When Sally tells her that Elise is coming back, Maxine slaps her.
It's an instinct, really, and she's probably been hanging around with Allison too long. Sally had simply walked in the morning before camp started and said casually: "Maxine, do you remember Elise Miller?"
Of course she remembers Elise. Elise was the corner that completed their triangle for so many summers. Elise was the calm to her and Allison's mania. Elise was their best friend, before she left camp at the end of her second summer as a CIT and was never heard from again. But Max doesn't say any of this. Instead, she swallows and says casually: "Yeah, 'course I do. Why?"
"Well," Sally pauses for dramatic effect. "She's coming to work with us this summer!" She's positively beaming. Max's jaw drops open, and without thinking, she slaps Sally across the face.
For her part, Sally barely even blinks. She's used to Max having somewhat limited impulse control.
"Oh my god, Sally, I'm so sorry!" Max blurts, feeling stupider by the second. This is Sally, after all, the woman who is almost certainly more important to her than her own mother. And she just slapped her! Max half-expects to be sent to her room like a disobedient child.
"It's fine." Sally waves a hand through the air. "It's true, though! I ran into her in the city yesterday morning and last night she called to tell me she wanted to come aboard! Multiple times, actually. I think she was excited." Max raises her eyebrows at this. Elise generally wasn't the type of person to get overexcited about things. Her job was always to ground Max and Allison when they got too wild. But who knows? Maybe eight years away have changed her.
After Sally breaks the news, Max naturally runs straight to Allison. She skids into the kitchen and just barely manages to avoid crashing into Allison, who is wielding a very large and scary-looking chopping knife.
"You being chased by a bear again?" Allison asks, without looking up. Maxine glares at her back.
"No, and that was one time and it wasn't funny!"
"What, you mean the time Jared paid off one of his bunkmates to chase you around camp in a bear suit? It was hilarious!" It's an old, familiar argument, but one that Max doesn't have the patience for right now. She gets straight to the point.
"Guess who's coming to work at camp this summer?"
"Bigfoot?" Allison guesses, still intent on her chopping.
"No! Elise!"
That gets Allison's attention; her eyes go wide and she nearly drops the knife. "Elise Miller? Our Elise? Blonde hair, big boobs Elise?"
"That's the one." Carefully, Allison sets the knife down and turns around, leaning against the counter. She looks Maxine up and down.
"You're joking. You're kidding, and this is revenge for me throwing your underwear into the lake last week while you were leading orientation."
"You did what now?" Maxine sputters. "You know what, never mind, I'll get my revenge on you for that later. Point is, I'm serious. Elise is coming back to camp!" Allison lets out a low whistle.
"Wow, you are serious. You know what this means, right?"
"The three of us can eat Fibernuts together now?"
"Well, yeah! The triangle's back together again!"
"Obviously! You know, Elise was always kind of the right angle in our triangle. So straight laced."
"Oh, you're so obtuse."
"Aww, Allison!"
"Come on, you walked right into that one. You've been teaching fourth grade too long if you're thinking about angles during the summer." And off they went, down the hill, happily making plans and never dreaming of the summer that would lie ahead.