I nodded. “Yeah, it’s pretty much all I do. Under Mr. Campbell.” She frowned, like she was trying to place the name. “He… runs the theater department?” I prompted, speaking slowly. But surely she knew that—if she’d been keeping in contact with him and asking him for notes on audition tapes?

“Oh god, that guy,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Man. I haven’t thought about him in years. Is he still such a douche?”

I just stared at her for a second, my thoughts whirling. It probably should have been obvious to me before tonight, but clearly Mr. Campbell was a liar, pretending to be in touch with Amy when he wasn’t, for the purpose of impressing his students. And also, that this was a spot-on description of Mr. Campbell, even though I hadn’t let myself see it until half an hour ago.

“Why was he a douche?” Amy’s boyfriend asked.

“I mean,” Amy said, running her hand through her hair. That was when I noticed a truly massive diamond on her left hand, winking at me in the low light. “He was just a director, you know the type. But worse, because he didn’t actually have any power and was taking it out on the kids by playing all these weird mind games. And it’s like, you get enough of that in the real world. You shouldn’t have it in high school. But maybe he’s changed?” She looked at me with a kind smile, giving me an out if I wanted to take it.

“No,” I said slowly. A lot of things were suddenly starting to come into sharp relief. The way he’d keep us on edge, always jockeying for his attention. The way we were constantly required to prove our loyalty. All the dues you had to pay, and sometimes even that wasn’t enough. The vindictiveness if you stepped out of line. All the behavior that we’d just accepted—to hear someone name it and point out that it wasn’t okay was making me see things clearly, for the first time in four years. “No, he’s… the same still.”

Amy shook her head. “Well, it seems like you have a good perspective on it, at any rate, which was more than I did. I’m Amy, by the way,” she said, holding out her hand to me, and then laughing. “Which you know! But it always feels weird not to introduce myself.”

“I’m Kat,” I said, still not quite able to believe it was happening as we shook hands. I couldn’t help but wish that this hotel was more like the White House, or Disneyland, with photographers around to take a picture of your handshake moment.