Dad put our bags in a cab which was going to drive us to the ferry dock. “Davis Park, here we come,” he said as we pulled into the large ferry parking lot in time to make the next ferry over to Fire Island.
That’s when it hit me. The ferry! Would Robert be on it already?
As we climbed out of the cab, I scanned the dock area. It was easy to spot the Kiki, the ferry that would take us over. I looked at the dock around the boat and at the open upper deck. There was no sign of Robert. But what if he was inside? What if we bumped right into him? Dad didn’t know what Robert looked like, but Claudia certainly did. What was I going to do?
“Come on, girls,” said my father when the last of our gear was unloaded. I picked up one of my suitcases, still searching the area for any sign of Robert.
“Stacey, you seem so jumpy,” said Claudia while Dad bought our tickets at the office by the dock.
“Oh, just the excitement of being on vacation, I guess,” I told her (another half truth). “Wait for me here, okay? I just have to run and see the boat. I can’t wait another minute.”
“I’ll come, too,” said Claudia.
“No,” I said, a bit too forcefully. “I mean, no, you stay here and tell Dad where I’ve gone. Please?”
“All right,” Claudia said, looking puzzled.
I ran to the dock and up to a man wearing a heavy denim jacket and a black cap. “Is Robert Brewster working on this boat right now?” I asked anxiously.
The man jerked his head to the side thoughtfully. “Robert Brewster,” he repeated as if he was trying to recall the name. Then his eyes lit. “Oh, the new kid. No. He’s not on this run. Wait a minute, maybe he is scheduled. Sorry, but I’m not sure. Why don’t you go on board and check.”
“Thanks,” I said as I ran onto the ferry. Quickly I glanced around the lower level with its long wooden benches. He wasn’t there. I ran up the white metal steps to the top deck. No Robert.
I hurried back off the deck and got off the boat, practically running right into Dad and Claudia. “I just had to see the boat,” I panted.
“I’ve never seen you this excited about anything,” Claudia commented.
“Why shouldn’t I be?” I asked, taking a racket from her. I still wasn’t positive Robert wasn’t on the boat. Maybe I’d just missed him.
Together, we walked onto the lower deck of the ferry. “Here’s a good spot,” said Dad, putting some bags down on a bench.
Claudia smiled. “It looks good to me.”
The boat filled up quickly. Ten minutes later it pulled away from the dock.
“Let’s take a walk around the ferry,” suggested Claudia.
“Oh, no,” I said quickly. “I … uh … I get very seasick if I move around on a moving boat. I’d better stay seated.” I did not want to run into Robert unexpectedly, just in case he was on board.
Claudia frowned quizzically. “Since when?”
“Oh, always. It’s just with ferries this size.”
My dad was reading The New York Times. He flipped the paper down and shot me a questioning look. Luckily, he decided to say nothing.
I unzipped one of my bags and pulled out a Seventeen magazine. “There’s a quiz in here I want to do,” I said. “Test Your Boy Appeal.”
“Okay,” Claudia agreed.
Remembering the quiz was like a stroke of genius because it took us most of the trip to complete it. By then, Claudia seemed to have lost the urge to roam.
When we got to the dock, we gathered our stuff and joined the slow line of passengers disembarking. I was finally able to relax. We’d made the crossing without running into Robert. He probably wasn’t on the boat at all.
As I stepped off the ferry, the first thing that struck me was the smell of the ocean air. It was salty and fresh. We were just a ferry ride from Long Island but it was as if we’d landed in a very different seaside world.
A balding man in a peach polo shirt and beige shorts met us at the dock. “This is my friend, Stu Majors,” Dad introduced us. “He has a house here, and he’s the one who arranged for us to rent his friend’s house on such short notice.”
“Thanks, Mr. Majors,” I said, “It’s great to be here.” I noticed that Mr. Majors was pulling an empty red wagon. You know — the kind kids have. For a second I thought he must be a bit nuts. Then I saw that a lot of people had them. They were pulling their suitcases and gear in them.
That’s when I noticed something even more unusual about Fire Island. There were no cars! Not a one. Not even a road. Everyone was walking on narrow wooden boardwalks, pulling their red wagons behind them.
“Come on,” said Mr. Majors as he and Dad loaded our stuff into his wagon. “I’ll walk you to your house.”
As we walked along the bay side, where we’d landed, there was nothing even like a town, just wooden houses and low-growing shrubs and pine trees. “Look at the sign on that house,” said Claudia. A sign hung by the door said: Bedside Manor.
“A doctor rents that house,” Mr. Majors explained. “Get it?”
“Oh, bedside manner,” I giggled. “Got it.” What’s our house named?”
“The Sandpiper.”
“Pretty,” I commented approvingly. The house was pretty, too. It was set halfway between the bay and the ocean on the other side. You could see the ocean from the big window in the kitchen. There were four cozy, cute bedrooms.
“Let’s sleep in this room together,” said Claudia as we stepped into a room with twin beds.
“Don’t you want your own room?” I asked.
“No, it will be more like a sleepover if we room together,” Claudia insisted.
“All right,” I agreed.
We unpacked quickly, putting most of our things in the plain wooden dressers and stuffing the rest in the very narrow closet. Then we decided to explore the island.
Dad and Mr. Majors were sitting in the kitchen talking. “We’re going out, Dad,” I said.
“There’s a pizza place in Watch Hill,” said Mr. Majors.
“Where’s that?” asked Claudia eagerly. Mr. Majors gave us directions, but I wasn’t sure I could follow them.
“You’ll find everything,” Mr. Majors called as we went out the door. “The community isn’t that big.”
As it turned out, I discovered what he meant sooner than I expected. We set out on the boardwalk with Claudia keeping a sharp eye out for the landmarks Mr. Majors had mentioned. We didn’t find Watch Hill right away, but we did come to a place called the Harbor Store. “I need a soda,” Claudia decided.
While we waited inside to pay for her Coke, I realized we’d returned to the harbor area by way of a back walkway. The Kiki was in the dock. Passengers were streaming out of it. It had left the island and returned again.
Claudia paid for her soda, and she and I were just leaving when we ran right into someone coming in the front door of the store.
It was Robert!
Jessi and Mal arrived at the Stoneybrook Community Center filled with excitement. They went straight to the office of Adele Lebeque, the head of the day camp program. She made them fill out a few forms, and then she walked them down to the basketball court where the other counselors had assembled.
The camp had already held an orientation, which Mal and Jessi had attended. At orientation, they’d received the Stoneybrook Day Camp T-shirts which they had on that morning. They’d seen most of the other counselors, too, but hadn’t had much time to talk to them.
The older counselors were in the fourteen to sixteen range. The junior counselors were mostly twelve or thirteen. Jessi and Mal had landed the jobs because they’d been so highly recommended by Mrs. Braddock, a BSC client who is a friend of Ms. Lebeque’s. They were the youngest junior counselors.
“This is Laura Sanchez.” Mrs. Lebeque introduced them to a tall, slim girl with large dark eyes and long, wavy dark hair. “You two are on her team, with the eight to nine-year-olds.”
“Hi,” Laura said with a smile. She pointed to a dark-skinned b
oy and a blonde girl standing a little way off. “Raj and Amy over there will be working with us. We’ll divide our kids into three sections. We’ll all be doing things together, as a group, but you’ll be responsible for the kids in your section. For now, I’m going to give you two the biggest section. You can handle it together. Okay?”
“Okay!” said Mal with a smile. She was glad she and Jessi wouldn’t be separated.
At nine-thirty, they went out front and met the two arriving buses loaded with day campers. “Tigers over here!” Laura shouted as the kids began milling about the parking lot. The campers had received their group assignments at orientation. The eight to nine-year-olds were the Tigers.
The kids gathered around Laura. “Hey, Mal!” cried Vanessa Pike, Mal’s nine-year-old sister. Vanessa looks something like Mal, with reddish brown hair, freckles, and glasses. Beside Vanessa stood a girl with short blonde hair (with a trailing tail) and big brown eyes. She was Vanessa’s best friend, Haley Braddock.
Jessi and Mal also spotted some other BSC clients, looking for their groups. Jessi saw her younger sister, Becca. Three other Pike kids — Nicky, Margo, and Claire — were there, too, along with Matt Braddock, Haley’s younger brother.
“Vanessa, Haley,” Jessi called as she waved them over. The girls joined Jessi and Mal. “Stay near us,” Jessi told them. “Then maybe you’ll be in our section.”
As she’d said she would, Laura split the seventeen Tigers into three sections of five, five, and seven. Jessi and Mal got the seven. Vanessa and Haley were two of them.
Checking a chart on her clipboard, Laura told the Tigers that they were scheduled to use the pool first. “Suit up, and we’ll meet by the four-foot section,” she told them.
Jessi and Mal led their section into the community center and down to the locker rooms. Then Raj went to the locker room with the boys, and Jessi, Mal, and Amy went with the girls.
Some of the girls weren’t shy, and changed right out in the open. Others held their suits and waited for a bathroom stall to be free. Haley and Vanessa were among the ones who stood waiting for stalls, their suits rolled into towels.
Finally, two stalls, side by side, opened up at the same time. Haley and Vanessa each went into one of them. “I am so glad you’re in my section,” Haley said to Vanessa, tossing her T-shirt to the top of the stall as she changed.
“Me, too,” Vanessa agreed, picking her shorts up off the floor as she stepped out of them. “This summer is going to be so much fun. Hey, wait till you see my new bathing suit. It’s cool.”
“I got a new one, too,” said Haley. “I can’t wait to show you.”
Haley and Vanessa came out of their stalls, smiling. Instantly, their smiles faded. Vanessa’s hands flew to her hips as the two girls stood staring at one another.
They had on the exact same bathing suit: It had red and white stripes, and a red ruffle along the neckline.
“I can’t believe you went and got the same suit!” Vanessa cried angrily. “After I told you I was getting it.”
“You did not!” Haley cried.
“I showed it to you in the catalog!” Vanessa shouted, her voice growing higher. “I said, ‘My mom is getting me this suit.’ ”
“You said you couldn’t decide between the red stripes and the purple checks and you thought you liked the purple checks better,” Haley disagreed.
“I did not!” Vanessa fumed. “I said I couldn’t decide but I liked the red stripes.”
“You did not,” Haley insisted.
“What are you saying? That I’m lying?” Vanessa asked angrily.
Haley folded her arms. “You must be, because you did not say you were getting the red stripes.”
“I did, too!” Vanessa yelled.
By that time, most of the other girls had gone out to the pool area. Amy had gone with them. “Come on, ” said Jessi. “We have to get outside.”
“I’m not going out there!” cried Vanessa. “We look stupid in the same suits!”
“Just tell everybody you’re best friends, and you chose matching suits,” Mal suggested.
“Ex-best friends.” Vanessa sulked.
Haley’s eyes went wide when Vanessa said that. “If that’s how you want to be about it, fine with me!” she shouted and stomped out of the locker room.
“Come on, Vanessa,” said Mal. “We have to go.”
“Mal, she got out there first. Now it will look like I’m copying her instead of her copying me. But she did copy me.” Vanessa wailed. “I can’t go out there in the same suit. I’ll feel like a total dweeb!”
“I’ll trade suits with you,” Jessi suggested.
They tried switching suits, but Jessi’s was too big on Vanessa and Vanessa’s was too tight on Jessi. “Come on, you guys,” Laura called into the locker room.
“Vanessa, Just put on your suit and come out,” Mal said, growing impatient. “It won’t be that bad.”
“Oh, all right,” Vanessa sulked. “But I can’t believe that out of all the zillion suits in the world, Haley had to go out and buy the one she knew I was going to get. She did it on purpose, too.”
“I’m sure she didn’t,” Mal said. “Why would she do that?”
“Because once I showed her the suit, she wanted it and she didn’t care how I would feel if she got the same one. She can be like that — selfish!”
“I don’t think Haley is like that,” Jessi disagreed.
“Well why else would she do something like this?” Vanessa argued.
Jessi and Mal didn’t know what to say. They didn’t know why Haley would buy the same suit.
With her head down, Vanessa trudged out to the pool area.
“Jessi, Mal, you can’t leave your group for so long,” Laura said as they followed Vanessa toward the shallow end.
“Sorry,” said Jessi. “We had a little problem.”
“Is the problem solved?” Laura asked.
“We think so,” said Mal.
“Good work then.” Laura smiled. “Next time, just split up if you have to.” Laura blew her whistle, and all the kids looked at her. She told them they were going to form two teams for a game of water volleyball.
“I’m not going to be on her team,” Vanessa said immediately, glaring at Haley.
“All right, then split up,” Mallory said crossly. She helped Raj and Amy divide the Tigers up, eight on one side and seven on the other, while Jessi and Laura hooked up a long net across the four-foot area of the pool.
“Hey, those two should be on the same team since they’re wearing the same suit!” shouted a heavy-set boy with blond spiky hair. Haley and Vanessa stared daggers at each other.
Laura’s rule was that the kids could only hit the big beach ball with their heads. Since the ball was so light, it didn’t hurt. Soon the kids were laughing hysterically — all but Haley and Vanessa. Their two stone faces matched as perfectly as their suits.
When it was Vanessa’s turn to serve the ball, she slammed it in Haley’s direction with so much force it looked as though she was trying to knock her out. Light as the ball was, Haley wanted to knock it out of her way quickly. And she did — she moved so fast that she slipped and went under water.
She came up sputtering. “Vanessa did that on purpose!” she shouted.
“Not so hard,” Laura said to Vanessa.
Vanessa just smiled as Haley pushed her wet bangs out of her eyes.
To Jessi, it seemed as though the hour in the pool went on forever. But, finally, it was time for arts and crafts in the art room. “Well, at least they can’t try to drown each other in there,” Jessi whispered to Mal as they herded the kids inside.
“I’m going to show you all how to make lanyards today,” Laura was saying. She set big spools of different colored plastic cord on the table. She also put out a cardboard box of tin whistles to put on the ends of the braided cords when they were done. “Have a counselor help you cut four strands each in whatever colors you want,” Laura instructed the kids. “They sho
uld all be about three yards long. When everybody’s all set, I’ll show you how to braid them together.”
Jessi, Mal, Laura, Amy, and Raj helped the kids measure and cut their cords. There was a lot of careful consideration — the kids picked their colors as if it were a major decision.
While Mal helped a petite girl named Alexis choose between purple or red, Jessi helped Haley measure a blue piece. “I’d like to combine it with white, but she has the white,” said Haley. Jessi looked up and saw that she was Vanessa.
Vanessa heard Haley, but she spoke to Jessi. “Please tell her that it was bad enough that she copied my bathing suit. She can’t have the same color lanyard as I do, too.”
“Would you inform her that my lanyard will be white and blue, not white and red like the ugly one she’s making. And she does not own the color white,” Haley shot back. “Just like she doesn’t own the rights to every bathing suit she happens to see in a catalog.”
“Jessi, tell her that only a real peabrain can’t pick out her own stuff and has to copy someone else’s every move,” said Vanessa. “I think I’ll keep the white cord for now so someone won’t be able to copy me by making her lanyard white and another color.”
“That’s enough, you guys,” said Jessi. “Why don’t you just cut this out and be friends again?”
“Never!” said Haley, crossing her arms.
“Ever,” agreed Vanessa.
Jessi sighed. If this kept up, it was going to be a long two weeks!
When I told Claudia I’d known Robert would be at Davis Park all along, she was pretty ticked off. She went stomping out of the Harbor Store and I had to chase her down the boardwalk. “I can’t believe you’ve been lying to me!” she grumbled when I finally caught up with her.
“I didn’t think you’d come if you knew about Robert,” I admitted. “I didn’t tell you because I really wanted you to come.”
The frown stayed on Claudia’s face, but her dark eyes softened a bit. “Really?”
“Yes!” I insisted. “Robert will be working all day almost every day.”
“Why did you lie?” Claudia asked poutily.