Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm

'I still don’t understand why you didn’t apply for the Teen Modeteen internship with me!' I’d totally be gay for a Liza Minnelli tote bag.' It’s not like they hand you a DVD box set of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Collection in a Liza Minnelli souvenir tote bag when you come out.' 'Libby, not all the gays have an encyclopedic knowledge of the American musical theater. ' Carousel?The epic love story about mill workers and carnival barkers in a newly industrialized 1870s New England fish-ing village?' There’s nothing I like better than when romance meets history. They filmed Carouselthere, you know.' 'They filmed what?' 'Camden Harbor is really nice! It’s so cute - like the cutest part of Maine ever. 'Whatever.' I could almost hear him shrug through the phone. 'We could have had so much fun together this summer! Not educational Disneyland fun. 'Libby, Libby, Libbeeeeee, listen to meeee,' he whined. I had the perfect shade of lip-gloss to pull off that all-natural no-makeup makeup look.

I’ll be like an eighteenth-century Disney princess! Colonial Cinderella!' Oh, I could see it now. A sanitized, tourist-friendly eighteenth century.

It just lookslike the eighteenth century. I mean, there are flushing toilets and a gift shop. 'It’s not like I’ll actually be livingin the eighteenth century. 'No, it’s fun, I promise! I mean, honestly, it kind of islike Disneyland,' I said, reconsidering. 'So sort of like Toontown in Disneyland, but not fun?' Haven’t you heard of Plimouth Plantation? Old Sturbridge Village? Colonial Williamsburg?' 'A living history museum is like a re-creation of a village from a different time period, with all the museum workers dressed in costumes and doing chores or crafts or trades or whatever. 'Dev, how many times have I explained this?' 'Living history? What is that? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Isn’t all history. 'It doesn’t even make any sense,' Dev continued.

Literally, there was only one pair of heels in there. Did this mean I had to take out a pair of shoes? I couldn’t lose a pair of shoes! I’d already pared down my two shoe racks to like the bare minimum of shoes necessary for basic human survival. 'Mmmrph.'The zipper still wasn’t going anywhere. 'Sorry, Libs,' he said, 'but you know my brain shuts down when you go all History Channel on me.' 'That better have been static, Dev, and not a sigh of disgust,' I warned. 'I’m an eighteenth-century New England colonist on the coastline of the territory now known as the state of Maine. 'Like I’ve said about a million times, I’m not a pilgrim.' I sat on the suitcase and tried to zipper it between my legs. It’s a living history museum studies internship.' I nestled my cell phone between my ear and my shoulder, trying to zip my suitcase closed with one hand. 'Please remind me again whyyou’re going to pilgrim camp.''Okay, first, it’s not camp.

Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohm