“Can someone survive on their own like that? I’d starve in a week.”
Olly laughs again. “I’m sure you’d make it. Just don’t eat any berries you’re not sure of.”
“It’s kind of scary to think that there could be a whole bunch of people living out here.”
“You think people aren’t? There are whole tribes who live in the Amazon.”
“Yeah, but that’s not on my doorstep.”
“You want to go and see if we can find them? I’ll get a map.”
“Nope,” I say, playfully slapping his arm. “When are we going to town? It’s been a week.”
Olly arches an eyebrow. “You itching to play arcade games?”
“I have a lot of pennies I want to exchange for a crappy plastic Slinky.”
“Tomorrow?”
Okay, that’s soon. But it gives me a thought. When we go into town, maybe I can find Lillian. She’s the one who can put my mind to rest. If she’s okay, then I can forget all about the fire.
Olly and I get back to camp just as we have to join the campers in the food hall. They’re baking cookies.
Each group is at a table, with all the necessary ingredients and equipment in the middle of it. The room is a cloud of flour.
“Esme, Kayla is in the kitchen getting extra bags of chocolate chips. Can you join her and get another bag of flour? Catalina’s group is missing one,” Andy says.
“Yeah, sure.”
I skip into the kitchen, still high from my walk with Olly. Pushing the door open, I stop dead in my tracks as Kayla almost slams into me. The door clicks shut. “Whoa, Esme!”
“We need more flour,” I tell her.
“How was your date?”
“It wasn’t a date, but it was nice.”
Kayla hands me the chocolate chips and pulls at her sweater. “I’m too hot in this now.”
“Why are you wearing a hoodie?”
“I was helping Andy print the recipes for the cookies in the staff cabin and he has the AC on ice-cold.” She whips the hoodie over her head and a piece of paper falls to the floor.
I bend down and pick it up. Thick black writing catches my eye.
“Kayla,” I breathe.
YOU’VE BEEN VERY BAD GIRLS
“What the hell!” Her eyes widen and she snatches the paper from me.
“Who put that there?” I ask.
“I don’t know.” She throws the hoodie on the floor. “Someone put that in my pocket!”
“While you were wearing it?”
“I’ve only had it on for, like, ten minutes. I was alone with Andy in the staff cabin, but he didn’t come that close to me.”
I close my eyes and take a breath. Stay. Calm. “Someone put it there when the hoodie was hanging up in our room.”
“Ew. No way. That’s not possible.”
“Should we be freaking out?” I ask. “Because I’m thinking this is all about Lillian.”
And I am so freaking out.
Kayla’s wild eyes meet mine. “No…it can’t be. This is just someone pranking me,” she says.
“Then why does it say girls? Plural, Kayla. If it was just for you the note would say ‘You’ve been a very bad girl.’ Read it again. Read it!”
She shoves the piece of paper in her shorts pocket. “I don’t need to read it again and we don’t need to obsess over some stupid prank.”
“Prank? You think this is one of the kids’ pranks? Kayla, this is—”
“Over,” she snaps, cutting me off midsentence. “Grab what you need and forget this. Please.” She snatches the chocolate chips from my hands.
I watch her with my mouth wide open as she storms out of the kitchen. What did I do?
I gasp for a deep-enough breath and brace my hands on the wall.
Someone out there knows what we’ve done.
14
Kayla isn’t my biggest fan right now.
Yesterday she thought I was being crazy and obsessive. It’s clear from the silent treatment I got this morning before she left for breakfast that she still does. She stomped around our tiny room getting ready, making as much noise as possible, letting me know that she’s not happy with my Lillian theories.
Kayla doesn’t want there to be anything wrong, so she pretends everything is fine.
I don’t want there to be anything wrong either, but we can’t ignore a creepy note.
“Esme!” Cora whispers as I leave the cabin. She runs toward me from the staff cabin. Her eyebrows are pulled together like she’s stressed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Come here!” She beckons me, waving one hand in circles like she’s about to take off.
I jog toward her. She instantly spins and runs toward…whatever she wants to show me.
“Cora, what are we—” The words die on my tongue. Painted on the back of the staff cabin is THE LAKE NEVER FORGETS.
My mouth parts and my fingers curl into my palms.
An ice-cold chill ripples down my spine. First the note, now this.
I shake my head, willing the message to change, but I haven’t read it wrong. “Who could have done this?” I ask.
“I know we’re all pranking each other, but if one of the campers managed to get out of their cabin and do this, we have a big problem,” Cora says.
“Yeah,” I agree.
This wasn’t one of the kids.
“Should I get Andy?” I ask.
Cora’s shoulders sink. “We have to tell him. He’s going to be angry and he’s going to want to keep this under wraps.”
I clear my throat. “Right. The campers don’t come around the back of the staff cabin, it’s too out the way, so if we don’t make it public knowledge, we either catch the culprit when he or she mentions it, or the rest of the campers go home unaware of what happened.”
Cora smiles. “You’re good at this, Esme.”
“Thanks.”
“You go get Andy, I’ll get some cleaning supplies and paint so we can try to remove this crap. Whoever it is, they get points for creepiness.”