“Chip!” Emma Z. yelped, pointing to the costumed chipmunk in his graduation robe.
“Dale,” I muttered, even though I knew from experience I wasn’t going to win this argument.
“It’s Chip,” Emma Z. insisted, like I knew she would.
“I had no idea that thecharacterswould be in graduation outfits!” Bryony said. “This is—”
“The best thing ever!” I finished for her. “It really is. So, you guys go ride your rides and I’ll meet up with you when you’re done!”
“Awesome,” Emma R. said with a nod. “We’ll text you, okay, Cass?”
I nodded. “Perfect.”
Bryony looked at me, her expression concerned, and a thought snaked its way into my brain before I could stop it: that Bryony was worried about leaving me alone for a fewhours. And she had no idea that I was going to leave her, probably forever, tomorrow morning. I shook my head, trying to clear this thought away, but it lingered, like ?how a bad perfume smell sticks around in an elevator.
“I swear I’m fine,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat and making myself smile at her. “We’ll hang out the rest of the night.”
“Okay,” Bryony said. “I’ll text you when we’re done riding the real rides.”
“Hey,” I said, even though I was? laughing. “Silly Symphony Swingsisa real ride, I’ll have you know. It’s just not asflashyas some of the other ones.”
“Sure,” Bryony ?said with a grin. “Whatever you have to tell yourself.”
“Let’s go!” Emma J. said, and I watched as the three of them took off, heading toward Pixar Pier. Bryony turned around once to give me a wave, and then they passed out of view, leaving me standing alone.
“Cass?” I turned to see Ms. Mulaney heading toward me. “You okay all by yourself?” She looked around. “Where’s Bryony?”
“She went to ride the roller coasters,” I explained. “I’m a roller coaster wimp.”
She smiled at me. “I’m the same way. I’ve never understood what’s fun about getting motion sickness.”
“Exactly!”
“Well, if you do need anything, I’ll be in the chaperone lounge. It’s that direction….” She pointed, and just like before, the tote bag over her shoulder slipped off and fell to the ground, its contents spilling out. “Agh,” she muttered.
I reached down to help her like before, picking up spilled pens and the thick manuscript. “Here,” I said, handing it back to her.
“Thanks,” Ms. Mulaney said, tucking everything back in her bag.
“That was your novel, right?” My teacher blinked at me in surprise, and I remembered a beat too late that I wasn’t supposed to have known that.
“Well,” Ms. Mulaney said, her cheeks going pink. “It is. What I hope will be a novel, at any rate. I’ve been working on it for so long. I’m actually waiting to hear from an agent about it. They promised they’d let me know if they were interested by the end of the week, which is…now, basically.”
“Of course they’ll be interested!” But then a second later, I thought about when I’d seen Ms. Mulaney later in the night, and her eyes had been red-rimmed and puffy, like she’d been crying. It really was kind of head-spinning, that I had a preview of what was going to happen to people, and they were just living their lives, for what they thought was the first time. But maybe Ms. Mulaney was crying for a completely separate reason! I had no idea.
“I mean, I hope so. But I’m not sure….” She stopped suddenly and reached into her tote bag for her ringing phone. “That’s the agent,” she said, and her voice had gotten high and nervous. It was strange to see my teacher—who’d always seemed so in control of everything—this flustered. “I need to take this.”
“Of course,” I said, already backing away. I gave Ms. Mulaney a smile. “Good luck!”
She nodded at me, and tucked her hair behind her ears. Then she took a deep breath and answered the call. “Hello? This is Courtney Mulaney.”
Feeling like I should give her some privacy, I walked a few steps ahead, then stopped, when I realized I wasn’t sure where to go. If this whole thing had something to do with Freddie, I needed to run into him again, right? I looked around, thinking once again that it would be a great time for a wise guide to show up and give me some instructions.
But when nobody appeared, I just tried to trace things back and remember where I’d crashed into Freddie, the first time. Things were getting a little fuzzy—all the loops were starting to blur together.
All at once, I remembered seeing the profile of the bear carved into the mountain, lit up dramatically by the lights.
Feeling like I finally had a plan, I changed direction and headed toward Grizzly Peak.
