“I mean—” I start, searching for a way to backpedal. If people face-palmed in real life, that would be me right now. “It’s our sisters! The Monicas have been getting between them since Delia got back from Jock Camp.”

“Really?” Reid’s eyes widen with concern. “Am I that oblivious?”

“Yes.” Reid is like my dad in that way. Everything else in the world—people, priorities, problems—fade into the background when they are absorbed in their music. “I need Hannah to snap out of this middle school spiral ASAP. Delia almost invited The Monicas to her bat mitzvah!”

“Seventh grade is the worst.”

Reid’s eyes meet mine and take me back to seventh grade. I squash down all the feelings that come with it. This is about Delia, not me.

“Swap?” Reid asks. “I’ll talk to Delia. You take Hannah.”

We nod in sync and I take a step back, retreating from this conversation. As I’m crossing the parking lot, it occurs to me that I can’t remember the last time Reid and I had a conversation that wasn’t about Melted. Like, did I just make a plan with Reid? Not against him? I guess The Monicas are a common enemy. And Reid is somewhat tolerable when he’s worried about our sisters. Still. We? The words spilled from my lips as if I can’t handle this myself. As if I need him. There’s got to be something wrong with me.

But then I see Delia’s tearstained cheeks in the rearview mirror when I slide into Fitz’s passenger seat—and some things are bigger than Natalie vs. Reid.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Mere weeks before a script is due to Mrs. Mulaney, Reid suggests a developmental edit. We’re in a circle in Dad’s classroom after school, meant to present a first look at the songs and structure of Melted: The Musical, when Reid goes rogue and launches into an idea that I, his codirector, in no way approved.

“I’m having trouble writing a Moritz song,” Reid says. “What if we cut him?”

I frown. Cut an entire character arc—the villain’s character arc—because Reid is blocked?

“What?”

“Hear me out,” Reid starts, tucking his pencil behind his ear. “Moritz is supposed to be the villain… but isn’t the point that the villain isn’t any one character? That it’s the planet and this external force that no one—not even Adina—can control? The setting is the villain.”

I cannot even at Reid attempting to mansplain my script to me and getting it wrong.

So wrong.