As the crowd watched, I slipped one leg at a time into the fountain to dig out the pulpy messes of my other balls. “It could, like, seriously screw with the water systems, hello,” I groused, raking my fingers through the disturbingly warm water. “Who were they, anyway?”

“The big one’s Tanner.” The person I still didn’t know was Berry reached into the fountain to pull out a scrap of purple paper. “The other boy is John. The girls are Sarah and Gilly.”

“Well, they’re ALL JERKS,” I fumed, my hands full of disco pulp.

“Like, pretty much always. Anyway. I think you got all the stuff out of here. So that’s good.”

It didn’t feel especially good, which was also probably because everyone was staring at me like I was stealing wishes from the bottom of the fountain or something.

Instead of saving them! Hello!

I heaved my rolled-up but still magically soaked to the core pant legs out of the fountain. Did Greenville even have a dry cleaner who could handle sequins?

“I thought it was cool,” the person who would soon become my one Greenville friend said. “Your thing. With the tricks and stuff? Gloria Gaynor. Great track.”

A shard of light pierced my dark mood. I raised an eyebrow. “You know Gloria Gaynor?”

Not just Gloria Gaynor music but her name. Huge points.

It was just nice for a moment of feeling like I wasn’t the only one talking disco that day.

“Sure.” They grinned, showing a giant gap between two front teeth. Also, I noticed, this person had more freckles than I had ever seen on one face. Maybe it came with the hair. “My dad is kind of a vinyl fiend.”

“Well.” I held up my one surviving disco ball, my wet fingers sticking to the paper and glue. “Thanks. For grabbing this.”

“Anytime.” The person I still hadn’t introduced myself to, who hadn’t really introduced themselves to me, hence still person, shrugged. “Welcome to Greenville, I guess?”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” With a sort of awkward salute, they spun artfully, flopped their skateboard on the ground, and with a light step, rolled away, the gravel crunching under their wheels. “See you at school on Monday!”

“Oh!” I said, because I had actually forgotten about school, because that’s how my mind works. “Yeah.”

And yes, it’s true, I had that whole exchange with my first nice person in Greenville, and I hadn’t even managed to get a name, or say mine.

I frowned, shoving my feet in my running shoes and tying up my skates.

“ANNE!” Millie strode toward me, lugging a big bag of what looked like Christmas lights. “Gimme a hand?”

“Sure,” I said as I shook as much water out of my pant leg as I could.

Millie looked at my hands. “What happened to your other. . .globes?”

“They are, were, disco balls and. . .they were the casualty of the day.”