Chapter Forty-Five

Things I’ve Missed During Fall Fest Week Because of My House Arrest Painstakingly Slow Recovery

1. A last-minute proposal from Jack O’Reilly to Melissa Finch featuring a bunch of adorable puppies.

2. Zachary Lin, the football quarterback, revealing himself as an artistic genius during Monday’s pumpkin- car ving contest when he created a realistic rendition of our black squirrel mascot.

3. A ver y sweet reconciliation between Leilani and Addison, who are now embracing the fact that they’ll be twins at the dance and making their dates dress the same, too. Drama officially squashed.

4. Cyrus Ali crushing the timed corn maze races in PE.

5. Pri ncipal Johnson accidentally leaving her loudspeaker on after she’s finished with the announcements and letting the whole school overhear her rapping along to an explicit song on Spotify.

Marisol, Sophie, Chloe, Lily, and Isaiah fill me in on these details and more, and what they don’t share, I find on people’s social media accounts. I know so much it’s almost as if I’m there. Almost.

Each day that passes, I grow more forlorn. Until Abuela surprises me on Thursday night while I’m pathetically scrolling through my classmates’ posts about the bonfire and says I can go back to school on Friday.

I could cry

The pep rally takes place Friday afternoon. The teachers accept that getting any work done is futile, letting us mostly goof off until it’s time to be led to the gym for the afternoon’s festivities.

Principal Johnson kicks things off with a brief speech about teamwork and how it’s not about whether we win or lose the game, blah blah blah. Our squirrel mascot, Hazel, joins the dance team, and we go absolutely wild when she drops to the ground and starts to do the worm. Who the hell is in that costume and why are they so good?

I turn to Zay as the cheerleaders rush in and start to announce the football team. “I’ll be right back!” I shout over the crowd. “I have to pee.”

He nods, and I climb down the bleachers to meet Malik, Jay, and Daniel just outside the gymnasium. Operation Publicly Propose to Isaiah is officially underway.

“Hey, Whit,” Malik says with a smile. “You ready?”

“To humiliate myself in front of the entire school?” I ask. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Daniel forks a thumb toward the gym. “You hear those fools? They are absolutely losing their minds over the football team. And that team suuuuucks. I feel like they’d cheer for just about anything right now, so you and your very adorable plan will go over great.”

Jay nods. “It may not top Hazel basically humping the grou nd—”

“Gross, man. She was doing the worm!” Daniel protests.

“— but it’ll be good regardless,” Jay says. He grabs the sign I finished the night before and hands it to me. “Here.”

I take it. “Thanks. And thank you all for doing this with me.”

“Of course. Isaiah’s a good dude,” Malik says. “It’s the least we could do.”

From inside the gym, I hear Marisol’s loud voice bellow over the speakers. “And now, please give it up for one of the chief masterminds behind this absolutely epic Fall Fest. Whitney Rivera, get in here!”

There’s cheering, and Daniel gives me a little salute. “Do your thing, Veronica,” he says, a final nod to our secret code names.

I jog into the gym, excitement in my chest and adrenaline coursing through my veins. Marisol gives me a side hug as I take the microphone from her.

You’ve got this, she mouths.

Whew. Let’s hope.

Into the microphone, I say, “Elmwood High! It’s Fall Fest week!”

They cheer, and I’m overwhelmed by the enthusiasm. Daniel was right. This crowd would cheer for just about anything right now.

I catch Isaiah’s eye and he gives me a confused look. But I just lift my shoulders and smile at him.

“I’m super excited that you’re excited, and that you seem to have enjoyed yourselves this week. I want to start by giving a quick shout- out to the incredible Fall Fest committee, without whom none of this would be possible: Ms. Bennett, for being an incredible leader, and our class officers Leilani Mamea, Hudson Moore, and Everly McDonnell; helper angels Sophie Tran, Marisol Pérez, and Chloe Torres; and, of course, our incredible senior officer, my partner in crime, Isaiah Ortiz.”

More cheering.

“Now, I am hoping to take one more minute of your time for something super selfish. As you may know, I ended up in the hospital late last week, and yes I am totally telling you that to garner sympathy so you are nice to me as I put myself out there and do this next thing.”

There’s some polite laughter from the crowd, and one person whoops loudly.

“While in the hospital, I realized I really liked this guy I’d been working on the Fall Fest with, and that I wanted nothing more than to spend as much time with him as possible,” I say. “So, as I’ve been watching these incredible Fall Fest proposals happen, I decided I wanted to do one of my own . . .”

My classmates start to cheer and clap, realizing what’s happening, and their chants get louder as Daniel, Malik, and Jay skateboard into the gymnasium. I take a moment to place the mic in its stand so I can use both of my hands to hold up the sign I’ve placed by my feet.

I hoist the sign above my head, just as Isaiah’s three friends encircle me.

In big, bold letters, it reads: ZAY, I WHEELIE LIKE YOU. Daniel holds a sign that says FALL, Malik holds a sign that reads FEST, and Jay rounds us out with the sign that says DANCE?

“Isaiah Ortiz . . . ,” I say, leaning into the mic. “Will you make me the happiest girl at Elmwood and go to the Fall Fest dance with me?”

It feels as if there’s a lifetime between when the words echo out of the loudspeakers and the moment when Isaiah breaks into a huge, goofy gri n— but it comes, and my heart soars as he shouts, “ABS O- FUCKING- LU TELY! ”

Our classmates erupt into loud cheering and Zay rushes to me, lifting me off the floor and twirling me around, both of us laughing so hard it hurts.

Principal Johnson tries to restore order, but it’s no use. We’ve devolved into pure chaos, some students leading the way toward the football fields, others congregating in groups, some taking selfies with Hazel (who’s in that costume, anyway?).

Zay uses the opportunity to pull me close and says, “You’re absolutely wild, you know that, right?”

“You wanted your big proposal!” I laugh. “This is the least I could do.”

“And you guys!” He looks over at his friends, who tease him as boys do, while Marisol and Sophie join me in a group hug.

“You killed that!” Sophie squeals.

“So proud of you, babe,” Marisol gushes.

“My original plan of skateboarding in and doing an ollie would’ve been better,” I joke. “But this is good, too.”

Somehow, in just a few weeks, I’ve gone from the girl who would give anything not to be noticed to the girl standing in front of her entire school professing her feelings for a boy she likes. Yet I feel more like me than ever before.