Good intentions

Prologue

- God!

- Whispers, do not say the name of our Lord in vain.

Clinging to the window sill, Edalyn Clawthorne was holding on solely because of the irresistible desire to see Raine Whispers. She needed it physically, especially on Parents' Day, when the summer idyll was fading under the pressure of the interventionists' hopes that their children are turning into respectable Christians thanks to the tireless prayers of the personnel of the Blessed Islands camp. At dawn the green color did not soak back into the pines and maples growing on the lakeland, the white sun was blinding her, and she felt heartburn from the carrot cake. Only one person could cure the pain of the worst day of vacation, but for some reason they were not in the stands of the stadium.

 - Don't you have a super-important game right now? – having come to her senses, Raine put down the guitar and came up to the window to drag the guest inside the cottage before she fell down.

- Exactly! Flag football final, and you're hiding here! What the hell? - one Eda's leg was dangling inside the narrow long room, with bulky bunk beds all over it, and the other was lingering in the fresh air.

- You will become a star without my participation, - Whispers chuckled, nervously smoothing her short hair.

- What if I won't? - at the age of seventeen the girl was sweating more than her deodorant could withstand, so she used the perfumes of all the roommates in the Owl House, but it still didn't help when she saw Rain, even from afar. On her yellow T-shirt with the emblem of the camp her confessions, which Clawthorne hoped to express in a more romantic way, were growing by leaps and bounds, . 

- Go! Everyone is definitely looking for you!

- Only with you.

Through thick glasses lenses Raine saw Edalyn's persistence in every part of her - in her huge mane of red tousled hair, a snub nose, golden brown eyes, scratched knees and a frank blush. It seemed that nothing could satisfy Clawthorne 's hunger. She couldn't stop moving even for a second. But right now, the girl froze, holding her breath.

- Sorry, Eda. It's not about you, - the creaky voice from the teenager's lips sounded like a stretched ship's rope, - I just don't want to be around "them". Understand?

The guest of the cottage nodded absently.

- Then see you at dinner?

- Well, if you win, then so be it, - to see the bully's smile she could tolerate sitting at the same table with her, among arrogant students of Hexside Prep and their even more insufferable parents.

Fishing out her friend's sweater from the box, Raine threw it into the hands of the future champion of the Blessed Isles.

- You'll need it. The evening is going to be chilly.

- Come on, keep it, - grumbled the star of flag football. A little carelessness and a slice of a strange summer will be a keepsake for Whispers. She couldn't offer anything equivalent to guitar lessons, just a bit of prickly warmth.

- Eda, wait! - Raine's ears flared, almost like their red camp shirt. A cross was flaunting on her chest, turning a teenager into a crusader knight, and two small steps to Clawthorne - into a military campaign, which was doomed to failure. In any case. In any circumstances. Meeting people in a place like this was not going to bode well. Families sent their children to the Islands to get the perfect version of them back at the end of August. In the middle of their hoildays, Rain discovered that they hadn't even come close to becoming what Mr. and Mrs. Whispers dreamed of. And every minute with the counselors' red-haired problem moved her away from the goal, led into dense forests, instilled a dangerous feeling, as if everything was already fine with them. It didn't matter for Edalyn whether the teenager was male or female, she liked her anyway. To please relatives, she had to be anyone, but not herself. 

Two steps and Whispers' hands touched the girl's sun-warmed face, who was ready to slip away into the cheering crowd somewhere beyond the giant pines.

- Will you come to the lake to swim at night?

- I promise, - Clawthorne's lips vowed before kissing Raine for the first time. There were still four weeks ahead together in lake paradise. And in order not to lose a second, Eda needed to hurry. She jumped off the windowsill and rushed to the stadium. A sultry wind dug into the skin, but all that she felt was Whispers' gaze following her to the edge of the path. Eda was running as if she was about to fly. Or maybe she was already hovering over the too hard and hot ground. Over wooden cottages and tiny silhouettes of counselors who were called to praise piety. 

The creak of low branches threw the girl down. Instantly forgetting that the game will start any minute, Edalyn followed the barely audible steps of a kid into the undergrowth. The six-year-old didn't stand a chance.

- Oh, you little brat! What did you see? Speak up! Come on!

Hunter's face twisted under the pressure of his angry aunt. A nasty icicle of saliva was hanging over him. A little more and it will flop right between his eyebrows.

- AAAAAAAA!

The skinny boy's mouth was filled with dry leaves as he screamed. Eda's contemptuous spit ran down his forehead to straw hair.

- Quiet! Or I'll throw you in the middle of the lake, got it?

- Khpf! I'll tell my mom everything! - the child's attempts to escape only made the bully laugh, - You were making out with this freak!

Clawthorne scooped up a handful of dirt and smudged it across her nephew's cheeks. His birth was a revelation for her - she hated children. Even her own childhood became a humiliating punishment for the girl. The offspring of her older sister and saint Wittebane gave her the world, where the sound of children's laughter nearby is the worst thing that can happen to a person. Having put the boy on her shoulder, Eda dragged the kicking child to the boat shed. It was so convenient to lock uncooperative assholes there.

- Edalyn! Hunter!

Lily's voice behind made the red-haired athlete throw the captive into the grass. He immediately scurried to his mother.

- Eda kissed Whispers!

- Why the hell is your kid watching the dorms? Pervert! - snapped the youngest of the Clawthorne sisters, so much so that she frightened nephew again.

- You both, shut up! - twenty-seven-year-old woman in a white uniform T-shirt tucked into a long skirt, rubbed her eyes under glasses, enjoying a moment of calm, - I don't even want to know what you were going to do with my son, Edalyn.

- She was going to drown me in the lake! - the boy squealed.

- Seriously? Is that what you told him? After what happened to his father? 

The girl rolled her eyes in exasperation. She hoped that her sister would notice this and become even more angry. Unable to bear the long list of demands from the Lord or wife, Hunter's daddy decided to go to the better world before his time. He did this with inimitable pomp - entered the refreshing waters of the lake and did not come out. If vacationers found out about this, then more than half would not even look towards the beach. And their parents would not empty their wallets to send their offspring to the last refuge of a self killer.

- Immediately go to the stadium. Everyone is waiting only for you, - the elder Clawthorne exhaled bitterly.

- What about the punishment? – in unison exclaimed nephew and aunt.

- Mom and dad are already in the stands. They drove five hours to see you.

Edalyn took off, not wanting to look at Lily's collection of dramatic faces anymore, but she could not restrain herself and on the move showed the boy the middle finger. Hunter said goodbye to her in exactly the same way. He was ready to receive a scolding, if only not to give the "last word" to the bully. Kneeling down, the woman hugged her son tightly.

- Can you promise me something, owlet?

- Mm? - the child slightly pulled away from his mother, it was still difficult to get used to her jet black hair, - Isn't it hard?

- I know how angry you are with aunt Eda. She can be annoying sometimes, right? But you mustn't tell uncle Belos what you saw today. Nobody can know about it. Okay?