“What’s going on with Emma?” I asked the other Emmas, looking after her in surprise. I wasn’t super close with Emma Z., but she’d always been friendly.
“Oh,” Emma R. said, dropping her voice. “She got some bad news today. She’d gotten this scholarship from the Harbor Club that was going to help her with a lot of college expenses—books and food and stuff? But she found out today that they’re actually pulling it. They’re over budget or something.”
Bryony grimaced. “That’s tough. Is she okay?”
“I think so,” Emma J. said, but she looked after her friend, her forehead furrowed. “I’m going to go check.”
She followed after Emma Z., and Emma R. pulled out her phone. “I meant to ask you two. Want to go see Band of Brothers in August? Tickets go on sale tomorrow.”
“Of course,” Bryony said. “Maybe not behind a pole this time?”
“I can’t,” I said with a shrug. “I won’t be here.”
“What do you mean?” Bryony asked, and a second too late, I realized what I’d done.
“I…Because school starts,” I said, trying to will myself to think faster. “In August.”
“This is the beginning,” Emma R. said. “Like, August third or something.” She looked at me with alarm. “Does Berke?ley start that early? Now I’m not sad I didn’t get in.”
“Oh sorry—I just misunderstood,” I said, pulling out my phone, pretending to be looking for something as I scrolled through it. “Let me check and I’ll get back to you, okay?”
“Cool,” Emma R. said. “Have to grab my bus?, but see you there!”
She hurried off and Bryony turned to me. “You should be able to go, right? No school starts that early.”
“No?, totally,” I agreed, still not meeting her eye. “I just got mixed up. Too bad about Emma Z., huh?”
“Seriously. That’s so hard. To have the rug pulled out from under you at the last minute like that…”
I nodded, wanting to change the subject. This was veering dangerously close to what had happened to me with my dads’ announcement, and that was the last thing I wanted to think about. “You know where that phrase comes from?”
Bryony grinned at me. “Is it fact time?”
I laughed. “Itisfact time! So it’s from the thirties. The older version, from the 1500s, wascut the grass under my feet.”
Bryony thought about this, then shook her head. “I don’t see that catching on.”
“Me neither.”
“Okay!” Ms. Mulaney was back and clapping her hands together. “Bus five, we’re ready to rock and roll. Twenty minutes to the park, and even though you’ve all graduated and we technically have no sway over you any longer—please behave. Okay?”
We all nodded—I saw Manny Ortega give her a thumbs-up—and then Ms. Mulaney climbed on the bus. I turned to Bryony. “Ready?”
“Soready. Grab a spoon!”
I just looked at her. “Is thatCereal?”
She grinned at me. “You know it!”
I laughed, then gestured to the bus. “Let’s go!”
Okay!” Ms. Mulaney said. She adjusted the tote bag on her shoulder and raised her voice “Can everyone hear me?”
I nodded, and so did Bryony, but Amy and Carlos were kissing again and—I had a feeling—not paying attention to anything except each other. We were lined up, along with the rest of the students from Harbor Cove High, outside the Grad Nite welcome tent. It turned out we weren’t going in through the main gates. We’d come around a side entrance and seen a long line of other high schoolers—and their chaperones—going into the tent. It was huge and white, withWELCOME TO GRAD NITEprinted on the side of it, theGinGrad Niteadorned with neon Mickey ears.
Maybe feeling like she’d gotten enough nods and muttered yeses, Ms. Mulaney continued. “Inside the tent, you’ll have your bag searched and receive your wristband. Then you can enter the park. As a reminder, California Adventure is the only theme park you’ll have access to. Please do not attempt to leave and go into Disneyland, because you will be escorted away by security and not able to return to the rest of your night.”
“Wait,” Manny Ortega said, raising his hand like we were still back in English class. “But then how do we go on Space Mountain?”
