Chapter Text
The school’s chapel is dark and eerie on the best of nights. But kneeling in front of her mother’s candle, still in her Belle costume, all alone after her final bows, it feels almost serene. Maybe it’s just because Julie knows that she’s not alone in the chapel – she’s never alone when her angels are nearby.
“Bravo,” a voice whispers, almost on cue, making Julie’s heart flutter. She’s done good, then. If they liked it – if the angel she’s learned is called Luke likes it – then she can rest assured that her mother will feel the same way.
“ Julie, Julie ,” Flynn’s voice singsongs from the chapel entrance.
“ Julie ,” Luke’s voice echoes. And then, just like that, he’s gone.
Flynn gives Julie’s mother’s candle a small nod before kneeling down next to Julie. “Where have you been? Everyone is looking for you. Everyone wants to meet Los Feliz’s new star mezzo!”
Everyone? That’s a lot of pressure that Julie isn’t sure if she’s up for. She stares into the flickering light of her mom’s candle.
Everything changed tonight. For the past year, she’s only sung in front of her angels when she’s alone in her dorm room. She had sworn off singing, convinced that she can’t actually sing, that everybody has just been trying to be nice to her. She quit the chorus and settled into the orchestra pit, becoming the new pianist after the last one graduated, and she was content to stay there. But she just led the whole show. Everything her angels have taught her about music has led to this moment. Maybe it’s a sign. A sign of what exactly, she’s not sure, but it has to be something .
Flynn’s hand on her shoulder brings her back to the present.
“Are you okay?” The trumpet player asks. Then, in a breathy sigh, “I mean, you were amazing , Jules. You’ve always been a good singer, but that performance was next level. How do you feel?”
Julie reaches up and takes her friend’s hand in hers. She squeezes it. “Flynn, I have to tell you something that might sound crazy.”
“Julie, it’s us. We always sound crazy.”
“No, I mean like . . . actually crazy.”
Flynn squeezes her hand. “Okay.”
“When my mom died,” Julie begins softly. “She promised that when she got to heaven, she would send the Angel of Music to watch over me.” She pauses, working up the courage to look Flynn in the eye. “Three angels have been visiting me, and they’ve been helping me with my music. I think they’re a sign from my mom.”
“A sign to what?”
“I don’t know.”
Flynn hums. “I think I do.”
“Oh?”
“Yes.” Flynn taps her chin dramatically, like she’s thinking really hard. “I think it’s a sign from your mom that you’re not meant to give up on singing.”
Julie nods. “She wouldn’t want me to give it up.”
“No, she wouldn’t.” Flynn stands, extends her hand to Julie and helps her up so that she doesn’t trip on the voluminous skirt of her Belle costume. “And I don’t think she would want you to miss out on the chance to meet your new fans.”
And with that, they leave the chapel – and the angels – behind as they head into the throngs of audience members who cheer when they see their newest star walking down the corridor.
Hearing laughter in the empty hallways of any school would be creepy for anyone at any time of night. And even as a ghost, Reggie has to admit that he’s almost freaked out by Alex’s laugh as they race between classrooms. It’s not just because he’s a ghost and because empty buildings are eerie by nature; when Alex is doing something that he’s not supposed to, he always giggles through his guilt, and then at some point it becomes a full-on manic cackle. The echoes of his laughs and the rattling of the tinfoil that they’re racing to cover the classrooms in makes for a weird combination, and if Reggie were still alive and he happened upon the scene, he’s pretty sure he would lose it.
But this is their tradition, and Alex’s cackling is a part of it. Even when they were alive, when they would sneak out of their dorms to pull a prank while everyone else was tired from their performance, Alex would laugh the entire time. The only good thing about being a ghost is that now his laughter can’t get them caught, because Julie is the only person that seems to hear them. If anyone walked in on them now, they’d probably just see floating boxes of tinfoil.
Reggie has grown so used to it over the years that nothing fazes him anymore. He may not have been able to focus on schoolwork during his life – or bring himself to focus on anything other than music, really, even in death – but he can get into the zone while pranking, not letting anything bother him. Which is why he doesn’t question the fact that Alex is hovering behind him while he finishes wrapping a stack of textbooks, and then doesn’t initially think to question it when he hears Alex scream from a few rooms away.
His friend comes rushing into the room, arms open, eyes wide as he heads for Reggie.
Reggie drops his box of tinfoil and catches Alex, staring towards the doorway where the blonde is pointing. “Alex, what’s wrong?”
“I – you – and then, it wasn’t you it was – who –?”
“Whoa, whoa. Take a breath . . .There you go . . . Now, what’s wrong?”
“You’ve been in here the whole time?” Alex gasps, his eyes darting around the tinfoil covered room.
“Um, yes. I thought the agreement was that I would cover the classrooms on the left side of the hallway and you would do the ones on the right.” He squeezes his friend, hoping that the pressure will act like one of those new weighted blankets and calm him down. “Alex, what’s wrong?”
It takes Alex another minute of heavy breathing before he can speak. But when he can, he turns to Reggie with wide eyes and says the most impossible thing he’s heard all day – and that’s including Luke’s plan to bring Julie to the lake.
“Reggie, I think I just saw a ghost!”
Luke is buzzing with excitement as he makes his way through the tunnels and towards Carrie’s dressing room, which has been commandeered into Julie’s dressing room for the night; Carrie is the only one who’s upset about it, because to everyone else, it feels like poetic justice for all the snide remarks, insults, and glares that she’s been sending Julie’s way this past year.
Julie could gloat about it, but she’s too good for that. She’s taking it in stride. And sitting at the makeup table, the soft glow of the pink fairy-lights and the overflowing bouquets of flowers around her, she looks more like a princess than Carrie ever has. Luke thinks that she’s more deserving of it.
Luke presses up against the two-way mirror. His heart flutters when he sees Julie twirling the dahlia that he left on the makeup table for her – but it stops when he sees the boy standing next to her, talking excitedly.
“I almost didn’t come tonight,” the boy admits. “Every performance here is more and more of the same. Tonight was a performance to remember, though.” He hands Julie a flower, a pink rose with a small white bow on the stem. He suddenly looks rather shy. “But I’m glad that my dads made me come. Because if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t have seen you.”
Julie blushes so deeply that her cheeks match the dressing room’s pink lights. “I’m glad you came, too. I can’t believe you remembered that we were in first grade together.”
“Well, you performed in the talent show that year,” the boy says. “I don’t think anyone we went to school with could forget your voice, Julie.”
Luke’s face feels hot despite the coolness of the tunnels. He shouldn’t be mad. After all, this boy obviously has a crush on Julie. He’s good looking and smooth, and, oh yeah, alive , which is something that Luke decidedly cannot compete with. But Luke can’t help but feel like if he were the one walking through the world of the living, if he were on the other side of this mirror, just a regular student at Los Feliz, then he and Julie would have a chance. He should be content just to act as a sort of guardian angel, but still . . .
“Great,” the boy’s voice drags Luke out of his thoughts. “I’ll have my parents send the car around. Can you be ready in five minutes?”
Julie looks startled. “What? No, Nick, I think we’ve misunderstood each other. I can’t go out tonight. I mean, I’d love to! But I can’t.”
The boy – Nick – nods. “School night, I get it. Still, you should come see my dads. I know that they would love to catch up with you.”
“Nick, wait!”
But Nick is already at the door, smiling and oblivious to her worry as he reaches for the handle. “I’ll be back in five. Well, unless my dad has found the basketball coach to talk to. Then it’ll be more like ten.” He shakes his head, still smiling. “Julie Molina. I still can’t believe it.”
And then he’s gone.
“Nick . . .” Julie’s voice trails after him. “This isn’t first grade anymore.”
Before Julie had taken Carrie’s spot in the performance, Luke, Reggie, and Alex had planned to talk to her through the mirror in her dorm after the performance, just like they usually did. But things have changed. Five, maybe ten minutes, Nick had said. If Luke is going to show Julie their secret world, he’s got to act fast. He slides on the mask Reggie gave him and projects his voice so that Julie can hear him through the mirror.
“Well, isn’t he cute.” It comes out colder than he meant for it too, and he’s not above writing off his tone as jealousy, because really, if Alex were here, it’s exactly what he would say.
Julie buries her head in her hands on the makeup table. “I don’t think he understands.” She lifts her head then, clasps her hands and squeezes her eyes shut. Luke’s never been religious, but he knows Julie is, and he knows her well enough by now to know that she’s probably sending a prayer to her mom for help.
“I don’t know what to do,” Julie admits aloud, proving Luke’s point. “I don’t want Carrie to think I’m gloating, and I don’t want to let Nick down . . . But I also can’t let you three down, either. Not when my mom sent you to me.”
Whether or not Rose Molina had anything to do with Julie being able to hear Luke and his friends is still up for debate. The only thing he can really do is what he, Reggie, and Alex have been trying to do this whole semester: offer Julie some sense of comfort.
“Julie, you’re not letting us down,” Luke says. If anything, he’ll probably be letting her down when she learns that he’s not actually an angel – or when she sees him for the first time. Which is why he’s got to do this before he loses his courage. “There’s a reason that we – that I – hide in the shadows. I want to show you why.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at your face in the mirror,” Luke instructs. He knows that Julie can hear him, but he’s never tried to be seen by her before. Slowly, he pushes aside the extra piece of glass in the mirror as Julie steps towards it. “I’m here, inside.”
And then, all at once, it’s happening. Julie’s eyes widen, and he knows that she can see him. And even with the mask, she doesn’t look afraid; she looks reverent and mystified all at once.
“My Angel of Music,” Julie whispers as she sees him for the first time. She reaches out her hand, like maybe she can touch him, but retracts it, unsure. Luke takes a step back himself.
“Well, a secret and strange angel, maybe,” he says.
She can hear him and now she can see him. He wonders, briefly, if she could touch him, even though it’s probably too much to hope for. Still, he holds out his hand to her, just in case. And in what has been a night full of surprises, Julie accepts his hand, and somehow, they’re touching.
Before he can question it too much, he’s leading Julie through the mirror, through the school’s secret tunnels, and into the darkness.