“Yeah, can we read it?” Nathaniel was peeking over her shoulder.
“No! No one can read it. Not yet.”
“Good,” said Will. “I don’t get poetry.”
Lu shoved him. “Shut up. Hey,” she turned to Tiny. “What are you going to do with all of those?” Lu was bouncing up and down on her heels. “This is so exciting!”
The elevator dinged, and the huge brass doors opened. They got on.
On the way up to the top, they made funny faces at the security camera.
“Smile,” sang Lu, holding up her camera to take a picture of the four of them. “That’s a good one,” Lu said. “We don’t even need a filter. These elevator lights are incredible! I wish we had them at school.” Tiny could hardly even see herself in the picture. No one mentioned it.
Then the doors were opening and they tumbled out onto the observation deck.
They found themselves in some kind of twenties-era speakeasy masquerade party. The wind was blowing wildly this high up, and men and women milled around in sequined formalwear, clutching the feathers in their hair and the masks on their faces to keep from flying away. Tiny, Lu, Nathaniel, and Will were the only ones not hiding their true identity.
There was a bar set up on one side, with old-fashioned barkeeps in suspenders and newsboy hats mixing up fancy cocktails that they served up very carefully to avoid spilling into the wind. Off to the right, a brass band played boisterous jazz, and under a canopy of tiny light bulbs that swayed back and forth, people danced on a polished wood dance floor.
A gilded sign on the side of the building read: URBAN EXPLORERS CLUB.
Tiny grinned. Every time she thought her world was small and sheltered, she was reminded that the city—and the world around it—was so much bigger than she ever imagined.
There was magic everywhere in this city. You just had to know where to look.
Beyond the storm of sequins and feathers and flying vodka gimlets, there, in front of them, was the most famous view in all of New York. The buildings glittered beneath the storm clouds. Tiny stared in awe.
Whoa. She looked out at the magical view. She’d seen it in so many movies and so many TV shows, and read it described in so many books. But she’d never seen it like this, all lit up in the middle of the night, like it was just for her. She was suddenly glad she had left home tonight. Sometimes you had to step outside in the middle of a storm and get struck by lightning to see everything you could have missed. The stars peaking through the clouds in the sky mirrored the glittering streets below. For a minute, even with the lights and music and members of the Urban Explorers Club dancing and laughing around them, it felt like their own private city. She spun in the other direction. She could see the Hudson River now, and beyond it, New Jersey. A helicopter flew past them, bright against the darkness like a ghostly whale floating above them in the deep sea.
“This is so cool,” Nathaniel said under his breath.
“Watch,” said Tiny. She walked to the edge of the observation deck, closed her eyes, and made a wish. “Star light, star bright. The first star I see tonight.”
Lu smiled. “I wish I may.”
“I wish I might,” Nathaniel jumped in.
“Have the wish I wish tonight,” they all finished together.
Then Tiny blew out hard. Across the city, a window in Midtown went dark.
“Cool!” cried Lu. “You blew out that window! How did you do that?”
“Magic.” Tiny grinned. Actually, she’d read about it on some blog. There was a statistic where every five seconds a window light goes off or on in New York City. While that may not have been 100 percent statistically accurate, the odds were pretty good of lining up.
“I want to try!” Lu stepped to the edge of the deck.
“Don’t forget to make a wish, Luella,” said Will.
“I wish you’d stop calling me Luella.” Lu brushed past him and paused, closing her eyes. Then she blew, and a light went out in the Freedom Tower.
“That better have been a good wish,” said Will.
Lu grinned. “Oh, it was.”
Nathaniel met Tiny’s eyes. “Do you have a wish?” she asked him. He didn’t say anything, and just nodded. Then he closed his eyes and blew out the light in a window on the other side of town.
“So,” Nathaniel said. “What did you wish for?”
“That I’d have the guts to do this.” She held up the stack of Xeroxed poems with a flourish. “But I need some help reaching over the glass partition.” Nathaniel, Will, and Lu hoisted her up. “Okay,” she said. Her heart was beating super fast. “Here goes nothing.” She released her fingers.
The wind caught the stack of papers as they fell, scattering them away into the night.
“Gravity,” she whispered, as she watched them fall.
She was a little bit in shock. She couldn’t believe she had done it. Her words were scattering all across the city.
Lu helped her down. “That was really brave, Talulah.”
They turned around. Nathaniel was peeling one of the Xeroxes off his face, where the wind had blown it.
“Oh,” Tiny said. “Sorry, I—”
“Shhh.” He finished reading. “You wrote that?” She blushed and nodded, though he probably couldn’t see it. “I don’t know what to say.”
Tiny had never wanted Nathaniel to read her poems. They were her way of working through what had happened three years ago. This one was about that night with Tobias.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Are you kidding?” said Nathaniel. “Don’t apologize. Not for this. This is really good. You are really good.”
Tiny smiled, a real smile. “Thanks. I hope everyone down there agrees.” She smiled wider. “But that’s not really the point anymore.”
“I’m glad you’ve stopped hiding.”
“This is only the beginning.”
She looked down at herself—she could hardly see her body in the dark. The light from the paper lanterns and twinkle lights shone through it like glass, as if her skin were the memory of a song, and the lights were trying to remember exactly how it went.
“I hope.”
“Don’t hope,” Lu said. “Know.”
Thunder shook the roof, and lightning flashed above them. The lights on the Empire State Building went off. They found themselves, once again, in the dark. The music stopped playing abruptly. Everyone cheered.
Everyone except Tiny, Nathaniel, Lu, and Will.
“Oh shit,” said Will. “Is that the power again, or are they closing?”
“Why does that keep happening?” Lu moaned.
“The lightning is following us!” Nathaniel cried.
“Let’s get out of here!” Tiny yelled over the wind. They made their way through the crowded roof, back toward the elevators. “Come on. Now we can keep on going to school.”
“Hey! Disappearing girl!” Someone was calling her name above the wind, in the dark. Tiny spun around, flabbergasted that anyone else at this party knew her.
It was the unfairly beautiful hipster Juliet, standing by herself on the edge of the dance floor. She rushed over to them, the wind twirling the hem of her skirt.
“I thought that was you! I’m so glad to see you here. You haven’t seen Jasper, have you?”
“Who?”
“Oh.” Juliet slapped her forehead. “Sorry. Romeo. Jasper’s his real name. I’m Cleo.”
“I’m Tiny,” Tiny said. “I haven’t seen him since the park. What happened?”
“We were on our way to this party and got separated in that Rapture rally. I kept going, hoping we’d just meet here. But I can’t find him!”
“Actually, it was a parade,” Lu said.
“What?”
“Nothing,” said Tiny. “Ignore her. Do you know where he could be?”
“No! I’m so worried. Will you help me look for him? Please? I’m scared to go alone.” Tiny looked back at the others. Nathaniel scratched his neck nervously. T
hey had taken this detour—it was Tiny’s fault. But now they had to get to school. Wishing on stars and throwing poems and caution to the wind could only get them so far. Eventually they had to look to science for the answers.
“We’ll help you.” It was Will who spoke. Everyone turned around. “What?” He shrugged. “Guys, her true love is somewhere out there, and we have to help her find him!”
Lu narrowed her eyes in his direction.
Tiny looked up at the sky. It was almost two in the morning. They didn’t have much time left. But Juliet had helped her when she needed to find Lu. They couldn’t leave her alone out there in the storm.
“We’ll have to hurry,” Nathaniel said.
The elevator was still working. They hurtled back down to earth.
2:00 A.M.
(6 HOURS LEFT)
WEATHER BALLOONS
Lu
Of all the crazy things that had happened so far, the craziest was that Will Kingfield suddenly believed in love.
(But she would just go along with the plan and see if it was true.)
Wil1
Lu had told him to prove it. Well, game on.
Besides, Tiny was right. He had been focusing on the wrong things. He had been focusing too much on himself. Now was his chance to think about someone else for a change.
It had been all about looks and image and what other people thought of him. But Will was good on the inside, too. He knew he was. He just had to find his way back to himself, again.
They stood on the street in front of the Empire State Building. The wind was howling around them, and they had to shout to be heard.
“Okay,” Will said. “Any ideas where he might be?”
“Well.” Cleo fidgeted with the twirly hem of her dress. “There were three parties we’d planned to perform at tonight. The Urban Explorers Club speakeasy, a sweet sixteen at the Plaza, and a wedding at the Museum of Natural History. As we were getting pushed in opposite directions by the crowd at the Rapture rally, all I heard him say was, ‘Meet me at the party!’ But he didn’t say which one!”
Nathaniel’s face fell in dismay. “But all those places are in the opposite direction of school!” Will shot him a look.
“Are you really going to stand between two star-crossed lovers?”
“Yeah, Nathaniel, don’t be the reason they get crossed in the first place,” Lu added.
“I mean, okay.” Nathaniel shook his head like he had no idea what was going on anymore. “You’d think I was trying to help or something.”
“It’s okay,” Tiny said to him. “It’s just like Romeo says in the play: ‘I am fortune’s fool.’ We have to do this now, even if it makes us fortune’s fools. Don’t worry—we’ll get to school. I have faith.”
“Faith.” Nathaniel took a deep breath. “The firm belief in something for which there is no proof.”
“See? You’ll be fine tomorrow.”
“If we make it to tomorrow,” Nathaniel grumbled.
“We will.”
“You know this goes against everything I believe in. No facts. No logical explanation. Just a feeling.”
“God, Nathaniel, you need to loosen up,” said Will.
“We’ll hurry,” Cleo said. “I have a car. I guess I could do this myself. I just hate the idea of getting stuck out there alone in the middle of the storm. You guys have no idea how good it felt to see some friendly faces.”
Cleo’s car was a 1992 Jeep Grand Wagoneer that looked like it had belonged to her grandfather. It was plastered with indie band stickers and underground theater posters.
“That one’s vintage, from when my grandpa toured with Phish,” Cleo said, proudly pointing to a faded neon fish. “Jasper and I can’t afford much right now, car-wise, so we have to use my grandpa’s old wagon. We’re trying to save money to put up this modernized adaptation of Macbeth that we’re working on. It’s, like, this psychological thriller set on Wall Street. We’re going for this kind of Gone Girl vibe. We already found this abandoned warehouse we can use for free, and Jasper’s roommate goes to fashion school and is doing all our costumes. So really, we just have to pay for publicity.”
“This thing looks like it’s about to fall the fuck apart,” Lu said.
“Isn’t it so cool? It runs on veggie oil.”
“Do you always leave it unlocked?” Nathaniel asked, dubiously trying the handle.
“No one’s ever tried to steal it,” Juliet said proudly. “But you can see why I didn’t want to drive it alone in a storm.”
“I can’t imagine it holding up in a light breeze,” Will said.
Lu’s eyes lit up. “Hey! An Unsexy Gum sticker!”
“They’re my favorite band.” Juliet smiled. Will glowered. “You know,” she said to him. “You look a lot like the lead singer. Are you two related?”
“No,” said Will, and crossed his arms. “I hate that guy.”
The five of them crammed in. “Roomy,” Will said. He sat in front next to Cleo. Lu, Nathaniel, and Tiny squeezed in the back. Cleo adjusted the rearview mirror, snapped in her seat belt, and slid on a pair of mirrored Ray-Ban aviators. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Will said. “Lose the shades. It’s dark enough out there, and the last thing we need tonight is to get into an accident.”
She rolled her eyes, like Will was the biggest tool. “These are prescription.”
Cleo pulled out of the narrow spot and down the dark street. She turned onto Fifth Avenue and floored it.
“Whoa,” Will said again, grabbing his seat. “Hang on!”
As they drove (and Will held on for dear life), Will wondered what kind of guy a girl would travel across the city in the middle of the night during a superstorm to find. Maybe he had been thinking about this in a narrow-minded way. Going after Lu. Proving things to Lu. He knew why none of it was working. He could suddenly see why it was only making her more pissed off.
None of it was real.
He was too in his head about it. It was all for show. Maybe he needed to work on himself more, figure out who he really was. Maybe he needed to be happy in his own skin before he could expect Lu to care about him as much as he still cared about her. And once he did, he needed to have confidence that the kind of guy he wanted to be was the kind of guy Lu thought was worth fighting for.
He glanced over at Cleo to make sure her hands were at ten and two.
“Chill,” she said, taking her eyes off the road and turning to him. “I got this.” Will stopped abruptly when he saw his reflection in her aviators. He did a double take, and swiveled the rearview mirror back around to face him. His mouth dropped open.
“Hey!” Cleo shouted, swerving to the right so that the car drove up onto the sidewalk. “Lay off, dude! Don’t touch my mirror! I thought you were the one who was all for automotive safety.” But when she straightened the wheel and came to an abrupt stop, she looked at Will and her jaw dropped too.
Suddenly they were all staring at him. With trembling hands, Cleo took off her aviators. Will’s chest felt tight.
“What is going on?” Cleo’s voice was shaking. “I thought maybe disappearing girl was, like, a trick of the light or something. But this is fucking, like, what?”
Will caught his reflection in the rearview mirror. His hair was suddenly coal black, buzzed short on the sides with a kind of asymmetrical faux-hawk thing going on up top. He had a beard, too. He scratched it. It was itchy, and it made his face hot.
“How did you do that? Is this some kind of performance art piece?” She looked around the deserted street, panicked. “Get out. Get out of the car. Now!”
“Listen,” said Will. “I know this looks—uh—weird. I couldn’t explain it even if I wanted to. But you have to believe it when I say that we’re risking our lives to help you right now, so I’m begging you, please, just go with it and try not to ask too many questions.”
Cleo’s face scrunched up like she was weighing her options.
“No one’s ever risked his life for me before,” she said, t
hinking it over. “Okay, I won’t kick you out. But I can’t promise I won’t ask questions.” She started the car again. Every few seconds she looked over at Will and shook her head.
“Eyes on the road!” Will cried. His new asymmetrical haircut was blowing everywhere in the wind that was coming in through a crack in the ancient window.
Fifth was almost deserted. The car sped whip-fast up the avenue, a straight shot.
Lu leaned over and stuck her head between the front seats. “So, you’re a professional actress, huh? That’s cool. It’s kind of, like, my dream.”
“Really?” Cleo smiled in that weird fake way girls do when they feel like they’re being threatened. “What have you done?”
“Not to brag, but I’ve done a lot. Lady MacB, Nora Helmer, Heidi Holland. I played Maggie the Cat before I even got to high school.”
“Nice,” said Cleo. “I did Gertrude in summer stock last year. Have you ever been to Williamstown? That’s where everyone gets their start. You have to go next summer.”
“Cool,” said Lu. “I keep telling these suckers it’s a good thing I don’t have to worry about the SATs tomorrow, amiright?”
Cleo’s mirrored shades locked with Lu’s eyes in the rearview. “I aced my SATs,” she said. “Tisch won’t even look at an applicant with subpar scores. Most acting conservatories won’t either. Unless that’s not the kind of actress you want to be.” She laughed to herself. “I mean, if you’re not serious about your craft, you can always do toothpaste commercials!”
Lu sat back in her seat, hard. “Oh,” she mumbled. “The guidance counselor said that too. I thought she was just trying to trick me into taking them.” Will tried to pat her knee in a comforting way from the front seat, but Lu swatted his hand away.
They parked across the street from the Plaza and ran up the steps.
“Uh, excuse me.” A white-gloved doorman stood in their path. He eyed Cleo’s metallic legwarmers and Will’s new edgy Jasper haircut. “Are you guests of the hotel?”
They all looked at one another.