Bookishly Ever After (Ever After #1)(76)
I almost said, Neither does leaving the cabin to be with your boyfriend and expecting them to cover for you, but I bit back that reply. Cassie was too nice to deserve snark. “No, I mean don’t talk to them like they’re kids. I think, maybe, if you treat them like kids, they’ll only act like little kids.”
“You’re starting to sound like Grace.” At my surprised head-tilt, she added, “You know, giving calm, logical advice that assumes the whole rest of the world is logical, including me?” She tossed a piece of bark in the direction of the campfire and turned back to face me, propping her hands onto her knees in a listening pose. “Anyway, I’m tired of talking about campers. How’s the ex-crush thing working out for you? It kind-of sucks that you were stuck with him.”
I glanced back at my campers, some of whom were avidly listening in. Diana gave me an almost cartoonish wink before going back to talking with one of the boys from Dev’s cabin. “Yeah, it does.”
“And Kris?”
This time, I tried not to look at the girls. I didn’t need them getting involved in yet another one of my personal dramas. Instead, I picked out his familiar dark hair on the other side of the fire pit. “I’m so over him.”
“That bad, huh?” When I didn’t give any details, she patted my arm in a way I guessed was supposed to be sympathetic. “It’s better that way. Anyone who hates us athletes isn’t even worth talking to. Anyway, I have to get back to my cabin before they set themselves on fire or something, but I wanted to check on you. Party in the woods later tonight? We can get away from the kids. I promise it will be more awesome than last time,” she paused, waiting for my answer.
“Um, maybe?” Not, I added silently. But, instead, I smiled as she waved and bounced off to the other side of the horseshoe of log seats.
“You’re not going to leave us to go party, are you?” Bethany One crept over from her bench and took Cassie’s vacated seat.
“Right, like I’d ask you guys to promise me you won’t sneak out, and then go do that myself.” Plus, I didn’t need a repeat of the first night.
“And you’re a geek,” Eliana added, making it sound like it was a good thing.
“I guess.”
We were then hushed by one of the teachers, who started lecturing us with a history/geography lesson about the Pine Barrens. Just as the kids started shifting around in boredom, he broke into a story about the most famous occupant, the thirteenth Leeds child, “better known as the Jersey Devil.”
Like every other kid from the area, I had grown up on stories of the Jersey Devil. As the teachers and some of the counselors took turns telling different stories, I curled my arms happily around my knees, basking in the familiar tales. The crackle and pop of the bonfire accompanied the storytellers’ hushed voices and turned the pines and oaks surrounding us into shadowy outlines. Even the lake was mirror-still. The perfect setting for a horned monster to swoop in.
A familiar silhouette replaced Mr. Hamm. Dev was in his element, his very stature transforming as he took center stage in front of the bonfire. A delicious shiver ran over my skin as his voice carried over us, low and creepy.
“Every seven years, when a blue mist rises off of the lake, the Jersey Devil comes searching for his next victim.” Every head turned towards the lake, where the moonlight made the fog rising off of it look a pale, pale blue. Whispers started working through the crowd. Dev continued with a serious expression. “The last time a camper disappeared from the Barrens without a trace was on a night just like this one. Seven years ago.” Bethany One’s nails dug into my palm. “Tonight, as we gather around the bonfire, watch your backs. Because the Jersey Devil is wandering and hungry for his next kill. Beware.”
On those words, bodies leapt out of the woods and Bethany One, along with most of the campers, let off a deafening scream. My own heart jumped into my throat and I had to take deep breaths to make my heart rate go back to normal. When the light from the bonfire revealed some of the counselors standing around us draped in black tablecloths, the kids started laughing. The other male counselors surrounded Dev, making gruesome faces accentuated by sticking flashlights under their chins. With a final cackle and a bunch of moans, Dev and the other guys slunk back into the shadows until it was just the bonfire and silence.
After an appropriately creepy period of time, Mrs. Forrester asked us to break back into our cabin groups to move to the smaller fires in the field behind us to roast marshmallows. While Dev was busy lighting the fires—with matches, my brain noted—I herded our cabins over to one. Unlike in high school, the girls and boys automatically separated like oil and water, the boys taking the far side of the fire and three-quarters of the marshmallows.
My cabin crowded around me, wielding their roasting twigs like stakes. Genevieve, who was usually one of the quieter ones, stepped forward and put her hands on her hips. “Enough with this secrecy. Half of the people in our cabin think they know what’s going on with you and Dev. Why don’t you set the record straight for once and for all?”
“Because it’s my private life?” At their defiant looks, I sighed. I was facing a wall of pure pre-teen stubbornness. “If I tell you, will you stop bothering me?”
“Depends on what you tell us,” Diana said, but when Giselle elbowed her in the side, she screwed up her lip and nodded.