"Me? Oh, I'm fine." She dropped her hands and sat up a little straighter as if to put up a front. "It's you I'm worried about, Kylie. You seemed very upset this morning."
Kylie recalled how she'd stormed out of here. "I'm sorry. It sometimes ... it just feels as if it's too much."
"I know it feels like that. But it will work out," Holiday said. Kylie frowned. "You sound like my mom. She always says, 'God won't give you more than you can handle.'"
Holiday chuckled. "And we just wish He didn't trust us so much, right?"
"Yeah." Kylie saw the concern flare up in Holiday's eyes again. "What about your problems?" She motioned to the desk, sensing Holiday was upset.
"It'll be fine ... just have a lot of financial crap to figure out with us going full-time here at the camp. There are teachers to be hired.
Heating units to put into the cabins. And I don't have a clue how we're going to manage it." "I thought the government, I mean the FRU, funded the camp."
"They do to some degree, but when they agreed to let me open the boarding school, they put us on a tight budget. These days even government programs are cutting back." She looked at the desk again. "It's probably not as bad as I think it is. It's just ... Sky used to do all the financial work, and now I'm stuck with it."
"Burnett's not good with doing that kind of stuff?" Kylie asked, hoping to ease into a conversation about him.
"I don't know. But since he shouldn't be helping out here for more than another month, I don't see any reason for him to get involved with this side of the business."
Take the sugarcoating off what Holiday said and it basically meant she didn't trust Burnett. Was that because he was vampire, or could it be because she'd trusted Sky, her last co-camp leader, and Sky had let her down? Holiday never talked about Sky much, but Kylie sensed her friend's betrayal had hurt her more than she wanted to admit. "Have they hired a new camp leader?" Kylie asked.
Now Holiday's expression turned into a full groan. "No. But they've promised by the end of summer I should have someone. And that can't come soon enough."
"Is he really that unpleasant to work with?" Kylie sensed Holiday's frustration came from Burnett, which only made Kylie worry about how Holiday would take Kylie's confession.
"We're just too different." Holiday's gaze lowered to Kylie's chest and stayed there for a fraction of a second too long. Which meant Holiday had noticed the growth spurt.
Kylie's thoughts shot away from her confession and turned on her own issues. "Can you explain this?"
"Explain what?" Holiday asked innocently enough, but it didn't convince Kylie.
Kylie held out her hands in front of her boobs.
Holiday's brows wrinkled. "I was hoping you'd just gotten a new Wonderbra."
"Afraid not. There's my hair, too." Kylie pulled it over her shoulder. "Plus, my shoes are almost too tight and I'm pretty sure I'm a whole inch taller."
"Mmm." Holiday almost appeared as if she worked at keeping her expression unreadable.
"Mmm, what?" Kylie leaned forward, pressing her hands on the desk. "Mmm, it's odd." Holiday said, but something about the way the camp leader glanced back to her papers hinted that she wasn't being one hundred percent up front with Kylie.
"Please don't do this now," Kylie insisted.
Holiday looked up. "Do what?"
"Hide something. It's happening to me. I have the right to know what the hell is going on."
"I'm not hiding..." Holiday stopped talking and sighed. "I don't consider it hiding anything when I'm surmising, guessing. I'm not sure if it's fair to give you information when I'm not sure."
"What's not fair is to leave me completely in the dark. Because believe me, whatever you have to tell me isn't going to be half as bad as what I'm imagining."
Holiday nodded. "Okay, but just remember ... it's speculation. Even Burnett said he didn't see it being a sure sign."
Kylie had suspected that Burnett had noted her boob increase. To his credit he'd dealt with it well, but to think he and the others were discussing it, well, it felt like overkill. Really dead stinky overkill. "You two discussed my boobs?"
"No. Well, yes, but not ... Look, he said he noticed some changes in you when he ran into you at the falls. I insisted he tell me what they were."
The mere mention of Kylie seeing Burnett at the falls had Kylie remembering she needed to come clean, but first she had to know. "What's the speculation?"