Mae’s face tightened.
“I said they kept doing it.”
The director looked at Leah.
“You told me this was the first incident.”
Leah crossed her arms. “I said this was the first serious incident.”
Nora finally reached for the journal.
The cover had been marked with black pen. Someone had written LAKE RAT across the front and drawn arrows toward a dark water stain left from the canoe accident.
Her stomach dropped.
She opened the folded pages.
Several entries had been bent inward, the ones where she had written about the cabin girls checking clothing labels and whispering about her borrowed sweatshirt.
The note between the pages was written in different colors of ink.
GO HOME IF YOU CAN’T TAKE A JOKE.
Underneath, smaller letters added: OR STOP ACTING POOR.
Nora stared at the words.
For the first time all evening, she stopped wondering whether she had exaggerated anything.
The humiliation was sitting in her hands.
Leah looked at the note and said, “I didn’t know about that.”
Mae turned toward her.
“I told you they took the journal.”
“You said it was missing.”
“Because Brynn was standing there.”
The nurse stepped closer to Nora.
“Do you want me to keep that somewhere safe for tonight?”
Nora closed the journal.
“No.”
Her voice surprised her.
She held it tighter against the blanket.
It was damaged, but it was hers.
The director asked Leah to wait in the infirmary office while he called another counselor to supervise the cabin. Leah protested that she was being treated as if she had done something wrong.
The director looked at Nora, then at Mae’s bare feet.
