“I’m dying,” he says. “This is me dead.”

“Oh my god, I love you,” Nevaeh says, wrapping Katherine in her arms. Katherine is very red and very pleased with herself, and my stomach hurts from laughing worse than it has ever hurt at Pilates.

The warning chimes again, and we sit up, catch our breaths, and quickly go over our plan for the week: Research burlesque acts for inspiration, for guidance. Meet Jack so he and Katherine can get scouting underway, if we approve of him. Come up with a way to invite only the people we want. Keep it all secret. Sure, sure, we can do this in a month, we agree.

I’m grinning, and my stomach feels like it’s full of glitter, a little bit of nerves, a little bit of glee. Nervous glee.

“Wait,” I say, as Katherine and Nevaeh stand and stretch, and Taylor shrugs into his coat. “Here’s the thing.” I can hear how wobbly my voice sounds, and I clear my throat. “I know you’re doing this for me, and—and I’m worried it’ll go wrong—”

“It will be okay,” Katherine says, taking my hand.

“But it’s going to be dangerous!” I blurt. “We’re going to be sneaking around, lying to instructors and teachers and everyone else.” I start to build up speed. “We’re going to be doing this thing and our regular dance classes, and there’s spring showcase rehearsals and all our schoolwork on top of that, and midterms are coming up too!” Nevaeh takes my other hand, and I look at her pleadingly. “If we’re caught and get suspended or detention until we’re dead or whatever or both and lose all that time from our lives and piss everyone off, it will be my fault.”

“All of our faults,” Katherine says.

Taylor catches my gaze. “Hey. You’d do anything for me, right?” he asks me. His eyes are drilling into mine.

“Of course,” I say. The answer is immediate and sure.

“Well, same same,” he says, and finishes putting on his parka. “So.” He shrugs.

Katherine shakes my hand a little. Her face is so serious. “I am in. I have never, ever done anything like this before. Maybe I would never get a chance to ever do something as wonderful.”

“I’m up for anything,” Nevaeh says to me, squeezing my hand. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“You are all out of your minds,” I say. They know that means thank you from the bottom of my heart.

“And I’m ready to get naked,” Taylor says.

“We know,” Nevaeh says.

“Well, okay, then,” I say. “This is it.” I let myself feel a curl of anticipation in my belly, edged with a bright gold ribbon of hope and excitement, enough fear to make me want to double down. That delicious thought again: We’re doing this. We can pull this off.