I take Olly’s hand and he grips mine tight. I’m just happy to help calm him down. “Hey,” I say, leaning against him. “It was just some crazy guy in the woods. We don’t need to get mixed up in whatever he was doing.”
Olly’s green-and-blue eyes slide very slowly to mine as if he needs a second before dealing with me. My mom did the same thing when I was nine and I accidentally smashed her very expensive eye shadow palette.
“If he comes back…”
I nod. “Then you can kick his ass.”
Rebekah peers over her shoulder and into the forest. “Can we please get to bed before someone hears us out here?”
We split up and head to our cabins. The boys’ cabin is closest, but Olly and Jake stand on the porch, watching us get inside safely before they go inside. That is so cute!
Rebekah and Tia tiptoe into their cabin and close the door.
I can hear my ragged breathing as we walk up to our door. Kayla and I walk up the two steps at the same time, carefully placing our feet in case the wood creaks. I look back at Olly and Jake as Kayla slowly turns the door handle.
With a quick wave to the boys, I turn and slide through the small opening. Kayla didn’t open the door wide; I’m guessing so the light from outside wouldn’t creep in.
The room is filled with heavy breathing and soft snoring. I glance at each of the bunk beds in the large room. The girls are all very still. It’s sometime after one in the morning.
Kayla and I pad into our room. We undress in silence; I clumsily pull my pajamas on and climb up to my bunk quickly and quietly. Neither of us speak. We usually say good night, but tonight we’re too scared.
Lying on my back, I replay the events of the forest in my head. I can’t remember exactly how many flashes—photos—there were, but it was a lot.
Somebody wants evidence that we snuck out.
Evidence that Kayla and I snuck out.
Like we did ten years ago.
18
Edge, meet Esme. Yep, I’m on it, the edge, in a major way.
It’s morning and no one but me is acting strange. Andy is his usual self, which tells us he has no idea what we were up to last night. But still, I can’t calm down.
Every time a noise comes from the woods, I jump. Which is freaking often since the kids are collecting sticks and branches to make dens.
Olly and Jake are with some of the other guys, lugging larger branches for the structural parts of the dens. Once each group has four large branches and a bunch of medium and small ones, they have to make their own den and it needs to stay upright.
It’s a little challenge that Andy told the campers about over breakfast, and it’s caused a lot of excitement.
I haven’t spoken to anyone about last night yet, not even Kayla. We haven’t had any time alone, and to be honest, I don’t think anyone wants to relive it.
In the cold light of day, we seem a bit dramatic, not even asking whoever it was to show themselves. We all ran as if we were being chased by zombies. Not that I was ever going to ask the cameraman if he wanted to chat over an iced tea.
My little group of four are piling up medium sticks on the beach.
Andy stops beside me with his clipboard. “Good haul,” he says. “Looks almost there.”
“Yeah, I sent them on one last trip.”
“Excellent. How are you today?” he asks.
My heart misses a beat. I blink heavily. What does he know? “I’m fine, thanks,” I croak. “How are you?”
He smiles. “I’m well. Are you ready for a day of camp building and fire lighting?”
“I am.”
Dipping his chin in a curt nod, he says, “Well, shout if you need anything.”
I watch him walk off and my tense shoulders relax a fraction. If Andy knew we had snuck out he would definitely say something. I don’t know why I’m so jumpy around him. He’s the kind of guy who sorts things out right away, not someone who waits and sees how it goes. We would have all been in the staff cabin first thing. Hell, he would have had us in there the second we got back in the very early hours.
Inhale, exhale, act normal.
Guilt doesn’t feel good on me. It’s a shame I can’t remember a time before it.
I watch my girls carry back armfuls of sticks that are about as long as their legs. “Well done, girls. I think we’re ready.”
They wait with me. I’m not allowed to leave the beach because I’m in charge of making sure all the groups have enough sticks and that the campers who dump them here don’t wander off.
A little bit ironic that I’m in charge of keeping them out of trouble when I can’t even manage to do that myself. Still, what Andy doesn’t know…
When everyone else gets back from gathering wood, Andy instructs the groups about what they will need and sends each merged group of eight to different parts of the forest.
Cora and I follow eight massively hyper girls who are bouncing, dropping sticks and talking a million miles an hour. I bend down and pick up another dropped stick.
“What did you do with your night off?” Cora asks, brushing one hand over her smooth ponytail.
It’s an innocent enough question, but my mouth goes dry in a nanosecond.
“We just went for a walk.”
“Yeah, there isn’t much to do. When I was a CIT, I think I played Go Fish about a thousand times. I was so jealous of counselors who could get dressed up and go out for the evening.”
My hand tightens around the stick. “Maybe next year I’ll get to go out.”
“Oh, you think you’ll come back next year, then? To here or somewhere else?”
“I like it here,” I tell Cora, even though I’m almost positive I will never return. I love camps, but this one has way too much baggage.
“That’s great, Esme. I love it when I hear that people want to return. You’re so good with the girls and they all love you.”
We’re halfway to our designated den area, the furthest from camp.
“Okay, girls,” Cora says, and launches into instructions.
We can use whichever trees we want in our area and the den has to be big enough for all the girls to sit under.
Cora and I help them with the large logs since it took four girls on each end to carry them up here. Why we weren’t just sent to our zone to collect sticks there, I do not know. Andy might have some control issues, wanting to see each freaking stick before we took them away to use. Or maybe he was promoting teamwork, getting everyone together to gather the most suitable materials for everyone to use.