Lacuna(1)

Chapter 2

7 Months later.

    Stevie had sent a seemingly ominous email to Nate, Janelle, and Evelyn about a summer camp job she was looking into over the summer. Other than—found by her research— the three murders that had happened there, the rest seemed harmless. It wasn't too far away, at least for Evelyn, just over in Massachusetts. Though, that's a while away from Janelle, who lives in Chicago, she still said she could manage. Stevie promised that this was only going to last a few days. And Evelyn hopes she keeps that promise.
  
"Doesn't this seem a little sketchy?" She asked, turning to see Janelle wiping sweat off her forehead.
  
"Well," Nate chimed in, "this is Stephanie Bell we're talking about. Sort of difficult to hold her to regular standards."
   
"Why is it so hot holy crap!" Janelle squeaked.
   
"It's not hot, well, it is, but it's humid." Evelyn explained. Her and Janelle's matching braids swang behind our heads. They had no luck trying to get Nate to let them braid his hair. It wouldn't have worked anyway because his hair is too short, but it would still be funny. A set of footsteps, seemingly running, was coming from in front of them. It wasn't long until a tiny ginger girl, maybe strawberry blonde, ran up to us. She was no older than three or four.
   
"Hi!" She waved from below. After James and Maverick were born, talking and dealing with kids had come quite easy to Evelyn.
  
She knelt down before making her voice higher. "Hey, there, hun! What are you doing so far from camp?"
  
"They, they, they said that," she slowed her breathing. "they said that new people come here today! And I want to say hi!" She squealed, jumping around us.
  
"Well here we are!" She held out a hand to her which she took.
  
"Let.. let me show you the.. the camp place!" She skipped away, dragging Evelyn with her.
 
"What's your name?" She asked.
  
"Adeline!" She squeaked, squeezing my fingers. "What is your name?"
  
"My name's Evelyn." She smiled at her. She turned around, giving her a confused look.
 
"Like the number?" She placed her hands on her hips, tilting her head, the sun shining in her light blue-green eyes.
 
"No," Evelyn laughed, "Evelyn, not eleven, silly!"
  
"Oh," she said with recognition, "silly me!" She giggled, grabbing her hand again to continue their journey down the rocky road.
  
"Wait up, Evie!" Nate shouted, she turned to see him jogging toward her. When he caught up he hooked his arm through hers and kept up with Adeline and hers pace.
  
"Is this your boyfriend?" Adeline gasped, making a comically shocked face.
  
"No, no, he isn't." She turned to smile at Nate, him not returning it. Rude. "Hey, before we go any further," she gently pulled her hand for her to turn around. "Where are your parents?"
 
"Mommy and Daddy are over there!" She pointed toward a building just coming into view. Evelyn followed her finger to find a couple who looked around Max or Naomi's age, maybe younger, the woman carrying a child that looked around 12-18 months. Adeline let go of her hand, running toward her parents. "Mommy! Daddy!" She shouted.
   
"Hi, baby! Where were you?" Her mother looked up to see where she was coming from and locked eyes with Evelyn. She waved, attempting to catch up with Adeline while Nate drags behind.
  
"Hi! Sorry for getting her away from you," she said, extending her arm for a hand shake.
  
"Hi, it's all good," the woman took her hand. "I'm Cassie by the way and this is Dean." She pointed to the man behind her, his dirty blonde hair falling into his face. The sun reflected off of Cassie's bright red hair.
  
"Oh, I'm Evelyn! And this is Nate." She turned to Nate, noticing the rest of the group had caught up to them. "The blonde one is Stevie, the bright yellow one is Janelle, and the other one is David."
  
"What's your last name? You look familiar." Dean tilted his head, crossing his arms over his chest.
  
"Hastings." Evelyn smiled.
   
"Hm," he hummed, "still doesn't ring a bell." His brows knitted together now, he looked up searching the sky for answers, some sort of recognition to find no success again.
  
"Okay..." she muttered, not realizing she had said it till it was too late. An awkward silence fell over the group, all looking around waiting for someone to break it.
  
"Wait a minute, I'm just the 'other one'?" David exclaimed. Adeline giggled, then the baby giggled, then Janelle, Stevie, David, Cassie, Evelyn, and finally Nate. Dean was not giving up his poker face anytime soon.
  
"Well, we should probably get going," Cassie said, giggles sobering. A chorus of agreement told everyone to part their own ways.
  
Evelyn and Nate had to, surprisingly, share a room even though the boys and girls cabins were split.
  
"That was sort of awkward before." He said, Evelyn looked up to find his mouth in a straight line.
 
"Yeah," Evelyn said, folding the blankets on her bed.
  
"This is going to feel way longer than it should. I hate hot weather." He whined. 
  
"But you used to swim? How could you hate hot weather?" She asked.
  
"Competition swimming is always indoors." He explained flatly.  
  
"Whatever." Flopping onto her bed made Evelyn realize how hard it was. "These are going to be the worst nights of sleep I will ever have in my life."

     The next morning, she realized she was right. That was the worst night ever.