Alice blinked at her. ‘Oh! Um, you should welcome the counselors. You’re good at talking to people.’
Briar found it difficult to ignore the implication that she was bad at everything else.
The counselors arrived over the next hour, with Briar directing them to the assigned cabins Alice had written down. There were familiar faces among them, since many of them had been campers when Briar had been a counselor, but others she didn’t recognize at all.
After the counselors had settled in, the group gathered around the fire pit for the first-night bonfire. Briar wondered if she should address them. Susan hadn’t been much of a rousing speechmaker, but she was known to say a few words at the start of the summer. She decided against it, since Alice and her clipboard hadn’t told her to.
‘Hi, all,’ Alice called, standing on a log for added height. ‘Um, I just have a few announcements before we get started.’ She cleared her throat awkwardly, glancing down at her hands. ‘I’m Alice, I used to work here, and I’ll be co-directing this summer with Briar, who you probably all know because she hired you.’
‘Yeah, no duh,’ someone called from the crowd. Alice’s head snapped to whoever spoke, clearly thrown at the prospect of being heckled.
Briar stepped in. ‘Alice has graciously offered to help me this summer after the passing of my mother. I know she was important to a lot of you, and if you want to talk about it, you can come visit me in the director’s office at any time.’
Briar waved at Alice to continue.
‘Counselors drinking alcohol is only permitted when there are no campers on the premises, tonight being one of those nights. When sessions are taking place, I would ask you to please refrain. When in doubt, don’t go all out.’ Alice’s smile froze on her face as no one laughed at what was clearly intended to be a joke. ‘Finally, as most of you know, at Camp Lakeside the staff members go by nature-related nicknames.’
‘Unless your mom gave you a built-in camp name from birth,’ Briar said. ‘You can just call me Briar.’
‘And mine is Violet,’ Alice continued. ‘Not for the flower, but forCortinarius violaceus, a violet-capped mushroom that grows in these woods. There’s some interesting research suggesting that the group originated in Australasia, but this particular species diverged in very recent history, about 3.9 million years ago.’ She cleared her throat. ‘Anyway, what was I talking about?’
Briar took over. ‘You all should spend some time thinking of a nickname for yourself if you don’t already have one. And now, we’ll let the assistant directors introduce themselves.’
‘Hi there,’ Freddie said, waving. ‘I’m Freddie, but my camp name is Moss.’
‘I’m Luna,’ Sierra said.
‘Great,’ Alice said. ‘Well, that’s basically… everything. Briar, do you want to do the honors?’
Briar pulled a lighter out of her pocket and stuck it beneath a scrap of newspaper peeking out from under the logs. It took only a few moments for the kindling to catch, sparks popping into the night as the fire grew.
Sierra and Freddie passed around cups of cider and the fixings for s’mores and Alice made her way over to Briar, plopping herself down on the log next to her. The air was still humid, even as darkness settled in the woods; the only respite was a weak breeze.
‘Not a bad first day,’ Alice muttered, almost inaudible over the chatter.
Briar considered pretending she hadn’t heard her, but after a long day of conceding to Alice, her petty streak won out. ‘Yeah, you seem to have things sorted. At this rate, you won’t even need me.’
‘That’s not true,’ Alice said. ‘You just have a lot on your plate. And I’m here if you want to talk.’
Briar accepted a cup of spiked cider from Sierra, nodding her thanks, and Alice did the same. As soon as she had moved on, Briar said, ‘I have friends, you know. And siblings. A long list of people I’d talk to before I’d talk to you.’
Alice looked at her in that knowing way, and Briar felt like she was being cut open like one of her fungi. ‘But would you be honest with them about how you’re feeling?’
Briar opened her mouth, then closed it, her lips twitching furiously. She wanted to refute Alice, to tell her that in her absence Briar had learned to communicate when she was struggling to the people she was closest with. But it would have been a lie. Throughout their years apart, Alice remained the one person who knew all of Briar’s secrets.
Sierra clapped her hands from the other side of the circle, interrupting their standoff. ‘Time for icebreakers.’ She looked around with a wicked smile. ‘Let’s do first kiss stories.’
Briar ran a hand over her face, stifling a groan.
Freddie went first, telling the story of how his had been in a production ofTwelfth Night, with the punchline being that he’d had a crush on the twin brother of the girl playing Viola opposite him.
‘For a moment there, I questioned if maybe I fancied women,’ he concluded. ‘I think it was the fake moustache. Very confusing.’
‘Alice?’ Sierra said. ‘What about you?’
‘Um,’ Alice stalled. ‘I don’t know that it’s appropriate… Technically, Iamyour boss.’
‘Oh, piss off,’ Freddie said, giggling into his cup. Briar sensed Alice’s gaze on her, but she refused to meet it.
