The Girls of Firefly Cabin

by Cynthia Ellingsen

The girls would be disappointed to have someone take her place, she did know that. They would move on, though, and forget her. The thought hurt, which was frustrating. People didn’t stick around—she’d learned that early on—so why had she let herself get attached to these girls?

  You have to let them go. When it’s over, it’s over. There’s no point in hanging on. Lauren returned to the edge of the water, pulled her knees to her chest, and waited.

  Jordan’s friends emerged from the water, wet and shivering.

  “We gotta get back,” Raahithya said. “I’m gonna go grab him.”

  “I’ll do it.” Lauren jumped to her feet and raced down the sand, relieved the night was finally over. “We should head back,” she called.

  The second the words were out of her mouth, she tripped on something. A root, a piece of driftwood—she had no idea, but there was a sudden pop and a burst of pain. She dropped with a yelp.

  Jordan was at her side in an instant. “What happened? You okay?”

  Pain ripped through her ankle. It hurt like a thousand little pinpricks but then subsided.

  “I’m fine. I just stepped on something wrong.”

  “Phew.” Isla giggled. “I would be grounded for life if we had to call for an ambulance.”

  Lauren’s mouth dropped open. Uh, what about the fact that she could have been seriously injured? Wouldn’t that be greater cause for concern?

  Stop, you’re just tired.

  “Can you walk back?” Jordan asked.

  “I think.” Lauren tried to take a few steps. It hurt a little bit to walk, but it wasn’t a big deal. “Really, I’m fine.”

  Jordan and Isla smiled at each other, and his friends approached.

  “Come on,” the blond said. “The canoe express is leaving.”

  The group marched across the silvery beach, and Isla said her final goodbye to Jordan.

  Lauren and Isla slipped into the forest in silence. Lauren focused on putting one foot in front of the other and not tripping on anything else.

  “Don’t you want to ask how it went?” Isla sounded hurt.

  “Not at the moment.” Every step she took hurt a little bit more. “I just want to make it back home.”

  “Does your ankle still hurt?” Isla asked.

  Lauren let out a huff. “Do you even care?”

  “Lauren!” Isla stopped walking. “Of course I care! Is that what you think?”

  Lauren stopped too. In an angry whisper, she said, “You were more worried about not getting grounded than making sure I was okay!”

  “No, I…” Isla shook her head. “It’s a long story. Let’s talk about it in the morning.”

  “Fine by me,” Lauren grumbled.

  They reached Blueberry Pine’s stretch of beach, and Lauren hobbled along in silence. The closer they got to camp, the more worried she became that Cassandra would be waiting for them. She froze at every hoot of an owl or crack of a tree branch in the wind. Finally, they reached the path leading to the cabin, snuck up the steps, and slipped inside.

  Cassandra’s cot was still empty, which meant the bonfire was going strong. They were safe.

  Jade rubbed her eyes. “How did it go?” she asked groggily.

  Lauren climbed into bed and pulled a pillow over her face. “We’re going to lose the race.”

  Lauren gritted her teeth. Her ankle burned, her breath came in short gasps, but there were only five girls in front of her. The red ribbon for the finish line stretched across the sand.

  You can do it. Push yourself.

  For a split second, she did. Her legs propelled her forward, and her heart pounded like an Olympic athlete’s. But no matter how hard she pushed, she couldn’t get past the warning pain in her ankle.

  Come on. Go!

  Too late. Dana, one of the Cardinals, crashed through the red ribbon and took first.

  Lauren ran through and collapsed, trying to catch her breath. She rolled onto her back and stretched out her leg. The sun was about a thousand degrees, and she was sticky with sweat and sand. Her ankle hurt, but at least it hadn’t snapped halfway through.

  “Great job, Lauren!” Isla’s tiny voice was punctuated by applause.

  Lauren cracked open an eye. The other Fireflies stood over her, dark silhouettes against the sun. Somewhere by the finish line, the Cardinals cheered, accepting their trophy.

  “I need a shower,” she muttered, brushing sand off her legs.

  Isla, Archer, and Jade exchanged glances.

  “Look, we did great,” Jade said. “That wasn’t easy.”

  The race had been a combination of boating, baton passing, and obstacle courses. “We came in sixth,” she added, “so we’ll get some points.”

  Isla nodded. “We’re still in the running.”

  Barely. The Cardinals came in first, and the Bluebirds, second. That meant the Fireflies were neck and neck with both of them.

  “We would have won if we hadn’t gone last night,” Lauren said.

  The sound of a whistle cut through the air. “Campers, it’s mealtime!” Taylor shouted into her bullhorn. “Mush, mush.”

  “Saved by the bell,” Isla said, grinning.

  Lauren gritted her teeth. Since when did Isla make snappy little jokes? Oh, right. Since the girl who had everything got a boyfriend too.

  Stop! You can’t think that way. The group walked to the mess hall in silence. The thick smell of tomato sauce cut through the air. Chicken parmigiana—it smelled good, but too heavy for the hot day. Still, Chef must have worked hard on it, so Lauren stood in line while the other Fireflies headed for other things.

  The campers next to her chattered with excitement, recapping the race. It seemed like everyone had had a great time.

  Except me.

  Chef waved at her from the kitchen, and Lauren forced a smile.

  Jade, Archer, and Isla stopped talking when she arrived at the table. They must have been talking about her. Irritated, Lauren looked down at her tray.

  It was packed full. Chicken parmigiana, green beans, garlic bread, and a small piece of Italian cake. She wasn’t even hungry, but she planned to eat every bite, out of respect for Chef. The other girls clearly didn’t care about that.

  Jade’s plate was loaded with fresh fruit and cottage cheese from the salad bar. Isla had the chicken, but had skipped the bread, dessert, and green beans in favor of a limp green salad. Archer was eating cereal for lunch.

  Cereal.

  Lauren couldn’t imagine skipping a hot meal for Fruity Pebbles. Letting out a slow breath, she looked out at the lake, remembering the way she’d sat in the sand and waited for Isla the night before. She took a furious bite, tomato sauce sour on her tongue.

  Silence hung over the table. The only sound was Archer slurping her milk. Finally, Lauren slammed down her fork.

  “Why are you eating cereal for lunch?” she demanded. “Eat a meal!”

  “Huh?” Archer stopped mid-chew. “When did you become the food police?”

  Jade held up her hands. “Hey. I think we’re all a little tired…”

  Archer tipped her bowl back to drink her milk, but not before saying, “Here comes the peacemaker.”

  Jade drew back. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me.” Archer shot Jade a look from behind extra-thick eyeliner. “It’s not your job to try and fix everything.”

  “Somebody has to.” Isla gave a delicate cough. “Since you couldn’t be bothered to help cover last night.”

  “Uh, if we’d stayed in the cabin, none of this would have happened,” Lauren argued. “I told you something—”

  “Enough already!” Archer’s spoon clanked against the bowl. “I, I, I. That’s all anyone thinks about around here.”

  “That’s rich,” Jade muttered. “Considering the only thing we’ve heard about all summer is your sister. I can count the times on one hand you’ve asked me what I’m going through.”

  Archer’s face turned so red it could have caught on fire. “I didn’t need
to ask. You’re Miss Woe Is Me every second of the day.”

  Okay, this was getting bad.

  “You know what?” Lauren picked up her fork, regretting the fact that her bad mood had started all of this. “You’re right. We’re all a little tired…”

  “No!” Archer slammed her hands onto the table. “I’m not tired. I’m mad. But the only thing you care about is being able to look at yourself on the camp website.”

  Lauren froze. Is that what Archer thought?

  “I want to be the faces of Blueberry Pine to have a memory of the best summer of my life and the best friends I ever had. Maybe that doesn’t include you.”

  “Maybe not.” Archer crossed her arms. “I might not have a lot of friends, but the ones I do have don’t lie to me.”

  Lauren’s blood turned cold. “What do you mean?”

  Archer held Lauren’s gaze. For a world-crumbling moment, Lauren feared she knew her secret—and that she was about to tell it. Instead, Archer got to her feet.

  “I mean this whole Firefly-friends-for-life thing is a pile of crap.” Her heavy black eyeliner couldn’t hide the hurt in her eyes. “How can we be friends if we’re not there for one another? You know, I wasted my birthday wish on being friends with you guys forever. I’d like to change that now. I’d like to wish we’d never met.”

  Turning, she stomped away.

  Lauren gripped her tray. “We are friends,” she whispered. “We just…”

  “Don’t like one another?” Jade said. “Yeah, I got that.” She took off.

  Isla’s face crumpled.

  Lauren sat in silence. Then she set her jaw, turned her attention to her plate, and focused on eating every last bite of her meal.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Archer stomped through camp. The air was fresh from the rain that morning, and campers laughed in the distance. Her jaw ached from fighting back tears.

  Make it to the art building. Then you can hide behind an easel and cry.

  The building smelled deep and musty like clay. She’d miss that back home, just like she’d thought she’d miss the Fireflies.

  But that was over.

  For the last two weeks of camp, she would spend as little time with her cabinmates as possible, especially know-it-all Jade.

  “Hey.” Archer gave an awkward nod to the counselor at the front desk. It wasn’t annoying Mallory, thank goodness, but the artsy girl with the pixie cut and a diamond nose ring.

  “Be right back.” The girl headed for the back room and returned with Archer’s painting.

  It was only back there because Jade had stuck her nose into the situation and asked the counselors to keep Archer’s work in the office. It was so embarrassing. She never would have said a thing; she would have just dealt with it, like always.

  Wiping sweat off the back of her neck, she studied the canvas—a painting of her house back home. Before the incident last night, she’d started the painting so her parents would frame it and hang it in the living room, which would annoy Makayla. Now, she didn’t know what to do with it.

  Dipping the brush into the paint, Archer touched up the tree branches outside the window of Makayla’s room. It reminded her of the countless nights Makayla had snuck out the window to visit her popular friends. Archer would watch, terrified, as her sister walked down their suburban block by herself, the streetlights casting a halo over her head.

  Those nights, Archer had counted the hours until her sister came home, paranoid about what might happen to Makayla. Until one night, when she was angry and had locked the window so Makayla couldn’t get back inside.

  It was winter. She knew Makayla would rather freeze to death than wake their parents. When Archer had heard her sister rattle the window, she’d darted back in and undone the lock. Archer fell asleep crying, worried what could have happened if she’d fallen asleep and left her outside.

  Like last night.

  If Jade had not stepped in…

  But she had.

  This morning at the relay race, Makayla had been visibly upset. She didn’t have on any makeup—highly unusual—and her spark was gone. The Bluebirds had cheered and chanted while she stared out at the lake, probably nursing heartbreak or hope that things would still work out with Paolo.

  I bet she wrote to him.

  The thought hit Archer with a start. It hadn’t even crossed her mind that her sister would reach out to him. Now, as certain as the blue, red, and yellow vials of paint would give her the colors of the rainbow, she knew there would be a message on her phone.

  “I have to run back to the cabin for a minute,” she told the counselor. “Can I leave my painting up?”

  The counselor looked at the clock. “No worries.”

  Archer sprinted to Firefly Cabin. It was empty, and she felt a pang at how strange it seemed now. Feeling like an intruder, she climbed to the top of her bunk and pulled out her phone.

  There was a message.

  Reception was spotty, and it took ages to pull up, but it finally did.

  Dear Paolo,

  I don’t know how to explain how hurt I was that you didn’t show up last night. Maybe you got stuck at the photo shoot? I really need to see you. You’re the first person in years I’ve been able to really talk to. Everyone else is so fake—me included, I guess—because no one knows the real me but you. All this to say that I count the seconds until I hear from you, because…and I was going to tell you this last night…I love you.

  Your M.

  Archer put her hand to her heart. She couldn’t have imagined her snotty, aloof sister saying those words, but there they were, in black and white.

  Immediately, Archer started to type:

  Makayla,

  I’m sorry I didn’t

  Archer stopped.

  Enough. I have to tell her.

  She fell back against her pillow, her heart sick with fear. What was the alternative? Keep the charade going for the next few years?

  Jade was right: it was cowardly, and it was cruel. Makayla thought she’d found someone who understood her, but it was all a big lie.

  The agony of last night shot through Archer, followed by the terror she’d felt the night she locked her sister out in the snow. Was that the person she wanted to be?

  It’s time to grow up, Jade had said.

  I don’t know how to do that.

  Really, though, she did. She had to talk to Makayla.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Isla sat in a corner of the Lodge. The black nail polish Archer had loaned her was chipped. Yesterday, it had seemed so edgy, but today, it just made her hands look dirty.

  It’s not me. Like everything lately.

  The past few weeks had been so strange. Camp felt like a pass to do anything she wanted, but she had taken it too far.

  Wearing makeup, sneaking out, kissing a boy…What was I thinking?

  Isla had almost died, and Lauren got hurt. Then instead of apologizing…

  I acted like a spoiled brat.

  Someone tapped her shoulder. She looked up, hoping it was a Firefly.

  “Phone call,” Cassandra said.

  Isla braced herself as she’d walked to the phone. Her parents? Did they somehow know that she’d betrayed their trust?

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, beautiful,” said a warm voice.

  Jordan.

  Isla wrapped the phone cord around her wrist. “Hi.”

  “I wanted to check on Lauren. And you.”

  Isla tightened the cord. “Lauren is fine. We lost the race so she’s kind of mad, but she’s fine.”

  Jordan laughed. “Isla, I had so much fun with you last night. When can we do it again?”

  This was excruciating.

  She liked him so much, but her first kiss should have been one of the best experiences of her life. Instead, she felt sick with guilt.

  “I can’t.” She released the cord. “I can’t see you again.”

  “What? Why?”

  She sank dow
n to the floor, not caring in the slightest that it was dirty. “Jordan, my parents won’t let me date until I’m fifteen.”

  “Fifteen?” He let out a sound like an injured animal. “That’s, like, ancient!”

  “I know.” She studied her nails, hating the chipped polish more and more.

  “There’s the dance, though,” Jordan pleaded. “Can I at least see you then?”

  Isla rested her forehead against the wall. “I can’t go. Cassandra told me my parents didn’t sign the permission form.”

  “You could ask them,” he insisted. “See if they’ll change their minds.”

  “I’ll ask. If they say yes, you’ll see me there. It’s doubtful, though.”

  Jordan went silent for what felt like an eternity. “Isla Meyers,” he finally said. “You really know how to play hard to get.”

  She blushed, remembering the feeling of his lips on hers. Even though she wanted to see him more than anything, she had to stop breaking the rules. The guilt was too much to handle.

  “Thank you for calling, Jordan. I’ll never forget last night.”

  Once they hung up, she waited for tears. Instead, she felt relieved that she had been honest. That she had done the right thing.

  Lifting her chin, Isla walked out to the lobby. She needed to borrow some nail polish remover. More than that, she needed to find her friends.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Jade whipped a stone at the lake. It plunked into the water.

  These girls forced me to be their friend. Now, they’re going to let Firefly Cabin fall apart?

  She whipped another stone.

  Kiara had left a void Jade could never fill. But the Fireflies had helped. She had opened up to them—to Archer, in particular. How could they destroy that?

  The thought made her scoop up a handful of stones and throw them in a rage. Plunk, plunk, plunk, skip-skip-skip-skip-skip.

  She stopped short.

  Five times. The stone had skipped five times.

  “Shut up.” She looked around to see if anyone had seen.

  Nope. The beach was empty.

  Digging through the sand, Jade unearthed another skipping stone. Flat like Archer had taught her. Then she winged it at the water.