Julie guessed.

Carrie then walked up to them and handled the three girls flyers. "Here you go. My group's preforming at the spirit rally tomorrow. I'm sure you guys have nothing better to do."

"Oh my gosh, Carrie, thanks!" Flynn exclaimed in a fake-excited tone.

Carrie put a hand on her chest. "Oh my gosh, Flynn, don't bother coming!"

She turned and strutted off, handing more flyers out to people. Flynn crumpled up her flyer in her fist. Emilia rolled her eyes and folded hers up to place in her pocket. Once she noticed Julie staring wistfully at Nick, Carrie's boyfriend and Apollo's best friend, she raised an eyebrow.

"Nick?" Flynn inquired incredulously. "Still? You know they're gonna get married and have a bunch of unholy babies."

"Nick's a sweetheart," Julie argued.

"Yeah, you'd actually have to talk to him to know that. And only one of them has to be a demon to make a demon baby." She then looked right at Carrie. "Demon!"

Emilia laughed slightly. "Julie's right. Remember that one time he and I were partners to write a song in music class? He literally incorporated so many ideas and we ended up getting a really good grade."

Julie nodded in agreement with a smile.

Flynn pointed at her face. "There's that smile. Now, let's go prove everybody wrong."

After Julie closed her locker, all three of them walked to music class. They sat down next to each other and waited for class to begin. Mrs. Harrison then walked in the room and began to announce who would be performing today. Emilia had already gone the day prior, singing an acoustic rendition of Getaway Car by Taylor Swift on the piano. Mrs. Harrison first called up Nick, who absolutely shredded it on his blue electric guitar. Emilia clapped along with the rest of the class when he finished.

"Nice job, Nick," Mrs. Harrison praised. "Almost as impressive as your game against Glendale."

Nick and a couple of his lacrosse friends chuckled.

"Okay, we have one last performance," Mrs. Harrison announced while Nick went to go unplug his guitar. "Julie."

Julie looked up nervously. She stood up and placed the hat she was wearing onto her chair. Emilia quickly glanced at Flynn in concern as she watched Julie slowly place her sheet music down on top of the piano and sit down.

"Take your time," Mrs. Harrison told Julie softly.

With a deep breath, Julie opened the piano to reveal the keys. She placed her fingers on the keys gently before quickly retracting them. Emilia's eyes widened and she stood up along with Flynn.

Julie got to her feet and shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"Is this when we clap?" Carrie questioned.

Mrs. Harrison turned and gave her a look. Julie rushed out of the room and into the hallway.

"Watch it Carrie," Flynn scolded.

Emilia jogged after Julie. All she wanted was for her to find her voice again. Maybe she would, but for now . . . they had bigger problems to focus on. Julie would lose her seat in the music program. Emilia wouldn't go down without a fight, though. Julie belonged in this program, and she would convince both Julie and Mrs. Harrison to keep her seat, no matter what it took.

But what she didn't realize is that it would take ghosts to do that. This is where Emilia's life turns upside down, and it all began with three boys who died in '95 coming back to the world in Julie's mom's studio.

𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙 ♔ 𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁

EMILIA KNOCKED ON the door of the Molina household, a smile on her face as she waited for somebody to answer. Apollo stood next to her with a bored expression painted across his face.

She elbowed his brother. "Don't look so sad, A."

"Sorry, but I need to study," Apollo replied. "Mom and dad texted me the other night saying they weren't happy with my grades."

Emilia raised an eyebrow. "Your grades are fine, Apollo. You're a straight A and B student. Plus, you don't owe mom and dad anything. When have they ever been there for us?"

He sighed a little. "I know, it's just that . . . I want to make them proud. Maybe if I do that they won't ignore us as much."

Emilia frowned. She went to respond until Carlos, Julie's little brother, opened the door in his baseball uniform. He looked eager but his face visibly fell at the sight of the twins.

"Oh, it's just you two," Carlos said.

Emilia smiled sarcastically at him. "Gee, it sure warms my heart to know you're excited to see us, Carlos."

"Of course I'm excited to see you, it's just that Julie's been yelling about seeing a ghost. I thought the knock might've been the ghost."

"Seeing a ghost," Emilia repeated slowly. "Um, okay. Where is she?"

"Down by mom's studio," Carlos responded. "She went down there to clean it out but came back screaming when I got home from baseball."

Emilia nodded and looked to her brother. "I'll be right back, Apollo. I'm gonna go see if Julie's all right."

With that, she bounded down the stone steps that would lead her to the studio. Some of Emilia's most favorite memories happened in there. She remembered listening to music and writing songs with Julie and Flynn down here back when Julie's mom was still alive.

When she arrived, she found Julie standing in the studio with a cross extended in front of her.

"Hey, Julie," Emilia began cautiously, making Julie jump and turn around with the cross pointed at her. She raised her hands in surrender. "Woah, it's just me. Carlos told me you were screaming about ghosts. Are you all right?"

"There are three ghosts in the studio," Julie rushed out. "I started playing a C.D. and then they just appeared."

"Uh, Julie, I don't think that's possible."

Julie exhaled and lowered her cross. "I know I saw something. I'm not crazy."

"We're all a little crazy," a new voice replied.

Emilia turned around with a shriek, her hand flying to her mouth as three boys suddenly appeared out of thin air. Julie screamed loudly and lifted her cross up higher again. The three boys flinched backwards.

"Oh, my, please stop screaming!" one of the boys exclaimed.

Emilia studied all of them. One of them had shaggy brown hair and wore a jacket over a muscle tee. Another had blonde hair that was tucked under a backwards cap and wore a black jacket over a pink hoodie. The third had rosy cheeks and was wearing a leather jacket with a flannel tied around his waist.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my mom's studio?" Julie demanded.

"Your mom's studio?" The boy with the shaggy hair asked while stepping closer to them, Emilia pressing her back into Julie's arm. Julie thrusted her cross out further and the boy jumped backwards away from it. "This is our studio. Trust me, my . . . the grand piano is new!" He scrambled across the top of the piano. "And, and, and . . ." His eyes then set on something. "My couch!" He ran over towards it and flopped on his back. The boy basked in his glory for a moment before glancing up at the guitar on the wall behind him. "That is definitely not my six string. Can you give me just one second? Just . . . give me a second, thank you."

As the boy went to his two friends to discuss something, Emilia watched them with wide eyes. What was going on? This might possibly be the most crazy thing she had ever experienced. Was she hallucinating?

"Julie . . ." Emilia trailed off. "Why do you have three ghosts in your mom's studio?"

"So you can see them too?" Julie inquired.

Emilia nodded blankly. "But you forgot to mention they were cute."

Julie gave her a pointed look. "Oh, sorry, I was a little busy trying to figure out how I can see ghosts!"

The blonde one then approached them after talking with his two friends. "Why are you in our studio?"

Julie suddenly thrust the cross out. However, it only went through the boy's arm. Emilia's eyes widened even further if that was possible.

"Oh my gosh, how did you do that?" Julie asked.

"Clearly, you're not understanding." He looked back to his friends for a moment. "Clearly, she doesn't get it. Okay, look, we're ghosts, all right? We're just three ghosts, and we're really happy to be home. So, thank you for the flowers, they really brighten up the room."

"We're actually in a band called Sunset Curve," the shaggy-haired boy added.

"Tell your friends," the boy in the leather jacket encouraged.

"Last night was supposed to be a really big night for us," the shaggy-haired boy continued. "It was gonna change our lives."

The blonde boy looked down at him. "I'm, uh . . . I'm pretty sure it did."

"This is freaking me out," Julie announced.

She then pulled her phone out of her back pocket. Just for good measure, she raised the cross high again.

The shaggy-haired boy pointed at her phone. "What is that? What are you doing?"

"It's my phone," Julie answered. "No, stop talking to them, they aren't real. There's no such thing as cute ghosts."

"Oh, think we're cute?" the boy in the leather jacket questioned.

"They seem pretty real to me, Jules," Emilia told her, her eyes still wide. "Or are we in a group hallucination?"

The blonde boy leaned forwards at them. "Who you callin'?"

Julie looked up at him. "I'm Googling Sunset Swerve."

"Sunset Curve," the three boys corrected at the same time.

Emilia looked down at her phone screen. It showed a news article titled Sunset Curve: A Hollywood Tragedy with a picture of the three boys plus one she didn't recognize.

"Woah," Julie said. "There is a Sunset Curve. You did die, but not last night. Twenty-five years ago?"

"What?" the boy in the leather jacket asked. "No. No, no, no. Th-Th-That's impossible. After we floated out of the ambulance, all we did was go to that weird, dark room where Alex cried."

"Well . . ." the blonde boy, apparently named Alex trailed off in a high-pitched voice. "I think we were all pretty upset, okay?"

"But that was just for, like, an hour," the shaggy-haired boy argued. "We just showed up here."

"Look, I'm just telling you what my phone says," Julie voiced, extending her phone for them to look. "See? You died in 1995 when you were seventeen. It's now 2020."

"So this is the future?" the boy in the leather jacket questioned slowly.

"Wait," Alex cut in. "So . . . so, it has been twenty-five years. I have been crying for twenty-five years? How is that possible?"

"Well, you're a very emotional person."

"I am not!"

"Em?" the voice of Apollo called out.

Emilia went stiff. "Apollo."

"Apollo," Julie breathed out, panic in her tone.

"Apollo?" the three boys chorused in confusion.

The boy in question entered the studio. "Hey, Ray sent me out here to get you guys for dinner. Uh . . . you're not talking to any ghosts, are you?"

Emilia nervously laughed. "Um, of course not, Apollo. That's ridiculous, why would we be talking to ghosts?" Nobody laughed along with her, so she slowly stopped. "Anyways, Julie and I will be up in a few."

Apollo nodded and left the studio. Emilia let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in.

"He couldn't see you," Julie stated.

"Yeah, I mean, that's . . . usually how ghosts work," Alex replied.

"Yeah, but Apollo and I are twins," Emilia commented, her eyebrows knit in thought. "It doesn't make sense how I can see you but not him."

Julie grabbed Emilia's arm and walked them forwards, letting out a breath and turning back around for a moment. "Look, I'm very sorry for what happened to you guys, but this isn't your studio anymore. You have to leave."

"But wait," the shaggy-haired boy said, stopping the two from leaving. "We didn't get your name. I mean, we got part of her name, but . . ."

"It's Julie."

Emilia gave them a small smile. "And I'm Emilia."

"Cool. I — I'm Luke." He went to move towards them, but Julie held up her cross. "By . . . by the way. And this is—"

"Reggie," the boy in the leather jacket spoke up. "I'm Reggie. Hey."

"And . . ."

"Alex," the blonde boy cut in. "How's it going?"

"Ba-da," Luke softly voiced with his arms extended to showcase the three of them.

Julie lowered her cross. "Okay?"

She then walked off out of the studio. Emilia blinked and watched as she did so before she turned back to the boys. They were all staring at her expectantly.

"I'm, uh, gonna follow her," Emilia stammered out while pointing in the direction of the house. "Have a good evening . . . if ghosts can even enjoy themselves — you know what? I'm just gonna go."

Her face burning red, Emilia rushed off in the direction of the house, leaving three cute ghost boys behind in Julie's mom's studio.

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HEY HEY WELCOME TO JUST FOR A MOMENT

I wrote this bc luke patterson is now the love of my life and that's pretty much it