Free Fearless by Katy Grant Page A

planned everything. At least that was something. I’d just panicked at the thought of actually being in the skit. But I could’ve done it. Maybe I would’ve been nervous. Maybe I wouldn’t have been able to say all my lines very well.
    But then, who knows? Maybe everything would’ve gone just fine. Maybe I would’ve even been good at it.
    It was almost time for lights out, but I took
Our Town
off my shelf. I flipped to the middle of the book where the blue piece of paper was hidden inside.
    I took it out and looked at it. It was folded into quarters. The whole time I’d been at camp, I hadn’tonce unfolded it to look at what it said. I didn’t need to. I’d read this piece of paper so many times, I had all the words memorized.
    Why did I even pick up this paper in the first place? Was I ever going to need it? Probably not.
    I started to unfold the paper to read it one more time. But then I stopped myself. Instead of reading it, I stuck the paper back inside my book before I put it away on the shelf.

Saturday, June 21
    â€œAre you excited about seeing your boyfriend?” Molly asked me, raising her voice so I could hear her over the sound of the music playing in the background.
    â€œHe is not my boyfriend!” I snapped, but that only made her laugh.
    We had just walked inside Camp Crockett’s dining hall for the first dance of the summer. It was a major deal. We’d all spent the whole afternoon waiting in long lines for the showers, racing around trying to find hair dryers, borrowing clothes from each other, and getting dressed in something besides the T-shirts and shorts we’d been wearing all week. Everyone always went slightly crazy on the day of a dance. And now here we all were.
    The Camp Crockett boys were crammed together on one side of the dining hall, and all of us Pine Havengirls were in a huge cluster by the doors. So far the two separate groups hadn’t blended together at all.
    Molly had been teasing me all day about seeing Ethan Hurley again. Last summer, we’d danced together at both dances.
    He’d even written me. Twice. Once at camp, between the first and second dance. And then about a week after camp ended, he’d sent me an e-mail. I e-mailed him back, but then he never replied. So of course I couldn’t write him again either.
    Even though I kept acting to Molly like it was no big deal, I’d still been thinking about Ethan all day. What would our reunion be like after not seeing each other for a whole year?
    Reunions were always movie moments. We’d be standing in the dining hall with crowds of people all around us, and there’d be lots of noise from the music. But the whole time, I’d be looking at all the faces in the crowd, trying to see
his
face.
    That’s when I would see him. He’d be looking around, straining to see over all the people in the crowd. Then his eyes would meet mine, and his face would break into a smile. I would smile back, but there would still be about a hundred people between us.
    With a frustrated look, Ethan would glance at thecrowd in his way. We would both be pushing through the hordes of people, but it would take us a long time to get through them. The whole time, we’d keep our eyes on each other—until finally we’d meet in the middle.
    â€œHi, Jordan. I was hoping I’d see you here.”
    â€œHi, Ethan. I was looking for you, too.”
    I kept telling Molly there was a good chance Ethan didn’t even come back to Camp Crockett this year. But I couldn’t stop looking through the crowd of boys for him. He had blond hair, and he was on the short side, about Molly’s height. But he was really cute, and we’d had a good time last year at both dances.
    â€œThere’s a good chance he did come back,” Molly was saying.
    â€œMaybe. Maybe not,” I told her.
    â€œNo, I see him. He’s wearing a green shirt.”
    Ethan was talking