Drive Me Crazy by Terra Elan McVoy

see each other at school.”
    “But you said you don’t have classes with him, so isn’tafter school your best time to talk?” I’m not trying to make Cassie feel bad—it’s just that I don’t quite understand how all of this works.
    She shakes her head and sighs. “Like I said, my parents are strict. And anyway, this means he wants to take it to the next level.”
    Something still feels off, but I can’t argue with the delighted expression on Cassie’s face. Until yet another message comes in, and she frowns again.
    “Shut up, Izzy Gathing,” she mutters. When she sees me watching, she explains, “Just Izzy Gathing being snide.”
    “That’s not very nice.”
    “Izzy Gathing isn’t very nice. It’s, like, her job to be mean. The more you can put up with, the better. It’s like a test.”
    “Annoying test if you ask me,” I grumble under my breath, ready for this to be over and for us to get going.
    She’s heard me, though. “Maybe you should mind your own business.”
    That she’s turning on me when it’s her friends who are difficult makes me lose my patience. “Maybe I would, if you’d stop dragging me into it. All you talk about is what’s going on with Kendra Mack and Cheyenne What’s-Her-Head. It’s all you seem to care about. Maybe Grandma Tess should take your phone.”
    “Fine.” Cassie stands up and yanks her giant suitcase to the door. “If you’re not interested in what people with real lives actually do, instead of playing stupid shopping games and taking fake glamour shots, I won’t bother you with it anymore.”
    It’s so mean, I’m shocked. Cassie genuinely seemed to be having fun with all that stuff. I don’t know what else to say except, “Well, don’t, then.”
    “Good.”
    She huffs out of the room, dragging her bags, and I have no choice but to follow.
    To make things worse, it’s a longer drive today to Bakersfield, and no matter how many routes we looked at, Grandpa Howe and I couldn’t find any way to get there that involved many interesting road stops.
    “We haven’t had trouble entertaining each other so far,” Grandma Tess says happily, connecting her iPod to the stereo.
    I’m not really up for singing right now, especially since it’s something else I love to do that Cassie probably thinks is stupid, but I lean forward in my seat and wrap my arms around Grandpa Howe’s headrest and hum a little, anyway. It’s better than pouting out the window, like Cassie is doing.
    After an hour, I’m hollering out “I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog” and “Break on Through,” not caring what Cassie thinks anymore, which is just as well because her mood only seems to have gotten blacker. This playlist of Grandma Tess’s has a bunch of old stuff on it, but it’s also pretty fun. If Cassie can’t enjoy it, that’s her loss. When a disco song starts, Grandma Tess lets out a wild laugh and hits the brake. Grandpa Howe peers through his spectacles at the dashboard and asks is everything okay.
    “Oh, everything’s fine!” Grandma Tess says, still laughing. “There’s just something we have to do right now. Let’s see if I remember how.”
    She stops the car on the flat shoulder of the road and hops out, waving for us. Grandpa Howe and I join her, not sure what’s happening.
    But Cassie won’t budge. Grandma Tess pokes her head in the open driver’s-side window and says something to her, while also turning up the stereo super loud. Cassie gets out, but not very happily.
    “Okay, okay,” Grandma Tess says, nodding her head up and down to the rhythm. “I think it goes like this. Watch, and we’ll all do it together.”
    “Right here on the side of the road?” Cassie exclaims.
    “Yes, darling.” Grandma Tess ignores Cassie’s pouty tone. “Right here in the road.” Grandma Tess rocks hershoulders and begins to dance, not worried in the slightest, and I guess it’s true we haven’t seen many other cars.
    “Step, step, step, step, then step,