Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Books by Erin Jade Lange
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
There was a pause as the group exchanged shrugs, then Sophia zipped through the rest of the names and moved on to the list of bands scheduled to play during the street party. A jazz group was nixed for being too tame, and Mark shot down a rock-and-roll group made up of freshmen who couldn’t actually play their instruments.
“And inside the gym, the AV club will play DJ for the after-party and also take care of the sound system for announcements both inside and outside,” Sophia said, making another check on her sheet.
“We’ve got you covered,” Mark said. “The audiovisual crew is renting some killer speakers. This party’s going to be the loudest thing in Iowa—maybe even the loudest thing you’ve ever heard.”
I had seen the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, circa 1964, along with a few thousand other screaming teenage girls, so I highly doubted that.
I tuned out as Sophia made her way methodically through her checklist, detailing duties from designing flyers to directing traffic. My eyes drifted out over the field, wondering why we couldn’t just have the party here, though I supposed it would be impossible to stage floats in the arena without trashing the turf. It was a shame, though, because the field was by far the nicest, newest thing I had seen in all of Nowhere.
“Can you do that, Charlie?”
The sound of my name brought me back to the conversation. “Sorry, what?”
“Can you ask Lina about the coffee cart?” Sophia said. She sounded impatient, so I didn’t want to admit that I had no idea what she was talking about.
Fortunately, Sydney came to my rescue. “We’re going through the list of food trucks and vendors for the street party. We’re wondering if Lina will run a coffee cart, but she always says no. Says Halloween is not her thing.”
“And you think she’ll listen to me?”
“We think you won’t take no for an answer,” Sydney said.
Well, that was true.
“Plus, you’re so mature,” Sophia added. “You’ve got that whole big-city vibe, so she might take the request more seriously coming from you.”
I pursed my lips to the side, eyeing the twins. “Are you trying to flatter me into this chore?”
“Is it working?” Sydney asked.
“Sure, fine,” I said, unable to suppress a smile. “I’ll ask her.”
I didn’t know why Sydney and Sophia thought I would have any more luck with Lina than they did. If the coffee shop owner said no to the girls she already knew and liked, why would she say yes to a stranger?
I recalled, with a shiver, the way Lina had watched me so intently during my first visit to All Hours. Maybe to someone that strange, everyone was a stranger.