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Petra broke the kiss. “Your mates may give you a hard time about this.”
“I don’t care. If I like somebody, I like her, and that’s that.” He thumped his chest and made a scowly face. “Let ’em come for me. I will stare down the mob with their pitchforks! I will make a speech about tolerance and love! I will show them the folly of their ways! And then I will grab your hand and run like hell because, Jesus, a mob with pitchforks?”
“Sinjin, I think we may have just found your talent.”
“What? Chest thumping?”
“Humanity.”
Sinjin wanted to toss off a witty comeback but found he had none. “Thanks, luv,” he said softly, sincerely.
“It’s the truth, Ruth.”
Sinjin put a hand to his chest in mock offense. “I’ll have you know it’s Shirley. I could never be a Ruth.”
“You know what I’m going to give you, Shirley?”
“What?”
“A makeover.”
Sinjin crawled over her, going for the kiss. “What if I look Droodful? Edwin Droodful?”
Petra winced. “Oh, good God.”
“Sorry.”
“Just for that, you’re getting the works.” Petra took Sinjin by the hand and dragged him into her tent.
Guitar at the ready, Ahmed sidled over to Nicole and Shanti’s hut with Charlie in tow. “Can I hang with the nondrinking party? Not a big fan of slurring my speech and walking like a toddler with a poopy diaper.”
“Totally,” Shanti said, making room.
Ahmed strummed and crooned softly. Jennifer lay her head in Sosie’s lap and Sosie stroked her hair absently.
“I feel like we’re in one of those old surf movies and we’re gonna have to do the Watusi,” Nicole said.
“No Watusi for me. I made a pledge of purity,” Tiara said.
Shanti shook her head at Nicole. “You’ve done all you can.”
“You know, I’ve watched Miss Teen Dream every year,” Ahmed explained. “I’ve got five sisters. The best was the time they did the Night of the Living Beauty Queen opening number and everybody looked like zombies in sequins? They were pretending to shamble and eat each other’s brains but they still had to smile and shout out their states? That was so wrong, it has its own zip code of wrong.”
“You have no idea how hard all that stuff is,” Shanti said.
“Doesn’t seem so hard,” Charlie scoffed.
“Really?” Shanti said. The girls exchanged glances. “So you think you could be in a pageant?”
Charlie shrugged. “Yeah. I do.”
“You think you could put up with all the things girls put up with?” Nicole pressed.
Ahmed shook his head. “No way, mate. I was there when my oldest sister gave birth to my nephew? That’s hard-core.” Ahmed nodded to the ekwe. “Cool drum.”
“Thanks. Made it myself.” Nicole pounded out a rhythm.
Ahmed bopped his head in time. “Dead brilliant.” He plucked out a tune on his acoustic to accompany her. The others filled in with what they could find — sticks, coconuts, hollowed bamboo. Sosie did a wild Watusi in the sand while Jennifer stood next to her pointing one finger up and down in a deadpan disco.
