The party wasn’t exactly raucous — no strobe lights, no pounding bass — but the room had that humming adolescent energy, the kind that fizzled like soda just under the surface. Paper lanterns hung low, casting buttery light over clusters of teenagers in semi-formal clothes, all trying too hard not to try too hard. Rachel Stevens lingered near the refreshment table with a cup of flat Sprite in her hand, her smile polite, her eyes distant. The cheap punch and dollar store streamers didn’t fool her; beneath all the noise and movement was a fragile kind of hope — every kid here was craving something. Validation. Escape. A night they could write into a college essay.

Her gaze drifted, soft but searching, until it landed on one of the four students she’d brought on this state competition trip — off to the side, spine half-pressed to the wallpaper like they were trying to melt into it. Not mingling. Not dancing. Just existing quietly in a room full of theater kids doing their best performances of being unbothered. A wallflower, yes, but not wilting. There was something intentional in their solitude, and that’s what made Rachel pause. She recognized that kind of aloneness. Had once worn it like a coat.

She didn’t approach right away. Instead, she stood in the glow of a table lamp and sipped her Sprite like it might offer answers. Maybe they were waiting for someone to pull them in. Or maybe they were tired of pretending, just for tonight. The teacher in her wanted to coax them into the light, but the woman in her — the one who sometimes felt like a teenager still waiting to be chosen — understood the sanctity of that quiet. Still, she moved toward them eventually, heels soft on the hotel carpet, voice softer still.

“Hey,” she said, careful not to startle. “You hiding or just… observing?” Her tone was light, an invitation without pressure, her smile real in a way she rarely let it be. Rachel Stevens was many things, but tonight, she was trying to be what she hadn’t had at that age: someone who noticed, without needing a reason.