Trust Me Read online

  “Falling into a guy’s arms is so the way to start summer camp,” Torie said. Last summer her hair had been blond. This summer it was black. Really black. Pulled back tightly into a ponytail. “You know what I’m saying?”

  “Uh, actually, no, I don’t,” I said. I tried to sound like I was joking, but it came out sounding snippy.

  “Yikes, girl,” Caryn said. She was tall and slender with golden brown hair and eyes the same brown shade as her hair. “Be cool. Just because you couldn’t trust your partner—”

  “Would you have trusted Sean?” I interrupted.

  She shrugged. “Maybe. He seems different this summer.”

  “In what way?”

  “I don’t know. We talked for a bit when we first got here. He seemed”—she shrugged again—“nicer than I remembered.”

  “Still, we can’t overlook what he did at the end of last summer,” Liz said. She was a true friend, completely understanding where I was coming from. “I mean, how can you trust someone who would blatantly cheat and then admit it?”

  “I don’t know,” Torie said. “I think there’s something admirable about admitting in front of everyone that you did something you shouldn’t have. You know what I’m saying?”

  I’d forgotten that Torie had the habit of ending every comment with, “You know what I’m saying?”

  “No, I don’t,” I said. I also hadn’t remembered that most of my responses to Torie’s questions were the same thing. We were so out of sync. “Admitting you did something wrong doesn’t change the fact that you did something wrong. It doesn’t make it right.”

  “So ask for another partner,” Caryn said.

  I looked at the four other girl counselors who were sitting at the far end of our table. Eight girl counselors. Eight guy counselors. Would any of the girls be willing to trade? I didn’t think so. Not when it meant trading down. As I’d overheard my mom tell Aunt Linda when she divorced husband number two to marry husband number three, you’re supposed to trade up. (Mom didn’t like her sister’s husband number three nearly as much as she’d liked her husband number two.)

  “It’s only a week,” Liz said. “It’s not like you’ll be partnered for the whole summer. I say just suck it up and endure. After all, summer camp is about roughing it. Sean will be a true test of your survival skills.”

  So much for Liz giving me total support. I wanted her to be PO’d, not meekly accept my situation. A leader was supposed to have strength of conviction. Plus, having to work with Sean was going to put a major damper on my flirtation opportunities.

  “Easy enough for you to say. I noticed that you weren’t in any hurry to separate yourself from your partner.”

  She gave me a huge grin. “Trent Smith. He’s totally terrific: tall, dark, handsome, and remarkably strong.”

  “I don’t remember him from last summer,” I said, absently moving what looked to be orange worms, but was supposedly macaroni and cheese, around on my plate. Camp food was not exactly gourmet fare. I always looked forward to the nights when we toasted marshmallows on a fire or made s’mores. Even hot dogs roasted over an open fire tasted like heaven compared with what was usually served.

  “I heard Trent’s family recently moved to the area. He was a counselor at a campground in Orlando.”

  “What campground? Disney World?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so. Orlando is more than simply Disney World, you know.”

  “I was kidding,” I said. Geez, had everyone lost their sense of humor? “Although wearing a Mickey Mouse costume might be preferable to our camp counselor getup.”

  “No kidding,” Torie said.

  She failed to follow that statement with her usual. Probably because she knew that we all knew what she was saying.

  When we were finished eating and had put our trays in the dishwashing area—was I ever grateful washing dishes wasn’t my job—we headed outside. Amazon Edna and Long-haired Ed were already out there, holding clipboards and talking. Edna was scowling. When she saw me, she deepened her scowl. She crooked her finger and wiggled it.

  I glanced around. Just as I feared, she was crooking it at me. This had bad news written all over it. I swallowed and walked over. I tried really hard to look confident, to not let her know that my knees had started shaking. My internal cheerleader was chanting, You go, girl! Take charge!

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said respectfully when I arrived. I’d learned early on that politeness was a shortcut to an adult’s good side. Besides, I’d answered question four—Do you respect your elders?—in the affirmative.

  “I like freethinkers,” she said. “People who don’t conform.”

  Her words were so unexpected, so filled with praise that I couldn’t help but smile. Here was clear evidence that changing up the uniform had been the way to go. I couldn’t wait to tell Liz—maybe now she’d stop doubting my ideas.

  “But—” she continued.

  Oh, here it comes, I thought. The reason behind the deep scowl.

  “Counselors have to be able to follow orders. Mutiny can’t be tolerated.”

  “But the uni—”

  “You are partner one,” she said, interrupting me before I could explain how hideously unflattering the uniforms were this year. “Sean is designated partner two. You were supposed to fall back into his arms. Not the other way around.”

  To my disappointment we weren’t discussing the uniform. Bummer. It was so much easier to explain.

  “But I didn’t trust him,” I blurted. Surely she could understand that. How could you let yourself fall when experience had taught you that the net wouldn’t be there when you landed?

  She nodded sagely. “That was obvious, but the quickest road to trust comes by building a bridge of common experiences.”

  Amazon Edna had quickly morphed into Yoda. I was certain she was trying to make a point, but she was going about it in a convoluted circle.

  “Tonight you and Sean will be on evening shift dishwasher detail,” she said.

  She’s kidding, right? Here I was, on my first day of CIT training and I was already being punished? This was so unlike me, I just stood there, gaping.

  Before I could sputter a response, Edna walked off. I assumed she was on her way to break the good news to Sean.

  I was left standing in front of Long-haired Ed. I considered suggesting that he tell his twin to chill, but question seventeen on the application—Do you play well with others?—was haunting me. I’d answered yes to that one, too. Of course, I hadn’t planned on being asked to play well with Sean.

  “So, you and Edna are twins,” I said instead, trying to sound like I was really interested. Maybe if I could get on his good side, he’d convince Edna to lighten up.

  He laughed really loudly. For such a skinny guy he had an authentic Santa Claus belly-laugh going. “Check out snopes.com, and you’ll discover that’s an urban legend,” he said. He patted my shoulder. “Maybe you and your camp partner can figure out the truth.”

  He walked off. And I was left with the realization that this entire week was going to involve people trying to hook me up with Sean.

  Maybe a better name for the camp would be Camp Final Destination. Because being here was quickly turning into my worst nightmare!

  Chapter Five

  If Edna broke the news about our dishwashing assigment to Sean, it wasn’t obvious. As a matter of fact, he’d walked out of the dining hall after lunch, whistling like he didn’t have a care in the world. Then Edna had blown her own whistle—which was so much better than the clanging of the iron triangle.

  Back in the main hall, she’d quickly jumped into a lecture on trust and its importance in our jobs. Again with the trusting ourselves, trusting each other. When we became experts in that regard, we would have no difficulty at all getting the campers—and their parents who were paying for camp—to trust us. We needed that trust to be successful as counselors.

  I wanted nothing more than to be successful, but being paired up with Sean was