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over the sirens, but he was laughing. I shielded my eyes from water spraying in all directions and followed him to the office window, large enough for us to crawl through.
    We were both soaking wet by the time he lifted the window and pulled out the screen. He climbed out onto the sidewalk and offered me his hand to join him.

Chapter Five
    I bent over awkwardly in my heels and tried to brush off drops of water that had gathered on the silky fabric of my dress. Justin shook the water out of his hair and grabbed my hand tightly in his. The sidewalk outside was packed with people. I didn’t recognize a single face from the wall screen. It was like seeing people you’d met at a Halloween party without their costumes for the first time. They looked normal—flushed skin, crooked noses, huge lips, small lips, pale, tan, skinny, curvy. What they saw as imperfections was what made them original.
    Security guards from Club Nino were trying to keep the growing mob off the train tracks. A group of guys rigged speakers to a microphone and pumped music around the crowd. The party had officially moved outside, and it seemed from the landscape of smiles that people didn’t mind. A group of girls tried to pull Trey and another guard into their dance circle. It was like seeing wild animals set free to do what nature intended. People opened apartment doors and windows to see what all the commotion was about. The mass was only growing.
    A reporter interviewed the manager in front of the club entrance, and her voice echoed around us, like lyrics to the techno music. Her face was projected on a screen draped over the side of a building, where the live newscast was being shown, and her voice filled the air through speakers mounted on top of the news ZipShuttle.
    “Now, this looks like a real dance party,” the reporter noted, and she was answered with a cheer. A camera panned the audience. “Do you think this will push more face-to-face dance clubs to open?”
    The manager gushed from all the attention.
    “I certainly hope so,” she said, and the audience applauded her. “I’m just thrilled my club is a place where people can express their feelings openly.” Justin and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We skirted around bodies clustered together and I noticed eyes stop on Justin like they were caught in a web. Girls ogled him but he didn’t notice the stares. His eyes were focused ahead.
    “I thought you’d want to stay and enjoy all this,” I said, and pointed around us. He squeezed my hand tighter and his eyes scanned the area like he was my bodyguard.
    “I never trust the news,” he said. “And I don’t want you around any cameras.”
    “I look that bad?” I joked.
    He glanced at my long hair, still dripping at the ends, and his eyes took in my revealing dress. “I think your dad would imprison you on your dress choice alone,” he said. “And breaking the law doesn’t help your record.” I couldn’t argue with him. It was easy to forget about my dad’s watchful eye when I was a thousand miles away. But I knew he was always following me.
    We turned the corner and at the end of the block we found Noah, Pat, and Clare waiting for us next to an empty ZipShuttle. Noah extended his arm to slap Justin’s hand and Clare offered him one of her signature hugs.
    Pat regarded our clothes and hair. “Why are you two all wet?” he asked.
    “Some idiot pulled the fire alarm,” I said.
    Pat looked at me. “Club etiquette, for future reference,” he said. “If you’re not having fun, you can just get up and leave. You don’t have to shut the whole place down.”
    “Got it,” I said.
    “I didn’t mind,” Clare said to me. “You were brilliant.” Pat and Noah were less grateful and I caught Pat’s eyes shift to my hand, still wrapped tightly inside Justin’s.
    “Brilliant,” Noah mimicked. “I was hitting it off with the hottest girl there until you got
bored.
”
    “That’s some serious