?I spotted Tabitha and two people who I assumed were the friends she’d mentioned. I looked at them closely, wondering which one of them had been the one to leak the picture. Tabitha had said that only the people in the picture—or taking it—would have had access so that did narrow the suspects down a little bit. I walked a little closer, pretending to scroll on my phone, hoping that I seemed nonchalant….
“Cass?”
I froze and whirled around. The Emmas were in front of me, all of them looking surprised to see me. “Uh—hi, guys,” I said, giving them a smile, while also trying to keep an eye on Tabitha’s group. They’d just moved forward to pose for the photo, all three of them smiling wide.
“Hey!” Emma R. said, and Emma J. and Emma Z. waved—they looked much more relaxed than they normally did when I encountered them.
“What’s up?” I asked, as I tried to sidle up a little closer to Tabitha and her friends without looking like I was a stalker. They’d gotten their photo and stepped out of line. They were hunched over Tabitha’s phone, laughing together.
“Where’s Bryony?” Emma R. asked, looking around.
“Yeah, I thought you guys were on the later bus,” Emma Z. said. “I didn’t think you’d get here so fast.”
“We—That’s true,” I said, giving her a nod before looking back over at Tabitha. But I was too far away to see what was happening or hear any of their conversation. “I just…”
“You okay?” Emma R. asked, her brow furrowed.
“Yeah,” Emma Z. said, shaking her head. “You seem…” A second later her phone beeped, and she looked down at it, distracted.
I glanced over and saw that Tabitha and her friends were already walking away. They were all laughing together—whichever of her friends was going to betray her was giving no indication of it. Or maybe they hadn’t thought about it yet. Was I going to need to follow them all night? I sighed and started to head back toward the entrance.
“Uh. Cass?” Emma R. called after me. “Where are you going?”
“To try again!” I yelled over my shoulder. “Be right back.”
Who’s ready to have the best night ever?”
This time, I didn’t yank Bryony out of the way—I couldn’t spare the time. I said a silent apology to her ?as I started running, taking my wallet out of my bag as I ran, heading straight for Johnny’s merchandise kiosk.
If he was perturbed by the sight of a senior sprinting full-speed up to his kiosk, he didn’t look it. But then, in all the times I’d had interactions with him, he really didn’t seem bothered by much. “Hey,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “How can I help?”
“A hat,” I gasped, looking around for one that would shield me, at least for a few moments, from the Emmas’ notice so that I could help Tabitha. I grabbed the first one I saw—it had Baby Yoda embroidered on it—and tossed it down. “As quick as possible please.”
“What’s the rush? I thought Grad Nite just started.”
“Not for me,” I said, as I thrust my card in his direction. “I have to get to Cars Land.”
“And what’s in Cars Land?”
“I have to help someone,” I said, tapping my card on the reader he held out to me and waving off the receipt, grabbing the hat and ripping off the tags.
Johnny nodded and gave me a smile. “You’re on the right track, then.”
I had started to head off, stuffing my hair into the cap as I went, but this made me pause. “What does that mean?”
“It means you’re on the right track,” he said, pointing. “Cars Land is that way.”
“Oh, right,” I said, nodding, starting to run again. “Thanks!”
I ran as fast as I could to Cars Land, but even so, by the time that I got there, Tabitha and her friends were already walking away from Mater, all of them clustered around Tabitha’s phone, looking at the pictures. I sighed and turned to go back to the entrance and start this over again. But I honestly ?wasn’t sure I was ?going to be able to run any faster—it felt like I was hitting the upper edge of my capacity.
“Cass?”
I turned around, to see all the Emmas walking toward me. “I thought it was you,” Emma R. said, smiling wide at me. “Cute hat! We were just going to go get some merch, want to come?”
“Yeah,” I said, realizing too late that I probably could have bought the Mickey graduation ears since running full-out was the one way, it seemed, that I could make it to Johnny’s kiosk before the Emmas. I filed this away as useful information and took a step closer. “Sure. That sounds—”
Just then, like before, Emma Z.’s phone beeped. But this time I was close enough to see her screen. I saw Emma’s eyes get wide as she looked at her phone. She tapped her screen, then turned it to Emma J. so she could see it. Emma J. reacted the same way Emma Z. had—with silent surprise. I shook my head, trying to figure this out. I knew what I’d seen—but I didn’t understand what it meant. It just didn’t makesense?—
