Page 62 of Bring me Back

I shrugged. “You seemed like you needed an anchor,” I explained no further, afraid to say something else and make him remember the whole ordeal again.

He drew a breath. “You’re incredible.”

I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn’t see it because my face was still on his chest. But as usual, he knew me enough. His finger reached down my chin and he tipped my head up, nudging my nose with his.

“Do you have any idea how lost I’ve been? How much I needed… an anchor?”

I frowned, my hand touching his jaw. I didn’t know he was unhappy.

“And you just needed to exist,” he kept saying. “And I’m full of life again.”

I held my breath, afraid if I moved I was going to start crying or something just as embarrassing. Was it bad that I liked he was lost too? It made me feel less broken. It made me wish we could heal together. I threw my arms around his neck, hugging him for dear life and hoping he could understand all the words I wasn’t saying.

And my bubble of happiness was destroyed a second later, when I opened my eyes and caught Ryan watching us through the rear-view mirror.

“Welcome to Camp Nightfall! I’m Pandora, your guide and teacher.”

A round of applause, some more enthusiastically than others. But I was pretty impressed by Pandora. Wasn’t Pandora a drag queen’s name? Jewelry brand? Or that girl with the box? Either way, the Pandora in front of me carried the name flawlessly. She looked impossibly ethereal and magical, with a chain of daisies on top of her curly blond hair and a long lacy dress. Her voice had an actor’s quality to it. She enunciated each syllable, it reached all sides of the food hall.

Five schools were selected to be part of the camp, which meant around seventy people—kids and staff—listened carefully to Pandora’s words. In the four days we were staying at Camp Nightfall, the schedule was handled religiously. Dan handed me a calendar with breakfast, lunch and dinner times, plus the exclusive time on the main stage being coached by Pandora herself.

Apart from that, the kitchen was opened for snacks throughout the day, and the teachers were required to rehearse separately with their school to work on Pandora’s feedback.

A couple of hours a day was left for leisure, which meant, of course, to bring them to one of many hot springs since the kids weren’t allowed to go without adult supervision.

It was only four days, but I had ten pages of instructions in my hands.

Ten pages with times of meals, instructions to the cabins and the hot springs, name of the other teachers working with Pandora and the name of the schools and the number of each teacher responsible.

It was a lot.

I wasn’t adult enough to supervise teenagers in a hot spring. I doubted anyone was. And my suspicions showed correctly when I looked to my side at Daniel and saw the grimace on his face.

“We’ll call Helen and have a talk about the program,” Daniel whispered to me.

I nodded numbly. Pandora kept talking about the rules and what was expected from the groups. I hoped a few kids were interested in theater because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Pandora talked about stage coordinators, voice coaches and everything they could imagine.

After her speech, she wished them all to break a leg. Everyone clapped again, and we were dismissed from the food hall. Dan jumped into action, passing along the camp’s map to all our kids.

“Girls with Ms. Delos Santos in cabin seven, boys with me in cabin five.” Everyone shuffled to stand up and follow each of us. “Meet you back here in thirty for breakfast, Hallie?”

I bobbed my head feeling just a little overwhelmed. As the girls waited for me to move, I took it as a sign and led the way, only checking the map once until I found cabin seven.

Our luggage waited in front of the door with a huge padlock. I unlocked the door with the key that came with my welcome pack and let the girls go in first. It was only later when I thought maybe I should be the one to go first to check if it was safe of bears or axe murders.

The room had a single bed to the side and four bunk beds, the perfect size for us. We had seven girls, four from the main cast; Carmen who played Titania, Anna as Hyppolita, Nova as Helena and Delilah as Hermia. The other three played Titania’s fairies. They all decided between them for the bunk beds, so I took the single bed and dragged my two huge bags with me.

I took the biggest suitcase, the one I dumped all my craft supplies in, and decided to sort through that first. Opening the zipper with care while the suitcase laid on my bed, I took one thing after the order, trying to find calm in the chaos. When an annoying piece of wire refused to come out without spilling most of the bag’s contents, someone called my name.

“Ms. Delos Santos? Do you want help?” Nova’s eyes darted from me to the mess in my bag.

“I put it all in a rush when Mrs. Carr called this morning,” I explained, tugging the wire. “It’s all tangled now.”

“My mom has a trick to unravel Christmas lights…” Carmen interrupted from the other side of the cabin.

She reached for my suitcase and started the wire with one hand, using the other to block the stuff tangled. Nova and I worked on her instructions, pushing, pulling, and unraveling. Titania’s flowers, the leaves for Hermia’s and Helena’s dresses, it all fell on top of my bed and floor, and I tried my best not to cringe because the girls were trying to help.

We freed the wire, and I worked on a bundle in my hands so it wouldn’t be a problem anymore. Nova caught one of the flowers between her fingers and looked closely.

---