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“As I’ll ever be.”
The buses rolled to a stop, and dust sprayed around them as the driver hit the brakes.
“Fingers crossed we get it easy again,” Sara, one of the other counselors, said with a smile.
It went from calm to utter chaos as the doors opened, and eighteen over-excited teenage girls filed off the bus.
“Okay, girls, this way,” Tina yelled over the chatter. “Counselors, you’re up.”
I rounded the crowd to join Tina, Sara, and Sheridan. Tina started giving out instructions, and my gaze wandered over to the other side of the parking lot where the male counselors were meeting the boys.
Blake looked at ease as he goofed around with a small group of boys, and something stirred inside me.
“Brianna, Lacey, Jenni, Lucy, Erica, and Crystal, you’re going to be with Counselor Penny for the next two weeks,” Tina said, and I raised my hand and waved, trying not to shrink into myself as I remembered one of the first things she had told us during our first training session.
These kids will smell your fear and use it against you. Even if you feel like you don’t have it under control, your body language says you do. Got it?
Hearing her words replay in my head, I straightened and rolled back my shoulders, looking right at the six girls gathered in front of me.
“Hi, I’m Penny.” I smiled. “I’ll be your camp counselor during your stay.”
A taller girl with cut-off shorts and a baggy t-shirt arched her eyebrow and huffed. “Awesome.”
“Erica, come on, give her a chance.” A smaller girl glared at Erica and then glanced back at me, smiling weakly. “I’m Jenni.”
“Hi Jenni, I’m Penny. Why don’t you all grab your bags, and I’ll show you to our cabin.”
Once the girls had their bags, we started the short trek to the camper cabins, or ‘cabin row’ as we called it. It was set further into the woods than the staff quarters. I paced back and forth alongside the small group so I could talk to the girls. It was clear that Erica and Brianna obviously didn’t want to be here. Their bags hung off their shoulders as if they were carrying the weight of the world in them. I only hoped their worries were the regular girl variety and not the kind I experienced growing up.
We hadn’t even reached the cabin when Erica dropped her bag to the ground and folded her arms over her chest. “I’m not sleeping in there,” she declared.
“Dibs on top bunk,” Crystal, a tall, willowy girl with long red hair yelled, ran toward the cabin door.
“Go ahead,” I said to the girls hanging behind, waiting for me to give them permission to enter.
“Erica, are you going to join us?”
I didn’t approach her. She wore her hostility like a coat of armor, but I could see the cracks. Her hands slightly trembled as they hung at her sides.
“I’m not going in there,” she repeated with a defiant tilt of her chin.
“Okay. When you’re ready to join us, we’ll be inside.”
I could try to talk her into it, but something about the girl in front of me told me it would do no good. She was defensive and unwilling for a reason.
Turning my back on her, I walked up the cabin’s steps. The sounds of the girls’ laughter and chatter spilled out of the tiny cracks between the wood, filling me with hope.
Before heading inside to try to instill calm, I glanced back at Erica. “You might not think it, but I’ve been in your shoes before. It’s okay to let your guard down once in a while.” I smiled softly. “I look forward to getting to know you, Erica.”
It was the truth.
Something about her called to me. Gut reaction, intuition—I didn’t know what to call it, but I saw some of me in her. I’d been that girl before—lost, scared, and alone—and someone had helped me.
He had showed me that living in foster care didn’t have to be all bad.
Now, maybe, I could be that person for Erica.
CHAPTERSIX
