A sudden crash of cymbals made them all jump—the school marching band had launched into a off-key rendition of "Celebration" near the dunk tank, their uniforms clashing violently with Walker's new rainbow aesthetic. Jovie seized the moment, darting forward to snatch Joel's phone. "Group shot!" she announced, herding them into a tight, squirming huddle. Walker tried to duck, but Oakley hooked an arm around his neck, dragging him into frame. "Smile, Picasso," Valerie murmured, and the flash went off just as Walker's grimace twisted into something halfway between a snarl and reluctant amusement.
The popcorn-scented chaos of the carnival had barely settled when Jovie's eyes locked onto Valerie with the precision of a hawk spotting prey. She tapped Joel's phone screen, still warm from the Walker rainbow humiliation, and tilted it toward Valerie like a dare grenade. "Your turn," Jovie said, sweet as cotton candy laced with arsenic. "I want you to stand right under the Ferris wheel—where the line's longest—and scream 'NOOOO I'M ADOPTED' while I record it."
Valerie's jaw dropped halfway to her shoes. "You want me to what." It wasn't a question.
Oakley, still wheezing from the face-paint debacle, nearly inhaled his churro. "Ohhh, that's nuclear," he gasped, pounding his chest. Behind him, the Ferris wheel lights flickered on as dusk settled, casting long shadows that made Valerie's incredulous expression look even more dramatic.
Joel wiped his phone screen on his shirt, smearing cracker dust and glitter from Walker's forehead. "Counteroffer," he said, holding up a finger like a lawyer about to drop evidence. "You do the scream, Val, and I'll let you pick Walker's next haircut."
Valerie's fingers twitched toward the phone like she was contemplating tossing it into the nearest funnel cake stand. Then her gaze slid to Oakley—who was currently attempting to lick powdered sugar off his own elbow—and her expression shifted into something dangerously calculating. "Counter-counteroffer," she said, slow and deliberate. "Oakley does the scream... and I don't tell Principal Chen about who actually glued her coffee cup to the desk last week."
Oakley froze mid-lick. "That was Walker's idea!"
"Prove it," Valerie shot back, flicking a glance at Walker's rainbow-streaked forehead. "You think Chen's gonna believe Mr. Mysterious over the girl who aced last week's chem test?"
Joel snorted, nudging Jovie with his elbow. "She's got a point. Oakley's got the lung capacity for maximum drama anyway."
Oakley's scream tore through the carnival like a fire alarm in a library. "NOOOO I'M ADOPTED!" he bellowed, arms flung wide under the Ferris wheel's blinking lights, his voice cracking spectacularly on the last syllable. The crowd froze—parents clutching toddlers mid-cotton-candy-bite, a teen couple mid-selfie, even the carnie running the ring-toss game paused with his cigarette dangling. Then, from somewhere near the funnel cake stand, an answering shriek pierced the air: "OH MY GOD, ME TOO!"
Valerie's eyebrows rocketed toward her hairline as a girl with strawberry blonde hair came barreling through the crowd. She skidded to a stop in front of Oakley, gripping his shoulders with both hands. "I got my results last week!" she gasped, eyes wild. "23andMe said my bio dad is literally a potato farmer in Idaho!"
Jovie's phone slipped from her fingers, landing in the dirt with a thump. Walker, still glittering faintly under the carnival lights, mouthed "potato farmer" like it was a sacred incantation.
Amberly—as she introduced herself between gulps of blue slushie—proved to be the art class's resident chaos gremlin. She'd been lurking near the Ferris wheel sketching "carnival vibes" (Jovie peeked at her notebook and saw a disturbingly accurate caricature of the cotton candy vendor mid-yawn) when Oakley's existential wail had summoned her like a dog whistle for weirdos. By the time Joel dared her to lick the Tilt-A-Whirl safety bar ("for science"), she was already elbow-deep in the group's dynamic, debating the merits of ranch dressing on churros with Oakley.
ns216.73.217.80da2
and then Add to home screen.