Best. Night. Ever.

by Rachele Alpine

  They don’t have to wait long, because I spot Leif moving this way. I paste on my sweetest smile, which actually hurts a little. Mariah’s got him by the hand and is chattering on and on about who only knows what. Leif’s nodding and looking around, like he’s trying to find a way to escape her.

  He’ll wish he’d escaped her—and me—by the time this is done.

  When they get close enough, I move into the doorway.

  “Leif!” I wave furiously at him.

  His eyes widen, and he tries to stop, but Mariah tugs him along, still talking up a storm.

  “Ex-CUSE me, Tess,” Mariah says when they get to the door. “Leif and I need to go wait for our parents.”

  “But I brought him a drink.” I brandish the Diet Coke like it’s Christmas and Halloween and his birthday, all wrapped up in one. “Sorry I couldn’t find anything better, but you’ve got to be thirsty after all that dancing and . . . hiding.”

  “I—” Leif says, but Mariah pulls him right under the door frame. Exactly where we want him.

  I thrust the drink under his nose. “I totally stole this from the chaperones.” I pout. “You can’t not drink it now.”

  And before he can say anything else, I take a step back, tilt the can toward him, and pop the lid open. Mariah scoots away just in time. The sticky, brown liquid shoots everywhere—including all over Leif.

  Mission accomplished.

  It’s all over my hands, too, but I don’t really care. It feels like sweet, sweet (artificially sweet, but still) revenge.

  “Oops,” I say in a voice that’s not really sorry at all. I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

  Diet Coke drips off the ends of Leif’s blond hair into his eyes. He blinks and then runs his hands over his face. “Wh . . . ? Agggh! Tess!”

  “I’m sorry. I guess it fell on the floor. Or something.” Just as the last words leave my mouth, Mariah reaches for the rope hanging from the top of the doorway. I step away. She slides back even farther . . . and pulls.

  The bucket Ryan rigged for us at the top of the door jerks sideways, and shiny, shimmery glitter rains down onto Leif’s head. And his shoulders. And his polo shirt. And, well, everywhere. He’s basically a frozen, sputtering, multicolored glitter statue.

  A giggle travels up into my throat. I force it down. Tess Emrich does not giggle. She does, however, laugh like a hyena with Mariah.

  And before Leif can make for the bathroom, Mariah and I sidle up to him. I whip my phone out in front of the three of us and snap a shot as Mariah and I each give Leif a peck on his glittery cheeks. I’m just barely aware of the crowd that’s starting to form around us. This is going to go viral on Instagram. My fingers fly over the screen.

  Best. Night. Ever.

  “Next time,” I say to Leif once the picture is posted, “don’t say yes to two girls.”

  “Especially if those two girls are us,” Mariah adds.

  Leif finally unfreezes. He glares at us. “Don’t you dare post that anywhere!”

  “Sorry not sorry. Too late.” I show him my phone.

  “I. Can’t. Believe. This!” He stomps off toward the bathroom, leaving a glitter trail in his wake. I take one look at Mariah, and we’re both cackling again, so hard I can barely breathe. Ryan and the girls in Heart Grenade manage to grab us by the elbows and tug us off to the side before the chaperones find us.

  Faith holds up her phone. There’s Carmen, laughing so hard that she’s wiping away tears. Next to her is Jackson, laughing just as much even though he doesn’t even know us or Leif. And shoved in behind them is someone I’m guessing is the bridesmaid who owns the phone. Even she’s laughing.

  “That?” Carmen says. “Was perfect.”

  I sling an arm around Mariah and grin. “It was pretty great. But it would’ve been more perfect with you here.”

  Her eyes flick to Jackson. Then she gives the camera a little grin. “That’s okay. I think I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be tonight.”

  I miss her, but maybe she’s right.

  Maybe we’re all exactly where we’re supposed to be tonight.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Seven sets of arms around Amy Cloud, our fearless editor, for her cheerful response when we first proposed a multiauthored novel . . . and for everything that has come since. You are a marvel! Best. Experience. Ever.

  More hugs to the entire Aladdin team, including Mara Anastas, Janet Rosenberg, Chelsea Morgan, Karin Paprocki, Mike Rosamilia, illustrator James Lopez, Sara Berko, and the unsung heroes of sales and marketing, who trumpet our books’ arrivals into the world. We are crazy grateful for all of your support!

  Holly Root, thank you for your agenting prowess on this one—it does not go unnoticed or unappreciated!

  A giant round of applause to our middle school focus group, made up of the fabulous Olivia Seifrick, Colin Hunter, Maddie Tuck, Julianna Singer, Michelle Rayner, Belle Scarano, Caroline Malone, Ingrid Thullen, Anna Tracey, Isadora DaSilva, Morgan Macdougal, and Mary O’Dee’s grandchildren: Maeve and Fiona Walsh, Grace, Jack and Molly Whalen, and Colin McLeod. Yay to your awesome feedback and brainstorming!

  And now for some individual thanks:

  RACHELE ALPINE

  A million thanks to my amazing agent, Natalie Lakosil—you rock as much as Heart Grenade at a middle school dance! Thank you to Lili Aguilera, Sonia Rodriguez, and Kelly Holderman for your awesome knowledge and help with creating the character of Carmen and her world. Thank you to the band Boyz II Men, whose song “End of the Road” played during my first-ever slow dance in eighth grade—my hands might have been sweaty and I was a nervous wreck, but I’ll never forget that moment! Love to my coauthors . . . Who knew telling seven sides to this story would be so fun?! And as always, endless love and thanks to my family, who know how to bust a move on the dance floor at any family wedding!

  RONNI ARNO

  As always, big thanks to my incredible agent and all-around wonderful person, Sarah Davies. Thanks also to my brilliant coauthors Rachele Alpine, Alison Cherry, Stephanie Faris, Jen Malone, Gail Nall, and Dee Romito. This book would not be possible without every single one of you. I also need to give a shout-out to Andy Chek, my middle school dance partner and forever friend. And, of course, love and gratitude to my parents; my husband, Josh; and my amazing kids, Hallie and Morgan.

  ALISON CHERRY

  Thanks to Baker Demonstration School, where I spent three surprisingly happy (if angsty) years of middle school—I have a crystal clear memory of our seventh-grade dance, during which the teachers bribed us to dance by passing out quarters. Thank you to all my glorious writer friends, who keep me sane as I put my characters through the wringer. And the biggest thanks of all to my family, who knew me as a seventh grader and somehow still love me.

  STEPHANIE FARIS

  A big thanks to my agent, Natalie Lakosil, for always steering me in the right direction, especially when I’m distracted by bright, shiny ideas. Also a big thanks to my husband, who helped give me insight into how a young guy thinks, since I had absolutely no idea when I started writing.

  JEN MALONE

  Much love and thanks to Tae Keller for the sensitivity read on Ashlyn’s character—any mistakes are my own. A second thanks to my agent, Holly Root—don’t worry, I remember my blood oath. Special thanks to the Girl Scouts of Eastern MA for always supporting my books. Apologies to any boy whose feet I stepped on as we slow-danced—I’d say I’ve gotten better . . . but nope. John, thanks for being the only guy I dance with these days, even if it’s usually just around the kitchen island. Thanks to Jack, Ben, and Caroline for endless inspiration and letting me relive school drama through your eyes. And to my megatalented coauthors: I’d write anything with you girls, anytime.

  GAIL NALL

  Huge thanks to my favorite (and only!) agent, Julia A. Weber, who has Tess’s guts, Ellie’s smarts, Ashlyn’s style, Jade’s tenacity, Ryan’s heart, Genevieve’s fearlessness, and Carmen’s patience. Shout-out to my coauthors—yo
u all made this experience seven times more fun than writing by myself! Another big thank-you goes out to Mike Grosso, who made sure Tess sounds like a real drummer (any mistakes are all on me!). Thanks to my own grade school, St. Bartholomew, for giving me years and years’ worth of middle school drama to write about. To my family and friends—thank you for being there for me. As always, Eva, this is for you.

  DEE ROMITO

  Big thanks to my wonderful agent, Uwe Stender, who is an absolute rock star and is always cheering me on. To Sweet Home Middle, for all those blue-and-gold dances, and for your continued (and much appreciated) support. To my six amazing coauthors—who knew a dance planning committee could be so fun? And an enormous, heartfelt thank-you to my incredible friends, my family, my mom and dad, my husband, and my kids, Nathan and Kiley—I am always and forever grateful that every day you make life something to dance to.

  AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHORS

  Sometime shortly after we turned in the final version of Best. Night. Ever. to our editor, we met online for a video chat to talk about the process. To set the scene: Ronni shows up onscreen with her new puppy barking loudly in the background. Gail has cut shorter bangs since the last time we all video-chatted, and we pause to ooh and aah over them. Rachele proceeds to paint her nails a sparkly red as we wait for the rest of our crew to log in, claiming now that she has a toddler it’s the only chance she has to sit still long enough for them to dry without smudges. We all tease her, and then take a poll to see who is dressed for a video chat on the top, but secretly wearing pajamas on the bottom. Seven out of seven of us raise a hand. (Jen stands to show everyone that hers have little hedgehogs on them.)

  And then we’re off, with Jen tossing out the questions.

  So, Best. Night. Ever. is a novel told from seven perspectives, with each of us writing one character’s chapters. It’s a pretty unique project in that respect—how did you feel when I first approached you about the idea?

  RONNI: Best. Idea. Ever. I loved the idea, and couldn’t wait to get started.

  STEPHANIE: I was so excited to work with other middle grade authors. I’d read all of your books and admired you as writers, so from the start, it felt like I was part of something big!

  RACHELE: Seven authors writing one book together sounded crazy to me, but I love a good challenge, so I was definitely thinking, “Bring it! Let’s do this!”

  ALISON: I definitely thought, “I HAVE to join this project—I can’t let all these ladies have fun WITHOUT me!” (Writer FOMO??)

  Steph, you mentioned that we all have our own books out in the world and, not coincidentally, we all write for the same imprint at the same publisher. Our books share a really similar vibe to one another’s, so from that perspective it made total sense for us to team up on this. But some of us have also actually been friends and writing partners for years prior to this. Anyone have a memorable story about how they met any of the other authors here?

  JEN: Okay, I know I’m the one who asked this question, but I’m jumping in to answer first! Gail and I have coauthored several books together (the You’re Invited series) but I don’t know if you guys know that we had only met in person for a single one-hour lunch before we collaborated on those. We actually met online when we entered the same writing contest and—Gail, was it me commenting on yours or you commenting on mine?

  GAIL: I can’t remember. I think you commenting on mine.

  JEN: I think so too. Gail posted the opening to her story and I commented below asking if she’d consider letting me read the whole thing. I’m so greedy for good words!

  GAIL: (Laughs.) You are. But we quickly became friends and writing partners!

  DEE: Jen and I met in a similar way, only I was judging a writing contest and she was one of the entrants. As soon as the contest was over, I went on Twitter and shouted, “Who is this author?! I need to read the rest of her story!” I met everyone else through a mix of Twitter, writing conferences, and this project. Ronni and I are fellow vegetarians, so we bonded when she warned me that there was bacon in the salad at a conference we were both attending.

  RONNI: Come to think of it, Jen introduced us at that conference. She’s the godmother of all things writing for me! I met Jen on Twitter when I bid on an auction she was hosting. As I was a total newbie, to both writing and Twitter, I didn’t think it at all weird that I responded to her tweet asking writer friends where they should have a writer’s weekend retreat. They were looking for a house to rent on a lake, in between NY and Boston, and at that time, I just so happened to live in a house on a lake, in between NY and Boston. So naturally, I invited them over for the weekend! Alison, you were one of the writers, so that’s when I met you! My husband thought it was totally crazy I was inviting strangers to stay at our house, but you guys didn’t feel like strangers at all. And you definitely aren’t anymore.

  JEN: Ha! I’d forgotten that was our very first time meeting, when I showed up at your door with a suitcase in hand. I ought to try tweeting about looking for an all-expense-paid trip to Australia, just to see what response I get!

  Okay, back to the story. Let’s tell people about the process we used to write this book together. We had the general concept of a story revolving around a middle school dance, but things really started with one big video call, not unlike this one, to bounce around plot ideas. Who wants to talk about how we picked which characters we’d each write?

  STEPH: Someone mentioned there should be a boy. I wrote romance novels way back in the beginning of my career, so I’ve written at least a dozen novels that included the adult male perspective. However, getting in the mind of an adolescent male is a completely different thing. I’m still not 100 percent sure how teenage boys think, but I definitely know how it feels to be a teenager who likes someone. I tried to combine that with what I know about the differences in the male mind and, voilà, Ryan was born!

  RONNI: I thought writing about a character who wouldn’t normally be excited about a middle school dance—but this time was—would be interesting. Then we brainstormed the idea of her getting her heart broken in an unexpected way, and I couldn’t wait to get inside Ellie’s head.

  GAIL: We all threw out character suggestions. One of mine was a girl who shows up to the dance only to find out that another girl thinks she has the same date. As we worked together to find ways to tie the main characters to each other, Tess became a member of Heart Grenade (and I honestly can’t remember if that was my idea or someone else’s!).

  (Everyone shrugs.)

  JEN: We should have recorded that call for posterity!

  RACHELE: I wanted to write about a character who couldn’t be at the dance. I remember there were times I couldn’t do something my friends were doing and how awful that feeling of being left out was. You think that everyone is having fun without you, and I wanted to create a character who felt that same way. However, Carmen turns out to have a great night, so maybe she was in exactly the right place! Just to add, when we were brainstorming ideas, I came up with a character who Jen wanted to write. So basically I bargained to write Carmen: it went something along the lines of, “Okay, you can use this idea, if I can write a character who isn’t at the dance.” Nothing like making deals to write the character you want!

  JEN: Now that, I definitely remember! I really wanted to write the girl who was trying her hardest, despite all kinds of zany obstacles, to get to the dance. And having Ashlyn be a bit bratty (okay, a lot bratty) just made it even more fun to be inside her head.

  DEE: I remember sitting back and listening to all the great character ideas, but I wasn’t sure who mine should be. Once all the others started to come together, I said, “I feel like there should be someone sinister who’s there to cause trouble.” And I just knew Jade would be fun to write.

  JEN: Once we had our characters picked, we each figured out the beginning, middle, and end for our character’s dance experience. It just so happened Alison and I were on another writing retreat (sorry, Ronni, we cheated on your l
ake house) and I remember a chilly afternoon on the back porch—

  ALISON: With an entire bag of M&Ms—

  JEN: Essential plotting food! We had everyone’s beginnings, middles, and ends on separate notecards and we spent hours rearranging them and coming up with a timeline that would work so that each character was in the story somewhat equally and no one disappeared for too long. It was like a giant puzzle. Which leads to the next question . . .

  Once we had the outline (derived from those notecards) and a timeline for the events, we each went off to write our own chapters on a pretty tight rotating schedule. For most of us, that’s different from how we write our own solo books. What were some of the good and/or bad things about writing this way?

  RACHELE: I love that we had a set schedule to follow, so I knew I had to get my chapters written. I can be a bit of procrastinator, so knowing that everyone was depending on me to get my work done was the motivation I needed to, well, get my work done!

  ALISON: I’ve always been really uncomfortable showing unpolished work to other people, and this process forced me to be less precious and perfectionistic about my own words. There just wasn’t time to revise a chapter five times before posting it! After a while, it started to feel normal to let people see my work in really early stages, which I think will serve me well in the future!

  DEE: Whatever we changed in our own chapters could potentially affect others, so we had to be careful. One of my favorite things was hopping on the phone or having a big e-mail conversation to chat with Ronni, Jen, and Gail so we could figure out how certain plot points with our four connected characters would play out.

  RONNI: I loved that we not only worked on our own character’s story arc, but also on one another’s characters’ story arcs, because many of them intersected. That process forced me to look at the bigger picture, rather than focus on one chapter at a time (which is what I usually do when writing alone).