“Well—you don’t,” Ms. Mulaney said. “We’re in California Adventure. You can put your hand down, Manny.”
Bryony turned to me and shook her head. “It’s like he didn’t read any of the emails.”
“I know.”
“Grad Nite goes until two a.m., when you’re going to make your way back over to the same door we will be going in. If you are not there, I will not be happy. If you have an emergency, find me or one of the cast members. Okay?” She looked around at all of us. And maybe sensing this, AmyandCarlos stopped furiously kissing and glanced over at her. “Great. I want you all to have a lot of fun and celebrate your accomplishments. But please keep in mind that tonight, you’re still representatives of Harbor Cove High. I will expect you to ?uphold our school’s good name. Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Sheridan said, looking up from his phone. “Who’s the celebrity that’s here tonight?”
A murmur went through the crowd immediately, and I turned to Bryony, but she shook her head—she clearly didn’t know what Sheridan was talking about either.
“Wait—like, a celebrity that’s our age?” Manny asked, for some reason raising his hand again.
Ms. Mulaney shook her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. And, Manny, you really can put your hand down.”
Sheridan held his phone up. “DitesMoi is saying thatit’sextra starry right now atDisney’sGrad Nite.”
DitesMoi was a social media gossip site that I looked at much more than I would have admitted to. And while sometimes they were way off base, most of the time they were at least partially correct, which meant that there was a not-insignificant chance someone famous was going to be ?at Grad Nite with us.
“So, it’s probably someone from LA, right?” Manny turned to me. “Cass, what do you know?”
I blinked at him, surprised. “Me? How wouldIknow?”
“Didn’t you go to school in LA?”
“Yeah, but, like, two years ago.” When my dads had been flipping a craftsman-style bungalow, we’d lived in Raven Rock, a small suburb in the northeast corner of Los Angeles. It had not exactly been a celebrity magnet.
“So?” Sheridan took a step closer to me. “Can you find out?”
I took a breath, about to tell him no, since I wasn’t in touch with anyone from my old schools?, but then decided it wasn’t worth going into it all. “It’s probably just a rumor.”
“Exactly,” Ms. Mulaney said, clapping her hands together. “Why don’t you all focus on having fun, and not who might or might not be here?” The rest of us nodded, even though Sheridan was still focusing down on his phone. She smiled at all of us. “Good. Now let’s have a great night.”
Everyone cheered, and the line moved forward. I could see the people in front of us seemed to be from a school in Santa Barbara. They were all wearing matching T-shirts that readSANTA BARBARA BUCCANEERS GRAD NITE?,and I gave a silent thanks that we hadn’t been required to dress in matching outfits.
I glanced over and saw Sheridan frantically scrolling through his phone. He caught my eye and gestured down to it. “If someone famous is here, I’m going to find out,” he said. “They definitely would have posted it to their feed.”
“Well—good luck.” I mentally shuddered, just thinking about someone being able to go through my internet profile, dig through my past, find out stuff about me that I didn’t want people to know.
But then, I kept a lower online footprint than most of my friends at school. Since I’d found it better to make a clean break whenever I left, I always started a new social media profile when I moved somewhere new. I liked it this way—it was a fresh start, and I didn’t have to look at the happy pictures of all the people I’d had to leave behind. It also meant that I no longer could see any of my old friends, but I’d learned through experience it was better that way. It just hurt too much to see stories and posts and videos of everyone having fun without me, moving on, and eventually forgetting me. I knew it would happen anyway, and at least this way I didn’t have toseeit.
We moved up in the line, and Bryony looked over at me. “So, what were you thinking our plan should be? I know you want to go on Radiator Springs Racers, right?”
“Always.” It was my very favorite ride in the whole park, and if I could ride it with a low wait time or even get to ride itmultipletimes, it would make my whole night.
“And I want to do the Spider-Man ride.”
“Of course you do.” Bryony had a not-so-secret crush on Tom Holland. “Anything beyond that?”
She shrugged happily. “I mean, I think we can just let the night unfold, right?”
I grinned at her. “Totally. It’s going to be amazing no matter what we do.”
We moved forward again in the line, reaching the cast members. In short order, our bags were checked and we’d both been given neon-green plastic bracelets with today’s date andDISNEY GRAD NITE—SENIORprinted on them.
“There’s a QR code on your wristband,” the cast member closest to me said, pointing at it. “It has tonight’s schedule, a map, everything you’ll need.”
“That’s really cool,” I said as Bryony and I walked out of the tent. We scanned our codes?, and I felt my eyes open wide as I took in the sheer amount of information that had come up on my phone.
