Chapter 5

“With a straw,” said the third, pointing at her already made-up lips, which were twice the size of her actual ones, or so it appeared. Bozo, in fact, would’ve asked for pointers.

I shook my head. “I’m, uh, not a waiter…er, tress. Not a waitress.” I blinked through the flop sweat.

They all stopped their pre-show rituals and glared at me. “No room at the inn, honey,” said the queen closest to me. “Try the manger down the street.”

Lucy patted my shoulder. “Ignore her, Mary. Luna is the bitchy one of the group.”

And the queen next to Luna said, “I thought I was the bitchy one?”

And the third one said, “I thought that was me.”

Lucy sighed and flung me to a chair in the back of the room. “Bitchiest. Luna is the bitchiest of us.”

They all nodded and went back to their makeup. Luna turned one last time, squinted my way, seemingly realized I was no competition, and began to apply eyelashes the size of a cow’s.