“Oh, Quin-nen…” The voice came out in a singsong.

Someone flipped up the shade, and sunlight streamed into the bedroom. It was our third day in the Adirondacks.

“Dad?” I glanced at the travel alarm clock I’d put on the ledge by the top bunk. “It’s seven o’clock. That’s too early for summer.”

“Too early? It’s never too early for an adventure.”

“What adventure?” I asked. I sat up so fast I whacked my head on the ceiling. “Ouch.”

“How does a hike up Old Black Bear sound?” Dad said as he opened the door to the room where Haley was staying.

“Like torture,” Haley groaned. “This is supposed to be a vacation.”

“Sounds fun,” I said, rubbing my head.

Dad popped his head back into my room. “There are doughnuts for breakfast, and Mom is making some lunches to take to the top. You girls just need to get dressed and brush your teeth, and we’re all set to go.” He headed downstairs.

Haley stumbled out of her bedroom toward the bathroom.

“Maybe we’ll see a bear,” I said, loud enough for her to hear. I’d always wanted to see one. Not at the zoo—I’d seen plenty at the zoo—but up close. Well, not too up close. Close enough that I could take a picture of it with the zoom.

“Yeah,” Haley said. “Maybe it’ll eat me so I won’t have to go on the hike.”

—

“Slow down, Quinnbear,” Dad said. “We need to wait for Mom and Haley to catch up.” Dad and I were always the fastest on hikes. Mom and Haley usually dawdled.

I pulled off to the side of the trail and grabbed on to a tree while I caught my breath. Dad took a few sips from his water bottle, then handed it to me. I gulped a couple mouthfuls of water and looked down the trail. Hiking up the mountain, one step after another, I had kept my eyes on the ground so I wouldn’t trip. Now I could see how high we were. And how far we still had to go.

I was getting sweaty from the climb, so I took off my long-sleeve T-shirt and tied it around my waist. I shivered for a moment in my tank top and moved over to a spot where the sun shone through the leaves.

“Are you starting to get excited for the tournament?” Dad asked.

“Starting?”

“It’s a big accomplishment, Quinnen. I hope you know how proud Mom and I are of you.”

“I know,” I said quietly, staring down at Mom and Haley, who still had a ways to go before catching up with us. I wondered what the two of them were talking about. Was Haley telling Mom all the things about Zack that she wouldn’t tell me?

“How long do you think Coach Napoli’s beard will be by the time we get back from vacation?” Dad asked, stroking his bare chin.

“Hopefully long enough for him to sit on it. Like wizard-long. Dumbledore-long.”

Dad smiled. “Dumbledore, huh? We’ll see.”

Finally Mom and Haley caught up with us. Dad said we had to give them some time to rest, too, if we were going to be fair.

Haley pulled her cell phone out of the pocket of her shorts.

“Hales, really?” Dad said.

She shoved it back in her pocket. “It’s not like we get reception up here, anyway. Onward?”

Mom went up ahead with Dad while I stayed back with Haley.

“How far do you think we’ll be able to see when we get to the top?” I asked, keeping my eyes on Haley’s sneakers as she took each careful step.

“To outer space.”

“Come on.”

“I don’t know, Quinnen. Can you stop asking so many annoying questions?”

It was only one question. I stayed quiet until something rustled in the grass nearby and we stopped to see what it was. A chipmunk popped its head out, and I yelped.

Haley laughed.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “I was just thinking about how this morning you said you wanted to see a bear and now you’re freaking out over a chipmunk.”

“Am not,” I said. But I was laughing, too.

We got quieter as the trail steepened and became rockier, but it was the good kind of quiet, not the fighting kind. Dad and Mom were talking a lot, which slowed them down, so it didn’t matter that Haley was poky. We were all kind of poky together there on the side of the mountain, just my family and the chipmunks and the birds.

The wind picked up as we got closer to the top, and it wasn’t as warm as it had been back at the house. The top of the mountain was made up of all these huge jagged rocks. Even Mom and Dad had to climb on their hands and knees.

For once, it helped to be the shortest one. I scrambled past the others up the rocks and ran to the very top. I spun and spun and looked in every direction. Everywhere I looked was blue and green and curvy. So alive. There were tons of other mountains in the distance—so many we’d never have time to climb them all. It was nothing like home.

“It makes you feel pretty small, being up here.” Haley came and stood next to me, breathing hard as she looked into the distance. She handed me a Twizzler. “Shh. Mom doesn’t know I brought them. They’re just for us.”

I gobbled mine up real fast, popped a few more in my pocket for later, and went over to where Mom and Dad were sitting. Dad was already pulling the sandwiches out of his backpack. “Don’t eat without me!” I yelled.

“One peanut butter and banana sandwich,” Dad said, handing it to me. “Was that so torturous?” he asked Haley.

Haley smiled. “Not entirely. I guess you’re not Stalin.”

Mom and Dad laughed.

“Who’s stallin’?” I asked.

They just laughed harder.

“Come on!”

“Look it up when we’re back at the house,” Mom said.

“You guys are no fun,” I said. But I was smiling. I opened up a bag of Fritos and tossed a handful into my mouth. Haley grabbed the bag from me, and then Mom decided she didn’t need to eat healthy during vacation and had some, too, and then Dad poured the rest into his mouth like he was Chip Monster.

And Haley didn’t check her phone, even though we were at the top of the mountain and she probably had cell reception. Not even once.

—

When we got back to the house, it was almost time for supper, but Mom said she didn’t feel like cooking, so she ordered a pizza. She and Dad drove into town to pick it up, leaving me and Haley at the house.

“I call first bath!” Haley said. She started filling up the tub, went into her bedroom for clean clothes, and closed the bathroom door. I was lying on the bottom bunk, reading the first chapter of this scary Stephen King paperback I had found downstairs. The creepy clown on the cover hadn’t come into it yet, but I figured if I kept reading, it would get good.

I could hear Haley’s cell phone buzzing on the wooden dresser in her room.

A text message.

I tried to read my book, but I must have read the same sentence ten times and I couldn’t say what it was about. I closed the book, left it on my bed, and went into Haley’s room. In the bathroom, she was singing this song we’d heard on the radio in the car. I picked up her phone.

One new text message.

It was from Zack: Did you survive the hike?

When I scrolled up, I could see all the messages between Zack and Haley. So many messages. Some were in Spanish, so I couldn’t understand them. But there were more. So many more in English, and I read them. All of them. It was like watching Haley and Zack talk, except I wasn’t invited. I wasn’t supposed to see any of it, but I couldn’t stop.

I couldn’t stop reading them.

And then I saw it.

Nothing says “family vacation” like a forced march with your annoying sister. At least I have a room to myself this time. There’s no way I could’ve handled a whole week stuck in the same room as her. She’s so immature and clingy. Only four days till I get back. Can’t come soon enough.

My heart was beating hard, like when I’m up at bat and there are two outs and a 3-2 count and everything comes down to me and my one chance and I can’t blow it.

And then I started typing.

I think we should brake up.

And then I hit “Send.”