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Chapter 3
Saturday, May 12, 2001

Our trip from La Jolla, where we lived, involved traversing Interstate 5 north through Oceanside, San Clemente, Irvine, Mission Viejo and other assorted cities. We’d encountered the most traffic in what is frostily known to area commuters as The Merge, a stretch of highway that involves the joining together of Interstate 805 and Interstate 5 near Del Mar. Summer fair-goers, north county dwellers who work in the city and those who frequent the racetrack especially loathe this concrete pain-in-the-ass.

It took us nearly forty minutes to clear the merge and we instinctively knew that we’d run into our next slowdown near San Onofre where there is a checkpoint to catch Mexican aliens who may have made it past the border officials.

Traffic did bog down as we passed through Oceanside, a city known for its Devil Dogs who subsist around the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. The most common vehicle we encountered was the SUV. I guess owning and driving something that big makes up for the registered owner’s lack of organ size. I saw one and called it a penismobile and Ami broke out laughing hysterically. I love to hear Ami’s Laughter.

When we cleared the last transition ramp from Oceanside, I glanced over my left shoulder and noticed two uniformed Navy lieutenants in one of those penismobiles giving us the once over. They were actually giving us more than a look-over. They were ogling us but Ami didn’t know it because she was sound asleep and snoring up a storm.

I had the convertible top of the Boxster down and the wind was wreaking havoc with our hair and our clothing. Unfortunately, Ami slid a little too low in her seat. Her dress had scooted up to mid-thigh and was blowing over her tummy. Needless to say, her dress wasn't covering much of lower torso. I nudged her in her side numerous times trying to wake her to no avail.

I heard a wolf whistle pierce the roar of the freeway traffic noise. I caught a glimpse our admirers again and they were flailing their arms animatedly in our direction. I tried to lose them in the heavy traffic but they kept popping up from out of nowhere. As we are approached the checkpoint we had been neck-and-neck for about five minutes.

The sailors were yelling something, but it was hard to hear them.

Soon, the one closest to me produced one of those animated sign thingies and stuck it to his window with suction cups. It was one of those kyron-type gadgets with red letters that seem to float across a black background. Some of the letters were blinking of and on. Yeah. You know what I’m talking about.

A message materialized:

NICE THONG... THANK YOU LADIES!!!...

The word nice was the one flashing off and on.

The sign man folded his hands and bowed his head in prayer to me but mostly he was worshiping Ami. The cute one who was driving nodded his head up and down but was being careful not to run his SUV into the car in front of him.

The sign man was pointing to Ami who was still unaware of anything going on around her. Since the seats in the SUV was much higher than ours, he was staring directly over my shoulder. Basically, he could see every inch of Ami’s wonderful body.

In the fury of torrential wind, Ami’s panties, her tummy and every inch of her thighs was now clearly on display to the lieutenants. Even less fortunate for Ami was the fact that her thong had bunched to one side with most of her labia was now plainly in view.

I nudged Ami and she woke up, startled. “Wha…what’s up?”

“Your dress is. I tried to get your attention but you kept mumbling that you didn’t want to go to school or something like that.”

Ami was still half asleep and didn’t know what to say. When she gained semi-cognizance her immodesty became apparent to her. By the time she was fully awake, her admirers were still next to us and she blushed redder than I had ever seen anyone blush before.

Ami punched me sharply in my ribs and I yelped like a puppy.

“Thanks a lot, Meghan. I thought you were my friend.”

“I am, honey.” I flashed her my famous poutty look. “I’m sorry.”

“You could have at least covered up my pussy.”

“I tried, honey. I tried to pull it down to your knees but it's just so windy.”

Ami started crying and eventually fell back to sleep.
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The lieutenants were ordered to stop at the checkpoint by a border patrol agent. I guess the patrolman didn’t like what he had seen. Maybe he just wanted to check out the school-bus-yellow Lexus. I saw them park and step out into the parking lot while they reached into their pockets to produce their identification.

Ami woke up a half-hour later and she apparently had forgotten about her porno incident. Everything seemed fine and she wasn’t mad so I said nothing about it. She probably thought that she just had a bad dream. I, however, would have a nice bruise on my side that would to be hard to explain later.

Funny thing, when I looked down at my lap, I was showing off just as much of me as Ami had shown to the seamen earlier.

Ami tugged at my dress. “What’s up with you, girl? You trying to give the boys a show?”

We both started giggling. Boy were our dresses were short!
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We made a scheduled stop in Irvine because I knew that Ami would need to use the ladies room. I knew I sure did. Besides that, we didn’t need to be at Disneyland for another hour and fifteen-minutes. We had plenty of time.

Ami scurried off to use the restroom and joined me after our hostess had seated me at our booth.

I thought she had went into the restroom but she reappeared and whispered something to a waitress. Both of them got a gross look on their faces. As Ami approached our table I could tell by the look on her face that she was nervous.

“These freaking dresses make us look like we’re going to a hookers’ convention. We certainly don’t look like we’re on our way to Disneyland.”

As she sat down at the table, Ami squeezed her knees together in an attempt to try and hide her lack of modesty.

“The dresses are kind of short, aren’t they?”

“Heck, yes!”

We went back and forth on the briefness of our attire and when I couldn’t wait any longer I said, “I’ve got to use the potty, Ami. Was the restroom over there by the door?”

Ami’s face wriggled.

“Yes. But it’s flooded, and it smells really gross in there. I almost ruined my new shoes in the gunk on the floor.”

“I don’t care, I’ve really got to go, sweetie.”

As I negotiated the path to the ladies room, one of the bus boys had finished a mop-up and had just reopened the facility.

One of the stalls had an OUT OF ORDER sign on it and there were two other girls waiting to do their business.
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When I got back to Ami, I slid into the booth next to her.

We always ordered the same thing at Denny’s: a BLT and a large Pepsi. Diet. With plenty of ice. I would have preferred a Diet Vanilla Coke but this place only had Pepsi and no vanilla-flavored soft drinks at all.

“It’ll be cool, Ami. We’ll gain notoriety, if not for the dresses, then for our extremely good looks and beauty. I bet that we’ll have the time of our lives!”

I put my arm around my best friend.

To those who observed us we might have seemed a couple of lesbians, but we always set together in restaurants. That way we can each get the same view of any boys who might gavotte past us. Besides, it was easier to nudge each other in our sides when we were on the same side of the table. Sometimes we’d grab hands just to make the old ladies frown.
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We began to talk about how we thought that our day might progress. That our dresses were ultra-short and we had to make sure our legs were together to risk putting ourselves on display was a moot point. Our necklines were cut so that our cleavage was almost totally exposed. You could just about see our nipples. Thank heaven for demi bras!

“Do you really think they’ll let us into Disneyland looking like this, Meghan? Don’t they have a dress code or something?”

“Elizabeth said she had it all covered…”

“I don’t know, Meghan. I had a dream that men were ogling me all over. It was like they were taking off my panties and it… it was freaking spooky. You were there with me, too. I think we were in my car...”

I quickly changed the subject before Ami put two and two together and realized that that wasn’t a dream at all. I reminded her that Elizabeth told us not to worry about our attire. She assured us that many of the girls would be wearing items of similar and, perhaps, even more brevity, but I really didn’t believe her.

“After all, Ami, we're future supermodels!”
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As we finished our Diet Pepsi and BLTs, Ami seemed a bit more self-confident. I paid the waitress using my brand new VISA card. My mother had given it to me for when I was away at college but today I felt like splurging.

“The snack’s on me, Ami! I’ve got us covered.”
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We wandered back to Ami’s Boxster, got in and I again put the top down for the remainder of our excursion.

We were drawing our share of attention from almost every man who was northbound on Interstate 5. Every time a semi-truck driver liked what he was seeing he’d slow down and let his horn do his talking.

A car full of college boys was just about to careen off the highway after glimpsing our way.

Good luck, boys!
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Chapter 4
The second leg of our trip took forty-minutes. We were to meet as a group at Downtown Disney in front of The House of Blues Restaurant to receive our tickets. This new area of the Disneyland complex had only been open a couple of months and we thought it would be crowded. We weren’t wrong!

It didn’t take long for our group future supermodels to find each other and start congregating at the meeting site. I introduced myself to each girl. I had shared pictures with all of them online. Ami hugged each of her on-line friends.
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While we got acquainted amongst ourselves, park patrons wandered aimlessly about us dressed in their touristy clothes. Shorts and tee shirts. Flip-flops. Big mouse-eared hats and baseball caps with Goofy on them. That’s the way we should have been dressed but, instead, we looked as if we’d be more at home walking the catwalks of Milan touting sexy club clothing for the daringly young at heart. We were certainly doling out more than our fare share of skin.

A strikingly beautiful woman sauntered into what was the middle of our crowd. Although none of us had met her personally, we realized immediately that it was Elizabeth Goode. She looked more glorious than her picture on the Internet. Her gorgeous black hair and piercing turquoise eyes lent credence to the old adage that a thing of beauty is a joy forever. She looked as if she’d been born blessed and would go on being young and beautiful for the remainder of her years on planet Earth.
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Our hostess began to call off our names from a roster of twelve girls. As she called each girl's name, a young man dressed in a black Armani suit presented us with our passes. Both the man and Elizabeth retained two tickets and we realized she'd only called ten names.
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We headed toward the gates of the park which lay beneath the train station just past the floral Mickey Mouse. As we waited in line it was announced over the public address system that a group of supermodels would be wandering the streets of the kingdom. The announcer said that taking pictures of the girls was encouraged and that anyone who snapped shots of the girls in the short black dresses would have a chance to be published and given credit in the June issue of Elle magazine.

It was also announced that President Bush’s wife would be enjoying Disneyland with her daughters that morning. Consequently, we had to pass through several banks of metal detectors. Each guest was patted down just in case he or she was carrying a pair of nail clippers, an emery board or something similarly dangerous.

Luckily for Ami, the other supermodels and me, most of us had left all that stuff at home. The most dangerous thing any of us might have had on our persons, aside from our hairbrushes, was our lipsticks. I could just see it:

BARBARA BUSH, LAURA BUSH STALKED. GIVEN DECENT MAKEOVER.

Sure. Right. Like it was really going to happen.
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As a result of the security announcement, Ami, who was already nervous about the brevity of her dress, started to whimper. When she found out that some Secret Service Agent, albeit a female Secret Service Agent, would be patting her down, she just about threw up. The thought of being critiqued by some g-person made her want to cower in the corner like a little girl.

“It’s all right, Ami. You should have seen it when Momma and I flew to Arlington, Virginia last year. This has to be a cakewalk compared to that. We were in line for nearly two hours because several prominent Senators on board. By the time we made it through the metal detectors and we had blisters on our feet the size of ping pong balls. I would have given a million dollars to have these puppies back then…”

I reached for my pump, unbuckled its strap and made like I was about to remove it. As I did, Ami smiled.

“You’re not just saying that to make me feel good, are you Meghan?”

“Me? Hah! No way, babe! Besides, you look too adorable right now and this stupid little search thingy will be over before you or I even know it.”

“I must look like a cry baby.”

I wiped her eyes with my handkerchief.

“No, sweetie. We all cry sometimes. Besides, you look like a million bucks and I’m not just pulling your chain either.”

Ami smiled.
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When we finally made it inside Disneyland we began our walk down Main Street, USA. We decided as a group to get to Tomorrowland before the crowds so we could ride Space Mountain a couple of times. But, as promised, people began snapping our pictures as we walked by them, just as if we really were supermodels. That slowed us down a bit.

While we were walking I heard someone say she thought she had just seen Meryl Streep and I giggled to myself. A smirk lit up Ami’s face too. Maybe the woman had really just seen Laura Bush with a halfway decent face!
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We slowly filtered down to subgroups of twos, so that boarding the rides would be much simpler. Ami and I spied Elizabeth running our direction holding the hands of two last girls.

At the rate she ran to catch up with us, anyone else would have been out of breath. Certainly the two girls were. We stopped and Elizabeth introduced them to us.

“This is Jody Hansen and Victoria Russell. They’re from the San Diego area too,” she said looking directtly at Ami and me. “They're supermodel numbers nine and eleven respectively. They had limo trouble and just arrived in time to get into the park with us!”

It was kind of catchy, Elizabeth calling us supermodel such and such. I was supermodel ten but Ami was supermodel one. Elizabeth ranked us by the number of emails we got amongst ourselves. Ami was by far the most popular girl so, naturally, she won top spot.

“Hi Jody! Hi Victoria!” Ami and I said together. We added that it would be fun to get to know two new friends from our neck of the woods.
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Jody Lynn Hansen lived at Mission Valley’s River Run in a condo directly across the parking lot from where we lived when Momma and I came to San Diego thirteen years ago right before we moved to La Jolla. Victoria Elaine Russell lived in Crest fairly close to Ami’s maternal grandparents. Both of girls were seventeen years old and they really did want to become supermodels. Each had a body and a face that would allow them to accomplish their goal. Ami and I were just here to have fun.

Victoria looked a lot like Kate Moss only with a little more meat on her bones and Jody bore a striking resemblance to Britney Spears. Given her hair styling and the clothing she wore, she could be a dead ringer for the pop diva, but then again, couldn’t any young blonde girl these days?

Ami and I introduced ourselves and they complimented us on our appearance. They were wearing dresses that were a bit longer than ours, but not by much. They were showing just as much cleavage. Both girls constantly complimented Ami on her hair, her eyes and her body. Ami just blushed.

Elizabeth Goode had business to do and couldn't join us until lunch time. She reminded us of the complimentary luncheon held in our honor at The Blue Bayou Restaurant at noon. We said goodbye to her and promised to be there.
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One fellow followed us around Disneyland taking pictures as we moved along Main Street, USA. He wore a navy-blue Tommy Hilfiger shirt and coordinated khaki shorts also by Tommy. His camera bag sported the familiar red, white and blue flag logo. He was probably, we concluded, a staffer for the Disney Company and I immediately began dreaming of the money we might make if Disney wanted to use our photos for publicity purposes.

Then I thought about the handsome young man. Lord only knew what our stalker was wearing beneath his clothes. He probably had a wardrobe of Tommy undies and the thought of seeing him in his unmentionables breezed through my mind as I looked him over. I also thought about how nice it would be to see him in the altogether.

He was Asian but I couldn’t make out whether he was Japanese, Chinese or Vietnamese. His blue-black hair glistened in the sun and he had a pleasing smile that was the whitest I had ever seen. His muscles were well-chiseled and his legs betrayed the fact that he worked out religiously. I truly believed that I could fall in love with him.

He asked me if I’d take some pictures of him with Ami. I agreed as he gathered the girls around him. He asked me to take several pictures but Victoria eventually changed places with me so that I wouldn’t feel left out. We had to stop taking pictures because people were bunching up around us impeding the progress of the horse-drawn trolley.

“My name’s Kaz Kurosawa,” the young man said as the crowd started to disperse and we moved to the sidewalk next to the ice cream shop. “What’s yours?”

His attention was clearly focused only on Ami. I don’t believe he was trying to be rude to the rest of us, but he asked the question again this time looking her straight in the eyes. “My name’s Kaz, my beautiful lady. May I ask you what is yours?”

“Ah… Ah… I’m Ami,” she stuttered but finally got her name out. “My name is Ami Daishi. Are you a photographer? I mean, of course you are, but are you a professional photographer?”

“I guess that you could say that, Ami Daishi, but you’ve got to be the most beautiful girl I’ve ever had the privilege to frame!”

“Frame?” Ami looked puzzled.

“That’s what I say when I take someone’s picture. It’s like you’ve been framed and you’re ready to be shown to the world. And, Ami Daishi, I’d really like to frame you some more. You are absolutely and without a doubt the most ravishing lady I’ve laid my eyes upon!”

“But you didn’t take my picture, Mr. Kurosawa. Meghan and Victoria did. You haven’t framed me yet.”

“You’re right,” Kaz said. “Would you do me the honor of letting me frame you now?”

Ami blushed but took her place in front of the ice cream shop. Her blushing quickly turned into one of the prettiest smiles I’d ever seen part her lips. I had to agree with Kaz Kurosawa, given what she was wearing, her yummy body, her gorgeous face and her wonderful hair, Ami was one hundred and fifty percent desirable, and probably was the most beautiful woman anyone had ever framed before. But then, I’d always had a crush on her. Please don’t tell her or the other girls.

When he finished taking his pictures of Ami, he took her hand in his to shake it. He didn’t let go. Kaz smiled as Ami swooned. While he was still holding her hand, he pulled a digital printer from his Tommy bag, printed the pictures that had just been taken and handed them to her. He also handed a picture to each of us and asked me to take a picture of him and Ami alone. Again, I obliged.
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Kaz Kurosawa checked the digital display of the five mega-pixel camera and printed out what he considered to be the best of the pictures of him and Ami.

“You have great potential to be a photographer, Meghan,” he said. “Have you studied photography?”

“Well… No.”

“You really should. Ami Daishi looks breath-taking in these shots, wouldn’t you say? And you were the one that framed her and me.” He winked at me and her.

“Thank you!” I beamed from ear-to-ear.

“Thank you,” Ami echoed me.

Kaz Kurosawa gave her a kiss on her cheek and began to leave, but lingered a bit. I suggested that he stay and enjoy his day in the park with us. “You’ve been so kind to us, sir, and I know that Ami would love to get to know you better.”

“Sir?” Kaz played with me. “No. My name’s Kaz. Sir is my father.”

“Good to meet you Kaz!” I said as I started to laugh. “Please join us.”

As Kaz kissed Ami’s hand, we pleaded for him to stay. It didn’t take much to convince him to accept our invitation. We resumed our walk toward Space Mountain.
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Ami was definitely enjoying the whole experience and flashed me a bewildered, anxious look. As she did, Kaz Kurosawa took her into his arms and gave her another kiss, this time it was a full and definitely luscious one on her soft lips.

“You are a most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, Ami Daishi.”

Now Ami would be the last to tell anyone this, but I knew that she was eating the whole attention thing up. Of the four of us, she, so far, had been the only one to apparently land the big one. Even though there wasn’t a contest going on, she could truthfully be crowned a winner.

I suppose that Ami appealed to Kaz Kurosawa’s taste in women. However, I believe that no one can honestly resist Ami’s charm, her demeanor or her personality. Those things drew the gentleman to her side.

“Thank you, Meghan. I’d love to join all of you.” His teeth sparkled when he talked.

“Well then, Kaz, these are my friends Jody and Victoria. You’ve obviously have met Miss Daishi! She’s the shy one.”

“It’s my pleasure to meet all of you beautiful young ladies.”

We melted into a huge sigh as he kissed each of our hands and believe me, the pleasure was all ours.
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There was no separating Ami from her new boyfriend. If he wasn’t holding her hand, his arm was around her waist, brushing the small of her back. Ami enjoyed every minute of it.

Ami hadn’t dated many boys and it’s not that anyone wouldn’t die to go out with her, mind you. She’d just never found the time. Maybe Kaz Kurosawa’s charm would be the stuff that would finally win her over. In any case Kaz Kurosawa was now the fisherman and Ami was his prize-winning catch that had just found her way to his hook.
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“There’s one thing you girls should know,” Kaz said as he studied each of our faces and we sighed. “I’ve got an appointment at one o’clock so that means that I must leave around lunchtime.”

Ami’s cheery face saddened and she began to pout.

“That only gives us three hours together and there’s so much to do.”

“Then, I suggest we get to it,” Kaz said exuberantly.

Since we were now standing in front of Space Mountain, we jumped in line and rode the attraction. Ami and Kaz kissed as we made our way through the snaking line.

Because of the configuration of the cars, this would be the first time that Ami had ever sat closely between a man’s legs. It would be a whole new experience for her. She sat in front of him and he behind her. He wrapped his arms around her midriff and she cupped her hands over his.

The ride was over in a little under two minutes. After we acclimated ourselves and exited the attraction, Ami excused herself and said that she had to use the ladies room. She grabbed my hand and we ran toward the restroom door.

“Isn’t he dreamy, Meghan?”

“You bet he is, Ami. And he likes you!”

“Yes. I think that he does!”

“How did you like the ride?”

“Well, having Kaz so close to me was like when Daddy and I used to roll the ball to Momma when I was little. But halfway through the ride I felt something poking at my bottom. I know it wasn’t Kaz’ hand because I was holding his the whole time.”

“Kaz was just enjoying himself, sweetie.”

“What do you mean, Meghan? We were both enjoying ourselves.”

“Yes, but Kaz was really enjoying himself. When a man likes a woman very much things happen that he has no control over. Kaz likes you very much!”

Ami got a surprised look on her face.

“You mean he…”

“Yes, honey. Kaz was having an… unh… an erection.”

“Yuck! Why would he do that Meghan?”

“He likes you, Ami.”

“Yuck. I like him but does he have to…”

I repeated what I had said to her. “Kaz likes you Ami. He can’t control that part of himself all of the time.”

“Oh? Then I shouldn’t think he’s a perv or anything like that?”

“No, Ami. He’s just a man. And plain and simply, he likes you!”

“Oh? Really?” She said sheepishly. “Okay! Because I know that I could grow to love him!”

We both started giggling and when we found our friends they were at a refreshment stand buying a half-dozen frozen bananas. Kaz handed Ami one and Jody handed me mine.

“You two are certainly in good spirits!” Kaz was smiling at Ami and quickly interlocked his fingers with hers.
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Kaz suggested that we head over to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and make a wish in her enchanted well. When we got there he gave each of us a quarter and we tossed them into the waters below but Ami still had hers in her hand.

Ami whispered in my ear while she was still holding Kaz’ hand.

“I wish for time to stand still so that this day will go on forever!”

I didn’t know if that is possible but I knew just what she meant. And I couldn’t blame her either.
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After made our wishes we headed for the Matterhorn. We ended up standing in line close to thirty minutes. My sister future supermodels and I wished that the line would move a little faster but Ami didn’t seem to mind the wait a bit. About twenty minutes into our wait she leaned into Kaz, put her arms around his neck and began kissing him like they’d been together forever. I’d never seen Ami kiss a boy before that day and I was totally amazed by her attraction to Kaz Kurosawa.

When we got into our bobsleds, Ami smiled. Her fingers, interlocked with Kaz’ and she showed no signs of losing her grip. Since everything was going smoothly with her new boyfriend, she looked forward to the ride.
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We hit all of the E-ticket rides that weren’t closed for repairs. When we had conquered the mountain rides we ended up on “It's A Small World”. Since she and Kaz got to cuddle all of the way through the attraction Ami christened it the most wonderful ride in all of Disneyland.

Jody, Victoria and me? We entertained each other by singing It’s a Small World After All in Goofy, Mickey Mouse and ET voices. We made fun of the cute little baby dolls but Ami didn’t seem to mind our racket. Neither did Kaz. Ami’s head was on her boyfriend’s shoulder and I swore that I could hear her purring.