And Candi could tell she meant it.
Jonathan smiled. “I wish I could believe that.”
“Believe it,” said Sarah, just before she reached up on tiptoe and gently kissed him on the lips.
Jonathan moved his hands to rest them on her hips. “Do you have any idea what my friends back home would do if I walked into the prom with you as my date?” The idea made him nearly glow with happiness.
“Well, I don’t know about your friends, but my friends would be jealous.”
That comment made Candi smile. She could totally see it. Jonathan had changed, as had Sarah.
Jonathan chucked. “That’s funny. Your friends would probably refuse to eat lunch with you ever again and you’d be banned to the chess club table with me for life.”
“You underestimate your charms, Jonathan.” She ran her hands up and down his upper arms, which by now had become quite well-muscled and very tan. “I’d have to work, I think, to keep my old friends from trying to steal you away from me.”
Jonathan pulled her closer. “So, will you go to the Peanut Island prom with me, then?”
Sarah put her arms up around his neck, “Yes, I would love to.”
They leaned in and gave each other a hot, wet kiss that threatened to turn into more – until they started hearing catcalls from across the clearing.
“Woo hoo, get a room, you two!” they heard Kevin yell.
“Wow, hey ... rated G, please, guys,” from Candi.
Jonathan and Sarah instantly broke apart, both of them acting a little embarrassed.
Everyone moved away and began picking up their dinner mess, avoiding the awkward moment that threatened to overwhelm them.
Sarah was the first to speak. “Jonathan and I were talking, and we think we should have a prom on the island.”
“A prom?” asked Candi, pretending she hadn’t just listened in on their entire conversation.
“Yes, a prom. The Peanut Island Prom. We can have a dinner, some dancing, and then whatever. We’ll have to get creative.”
Kevin looked at Candi; she shrugged her shoulders.
“I’ll go to the prom – on one condition,” said Kevin.
“What?” said Sarah.
“That I can get a date.” He looked at Candi and raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, that’s not fair, you’re putting me on the spot.”
“All’s fair in love and prom dating, Gumdrop. So what do you say?” He walked over to her and took her hand in his. Then he started going down on one knee.
“Oh, my god, what are you doing?! Get up! Stop!”
“Candi? Candace Buckley? Will you go to prom with me?”
Candi felt her eyes start to water. Her heart was in her throat. Kevin had no idea what this meant to her. She hadn’t even thought of dreaming about this, even in her wildest fantasies about him. The furthest she ever got in her make-believe world was hoping that he’d like her back ... even just a little bit would have satisfied her. But now he was offering more.
She cleared her throat. “Fine. Yes, I’ll go to the prom with you.”
Kevin stood up and pulled her to him for a hug. “A wise choice,” he said in her hair, leaning down to kiss her head. “I was ready to start begging and that would have been embarrassing for all of us.”
Candi laughed. “You’re a dork.”
“Don’t tell anyone.”
***
All of them were exhausted. It had been a long night, filled with confessions of guilt and love and future intentions. They climbed up the treehouse ladder and went to their rooms, each of them thinking of the upcoming event and what they were going to do to make it as much like the real thing as possible.
In all of their planning, none of them thought to consider the possible consequences of bringing the outside world’s version of the prom to their protected, isolated Eden.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Prom Night
Prom preparations took over their activity schedule, ahead of the completion of the treehouse and the building of platforms. The girls put themselves in charge of food and the guys were managing the entertainment and setup. They all decided as a group to hold the prom on the beach where they first arrived on the island. The guys had checked it out and reported back that the lifeboat was still there, but now mostly buried in the sand at the water’s edge.
They kept their planning and efforts secret from one another. The girls spent time making skirts out of palm frond strips that they secured around their waists with rope. They planned to use island flowers to add decoration, but had to wait until the afternoon of the prom to pick them.
“What are you making?” asked Sarah, frowning as she tried to figure out Candi’s design.
“I’m making a second skirt that’s going to be shorter and thinner than the first, to wear as a type of grass tube top. I’m just not sure yet how I’m going to keep from exposing myself, since I don’t want to wear my dingy-white bra underneath.”
“Huh,” responded Sarah. “You could always do what I’m doing ... the classic Hawaiian hula-girl style. I just need to work out the mechanics of securing these two coconuts over my boobs. I was going to use a plant rope surrounded by flowers, but so far I’m having a hard time getting holes in the coconut halves that didn’t split the entire shell.” She threw down her latest failures. “Oh well. I have two more days to get it done. If I don’t figure it out by then, I’ll just go topless.”
Candi looked up in alarm. “I hope you’re kidding.”
Sarah just winked and said nothing.
***
The day of the prom arrived. Sarah was putting the finishing touches on the coconut top she had finally managed to put holes in. It wasn’t the most comfortable prom dress she’d ever worn, but it was island chic for sure. She had picked about a hundred tropical flowers in whites and pinks and was in the process of sticking their little stems into spaces in the plant rope part of the halter-top. She had already secretly made a flowered head wreath for Candi.
She reached up to the bamboo shelf to take a sip of water from her cup that was resting there. She had her eyes on her project and didn’t notice that she grabbed the wrong one. She took a big gulp of what she thought was water, gagging and spitting it out when she realized it was something entirely different.
“Oh my god,” she said to the air around her. “What the hell was that?” She looked into the cup and saw a cloudy liquid with something floating in it. There was a slight taste of it still on her tongue. She made a bitter face as she tried to figure out exactly what the taste was.
“Hmmm, tastes like ... wine?” She looked into the cup again. The contents were too murky to tell what it was or what it had been, but it had to be something that Candi had cooked up. She was the only one who messed with ingredients like this.
“What’s up?” came Candi’s voice. She approached with a fish dangling from a looped plant rope that was hanging down by her side.
“You tell me,” responded Sarah, thrusting the cup out at Candi with a disgusted look on her face. “What the hell is this?”
Candi came over to look inside. “I don’t know, what’s in it?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking you, duh.”
Candi looked down into the cup again and then up at the shelves where the other ones sat. “Oooh ... oops!” She smiled sheepishly.
“Oops? What does that mean?! What did I just drink?” Sarah put her fingers to her lips, a stricken look on her face. “Was it lizard balls or something? Was it poison?” she asked in a meek voice.
“No, don’t be silly,” said Candi, laughing. “It’s not poison, it’s coconut water and guava.” She took the cup from Sarah’s hand, putting her nose to the edge to sniff it. “What does it taste like?”
Sarah shrugged her shoulders, relieved to find she wasn’t going to be dying a painful death by poison lizard balls anytime soon. “I don’t know, wine maybe?”
“It smells like wine too.” She took a tentative sip. “Yep. Tastes like wi
ne. Not very good wine, probably, but I wouldn’t know. The only stuff I’ve ever tasted was at my parents’ holiday parties.”
A grin slowly spread across Sarah’s face. She stared at Candi, waiting for her to make the connection.
“Why are you smiling like that? Stop it, you’re making me nervous.”
“No, no need to get nervous, get happy! You just made some prom punch!”
Candi thought about it for a second. “Prom punch. Hmm. It probably is alcoholic. I remember in science class that alcohol is created by through fermentation – and to start fermentation all you need is sugar and wild yeast.”
“I totally remember that,” said Sarah, enthusiastically.
“I can still picture Mrs. White running around the classroom, touching all the surfaces and saying how there was probably wild yeast sitting right there.”
“Yeah, and that many wild plants had it, and it got blown by the wind to all kinds of places, right?”
“Exactly. Wow. I can’t believe we’re actually using science class to make alcohol on a deserted island.”
“And we thought all of that education was going to be totally useless,” said Sarah, grinning from ear to ear.
“Okay, prom punch it is. But I think we’d better filter it. That gook in there doesn’t look so good.”
“I’ll go get the sheet.” Sarah took off to the treehouse, thinking that the bed sheet currently serving as the boy’s bed cover would make a pretty decent filter. She came back a minute later holding it in her hand.
“Here’s a clean spot. I just washed this thing two days ago, so if you use the corner of it, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
Candi had a grossed out look on her face.
“What? It’s alcohol, no bugs can live in it. The sheet is clean, don’t worry about it; I doubt we’ll drink much of it anyway. It’s pretty gross. It’s just the idea that we could have alcohol at our prom. Pretty cool, right?” She looked at Candi for confirmation.
Candi acquiesced. “Yeah, pretty cool. Hold up the sheet, I’ll pour the stuff over it and catch it in this other cup.”
After they finished filtering the punch, they each took a shower, using sand to scrub the stink off their bodies as much as they could. Sarah had gathered a few very fragrant flowers, and they each rubbed the petals on their bodies, doing their best to wear perfume for their big dates. The Peanut Island Prom was less than an hour away, and they were as nervous as they would be if they were home putting on satin gowns and professionally made corsages.
***
“No, dude, you have to put it up like this,” said Kevin. He was holding up a bamboo pole at an angle on the beach, trying to set up a limbo rack. They’d had to veto the volleyball game idea since they had no good ball substitute. Kevin had been bummed for a while, but Jonathan was able to convince him that the limbo rack was a decent second choice and probably something the girls would like better.
“Oh, yeah, okay, I see what you’re saying.” Jonathan grabbed the pole and held it at the angle Kevin had specified.
“Keep it there while I get the other one – then we can tie them together.”
They had been working for an hour, setting up a fire pit and the limbo area. They had also gathered anything they thought could be used as a musical instrument. Candi said before that she wanted to start a band, but they hadn’t yet gotten around to doing that. Tonight was going to be their first performance.
“What do you think the girls are going to say about our outfits?” asked Jonathan.
“I think they’re gonna want to get us naked,” said Kevin, smiling at the thought. “I’m not gay or anything, Jonathan, but even I have to admit you look hot in a grass skirt.”
Jonathan laughed. “I don’t know about that, but I do like the headband and the arm things. I feel like a native warrior or something.”
“Yeah, it’s like the All Blacks rugby team. I wish I had memorized their Maori chants. These outfits would be perfect for that. Too bad we don’t have tattoos ... ”
“We could have tattoos,” said Jonathan, cryptically.
“Uh, not sure I want to stab myself with something sharp out here in the middle of no-antibiotics-land.”
“No, I mean temporary tattoos. Using berry juice or something. We can just wipe it on in patterns.”
Kevin thought about it for a second. “I like it. Find us some tattoo stuff. I’ll totally do it.”
Jonathan disappeared in a flash. He knew exactly where to find the materials. He’d already seen them in the trees before.
Kevin yelled after him, “We only have another hour or so before sunset, so hurry up!”
“Yeah, okay!” Jonathan ran but not as fast as he could. He didn’t want to sweat too much before the big night. And it was big too – tonight would be his first date and his first dance. And he was going with the most beautiful girl he’d ever known.
***
Sunset came and the girls were in the workshop area in the roots of the trees, putting on their finishing touches. They had used makeup from Sarah’s precious stores in her makeup case. Sarah did a classic nighttime sultry look for herself, using dark blues and purples with heavy black eyeliner. For Candi she went with a more natural look, using browns and a hint of green. She used dark brown liner to outline her eyes and then used it to fill in Candi’s freshly plucked eyebrows to emphasize their delicate arch.
They loaded all the food they’d prepared into woven baskets Sarah had made, preparing to carry it all to the beach.
“Wait one second,” said Sarah. She went back to the workshop, returning with what looked like a pile of flowers.
“I made this for your hair.” She held up a string of flowers, designed to sit like a crown on Candi’s head.
Candi got tears in her eyes. “Sarah, that is so sweet! And they are so pretty!” She grabbed Sarah in a hug, careful not to squish the flowers. “Thank you so much,” she said over Sarah’s back. “You are an awesome sister, you know that?”
Sarah felt herself go a little misty, too. “Shut up, you’re going to ruin my makeup. Now sit still so I can put this on you.”
Candi stood in front of Sarah and waited while Sarah secured it amongst her dreadlocks.
“Perfect. Exactly like I imagined it would look. You’re going to knock Kevin’s socks off tonight. Well, not his socks, since he won’t be wearing any. You know what I mean.” Sarah wiped away the tear that had tried to escape her eye.
Candi wiped under both of her eyes too. “We are the hottest chicks on this entire island.”
Sarah laughed and Candi joined her. “Yes we are. Look out bitches, the Queens of Peanut Island have arrived.” She held out her hand, and the two of them executed a perfect secret sister handshake.
“Come on. I wanna get to the party and get my drink on. The guys are going to be totally shocked when they see this punch.”
Candi smiled as she bent down to grab her pile of baskets. “I wonder what they’re going to be wearing.”
“I have no idea. Probably the same old shorts they’ve been wearing for the past six weeks.”
“I’m surprised we haven’t seen what they’ve been up to.”
“They found a good hiding spot, because I’ve been watching out for it and I haven’t seen anything,” said Sarah, a little miffed that they’d outsmarted her.
The girls made their way through the trees. As they got closer to the beach, they started hearing sounds.
Sarah slowed down until Candi drew up next to her. “What’s that sound? Can you hear it?”
Candi stopped and cocked her ear towards the beach. “It sounds like ... drums?”
They looked at each other and then started walking at a fast pace, finally breaking through the trees and finding the source of the noise.
The guys were each sitting on tree trunks they had dragged to the edge of a big bonfire, playing musical instruments they had made.
Kevin was using thin bamboo sticks topped with tied-on seashells to bang on a se
t of sawed-off, upright bamboo poles, in a very danceable rhythm. There were several poles of different widths and heights stuck in the ground in front of him. Each pole had been cut at a joint, creating flat surfaces for the bamboo drumsticks to hit, like mini drums.
Jonathan had two sets of coconut shells that had been broken in half, cleaned out, filled with tiny shells inside, and then secured back together with cords wrapped around them. They made perfect maracas.
Together, the two of them were putting out a hell of a native dance mix.
“Woo hoo!” shouted Sarah, coming into the clearing with her baskets. She quickly set them down and began dancing around the fire. Candi set hers down too and joined in. They swirled their grass skirts around, dancing to the rhythm of the boys’ beat.
The guys shouted out their encouragement, laughing as the girls tried to do some Tahitian belly dance moves. The girls soon dissolved in laughter, so the guys quit playing and joined them around the fire.
Kevin was the first one to speak. “Wow, you guys look great.” He took Candi by the hand. “Come over here, I have something for you.”
Sarah watched her brother with interest, wondering what he possibly could have up his sleeve for Candi.
He pulled Candi over to the log he’d been sitting on and bent down, reaching behind it to pull out a string of flowers and green leaves. “This is for you. Wanna get lei-ed?” He winked at her suggestively.
Candi smiled and giggled a little bit. “Sure, lei me.” She followed the lei with her eyes as he put it over her head, settling it between her breasts.
Kevin looked in her eyes. “Beautiful.”
Sarah nudged Jonathan, gesturing over at Candi and Kevin with her chin. He looked over at them and then down at Sarah, smiling at her. She warmed not only at his approval of whatever their siblings had going on, but also the connection she felt, sharing it with him.
“Thank you.” Candi looked up at Kevin, her face all aglow. “Wow, you look great too.” She laughed. “That is like the coolest prom suit I’ve ever seen.”
Kevin backed up a little bit and bowed. “Thank you, girlfriend.”
“And I love your warrior paint.” She reached up to touch his face and the paintings that he’d done down his arms. They looked very tribal.