The Girl at Camp Green Lake

Untitled Part 1

"Come on!" I whispered to Ben, who was closest to me. He laughed and followed after me, the rest of the boys trailing after us, single file. We snuck past the front window and walked into the candy shop. I stood as I entered but the rest of them went down on their hands and knees and crawled past the checkout counter, sneaking into the storage room.

I ignored them as if the weren't there and smiled exuberantly at the clerk, and manager, Mr. Lewis. "Good morning!" I greeted him brightly. Mr. Lewis gave me a surprised smile and waved his hand around the empty room. With a jolt, I realized that if there had been anyone shopping there that day, our cover would have been blown. We were extremely lucky it was such a nice day. Most people were swimming or getting ice cream from the Scoops N' Smiles shop down a block.

Mr. Lewis grined back at me fondly and asked,  "What are you doing in here, Miss Barlow? I thought you was on a diet anyway."

I laughed airily, all the while grumbling internally at how rude it was of him to talk about someone's diet like that. which was ridiculous, because her being on a diet was just what she told people when she didn't want to eat something repulsive. "Oh, don't worry, I am." I lied. "I just wanted to say hi. I noticed you don't get a lot of visitors."

He looked surprised at me. "Well, aren't you a dear! No, I don't get many visitors on a day like this, most go for the ice cream shop across the street. It is nice weather though, isn't it?"

"Oh, yes, quite wonderful indeed, Mr. Lewis. In fact, I'm wondering why you're here, instead of just closing the shop for the day."

I flinch at how stupid I sound. The man considers this for a moment, and then has an idea. "I know, why don't I go and do just that, while you take care of the shop for me! I can give you half the money, if you make any." he exclaimed. I smiled as if this was the best idea ever, like I had always wanted to run a candy shop and receive only half of the income in return. 

"That's an amazing idea!" I said, not believing he was actually doing this. Mr. Lewis tossed me the keys a lemon drop, then skipped out of the store like a little kid who was going to get ice cream.

I held the keys out in front of me to examine as my smile melted into a smirk. The boys emerged from the storage room with bags upon bags of candy in their arms. 

"You hold one," Squints tells at me. He threw me one of his bags. I caught it, threw it over my shoulder, and pulled a piece of paper out of my skirt's pocket. It was a letter with a five doller bill inside of it. In no way did that small amount of money add up to the cost of how much all the candy we had taken was, but I wanted it to look reassuring. I wasn't about to be caught stealing from a candy store. 

Dear Mr. Lewis,

I had such a wonderful time keeping the store for you,

but not many people came to buy candy. 

This is all the money I got. 

I don't need any.

Sincerely, Jadice Barlow.

I giggled. He had no idea. And I prayed to the gods that he never would. Something like this could ruin my reputation at school. Or make it, I guessed, but I wasn't about to take the risk.

I turned around and headed for the door. Locking the door behind me, I lugged the bag of candy over my shoulder and walked down the alleyway that led to Kenny Denunezas's house. In his yard, we stood in Kenny's old wood shed that he and his sister used to use as a playhouse.

Before my time, it had just been a tool shed. But when I stumbled upon the Lot and became friends with them, I had decided that we needed a secret base. And since the Lot wasn't such a secret anymore, we had chosen the old shed in Kenny's yard. Inside of it, there were lots of spiders, a small cooler, and a couple of benches. Inside of the benches though, were little cubbies that would only be noticed by an incredibly observant person.