“That’s the story.” Jude’s apologizing to me with his eyes. “That’s all I meant.”

“It’s not this big, mysterious thing,” I tell them. “What happened to my mother was an awful accident. That’s all.”

“God,” Val says. “This must be such a mindfuck for you. Being back here.” Her long, dark hair is spilling over her shoulders. She squeezes my fingers. “I can’t even imagine.”

And it’s weird how it all makes sense when she says it like that. Suddenly I have a way to explain all the strangeness of the past two days. The weird bits of memory. The things I’ve seen and felt.

A total mindfuck.

“Why would you wanna come back here?” Lex asks.

“To do the intensive,” I say. “Like the rest of you.” I almost leave it at that, but there’s this part of me that wants to tell them the whole truth. And that’s a weird feeling for me. “But also because I never got to know my mother. And I really want to.”

“You don’t remember your mom at all?” Val asks.

I shake my head. “I don’t remember anything that happened before I woke up in the hospital.”

No memory of my mother lighting birthday candles when I turned five.

No memory of her walking me to school on my first day of kindergarten.

No Christmases.

No Halloweens.

And no memories of that last summer we spent together. At Whisper Cove.

No memories of her at all.

Val’s fingers are intertwined with mine. “I never knew my dad,” she tells me. “He was long gone before I was born.” Her green eyes are brimming with pain, and I remind myself that everyone has holes. “It sucks—I know—walking around with that piece of yourself missing.”

“So, what do we call you?” Jude asks. “April? Or Avril?”

“Avril. My name is Avril.”

April was a totally different person. She was a girl who had a mom. And I can’t remember her any better than I remember my mother.

Lex and Val and Jude are all looking at me. I’m holding my breath. Wondering if this changes everything between the four of us.

“Well, you were incredible, Av,” Lex tells me. His arm is still around my shoulders, and he gives me a little squeeze. “Like Willa said. You took my breath away.”

“You were great, too,” I tell him. “Everyone was.”

“All right, then,” Jude says, and he flashes that trademark warm grin. “Give yourselves a round of applause, people. You all survived auditions.” He waggles his eyebrows at us. “Willa always announces the cast at the first rehearsal, so you’ll know your fates by tomorrow night.”

And I know then that it’s okay. They know. And it’s okay.

“There’s always something else to be nervous about, isn’t there?” Lex says with a sigh.