Alice decided to ignore her, not wanting to examine Briar’s memorization of her posture any further. ‘I just spoke to Robin’s mom. She says to give him some more time and he’ll adjust.’
Briar nodded slowly, as though Alice was stupid. ‘Yeah, obviously. Jeez, I didn’t say to send the kid home. I just said to talk to him.’
‘Ididtalk to him. Which you refused to do, thank you very much,’ Alice said, cross. The night before she’d felt confident that she had a handle on things with Robin, but after talking to his mom she wasn’t so sure. ‘He hates it here and he wants to leave. I don’t think it’s my job to stop him.’
‘Of course it’s your job to stop him,’ Briar said. ‘We can’t just send campers home if they miss their families. We’d have no camp to run.’
‘He feels like no one wants him here. And I just talked to his mom and she didn’t even seem tocare.’
Alice knew she was getting too emotional. She’d normally never let something affect her this much, but Robin’s mom’s callousness nagged at her. Her responsibilities as a mother didn’t even register, as though she could offload them onto the camp and wipe her hands of it. It felt far too familiar to Alice.
Recognition clicked behind Briar’s eyes. ‘Oh.’
‘Oh,what?’ Alice stood, crossing her arms defensively.
‘I think you’re not in a place where you can see this situation objectively,’ Briar offered, almost gently, which only made it worse. Her pity stung. ‘Maybe leave it for now, okay? I’ll check in with him this afternoon, see if maybe the birds aren’t so scary anymore.’
‘Okay,’ Alice agreed, because she didn’t want to do it anyway. Robin had been Briar’s problem originally and she’d tried to pawn him off on Alice.
‘But something else has come up,’ Briar said.
‘What is it?’ Alice asked, suspicious.
‘The drama counselors are both projectile vomiting behind the boathouse.’
‘You want me to tell them off for drinking?’ Alice guessed. ‘God, where are they even finding the time to get drunk? IwishI could get drunk right now.’
Briar raised her eyebrows. ‘I’m pretty sure they’ve got the flu or something.’
‘Oh,’ Alice said. ‘So what?’
‘I need you to cover drama class,’ Briar said quickly. ‘With me. Please.’
Alice shook her head. ‘No, no,no. Isn’t there anyone else? Sierra?’
‘Sierra is the only certified lifeguard who hasn’t come down with this bug. She has to stay stationed by the lake.’
‘I’m a—’ Alice stopped herself short, sighing. Her lifeguard certification would have expired years ago. ‘Okay, fine. Pray for the children who are about to be subjected to this.’
‘Already have!’ Briar called over her shoulder as she walked back out the door.
Chapter 9
Alice
The rain came the next day. And it didn’t stop, no matter how many reverse rain dances the kids performed. As Alice headed out to deliver more ponchos to the campers braving a short hike with Sierra, the phone rang. For a moment, she considered leaving it, since it was almost certainly a parent she didn’t want to talk to, but it was part of the job.
‘Hello, this is Alice speaking.’
‘Alice!’ a voice boomed from the other end. ‘It’s Tom. How are you?’
Alice frantically ran through the list of British campers’ parents in her head before realizing she was talking to Briar’s dad.
‘Oh, Mr. Elwood,’ she said, wondering how she had ended up having to speak to the man twice in the span of a month. ‘I’m on my way out at the moment, but I’ll let Briar know you called.’
‘She’s been avoiding my calls,’ he said jovially. ‘Maybe you could deliver a message for me?’
‘Um, I guess?’ Alice said distractedly, thinking about the kids in the rain. ‘I don’t have a pen and paper or anything…’
