Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(68)
“Yes.” The kids from group three started filtering into the clearing and he walked back over to where I stood. “So, why do you get to wear all that stuff and we don’t?” He gestured at my chest guard.
I tugged self-consciously at the giant black triangle that covered my left boob. “Because I’m doing this every day for a few hours? If you start demonstrating, I’ll lend you mine.”
He put up his hands in a stop motion and shook his head. “No way, the demos are all yours.”
“It’s all about relaxing and becoming one with the bow,” I said, giving him what I hoped was a quirky-but-only-friendly smile. Something about being on familiar territory seemed to make me bolder than usual. I was like Maeve here, and I didn’t even have to try.
He bumped me playfully with his side. “You’re, like, Zen-Master Archer Phoebe,” he said softly as the campers started gathering in a horseshoe shape around us.
A feeling, like when Maeve first picked up her bow and landed every shot perfectly bubbled up in me. I clipped my quiver onto my jeans and winked at him.
“Okay, guys, who wants to shoot some arrows?”
I winked at him. Ohmigod, I was an idiot. He’d totally guess and I’d go back to being ego-fodder for a guy who had a girlfriend and definitely wasn’t interested in me. I buried my face in my sleeping bag and wondered if polyfill was thick enough to properly suffocate me.
“Phoebe?” I rolled my head sideways to one of my campers shining a flashlight in my face. “Aren’t you going to change?”
I blinked at the light and reached out to push the flashlight away. When the spots faded, I made out wild curls a lot like Em’s.
“Giselle?” The form nodded and I sat up. “Yeah. Give me a second. I’m trying to climb out of the pits of my own stupidity.”
“O-kay.” Giselle backed up and twirled her flashlight so it illuminated the cabin like a disco ball. “What happened?”
Bethany Two slid onto my bunk, surreptitiously glancing over at where my book lay open on the windowsill. “We heard the archery thing was pretty awesome, so it can’t be that.”
Damn, they were attracting a crowd. “Nothing, really. I was just being dramatic.” I shook my head and reached into my duffle to pull out a wool sweater and fleece hoodie.
“I’m glad you’re not fighting with Dev anymore. He’s cool, even though he was an ass for splashing you on the dock.” I almost choked at angelic little Lily saying “ass.” “We’re pretty lucky to have the best counselors in this place.”
I popped my head through the neck hole of my sweater and pat my static-y hair back to semi-flat. “Now I know you guys want something.”
Bethany One shook her head. “Nah. We talked to the other girl cabins. Their counselors treat them like kids, yell at them, and Mary’s cabin had to cover for their counselor because she snuck out last night to go make out with her boyfriend.”
“We like you because you talk to us like we’re adults,” Eliana added. She finished dressing and looked like she’d been eaten by a marshmallow.
“I think you might be a little overdressed,” I pointed out to her in my most adult voice.
She shook her head and pointed at the little backpack she had slung over everything. “Layers, baby. All of this stuff squishes to, like, sock size. I’d rather keep stripping down than freeze my tuchus off in the middle of the woods.” She raised an eyebrow at some of the looks she got. “Laugh all you want now, but you all’ll be begging to borrow a layer after an hour out there.”
Genevieve poked Eliana in the side and the jacket material engulfed about half of her hand. “You can’t possibly think Tanner will think this is cute.”
“Cute isn’t about what you wear, it’s about who you are.” Eliana flipped her hair over her shoulder with an attitude that made me grin. Em would love her.
I checked the clock on the far wall. My poor phone languished practically signal-less along with all of the others in the cabin.
“Enough about cuteness. We’ve got about two minutes to finish getting changed.”
Redhead blinked at me from where she was fixing her ponytail in front of a small mirror someone had hung from one of the top bunks. “You know, if you put on a little bit of lipgloss, it might get Dev’s attention. And then it’ll be like in the Music Camp movie.” She clutched her hands to her chest and made a swoony face.
And…I was back to regretting that I was such an “approachable” counselor. “Um, that’s okay…” I wracked my brain for her name.
“Diana.” Bethany Two mouthed at me and I smiled at her thankfully.
“…Diana. But believe me, there’s no dramatic high school romance here. Life isn’t like movies or books,” Unfortunately, I silently added, patting Cradled on the Waves before standing up. “Okay, we’re going to be late if we don’t get going right now.”
42
“Tonight, we’re going on a trust walk.” Mrs. Forrester stood with one of the other teachers on one of the docks, holding a bag full of brightly colored fabric strips. “There will be a lot of group projects next year. You need to learn how to trust your classmates.” A groan could be heard from some of the campers and I suppressed a grin. I remembered this exercise. “I need you to pair up in teams of two and your counselors will hand out a blindfold to each team.” She gestured for Dev and me to come forward and gave us each a handful of those fabric strips. “We’ll be watching to make sure no one cheats.”