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“Yes, it’s on,” Nolen said. “Theo has one more announcement to make for the day.”

“Yes,” Theo said. “I would like to invite anyone who can to come to the football field after school.”

“As in right now?” Nolen asked.

“Yes, right now. Especially if you have been listening to or host a podcast calledIt’s About Us.”

“What is he doing?” Deja asked next to me.

I wasn’t sure, but maybe it was what my grandma had referred to as a grand gesture.

IT WAS HARD TO SEEmuch of anything as I walked through the open gates of the football stadium because I was surrounded by people. Apparently, the whole school decided to come see what Theo was up to. Max held one of my hands and Deja the other as we walked. Lee was on Max’s other side.

“What are we hoping for?” Max asked. “So I know how to react.”

“Seriously,” Deja said. “You’ve been so quiet since his announcement. What do you want to happen now?”

“I don’t know,” I said, because I didn’t. I was just holding on to the hope that whatever this was, it would make me feel better.

“I don’t think all these people have listened to your podcast,” Max said. “I think they’re liars.”

“He didn’t say it was a requirement,” Lee said.

My feet hit the rubber of the track that surrounded the field, when I started hearing people say, “What is that? Why is it here?”

I tried to stand on my tiptoes, but my view was still obstructed.

Deja started to drag us through and around people. We followed along like train cars to her engine.

“Hello, everyone,” Theo’s voice said into a microphone. There was feedback after his words, and everyone groaned. “Sorry, sorry. Is this better? Hello. I’m not really good on a mic. It’s not my thing.”

This time there was no earsplitting whine. He was right; his thing was hiding in earbuds and not talking, watching school relays he was supposed to participate in from the sidelines, maintaining his privacy.

“I didn’t think this many people would come. Is Finley here? Has anyone seen Finley?” he asked.

A low mumbling of voices sounded, as if everyone started looking for me at once.

“She’s here!” Deja said, throwing up her hand.

And then I was surrounded even more, pressed in the middle of a group ushering me toward what I could only assume was the middle of the football field. Was he going to tell everyone I could kick? Make me kick in front of the whole school? Did he not understand how I felt about that? Just as the thought went through my mind, I caught a glimpse of bright blue through the bodies surrounding me.

“Is that…?” And then I was in front of it—the lifeguard tower that I had only seen through binoculars and an iron gate at Andrew Lancaster’s old house. It took my breath away. It was just like my grandma had described. A series of ocean scenes. And I knew if I walked around the back there would be a silhouette of her and Andrew. I thought he had painted over all this fifty years ago. But then at the right corner of the face of the tower, next to the door, I saw his signature and the year2015followed by the wordsin memory of first love.I was so preoccupied with the structure in front of me that it took my brain a minute to wonder how it got here.

As if Theo could read my mind, he was speaking into the mic again. I looked around and found him on the far side of the tower, a microphone in hand, staring at me with soft eyes. “For those of you who haven’t listened to Finley’s podcast, you might want to so you can understand what this is. It is a piece of her grandma’s history. And I hope it can become a piece of hers too, because right now it serves as the symbol to an apology I owe her.

“Most of you saw the video of me being a jerk. Of me actinglike Finley was a thing to be had or owned or stolen. She’s not. She has been hurt in very public ways over the last several weeks, and I felt like she needed to be apologized to in a very public way as well. Finley, there is no excuse for how I behaved, and I am sorry. But now I would like to talk to her in private, so excuse me while I find out if she’s still speaking to me.”

He handed the mic to Deja. When had she left my side? Then he was walking my way. Nerves and butterflies battled it out in my stomach.

When he reached me, he looked at the ground and then at me again. “I’m…I…You don’t have to talk to me, but there’s…something more…up in…Will you…? I don’t know why I can’t speak.”

I’d never seen him this nervous before. “I have that effect on people,” I said, quoting his line from weeks ago.

He gave me a slow smile, probably unsure if we were allowed to joke with each other anymore. I wasn’t sure either. He pointed to the tower.

Behind him, Deja had started a song on her phone, and she held the mic up to it. I knew that was her way of giving us privacy, but suddenly it was very loud. Theo’s lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“It’s really cool!” I yelled, nodding to the paintings.