Riley sat back in her seat, one hand laying a fork down flat and spinning it against the table. “I’ll be fine. I’m just not that hungry.”

“Well, you girls have to eat something if you want to perform with any oomph,” said Megan’s mom.

This was getting hopeless. All of our positive vibes were draining from us, and I couldn’t let that happen. I leaned forward in my seat and made eye contact with each girl.

“The best fuel we could use right now is our Squad cheer. Who’s with me?” I ask, a little louder and punchier than expected. I guess it’s true that we have to fake it till we make it.

“Let’s do it,” said Trina. She nudged Riley next to her.

“Fine, it couldn’t hurt,” said Megan, whose response surprised everyone.

“Lily?” I said in a small voice, nervous that my good friend was still being kind of weird. After she’d brought up how she felt I was trying to pick Eliza over the Squad, we had left things at that and gone to bed. We wanted to get ready early and gather everything we couldn’t pack the night before, so there wasn’t more discussion this morning, either. Okay, maybe we had time but we didn’t want to face it.

At least I didn’t. But now I had some regrets about that decision.

Lily looked down at her plate, picking at her food, ignoring me, and all of our stares.

“She’s ignoring us,” Megan said. “Who made Lily so mad she’s not speaking to us? I’ve never seen her like this before.”

Huh? This is bad. Super bad.

“Lily?” Trina reached across the table and touched Lily’s hand.

“Wha—?” Startled, Lily almost jumped out of her chair. She reached under her curtain of long hair and pulled out her earbuds.

“Did you say something?”

We all cracked up. It was like unleashing a flood of relief, jitters, resentment, and annoyance all at once. The more we laughed in a chorus of wacky, loud, and quiet snickering, the more contagious the laughter became. Riley was cracking up so hard, she was tapping on the table and gasping for air.

“What happened to those pink headphones you’re always wearing?” I asked her.

“I didn’t have room in my bag, so I switched things up,” said Lily, still confused by what all the fuss was but laughing anyway.

“Well, guess there’s no need for that team cheer anymore,” said Riley. “I think I got the emergency mood transplant I needed.”

With that, she picked up her fork and dug into her eggs and fruit salad. And a bagel with cream cheese and her first-ever lox.

“Yum,” she said, grinning.

There were throngs of people making their way to the performance ballroom. I thought it had been as crowded the last time, but day-before-showtime crowded is another thing entirely than hour-before-showtime.

We all stuck close together. When we finally got off the elevator, we tried to beat the crowd for the sign-in desk. Vanessa said something to Lily, who turned to me to repeat it.