They didn’t do the matching vests. They didn’t do the chaos fairies. Instead, they walked up to the karaoke stage, grabbed the two microphones, and launched into a chaotic, joyful, slightly-off-key mashup of “Baby” by Justin Bieber and “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. Kimmy rapped the verses. Lulu sang the chorus while balancing the top hat on Kimmy’s head.
A pack of eighth-graders sneered as they walked by. “You two are so weird.” 2010 kimmy kimm & lulu chu
Their project that July was the mall’s “Teen Talent Meltdown,” a karaoke contest held in the atrium between a Cinnabon and a Spencer’s Gifts. They weren’t singers, but they didn’t need to be. They had a two-part harmony on “Love Story” by Taylor Swift that they’d perfected in Lulu’s basement, singing into hairbrushes while the wall-mounted AC dripped onto a pile of Seventeen magazines. They didn’t do the matching vests
“It’s not about the song, Lu,” Kimmy typed, thumbs flying on her pink BlackBerry Curve. “It’s about the brand .” Kimmy rapped the verses
Then Lulu burst out laughing. “You look like a junior stockbroker.”
In the hazy, glitter-glued summer of 2010, Kimmy Kimm and Lulu Chu ruled the narrow hallway of Westbrook High’s freshman wing. Not with cruelty, but with an unspoken, two-person empire built on shared ringtones and identical butterfly hair clips.
They came in fourth place. The winner was a boy who played “Wonderwall” on an acoustic guitar and cried afterward.