“Picture time,” Anna says, holding her phone up and finding the angle to fit everyone into the shot. “Smile,” she says, and takes the photo. I watch as she adds the text Introducing the new star of SPA @infamousAugustGreene and posts to her Stories. “That should get some new fans. Everyone better follow the infamous August Greene,” she playfully demands.

“Done and done,” Jack says, head down in their phone.

“Jack has, how many, ten thousand followers?” Anna asks.

“Ten thousand nine hundred twenty, but who’s counting,” they say with a smile.

“How?” I ask, stunned at the number.

“By being me,” they sing, kicking their foot in the air. “Well, the online version of me.”

“And that’s different?” I ask.

“Social media is performative,” they say. “You create a persona, make content, try to trigger people’s emotions—good or bad—and build an audience.”

“Persona is dramatic,” Anna decides.

“It’s me,” Jack says with an eye roll. “Just a bigger, brighter, more beautiful version. I’m going to be an international pop star someday, so why not act like one now?”

“Or you could be yourself,” Meena says.

“And that’s why you have two hundred followers,” Jack jokes, but it stings.

“I call them my friends,” Meena corrects them.

“Don’t worry about it, Meena,” Anna says, coming to the rescue. “Stage managers don’t need that kind of thing.”

Meena shrugs off both comments and turns to me. “I post pictures of celebrities made from food,” Meena says proudly.

“My favorite was Pasta Malone,” Juliet says, having otherwise kept quiet through this conversation.

The first bell rings, ending the conversation like a bell concluding a round of boxing. Anna and I say goodbye to my new friends and take the stairs down to the bottom of the school. “All drama classes are in the basement,” Anna explains. “Like we are little underground theater trolls.”

The basement doors swing open to reveal a mob of people filling the basement from wall to wall. Everything is overwhelming—the loud voices, the people making videos, the guys running around, the hugging and laughing, singing and dancing. Unsurprisingly, Anna says hello to almost everyone we pass.

Anna stops to talk to identical twins with blonde hair and matching outfits. One of them says, “Loving that first-day look.”

“Likewise,” Anna sings. “That skirt is everything!”

“Thanks, girl,” they say in unison.

“August, this is Brooke and Tiffany. Twin triple threats!”

Triple threats are people who can act, sing, and dance. “Twiples,” one of them jokes.

“And ladies, this is August, here to conquer the world.”

“You’re in the right place,” the other one says. They both smile at me.

“The twiples had a video go viral this summer,” Anna brags to me.

“Over five million views and counting,” Tiffany adds.

“We got a call from America’s Got Talent, but we passed.”