Bruce shook his head at me, then turned to Bryony. “I’m game if you are.”
“Sure,” she said, playing with her bangs again. “Why not?”
“Have fun!” I called, as I started to leave.
“Wait, Cass,” Bryony called. “Where will you be?”
“I’ll be at the Eton Mess show,” I said, choosing my words carefully. The last thing I wanted to do was lie to Bryony? ever again. “I’ll see you there? Midnight?”
“Sounds good.” She gave me an eye-widen that I knew meantwe will be talking about this later?,and I gave her one back that meantyou know it.Then she and Bruce headed toward the ride, Bryony saying something that made Bruce laugh.
I stayed there for just a moment, watching until they were out of sight. I had no idea if anything would happen here, if this would turn into anything more than just hanging out on a ride. But that wasn’t up to me any longer—they could take it from here.
I checked the time, took a deep breath, and then headed the opposite direction.
I had a show to save.
Freddie was right where I knew he’d be.
He was by Grizzly Peak, walking and carrying the Irn-Bru for Niall. A man on a mission. I’d been tempted to see if I could have encountered him earlier—like when he stopped short after getting the email from the manager. But the more I worked out my plans, I realized I couldn’t get there in time, not with everything else I’d had to do. And plus—I needed to make sure Niall knew about the manager. I was pretty sure he always did; if Freddie didn’t tell him, like in the loops where I came into the picture later, Niall found out when he looked at Freddie’s phone.
I watched him for just a moment, trying to get my timing right. Just once, I was hoping to do this without getting splattered with orange soda. I took a breath and stepped into his path.
We crashed into each other, like I knew we would, but I managed to jump back at the last moment, out of the splash zone.
“Oh?, I’m so sorry,” Freddie said, looking from me to the bottle of soda on the ground. Everyone around us was giving the ever-expanding puddle a wide berth, and Freddie chased the bottle down and tossed it in the nearest trash can. “Are you all right?”
“I am.” I smiled at him. “Hey, Freddie.”
“I…Hi?” His smile widened, even as it became more confused. “Have we met before?”
“We have. A lot, actually.” I took a breath.“Excalibur.”
We ended up outside Award Wieners—it was the final place at the park I hadn’t eaten, so I wanted to be sure to try it. As I’d tried to explain to Freddie what was happening—and what was going to happen—we’d both decided that we needed some food, and had headed here and ordered. Freddie had gotten the bacon dog; I’d stuck with the regular hot dog for what I was hoping would be my last Grad Nite dinner.
“Okay,” Freddie said, turning to me once we’d both ordered and paid. “Just to make sure I have this straight—you’re in atime loop.”
I nodded. On the walk here I’d given him the basic facts—Grad Nite, my best friend Bryony, the night repeating. But like usual, it was taking him a moment to get his head around it. “LikePettigrew’sLoop.”
Freddie’s face lit up. “I love that movie! I can’t believe you’ve seen it—”
“I saw it because you told me to,” I said with a laugh. “I’d never heard about it before.”
He shook his head. “This is so cool. I always wanted something like this to happen—which you know, of course. But it’s stillbrilliant. Jack and I always would talk about it?…” He trailed off and looked at me, head tilted to the side. “But maybe you know that already?”
“I do,” I assured him, as I pulled the list out of my bag. I handed it over and saw Freddie’s eyes widen as he read it. “This is my dossier on Freddie Sharma.”
“This is…I really told you all this?” he asked, reading it. He looked up at me in horror. “I told you aboutGeraldine Bewley?”
I laughed. “You did.”
“But…” His eyes traveled over the paper again. “Why would you write this out? Wouldn’t you have to do it every time? Nothing would be able to come with you when the loop reset.”
“That’s right,” I said, impressed Freddie had gotten there before me and hadn’t had to conduct experiments to make this clear. “I guess it all just seemed like stuff I wanted to make sure I remembered.” His eyes met mine, and my heart started to beat a little faster. “It all seemed important.”
He gave me a smile, his dimple flashing. “Well, I don’t know about that.” He tapped on the bottom of the page. “What’s this?”
“Those are song lyrics.”
