Maria

12 Summers Ago

“Did you unpack your suitcase, honey?” Mom asked me as she carried my baby brother, Lucas, over to his stroller.

“Yes, Mom. Can we go already?”

“Just one second…” As she placed him inside, the blue dinosaur binky fell from his mouth, and he let out one of his annoying screams before it even landed on the ground.

“Baby, grab that for Mommy and go rinse it off, please.”

Ever since the baby was born, everything took way longer, and I had to do way more work. “Sheesh,” I mumbled as I scooped up the gooey plastic and then took it over to the kitchen sink. I had to stand on a chair to reach the faucet, and just as I turned off the water, my dad was behind me. “Whoa, be careful.”

“I know, Dad. I’m almost eight. I can do it.” I jumped down and raced past him with the binky. “Here,” I said, popping it into Lucas’s mouth. Can we go now?”

“I know you’re excited for the bonfire, but we’re going to be spending a lot of time here in the cabin, too, Maria.”

Mom had talked the whole way there about how much she loved this place growing up and how coming here would make her less sad about Grandma passing. I wanted to stay home this summer and play with Kayla, but Mom and Dad said I would love this cabin. I didn’t get how this big old house was a cabin, and I didn’t see anything fun about it. But I didn’t want my mom to be sad either.

Dad came over and put his hand on my head like I was a puppy. “You know what, Maria? The first time I came to this cabin, I knew I wanted to marry your mom.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Then he ruffled my hair before grabbing Mom by the waist and giving her a big smooshy kiss.

“Gross!” I ran to the door to get away from them, then I held it open so Mom could push Lucas through.

We could see the welcome bonfire way before we reached it. I looked at Dad and said, “Wow, that’s a big fire! You guys better keep Lucas away, ’cause that doesn’t look safe.”

Dad smiled so big and said, “Thank you for watching out for your brother.”

I knew it was my job since I was the big sister. It was weird when we got there because all the ladies sat at picnic tables, and all the men stood around the fire or at the grills. I stayed with Mom and Lucas at first, but every time someone talked to me it was the same thing. “What’s your name?” or “How old are you?” I thought we should wear name tags like in school.

Mommy hugged a lady named Lisa, and when she asked how old I was, I said, “I’m seven, but I’m almost eight, which is super close to nine, so really I’m practically ten. Double digits!” I held up both hands with fingers spread wide. “Dad says I’m as smart as a ten-year-old anyhow.”

She wasn’t as excited as I thought she would be. She cared more about the baby. Everybody did. So I waited until they were all fussing over him, and I went over to see what all the men were talking about.

The men were just as boring, and they didn’t even ask me any questions, so I decided to find some kids to talk to. I heard Dad yell, “Maria, don’t go too far, okay?”

I just gave him a thumbs-up. Sometimes I did that if I didn’t really want to do what he was telling me to do. They said this was going to be fun, and so far, nothing fun had happened, so I needed to go find the fun.

When we first got to the cabin, Mom had shown me a bunch of old photos of Grandma and some of our other family. That definitely wasn’t fun, especially when Mom started crying. I didn’t cry, though. I hardly remembered Grandma since I only saw her a couple times, but she was my mommy’s mommy, and if my mommy was gone, I’d be sad too. Maybe that was why she wanted us to have fun.

I saw people carrying drinks and kept walking until I came to the place where they were giving them out. After waiting for the person in front of me to be done, I walked up to the counter and stood on my tippy toes.

“Hi!”

“Hello, little lady,” an old man wearing a baseball hat said. “What can I get you?”

I pulled my lips under my teeth, and then like magic I thought of it. “Can I please have a Shirley Temple?” I thought it was a grown-up drink when I heard it on TV, but Dad said anyone can drink it.

“Of course. Coming right up.”

He started to make it, and when he got to the end, placing a cherry on top, I said, “Um…could you load it up with cherries?”

The man laughed but started piling them on until the drink almost spilled over the edge. “How’s that?”

“I love it!” Finally, something fun.

“Careful, now,” he said, handing it to me.

I was going to say “I know,” but then I remembered my mom said that was rude to say to strangers.

I took one big sip before turning to leave—and then bumped right into a girl behind me.

“Oh, no!” I yelled as Sprite and cherries splashed from my cup, spilling all over my hands.

“Hey!” the girl said with her brows all crinkled. “You got me wet.”

I couldn’t see anything on her, but I still said, “Sorry.” Then I noticed her wet hair, and my eyes got big. Yep, that definitely looks like my drink. I hoped she wasn’t mad, because she kind of looked like a princess with pretty blonde hair and blue eyes. “It was an accident.” I shrugged.

The girl smiled. “It’s fine,” she said, then stuck her tongue out to lick her cheek. “At least it tastes good. My brother got gross lake water all over my new jeans earlier today.” A smaller boy appeared next to her. “Hey, I shouted ‘cannon ball!’ That means get out of the way, Ari!”

“No, it doesn’t.” The girl rolled her eyes and then held out her hand to me. “I’m Ariana.”

“I’m Maria. How old are you guys?”

“I’m eight, and Benji’s six.”

“I’m going to be eight this summer!”

“Cool!”

“Yeah, cool,” Benji said, but Ariana bumped her body into his, adding another eye roll.

“You can hang out with us if you want.”

“Thanks! I’m already tired of being around the grown-ups.” Maybe the summer won’t be so boring after all.

“Excuse me?”

A cute little Asian girl stood there, holding out a napkin.

I wasn’t sure why, so I just looked at her and said, “Yeah?”

She giggled. “Don’t you need one of these?”

Ariana reached over and took the napkin. “Thank you.”

I just wiped my hands on my shorts while Ariana wiped her face and some of her hair with the napkin.

“Um…I’m Jade. I’m seven too.”

Two girls my age. This is like school, only better. I gave them a huge smile and said, “Hey, what if we all got s’mores?” Ariana was still patting and rubbing her hair like she was brushing it, so I said, “Should we wait for you to rinse off?”

Ariana sighed, balled up the soaked napkin, and tossed it into the trash. “I have a better idea,” she said, grinning. You guys up for it?”

Jade shrugged both shoulders, and I nodded, excitement filling my belly. Ariana was going to be lots of fun—that, I could tell.

Ariana grabbed my hand with one of hers, then she grabbed Jade’s hand. “Come on,” she yelled, pulling us toward the dock.”

“Hey, wait for me,” I heard Benji call behind us.

We were all laughing and screaming, and I didn’t even know why. Then I saw the dock up ahead. Uh-oh. Even though I hoped my parents didn’t get mad at me, I was for sure having fun. Still hand-in-hand, we raced across the dock, and when we got to the end, we all jumped into the lake, our screams of laughter only stopping when we went under.

***

Present Day

I knew Jade was serious, and I felt terrible shutting her out, but the whole thing was just so complicated, not to mention hard to talk about. Keeping it together this summer was important for my family, and if I started talking about Ariana’s betrayal right now, I’d probably lose it.

So I shook my head apologetically. “It’s really not important. I just want to hang and catch up.” I reached over and squeezed her arm. “Please…” Jade could never stay mad at anyone for long, and she eventually cracked a small smile. “Thank you. So, tell me about Northwestern. Was freshman year everything you wanted it to be?”

That tiny smile retreated just as quickly as it had come. Shaking her head, she stood. “Nope, sorry…” It was her turn to squeeze my arm, but it was more of a tug. “You’re not changing the subject.” Yanking harder, she got me to my feet. “We’re going to go over to Ariana’s house and figure this all out. Now!”