Page 18 of Hide And Seek

“Sorry, who are those girls?” I asked, head tilting slightly.

“My friends. They were friends with Carly too,” Willa said softly. “We all shared the same cabin every year.”

“Ah. Are you still sharing with the others?”

Willa dejectedly shook her head. “They split us up this year. And even though we all signed up for the same activities this week, they scheduled us on different days, so we hardly get to spend any time together.”

“That sucks. Any idea why?”

“Iris told me our parents requested it,” she said bitterly. “They think if we hang out together all summer, we’ll all stay miserable over Carly, because we’ll talk about her a lot. And they also think everyone will look at our group weirdly and blame us for what happened. But…” She trailed off for a second. “That’s happening anyway.”

I cast her a curious side-eye. “What’s happening?”

“People are looking at us weirdly. Probably blaming us.” Willa’s voice tightened with emotion. “And I guess they should.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, brows shooting up.

“It was my fault,” she said listlessly. “What happened to Carly was all my fault.”

5

“What makes you say that, Willa?”I asked, heart suddenly hammering.

Her voice dropped to a low murmur. “Carly died because of the Challenge Game.”

“What’s that?”

She swallowed audibly and went quiet for another moment.

“It was a game we invented in our first year here,” she finally said. “We’d all come up with a set of challenges that were worth a certain amount of points. Stuff like stealing a pair of boxers from one of the boys’ cabins. Or sneak into the kitchen after hours and steal some food. Whoever got the most points by the end of camp would be queen of the cabin for the next year.”

“Ah.” I nodded and waited for her to go on.

“I was queen the summer before, Maeve won the year before that, and Cosima the year before. So Carly really wanted to win, because if Iris won instead, she’d end up being the only one who’d never been queen, and that would make her feel bad.” Willa fell silent for a few contemplative seconds. “Her family isn’t like the rest of ours. They don’t have much money. So Ithink that made her feel left out sometimes. Like she needed to prove something.”

“I can understand that.”

Willa nodded. “Me too. But none of us ever treated her badly. We all loved her,” she said, voice thickening again. “Anyway, I think that’s why she took the Challenge Game so seriously last year. She wanted to prove she was really one of us.”

“That makes sense.”

She took a deep breath before going on. “I made up the challenge that was worth the most points last year. It was after we went canoeing on our third day at camp. Someone dropped an oar in the lake, and for some reason it sank before anyone could grab it,” she said. “So my challenge idea was: dive to the bottom and get the oar. But it had to be while no one was looking.”

“Why?”

“Because the counselors don’t let us swim in that part of the lake. It’s too deep. We’re only supposed to swim on the side closer to the jetty.”

“Ah, I see.”

“That’s why it was worth a ton of points, because it was hard, and we’d get in trouble if we got caught.” Willa paused and swallowed loudly again, throat bobbing. “I didn’t think anyone would actually do it. But… that’s why Carly sneaked out that night. She was going to try and find the oar.”

“Did she tell you that?” I asked, cocking my head.

“No, but why else would she sneak out and go swimming in the middle of the night?” she replied. “I know the water’s really dark then, but Carly was brave. I think she saw it as an extra challenge.”

I chose my next words carefully. “You didn’t think it was a little strange that she didn’t tell you where she was going?”

Willa shook her head. “No, I know Carly. I mean…knewher. So I know exactly how her brain worked,” she said softly. “After she got the oar, she would’ve sneaked back into the cabin and left it lying on the floor with all her wet clothes. That way the rest of us would wake up to the surprise, and she would just sit there giggling.”