But after school came the moment I could not avoid. Halloween was less than a week away, and I needed to move fast to make good on our promise to the Elders. All I had to do was push the party past dark and get as much of the crowd inside as possible. I had one meeting to convince the committee to make a few small changes.

“I know it’s last-minute, but I just think a Halloween party that ends when it gets dark is kind of lame,” I said. “I’m only suggesting an extra hour or two.”

“You couldn’t have thought of this before we printed the flyers?” Mark muttered.

The committee was spread out across an empty classroom, some perched on desks and others slumped into chairs. Sydney had propped herself up on a windowsill, the sunlight behind her turning her hair an electric shade of pink, her jaw working on a wad of gum, as always.

“It does seem more Halloween-y,” she said.

“But what about families?” Sophia countered from across the room, clipboard in hand. “Kids will want to get home for trick-or-treating.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” I admitted.

Mark scoffed. “Of course not.”

I ignored him and paced the room, tracing a line between Sydney and Sophia, the only two votes on the committee that really mattered. “But I’m only talking about an extra hour. Plenty of time left for trick-or-treating. And I was also thinking we should move the awards at the end of the night into the gym.”

“What about the after-party dance?!” cried a red-haired girl whose name I’d never bothered to learn.

“We can still do that,” I said. “After the announcements. But everyone will be able to see and hear better in the gym, and we can make a big deal about the winners, let them walk up the risers to get their prizes, maybe drop some balloons or shoot some confetti. . . .”

“So now we have to buy confetti?” Mark complained.

I made a mental note to push him in front of the first Elder I saw on Halloween. They wanted Nowhere? They could start with Mark.

“That could get pretty tight,” Sophia pointed out, ever practical. “The gym is big, but it will be packed with the whole town in there.”

“Exactly,” I said. “It will look so much bigger inside!”

Sydney popped her gum. “I see what you mean.”

She did?

“It’s the fiftieth anniversary, and we’re just doing the same old thing.”

I seized on that. “Right! We need to make a splash. If we’re running the show, it needs to be the biggest one this town has ever seen. It’s all about the body count . . . I mean . . .” I cast around for a different phrase. “I’m just saying, bigger is better.”