Free Before Wings by Beth Goobie Page B

knew Robin Hood wore nail polish.”
    Aunt Erin cracked a slow smile and rocked once. Head back, she took a deep breath and her face relaxed. “Maybe I was too hasty,” she said. “You find Darcie and tell her to come talk to me.”
    “You won’t fire her?”
    “We’ll work things out.” Aunt Erin’s eyes had taken on a whole different shade of pale blue. The ice was melting.
    “THANKS!” Adrien dumped the till and raced to the door.
    “Oh, and Adrien,” called Aunt Erin.
    “What?” asked Adrien, turning back.
    “You give life a second chance too,” said Aunt Erin.

six
    Adrien wandered through the wooded area surrounding the cabins set aside for the older girls. She wanted to go down by the lake, but she could see Connor and a few others ignoring the cloud cover and getting into canoes for a paddle before supper. She was supposed to be working in Tuck’n Tack, but she couldn’t get at the key or the till because Darcie was in the office talking to Aunt Erin. A DO NOT DISTURB sign had been posted on the door.
    The mayflies were definitely dying off. It was the last Friday in June and the ground was littered with their brown withered bodies. She pulled seven live ones off her shirt and watched them flutter away. At the start of Training Session, it would have been twenty-five. In just over a week, theywould all be gone.
    Voices and laughter were coming from the cabin that was called Prairie Sky. Adrien stopped. These cabins were supposed to be empty until Sunday when the campers arrived, but as she listened, another peal of laughter floated out of a window. Prairie Sky was closest to the lake, the only cabin in this section that she had never stayed in. Still, she knew what it would look like. Each cabin held five bunk beds and several dressers. She had always grabbed a top bunk and spent her week sleeping mid-air, drifting on the ebb and flow of the other girls’ breathing.
    The windows were open, airing the place out. Standing on tiptoe, she could just see in. At first there was nothing, just the quiet green light filtering through the trees. Then she glimpsed something in a corner—someone turning, part of her visible, but transparent. It was the girl from the photograph, the one with the beaked nose and the wide laughing mouth. She was laughing now, her voice clear, and then she spoke.
    “What would Erin do if she knew we were spying on the guys’ cabins?”
    “She’d probably want to come along.” A second girl came into view, also transparent but recognizable with her long red ponytail, tube top and shorts—another of the five girls grouped close to Aunt Erin. “Especially if we picked Spruce Hollow. Sure wish we had Peter Pecker for our counselor. Think he could wear tighter swim trunks?”
    “Not and still get into them.” This voice belonged to a girl sitting on a top bunk. All Adrien could see of her were vague swinging legs.
    “You think Erin will get into them?” asked the first girl.
    There was another peal of laughter.
    “She’s sure been watching him,” said a fourth voice, out of Adrien’s line of sight. “I was almost drowning at swim class yesterday, and she didn’t even notice.”
    “We should set them up.” Arms outstretched, the first girl spun a thoughtful pirouette. “Then spy on them. I’d give them twenty minutes to complete the dirty deed.”
    “You only need three.” Another girl walked into view. The last of the photograph’s laughing group of five, she had short blond-brown hair with obvious highlights, and was pulling on a swimsuit, careless of who watched.
    “You only need three, Nat,” said the first girl, stopping her pirouette. “Most people do more than grunt and jump each other, you know. Erin would want time to ... ease into it.”
    Giggles erupted. The girl with the swinging legs fell backwards, kicking her legs with glee.
    “How would you know?” asked Nat, now fully dressed and fluffing her hair. “I’m the only one here who’s done