Summary

Chapter 1 opens with Robie, a fifteen year old girl in Hawaii, getting her nose pierced by Green Mohawk Dude. She asks him to tell her something that will hurt worse than getting her nose pierced. He tells her childbirth. Because of her age, she thinks it’s an unfair comparison. He points out his toes and tells her he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and lost his big toenails. Then he pierces her nose. He tells her she can’t go swimming for a month to prevent infection. She wonders about how much trouble the piercing will cause with her parents. She tells Green Mohawk Dude that she lives on the Midway Atoll, and he replies that she’s lucky. Since her parents are research biologists, she knows quite a lot about ocean fish and seabirds. She doesn’t go to a traditional school. She...