Huh. I wished we could go somewhere during the skit. The camp introductory night brought out the worst in my uncle, where he sang the cheesiest songs completely off-key and the counselors put together a special skit welcoming everyone to camp. I’d already seen it with the first session, and I really wasn’t in the mood to see it again. Though the kids seemed to love it. Luckily enough, I didn’t have to participate.
“Sounds good,” I said nonchalantly. “What time are you thinking?”
“I don’t know, after lights-out?” Lights-out was ten o’clock, but all the counselors were free once the kids fell asleep. Mostly. Sometimes the older campers sneaked out, too, though none of the counselors ever busted them. “Maybe around eleven?” She tilted her head to the side, her hair spilling over her shoulder, her gaze knowing. She was hot and she knew it, with her long dark hair and those equally dark eyes.
I should say no. Lacey looked like trouble. But I’d always had a thing for trouble, so I found myself saying, “Out by the volleyball court?” That was code for star-gazing, which was also code for making out.
Her smile grew and she nodded. “See you then.” With that, she turned and went back to her table.
“Nice,” Brian said once she was out of earshot. He jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow again. “Looks like someone’s getting laid tonight.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions.” I doubted I’d get laid. But there were plenty of other things we could do to pass the time.
And I was looking forward to doing each and every one of those things, too.
…
ANNIE
“Okay, it works like this.” Hannah smiled at Kelsey and me, as we were the ones sitting directly across from her. She was trying to show me the ropes, since this was my first time at camp, and Kelsey was just along for the ride. She’d glommed on to me like she had no other friends here, and I was starting to think that was true. The other girls in our cabin sat at the table with us, and while they seemed friendly enough, they had their own core group.
Leaving Kelsey and me on the outside looking in.
“Every day, I assign someone to be the one who goes and fetches our food for each meal. It’s a rotating schedule. Tonight, I’ll get everyone’s food. Tomorrow it’s someone else’s turn and so on. The schedule is on the bathroom wall in the cabin, so make sure and check it so you know when it’s your turn. Okay?” Hannah smiled at the both of us and we nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
“She’s really nice,” Kelsey said after Hannah left. “Way better than Lacey.”
“Who’s Lacey?” I didn’t want to be excluded from the rest of the table’s conversation, but the other girls were scooted close together, their heads bent as they gossiped about Jake, the same dark-haired boy they’d all gone on about earlier. I heard lots of giggling and exaggerated descriptions of his hotness, and I really wanted in on that conversation.
“The other counselor for our age group. There are two cabins full of sixteen-year-old girls. Lacey was my counselor last year, and she’s a total bitch.” Kelsey waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “Just be glad she’s not our counselor.”
Hannah came back to the table multiple times with our plates and food before we were all finally able to dig in. The other girls talked to us finally, Hailey being the most friendly, and we all had a good laugh over our names all ending with an “ee” sound—with the exception of Gwen. Not that it seemed to bother her. She was calm yet friendly, and she seemed to be unfazed by just about anything.
Once we started all chatting together as we ate spaghetti, I realized everyone in my group seemed to have a super talent. Kaycee was an excellent softball player who was on her way to a full scholarship in college. Hailey was an excellent singer. Presley was an actress and was big in the drama club at her high school—I noticed her flair for drama, so that was no surprise. Caitie played soccer, and Bobbee was a dancer. She and Gwen had been putting together a routine for the end-of-summer talent show for six years running, and they were already eager to come up with something new.
“What about you?” I asked Kelsey. “What do you like to do?”
Kelsey shrugged and pushed her empty tray away from her. “You’ll laugh.”
“No, we won’t,” Bobbee was quick to say. “We’re nice. I promise.”
The other girls laughed, and I winced. I hoped they weren’t laughing at Kelsey. That wouldn’t be nice. I wanted to like these girls, not feel like I ended up with a bunch of possible bullies.
“I’m on the debate team at school,” Kelsey admitted, wrinkling her nose.
“Well, that’s cool,” Hailey said. “I’m on the academic pentathlon team at my school. I have been since seventh grade.”
“Nerd,” Gwen murmured, making everyone giggle.
“So does this mean you’re really great at arguing?” Presley asked.
Kelsey nodded. “I could convince you to do just about anything if I set my mind to it.”
“What about you, Annie?” Caitie asked, her eyes sparkling as her gaze met mine. “What’s your superpower?”
What could I say? That I was a really great reader? That sounded lame, though it was the truth. I could read a book a day, even when I had to be at school and had homework. But that wasn’t really a skill. Nothing I did could be considered a skill. I wasn’t really part of any groups at school. I had nothing.
“Hey, chicas.”
My entire table forgot Caitie’s question when they set eyes on the boy who’d just stopped by our table. When I turned to see who it was, I sort of forgot, too.
Okay, my mind went completely blank, because the hottest boy I’d ever set eyes on stood just behind Kaycee, a sly smile curving his lips as he flipped his slightly shaggy golden-brown hair out of his eyes. “Hey, Kyle,” they all singsonged.
“What’s going on? Ready to watch Fozzie Bear make an ass out of himself tonight?” Kyle laughed and the girls giggled.
“I think it’s adorable, how he gets up on stage and humiliates himself by singing really awful songs,” Gwen said. “When I was eight I thought he was the coolest thing ever.”
“Me, too,” Presley agreed, her gaze glued to Kyle.
My gaze was glued to Kyle, too. I couldn’t help it. He was by far the handsomest boy I’d ever been this close to, like, ever.
“Yeah, well, I think he’s lame as hell.” He flicked his head again, and it almost felt like a practiced move, probably because he had to do it all the time. Why didn’t he just get a haircut? “We should all sit next to each other.”
“That would be awesome,” Caitie said, sounding cool, though I could see the excitement in her eyes as she looked at all of us real quick before she turned to face Kyle. “You guys should save us a spot.”
“Will do. See ya.” He waved and sauntered back to his table, where he proceeded to high-five every single boy sitting there.
“Oh. My. God.” Kaycee fanned herself. “Did he get hotter over the winter, or what?”
“Every summer it’s worse,” Bobbee said. “As in, he gets better-looking and it drives us all right out of our minds.”
The girls erupted in laughter, chiming in with their agreement.
“Who is he?” I couldn’t help but ask, earning curious looks from every girl at our table.
“Only the most popular boy at camp,” Presley said. “He’s been coming for second session for what feels like forever and I swear, he’s gone out with every single one of us at least once, right, girls?”
Gwen nodded, her lips twisting as she scanned all of us crowded around the rickety table. “Definitely, especially during our middle school years.” Her smirk grew. “Let me ask an important question. Who here at this table has kissed Kyle?”
Six hands shot into the air, with the exception of Kelsey and me.
I looked to my right to find a boy watching me. The dark-haired one everyone had been talking about earlier. The camp director’s nephew, Jacob. He was cute, too. Not classically handsome like Kyle,
but he had that brooding, loner look going for him.
And that was sort of hot. I could see why the girls went on about him, too.
“What do you think of Kyle, Annie?” Bobbee asked, nudging me in the side to get my attention.
Way to put me on the spot. “Um, he’s all right.”
They all laughed, and for a fleeting moment, I thought they were laughing at me. But then I realized they were laughing at the absurdity of my words.
Because seriously, we all thought Kyle was better than all right. Did we want to necessarily admit that out loud?
Probably not.
Chapter Four
ANNIE
Four days into camp, and I’d come to some realizations.
Summer camp is just as clichéd as I wished it to be. And this wasn’t an insult, either. I liked the fact that the camp director was sort of odd and crazy yet lovable. That Nancy, the lady who ran the arts and crafts building, believed she was a hippie and wore flowing skirts and flowers in her hair. That all the boys checked out all the girls and the little kids ran circles around us every night no matter what we were trying to do, and that our bathroom looked like a girl bomb exploded inside and that our counselor Hannah left every night after lights-out so she could go hook up with Brian, one of the counselors for the teen boys’ cabins.
That last bit of gossip I’d just learned over breakfast. Presley told all of us as we ate eggs and bacon and hash browns. Well, some of us were eating fruit and yogurt—Gwen and Bobbee—because they didn’t want to start their day off with “nothing but fat and carbs ”—direct quote.
“She waits about fifteen or twenty minutes before she leaves,” Presley said, her eyes wide as she watched us, the knowing look on her face saying it all. “So last night I decided to follow her.”
“You did not,” Hailey practically squealed.
Presley shushed her, and Kaycee clapped her hand over Hailey’s mouth. “I did, too,” Presley said proudly. “She went to the dock and there was Brian waiting for her. They sat together on the edge, right over the lake, and when they started kissing, that’s when I practically fell into a bush. They heard me and I had to run away because I swear, Brian was standing up and ready to investigate. What if he’d found me?”
They all started to laugh, and so did I. Kelsey just picked at her hash browns and I wondered what was up. The girls hadn’t fully embraced us into their inner circle yet, but they weren’t rude, either. I figured it would take some time, and I was fine with that.
Maybe Kelsey wasn’t.
There was more gossip to be had, and I listened with rapt attention, waiting for any mention of Kyle. Dreamy, handsome, slightly-cocky-but-who-could-blame-him Kyle, with his sweet lopsided smile and his sparkling hazel eyes and the way he’d always say hi to me when we passed each other. It made me want to walk past him all the time, just so I could hear his deep voice say hey or hi, always calling me “new girl.”
Like when he gave me the chin lift and a quick “what’s up, new girl” as he jogged by. Then he stopped and asked if I knew the time and I said I didn’t and he said “oh, that’s cool” just before he smiled and left me. I’d stood frozen in the middle of the trail for what felt like forever, a bunch of ten-year-olds running past screaming at the top of their lungs finally snapping me out of my Kyle-induced haze.
Okay, fine, I had it bad for Kyle. Problem? He barely knew I existed. I figured I would stick out like a sore thumb, considering I was the new girl among girls he’d gone to camp with for years, but it actually turned out to be a good thing. I was the girl who never liked the spotlight before, but at camp, it was totally to my advantage. The boys all asked about me, with the exception of Fozzie Bear’s nephew, Jacob.
He avoided all of us like the plague. I was fairly certain the girls tried to chat him up at one point or another over the last four days, but he wouldn’t give. Not even crack a smile, which just infuriated them. And then spurred them all to try even harder.
It was kind of amusing to watch, though I never participated. He…scared me, in a way. There was this intensity about him, like he could see right through all of us. Right through me. That he knew my bravery was a facade, that I was really nothing more than a weak little girl falling into line, trying my hardest to make friends.
Or maybe that was my own fears. I don’t know.
“We’re going to the dock tonight,” Gwen told me as she guided me into the bathroom later that afternoon. The other girls followed after her. “The boys are meeting us there after lights-out. And you’re coming with us.”
“Why?” I didn’t know how to say that I was scared to go out on the dock. What if it collapsed and we all fell into the water? God, I’d probably drown. My entire body trembled just thinking about it.
“Because all the boys will be there, including Kyle.” Gwen got right in my face and smiled. “It’s the perfect opportunity for you two to get to know each other better.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but I wasn’t going to argue.
Gwen grabbed her caddy full of makeup and started going through everything. “I’m going to give you a makeover,” she told me.
Excitement rose inside me, despite my worry about the dock. Gwen was the makeup guru of the cabin. She could transform any of the girls with her expertise. “You don’t have to…” I started to protest, but she shook her head.
“Nope, I’m so doing it. This will be fun.”
This summer, I’d wanted to belong to something bigger than me. And I felt like my girls—excuse me, my women—in cabin W7A were already becoming my gang. My posse. My squad.
Whatever I should call them, I believed they were my friends, and I wanted to get to know them better. They were fun. They didn’t push me or make me feel dumb for my preference of learning the fine art of lanyards over going swimming or hanging out at the lake in my bikini. Though I did bring bikinis with me. A bunch of them. I refused to bring a one-piece swimsuit for fear that would be all I wore all summer. Not that I’d hung out around the water much yet.
Yeah, I’d sort of failed that summer bucket list item so far.
I frowned as Gwen riffled through her cosmetics, searching for the right colors that would suit my skin tone, she’d told me. Did they make fun of me behind my back? Sometimes I wondered if they found me amusing and that’s why they kept me around.
That was a depressing thought. One I didn’t want to focus on.
“Bobbee is going to help you with your outfit for later.” Gwen stopped just in front of me. “Close your eyes.”
I did as she asked, pressing my lips together as I felt the brush start to feather over my eyelid. “What’s later?”
Gwen let out an exasperated sigh. “The dock, remember? We’re going to wait until Hannah sneaks out with Brian, and then we’re all going to the lake.”
“But don’t Hannah and Brian meet on the dock?”
Gwen started in on my other eyelid. “Presley overheard them talking earlier.” All we ever seemed to do was spy on our counselor. If only Hannah knew. “They’re meeting at the bonfire pit. It’s s’mores night and Brian told Hannah he could keep the fire going long into the night.”
I started to laugh, and so did Gwen. “That’s so cheesy.”
“I know, right? But Hannah said something like, ‘Oh, I bet you could.’ Those two are so hot for each other and camp’s barely begun.” Gwen started working on the first eyelid again. “Though we’re second session, so maybe they’ve been together the entire summer. Who knows?”
Right. Who knows? Camp was fueled on gossip and speculation, and we hadn’t heard anything about Hannah and Brian prior to our arriving. How could we? All kinds of stories buzzed from cabin to cabin, sights of people just hanging out together turning into a major event. Are they into each other or not? Did they hook up? Are they fighting? Our phones didn’t work up here, so we were all social-media deprived. We’d turn anything to gossip, claiming we had the facts to back up the story when we had nothing but our vivid
imaginations.
It seemed all in good fun. I hadn’t heard any malicious stories.
Yet.
“What’s the deal with the new guy?” Presley said as she strolled into the bathroom.
I cracked open my eyes when Gwen stepped away from me. “What new guy?”
Presley rolled her eyes. “The other lifeguard. The one we’ve all been trying to flirt with the last few days. Jacob or Jake or whatever.”
Right. He was a lifeguard. Not that I would know, considering I never went to the lake.
“I don’t know. He never talks,” Gwen said as she grabbed a giant, fluffy brush and a compact of facial powder. She popped the compact open and dabbed the brush in the powder, gathering up so much my eyes went wide at the thought of all that powder being brushed onto my face.
I’d end up looking like a ghost.
“He’s hot,” Presley said, going to lean against the counter. “But he doesn’t give me the time of day.”
“He’s not supposed to. They get in trouble for messing around with the campers,” Gwen pointed out, sounding logical, which always seemed to infuriate Presley.
“Whatever. Like there are never any counselor/camper hookups here.” Presley grinned. “Give me a break.”
“From what I’ve heard, Fozzie doesn’t want his nephew hooking up with anyone at camp. That goes for counselors, too.” Gwen wielded the brush at me and swept it across my cheeks and forehead. “Rumor is he’s a troublemaker who got busted by the cops for stealing.”
“He’s a criminal?” Presley rubbed her hands together. “Intriguing. How do you know all of this?”
Gwen shrugged and turned to face her. “I hang out a lot at the lake. I’ve heard stories.”
“Hanging out, drooling over Dane?” Dane, the head lifeguard, was absolutely gorgeous, though way too old for all of us. What sealed the deal was his Australian accent. He only had to say a few words and girls were swooning left and right. Not me, though.
I didn’t hang out with lifeguards.
“Whatever.” No one really spoke about it, but we were all aware of Gwen’s raging crush on Dane. The fact that he had a solid eight to ten years on Gwen wasn’t a deterrent. She tried her best to gain his attention and though he gave it to her, it wasn’t in the way she wanted. He patted her head and called her cute—this, according to Kaycee when she told me the story, infuriated Gwen. She’d hatched a plan to land him by the end of the summer.