A few minutes later, mom left the stage to a round of appreciative applause from the room. She had never taken her thong off all the way, though. I felt bummed about that, which surprised me. A lot. But Maddie took my attention off it when she handed me an orange jello shot. I was grinning at her as we tipped the glasses against our lips once more and used our tongues in unison to work the contents into our mouths. These ones tasted like oranges. No surprise there.
It wasn't long before another performer replaced our mother on the stage. Just as she made her way to the middle of the raised platform, Maddie and I downed our next shot. It was the yellow one. It tasted sour, so I guessed it was supposed to be lemon flavored. As the shot went down my throat, I mentally tallied in my head how
