“Uh,” Gage hesitates a moment before answering, meeting my eyes briefly before focusing on the fire as he speaks. “I guess it would be never knowing who I really am.”
Whoa.Did he give a real answer?
Linda beams at him, then calls on the next staff member to share.
Gage still isn’t looking at me, but I feel compelled to support him somehow after that confession. I shift my hand in his so that our fingers are interlaced, and I squeeze.
He looks at me in surprise, and I smile. It’s not like I’m proposing here, just comforting my best friend’s brother.
He squeezes my hand back, holding the pressure steady throughout the rest of the activity.
When Linda calls the session to a close and dismisses us, I try to catch up with Nina or Brynn to do some damage control, but they disappear pretty quickly.
So instead, I approach a group of counselors talking and laughing near the fire.
“Hey!” I wave. “I haven’t met everyone yet. I’m Delaney.”
Their chatter stops and they stare at me, animosity written all over their faces. “We know,” one of the women says, her arms crossed over her chest.
My smile falters, but I freeze it in place. “You’re Sara, right? And Malik and Gabi and Beth?” I try to remember from the icebreaker activity, but I’m not very good with names.
“Bethany,” the woman in the back with light brown hair corrects.
“Oh, right. Bethany. Sorry about that.”
Sara, who seems like the ringleader of this little group, turns away and starts walking. Over her shoulder she says, “We’ve actually got plans right now.”
The other three counselors follow her.
“Oh, right. Of course. See you tomorrow, then!” I call.
Gage comes up behind me chuckling. “I’m guessing that didn’t go as well as you’d hoped?”
I turn toward him. “What is wrong with these people?” I gripe. “It’s a stupid stick!”
“A stupid stick withtasselson it. You’re forgetting the tassels.”
As we talk, we leave the fire pit area and start walking toward the cabins.
I scoff and shake my head. “Oh yeah, my mistake. The tassels really add that air of mysticism to it for sure.”
Gage laughs. “They’ll get over it.”
I bump him with my shoulder. “Sure they will, Mr. ‘RIP Sharing Stick’. What the heck was that?”
Gage smirks. “Itisthe sharing stick. Decades of camp tradition. That’s a pretty big deal.”
I groan in frustration. “How do you even know?”
Gage scuffs his feet and puts his hands in his pockets. “My mom went here when she was a kid.”
I lift my eyebrows. “Dawn did?”
“Uh, no. I meant Maggie, actually.”
Maggie is Annie and Gage’s birth mom. Their parents adopted them as infants, but Maggie has always been a part of their lives. They even spent a month or more with her most summers growing up. Her adoption is not something Annie wants to talk about often, so Gage bringing it up surprises me.
The pieces click into place. “Does this have something to do with what you shared at the fire circle?”
