Shadow Lake Vampire Society - Wendi Wilson Page 0,3
the last six months after she deemed that I should start getting over dad’s death and my subsequent trauma.
“Piper, listen."
Here it comes.
"I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’ve given you enough time. You need to stop hiding and start living. Yes, your dad died. It was a tragic accident, but that isn’t going to happen to you.”
She walked back to me and took my hand. I fought the urge to pull away. To run.
When I looked up, tears wavered in her blue eyes. “I can’t watch you live your life in that bedroom anymore. I just can’t. I lost your father, and now I’m losing my daughter, just in a different way.”
“You’re not losing me. I’m here all the time.”
“Exactly. That's the problem. Here, I want you to see this.” She turned toward the kitchen counter and when she returned, she had a brochure in her hands. “It’s a camp.”
“Oh no.” I leaned back as if the brochure could bite me.
“Just hear me out. You could get a job there. They need counselors, and you’re qualified. I checked. The children are foster kids, orphans, all kids who really need help. Isn’t that what you always wanted to do, help children?”
“Well, yeah.” I let her put the brochure in my hands. “But a camp counselor? I don’t think—”
Mom leaned forward and put her hand on my knee. “Your dad worked there as a teen. He always wanted you to go and follow in his footsteps.”
My stomach dropped at her words. Dad wanted me to follow in his footsteps? Was this true, or was she using emotional manipulation to try to get me to do what she wanted?
Now tears welled in my eyes. I blinked them away as I stared down at the glossy brochure. Two kids in orange life jackets held up paddles, their faces beaming with joy as they floated on a blue lake with stately pines in the distance. Camp Shadow Lake was written in jaunty font above the image, and below, it said, “Where kids can be kids.”
“Dr. Whitley is on board. She thinks you’re ready. I do, too.” Mom stepped forward and drew me into a hug.
I let her hold me, knowing it was what she needed, but, right now, what I needed was escape. This was too much. A camp, at least fifty miles from home, helping children who likely had issues of their own? How could I be a guiding light for them when my own light had been extinguished? It had taken me a year to reignite it to a flicker.
And Dr. Whitley was in on it? They were ganging up on me. Even Dad. I felt his presence in this as the brochure grew sticky in my fist.
They were pushing me out of the nest, but I wasn’t so sure I was ready to fly.
I had no plans for after graduation. No college applications to fill out. No job. No prospects. My life was on hold, and Mom was worried about me. Maybe she was right to be.
The doorbell rang, and Mom pulled back, glancing at the entryway. Coco opened the front door and stuck her head around it. “Hi, Mrs. Williams. Can I come in?”
"Hi, Coco!" Mom brightened. “What's shakin'? That's what the kids say now, right?"
“Right. For sure. All the kids,” Coco said, being kind. “You ready, Pipes?”
Stuffing the brochure in my purse, I followed Coco out of the house as fast as I could.
“What was all that about?” she asked me as we piled into her Ford Fusion. "'What's shakin'?' Does she say that now?"
I shook my head, the emotions still having a tug-of-war in my gut. “She wants me to go to some camp. Be a counselor or something. I think she’s been reading too many self-help books.”
“A camp?” Coco wrinkled her nose, pushing brown curls out of her eyes. My best friend was tan and gorgeous, making me look like a ghost in cutoffs. “What camp? Like with cabins?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said, gesturing for her to start the car. “Let’s just go. We'll miss the mindless debauchery.”
Coco smirked, winking at me. "There’s that Bubbly Piper we were talking about. Sunshine and roses all the time.”
But she wasn’t mad. That was the wonderful thing about Coco, no matter how dark my mood, she could always find a way to drag me out of it. This time it was old Backstreet Boys songs from our moms’ day turned all the way up