Five Summers (29 page)

SKYLAR TOOK A DEEP BREATH AS SHE STOOD BEHIND the double doors that would lead her out of the calm sanctuary of the cafeteria and back into the fray. It was almost ten, which meant that the new session’s campers were already arriving, making painful, loud, and public detachments from the family members who had driven them there. The Green was a maze of luggage, frenetic campers, and frazzled parents, and Skylar had taken twenty minutes to toast her bagel to a Cajun crisp just to avoid going back out. She took a swig of her coffee and steeled herself. She wasn’t ready to start another four-week marathon, much less one that involved seeing Adam every day, but she had no choice.

She slipped on her Ray-Bans and walked over to the gazebo where Jo and Mack were seated behind a folding table, registering the new campers.

“Need anything?” she asked Jo. Nearby, a group of girls shrieked at an ear-splitting decibel.

“A lobotomy,” Jo deadpanned. “Or money to pay for my future hearing aids.”

“What?” Mack said, putting a hand to his ear.

“See?” Jo said. Skylar laughed.

“What’s my bunk this session?”

Jo sighed. “You were supposed to check last week and have your stuff moved in already.”

“Oops,” Skylar said. “But in my defense I was having a very intense weekend with my best friends.”

Jo gave her the side-eye. “You’re with the twelves.”

“Yes!” Skylar was thrilled. Twelve-year-olds were old enough to be seasoned campers, but not old enough to think they knew everything. They were her favorites.

Just then, a tiny girl with black curls walked up to the desk and tapped Skylar’s arm.

“I’m supposed to find my counselor, Jo,” she said shyly. “Are you her?”

“No,” Skylar laughed. “I wish. That’s Jo.” She pointed, and the girl smiled. “You are so lucky,” Skylar whispered as Jo turned to grab a welcome packet. “Jo is the best counselor you could possibly have. Do you know that she actually grew up on this camp? She knows everything about it, and she’ll make you feel at home in no time.”

“Do you really know
everything
?” the girl asked.

“Pretty much,” Jo said.

“Can you show me where my bunk is?”

“Sure,” she said, grinning as she handed Skylar her clipboard.

Skylar watched with a smile as Jo led the girl up the path to her new home, at least for the summer.

“Excuse me,” someone said a few minutes later, as Skylar was frantically trying to keep track of Jo’s registration system. “I’m trying to find my best friend.”

“Um, sure, what’s her name?” she asked hurriedly, checking the clip board.

“Skylar MacAlister.” Skylar could feel Emma’s smirk before she even lifted her head. “Hi,” she said, turning away from Mack and whispering, “
Help me.
”

“Overwhelmed?” Emma asked.

“Just a tad.” Skylar held up a stack of disorganized registration forms. “Apparently I am incapable of alphabetizing.”

“The key is to burp it,” Emma said, laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Jo asked, walking back, with Maddie following close behind and dragging her recovered suitcase.

“Some things never change,” Skylar said, looking out at the chaos on the Green, where boys were running wild and pairs of girls were taking kissy-face self-portraits before their counselors confiscated their cell phones.

Emma sighed. “I guess I should probably get out of here before someone blocks my ride.”

“I just called a cab,” Maddie said. “I’ll walk over there with you.”

“We
all
will,” Skylar said. She felt a lump forming in her throat. She wasn’t ready to say good-bye, especially not to Emma. She’d spent the last three years without her, and now even just a month seemed insurmountable. But she knew it would be good to have fewer distractions, especially of the late-night variety. She would need to do a lot of work to make up what she’d missed the past semester at school. Maybe if she took some college credits in the fall, she could even catch up and graduate with the rest of her class.

“You’re sure you don’t want to stay?” Skylar asked, throwing her arms around Emma and Maddie as they walked. “I’m pretty sure we could hook you guys up with a job at the hash brown station.”

“As tempting as that is,” Emma said, “I have to go back to New York and finish up my internship. But . . .” She smiled. “There’s always next summer.”

“Wait, are you going to apply again?” Skylar asked. She tried to control her glee.

“Maybe,” Emma said. “You never know.”

“Well, I’m definitely going to,” Maddie said. “My sisters can come for free if I’m a counselor.”

“What?” Jo cried. “I finally leave and now you’re coming back?”

“You can always come visit during reunion,” Maddie said, sticking out her tongue. “Plus, someone has to keep an eye on Nate for you, make sure he’s eating his Wheaties and doing his push-ups.”

“That is
not
funny,” Jo said, pushing her. Skylar hoped one day when they talked about all the drama that had happened surrounding Adam Loring, they would just laugh.

“Fine,” Skylar said as they crossed the middle of the Green. “I guess I’ll just have to stalk your Facebook photos late at night while I cry into my Diet Coke.”

“Please
don’t
do that,” Emma laughed. “I’ll be in touch more now, I promise. I know I haven’t been a great friend—”

“It’s
me
who’s been the bad friend,” Maddie interrupted.

“So have I,” Jo said.

Skylar looked ahead at the parking lot and suddenly stopped short, nearly tripping Maddie. “You know what I just realized?” she said, examining the balding patch of grass beneath their feet. “We’re basically standing on the exact spot where we met.”

“You guys!” Maddie cried, tearing up and dropping her bags.

“Don’t you start,” Jo said, rolling her eyes.

“Maybe there’ll be a plaque some day,” Emma said.

“Oh, definitely,” Skylar said. “I’m hoping for life-sized statues.”

Maddie clapped. “You can sculpt them!”

Skylar didn’t want to move. She wanted to sit down and turn her face up to the sun and remember what it had felt like the first time she saw Emma sitting on her trunk, clutching her backpack and looking around cautiously. Skylar liked to think there had been something guiding her that day, steering her toward the girl who would be her rock as she navigated the treacherous emotional terrain of adolescence. But she knew if she said it out loud, they would just pile on her for being a hippie. So Skylar kept quiet—until they got to Emma’s car, anyway. Then she fell apart.

“Oh, Em,” she said, her face crumpling. “I’m gonna miss you so much.”

Jo slammed the trunk shut, interrupting their reverie.

“I’m sorry to make this quick,” she said, “but I have to get back to the insanity.”

“I guess this is good-bye, then,” Emma said, pulling her into a hug.

“Just for a year,” Jo said.

“But the past three days felt like a year,” Emma said. “An actual year is going to feel like . . .”

“Forever!” Maddie said, practically leaping onto Jo.

“Hey, give me a break. I’m trying to be stoic here,” Jo said, her voice wavering.

“That reminds me,” Skylar said, winking at Emma and Maddie. “We have something for you.”

She reached into the back pocket of her cutoffs and slipped out the miniature replica of the boys’ blue flag that she’d made while waiting for the luminary rafts to dry.

“You deserve a memento,” Skylar said.

“You
earned
it,” Maddie added with a wink. It was just a twig and a flap of construction paper, and Skylar thought it looked pretty dinky, but Jo looked at it and promptly burst into tears.

Gravel crunched as a yellow cab turned into the parking lot and pulled to a stop next to them. A portly, pony-tailed driver got out and Jo hurriedly composed herself.

“Hello again, prom queen,” he said to Maddie with a smile. Emma raised her eyebrows quizzically and Maddie laughed.

“It’s a long story,” she said. “And a whole ’nother life.”

Once Maddie’s cab had gone, and Jo had been called back to the gazebo, Skylar turned to Emma and smiled sadly.

“Where were we?” she asked.

“You were about to ugly cry, I think.”

“Right.” It didn’t take much work for Skylar to choke up again. “I love you,” she said, hugging Emma tightly.

“I love you, too,” Emma said. “Thank you for being my best friend.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re stuck with me for life.” Skylar grinned through her tears. “I never want anything to come between us ever again.”

They hugged once more before Emma got into the driver’s seat and adjusted the rearview mirror, wiping her eyes.

“I’ll text you when I get home,” she said.

“You better.”

“Love you.”

“Love you more.”

Skylar watched the green station wagon roll up the gravel toward the access road and saw that Jo had affixed a bright yellow
I’VE GOT A FRIEND IN CAMP NEDOBA!
sticker to the rear bumper, on top of the liberal Jesus one. Emma’s aunt was going to be so confused.

When she turned back to the Green and scanned the crowd, she saw Zoe Dawson, one of her favorite elevens from the previous summer, leaning against the chain link fence around the swimming pool with a group of girls. Skylar walked over, hoping she didn’t look as sad as she felt.

“Are you my Pennacook girls?” she asked.

“Yes!” they cried. She started to gather them to head back to the bunk when a car pulled into the parking lot and a tall brunette hopped out. The girls started to scream with glee.

“That’s Quinn,” Zoe said, jumping up and down excitedly. “We weren’t sure she was going to make it this summer.” Quinn ran across the green and the girls enveloped her in a group hug. When they broke apart, Zoe flashed an embarrassed smile. “I know it seems like we’re overreacting,” she said. “But we really, really missed her.”

“I get it,” Skylar said. “No one loves you like your camp friends do.” She felt herself tearing up again and turned away so that her new campers wouldn’t see. “Now, come on,” she said brightly. “Let’s go get unpacked.”

EMMA SAT ON HER TRUNK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE lawn, looking up at the wooden sign creaking in the breeze. Camp Nedoba. She couldn’t believe she was finally there.

That morning, Emma had woken up in her own bed, looking out at the same maple tree branch she’d seen every morning since she was five and her dad had cleared out his study so that Kyle would finally stop bugging him about getting his own room. The foliage changed—from flowery bright green buds in May to fat summer leaves the color of steamed broccoli to golden-orange in October, before it went bald for the winter—but the branch was always there, rising behind the lavender shutters like an arm reaching up to wave hello. Until, now, it wasn’t.

Emma’s stomach flipped and she drew her knees up to her chest, staring hard at her sparkly pink toenails and willing herself not to search the parking lot again for her parents’ car. She knew they were gone. If her best friend, Anna, had been there, like she was supposed to be, everything would be perfect. They’d been excited about their first summer at sleep-away camp all year, until Anna had broken her leg horseback riding in May and couldn’t go anymore. Emma had begged her parents to let her stay home, too, but they’d already paid the deposit. “Besides,” her mom had said, “you’ll make new friends there.” Emma sucked on her bottom lip to keep from crying. After her parents had taken her through registration, the tall man with the megaphone had told her to wait with her things for one of her counselors to come show her to the cabin. But she’d been waiting for ten minutes already and nobody had come. All the other, bigger kids seemed to travel in packs, shrieking and laughing and stomping off toward their cabins, which all had weird, unpronounceable American Indian names. What did
Nedoba
mean anyway? It could be some kind of code for a child labor farm, for all Emma knew.

She had been away from home once before, but only for a weekend, and that had been with her grandparents at Disney World. Here, she knew no one, and there weren’t even any people walking around dressed like cartoon characters to make her feel better. Emma hung her head and felt the tears drop onto her kneecaps. She was embarrassed, but the fear overwhelmed her, and she couldn’t even run somewhere to cry in private because she didn’t know where anything was. Opening one of the wide-planked wooden doors could lead to a bathroom or to what the brochure had called its “state-of-the-art pottery kiln”—Emma had no way of knowing. She felt suddenly, irretrievably lost.

“Hey!”

Emma turned toward the voice and saw a tall girl with messy blonde hair and a baggy sweatshirt, dragging a purple trunk and a matching duffel bag over to where Emma sat. She waved, and Emma looked behind her, sure she must be talking to someone else. But then the girl plopped down on the grass a few feet away and raised a hand to her eyes to shield her face against the sun. She was beautiful. If she brushed her hair, Emma thought, she could probably be in a commercial. But then the girl’s big green eyes narrowed with worry. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Emma sniffed and clutched her new backpack to her chest. It was painted to look like a watermelon, with stripy green straps. She felt even more ashamed now. The blonde girl looked at least thirteen. She probably thought Emma was being such a baby.

“I’ll be fine,” Emma said. “It’s just my first year.”

“Me too,” the girl sighed, dropping her things and plopping down on the grass. She fished in her pocket and brought out a smooth turquoise stone with rings on it like the inside of a tree. She held it in her palm and showed it to Emma. “My mom gave me a rock to rub whenever I miss her, but so far it’s not doing anything.”

“It’s pretty, though,” Emma said. The girl examined it for a moment before tossing it on the grass.

“Yeah, pretty stupid,” she said, and then laughed. Emma laughed, too. They grinned at each other. Emma’s stomach seemed to right itself almost instantly.

“I’m Skylar, by the way,” the girl said. She reached out her hand and Emma noticed that Skylar had purple painted nails and was wearing multiple silver bangles. Emma made a mental note to hide her Pound Puppy when they got back to the bunk. Skylar did not look like the kind of girl who brought a stuffed animal to camp.

“I’m Emma,” she said. They shook.

“Have you ever been to camp before?” Skylar asked.

“Nope.”

“Me neither. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“An older brother,” Emma said.

“Me too!” Skylar cried. “Are you from around here?”

Emma shook her head. “Boston.”

“I’m from Philly,” Skylar said, playing with her bracelets. “We drove eight hours to get here.”

“Wow,” Emma marveled.

“I know. My dad went here when he was our age. It’s really important to him for some reason. Probably because I’m an artist like him.” Skylar’s eyes brightened. “Hey, do you like drawing?”

“Yes . . .” Emma wasn’t actually very good at art, but even though she’d only known her for sixty seconds, she already wanted to be just like Skylar.

“We’re twins!” Skylar declared with a grin.

“Maybe
fraternal
twins,” Emma joked.

Skylar looked at her, squinting in the sun. “We could totally do a
Parent Trap
,” she said. “You in?” She studied Emma’s face seriously for a second and then broke into a radiant smile. “I’m kidding, relax.”

“Oh, good,” Emma said. “I don’t think I can walk on stilts.”

Skylar laughed. “Hey, want me to draw you?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I love doing portraits.” Skylar unzipped her duffel and took out a thick sketchbook covered in multi-colored marker spirals. She brandished a pencil and held it up to her left eye, squeezing the other one shut. “For perspective,” she explained.

Emma sat still as Skylar started sketching. “Should I put down my backpack?” she asked, trying not to move her mouth.

“Nah, I’m just doing your head,” Skylar said. Out of the corner of her eye, Emma could see Skylar’s left elbow bouncing as her hand moved across the page.

“Well, you guys seem to be getting along!” Skylar stopped drawing, and they both looked up to see a teenage girl with a curly ponytail and freckles sprinkled across her nose jogging over from the gazebo. She was out of breath and clutched a clipboard. “Sorry I’m late. I’m Adri, one of your counselors. Welcome to Camp Nedoba!”

Skylar and Emma smiled nervously at each other.

“None of the other girls from our cabin are here yet,” Adri said, looking at her list after they recited their names. “Well, except for Jo. She’s around here somewhere. Her dad owns the camp, so she already knows everything.” Adri winked and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Or thinks she does, anyway.”

In the distance, Emma saw the tall, mustachioed man from the Camp Nedoba website walking with two girls, both about Emma’s age. One was dark-haired and the other had red curls like Annie, from the movie. As they got closer, Emma could see that the red-haired girl had recently been crying. She wished she could reach out to her, like Skylar had done for Emma, but she would have to wait until the adults left.

“Adri,” the tall man said, “this is Maddie Ryland. She was a late addition so she might not be on your list.”

“Hi, Maddie,” Adri said brightly, crouching down to her eye level. “Don’t worry, we’re going to have so much fun this summer, you won’t even miss home.”

The tall man smiled at Adri and bent down to whisper to the black-haired girl. “Now, Jo,” Emma overheard him say. “Remember, I told you Maddie really needs a friend here. Please be nice to her and show her around.”

“Why do
I
have to?”

“Because you’re my right-hand girl!” he said, ruffling her hair. Emma saw her smile proudly, and then looked away before she got caught eavesdropping.

“All right, ladies, why don’t I take you back to the cabin so you can get settled?” Adri said. “You can have your pick of the beds.” She put her arms around Emma and Skylar. “I think you two should share a bunk,” she said. “What do you say?”

Emma smiled. “That sounds good.”

“Definitely,” Skylar said.

“You can be my bunkmate, I guess,” Emma heard Jo say reluctantly to Maddie.

They left their trunks behind—Adri promised that the counselors would drive them over to the girls’ side later—and started walking up the hill that led to a dirt path shaded by tall pine trees. As they passed the basketball court, Emma noticed a short boy with big ears in a giant Boston Red Sox jersey talking excitedly to one of his counselors.

“I know karate,” the boy said. “Wanna see?”

“Later,” the counselor said wearily.

“Wanna hear a joke?” the boy went on. “What do you call cheese that’s not yours?”

“I have no idea.”

“Nacho cheese!” The boy cracked up, and the counselor smiled tolerantly.

“Gonna be a long summer,” he called to Adri as she passed.

“Nah,” she laughed. “I’ve got some quality girls here.”

Skylar shifted her duffel bag to her other shoulder and reached out her hand, grinning at Emma. Emma took it gratefully. Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal that Anna wasn’t there with her. Maybe her mom was right; she would make new friends. She already had one, one that was cooler than anyone Emma had ever met back in Boston. The breeze lifted Emma’s ponytail off the nape of her neck, and she felt a chill of excitement shoot down her spine. Summer camp might not so bad after all, Emma thought to herself with a smile. It was only four weeks.

And how much could her life change in four weeks, really?