“But then you were justgone,” Reagan said, talking over me. “Like, no explanation, nothing. And you never came back!”
“Well—I moved,” I said slowly. “So…that makes it harder to swing by.”
They just stared at me, and I caught Bryony’s glance as she widened her eyes at me slightly, which I knew meantLet’sget out of here.“But it was so great to see you,” I said, already starting to edge away. “Such a funny coincidence.”
In all the lead-up to tonight, I hadn’t really thought much about the other schools that would be attending Grad Nite as well—much less that they might be one of my former schools. But it made sense that Raven Rock High was here—it was just an hour away from Disneyland on the freeway (more in traffic). For just a second, I thought about Washington—and Bruce—and how messy things had gotten there when I left. But just as quickly, I pushed this thought out of my head, telling myself it would be fine. I couldn’t imagine Evergreen High—Home of the Mustangs!—coming all the way to Disneyland for their grad night. It was one thing for Los Angeles–area high schools to do it. I’d even heard that schools in Vegas did the six-hour bus ride each way. But from outside Seattle? You’d have to get on aplane, which made the whole thing seem very unlikely. I started to breathe a little easier.
I backed away from the group, more than ready to move on from the weird energy of this interaction, when Reagan glared at me.
“You were supposed to bring churros.”
“I…was?”
“To myparty!” they sputtered, sounding increasingly incensed. “You promised me you’d bring some, and then you just bailed, and I never heard from you again or saw you. And we didn’t have any churros.”
“It kind of sucked,” Zach chimed in.
“Well, um…” But before I could say more (I hadn’t gotten so far as what) Reagan turned on their heel and stalked away, Zach following behind.
“Bye!” McKenna said cheerfully, then hurried to join them.
Once they were out of earshot, Bryony turned to me. “That was weird. Who cares that much about churros?”
“I guess they do?”
“I always forget you’ve lived all these other places. It just feels like we’ve always been friends.”
I felt my heart squeeze a little at that but made myself smile. “I know.” For just a moment, I considered telling her the truth—that I was leaving, that tonight was going to be our last hurrah. But that thought only lasted a second before I doubled down on my plan. Even if I wasn’t moving to Oregon, we were going to college in different states. So we were always going to have to say goodbye, one way or another. All I could do was make sure we had one last epic night. “Come on,” I said, starting to run. “Let’s go check this out!”
The running didn’t last long—I started getting a stitch in my side, and it was crowded enough that it wasn’t the best idea—and plus, I found that moving too fast prevented me from really getting to take everything in. And I really wanted to, because it wasamazing.
There was music booming from the speakers, everything was lit up with colored lights, and I literally gasped when we turned a corner and I saw Grizzly Peak, silhouetted against the sky—the perfect profile of a bear, lit up in blue. There were lots of places to take pictures—a big neon outline of Mickey ears with a graduation cap that you could pose in front of, or a fancy car in Hollywood Land withHAPPY GRADUATIONpainted on the trunk. We also saw characters in graduation robes posing for pictures, and the long lines of kids waiting for their turn.
Most of the people around me were strangers, but every now and then, I’d get a jolt as I saw someone I recognized from Harbor Cove. It was a pretty big school—there were five hundred seniors who’d graduated along with me—but you had some familiarity with a lot of people, even if you didn’t necessarily know their names. And the effect was kind of disorienting, seeing familiar faces in a sea of strangers, like we were in a livingWhere’sWaldo?
I was most impressed with seeing Hollywood Boulevard all lit up at night. The line of shops and illuminated palm trees,GRAD NITEprojected on the cloud-painted backdrop—it all felt magical. Bryony liked the Club Candy that was nearby—cast members were handing out free mini packets of Skittles and M&M’s, and once you entered through a tunnel of brightly colored rings, there was a stage with karaoke set up and a foosball table, everything cast in a cool purple light. We swung by Cars Land just briefly. We were there long enough to take in how bright the neon was against the night sky and realize that Sheridan hadn’t been mistaken, because there was a DJ playing loud music while people danced and others just walked past, sometimes grooving a little as they went. There was just too much to see. We knew we were going to be coming back to all of this later, and we still had rides to go on, but right at that moment, it was like I couldn’t take it all in fast enough.
The only negative at Grad Nite so far seemed to be a distinct lack of graduation Mickey ears. It didn’t seem possible that Emma R. could have gotten the last pair—but every kiosk we stopped at no longer had them. I was starting to get worried that we wouldn’t be able to find them anywhere, which would go against my goal of making sure Bryony had the best night ever.
We passed San Fransokyo Square, the Big Hero 6 area, with its mini Golden Gate Bridge made out of torii gates, and finally headed toward Pixar Pier. In front of where the Little Mermaid ride usually was, I saw there was now a stage set up. A nearby sign read,ETON MESSTAKES THE STAGE AT MIDNIGHT!Underneath this was a picture of four guys who looked around our age, wearing what appeared to be deconstructed prep school uniforms—button-down shirts, tiny ties, blazers, but everything either undone or very tight-fitting.
I saw Amy and Carlos walking toward us, next to each other but not too close, both of their arms folded. They were radiating an unmistakable post-fight energy. Bryony and I exchanged a look, then turned away at the same moment, both of us sensing that this was not a situation we wanted to get ourselves involved with. Were they still fighting about the fact that Carlos hadn’t helped Bryony up? That seemed a bit extreme, especially since she hadn’t minded.
“So where to now?” I asked, once I was sure that Amy and Carlos were out of earshot.
“Well…” Bryony looked down at her phone. “I definitely want to go on the Spider-Man ride at some point.”
I nodded. “It makes sense that you’d want to see your boyfriend.”
“I mean, I shouldbeso lucky. But that’s all the way back by the Avengers Campus.”
“So, let’s do something here.” I looked around. We were near Pixar Pier, which meant we could see the water in front of us, reflecting the Ferris wheel, with its Mickey Mouse in the center, all lit up. Next to it was the Incredicoaster. At regular intervals, it whooshed past, and you could hear an “AAAGH!” as people went upside down in the loop.
“Swings?” I asked, nodding toward the Silly Symphony Swings. I’d been on it before and knew I could handle it. I didn’t love it when it dipped down, but since the average age of the rider, on non–Grad Nites, seemed to be under six, this wasn’t something I felt the need to mention to Bryony.
She nodded. “Sounds good.”
We headed in that direction, just as I thought of something. “Oh, here’s a fun fact,” I said, turning back to her. “It’s—”
