We all knew summer would end, of course. It had to. But none of us really talked about what would happen next, or how our friendship might have to change now that we were returning home. I knew things would be different, but I hoped we could maintain something of what we’d developed over the summer. I’d grown really close to both Ava and Bailey, and I wasn’t willing to just walk away from our new friendship.
But the thing that kept bothering me was, I didn’t know what would happen when seventh grade started. I wasn’t sure how Bailey and Ava would fit into my world back home. They were great summer friends, but I didn’t know if they could really be forever friends. What would Heidi and Sylvie think if I suddenly started hanging out with these girls we’d teased so much in our first year of middle school? I knew my home friends would probably hate both my summer friends, the way that I had when I’d first arrived at the lake.
“I guess I’ll see you next week,” Bailey said, as she helped her mom pack the rest of their things into their car. My family had been slow to get going, since my mom felt it was her job to clean every last nook and cranny of our cabin before we could leave. I guess it was a decent thing to do, but seemed a little like overkill. My dad and I just let her go at it while we hung around outside, saying good-bye to everyone else and taking one last swim.
“Yeah,” I said, letting Bailey pull me into a hug. “See you next week.”
“It’s going to be different when we get back, huh?” She was still hugging me when she said this, so I couldn’t see what kind of expression was on her face.
“Definitely different,” I agreed. I don’t know why I didn’t say something at that moment to reassure Bailey—and myself—that our relationship at school would be different, now that we’d spent part of the summer together. I should have told her that I wanted to try to find a way to have our friendship work when we returned home. But I couldn’t say it. Because I wasn’t sure it would work. I felt like something about me had changed in the month I’d spent with Bailey and Ava, but I wasn’t sure if it would stay changed when we got back home. Things didn’t usually work like that.
Bailey stepped out of our hug and nodded. “Well. See ya.”
Ava came bounding over and pulled both of us into one of her tiny hugs. “Good luck with dance tryouts next week!” I said, squeezing her close. “You’re going to be amazing.”
She smiled at me. “I hope so. Thanks, Izzy. And I know it’s super-dorky for me to say it out loud, but I just wanted to tell you it was really fun getting to know you this summer.”
“You too,” I agreed. “Both of you. I had the best summer ever.” I was about to go on, to tell them that I’d look for them in the hall. Or that maybe we could have lunch together one day. Or maybe, one night, they could come over for a sleepover at my house. But before I could say anything, Bailey screeched and the moment had passed.
“Oh! Oh!” she said, digging for something in her pocket. “Look what Brennan gave me just before he left.” She couldn’t even wait for us to open the piece of paper to see what was inside. She blurted out, “His phone number! He told me to call him when I got back to the city, and maybe we could hang out sometime.”
Ava and I both squealed. “You’re going to, right?” I asked. “Call him?”
Bailey shrugged. “Maybe.” Then she grinned, and her nose crinkled up the way it sometimes did when she was super-happy. “Definitely!”
Bailey’s mom started the car, and Bailey blew us both kisses before they took off. “Mwah!”
Moments later, Ava was driving off with her sister and her dad too, and then it was just my family left. Coco and I piled into the backseat, and as my mom navigated the car down the winding dirt road—back toward civilization—I thought about how much had changed since the first time I’d been on that road.
“I think we got a lot of great ideas pulled together this month. We’re going to have some good campaigns to share with our clients this fall.” My dad was obviously very cheerful in the front seat. Then he turned to look at me. “You survived?”
I smiled at him. “Definitely. I had a great time.”
He looked surprised. “What got into you? Who took my whining daughter?” he asked.
“No one. Nothing,” I said, annoyed that I was getting criticized, even when I was trying to be optimistic. “I really did have a great time. Thanks for bringing me along.”
My dad gave me a look that made it obvious he thought demons had possessed me, then quietly turned back to watch the road ahead.
I gazed up into the canopy of trees that had seemed so dark and ominous when we’d first arrived at the lake. Now, they reminded me of thunderstorms and swimming with friends and roasted marshmallows and Liar and Spy and Canoe Wars. Once I’d let myself just enjoy it, I had realized the woods was full of all good things, nothing creepy at all. Except raccoons, which still skeeved me out. Oh, and ticks. And mosquitoes. Also, sometimes the weeds at the bottom of the lake were a little spooky. Okay, so maybe there were a few creepy things—I was still a city girl at heart. But the good things were so much better than the bad that I learned how to overlook some of the ew stuff after a while.
Coco was already fast asleep beside me, so I closed my eyes and let my mind drift off, hoping I’d dream of summer.
* * *
I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing.
“Izzy!” My mom snapped at me from the front seat. “Can you answer that? That song is dreadful.”
I dug around, looking for my phone. I guess my mom had tossed it back once we’d left the lake. I dug around on the floor, then searched the seats, cringing as my ringtone went on and on. Finally, I found it under Coco’s butt. I wondered if my mom had put it there on purpose.
“Hello?” I said, realizing too late that Heidi’s name was on the screen. She hated when her friends acted all formal on the phone—she was more of a “hey” sort of girl.
“Hello?” Heidi demanded from the other end. “What, you’ve been gone so long you deleted my number from your contacts or something? I get a ‘hello,’ not a ‘hey’ or a ‘hi’ or a ‘I missed you like crazy, Heid!’ You sound like your mom. Hello? Hel-looo.” As she teased me, she switched into a snooty old-lady voice that made her crack up.
“Hey, Heid. I did miss you.”
“Are you back yet?” she blurted out. “We have to go shopping. Stat. School starts in four days. Four! And we have major outfit coordination to do.”
I looked out the window and listened to her drone on. I sort of wasn’t in the mood for Heidi, which was strange. For half the month, I’d been looking forward to getting back to see my friends, but now that we were almost back, I wasn’t quite as psyched anymore. Somehow, I realized, I’d slept through almost the whole drive home—we were only a few miles from our house. That must have been why it was so hard for me to shake out of my sleepy stupor. “We’re almost home,” I said. “We should be at my house in ten minutes.”
“I’ll tell Sylvie to have her mom swing by and pick you up first, then. She’s dropping us off at the mall.”
I looked down at my stained shorts and ratty tank top. It was a shirt I’d borrowed from Bailey a week or so ago, then forgotten to give back. “I’m disgusting,” I said. “I should take a shower first.”
“We don’t have time,” Heidi said bossily. “You can come, or you can not come—but if you want to be part of our outfit planning, be ready in ten minutes. We waited for you all month, but we’re not waiting any longer.”
“Wow,” I said, slowly slipping back into the old routine. “Bossy much?”
“Shut up,” Heidi said. I could hear the smile in her voice. We always talked to each other like this. One of us would push, and the other person would bite back.
“No, you shut up,” I said back. The snippiness didn’t feel as natural, but I tried to play my part. I wished Heidi and I could just have a normal conversation where we were kind to each other, but it didn’t really work that way with us—we both kind of liked being sarcastic and snappy. It was our thing. “I’ll be ready when I’m ready. You know you’re going to wait for me.”
“Whatever,” Heidi said. “Missed you, you know.”
“I missed you, too,” I said. “See you in a few.”
I hung up and tucked my phone into my bag, back where it belonged. Once I put on normal clothes, I would feel complete again.
“You’re going out?” My mom asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
“Yep,” I answered.
“Were you planning to ask if it’s okay?”
“I think you owe me, after holding me hostage for the last month, don’t you?” I stared back at her. Finally, in the nicest voice I could manage, I said, “Could I please, pretty please, see my friends tonight after you’ve kept me from talking to them for the last three weeks?”
My mom sighed. “Fine.”
When we pulled into our driveway a few minutes later, Sylvie and her mom were already there waiting. Sylvie jumped out of the car and hugged me tightly. “You’re finally back!” She backed up quickly. “Ew. You stink.”
“Yeah,” I said, shrugging. “I haven’t showered in a while.” I looked down at Bailey’s tank top and cringed. It was an ugly tank top, but I’d been super-comfortable the last week or so (I’d worn it almost every day since I borrowed it from her). I knew I probably looked awful, but honestly, I hadn’t even looked in the mirror all day. Looks never seemed to matter at the resort. Suddenly, I realized we were back in civilization where stuff like that did make a difference again.
“You need to change,” Sylvie said, pushing me toward our front door. “Immediately. Where did you get that ugly tank top?”
“I borrowed it from a friend at the resort.” My parents were busy carrying stuff in, so I hustled over to the car and grabbed my bag. “It’s comfy.”
“No friend would ever let someone be seen in something like that,” Sylvie said. “You’re back in public. Fix yourself, and let’s go.”
I went inside and dropped my stuff on my floor. After I’d changed into a cute pair of shorts and a clean tank top, I quickly tossed all my dirty clothes in the hamper and put my suitcase away. Hopefully, my mom would notice the gesture. I pulled a brush through my hair and peeked in the mirror. Not cute. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, dabbed on some lip gloss, swiped nail polish remover across my fingertips, and headed back outside.
“Much better,” Sylvie said, nodding.
As we drove to Heidi’s house, Sylvie talked nonstop. “Ohmigod, Heidi has been driving me crazy,” she whispered, so her mom wouldn’t hear. “She’s been obsessing over Jake Theisen, and he’s literally all she can talk about. Now that you’re back, hopefully she’ll just chill out about it, since I can’t listen to her, and blah, blah, blah . . .”
I let Sylvie ramble on and on, but since I had nothing to contribute, I didn’t really say much. She complained about Heidi until we got to Heidi’s house. Once Heidi was in the car, they talked over each other trying to tell me about all the stupid things Cianna Jackson and Emily Kim had done at Sylvie’s birthday party. Then they told me about the weekend at Heidi’s dad’s lake place. As they talked about how they’d spent most of the weekend inside the cabin, I found myself realizing I hadn’t really missed much at all. I was sure I’d had a lot more fun at the resort with Bailey and Ava.
“So how was your month of torture?” Heidi asked finally, after we’d been walking through the mall for fifteen minutes already.
“It was pretty good, actually.”
“Did you put those losers in their place?” Heidi asked.
It was obvious she was talking about Bailey and Ava, since I’d told my friends who was there with me. But I pretended I didn’t know what she was talking about. “Who?”
“Bailey Something and Ava Whatever,” Sylvie said, pulling us into one of our favorite stores. “Did they follow you around all summer?”
Before I had to answer, two other girls from our class came into the store and Heidi and Sylvie forgot all about their question. For the next two hours, I did my best to act as normal as possible, but I was seriously distracted by the thoughts that were swirling around in my head. I was freaked out about what was going to happen when we got back to school, when Bailey and Ava were around us every day. And I was dreading what might happen when I told my friends about how much fun I’d had during my month at the lake.
I’d only been home for a few hours, but I could already tell it was going to be harder to go back to normal than I’d ever imagined it could be. I’d been gone for just one month, but in that time so much had changed. And now I wasn’t even sure the old “normal” was something I wanted anymore.