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\f0\fs24 From Emma Hayes's viewpoint at her sixteenth birthday party's close, she registers both the near-kiss with Tyler Marsh during the chicken fight (mentally filed as unfinished) and the shocking kitchen revelation that her previously boy-dismissive fourteen-year-old sister Lizzie kissed\u8212?or was kissed by\u8212?party guest Will, which Lizzie announced defiantly to their mother before retreating upstairs, leaving their father suppressing laughter, Ella disengaging, their mother ascending to pursue the matter, and Emma and overnight-guest Mai Lin collapsed in the hallway over the absurdity while the evening's giddy fullness remains unresolved and ongoing.
}