“Did you put in a good word for me with Lucca?” she whispers to me.
“No, you only asked about Jay and Noah. I didn’t think to go through all of them. Sorry,” I whisper back.
“Not a big deal, I can take it from here.” She leaves me to find Lucca, but he’s on the opposite side of me, a few paces back. When he sees Lily looking around, he ducks behind a tree to the right of the clearing.
I work to distract Lily in order to protect the boys. “What’s with the stage and the screen? Are they going to show a movie?”
“No. It’s for karaoke.” She skips as she answers.
“I’ve never sung in front of an audience before. Don’t you get nervous?” Since I was little, music teachers have told me I have perfect pitch, so I wouldn’t be afraid to sing. But I’ve never tried because I shy away from the spotlight.
Lily shakes her head, her blond hair swishing around her shoulders. “No way! People are supposed to sound awful when they sing karaoke.”
Maybe, I shouldn’t sing then. Singing badly on purpose doesn’t sound fun.
“Come on, girls!” Lily bounces away from me to link arms with Fallon and Lara. Their eyes plead with me to help, but I shrug at them. The girls are safer than the boys.
I walk behind them, slowing my pace so they pull ahead, and Lucca and Parker saunter up on either side of me.
“See Lucca, you aren’t alone, either.” I smile over at him. “I protected you that time.”
“Well, you’re our mistress, so that’s in your job description.” Parker throws in his two cents.
“Parker! I can’t believe you would say that to me. I’m throwing Lily at you next. If you can’t be nice after that, I’ll go find Jenny.” I wrinkle my nose at him to remind him that’s not something he wants.
“Yes, ma’am.” He blows me a kiss.
I nudge him in the side. “Are you guys going to sing? I think you should sing an oldie, something with harmony.” Nothing beats a guy that sings to you.
“We’ll think about it if we can find a good song,” Jay says as he joins us.
Wow. He’s the last one I expected to volunteer to sing. I give a little clap to let them know how excited this turn of events makes me.
Our venture across the party area leads us to where the karaoke is set up. When we arrive, the girls already dance on stage. Lily waves me up as the music begins to play without me. I climb up quickly and stand off to the side. Fallon pushes me in the middle, so the mic is positioned in front of me. About to turn to her to ask what we’re singing, the music starts, and I recognize the song. It’s one of my favorites.
By the time we reach the last chorus, I’m belting out the song alone. The girls took a step back once they realized I really can sing. Smiles from the boys greet me as I finish. The crowd cheers and shouts for an encore, but the DJ points to the line. We can put our names back in the queue to sing again if we want. We shake our heads and move on.
“Why didn’t you tell me you could sing?” Lily asks. “You’re amazing.”
“You told me we didn’t have to be able to sing to do karaoke. I just went with it.” Bragging makes me uncomfortable, so I leave it at that.
The boys crowd around and compliment my singing. My skin tingles from the adrenaline rush. If the rest of the camp goes like this, even with the Mindys and Jennys of the world this will be my best summer.
We spend the next several hours watching the fire, eating burnt marshmallows, and talking. When I go to grab a drink of water, the boys are gone when I return.
“Where did they go? Did they head back to their cabin?” I’m a little hurt they wouldn’t say goodnight to me.
Fallon points over to the stage. The boys are next in line to sing. We walk over to hear them better.
The music starts and in perfect harmony they sing, “Goodnight, sweetheart, well it's time to go…”
CHAPTER TEN
The rest of the week passes by quickly.
By the time Saturday rolls around, we’ve done trust walks, some exercise where one person is blindfolded and another person has to give the blindfolded person directions on how to build things, and some memory exercises which my partner and I always ace. That completes five of our six mandatory tasks for the week. We’ve also spent our free time down at the lake so I can learn to swim.
Overall, it’s been great. I didn’t run into Jenny or Mindy. Hopefully, my speech will keep them away, but I think it has more to do with Kelly and how the rest of the camp is starting to treat them.
A few teams picked up bonus tasks to receive extra points this week, and Parker wants us to stay on par with them. Since our extra time was spent helping me, none of the bonus tasks have been completed. I push the guilt aside; otherwise, I’ll end up agreeing to something that makes me uncomfortable. Our final task for the week is to write an autobiography that includes our strengths and weaknesses. This last one makes me nervous. At breakfast, I plan to discuss this with the team because revealing all my secrets—at least on paper—makes me nervous.
I linger in the bathroom to waste time until I hear the others leave before I walk into the bunk area to finish dressing. I need the time to think before I talk to the boys. I want to be honest about this but keep their wishes in mind, too. This whole team thing will be the death of me. I work better alone.
A knock on the door pulls me from my turmoil. Panic spikes through me, my heart rate spiking. I look around and locate my only escape route, one of the high windows that can only be reached from the top bunks. Another knock comes and escalates my panic. How will I get out of this?
I rub my sweaty hands together as I decide on my next action when Jay yells, “Cassie!” through the door.
Near hyperventilating, I work to control my erratic breathing before I open the door, or Jay will storm in here to search for whatever upset me.
“Hold on!” I call back.
I run into the bathroom and quickly splash water on my face, washing away the sweat shining on my forehead. With a deep breath, I open the door and smile at Jay. He smiles back as he steps aside to allow me to step out and close up the cabin.
“We thought maybe you were skipping breakfast today. Are you alright?” he asks as we walk down the stairs.
“I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”—Ugh, don’t lie—“I’m nervous about what we have to write, but nothing is really wrong.” There, that’s better.
“You’re going to be by yourself for most of the morning and possibly afternoon. That doesn’t worry you?” Worry fills Jay’s voice.
“I’m used to being alone. I actually prefer it most of the time.” I elbow him in the side, and he clutches the spot. “You’ve probably picked up by now I’m not much of a people person. I have a filter that comes and goes as it pleases sometimes.”
“You’re also mean. Don’t forget that. You could have knocked a lung loose or something,” he deadpans.
“We need to give you an anatomy lesson or two,” I say without thinking, then hunch my shoulders with embarrassment. I can’t believe I just said that.