“How was your year?” I ask the guys.
“It was great, actually,” Pete says. “I took an extra class each semester so I’ve only got eighteen credit hours to finish out my senior year. The schedule isn’t out yet, but I’m hoping to do nine and nine each semester to keep things as stress free as possible.” Pete is Mr. Outdoors. Anything having to do with nature and fitness, he’s your man. He’s getting his degree in health sciences and is really passionate about teaching these kids about how they can be healthy and fit through fun. It’s nice that there are actually a few of us here who care about the experience these kids have. Most of the counselors aren’t that invested.
“My year wasn’t as academically exciting, but Jeffrey and I made things official,” Matthew says with a face-splitting grin.
“I’d like to think I played a part in that,” I tell him. He looks at me sideways. “Hello! How many times did I walk into my room to find you sitting on the floor chatting away with Jeffrey in there so you could have some privacy?” We aren’t allowed to have our cell phones with us when we’re with the kids, but at night it’s totally okay and Matthew took full advantage of that.
“Okay, okay … I’ll give you some credit!” he laughs. “Alright … here we are. I’d hold out my hand for a tip but I know Addison only pays in booze, so …”
“Yes, I’m sure you’ll get more than you’re due at tonight’s bonfire,” she quips.
“I knew we could count on you!” Pete says. “Alright, man, we better get back down there. We are the official welcoming committee.”
“See you later,” Addison and I say together, then laugh. It’s a twin thing.
“This view is amazing, Addy! Way to go calling dibs!” I tell her as I stare out the window. The rooms in all the cabins are simple. This room has two single beds with white sheets and navy blue comforters. There’s a dresser next to the door and a nightstand with a small lamp in between the beds. There’s also a closet, but we don’t hang anything up. With a summer wardrobe of shorts and T-shirts during the day and jeans and a hoodie at night, there’s nothing nice enough to hang, so we just store our suitcases in there.
“Which bed do you want?” I ask her, eyeing the one closest to the window. I’m sure it’s the one she wants but I’m hoping she’ll let me have it.
“I was actually going to talk to you about that,” she begins. “I think we should not room together.”
“What? Why not?” I ask with confusion. “We always room together.”
“That’s why. Because we always room together. We’re twenty now, Kinley. Don’t you think it’s time we start doing some things separately from each other?”
“We do … I mean, we have different majors, so we don’t do everything together,” I say in defense.
“C’mon, Kin. We room together at school, we have the same class hours so we eat breakfast and dinner together. You hang out with me and my friends …”
“They’re my friends, too, aren’t they?” I protest.
Addy breathes a heavy sigh and looks at me with sad eyes. “You can do this. We need to do this, and I thought this would be a good place to start. We made our friends together here last summer, so they’re our friends.”
I would argue Addison’s thoughtlessness in making me think we were rooming together, that I was going to get a premium room with her this year, but … that’s Addison. She tends to not always think about how the things she does affect me. She doesn’t mean anything by it. She just doesn’t think.
“The welcoming committee told me the Carmichael girls were here,” we hear a voice yell down the hall. “What’s up, bitches?” Amy Geller appears at the door in all her beauty with her shoulder-length, light-brown hair and light-green eyes. I’d have to hate her if she wasn’t also the most fun and the sweetest person I’ve ever known, next to Addy.
“Hey, Amy! Look, you could room with Amy,” Addy says to me in a perky tone that makes me want to smack her.
“Yeah! Room with me before I get stuck with MaryAnn Hodge, the restless sleeper! We’ll take the other primo room and let the others duke it out for the single beds in the bunk room!” Amy smiles excitedly at me and I think that maybe Addison has a point. We will need to start breaking things up a bit, and here seems the best place to do it. The friends we have here are our friends. They didn’t become my friends because they’re Addy’s, so it’s not like I won’t have anyone to hang out or spend time with when we're not working. I don’t ever hang out with Addy’s friends if Addy isn’t there.
“You know … I think it’d be fun. You’re right, Addison. It’s time.” Addy hugs me and smiles sweetly. If we were ever going to start separating, Addy was going to have to be the one to initiate it. She’s always been much stronger than me.
“Awesome! I’m going to snag the room before Jim gets back with more people.” Amy toddles down the hall with her backpack and suitcase while I pull my things together.
“It’s going to be really good for both of us. You’ll see, Kin,” Addison tells me.
“I’m sure you’re right. You’re usually right,” I say with an unsure smile. In my mind I know that Addy is right, but it just feels weird. We’ve never been in the same place and not roomed together. But, I think it could be great. Amy is awesome. We had a blast together last year and kept in touch since, so I know it’s going to be a ton of fun this year, too.
Addy grabs my suitcase while I put my camera bag and backpack over my shoulder and follow her down the hall. Amy has already picked the bed closest to the door, so that means I get the one by the window, which is a nice sign of things to come.
An hour later the rest of the little group of friends Addy and I made last year have all arrived – Carrie, Bridget, Dave, and Cal – along with most of the group that was with us but that I didn’t get to know too well. Bridget goes to the same college as MaryAnn Hodge and apparently she got an internship at the White House this summer so she won’t be here. Seth Franklin got kicked out of school for a reason so mysterious we’re not even allowed to mention him. This leaves two beds available in The Lodge. Mr. and Mrs. Fellows can choose to let a first-year counselor into The Lodge, but only if they’re upperclassmen. I don’t know what the makeup is of the newbies, but we’ll find out in about an hour when they’re scheduled to arrive.
“Hey, Kinley,” I hear the confident male voice say from behind me in the kitchen where I’ve been organizing snacks while everyone else gets reacquainted. I turn around quickly to find Cal Harper standing there, smiling at me. “How are you?” he says as he initiates a hug. I hug him back in reflex but am taken off-guard by his strong arms. I have to lift up onto my toes to put my arms around his neck.
“I’m great,” I stutter, thinking back to my conversation with Addison about her surety that the stars had somehow aligned and Cal Harper was now curiously into me. “How were finals? I haven’t heard from you since we both had to go into the study cave.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I meant to email you before I left campus, but things were nuts and by the time I got home my mom had a hundred things she wanted to do with me before I left for here. Finals were a bitch, but they were good. Hard to believe I’m headed into my senior year. Even harder to believe I’m actually going to graduate in four years!” he laughs and his smile is like heaven on earth. I’m not surprised at all that he’s finishing his degree in four years. Cal is majoring in engineering at Notre Dame and has been at the top of his class since his freshman year. He’s so brilliant he’s working with some of the leading minds in making wind turbines more efficient under turbulent conditions. He also got a full-ride football scholarship. He puts whatever some people consider “the total package” to shame.
“Oh, it’s okay. I was busy with finals, too, and you know … I figured you were, you know, busy.” I wish Addy had never said anything to me about Cal supposedly being into me. I can barely put together a coherent statement around him now.
“Well, I was thinking I could make it up t
o you,” he says, shifting his body and resting his hand behind me on the counter. “Maybe we could make up for those lost emails tonight after the bonfire.”
“Um, sure,” I tell him nervously.
“Great! Well, I’m going to go say hi to everyone.” He backs himself toward the doorway into the common area. “Don’t stay in here too long, okay?”
“Okay.” Two syllables are all I can muster. Cal never acted that way around me last year, so Addy must be right. This is insane.
“Hey! You coming? The new counselors are here!” Addy says, poking her head into the kitchen. “I hope there’s a super-hot upper classman newbie they can put in with us!”
Addison grabs my hand and drags me out onto the front porch of The Lodge. It’s customary for the second-year counselors to get here and settled first so we can greet the first-year counselors. I remember pulling up and seeing all the second-year counselors standing on the porch, yelling and cheering for us. It made all the unknown things about Lake Hollis seem a little less intimidating.
Gateway Cabin is smaller but still sleeps sixteen. With two bunk beds in each of the four rooms, it’s crowded. Eighteen college students file out of the same van Jim drove us down in plus another one. This confirms that the two empty beds in The Lodge will be filled. By whom remains to be seen.
One by one nine guys and nine girls throw their backpacks over their shoulders and drag their duffle bags or suitcases behind them as we yell and cheer at their arrival. Most of them are smiling and yelling and cheering with us. Some of them aren’t sure what to make of our antics, but all of them seem happy to be here.
Dave and Pete head down to the van to help the girls get their things to their rooms – and also to find out which window to tap in the middle of the night. Addison, Matthew, Amy, and I have a seat on the porch steps and wait for the dust to clear and see who emerges as Matthew and Addison’s roommates. Carrie and Bridget are rooming with Tina and Erin, leaving Addy without a roommate after she kicked me out of the nest. Matthew is kind of particular about his things, so he thought that the fewer people he shared a room with, the better. So because they love him, and want to continue loving him, Pete and Dave grabbed the other two-person room, while Cal and his Notre Dame buddies are in the last guy room.
When the rest of the first-year counselors have cleared the driveway, all that’s left is one guy and one girl. We stand as they approach the porch, ready to greet them.
“Hi! Welcome to Lake Hollis! Looks like you two are the lucky ones,” Addison says to them. “I’m Addison Carmichael and this is my sister Kinley, and this is Amy and Matthew.”
“Hey! I’m Mia Boyd,” the girl says. She’s a sweet-looking girl with light brown skin and pixie-cut hair. She smiles big and her eyes light up with genuine excitement.
“And you are?” Amy says to the guy who is standing next to her being conspicuously quiet.
“Miller Conrad,” he says briefly.
“Well, Miller, you’re rooming with me,” Matthew says to him with some hesitancy. Miller’s brevity has left us all a little uncertain of how to respond to him. He’s a good-looking guy, tall. He’s fit and trim with light brown hair that he’s messed on top, and he’s dressed in jeans, a black T-shirt, and black Converse … and he’s got tattoos. Lots of them. I have friends back at school who have tattoos, but no one I’ve ever known has had this many.
“Cool,” Miller replies. He hitches his backpack on his shoulder and readjusts his duffel bag in his hand before he takes the first step toward the stairs and past all of us into the house.
Matthew shrugs. “This is going to be interesting.”
“Holy crap he’s hot!” Addy declares.
“Oh, no,” I say, shaking my head.
“Why is that an ‘oh, no’?” Mia asks, creasing her brow.
“Because that means Addison here has decided on her first victim of the summer. That boy doesn’t know it yet, but within a few days he’ll be eating out of the palm of my sister’s hand,” I tell her. That’s how it always starts. Addy picks the guy before he even knows it. She doesn’t usually go for his type, but I guess she’s branching out.
Normally I feel little twinge of something when Addy makes her mark known. Call it pain, jealousy, irritation … I don’t know. I’m just usually so unsettled by the way her claws come out as she sets her sights on her unsuspecting prey. It doesn’t help knowing that guys look at Addison and want to know her … or at least get in her pants. Guys look at me and want to know how they can use me to get into Addy’s pants. This time, though … this time I didn’t feel anything. I guess after seeing Cal and feeling his arms around me I’m in a new place – a place where I feel like I’m being seen for who I am, not what I look like, or who I don’t look like. All those months of emailing back and forth with Cal revealed to him who I really am and that’s who he’s interested in. This is going to be a life-changing summer for me, which is going to make it the best summer ever.
Chapter 2
Now that all the counselors are here and settled, we’ve been called to the dining hall for our first meeting of the summer. The Fellows gather everyone to go over rules and guidelines with the newbies as well as to remind all of us of the standard and reputation Lake Hollis intends on keeping.
“Welcome to the new counselors, and welcome back to those of you returning,” Rick Fellows says with a cheer. His parents started the camp at Lake Hollis forty years ago when he was just a kid. He took over the operations of the camp twelve years ago when it became too much for them to do on their own. When his father died six years ago, he left his accounting job and took over full time, moving onto the property for the summer as his parents always did.
Mr. Fellows is every stereotype of a middle-aged man in one unkempt package. His male-pattern baldness is only sometimes covered by a baseball cap, and when it’s not, his terrible comb-over is blaring at us like a bad punch line to an equally bad joke. The paunch at his belly stretches his button-down shirt, revealing more of his hairy belly than anyone would ever want to see, but his socks and sandals are what really round out this frightening picture. However, even though he’s the polar opposite of what any of the guys here ever dream to physically become, he truly is one of the nicest, sweetest men ever. He’s kind and compassionate, and the way he handles the homesickness of the kids, especially the scholarship kids since most of them have never been away from home before, is genius.
His wife Mary is just as wonderful and doesn’t fall too far behind on the lack of fashion sense in her mom-jeans, T-shirts, ill-fitting bras, and sandals. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen her brown hair down. It’s always up in a short ponytail, so my guess would be that her hair is just past her shoulders. She has fair skin and blue eyes and is as lovely as she is kind.
Mr. Fellows is going over all the rules and protocol for counselors, and since we were here last year, we’re all kind of halfway tuning out for a minute. He’s telling them about how counselors are assigned to activities randomly, and not to ask to be assigned with a friend because part of what they want to accomplish this summer is helping us make new and lasting friendships. He tells them that the adult counselors will be watching out for us as much as they are the campers. Eventually he’ll also express his desire for us to have a great time this summer, which is why we have tonight and tomorrow morning to “play,” as well as in the evenings between 8:00 p.m. and midnight.
“So what’s up with emu boy?” Dave asks quietly, his tone dripping with the sarcasm he’s come to be known for.
“It’s emo not emu, dumbass,” I laugh.
“Oh, well, whatever. Does anyone know his deal?”
“He’s Matthew’s roommate. Do fill us in, Matty!” Addison says, shifting her eyes to where Miller is sitting on the other side of the room with the other first-year counselors. He’s not looking up, but has his nose in a book that looks like a journal, and he’s writing very intently. “What’d you find out?” she asks, bringing her attention back to Mat
thew.
“He’s quiet, seems like a nice guy. I think he’s an artist, or a poet, or both. He’s got these big sketch pads and the journal he’s writing in,” Matthew says. “It’s only the first day, so there’s really not that much to tell.”
“What about his tattoos? Did you get a good look at any of them? Did he take his shirt off so you could see them?” Addy asks a little too eagerly. It might be the first time I’m glad for Addison’s lack of restraint because I’m just as curious about his tattoos as she is.
“Uh, no. He’s been here for, like, two hours. Why would he take his shirt off? Girls are so weird.” Matthew rolls his eyes.
“We are not. We just know what we like,” Addy says coyly. She moves her stare back to Miller but he isn’t looking up. Usually Addison’s stare hits guys so hard they look up almost immediately. Whatever he’s writing in that book must be deep. “Geez! What is his problem?”
“He’s busy, Addy. Give the guy a break. Unlike you, he didn’t come here to scope out the hottest person here so he could get laid all summer,” I scoff.
“You think I’m the hottest person here?” she asks with bright eyes. That’s what matters most to Addy. She walks in a room and the first thing she does is make sure she’s the hottest girl there. I walk in a room and make sure I’m not the biggest. Oddly enough we both walk into a room and evaluate where we fall in the pretty girl pecking order.
Miller finally breaks his thought and looks up from the pages he’s been torturing with that pencil. First he looks up at Mr. Fellows, who is still talking about rules and safety, but then he turns and looks in our direction. It’s clear he’s looking at Addison. She smiles her sexy “I know you want me” smile but gets no reaction from him before he looks at me, cocks his head, and then turns back to his writing. That’s when I see a look come over my sister’s face that I’ve never seen in our twenty years of life. She has been dismissed by a guy and has no idea what to do.
As I Am Page 2
