But unlike the very first days of school, he now knew many of the faces in the crowd.
“Hey, Jimmy,” he said.
Rugby-Shirt Jimmy was wearing a subtle off-white-and-maroon today, and he smiled back at Jules as he slammed his locker closed. “Hey, Jules. They’re trying to figure out where to put us.”
Who’s trying to what...?
“Hey, Jules.” Mindy-Mandy the flautist joined Jules on his other side. “Is it gonna be in the auditorium?”
She was looking at him as if he knew what the hell she was talking about, but he just shook his head. “I... don’t... know.” What?
“Hey, Jules.” Rod and Sadie peeled themselves out of the crowd, too, Rod’s arm possessively around Sadie’s shoulders. Hobbit had pointed out that ever since The Party—the notorious one—Rod and Sadie had glued themselves together. Which meant they were both smiling a whole lot more, which was never a bad thing—even if it meant fully accepting that Rod was now an official part of their friend group. Which was still weird but a good weird.
Okay, so this wasn’t a gauntlet, it was a... receiving line...? It extended all the way down and around the door to Mr. Harrison’s classroom.
“Hey, Jules!”
“Hey,” he said back to a girl with red hair that he’d never seen before in his life.
“Hey, Jules!”
“Hey.” That was Brian Lansing, who’d held one of the infamous keggers.
“Hey, Jules!” Hobbit emerged from Mr. Harrison’s room to peer out at the crowd. “Is Belle back yet?”
“I haven’t seen her. What’s going on?”
“How on earth could it take herthatlong?” Mr. H was standing in his classroom, just behind Hobbit, sounding pretty dang grumpy, but then he saw Jules and smiled broadly. “Hey, kid. You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
A bigger... what?
Harrison stuck his head out the door and raised his voice. “If you’re here for the GSA, please step to the side of the hallway, to leave a path open for Ms. Sanchez who’s gone to the front office in an attempt to procure us a larger space.”
The crowd behind Jules shifted, leaving open only a narrow path because there were so many kids out there. Still, it opened up enough so he could see Belle—way down at the end of the hall, with Tom beside her, of course. She used her stage-voice to project loudly to them: “We’ve got the thumbs-up to move this meeting into the auditorium, Mr. H.”
“Holy shit,” Jules said to Hobbit was who grinning his ass off. He laughed as it finally sank in. “Everyone’s here for the GSA.”
“Come on, gang,” Harrison said. “We need to set up the podium with the microphone, up on the stage. And you know Ihaveto remind you, kid...”
Jules laughed because hedidknow, so he said it with Mr. H. “Don’t sayshitin school.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Present Day
Burbank, California
Three Days Later
“So,” Jules said. “With the additional teams driving up from San Diego, we went way over budget for person-hours, plus we totaled three rental cars.”
“That’ll happen,” Sam said easily. “Although you do have quite the track record for destruction of motor vehicles in the line of duty.”
“Three is a new personal best,” Jules agreed, shaking his head and laughing a little.
Robin smiled at their banter as he looked around the Devonshire Place library.
The hospital bed and all of the other medical equipment had already been removed, and a big desk had been repositioned in thecenter of the room.
