Page 119 of With a Little Luck

Brynn tosses over a pile of napkins, while Russell tries to explain to Serena whatOne Pieceis, and the rest of the table inevitably start talking about the topic that seems to have permeated the entire school: prom. I listen distantly while those who are going make last-minute plans for dinners and rides and after-parties, which is actually just hitting up a late-night taco truck, then playing Cards Against Humanity at Serena’s house until they all crash. Never thought I’d be into high school parties, but that doesn’t sound too bad. Serena even invites those of us who302aren’t going to the dance to come over, too, which might be tempting if I didn’t have an evening of wallowing planned already.

Brynn asks Maya more about her date, this “hilarious rogue” they’ve all been hearing so much about, and I’m pretty sure Maya starts blushing. I smile at her, genuinely happy for Maya and Noah, and genuinely hoping they have a great time on their first real date.

“Oh, Jude, that reminds me,” says Maya. “I keep forgetting to bring you your dice. It’s been sitting on my dresser for weeks. I’ll try to remember to put it in my backpack when I get home so I can get it to you before our next session.”

I frown. “No, you already gave me my dice back.” After our first D&D session, Maya went out and bought her own set, so she didn’t have to borrow mine anymore.

“Not the resin set you play with,” she says. “The fancy one. The D20. That looks like a ruby?”

I inhale sharply. All sound turns to white noise, a muffled disbelief thundering between my ears.

“What?” I say. “You have my … my dice? My red dice?”

“You dropped it at the festival. I picked it up, but they were giving out the awards and I didn’t want to interrupt, so I put it in my pocket and completely forgot about it.” She smiles—utterly clueless about how this revelation has shaken me to my core.

My dice.

Myluckydice.

“Yeah. Yes. Please,” I stammer. “I’d love to have it back.”

303

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“There are people outside!” cries Penny, bouncing excitedly.“Actual people! Waiting! In line!”

“Penny, breathe,” says Pru. “Before you hyperventilate.”

Penny gestures toward the front door. “But isn’t that a good sign?”

It is. It’s a great sign, actually.

We’ve been up since dawn, making sure everything’s in place for the big day. Pru has been keeping a running countdown on our social media channels ticking down to Record Store Day—featuring local award-winning songwriter, Araceli Escalante! (And a special surprise!)She’s also been trying to get me to tell her what the big surprise is every chance she gets, but I refuse to say anything.

Pru finishes going over our day-of promotions, along with detailed instructions on how we should handle preorders for the merchandise that never showed up and how we should all be encouraging email list subscribers throughout the day.

“Quint will get off from the center around noon,” Pru is saying, checking things off a massive to-do list, “so Lucy, I’m putting you in charge of photography and videography for social media until he gets here.”

“On it,” says Lucy.

“Mom will mostly be in charge of switching out the records, so long as she isn’t having to wrangle Ellie too much.”

“I can help wrangle Ellie,” I say. “I’m mostly just going to be at the cash register.”304

“Which, if we’re lucky, will keep youverybusy,” says Pru.

I cringe at the L-word, but nod anyway. “If we’re lucky.”

Pru looks up from her notes. “Shouldn’t you all be writing this down?”

“And deny you the pleasure of bossing us around for the rest of the day?” Lucy says. “Never.”

Pru starts to glare, but then pauses. “Fair enough. How are we on time?”

“Doors open in five,” says Dad.

The one person who’s still missing, even more than Quint, is Ari herself. She’s bringing her parents and Abuela down so they can watch her perform. But with her arthritis, Abuela doesn’t always move super fast, especially in the mornings, so Ari warned us she might be running a little late.

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