second barricade around her, something for the shame. “Marisa made us promise. She couldn’t risk anyone finding out.”
“Not about tonight,” he said. “About this.” He raised the fork. “You didn’t tell me you cared about all this so much.” Joy didn’t know what to say. It was the first thing she’d never told him, and she was scared it had irrevocably changed things between them, that she would keep not telling him things.
“I’ve been drinking two Gatorades a day out of plastic bottles.” He sighed.
“I’ve been posting all those articles as a hint. I just got into it, and by the time I realized you didn’t know, it started feeling awkward to bring up how deep I was in it. I didn’t know how to bring it up directly.”
Omar chewed his lip. “Well, now I feel bad for only reading the headlines.” They both laughed a little. “I’ve been reading tonight, though. I’m going to do better.”
This maybe made the whole ordeal worth it. “Thanks,” Joy said.
He stood, looking out at the gym over the barricade. It felt like it’d been days since the start of the decathlon, since he’d stood at the top of the key on the basketball court studying the crowd out of the corner of his eye, searching for Peejay. “There’s something I haven’t told you, either,” he offered. “I have a crush on somebody.”
Joy’s head shot up, her eyes widening and filling with light. “What!” she shrieked. “Who? Tell me, tell me, tell me!”
Everyone in the gym turned in their direction. They’d forgotten they were locked in, and seeing the barricade, remembering that’s where the doors were, each of them had a brief pang of sorrow, which left as soon as they returned to what they were doing.
Omar laughed, running his hand over his close-cropped hair. He couldn’t believe he was about to say it, but it made him happy to have a reason to say the name out loud.
* * *
Peejay was thinking this had been a stupid, desperate idea. Playing improv to try to coax a solution from this innocent, ridiculous boy. Trying to salvage a party that couldn’t happen for a person who couldn’t experience it.
Then it all changed. Without possibly understanding the magnitude of what he was saying, Kenji Pierce saved the lock-in night party.
Peejay, as the king of Spain, hadn’t really been doing much pretending in their scene. Mostly he was just adding an occasional lisp while explaining the obstacles in his way. Kenji, for his part, though he was disappointed this wasn’t the showcase, that it wasn’t what he was hoping for, that his father was right outside and might lose it if he saw him Being Silly during a Serious Time, had a giddy inner monologue running through his head: How cool! I’m in a scene with Peejay Singh. A Peejay Scene-gh! Lindsay would love this.
This, even as he solved all of Peejay’s problems, one by one.
Few people around them were paying attention, most thinking Peejay was becoming untethered and dragging Kenji with him. They didn’t want the same happening to them, so they turned away. Thankfully, none of the teachers were paying attention, as it would have jeopardized the whole thing, giving Kenji’s solutions away.
The two teachers who’d joined ranks with Marisa’s Protectors were deep in conversation with each other, discussing whether young people had the ability to stand for what they believed in and whether adults should support them or applaud their initiative and take the reins away.
So when Kenji, as Peejay, shrugged his shoulders and said, “So we get another DJ. There’s gotta be at least ten in here,” only the two of them in the scene, plus Celeste, Amira and Marisa heard. Peejay couldn’t believe that he hadn’t thought of that. It was so simple. But of course he hadn’t. He couldn’t have. His mind had been mired in the old rules of the world, trying to fight his circumstances instead of working within them. All this time he was thinking, “But...how?” when it should have been “Yes, and...?”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little Iberian head, King. I know exactly what to do.”
“You do?”
“Look at social media, one in every three people in here is a DJ. We’ll find someone who can do it. And the AV club must be bored out of their minds. I’m sure they’ll help set everything up.” Just like that, it was coming together.
All the solutions felt so simple when Kenji spoke them. Distribute the earphones without their wrappers,