“Fine,” says Chaz. “You’d just crowd my DeLorean anyway.” She pings him with a star just as “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” comes on. Eighties music has never been my particular jam, but I love this song. I mean, the title says it all, right? And soon, we’re all dancing around the vast room, the backbeat motivating us, the synth kicking as the chorus approaches. We’re singing at the top of our lungs, Chaz crushing us all with his amazing pitch. Leeza is the only one who can keep up, and they do an air duet on the first chorus. Chaz steals a glance my way, and we both are smiling so hard, you’d have to be blind to miss it. I try to get Leeza’s attention to see if she has noticed the obvious chemistry here, but I can’t seem to catch her eye. It strikes me that she hasn’t actually talked to me since we started, making me nervous. Does she regret talking to me about Chaz? Is she less cool than I thought?

The doubt flickers and then passes. How could it not with this music playing and everyone so high on it? Work on prom is forgotten. This is a dance party.

This tape is like thirty minutes on each side and has to be flipped to get the second half of the playlist, but I’m digging it. We all are. We do a “Don’t Stop Believing” singalong straight (and I mean straight) out of a karaoke bar, and a dance-off to Amy Grant’s “Wise Up.” Ma Elena is looser than I’ve ever seen her, tossing her hair and dancing with her hands in the air. Leeza is all new-wavey, shoulders up, arms drawn in like a self-hug, eyes closed. Chaz—the way Chaz moves is magic. He’s doing his own thing, every move as natural a link between limb and lyric as humanly possible. Seriously, I can’t take my eyes off him.

And then there’s Ernie. He’s into it, in a spastic robot way. He dances with such abandon, I’m surprised he doesn’t fall down, but not surprised that he does manage to trip Chaz and me. I’m glad he has friends, but a little personal space wouldn’t hurt.

“If you do that at prom, you’re going to bring down the house,” I say, pleased with the double meaning. But this stops everyone, and they shoot each other looks that pretty much say, You tell him.

Ma Elena speaks for the group. “You know there’s no dancing, right?”

“At prom?” What fresh hell is this?

“It’s a religious school. Dancing’s technically a ‘sin.’ ”

“Oh my god, it’s Footloose.”