The Summer of Our Discontent by Robin Alexander Page A

together well away from everyone else. “Are they going Parent Tr —”
    “Don’t say it.” Rachel held up a hand. “That movie ends with the two sisters as best friends and living together. You and I will never live together, and when the buses pull out of here, you’ll be tied to a log that will be rolling down the hill toward the lake.”
    Faith turned in her chair, giving Rachel her full attention. “You know you turn me on now when you talk like that.”
    Rachel stared at her expressionless. “You’re one sick puppy.”
    “Distemper is what they tell me.” She looked back at Keely and her group. “Really, do they hate us?”
    “Just you. I sit with them all the time.”
    Faith looked taken aback. “For real?”
    “No, dumbass. They whine about their husbands and trade recipes. I’d rather have my toenails ripped off than listen to that.”
    “Oh, yeah, that’d be entertaining for like half a second. Let’s play a game. Which one of them do you think would be the most likely to jump the fence?”
    Rachel stared at Faith pointedly. “Do not seduce any of the chaperones, though I know your specialty is flipping straight women. I don’t want to hear monkey sex noises coming out of your cabin. That’s just ew .”
    “Why does everyone think I pursue straight women?”
    “Avery Niles,” Rachel said with a grin.
    Faith looked aghast. “That’s a misconception. I never slept with her. She came on to me at a party, trying to make her ex jealous. He left with another woman, Avery got smashed, cried on my shoulder, and threw up on my shoes. That’s the extent of it.” She narrowed her eyes. “Oh, but you’re one to talk. Lisa Barlow over there, you bagged her before she got married.”
    Rachel’s face colored as she looked away.
    “Ha! It is true. That’s a bad sign, Rachel. You flipped her the other way. You must suck in bed and not in the good way.”
    “You know, I think I liked it more when we didn’t talk. You really are annoying.”
    “And you have no sense of humor.”
    Rachel glared at her. “I have a great sense of humor. You’re just not that funny.”
    Faith huffed. “Alvin thinks I’m a riot.”
    “Alvin ate glue in school.”
    “Oh, yeah, he did.” Faith shivered in revulsion. “We were gonna assemble a dive rescue team once because there’s so much water around us. Captain Duke agreed and sent four of us to dive training. We go through the whole class, and Alvin had a bad hangover on the day we did our checkout dive. I was unfortunately his partner. We submerged twenty-five feet down to this platform where we had to take off our masks and breath only through the respirator until we got the masks back on and purged. Do you how hard it is to breathe not using your nose?”
    Rachel rubbed her arms. “Makes me claustrophobic just thinking about it.”
    Faith nodded. “We get our masks back on and purged and Alvin throws up. The instructor grabs Alvin’s respirator and starts pushing the purge valve as he tries to keep Alvin on the platform. They’re thrashing around, and my mask gets knocked off again. I looked like Velma on Scooby-Doo groping all over the platform for it while those two did the tango.”
    Rachel grinned. “Did you get your certification?”
    “Yeah, but the search and rescue team never came to fruition, not enough in the budget.” Faith shrugged. “I was kind of relieved in a way, it’s rarely ever rescue just search. I’ve heard some horror stories. Anyway, do you want to know what I found in my mask when I got it back on?”
    “Oh, my God, please don’t tell me.” Rachel shivered then. “I just know it’s gonna be pepperoni.”
    “No, better. The place Alvin went drinking put little medallions on the sides of the glasses about the size of a quarter. Apparently, Alvin was so smashed he swallowed one and didn’t realize it. I found a treasure on my first dive, a plastic doubloon, circa two thousand four in my mask.”
    “I guess glue paled