I scanned the crowd, looking for Ian, but no luck. Cookie retrieval did not take that long. Where was he? I reached for my phone to cal him, but the crowd started getting wild and my ears fil ed with thunderous music. Everyone was juking around, jumping up and down to some old-school heavy metal, and based on Mike and Other Mike’s excitement, I guessed it was a song they had requested. Even the school counselor was bopping her head to the beat. Without realizing it, I suddenly started to sway. Maybe a little twirl, too. I couldn’t help it. Electric guitar, deep bass— it lured me. “Hey, it’s my new dancing partner.” Brian Sontag was suddenly next to me, bouncing his head to the music. Was he everywhere? The counselor scooted next to us. “You guys make a cute couple.” Oh my god, she thought we were dancing together. Wait. He was swaying. I was twirling next to him . . . we were dancing together! Had anyone else seen? Hearing the word “couple” jolted me back to reality, and I stopped swaying.
