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“Oh. My. Gosh. We didn’t even learn about that one. It must be really bad!” Tiara gestured solemnly to her crotch. “Protect the citadel. Protect the citadel.”
Petra looked to the others. “Help.”
Nicole shook her head. “Public school Sex Non-Ed. When I’m surgeon general, I am so fixing that.” On the walk, she explained hormonal, and Tiara nodded, smiling.
“Ooh. It’s okay, Petra. When I get my monthlies, I need a handful of Advil and a chocolate donut. I’d give anything for a chocolate donut right now. I’m so hungry. Even hungrier than when my mom put me on that grapefruit and hot sauce diet before the Miss Tupelo pageant last year.”
“I’ve done that diet,” Nicole said.
Shanti nodded. “Me, too. Except without the grapefruit.”
Tiara’s eyes filled with tears. “All those years of starving myself and now I’m really starving.”
“All those pageants — local, city, state. The car rides with my hair in rollers,” Shanti echoed.
“Straighteners and extensions,” Nicole said.
“Teeth bleaching,” Tiara added. “Eyebrow shaping. Tanning booths. Bikini waxes. Lipo.”
“Pills. Injections,” Petra mumbled.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Feels like we’ve been in training for the wrong pageant,” Nicole said with a sigh.
“What are we going to do?” Tiara asked.
Their bellies ached with hunger, and the earlier thrill of losing a few pounds before pageant time had been replaced with a terrible, desperate longing for food. To make matters worse, the rain had started again. It pounded wet fists against them.
“Let’s move on,” Shanti said. “I think if we follow the stream it’ll lead back to the beach and the others.”
They marched alongside the stream as it fattened into a river, alert all the while to the constant sound track of caws, shrieks, growls, and croaks. Birds flew suddenly from treetops, the slapping of their wings like gunshots. Things slithered, hissed, and cackled in the great unknown. Petra sang a Boyz Will B Boyz song softly to herself to drown out the noise.
“You have a really nice voice,” Tiara said. “Almost as good as the record.”
“Thanks,” Petra mumbled and blushed. “I was a big Boyz Will B Boyz fan.”
“Who wasn’t?” Nicole laughed. “When I was eleven, I had their posters all over my room.”
“Me, too!” Tiara said, smiling. “Who was your favorite?”
“Mmm, maybe Joey”
Petra let out a loud “Ha!”
“What’s wrong with Joey?”
“Nothing, if you like boys who tan like it’s an Olympic sport.”
“He was pretty orangey,” Nicole agreed. “J. T. Woodland was the best, anyway. He was so cute, with those big eyes and those curls. He was the most talented one, I think. I wonder why they kicked him out?”
“I’ll bet it was drugs.” Tiara batted away a dragonfly.
“It wasn’t drugs,” Petra said.
“How can you be sure?” Tiara asked.
