Bryony grinned at me. “Well, naturally!”Cerealwas the podcast Bryony was obsessed with. She’d been talking it up ever since we met, but I’d just never understood the appeal. It was just two friends sitting around, eating and rating different breakfast cereals while chatting. Bryonylovedit and was always trying to get me to listen so we could talk about it. But honestly, I’d never understood the point. Why was I going to listen to total strangers gab over Lucky Charms? What was fun about that? But Bryony was a super fan—she’d gone to a bunch of their live shows, lived for the new episode drops, and even now, was wearingCerealmerch—a T-shirt that readIT’S BETTER WITH MILK!which was apparently one of the show’s catchphrases. “How was the dinner? Did Oscar cry?”
“Delicious, and of course,” I said, as I buckled my seat belt. I smiled across the car at her. “Are you so excited?”
“I’mso excited!” she practically yelled, and I laughed. “It’s going to be the best night ever.”
“It really is. Oscar was talking all about how he didn’t do anything for his grad night. This just feels super special.”
“It’s going to be amazing,” Bryony said as she put the car in reverse and backed out of the parking lot. “I’ve been hearing about it for forever, and now our turn is finally here.”
“I can’t wait. Angelo was telling me to take lots of pictures, to make sure and remember everything, because it’s only going to come around once.” I checked my phone—seven thirty. “Think we’re okay on time?”
Bryony nodded. “We’re good.” Everyone was meeting at Harbor Cove High, in the parking lot by the soccer field, and then we’d drive over to the park. Grad Nite started at nine, so the buses were going to start leaving at eight. “You want to DJ?”
“Always.” I scrolled through my songs, looking for her favorites, before stopping on Taylor Swift’s “Long Live.”
“Yes!” Bryony grinned at me and cranked the volume. “Perfect!” She started singing along to the song, her hand out the window, keeping time on the window frame.
As I looked at Bryony, I felt a little squeeze in my heart. I knew that this, tonight, would most likely be the last time we would ever hang out. But I quickly pushed this away, not wanting to deal with it just yet. Tonight was about having an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience.Tomorrowwas for dealing with the future.
Bryony parked, and then without even talking about it, we ran over to the group of seniors gathered by the waiting school buses.
I waved as I passed Stella Griffin and her boyfriend, Reece Suarez. Stella and I had been in AP American History together, and I’d ?loved working on group projects with her—she was the most organized person I’d ever met. She gave me a smile as I passed, and then I hurried to join Bryony, who was already lined up.
She was standing next to Amy Caruso, who, as usual, was pretzeled around her boyfriend, Carlos Cabello. When I’d first arrived at Harbor Cove, Bryony had given me the scoop on them. They were usually just called AmyandCarlos, one word, since they were always together. It turned out they’d been dating since something like sixth grade, and you almost never saw them apart.
“Hey?, you two,” Bryony said, and they broke apart with what looked like real reluctance.
“Hey,” Amy said. Carlos immediately nuzzled her neck, like even a few seconds not kissing was far too many to be borne. “You ready for this?”
I nodded. “I just had a latte. I’m good to stay up and ride all the rides.” Bryony gave a very fake-sounding cough, and I felt my cheeks get hot. “Fine. All the rides that don’t have big drops or go super fast.” I could handle things like Soarin’, and Radiator Springs Racers, but those were about my limit, and Bryony knew it. We’d been to Disneyland twice together since I’d moved to Harbor Cove and learned the true joy of living so close to the park.
“You had alatte?” I turned around to see Sheridan Williams standing behind us. He was wearing an eye mask pushed up on his forehead and a skeptical expression.
“Uh…yeah,” I said, looking at Bryony and widening my eyes.
“Why do you have an eye mask?” she asked, as usual, reading my mind.
“So I can sleep on the bus,” Sheridan said, like this was the most normal thing in the world. “It’s why you shouldn’t have caffeinated this early, Cass. I’ve timed this out, because I want to be at my peak energy level once we arrive. In addition to the rides, there’s a DJ in Cars Land, a karaoke stage, and a live band. And I want to hit them all. I want to go without stopping until the moment we have to leave.”
“Uh, sorry to barge in, but you should stop alittlebit.” This was Ms. Mulaney, who’d been my English teacher. She walked over to our group, and I smiled at her—I hadn’t known she was going to be one of our chaperones. She was one of the very best teachers I’d ever had—and I had a very large sample size to pull from. She welcomed me into her class, which focused on Dickens and Austen. It had been one of the ?most interesting classes I’d ever taken, and unlike most of my teachers, she didn’t seem to mind that I peppered my essays with more random facts than were probablystrictlynecessary.
“After all,” Ms. Mulaney continued, “you have to pace yourself. This is the fifth Grad Nite I’ve chaperoned, and I’ve seen people try and go too hard…and then end up sleeping on a bench near the Ferris wheel at midnight.”
“Well,” Sheridan said, with a shrug, “we can just agree to disagree.” He turned away and walked over to join Manny Ortega.
“You’ve chaperonedfivegrad nights?” I asked.
“Sure have.”
“Wow.”Bryony turned to me. “I feel like this is a sign from the universe. I should become a teacher, right?”
“It’s fun,” Ms. Mulaney said. “In addition to making sure you all behave, I get to go on the rides, too. And then when I’ve had enough of that, I can go to the lounge and do some work.”
“But school’s over,” Bryony pointed out. “What work do you have?”
Ms. Mulaney glanced down at the canvas bag over her shoulder for just a moment, then shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.”
“What lounge?” I asked.
