Summer by the Lake

by Kay Gordon

  We both stopped walking at the same time, pretty close to the treehouse at that point, and turned to face each other. I inhaled deeply, feeling more ready for what he was about to say than I had been the week before. When he told me he loved me, I could honestly tell Drew that I was falling for him, too. I had no idea if I was there yet, but I felt things for him I’d never felt for anyone before. It was both scary and exhilarating.

  “Okay. Tell me.”

  He blew out a long breath and used his free hand to stroke my cheek slightly. The nervousness was obvious on his face and I had to bite back a small smile. Nervous Drew was pretty cute.

  Before he could get his nerves together to make his declaration, a noise caught the attention of both of us. Our heads turned towards the treehouse at the same time and neither of us spoke. After a moment of listening, I looked to Drew with wide eyes.

  “That sounds like…”

  He nodded and when we spoke, his voice was a whisper, too. “Someone’s having sex over there.”

  I had no idea who it could be but they were idiots. Having sex in the middle of the campus was a poor decision and set a terrible example for the campers. I was just about to suggest we go back to the dance when a male voice groaned quietly. It wasn’t the noise that got my attention but the name groaned.

  “Oh, my god.” I covered my mouth with my hand. “Thalia? Is that Thalia and Kevin? I thought it was camp employees.”

  Drew tugged on my hand, leading back towards the rec center. “It sounds like it’s our kids. Come on.”

  “No, wait,” I protested as my feet followed behind him with a mind of their own. “I need to stop it.”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “It’s already happening, Shay. If you want to talk to her about it later when she’s alone, do it that way. Right now you’d just humiliate them. I’ll talk to Kevin and let him know that having sex under in the treehouse is inappropriate.”

  “They’re so little.” I felt a pang in my stomach. Thalia was fifteen but only barely. Again, Drew chuckled.

  “They’re only a year younger than I was when I lost my virginity. I bet you weren’t much older, either.”

  I didn’t answer because he was right. I had been seventeen when I had sex with my high school boyfriend. That didn’t make me feel any better, though.

  “Is this what being a parent feels like?” I grumbled as we approached the rec center and the music blaring inside could be heard. “If so, I don’t think I’m having kids.”

  Drew pressed a kiss to my temple and held the door open for me. “Makes you want to call your parents and apologize, doesn’t it?”

  “Definitely.” I grinned and grabbed his hand, forcing him to follow me back to the middle of the dance floor. The two of us danced with the campers, keeping an eye on them while having fun at the same time. When Thalia and Kevin appeared about fifteen minutes later, I somehow kept from hiding her behind me while I shook him repeatedly. I’d say that was a win.

  The ball went for hours and my feet were killing me by the time midnight hit. I’d been to a lot of dances in my life but that ball was even more fun than my senior prom. Maybe it was because the stress of needing everything to be perfect was missing. Instead of worrying about getting the best pictures, hanging with the cool crowd, and wondering who would be Prom Queen, we just had fun. And it was perfect.

  The kids grumbled and groaned when the last song was over and but the exhaustion on their faces was obvious when the lights came back on. I stood off to the side and watched as hugs were dished out in parting, along with a few chaste kisses, and I leaned in to brush my lips along Drew’s.

  “Thanks for the dances, Moore.”

  He grinned and trailed his fingertips down my jaw. “Anytime, Butler. See you at breakfast.”

  Jenny leaned against me as we walked, her shoes in her hands, and Marie walked next to me a little off-kilter from being so tired. I dropped my arms across both of their shoulders and we stumbled back to the cabin with the rest of our group.

  “Does wake-up still happen at seven tomorrow?” September asked as we walked inside the cabin and Hannah shook her head.

  “We get to sleep in until nine and breakfast will be served until ten.”

  Even though everyone had more make-up and hairspray in their hair than usual, no one wanted to stay up any later. We’d all showered earlier in the evening so we just washed our faces, brushed our teeth, and put pajamas on. The clock on the wall said it was thirty minutes after midnight when I switched off the light. Maria, Alexandra, and Cate were all already fast asleep at that point and the others wouldn’t take too long to follow behind.

  “That was fun,” Hannah mumbled, crawling underneath the blankets on her bed. I switched off our light and made a noise of agreement as I did the same.

  “It was great.” I dropped my voice to a quiet whisper. “We have to talk to Thalia tomorrow, though, because Drew and I caught her and Kevin having sex by the treehouse.”

  Hannah gasped and I could see her shadowy figure sit up in her bed. “Shut up! Are you serious?”

  “Seriously traumatized. I’m so glad we didn’t actually see them but I can never unhear what we heard.”

  “What is that girl thinking?”

  I sighed and snuggled deeper into my pillow. “I had a lot of cabin-mates do the same thing while I was here. I never thought about how much it sucked for the counselors, though.”

  Hannah laughed quietly but it tapered off into silence before becoming a soft snore. To my knowledge, I was the only one in the cabin who was able to make it past midnight without becoming a zombie. Right then, though, I was feeling the fatigue of the night hit me and sleep claimed me shortly after I closed my eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Saturday’s activities were always more relaxed than the weekdays were but even more so on the Saturday following the ball. Not only were the older kids tired from staying up until midnight but the younger kids needed extra sleep from a late night of movies.

  I was up shortly after eight, unable to sleep in apparently, and found a few of the girls already up, too. No one was in any big hurry to get moving, though, and I sat on my bed reading a book after I took a shower. I’d just made it to a good part in the plot when the chime sounded at nine and I reluctantly shoved my book back in the drawer.

  Hannah groaned but got up and I walked out to try and get the girls moving, too. Once we were all upright, we headed to the dining hall to eat. The air was thick with humidity and dark clouds hung ominously above us. The smell of rain was in the air and I welcomed it. A lazy day indoors was just what we needed.

  “My feet have blisters from my shoes,” Emma whined quietly, walking with a small limp. “I shouldn’t have brought brand new shoes for that.”

  Hannah squeezed her shoulder. “We’ll stop by the health center after breakfast and get you bandaged up.”

  Our cabin wasn’t the only one who was dragging that morning. The younger kids had as much energy as they usually did and most of them were finishing breakfast when we arrived. The older cabins, however, all looked like they wanted to go back to bed for another three hours.

  With some coffee and a plate of pancakes, I sat down at the table and welcomed the caffeine into my veins. The girls’ energy started to show as they got food fuel into them and they began sharing details about the night before that they’d been too tired to give out earlier. I noticed that September and Thalia had their heads together and I briefly wondered if I’d missed September sneaking out, too.

  “Should we talk to her privately or do kind of a blanket statement about privacy and inappropriate behavior to the whole cabin?”

  I turned to look at Hannah with a sigh. “Maybe the second just in case we missed anyone else doing the same thing. We’re going to sound like a couple of old prudes, you know.”

  “True.” She sipped her own coffee and chuckled. “That sucks but it has to be done.”

  Before
I could agree with her, I felt someone approach me from behind and warm lips suddenly pressed to my cheek.

  “Morning, Shay.”

  I tilted my head back and grinned at Drew. “Good morning. Sleep well?”

  “I’ve slept better.” He straightened up and stared out at the girls. “Cabin Wars resumes tomorrow, ladies. Bring your game. Three weeks from today and we’ll be collecting our prizes.”

  Nicole scoffed. “We’re not scared of you, Cabin Seven. We’ve been ahead most of the summer and we aren’t letting up now.”

  Drew just flashed her a grin that could disarm any female instantly. He dropped a kiss to the top of my head and walked away without saying anything else. As soon as he was out of earshot, Robbie shook her head.

  “We cannot lose to them again. I can’t handle listening to them rub it in our faces next year.”

  “Keep playing hard, guys.” I swallowed the last of my coffee and smirked. “We have a few more pranks up our sleeves, too.”

  The threat of rain continued to loom but it never came to fruition. We spent the day doing our normal Saturday activities, which meant Hannah and I spent a lot of time with the over-excited younger cabins. By the time our rest period came around, all of us were ready for a nap.

  Hours later, after dinner was over and our activities complete, Hannah and I herded our girls down to the end-of-week bonfire. Cabin Seven was already there so a few people coupled up, including Thalia and Kevin, and I sighed when I remembered that we needed to give our talk on sexual appropriateness.

  I stood back watching the girls and smiled when Aubrey appeared at my side.

  “Last night was great, wasn’t it?”

  “It was,” I agreed with a nod. “You and Cameron were pretty cozy.”

  The tips of Aubrey’s ears turned red and she shrugged her shoulders slightly. “He lives in Dallas, so we’re only about an hour apart normally. I don’t know if we’ll keep in touch after the summer but the option is there, you know?”

  “That’s pretty lucky. Drew and I have five or six hours and Han is over a thousand miles from Jordan. If you and Cam can make it work, that would be amazing.”

  Drew joined us a few minutes later and we all did our normal dessert patrol while May spoke and started singing. The kids all had found their second or third winds and their loud voices carried into the dark night. Even our girls seemed to have new energy and we basically had to force them to shower and go to bed afterwards.

  It was dark when the chime went off Sunday morning, a sign that the weather would still be off for the day. I rubbed my eyes and shook Hannah awake before taking a trip into our bathroom. When I came out, Hannah rolled out of bed and I followed behind her as she pulled open the door to the main section of the cabin.

  Everything happened at once.

  I briefly saw that some of the girls were out of bed while others were still trying to wake themselves up. A loud bang sounded from above our heads, causing a few girls to startle. That was nothing compared to their reactions when a body swung from the ceiling in front of us, complete with that scary-ass clown mask on it.

  “Holy shit!” Hannah yelled at the same time a high pitched scream sounded in my throat. My screams weren’t alone, though, and at least five other girls made the same type of noise. I jumped back, clutching Hannah’s arm and causing us both to fall to our butts.

  The body continued swinging slightly where it was suspended from the ceiling and that’s when I realized wasn’t a body but clothing that was stuffed with something. Before I could even stand to investigate, loud laughs could be heard from outside the cabin.

  I scrambled to my feet, shoving the stupid dummy aside so I could get to the door. When I pulled it open, I found all of Cabin Seven standing on our porch, fully dressed, completely awake, and obviously overjoyed. My boyfriend stood front and center next to Jordan with his arms crossed and still laughing.

  “Good morning, Cabin Fifteen. Moratorium is over.”

  I folded my own arms across my chest and glared at Drew. “That sucked.”

  “Your reactions were amazing to hear,” Jordan replied, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes. “I only wish I’d been able to record it.”

  Hannah and some of the other girls had flanked me and I could almost feel the need for revenge rolling off of them. I shook my head and curled my lips into an evil smile.

  “We’ll get you back for this. Just wait.”

  Without another word, I turned around and followed the girls back inside. Cabin Seven’s laughter followed us and I had to keep myself from doing the same. Yeah, it scared the shit out of me but it had actually been a clever prank.

  “It looks like they stuffed someone’s clothes with hay and hung it from the beam in the ceiling,” Cate said as she poked at the dummy. “It was rigged to fall when your door opened.”

  “Sneaky,” I said with a nod. “The fact that they could do that without waking any of us is impressive. Check around for other pranks they might have done, especially in the bathrooms.”

  As the girls checked around, Hannah helped me try and get the stupid dummy down. I tossed the shirt and pants behind the cabin and Han held the mask in her hands, shaking her head.

  “I knew this would come back to bite us in the ass.”

  No other pranks were found in the cabin but we were all on our toes and we discussed proper ways of payback. A few of the things the girls wanted to do required a trip to the store but luckily we had a day off coming up that following Wednesday.

  The skies finally opened up shortly after breakfast so we went back to the cabin to spend our free day lounging around. It was almost lunchtime and I was sitting in the main section of the cabin, crocheting at the foot of Jenny’s bed. The girls were spread out around us, chatting, painting their nails, playing card games, and other random activities.

  I met Hannah’s eyes and she gave me an encouraging nod. Putting down my crochet hook and yarn, I cleared my throat twice to get the girls’ attention.

  “Guys, I want to talk to you about something serious.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at me. The amount of respect all of these ladies offered me was almost overwhelming. “I know you’ve created friendships and even relationships with some of the other people here at camp. I mean, I obviously have, too. It’s hard because you can’t get any privacy around here and I remember trying to find that bit of solace when I was here as a camper during my days. The thing is, you have to be careful. Sneaking away from the cabin or from activities can get you in trouble with the camp but also in trouble in other ways. I mean, there are bears and other things out there that could get you. You could get hurt and not have anyone around.”

  A few of the girls nodded and Hannah gave me a discreet thumb’s up, letting me know I was doing okay. I inhaled a deep breath and kept going.

  “While I still think fourteen and fifteen is too young to be having sex, I know some of you are. Having sex while at camp is a risky maneuver, though. That privacy that you all want to find is rare and even when you think you’re alone, you’re probably not. I need you to remember that when you make these decisions, okay?”

  Both Thalia and September’s faces went red and confirmed my suspicions that September snuck off the night before, too. I didn’t want to embarrass them, so I kept rotating my gaze from girl to girl. Hannah chimed in and I was insanely thankful for the backup.

  “Just make smart decisions, okay? And if you absolutely have to have sex even though we definitely feel like you should wait, please practice safe sex.”

  An awkward silence descended over the cabin and I had no idea what to say or how to overcome it. The lunch tone chiming might as well have been an angel calling from heaven because it saved my ass. Some of us startled at the noise but everyone moved to their feet to put everything away.

  I shook my head with a sigh. “I think this counselor gig is great birth control. Can you imagine having a teenager tha
t you have to worry about and have these conversations with all of the time?”

  “Lord, no,” Hannah replied, standing next to me with her arms crossed. “I think I’m going to go to route of puppies rather than kids.”

  “Amen.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The week after the dance went by at the speed of light.

  Drew and I spent our day off in town with Hannah and Jordan. The four of us went bowling, had drinks, and retired at the hotel in separate rooms. We all met for lunch the next morning and Hannah and I ditched the boys to pick up more supplies for Cabin Wars.

  During week six, the camp had Friday night karaoke as well as the cabin campouts. Throughout the week, different groups of cabins camped overnight in the meadow near the treehouse. Our turn came on Thursday night and we camped out in large, ten man tents with Cabins Fourteen and Sixteen.

  We spent the evening in in teen-girl world. The eighth and ninth graders asked the tenth graders for high school tips, boy advice, and shared their own experiences. All six of us counselors were quiet for the most part, only speaking when we were brought into the conversation or when it started to drift to inappropriate subjects.

  We finally made the girls go to bed about an hour after they usually would, squeezing each group of twelve into one large tent. It was a tight fit but it worked, not until after everyone had been reduced to fits of giggles as we tried to get situated.

  After about thirty minutes, even breathing and low snores sounded all around us and I was doing my best to try and sleep without having my run to exhaust me. I was lying there, wishing I’d brought my crocheting, when I thought I heard a noise.

  A growl.

  “Hannah.” I nudged the woman who was sleeping next to me, near the main zipper entrance to our tent. When she didn’t stir, I started sharking her. “Hannah.”

  Her hazel eyes popped open and she blinked at me for a moment. “What’s wrong?”