“This is excellent,” she said, voice full of producer-joy.“Organic, fun, chaotic but safe,”
“Underlinesafe,” Alice said, and pointed her pencil like a weapon.“No filming at the farm without my say-so.”
Mac held up her hands.“We hear you.We’re mostly town-side today anyway.This,” she gestured at all of us “is gold.”
“Did you catch Wrecker apologizing to Priscilla yesterday?”Raven asked.
Mac’s eyes went starry.“We did.Twice.”
“Good,” Alice said.“Focus your zoom lens on that man.Leave the rest of us alone.”
Mac laughed and backed up.“Carry on, Girl Gang.”
As soon as she disappeared, we all looked at each other and then burst into simultaneous, overlapping chatter like a flock of scandalous birds.
“Streamers or bunting?”
“Neither.Big ass bows.”
“We should have Thorn make a signature mocktail.”
“Clove, can you design a cute little map for the scavenger hunt?”
“Is the nacho fountain… really dead?”
“Yes, Bell.”
I forgot about the cameras.It happened slowly, like the way you forget a watch is on your wrist until you look at it.The jokes got louder, the plans sillier.Alice’s pen clicked like a metronome.Karmen’s flip chart evolved into a vision board with doodles.Carnie started a list titled “Things Could End In Chaos That We Shouldn’t Do But Will Still Do,” which of course made Eden laugh so hard she actually teared up.
At one point, Alice slapped a cow sticker onto my shoulder.“You’re marked,” she said solemnly.“Can’t escape.”
“You’re all exhausting,” I told them, and they all smiled like I’d said, “I love you.”
We broke for a taste test of tiny spoons of something that might’ve been jalapeño honey and might’ve been witchcraft.Wrecker wandered in halfway through, blinked at the flip chart, and tried to back out.Alice caught him by the cut, dragged him into a kiss, then shoved a list into his hand.
“What’s this?”he asked, wary.
“Things you’re doing,” Alice said, and kissed him again as if that made it a favor.“Tables.Chairs.Lights.And you’re apologizing to Priscilla on camera again.”
He sighed like a man who knew resistance was a theory.“Yes, dear.”
“See?”Raven stage-whispered.“Star of the show.”
He pointed at her with the list.“You’re all fired.”
“From what?”Raven asked sweetly.“Last time I checked, you’re not the boss of me, big brother?”
He grunted and retreated, list in hand, while muttering about cows having more sense than women with flip charts.
“Okay,” Alice said, clapping once more.“Quick recap.Theme: tasteful cowgrad,”
“Tasteful,” Nikki repeated, deadly serious.
“With books and plants and Eden’s playlist of sad girl bops.Menu: Carnie-led heaven with a mac ‘n’ cheese bar, dessert table, and hydration station.Games: cornhole, scavenger hunt,nocheese baths.Décor: Big ass bows, no glitter.Flowers: Wendy and Adley.Setup: everyone with hands and a spine.”
“Any objections?”Alice asked looking around like a judge.
“Just one,” Bell said, raising her hand.“What time are we getting Dairy Bar?”
