I knew what I needed—a pep talk from the peppiest person I knew, Lacey Kain.
Lacey happened to be the one—and only—person whom I'd hit it off with at camp thus far. Though, in my defense, it had been only two days since we'd all arrived. In any case, I wanted to talk to Lacey, fellow counselor at this godforsaken woodsy prison.
Er, I mean, great place for a teenager to work while helping others, specifically kids.
I had met Lacey the first day of camp at orientation. We clicked right away, something I'd heard about but never experienced. Maybe it was the cool, misty morning air that had me feeling more alert than usual when I met her. I am so not a morning person. But that morning I was feeling rather lively, and I made a point of introducing myself right away.
Lacey had nodded a greeting as she stood there shivering next to me. Both of us had dutifully dressed in the bright green Camp Glen Hollow tees and matching running shorts that had been sent to us a week before orientation. Everyone else that frosty morning had wisely donned jeans and sweatshirts.
"Crap, is it always this cold in the morning?" I had asked Lacey, quietly, so as not to incur the wrath of the seemingly no-nonsense camp director who was orientating us.
"Uh-huh." Lacey bounced up and down on her Chuck-clad toes, her long, teal-streaked blonde waves bouncing right along with her. "I knew it'd be freezing," she went on. "It was stupid to wear this outfit. It was cold every morning last summer, when my brother and I worked here."
I nodded to the other counselors. "So, why aren't you dressed like them?"
One person clad in warmer attire was a cute skater-looking boy named Tim. He couldn't keep his piercing blue eyes off my new friend Lacey, which was kind of adorable. There was another guy as well—Mike. He was with a girl named Ginny, who was leaning against and snuggling up to him. Mike and Ginny were a couple. I didn't deduce that from all the leaning and snuggling. It was their sickly cute sweatshirts proclaiming I'm with Mike, and I'm with Ginny, that had given that tidbit away.
Lacey's response to my question refocused my attention. "I would have dressed like everyone else," she was saying. "Or worn a hoodie, at least. But my stupid brother wanted to skip orientation."
"What's that have to do with anything?" I wondered aloud.
Lacey shrugged. "One of us has to play by the rules when Sebastian gets up to his antics. Wearing regulation garb is my concession to keep us in good graces with the brass."
She nodded to the camp director.
"Hmm," I murmured. Ah yes, the one notable absence that fine morning—Sebastian Kain.
"I do remember seeing his name on the roster," I mused.
I wondered why the guy would so blatantly bail on the first mandatory meeting.
"Yep,"—Lacey nodded—"he'll show up eventually. Sebastian just does things according to his own schedule."
A rebel, I kind of liked that. This Sebastian sounded so unlike me. I was Miss Rule-Abider Extraordinaire.
But I was done with that, right?
Just then Shirley, the no-nonsense director, asked Lacey where her brother was.
"Sleeping in," Lacey replied.
Her accompanying shrug had a what-can-you-do-about-it quality. "You know how Sebastian is."
I expected Shirley to have a fit. She seemed the take-no-prisoners type, what with her bulldog chops and grim scowl.
But, to my surprise, she actually smiled. "That's fine, dear. I'm sure Sebastian knows all the rules by now, anyway."
What? Are you kidding me? Talk about special treatment!
I was starting to kind of dislike this brother of Lacey's, even though I'd not yet laid eyes on him.
That sentiment deepened when he failed to show at camp the next day.
The problem was we needed him. Things had gotten extremely busy. The campers had arrived, all thirty of them. And that rather rambunctious crew of ten-to-twelve-year-olds outnumbered us six to one.
Trust me, it showed.
Counselors were assigned to color-coded groups of five kids each, but already Lacey was picking up the slack for her absentee brother. You know, Mr. Special Treatment himself. And maybe, just maybe, if Sebastian had been in attendance like he was supposed to have been, I wouldn't now be standing in the middle of a trail, dripping, having been the target of some bratty kid, a kid from Sebastian's group, incidentally.
I spun toward the main cabin, a spacious headquarters the counselors used as a meeting spot and a place to chill. I had a feeling Lacey would be there since I hadn't seen her in a while.
But my intentions were derailed when I heard a branch cracking off to my right.
Aha!
That's when I caught sight of the kid who had become the bane of my existence throughout the last thirty-six hours—Seth Darling.
The little brat ducked behind a clump of thick bushes, but he was giggling with entirely too much enthusiasm, leading me to conclude he was the lone water balloon assailant.