Best Friends (Until Someone Better Comes Along) (9 page)

When I finally broke down and confessed that I had two left feet, Ava was really excited about showing me how to dance. Neither she nor Bailey teased me at all, they just let me stand behind them and mirror their steps while they moved around the cramped spaces in their cabins. Both Bailey and I learned Ava's routine inside and out, though neither of us looked nearly as good as Ava did when she was totally in the zone. She was amazing. I was . . . shaky, at best.

But the best part was, I didn't even care if I looked stupid. Something about Bailey and Ava made me not really care that much about how silly I looked or sounded. They didn't judge me, which made it so simple to just hang out and have a good time.

And that was the other amazing thing . . . I
was
having a good time.

Every night, we spent our evenings around the campfire
hanging out with everyone else, including Brennan . . . who seemed to be totally into Bailey! Operation: Flirt was totally under way, and I was really impressed by Bailey's guy skills. Brennan seemed to like her sort of awkward, tomboyish flirtiness, and Ava and I even caught him blushing one time when Bailey sat really close to him at the fire pit and her hair sort of rubbed against his bare shoulder.

Obviously, I was a little jealous that Brennan seemed more into her than he was into me. But I'd promised the girls I wouldn't do anything to sabotage whatever Bailey had going, and these weren't the kind of girls I wanted to go back on my word with. It was weird, feeling so
loyal
to someone, but I guess maybe that's what a month at the lake does to people?

My dad seemed pleased that I was getting out and “making the most of things,” as he put it. My mom, on the other hand? Well, she still wasn't enjoying herself at all. But the good thing about having friends to hang out with during the day was, I could mostly avoid her. And I hardly even noticed that she still had my phone! Without my friends texting to remind me how much fun they were having without me, I was free to admit that I was having fun without them (and I didn't even miss their text messages, which had mostly just
been them making fun of the fact that I was in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of nobodies).

One day, after the adults had finished up with their day's creative sessions, Bailey's mom suggested we all have an impromptu picnic. “Let's do it at the jumping rock!” Bailey said. The jumping rock was really just a small, rocky island out in the middle of the lake with a seriously deep drop off on one side. I'd never been out there, but I'd heard everyone else talking about it.

After we all returned to our cabins to gather whatever snack food we could scrounge up, almost everyone—except my mom, who had a million excuses for why she had to stay back—piled into the canoes that were lined up along the shoreline. We started the short paddle out to the little island in the middle of the lake.

“Gorgeous,” my dad mused as we struggled to keep up with everyone else. I could feel the canoe listing to the side as he dug deeply into the water. He was obviously trying to look like a canoe pro but probably just looked like he was exerting a ridiculous amount of energy for a relaxing evening boat ride.

“It is pretty,” I agreed. It really wasn't worth getting embarrassed about my dad's dorky behavior, since I knew no one
cared. We all had parents at this retreat, and they'd all done something totally embarrassing at some point while we were there. It was nice spending a little time with Dad, even if he was still in work mode and totally obsessing over his image.

“I hope you're not totally miserable,” Dad said, grunting as he attempted to steer us to the right. We kept veering way left, then way right, instead. I just kept paddling in my seat at the front of the canoe, and tried to stay as calm as possible. I still had a tiny problem with tipping canoes when I was in them, so my dad and I weren't exactly the smoothest pair.

I shook my head, but realized he was probably staring out at his paddle instead of my head. “I'm having an okay time, actually,” I said aloud, and meant it. “Bailey and Ava are great. And everyone else, too. It's definitely not as bad as I thought it would be.”

“The other girls seem chill,” he said, and I rolled my eyes. That was my dad—super-cheesy but trying to play it cool in front of all the others. Not that anyone could hear us, since we'd fallen
way
behind, but still.

“Yep,” I said, giggling. “Chill.”

Dad chuckled, then he said, “I'm glad you came along. And I really appreciate you making an effort, Izzy.” I shrugged, and that was the end of the conversation.

When we finally got to the island, I was surprised to see that Bailey's mom had already set up a bunch of huge picnic blankets. The adults were all congregating on a big hill with a view of the resort back onshore. Bailey's mom had brought enough sandwich stuff for everyone, which was incredibly generous.

I guess Bailey saw me staring at the impressive picnic spread. She leaned over to whisper, “Last year, Mom decided to try to
make
sandwiches for everyone one night, to thank people for coming to the retreat—but she forgot to put anything inside a few of them, and a couple people just got plain pieces of bread. So this year, it's a serve-yourself sandwich bar.”

I laughed. “At least she tried.” I thought about my mom, who was still grumping around our cabin by herself, instead of making the most of things. “That's worth something.”

“She
always
tries,” Bailey said, laughing. “You should have seen my school lunches when I was in elementary school. Sometimes I'd get two sandwiches, and other days, I'd get nothing but carrot sticks. Obviously, I make my own lunch now so I don't starve.”

“Prepare for launch!” Bailey and I heard Levi holler as we wandered away from the adults and crested the rocky hill to where our friends were hanging out. Ava and Brennan and
everyone had settled on the other side of the island, as far from the parents as we could all get. After a few weeks of togetherness, the resort was starting to feel really small. So whenever we could physically separate ourselves from the adults, we did.

“In three, two . . .” Levi held up one finger and mouthed a silent
one
, then jumped off the edge of the rock. He plummeted at least ten feet before hitting the surface of the water.

I peeked over the edge to make sure he was still alive. Levi popped up out of the water with a huge grin on his face. “Survival! The jumping champion! Rahhhh . . . roahhhh!” He made fake crowd sounds, even though none of us were actually cheering for him. Levi was sort of a strange guy—but he was always entertaining.

“Oh . . .” Ava moaned on the ground next to me and put her head between her knees.

“You okay?” I asked. I plunked down next to her as Brennan and Zach leapt off the top of the rocks. Bailey followed close behind them, screeching as she sailed through the air. I could hear them all splash as they hit the water below. Madeline, who'd climbed down to a lower rock shelf, jumped in after them. Ava whimpered. “You sound like Coco,” I said, nudging her.

Ava looked at me through her bangs, then hung her head between her legs again. “Thanks a lot.”

“What's wrong?”

“The jumping rock always freaks me out,” she said. “Stupid, I know.”

“Not stupid,” I said.

“I
want
to jump off, but every time I get anywhere close to the edge, I panic.”

“So don't jump,” I said.

“Not an option,” Ava said. “If I skipped out on all the things that scared me, I'd be the most boring person on earth.”

“What else scares you?” I asked, trying to distract her.

“Heights, bugs, getting up in front of a group of people . . . the list goes on and on.” Ava sat up and tilted her face toward the sun.

I scooted across the rock and peered down over the edge of the drop-off again. It looked super-fun. But then again, I wasn't afraid of heights. I scooted back up to my spot beside Ava.

Brennan and Madeline both climbed up the side of the rock and shook their hair like shaggy dogs. Water droplets flew through the air, soaking us. Levi suddenly appeared with a huge water bottle full of lake water, and shook it out on our heads. Ava and I both jumped up and ran.

“You can run, but you can't hide from the Lake Monster!” Levi said in a strange, low voice. “Hello, hello, we have come to slime you.”

“Sometimes I wonder what it's like being inside Levi's mind,” Ava whispered, as we crouched behind a tree. We both laughed, then ran again as Zach crept over and tried to toss a wet towel over our heads.

“If I held your hand,” I said to Ava, “and you closed your eyes . . . do you think you could jump? If we soak ourselves, they're going to leave us alone, right?”

Ava's eyes opened wide, and she began to moan again. Just as she started to sink down onto the ground, Bailey and Brennan snuck up behind us with armloads full of wet leaves that they'd gathered from somewhere. The leaves were slimy and disgusting, and I knew there were probably dozens of dead bugs hiding inside the pile of yuck.

I screamed and shook them off myself as Ava did the same. Bailey and Brennan leaned against each other and laughed, like they'd never seen anything so hilarious in their lives.

“You're going to pay,” I said, pulling leaves out of Ava's hair. “You'll regret this. . . .” I narrowed my eyes and made a fierce fighter look.

“Ooh,” Brennan said in his arrogant, mocking tone. He
and Bailey were both still laughing, which made it impossible for me not to smile a little bit, too. They were just so cute together! “I'm so scared—tough-guy Izzy is going to get us, Bailey. Run!” He wiggled his arms in the air like a cartoon alien, trying to get us to laugh.

Suddenly, Ava grabbed my hand. “I'm closing my eyes,” she said. “I trust you.”

I looked over and saw that she was telling the truth. Her eyes were squeezed closed, and she had a determined look on her face. I led her toward the edge of the rock. As we walked forward, I held up my hand to make sure everyone backed off and left us alone for a few seconds. They did.

Moments later, Ava and I were at the edge of the jumping rock. “Ready?”

Ava just grunted.

“You don't have to do this, you know,” I said. “No one cares if you jump or don't jump. We can climb down the path and just walk into the water instead.”

Ava gritted her teeth and growled, “I care.”

I shrugged, even though she couldn't see me. “Okay. On three.”

“Izzy?” Ava said, opening her eyes just a crack to squint at me.

“Yeah?”

“Hold my hand the whole time, and pull me hard so I jump out far enough, okay?”

I smiled, then she closed her eyes again. “One . . .,” I said, looking over my shoulder to find that Levi, Brennan, Zach, Bailey, and Madeline were all watching us quietly. “Two . . .” Ava gripped my hand harder, so I squeezed back. “Three.”

As I crouched down to jump, I glanced over and saw that Ava's eyes were wide open. She looked back at me, smiled, then we both jumped. Seconds later, we hit the water. It felt like we were sinking forever. Bubbles were everywhere, then suddenly we were back up at the top of the water.

“I did it!” Ava cried happily as we bobbed on the surface. “I finally did it!”

“You did it.” As we swam toward the tiny shore that would lead us to the path back up to the top of the rock, the others cheered above us.

When we climbed up again, everyone jumped again and again, until our legs were sore and we were starving. After dinner, my friends and I all found a spot to lie down on the warm rocks. Bailey squeezed in next to Brennan, while I shared a towel with Ava. Madeline and Zach had brought
UNO cards, and they played game after game—losing only a few cards to the wind. Levi whittled nearby, then built a tiny fire in a crack in the rocks.

We lay around until the sun went down, laughing and talking like we'd been friends for years.

D
o you guys want to
sleep at my cabin tonight?” Ava asked as we devoured roasted marshmallows by the fire one night.

“Yes!” Bailey said, in her usual loud voice. “It's so cramped in our cabin. Mom is starting to drive me crazy.”

“
Your
mom is?” I said. “My mom was literally standing in the door of my room this morning, just staring at me when I woke up.” I laughed, but couldn't shake the feeling of how creepy it was when I woke up and found my mom watching me. It was almost as though she thought I was capable of doing something wrong in my sleep. When I sat up and told her she was freaking me out, she told me my hair looked sun-damaged. Nice.

“I'll have to check with my mom,” Bailey said, “but I'm sure it will be fine.”

“Yeah,” I said, even though I hadn't really
asked
my parents' permission in a while. Usually, I just told them what I was going to do—spending the night at Heidi's, shopping with Sylvie, whatever. They hadn't really put a foot down until we started to discuss the month at the lake, and then they suddenly adopted all this parental control. If Bailey was going to ask, I realized there was no harm in me asking politely too.

I'd noticed that since I'd started hanging out with Bailey and Ava during the day, my mom and I had been getting along a little better. Maybe—
maybe
—it had something to do with my change in attitude and the fact that we weren't walking all over each other all day. Or maybe she was just getting used to the woods. Whatever it was, it was kind of nice. “I'll check with mine, too.”

“Yay!” Ava squeaked.

A few minutes later, Bailey and I both stood on the front stoop of Ava's cabin with blankets tucked under our arms. Coco sat by my side, looking up at Ava hopefully.