The girl, fully awake, and still in control of her mouth said, “I … don’t know. My thumb is stuck to my nose!”

“Suzie, honestly!” said the friend. “Travis might see you, and then we’ll never get backstage!”

Allie silently giggled, and began to waggle her fingers.

“Suzie!”

“I know! I’m trying to stop!” Clearly Suzie had no idea what had possessed her to behave like this. It probably never occurred to her that she actually was possessed.

Travis Dix continued to sing. Then, toward the end of the song, a beefy security guard came down the aisle and pointed a flashlight right at Suzie.

Great, thought Allie, now I got the girl into trouble.

But the guard smiled. “Got you!” the guard yelled, over the blasting music. “Now it’s my turn!”

It was Milos!

Allie peeled herself out of Suzie, who shook her head, looked at her hands, and in a few moments, had put the weird incident aside and was dancing to the music again.

Milos was gone, off to find someone to hide in, and Allie counted to ten, then went looking for him.

She found that this game required more than just surfing. She had to jump from person to person to get around, but also had to linger every now and then to get a good view of the different sections of the audience, because in Everlost the crowd was pretty much a blur.

She started with the upper balcony, then worked her way across, then down. There was no sign of Milos, and Allie began to wonder if maybe he wasn’t playing fair.

Meanwhile, Travis Dix finished his song, and the crowd roared.

“Hello, Nashville!” he said, and the crowd roared even louder. He waited until the cheers died down before he spoke again. “This song goes out to a very special girl,” he announced. “This song is for … Allie the Outcast.”

Allie snapped her eyes to the stage and watched in disbelief as Travis Dix—the Travis Dix—lifted his thumb to his nose, and wiggled his fingers at the audience. To Allie’s amazement, the entire audience responded by doing it right back to him!

Allie laughed out loud—a big, booming belly laugh, because now she was in a huge man with a voice that echoed like a bass drum. She skipped out of him and surfed her way back to the stage.

When she got there, Milos was peeling himself out of Travis, who now looked strangely at the audience thumbing their noses at him. Then he looked to his band, shrugged, and began the next song.

Allie couldn’t stop laughing. “You win!” she told Milos. “That was great! No one’s ever dedicated a song to me before!”