At breakfast, she sat with her mother and Mae at a side table.
Mae had found shoes.
Neither girl knew what to talk about at first.
Then Mae complained about powdered eggs.
Nora laughed.
The laugh felt like a test of whether ordinary things were still allowed to happen.
They were.
After breakfast, the director showed Nora a different cabin with two empty bunks and a counselor named Tessa who had been at camp for four summers. He did not describe it as the “nice cabin” or promise there would be no problems.
He explained who slept there, where Nora could keep wet gear, how to find a counselor at night, and what to do if she felt unsafe.
Then he asked if she wanted to move in.
Nora looked at her mother.
Her mother said nothing.
That silence was an answer too: the choice was Nora’s.
“I want to try one night.”
The director nodded.
Her mother stayed at a motel nearby.
Not because Nora needed to prove independence, but because leaving camp and staying camp no longer had to be opposite choices made all at once.
That afternoon, Nora went to the climbing wall.
Mae came with her.
The harness fit.
Nora almost laughed at how much energy she had spent believing Brynn’s comment mattered.
Halfway up, her hands began to shake.
The instructor asked if she wanted to come down.
Nora looked at the ground.
“Yes.”
The rope lowered her carefully.
At the bottom, she expected disappointment.
The instructor only said, “Good call. Want to try again later?”
Maybe.
That word became one of Nora’s favorite words for the rest of camp.
