Chapter 4
Who’s ready to have the best night ever?” Sheridan yelled.
“Okay,” I said, nodding, as I oriented myself. Everything was just like before—my classmates streaming in, everyone happy and excited to begin the night. Bryony next to me, smiling, still firmly my best friend, not looking at me with hurt in her eyes.
I saw Manny take a deep breath to respond like he always did, but this time I preempted him.
“Manny is!” I called. He stopped and looked over at me, surprised.
I pulled Bryony out of the way before she even knew she was in any danger, and steered us over to the bench that I already felt like I was getting to know well.
“You okay?” Bryony asked me, her brow furrowing.
I nodded. “Just needed a second.” I sat down, took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly, the way Oscar’s meditation app was always telling him to do. I wasn’t sure if it helped, but it gave me a moment to just sit and try and assess the situation.
Because it seemed like I could keep walking through the door, but I was fairly certain I’d keep getting the same result. There was truly no other explanation that I could seem to get my head around. The facts, unbelievable as they were, were also undeniable.
I was in a time loop.
On Grad Nite.
My only experience with time loops had been movies and books, so I wasn’t sure how it normally worked, but I was relieved that unlike the ones in Groundhog Day or Palm Springs, I didn’t have to either go to sleep or die in order to reset things.
And though I had no way of telling for sure, it didn’t seem like I had a limited number of these.
But then, I was still waiting for the wise guide to show up and explain all of this to me.
It didn’t seem very fair that I was in a time loop with absolutely no instructions.
Where was my handbook? Or at least someone giving me the dos and don’ts?
Nobody seemed to be putting themselves forward, so I figured I’d just have to sort this out on my own.
I honestly didn’t see any other solution here.
But why was I in a time loop? That’s what I couldn’t get my head around…why this was happening. I’d seen enough of these movies to know there was always a reason someone found themselves in a time loop—something they had to learn or fix.
I’d first wished to do this over because of how disastrously the night had gone—running into everyone from my past, and this eventually leading to the fight with Bryony.
But now, none of that needed to happen. There was no fight with Bryony, no running into Reagan and Zach, or Greta and Nora, or Bruce.
I knew they were all here, somewhere else in the park, but I could avoid them—or start things over if I saw them.
So that meant the reason for this loop had to be something else…and in a flash of inspiration, I suddenly had an idea.
Emma had even pointed it out to me, I just hadn’t clocked it at the time—the meet-cute.
Freddie the British musician. All at once, it seemed so obvious.
I never just ran into cute guys—literally or otherwise.
His soda had spilled on me, we’d had a conversation…
I remembered the way I’d felt drawn to talk to him in my second loop.
It was like we had a connection that went past just soda-spilling.
It had to be that, right? That maybe something was supposed to happen with us? I decided to find out.
“Hey!” I looked over and saw, right on time, the Emmas coming toward us, Emma R. with her blue plastic Disneyland bag, the other two Emmas looking preoccupied as usual.
“Hey, guys,” Bryony said.
“So, what’s your plan?” I asked, hoping to skip the graduation ears conversation since it seemed clear that, no matter how many times I tried, we really weren’t going to get them.
“We were just debating what to do,” Emma J. said, glancing at her phone. “Either the Incredicoaster or heading to Soarin’. There’s, like, no line right now.”
“You should do the Incredicoaster!” I said immediately.
Bryony blinked at me in surprise. “Cass, you don’t like roller coasters.”
“No, I know,” I said, nodding. “And so that’s why you should go on it with the Emmas. Along with all the other ones I can’t do. Like maybe the Guardians ride, too, and the Ferris wheel with the swinging cars…” I flashed back to our disastrous ride and wasn’t able to stop myself from shuddering.
“But you wouldn’t be able to go with us.”
“I know,” I said, trying to sound sad, and not like this was all part of a plan. “But then we can meet up afterward and you’ll tell me about how I could have handled them, and I won’t believe you.”
Bryony frowned. “But we’re supposed to hang out together.”
“And we will! It’s just that this way you’ll get the full Grad Nite experience.
” My heart clenched a little as I flashed back to Bryony, on the verge of tears, confronting me about lying to her.
That version of her night had been totally wrecked.
And even though she didn’t remember it, I did.
I needed to erase that entirely, make sure she had the best time.
“We can do my wimpy rides once you’ve done all the daredevil ones. ”
“Are you sure?” Bryony asked, her brow furrowed.
“Chip!” Emma Z. yelped, pointing to the costumed chipmunk in his graduation robe.
“Dale,” I muttered, even though I knew from experience I wasn’t going to win this argument.
“It’s Chip,” Emma Z. insisted, like I knew she would.
“I had no idea that the characters would be in graduation outfits!” Bryony said. “This is—”
“The best thing ever!” I finished for her. “It really is. So, you guys go ride your rides and I’ll meet up with you when you’re done!”
“Awesome,” Emma R. said with a nod. “We’ll text you, okay, Cass?”
I nodded. “Perfect.”
Bryony looked at me, her expression concerned, and a thought snaked its way into my brain before I could stop it: that Bryony was worried about leaving me alone for a few hours.
And she had no idea that I was going to leave her, probably forever, tomorrow morning.
I shook my head, trying to clear this thought away, but it lingered, like how a bad perfume smell sticks around in an elevator.
“I swear I’m fine,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat and making myself smile at her. “We’ll hang out the rest of the night.”
“Okay,” Bryony said. “I’ll text you when we’re done riding the real rides.”
“Hey,” I said, even though I was laughing. “Silly Symphony Swings is a real ride, I’ll have you know. It’s just not as flashy as some of the other ones.”
“Sure,” Bryony said with a grin. “Whatever you have to tell yourself.”
“Let’s go!” Emma J. said, and I watched as the three of them took off, heading toward Pixar Pier. Bryony turned around once to give me a wave, and then they passed out of view, leaving me standing alone.
“Cass?” I turned to see Ms. Mulaney heading toward me. “You okay all by yourself?” She looked around. “Where’s Bryony?”
“She went to ride the roller coasters,” I explained. “I’m a roller coaster wimp.”
She smiled at me. “I’m the same way. I’ve never understood what’s fun about getting motion sickness.”
“Exactly!”
“Well, if you do need anything, I’ll be in the chaperone lounge. It’s that direction….” She pointed, and just like before, the tote bag over her shoulder slipped off and fell to the ground, its contents spilling out. “Agh,” she muttered.
I reached down to help her like before, picking up spilled pens and the thick manuscript. “Here,” I said, handing it back to her.
“Thanks,” Ms. Mulaney said, tucking everything back in her bag.
“That was your novel, right?” My teacher blinked at me in surprise, and I remembered a beat too late that I wasn’t supposed to have known that.
“Well,” Ms. Mulaney said, her cheeks going pink. “It is. What I hope will be a novel, at any rate. I’ve been working on it for so long. I’m actually waiting to hear from an agent about it. They promised they’d let me know if they were interested by the end of the week, which is…now, basically.”
“Of course they’ll be interested!” But then a second later, I thought about when I’d seen Ms. Mulaney later in the night, and her eyes had been red-rimmed and puffy, like she’d been crying.
It really was kind of head-spinning, that I had a preview of what was going to happen to people, and they were just living their lives, for what they thought was the first time.
But maybe Ms. Mulaney was crying for a completely separate reason! I had no idea.
“I mean, I hope so. But I’m not sure….” She stopped suddenly and reached into her tote bag for her ringing phone.
“That’s the agent,” she said, and her voice had gotten high and nervous.
It was strange to see my teacher—who’d always seemed so in control of everything—this flustered. “I need to take this.”
“Of course,” I said, already backing away. I gave Ms. Mulaney a smile. “Good luck!”
She nodded at me, and tucked her hair behind her ears. Then she took a deep breath and answered the call. “Hello? This is Courtney Mulaney.”
Feeling like I should give her some privacy, I walked a few steps ahead, then stopped, when I realized I wasn’t sure where to go.
If this whole thing had something to do with Freddie, I needed to run into him again, right?
I looked around, thinking once again that it would be a great time for a wise guide to show up and give me some instructions.
But when nobody appeared, I just tried to trace things back and remember where I’d crashed into Freddie, the first time. Things were getting a little fuzzy—all the loops were starting to blur together.
All at once, I remembered seeing the profile of the bear carved into the mountain, lit up dramatically by the lights.
Feeling like I finally had a plan, I changed direction and headed toward Grizzly Peak.