The Trouble Is

Chapter 18: Interlocking Pieces

I don't really know who organizes things at the beach, but somehow things get done. People bring bags of chips and those giant Twizzler containers from Costco to pass around. Someone's always running by the Dollar Store to get shaving cream, paint, or balloons. There's a white board outside the couples tent where you can leave messages that will reach people who are not really the kind of friends you would text. This allows everyone to be informed of group events like water balloon fights or cookouts. It's more fun if everyone participates, so the white board is an easy way to let people know to text their friends.

Tonight is s'mores night. Boys bring grahams, girls bring chocolates. Everyone brings marshmallows because they have such a high loss ratio due to rapid melting and the fact that s'mores night usually ends in a marshmallow fight. We are all going together tonight in East's truck—Katie, East, and me. Katie ordered the floats for us on Amazon, and I ran into the grocery store for mallows on the way to the lake. We have Sonic hot dogs and Route 44 drinks.

There is already a fire pit in full swing and the music is blasting. We scarf down our food and get busy blowing up the new floaties. They are not your usual rectangle of plastic. Some of the girls have giant swans, and one girl has a pelican. The rest of us all of have these square-ish floaties that look like puzzle pieces, each with a hole in the middle. It doesn't take long for us to get in the water and start fitting the pieces together. The result is one long, winding interlocked set of floaties. A few people keep adjusting their connections, one group breaks off, and the remaining keep pulling tighter together into something that looks like one of those images of molecular structures from science class.

It's not very deep where we are floating, and the lake is still. Every now and then, some freshman wannabes bring us warm s'mores, and we each take a bite and pass them on. I lie there, in between East and Katie, surrounded by so many classmates. I think about how summer changes everything. During the school year, we are all in our own little worlds, with our own little groups. If popular movies are at all reflective of the world, it's been that way forever.

I guess the only part that evolves is the language we use to label each other. But trust me, the geeks don't hang with the football team, and choir members don't tend to date the track stars. It's not that everyone hates each other or doesn't understand other interests; . So if you are around athletes all day at school, that tends to be the group you hang out with in the summer. If you are in the band, it's the same thing—you hang out with the band kids.

And just as the concept of time tends to dissolve in the summer, so do a few of the lines between us all.