Page 66 of What Happened to Lucy Vale
Nothing.
The rhythmic thump of the music dulled into long seconds. We waited.
But the locker room door didn’t open.
“Let’s hear it for JJ!” Radner repeated, a little louder, which only made the microphone kick back a screech of reverb. Still, JJ didn’t come. The applause petered off as we stood there in confusion.
Radner gestured for the DJ to cut off the music. For a brief, unnerving second, the room was silent.
“Hello? JJ?” Radner scanned the crowd as if JJ might be hiding among us. “Anyone know where JJ is? Anyone?”
We all turned instinctively to Noah. Only then did Noah look up and realize that we were all staring at him, waiting for his answer.
“No idea,” he said.
Now Radner tipped the microphone away from his mouth a few inches. But it was still enough to land his voice at Noah’s feet. “Well, can you tryfindinghim?”
“Me?” Noah frowned. “Why me?”
“Unless you want to step in as a replacement,” Radner said. “I’m sure the ladies wouldn’t mind.” He turned back to the crowd. “Would you, ladies?”
High-decibel enthusiasm kept Noah from responding for almost thirty seconds. “I don’t dance,” he said.
This was news to us.
Coach Radner was sweating under the lights. “Has anyone seen JJ?” he repeated.
Reese Steeler-Cox said loudly, “Has anyone seenBailey?” That drew a laugh.
“Or Kennedy?” someone called out.
The wordthreesomesurfed the crowd on a break of snickering. Someone shouted that the chaperones should check the parking lot. Mara Gaines, a senior on the cheerleading squad, announced that she’d seen lights in the construction trailer permanently moored between Aquatics and the rest of the athletics center. We saw a skirmish of discomfort work through the chaperones. Principal Hammill disappeared into the hall. Sofia Young, who had been sneaking to the parking lot to take swigs from a vodka bottle concealed behind the planters, announced that Kennedy had gone home with her parents. She’d left at the same time as Akash.
It was the first we’d heard that Akash had ditched out early.
@mememeup:does anyone know what happened?
@spinn_doctor:don’t @ me.
@mememeup:we weren’t
@bassicrhythm:wtf. His parents were supposed to be my ride ...
@pawsandclaws:did something happen, @goodnightsky? Details??
But Sofia didn’t know, or was too drunk to remember.
Vice Principal Edwards stepped in to draw for JJ Hammill. When he announced Bailey Lawrence’s name, we lost it. It was fate. It was toxic. It was true love. What were the odds?
“I guess Bailey owes me a dance,” Edwards said, and we all laughed with him.
The locker room door burst open suddenly, and JJ slid out, arms open, giving offI’m-sorry-to-be-so-awesome-you-had-to-wait-for-meCoachella mainstage vibes.
Bailey materialized at the same time—from where, we couldn’t say—and we fell aside in waves like she was Moses walking toward the Promised Land.
JJ bowed, and Bailey took his hand and did a spin that ended in mouth-to-mouth. Vice Principal Edwards leaped forward to separate them—a second and a half of gorgeous video that lived on for months as one of our favorite memes. Whatever he said had no prayer against the volume of the crowd.
There was no doubt about it: they were both nuts. Someday they’d probably kill each other. Their relationship was that psycho.
