Family + Camp (working title)

Chapter 21 Part 1: Lunch Bunch

Lunch consisted of a taco bar and a salad bar. They used tortillas instead of hard shells, like Nell was used to. There were small corn tortillas and larger flour tortillas. Nell took one of each. When in Rome and all that. Or in this case, California, where the Mexican food was supposed to so amazing, blah blah blah.

"Hey."

Nell looked up as she scooped refried beans onto her tortillas. It was Cash.

"Hi!" She smiled at him. "How was your morning?"

"Pretty good. Most of my crew is here." He gestured to the entire room. Nell looked around but she was very absorbed in not dropping her food.

"Cool."

"Where are you siting?" Cash asked.

"Ummm..." There. She had her salad dressing drizzled just perfectly over her salad. She looked up. The other lifeguards were sitting all together at a table. Much as she wanted to sit with Cash, she thought she should go hang out with them some more. It was just the beginning of the summer, after all. She had weeks to get to know this kid. "Over there, I think. That's my team."

Cash followed her gaze. He grinned. "Aw, Ms. Sybil is back! I gotta say hi." He strode away, leaving Nell in the dust. So much for sticking to teams.

She balanced her tray carefully. More people around meant more chances for a crash and spill. As she set it on the table, Cash was giving Sybil a big hug, like she was family.

"It's good to see you, Cashel. My, but did you grow a foot?"

He shrugged.

"How come you're not working for me this summer?" Sybil scolded.

He shrugged again. "I'll help out when you need me."

She patted him on the shoulder. "A renaissance man. Can go anywhere, do anything."

Nell sat in her chair next to Izzy, who had stood up to get her turn at Cash. Nell made eye contact with Seth. She realized they were both the newbies. The outsiders. She scooted her chair round to be next to him.

"So, what's your deal?" she said.

He raised his eyebrows. "You're not about small talk. I like that."

She windmilled her hand at him, the universal gesture for hurry up.

"I have no connection to this camp," he said. "But I lifeguarded in the city for the public pools, at my college, and...that's how I qualified for this job." Seth shrugged. "That's my deal."

Nell listened as she chewed and swallowed. "Okay. So is this like a thing you're going to do until you use that business degree?"

"I believe I am doing it as we speak."

Nell frowned. "Doing what?"

"The thing I am doing. I am always doing a thing. We all are."

She let that sink in, which she considered very respectful of herself, before rolling her eyes and saying, "Whatever."

Seth took a bite of his taco.

"I mean," Nell said, "what are you going to do after the season is over? Go back to lifeguarding in the city? Or, like...I don't know...get a real job?"

"I'm going to use the money I save this summer to travel south into Mexico and beyond. My mother is from El Salvador, so I might check it out. Visit some relatives."