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The girls nodded. Tiara put a hand to her stomach. “Ohmigosh, y’all, I’m so nervous! What if I mess up?”
Adina put a hand on Tiara’s shoulder. “You’re not going to mess up, Tiara. You can do this. You built a hut. You learned to fish and catch rainwater for drinking. You’re a survivor.”
“Okay,” Tiara whispered. “Okay.”
A black shirt strode over, hands at his hips. “What are you girls gossiping about over there?”
“Pageant stuff,” Adina said, forcing herself to sound extrachipper and borderline stupid, the tone that disarmed people, made them think you weren’t a threat. The black shirt smiled. It was astonishing how easily that worked. Adina smiled back. Her smile said, You will not know what hit you, jerkface.
Jeeps carried them through the jungle. Adina looked for Taylor, but she was nowhere to be seen. The girls’ camp bounced into view, and seeing everything — the huts, the rainwater tarp, the sequined banner — Adina felt a surge of pride. They’d done this on their own, without any help. It was better than any feeling she could remember. And now these jerks wanted to take it all away. She could only hope the girls’ plan would work.
The Jeeps came to a stop on top of the HELP stones. “Not bad,” Agent Jones said appreciatively. He cut one of the fishing lines.
“What are you doing?” Shanti barked.
“You don’t need them anymore, right? Now that you’ve been rescued.”
“Yeah, but you could ask first. We worked hard on those.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
“You didn’t hurt my feelings. You pissed me off,” Shanti said, glaring. “There’s a difference.”
“Remember,” Petra whispered. “Play it cool.”
Shanti forced a smile. “Um, no offense or anything. I’m not mad, I’m just kind of sad. And emotional.”
Agent Jones patted her shoulder. “Understandable. You girls have been through a lot. Tonight, all you have to do is smile and wave.” He cut the other fishing line and let them both drift out to sea.
The black shirts had been busy setting up a performance area on the beach. They’d constructed a wooden stage with a red curtain across the front. Now they were building a runway.
“We’ve run out of wood,” one of the black shirts called.
“Just take it from one of the huts,” Agent Jones shot back, and the black shirts tore the walls from Tiara’s home.
“My place!” she cried.
Petra wrapped her up in a big hug. “Come on. Let’s go get our game faces on.”
Adina took Nicole aside. “I need you to cover for me.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to find Taylor, see if I can get her to help.”
“But how? She’s straight-up crazy now.”
“Sometimes, a little crazy is exactly what you need.”
The girls practiced their dance routine loudly. Nicole banged hard on her drum. Adina slipped into the jungle and ran for Taylor’s secret hideaway. It had taken on a ghoulish quality; Taylor had affixed several black shirts to poles outside her cave and lit them to make torches. In the firelight, Miss Miss seemed to undulate in some ancient dance. Taylor sat before the sculpture on her haunches, swiping mud across her cheeks in long, thick streaks.
“Hey, Taylor.” Adina crept closer. “Whatcha doin’?”
Taylor’s knife was at Adina’s throat quickly.
“Whoa. Taylor, it’s me, Adina. Miss New Hampshire.”
Taylor seemed to be trying to remember something. “New Hampshire … I don’t like you, do I?”
