by Lisa Roecker
“I’m impressed.” I was actually more grateful than impressed, but he didn’t need to know that.
“No, I’m the one who’s impressed.”
“What do you mean?” Was he trying to be a dick? Yeah, I hadn’t gotten a red, but at least I had yellow. It was better than getting stuck with our weird-ass host.
“I mean, you got the gold! Congratulations!” Liam slapped me on the back.
“Very funny. It’s yellow, you…”
But I didn’t have time to finish my sentence because Siegfried was already moving toward me like a bow-tie-rocking missile.
“Our winner! Our winner! Congratulations, young lady! You are now in first place!”
“Yellow.” It was the only word that came to my lips, and as soon as I said it, I knew my mistake.
“Oh no, it’s gold! You got the gold!” Siegfried took my arm and swung me into what could only be described as a victory jig.
Apparently, I wasn’t very good at losing.
Chapter 30
I tried to imagine a scenario where a Pemberly Brown student would actually try to win the first challenge because the way I saw it, I had just landed in my own personal version of hell. The cabin was spacious and had absolutely no characteristics of an actual cabin (thank God). The marble bidet was only trumped by the constant questions from my dad about how I was feeling and the awkward staring from Siegfried. It was like being under house arrest, only instead of a DUI and an ankle bracelet, I had a slightly suspect mental history and a yellow backpack.
“Young lady,” Siegfried said for the millionth time. I’m not sure if he really couldn’t remember my name or if he was trying to make me uncomfortable. If I was a betting woman, I’d probably say both. “You are in a very good position. Very good. Throughout your stay in this cabin, I will give you tips and advice to secure your standing as number one.”
My dad raised his eyebrows at me and smirked. I scratched my eye using my middle finger and shot him a meaningful look, a move that probably would have gotten me grounded at home, but my dad just laughed. Turns out Camp Dad had a decent sense of humor.
“You also have the opportunity to spend your daily free time with me as your mentor.”
“Oh…um…wow. Neat.” “Neat” was about two steps removed from “groovy” when it came to outdated jargon. What the hell was happening to me? I had to get out of there. “It’s just that, Ms. D., our headmistress, she made it a point to remind me to spend time with my classmates. Especially during free time. You know, to build relationships?”
I backed toward the door, clutching my bathing suit and towel as though I was inching away from a pack of wild animals. Every chaperone appeared amused except for Siegfried. He looked hurt, but not hurt enough to guilt me into hanging around. My butt hit the swinging door and I pulled a Seth, sprinting as fast as I could across the grounds to the red team’s cabin.
The thump of bass pumped through every crack in the cabin, out cracked windows, and beneath the door. The red team’s chaperone, some bored-looking housewife, sat outside on a step texting on her phone. It was worlds away from Casa Siegfried across the way, the full-fat caramel macchiato to my stale police-station coffee.
Housewife shifted on her butt to make room for me to walk up the steps and offered a sympathetic smile at my sorry state of affairs over in the golden cabin. Before I could even open the door, Naomi came spilling out laughing and grabbed my arm to yank me in.
“Kate!” she screamed, her golden skin shimmering beneath a gauzy cover-up. The entire space smelled like coconuts and fun. “We were just going to come and find you. We’re going in the lake!”
I wanted to love her for thinking of me, for her bubbly personality and the magnetism that radiated off her in waves. You couldn’t not like Naomi Farrow. It was an impossibility. But then I caught sight of Liam, his eyes locked on Porter who was splayed out on his bunk, face turned toward the wall. Alistair had been caught in the crossfire just like Grace. Porter had lost a brother, Bradley a friend, and all for nothing. Alistair’s death didn’t stop anything. It wasn’t a call to arms, didn’t spur a new set of rules. It was a domino effect. Clayton Dorian was still in the hospital.
Anyone could be next. And Naomi Farrow was the problem, not the solution. We were like two poles on the same magnet, pushing against each other without even knowing it. Or maybe I was wrong. Maybe she knew exactly what she was doing.
“The dressing room’s open. Go change!” she said, her white teeth flashing in the sun that streamed through the open windows. I held on to her eyes a bit longer than normal, wishing I would see something there, some glimmer of truth, but she flushed and looked down before anything became clear.
“Right. I’ll just be a second.” As I adjusted my bikini behind the closed door, I gazed at the lake sparkling under the late-afternoon sun. Even though it was unseasonably warm for April, the water would still be frigid. But no Ohio girl would ever pass up an opportunity to get some sun on an actual beach. This should have been fun. My biggest concern should have been figuring out how to convincingly lose Siegfried’s lame challenges. But the beach, the forest, the charming cabins were all laced with a bitterness that burned my throat and left my stomach raw.
A sense of foreboding gurgled and twisted inside, and even the sight of the pebbled sand and the surprisingly blue lake water couldn’t calm me. Laughter erupted behind the closed door, and I realized my time was up. I’d just have to shadow Naomi as we’d planned, and maybe everything would be okay.
All of us trekked to the beach, even Porter and Bradley. I couldn’t help but notice the circles that ringed Bradley’s eyes. Having Porter around was hard on him, a constant reminder, but his smile shook less than it had in days, and he was laughing his real laugh, so maybe things were getting easier. Maybe this trip really was helping him work through some of his grief.
Maybe it was helping all of us.
“We’re lucky, you know?” Naomi cradled her head in her hand and turned on her towel toward me. “Pemberly Brown can be totally messed up sometimes and I hate that my brother is hurting and that you…” she hesitated. “Well…you know, but we’re still lucky. I mean, we’re here.”
Maddie squealed as Seth splashed her with the cold water, and Liam played Frisbee with a bunch of the guys. Bradley had passed out a few towels down, and the beach was dotted with students and chaperones. Bethany and Taylor gossiped quietly on a beach blanket. Even Siegfried had come to play. (He’d left his bow tie at the hut.)
I wanted to believe that Naomi was right. That it was luck that we’d been selected for this trip. Luck that we were here while our friends were dead and buried. Luck that I had been the one to lose a best friend, the one whose life was divided forever by death.
But there was nothing lucky about it.
I re-tied my straps and propped myself up on bent arms. “Sometimes I think we make our own luck. Or someone makes it for us.”
I waited to see if Naomi would bite, but her eyes remained trained on the water. We sat there in silence, watching the birds swoop overhead. Later, we shrugged back into our cover-ups and began preparations for the nightly bonfire.
Siegfried and the chaperones spoke vaguely about the morning challenge and our responsibilities to set goals. Because of my golden pack status, I led the three parts of Reflectere—Venimus, “We have come;” Lusimus, “We have played;” and Vicimus, “We have won.”
The fire died down to a sputter and someone yawned, setting off a yawn chain around the circle. If we wanted to perform well tomorrow, Siegfried suggested we sleep. In that case, I wondered if I should pull an all-nighter.
“Are we cool?” Liam asked, elbowing me lightly.
I had no idea how to respond to that question. He’d barely said two words to me over the past few days. I’d seen actual photographic evidence of him making out with Bethany, and he was currently spending
all of his free time with another girl in hopes of catching her doing something shady. There was absolutely nothing cool about any of it. And yet, what could I really say? I was the one who told him we were over. I was the one who kissed Bradley. I was the reason he was spending all of this time with Naomi. This was all my fault.
“Yeah. We’re cool.” I glanced behind me and lowered my voice. “You’ll watch her, right?”
“I’m on it,” he replied, rolling up his towel.
Liam. He had resisted and fought me and pushed any involvement away, and now, as he walked back to the cabin only a beat behind Naomi, I wondered what had changed his mind. It couldn’t have had anything to do with me. But that didn’t stop a flicker of hope from melting just a little of the ice that surrounded my heart like a cage.
Chapter 31
What could only be described as a mind-numbingly loud siren ripped across the rolling hills of Camp Brown, and as it yanked me from sleep, I knew instantly that someone had died, a tornado was coming, or the zombie apocalypse had begun. Possibly all three at the same time.
I slapped my hands over my ears, my eyes still blurry with sleep. But instead of crying, hunkering, or defending one’s self against flesh-eating non-humans, all the chaperones in my cabin were laughing. At me.
“Good morning, sunshine,” my dad quipped. I fell back onto my pillow with a groan.
“Up, up, up, number one! We have a challenge to win!” Siegfried fluttered around the room like a butterfly on speed. I seriously considered suffocating myself under the pillow.
By the time every camper had dragged their body from the cabins dotting the lawn, eyes still bloodshot from the most unnatural wakeup call of our lives, I was afraid we all might start turning on each other like savages. Even Naomi, perpetually supermodel chic, appeared tired, mussed, disgruntled.
“Coffee,” we mumbled in unison. No matter how many times we were told coffee would stunt our growth, at Pemberly Brown, we were accustomed to our daily Starbucks runs and the caffeine jolt that followed. Starting the day with anything less was torture. Especially when we were ripped from sleep by a freaking siren. And like a mirage waving in the distance in the Sahara Desert, large canisters of coffee came into view, situated along the perimeter of Centrum, the centermost point of camp. We stampeded to claim our cup, and after each of us warmed our hands around the liquid gold, all was right in the world.
Camp Brown spread out from Centrum, a center point designed by Siegfried himself. He’d placed the first brick, rumored to be borrowed from one of Brown’s old school buildings. The rest of the smooth rocks swirled out from that point creating a rustic, circular mosaic and the perfect meeting spot. Siegfried stood on that first brick, megaphone in hand despite the fact that we could have heard him whisper.
“Girls and boys!” Siegfried spoke into the megaphone, and we slapped our hands over our ears again. Taking the hint, he lowered the contraption. “Welcome to the second challenge, Merge aut Nata,” Siegfried explained. He wore a gold T-shirt and winked at me. A few kids laughed and my cheeks caught fire. Sink or swim, I thought, translating the Latin. Kind of summed up my life right about now. He lifted up a pile of gold T-shirts.
“The winners of today’s challenge will receive these.” “Victor” was printed across the chest of five T-shirts. “They will also have the opportunity to join me in Chicago this summer at my company’s headquarters. Unlike years past, this summer’s internship will employ a group of Pemberly Brown students.” A few kids raised their eyebrows. Sure, no one wanted to work over the summer, but Chicago changed things a bit. Cute apartments came to mind, the lake, boutiques. An internship at Bye Bye Diaper suddenly wasn’t sounding so bad.
Chaperones began circulating, handing each of us a small ticket. We all opened our tickets, and whispers increased in volume as kids began comparing and even trading. My Econ teacher raised one arm in the air.
“All right, all right. Listen up. Your ticket designates your team for this challenge. We’ll organize ourselves by color, and uniforms will be distributed.” He indicated positions for team members to gather, and in seconds, we’d arranged ourselves into teams.
Sure enough, Naomi sidled to my side and elbowed me playfully. “I’m gonna keep my distance, number one,” she joked. “I’m staying local this summer.”
I laughed awkwardly with my stomach clenched. How could Naomi do that? How could she go from suspect to friend in seconds? Why did she have to make everything so confusing?
My Econ teacher handed me a bright green wetsuit I was to wear during the challenge. Taylor was handed green as well. She raised her eyebrows at me in understanding or solidarity or judgment. I couldn’t be sure which. As I unfolded the material, I noticed white lettering positioned across the front. Conventus. “To come together. To join. To unite.”
The word took my breath away like some sort of epiphany. Naomi carefully unfolded her suit and ran her slender fingers over the letters. Her eyes flashed to her brother’s a few groups over. Naomi and Bradley stood for a union of the Sisterhood and the Brotherhood. Their dream, their parents’ dream, was for the societies to merge so power would be distributed evenly. If I hadn’t been completely manipulated by Taylor and Bethany, they might have actually succeeded. And yet, I couldn’t help but wonder what our school might look like if they had. Would Alistair be alive? What about Clayton? Would the Factum Virtus have even been resurrected?
I couldn’t be sure about anything anymore. My eyes flashed back to Naomi, who raised her eyebrows at her brother. In that moment, I wondered just how far two people might go to accomplish a family dream. Would they set the Brotherhood up against themselves to prove a union was necessary? Would they trick? Would they kill?
I touched each letter of the word the way Naomi had just seconds before. “Conventus,” I whispered, loud enough for Naomi to hear. She turned from her brother to me.
“Conventus,” she replied.
Chapter 32
As soon as we’d all suited up, we traveled in pods of color to the lake. Situated in four piles along the edge were an inflatable raft, two oars, and a length of rope.
“Each team has a lane,” our Econ teacher shouted. My dad arranged colored posters in front of the lane lines bobbing in the lake. “When the start gun is fired, you will work together to inflate the raft, situate every team member on the raft at the same time using the rope to stabilize yourselves, and use the two oars to row the length of the lake. If a team member falls into the water, your team’s time will be restarted. You must have every team member balanced on the raft to clear this challenge. Once your team has reached dry land, you must deflate the raft and zip it back into its bag.” He raised an impossibly small nylon bag in the air. “The team with the lowest time wins.” He smiled and rubbed his jaw. “Good luck.”
Seth beamed in his purple wet suit. There was nothing he liked more than a good team-building activity, and I knew he’d give anything to join Siegfried in Chicago this summer. The rest of his team looked a little bored, rounded out by Porter, who looked shattered. A spattering of members on other teams looked excited at the prospect of a summer in Chicago, which would make the challenge particularly interesting as some would try to lose and others win. Not to mention the fact that the challenge was borderline impossible. There were five people on each team. Five people plus a cheap raft meant for one seemed lofty at best.
But we had to win. I was beginning to think that the farther Naomi and Bradley were from Pemberly Brown this summer, the better. I’d worry about myself later. I surveyed my team. Taylor held hands with Bethany and jumped up and down excitedly. They seemed like they were in it to win it in spite of the fact that Bethany was half giant and might be difficult to balance on the raft. Naomi strategized with Bradley.
“Teams get ready!” Siegfried shouted, pointing a small start gun into the air. Smiles spread around the crowd in anticipation of the crazy challenge
, and everyone huddled around the supplies. “And go!” One shot was fired, and rafts were yanked from the bag. Apparently a team trip to Chicago was too much to pass up, because everyone worked fast.
Taylor took position in front of the raft as the first person to inflate it while Bethany and I smoothed the wrinkles. Naomi held a corner and Bradley raised his eyebrows. When Taylor grew tired, we switched and began to make headway, the raft slowly coming to life. Seth’s purple team circled around an almost-inflated raft, strategizing before throwing it into the lake. This would be close. Blue wasn’t far behind. Liam’s orange team was a hot mess of laughter and arguments.
The real fun came when we all tried to pile on the raft. Bethany was the first to board, using the oar against the edge of the beach to stabilize herself. Barely. Taylor came next, the raft tilting at precarious angles. When Bradley loaded, the entire thing capsized from the center out, restarting our team’s clock. Taylor pulled herself from the water in her typical dramatic fashion, and I found myself biting back laughter. Other teams were giggling and shouting at soaked teammates.
“We need a better plan,” Naomi insisted, pointing to the letters on her suit. “We have to work together.”
I narrowed my eyes. This coming from the girl willing to do just about anything to fulfill her family’s dream. Even murder. Bradley pouted near shore, water up to his torso, droplets glistening off his shaved head. He didn’t lose well. Taylor wrung out her hair and nodded in agreement.
“Bradley, you need to load first. You’re the heaviest,” Naomi informed him. “But stay low to the raft. Let’s squeeze as close together as possible. If we run out of space, Kate, you can sandwich on top of Bradley. You don’t mind, right?” She laughed in my direction, her eyes sparkling.
“Of course not,” I said, keeping my voice steady. And yet…
Bradley jumped on the raft belly down. Bethany loaded next, grabbing the rope Bradley held out so she wouldn’t tip. She squeezed in as close as she could so Naomi could fit on the other side. The raft wobbled, but didn’t flip with Naomi’s weight. Taylor clung half on, half off as the raft threatened to tip, but finally jumped into the pile as everyone clung to the edges. I held my breath and everyone, soaking wet around me, did the same. Water splashed over the side, but she made it, the raft stabilizing after a few seconds. I could tell the raft was full to capacity, that my weight would surely tip the entire thing. It probably wasn’t worth even trying. But Seth’s team in the last lane was just about as close as we were. I couldn’t let them win.