More applause, louder than ever, and Professor McPherson calls my name, and it’s all I hear until the thud thud thud of my heartbeat drowns everything else out.

Chloe and Sofía urge me to walk out first, but I want them with me, next to me. This may be my project, but it’s ours, theirs, just as much.

I stand at the microphone, and everything I thought I’d say has been deleted from my memory banks.

Oh shit.

Everyone is staring. Waiting. Watching. Ready to tear me apart.

Sweat beads my brow and snakes down my back.

Sofía leans in. “Breathe. You got this.”

“Find someone in the crowd and talk to them,” Chloe whispers.

I scan the heads, looking for a pair of kind eyes. But all I see is standing room only along the back wall … and now I’m panicking because there are more people than I expected and—

My gaze lands on Jack.

He came.

He remembered.

After everything, he’s here.

Leaning against the doorframe, arms folded, he looks all sorts of handsome and casually cool, backpack slung across his shoulder. He smiles that crinkly smile that he knows captures every bit of me, and suddenly I’m breathing a little easier.

“I’m not nervous at all. Can you tell?” I stammer, and Benny and Rae whoop and holler from the front row.

I hear Mom shout something that sounds like, “You’re doing great, sweetie,” and it makes me—and everyone else—laugh.

“Before you watch my short, ‘The Prince Who Captured Lightning,’ I want to thank my partners, Chloe and Sofía, who are two of the most brilliant artists and storytellers I’ve ever met, and without whom this never would have come together. They challenged me and understood my vision. This short is a love letter to everyone out there who dreamed about finding their prince or knight in shining armor and wanted to be part of something bigger than the background but never thought it was possible because they didn’t see themselves in the fairy tales we grew up watching or reading because we were gay or queer or had a different body type.” I look to Professor McPherson, and I realize just how hot the spotlight is, but I’m standing in it. “I’m a proud nonbinary animator, and I hope you enjoy my world.”

I book it backstage and watch as my short starts playing. The prologue is set to grand orchestral music that Benny composed for me at the last minute in which Thunder and Lightning dance across the skies as lovers, there’s the misdirect of the Witch being evil and the introduction of the Prince.