“Take lots of pictures,” Aiko says, blinking at tears again. “And video, Ezra. You always forget the video. I’ll text Mona.”

“Good idea. Have a great swim.” I flick a glance between her and her new lover. “Goodbye, Ko.”

Once I’m done Skyping with her, and then talking with my mother about Noah’s upcoming trip to New York, it’s almost time for everyone to start arriving. I barely have time to shower and change.

“This is not the eighth-grade dance,” I tell myself while contemplating what I should wear. “Just throw on something, man.”

My options are basically cargo shorts…or other cargo shorts. I always look neat at school, usually wearing a suit since the kids are required to wear uniforms, but out of school? I’m not exactly concerned about what I’m wearing.

“It’s just me!” Mona yells from downstairs. “You here?”

“Uh, yeah!” I pull a YLA T-shirt over my head and grab cargo shorts option number one. “Coming.”

From there, it’s a blur of balloons, cake, ice cream, a random piñata Noah insisted on, and lots of people. So many people. His entire class, but also everyone on our street and several YLA students. Barry is here. Mona made sure to announce it when he arrived, lest I forget her genius plan to hook Kimba up with the math teacher.

“You think Kimba’s still coming?” Noah asks.

“I don’t know, son. She’s a really busy lady. Something may have come up that she had to take care of.”

His face falls a bit. “I really like her.”

“Yeah, I do, too.”

I’m in the kitchen lighting candles when she arrives.  From the other room, the low, seductive roll of her voice mingles with Mona’s. I freeze, the lighter suspended over the cake for a second. My damn palms start sweating.

“Not eighth grade,” I remind myself grimly.

I walk the lit cake out to the backyard, and Mona starts the birthday song. We cut the cake, and I still haven’t actually seen Kimba, but I know she’s here somewhere.

“Dr. Stern.”

I turn to find one of the seventh-grade girls from YLA standing there. “Hey, Karinne. Thanks for coming.”

“It’s a great party. The step team prepared something for Noah’s birthday. Is it okay to do it?”

“Are you kidding?” Noah will freak out over this. He loves their impromptu step shows. They’re about to start competing nationally. “Thank you. He’ll love it.”

“Okay.” Karinne’s face lights up. “I’ll get the team together then.”