Before we made it another step, Victoria appeared in front of us, a big smile on her face. “You ready to do this?”
I checked the time on my phone. “I thought we weren’t starting for another thirty minutes.”
“Ms. Lyon just wants to go over a few things with us. Talk about the ways this live recording will be different and give us some tips.”
My blood was still boiling and I knew I needed to get over this Alana thing quick so I could do the podcast. Live. “I don’t know why she’d think we need tips,” I said, trying to be sarcastic. But my voice sounded tight with anger.
Diego must’ve heard my tone because he said, “You’ll do great.”
“Thanks.”
“Come on,” Victoria said. “Bring your boy if you want. Brian is already over there.”
“Oh, he’s not my … He came with … This is Diego.”
“Hi, Diego. You’re very pretty,” Victoria said with a wink.
Diego reached out and grabbed my hand. He gave it a squeeze. “I’ll see you from the audience. Good luck.”
I started to walk away but then turned back and stepped in front of him. “Diego …”
“Yes?”
“After the podcast, I need to tell you something.”
I still needed to tell Diego that I knew he’d been calling in. I just hoped he wouldn’t be too angry.
I saw my parents standing toward the back of the already-full audience. They’d come. My nerves, which had finally kicked in as more and more people filled up the roped-off area in front of us, ramped up another degree. My mom waved. Victoria and I would start in ten minutes. I took a deep breath and waved back.
Victoria and I were sitting side by side on the makeshift stage, behind a long table set up with microphones and headphones. Ms. Lyon and a couple of kids from the production crew stood off to the side, preparing the equipment.
Alana rushed around the stage and to the backside of the table to join me, her eyes wide. I bit the insides of my cheeks. Now wasn’t the time to say anything. But Alana apparently thought now was the perfect time because she leaned close to my ear and whispered, “I need to talk to you.”
“After” was all I could say.
“Please. I need my best friend.”
I sighed and stood, walking off the back of the stage with her. She dragged me behind the row of carnival games forty feet away. It was darker and quieter. I was about to open my mouth to tell her I saw what had happened when she said, “Frank kissed me.”
I wasn’t sure what to say back. The kiss had looked very much mutual to me.
“I’m sorry,” she added.
“What? Why are you apologizing to me?” I asked. Diego was the person she needed to be talking to right now.
Her face was flushed. “Because Frank was your date tonight and I thought you liked him and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“You know I don’t like him.”
“I thought he liked you and that he was going to charm his way into your heart.”
“So you don’t like Frank?” I asked.
“I like Diego. You know that.”
“I saw you and Frank kissing. On the Ferris wheel. You were into it, Alana.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I was not into it. I was surprised! Did Diego see?”
I wished he had. “No,” I said softly. “I need to go. We can talk more about this later.”
Alana grabbed my arm before I could turn away. “Are you mad at me?”
Yes. “I don’t know.”
“So you do like Frank?”
“This has nothing to do with Frank.”
Her brow wrinkled in confusion. “It has everything to do with Frank.”
“Later, Alana.” I walked away and back to my seat.
Victoria took one look at my face and said, “You better get past whatever drama is happening in your life right now and get your head into this.” She nodded toward the crowd.
She was right. I had to try and forget about everything right now. I needed to focus.
“Kate! Kate!”
I turned at the sound of my name. My cousin Liza was weaving her way through the standing crowd, dragging a girl and boy behind her.
“Hi,” I said with a smile.
“You remember my friend Chloe.” Liza raised her left hand, which held Chloe’s hand.
I nodded. “Yes, hi again.”
“We’re excited to listen tonight. It’s fun to see this live,” Chloe said.
Liza raised her right hand, which held the boy’s hand, and said, “And this is my friend from school, Kurt.”
“Hello,” Kurt said shyly.
“We just wanted to say hi and wish you luck,” Liza said.
“Thanks, cousin.”
“Okay, bye.” She turned. I watched as she and her friends found a spot to stand toward the center.
Victoria leaned over. “Ready?” she asked me under her breath.
“Yep.”
“Hello, Sequoia High!” she said into her microphone, and the audience cheered. “Okay, so this is how this will work. Kat and I have a podcast to record. You are our live audience.” She picked up the box full of questions that had been collected. “These are the anonymously submitted questions we’ve been gathering this week. But first dibs goes to people willing to out themselves. So if you are in the audience tonight and want to ask a question, please come up to the front and speak into the microphone right there.” She pointed to a separate microphone that had been set up for audience questions. “Are you ready to get started?” The crowd cheered again and Victoria turned to me. “What about you, Kat? Are you ready to get started?”
I swallowed all my nerves and anger and whatever else was lodged in my chest, leaned toward the mic, and said with a straight face, “Am I ever ready to start?”
The audience laughed.
“No,” Victoria said.
“But you’re going to push that record button anyway,” I said.
My cohost shot me a smile, raised her finger in the air, and lowered it dramatically down to the RECORD button.
“Hello, Oak Court, and welcome to our one—”
“And only,” I inserted.
“Recording with a live audience. We’re here at Sequoia High’s Fall Festival. Say hello, everyone.” At her prompt, the audience let out cheers and applause.
I scanned the crowd to see if Alana had joined it. It was hard to find anyone in the mass of people but off to the right, there stood Diego. He gave me a smile and a nod when I met his eyes. Alana and Frank weren’t with him.
“The format of tonight will be similar to our studio-recorded podcasts,” Victoria was saying. “We’ll take questions and I’ll do my best to answer them while Kat does her best to stay awake.”
“Funny,” I said.
“We won’t have time for a lot of questions but we’ll get to as many as we can. So who’s going to kick this off?” Victoria asked the crowd, which suddenly became very quiet.
Uh-oh.
“Just because we’re live doesn’t mean we don’t have editing powers. All this silence will be edited out on Monday so it will seem like we are the most engaging hosts ever,” Victoria said. People laughed at that.
We waited for another couple beats, scanning the group.
“Okay, guess everyone is chicken tonight,” Victoria said. “Let’s go with our anons.” She dug her hand into the box and pulled out a folded index card. She handed it to me. “Kat is a much better reader than I am.”