Nothing Happened

by Molly Booth

  “And you need to work,” Mom reminded her.

  “So I’ll get a job at a café in Portland,” Hana said, flapping her right hand. “None of this is a problem.”

  “It’s a problem for me that you wouldn’t be here,” Mom said. “I’d need to hire a new instructor—”

  “Call the Y.”

  “You’re leaving?” I said.

  Everyone turned and looked at me. Hana’s normally warm brown eyes looked dusky and cold. I slid onto the couch next to her.

  “I can’t be here with her,” she said softly. “Please tell them to let me go.”

  I stared up at my parents. They looked helpless. I didn’t blame them, really. Hana like this was like…parallel-universe Hana. Angry, bitter, always sad.

  Still, she was Hana. I smoothed her hair. “I just want you to feel better.”

  “I can’t.” Tears started. “Not here.”

  I hugged my sister and looked past her at my mom, who threw up her hands. I shook my head, just a little.

  “Want to play Capture the Flag?” I asked Hana, just in case.

  “No.”

  “Okay. I’ll grab you some paper from the art building.”

  “Don’t bother. I threw out all the stars this morning.”

  I gulped. None of this was good. “Okay. I’ll see you later, sweetie.” I stood up off the couch, and Mom took my place. Dad followed me to the entryway.

  “She dumped out all her water vases too,” he said, voice low, eyebrows furrowed together.

  My poor dad. I hugged him.

  My poor Hana.

  I WOKE UP at five a.m. Wednesday morning. Capture. The. Flag.

  I grabbed an orange and got out on the field before anyone else, map and pen in hand. Time to get ruthless.

  The breezy, blue, warm day didn’t feel very ruthless, but instead of clouds, there was doom for my enemies hanging in the sky.

  Around eight a.m., the counselors shuffled the entire camp onto the field. Claudia and Donald, talking mostly to each other. Bee and Raph arrived in the same manner—no sign of Hana. My heart hurt. No Margo, either. Eventually, Claudia wordlessly helped me take out the two boxes of red and blue bandannas. Thanks so much, sports assistant.

  We divided up the camp into colors. I picked all the new counselors. I made sure I got Vanessa this time, and that the twins got split down the middle. Nik came out on the field with her whistle and explained the rules:

  • Capture the Flag would last until noon, lunchtime.

  • Each side had a flag to hide somewhere in camp.

  • Each team had to appoint at least one guard for the flag.

  • Each team had a “caught zone” where they would guard the other team’s captured players.

  • No touching except for tagging, no inappropriate language, and everyone needed to wear closed-toe shoes.

  • Nik and Andy would be walking around camp keeping an eye on things, so if anyone needed help, they could find them.

  “Finally,” Nik said. “Listen to your counselors. Except when their plan isn’t a good one—then, I’d advise you to stage a mutiny.”

  A great cheer went up from the campers, and I smiled for real for the first time all day. It felt good.

  I led the blues to our base camp: the garden/compost bin. It smelled, but there was no way to approach without someone seeing you. I would normally turn to Bee as my right hand, but she looked exhausted.

  I grabbed Rachel instead, and we passed out the blue bandannas. Then I sat everyone down and laid out the plan. Layla giggled, Jay’s face lit up, Nessa whooped, and everyone was generally super enthusiastic. Only Bee eyed me with a little bit of scorn, but I’d known she wouldn’t like parts of it. I reminded everyone that, technically, trickery was in the rule book for Capture the Flag. She conceded.

  I broke it down for the group.

  “All right, here’s how it’s going to go.” I laid out a camp map in front of them. It was a brochure, and kind of inaccurate, but I’d scribbled on it with red and blue markers, which got the team very excited.

  “Ava is a double agent. Layla swaps out for her and grabs the flag, while you guys create a diversion—a fake base, on the island.”

  Giggles and gasps broke out. A few campers asked if this was allowed.

  “You’re on Team Ben now.” I pointed at the map. “I run sports. Everything I say is allowed.”

  That got a big laugh. I broke everyone up into patrol, scout, and special ops groups. Then I assigned counselors and CITs.

  “Hey,” I whispered to Bee. “Do you just wanna guard?”

  “Sure. Thanks.”

  I assigned the other guard positions to a handful of less adventurous campers. Then I grabbed special ops 1, led by Raph (I really liked that Raph always showed up for Capture the Flag).

  “Head to the island, noisily, with a blue T-shirt,” I explained. “You’ll need to be good actors, though, because you have to pretend you’re trying to be sneaky going out there, and you have to make sure someone from the red team sees you doing it.”

  “We got this,” Raph assured me. He had football black stripes under his eyes. “Right, y’all?”

  “And it’s very possible,” I continued, “that you’ll get put in the caught zone, so you have to be okay with that.”

  “We’re team players,” Meredith replied.

  “Excellent. Go around the back of the island, to the west end dock,” I instructed. “And remember: pretend you’re trying to be inconspicuous.”

  “We’re the worst spies ever!” Raph clarified. “Got it!”

  We all put our hands in the middle. “Go BLUE!”

  Bee and company set up the base with our actual flag. Rachel, Dave, Vanessa, and Doug went on their scouting patrols. I took special ops 2 to get some cereal, because Layla hadn’t eaten breakfast.

  “It was too early,” she complained. “My stomach hurts when I eat that early.”

  “I know,” I said quickly. I loved the kid, but her voice was screechy and I was worried someone on red would hear. “But we can’t have you, our star player, running around on an empty stomach.”

  I coaxed her into eating with Shane’s secret stash of marshmallow cereal.

  “So what do I have to do?” she asked, mouth full.

  “Now, we wait for intel.”

  I didn’t like the waiting part of the plan. It made me antsy, and then I had time to think. Like about how my enemies in this game were actually my enemies. And about how Bee’s eyes seemed permanently lined with tears now.

  Luckily, Vanessa’s group returned quickly, handed off the info, and it was just as I’d hoped—

  Ava had weaseled her way on to the red guard team.

  “Let’s move out, special ops two.”

  Ah, classic. Team Red had hidden their flag on the hill behind the art building. The hill was always a great pick. Normally, it would mean it would be impossible to get there without strenuous activity.

  My sister and I stayed low, approached the building from the right corner. They didn’t have anyone guarding around the side, because the entrance was so narrow; they could tag anyone on our team the second they came through.

  But I wasn’t sending someone through from our team.

  There they were: waiting for us, a flash of red hidden under a pile of leaves under the building’s drain spot. Ava’d come through.

  “You ready? You remember where to meet?”

  “I got it.”

  I saluted. “Godspeed, shortcake.”

  Ava put on Layla’s glasses, grinned, and went in.

  Ten minutes later, red flag in hand, we were running for our lives.

  Halfway back to base, off trail, I heard leaves rustling. I knew two things.

  “Layla,” I whispered, and handed her the flag. “You need to run. Quietly. Now.”

  Her eyes went wide, and she took off. I ran to the right, making a big effort to crash and stomp through big piles of underbrush. Soon, I was apprehended by a
snickering Maddie. Sometimes you have to take one for the team.

  She led me down to the waterfront, where they’d set up their caught zone. Waterfront was smart, because you’d have to somehow swim to get in and tag your caught teammates. Pathetic but unsurprising, I was the only one captured there.

  “Where’s the rest of your team?” I asked the guard, Claudia. Talk about hiding with her head in the sand.

  “The island,” Claudia said. “And out looking for our flag. We probably have yours by now.”

  “Thrilling,” I said. And it was, but mostly because they’d fallen for the whole thing. We were minutes away from winning, I was sure.

  “So the mastermind is caught!” Donald sauntered over. To Claudia, he said, “We got the flag.” Then to me: “Didn’t think I’d see you here, Rosenthal.”

  “Well, perhaps I’m still masterminding, King.” I stood up.

  Claudia stood up too. “Hey, you’re not allowed off the dock—”

  “We need to talk.”

  Donald glanced at Claudia, then back at me. Claudia looked at her feet.

  Maybe they felt guilty. Maybe I could actually get through to them.

  I pulled off my bandanna and raked my fingers through my hair, pushing it back. So sweaty. The water actually looked pretty good right now, and running the length of the dock, jumping in, and swimming away and never returning would solve a lot of my problems.

  But Hana was more important.

  “Okay, look,” I said finally. They both did. “Why haven’t either of you actually asked Hana about that night?”

  “I saw it,” Claudia said simply. Her face was blank.

  “I did, too.” Donald sighed. “Look, Hana’s a great kid”—I saw Claudia flinch—“but she was a real jerk. You can’t blame Claudia for dumping her.”

  “No, I can’t!” I said. “You can dump whoever you want. But why are you being such an asshole about it? Why not have a conversation with her?”

  “I tried to!” Claudia fired back. “But then I saw her phone.” She glanced at Donald, who looked at the ground. “She was using me, okay? She probably just wanted to make Christopher jealous. Or maybe I was, like, that girl fling everyone has, I don’t know.”

  “Something’s screwy here.” I gestured at the general everything. “You know Hana’s not the kind of person who would do this.”

  “I thought I knew her!” Claudia said.

  “It was really bad,” Donald said. “They were hooking up right out in the open.”

  “Fine.” I threw my hands down. “Fine, but even if you think she did this, what excuse do you have for telling people about it? Why make everyone hate her?”

  “Back off.” Donald stepped forward, in front of Claudia. “Ben, buddy,” he said, weirdly slowly. “Don’t you think your judgment is kind of clouded on this one?”

  I crossed my arms. “Meaning?”

  He looked back at Claudia, then at me again. “Did Bee put you up to this?”

  I was so taken aback, I couldn’t reply. Donald sighed and nodded, taking this as an admission, which I guess it kind of was. But this wasn’t just because of Bee.

  “Seriously, Ben?” Donald rolled his eyes. “You spend all this time harping on people for ‘creating drama’ when they like someone, and it happens to you, and you do the same thing?”

  “I’m not being dramatic.”

  “Then how do you explain this: you taking her side, just because you like her?” he asked. “You didn’t even check to see if Claudia was okay on Friday. What happened to friends coming first?”

  I looked at Claudia. She met my eyes briefly, then stared at her shoes.

  Too many ideas flooded my head. Was that what I was doing? What was going on right now? I closed my eyes, and I immediately saw Hana’s face, tears running down her cheeks. I saw her helping my sisters learn to swim, holding the nervous kids in her lap during campfire. This wasn’t about Bee. Or it was, because she was right.

  It had only been an instant, but it was clear now. I opened my eyes to Donald’s.

  I stared at him, and replied: “Bee is my friend.”

  “Are you serious?! After she totally screwed you up last summer?” Donald fumed. “Don’t pretend she didn’t!”

  “I—”

  “Besides,” Donald fumed, “she didn’t even say any of that stuff. We just—”

  A cheer went up from somewhere over by Dam, then the victory horn. My team had done it. These two had lost. They were going to keep losing. Just then, one of our little windjammer sailboats pulled around the corner, Bee at the bow, my knight in shining armor.

  “I think that’s my cue.” I backed up, pointing up toward my base. The look of disbelief on both of their faces, in the beautiful sunlight, was just completely priceless. I wished I had a camera so I could take a picture and commission Donald to make a mosaic of it later.

  At the end of the dock, Bee held out a hand and steadied me onto the boat. Immediately, I felt nauseous, but I didn’t really care.

  “Ready to sail in to victory?” She smiled.

  “In every way possible.” I turned back, briefly, and called out: “You guys are being fucking douchebags! We’re done! Got it?”

  “Fuck you, Ben!” Donald called back.

  On that melodious note, Bee sailed us around the beach, then into the old west dock. And I only puked once in the whole five minutes.

  Victory.

  THE GOOD NEWS was, if you went to enough pointless, enormous events, you recognized them for what they were: opportunities. You could either make a scene and piss everyone off, or you could wait an hour and slip away, without anyone noticing.

  “I LOVE WINNING.” Raph sighed happily. “It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over. It’s the opposite of losing. Losing’s the worst.”

  “That’s an excellent example to set.” I snorted. We’d taken our Jell-O and whipped cream desserts—and snuck away to the parking lot to sit under the white tent.

  Not particularly comfortable, but outside, away from everyone else. Whenever I spent time in the dining hall this week, I’d come out reeling and internally swearing. Especially the last two days, without Hana.

  “Hey, aren’t we always telling kids to be themselves?” Raph quipped, smiling with a spoon between his teeth. “I’m just insanely competitive.”

  “Thank goodness you’re not a gym teacher.”

  “Honey, improv is gym. Or at least, I sweat so much during class that it would be weird if it wasn’t.”

  I snorted with laughter this time. “All right, all right. You really kicked butt today. You’re the whole reason we won, and winning’s the best.”

  “I wasn’t fishing for compliments, but I’m not mad I caught some.”

  “Hey, Bee! I was looking for you.”

  I looked up. In the after-dinner Jell-O twilight stood the shadowy, stocky figure of Ben.

  “Hey, you found me,” I said, and smiled.

  “That’s my cue to exit,” said Raph, standing up.

  “Pursued by bears?” I asked.

  Ben shuddered. I’d almost forgotten about his history with bears.

  “I sure hope so!” Raph toasted at us with his Jell-O. “See you in the morning, Queen Bee.” As he walked past Ben, he turned to wiggle his eyebrows at me. I tried not to make a face, but I think I failed, because Ben turned to look—by then, Raph was halfway to his car.

  “Can I sit?” Ben asked.

  I looked dubiously at the dirt patch beside me. “If you really want to,” I said. “We could also go somewhere else?”

  “Nah.” Ben dropped down next to me. Raph’s car started. The light blinded me for a moment. “This is one of my favorite spots at camp.”

  I laughed. “The dirt parking lot?”

  “Yep.” Ben looked across the lot, wistfully, as Raph’s car pulled out, like we were standing on a cliff beholding the roaring ocean. “I love it here. Under this tent.”

  “You’re kind of weird.”

 
“You kind of like it.”

  “I thought we weren’t accusing me of liking you anymore?” I fired back, straining my voice to sound lighter by the end of the sentence. Ha-ha-ha, just kidding, just kidding.

  “But I’ve already said I like you now,” Ben reasoned. “Isn’t it official?”

  I thought for a moment. “Well, I think I’d need it in writing.” Then I had an idea: “Hey, can I see your phone?”

  He handed it to me. I opened a text message, sent it off, and handed it back. He checked out the message, and then laughed and held out his hand. I gave him my phone. He typed, sent, handed it back.

  Done. Official.

  “So we’re good?”

  “We’re good.” I nodded, taking another spoonful of Jell-O.

  “But for the record, again, you’re right.” Ben turned to me, his face closer to mine, looking me in the eyes. The light from our one parking lot lamp bounced back and forth between us. “I’m sorry. I won’t accuse you at all, I promise. I like you, and I hope you like me, even if I’m weird.”

  I’d asked for honesty, I’d gotten honesty, and I felt like I might pee myself from it.

  “So,” he continued. “During Capture the Flag today, I had a few moments alone with the red team captains.”

  Donald and Claudia. They’d been sore losers. Aching losers. Throbbing losers. I’d have found the whole thing hysterical if it hadn’t been so surreal, if Hana had been there laughing with me.

  “Yeah, I think I barged in on that.” I smiled.

  “That was the best.” He smiled, then sighed, ran a hand down his face. “It was a special conversation. I tried to talk it through with them, and ask them why they didn’t just talk to Hana. And why they were telling everyone about it.”

  “And?”

  “And they said a bunch of bullshit. Like that they hadn’t told everyone, and they really…I don’t know. They’ve cracked. They think they’re right, and they’re being dicks about it.”

  “Couldn’t agree more,” I said, wishing with every bone in my body we weren’t talking about our friends right now.

  “Yeah.” Ben sighed again. “So you know how that ended. I told them they were being douchebags and that I was done with them.”