They were all nervous when they camped out on this island last summer - the woods, the scorched remains of the Bayards' old house, the creepy sounds and shadows as night fell. Kristy smiles as she clambers out of the boat onto the sandy shore, remembering how they'd huddled together here last year, pretending to be brave while they watched Sam drive the boat back to the mainland after he dropped them off. Dawn grins at herself as she unrolls her sleeping bag beside the campfire, remembering how last year, she shot awake at two in the morning, screaming that she'd seen a ghost.
This year, the Baby-Sitters don't have to pretend to be brave. Except for Mal and Jessi, they're all fourteen now, high-schoolers. They pick out a spot for their campsite between the shore and the forest and set up with the ease of experience, talking excitedly about roasting marshmallows over the fire and how great it is to be back at Shadow Lake.
Claudia pauses from unpacking her junk food and turns to Abby, the only one of them who wasn't on the last camping trip. "The Bayards' old house is deep in those woods," she says, pointing to the trees. Last summer, when she had been nervous to even set foot in those woods, suddenly feels much longer than just one year ago. "We'll show it to you later. Only the walls are still standing, and they're all scorched and stuff."
"Remember how last summer," Kristy asks, laughing, "Claudia almost brought her makeup with her, and Stacey wanted to bring her purse?"
"Only because I thought Sam would snoop through it if I left it in the cabin," Stacey reminds her. "Besides, I brought along something better this year." Her tone gets everyone's attention. As they all watch, she sets her knapsack down in the shade, reaches inside, and pulls out... a can of beer.
"Stacey McGill!" Mary Anne gasps, shocked. "Where did you get that?"
"If you snuck that out of my mom and Watson's pack - " Kristy begins.
"I didn't," Stacey assures her. "Calm down, nobody will ever know it's missing, I promise." She pauses and smiles deviously. "I got some tips on hiding it from someone who's an old pro at hiding stuff."
Seven pairs of eyes shoot straight to Claudia, who grins sheepishly. Mary Anne looks ready to faint. "You were in on this too, Claudia?" she asks.
"Well, we are on vacation," Claudia says. "I just thought we'd try being a little... adventurous. Stacey heard from Sam and Charlie that lots of kids sneak drinks on the lake."
Mallory and Jessi exchange nervous glances with each other, remembering how last year, just camping out on this island had been more than enough adventure for all of them.
"But we aren't just any kids," Kristy argues, crossing her arms. "We're the baby-sitters. We have a duty to our clients to act responsibly at all times. If we engage in underage drinking, it would be like encouraging the children we sit for to..." But then she notices the other club members rolling their eyes, and when she trails off, they all giggle. Even here, on a deserted island, Kristy can't fully get out of club-president mode.
"Nobody's talking about underage drinking, Kristy," Stacey assures her. "We'll each just have one one sip, just one little sip for whoever wants to try it, and then we'll pour the rest of it out into the lake, okay? Nobody's going to, like, get drunk or anything, I swear on the club."
Mary Anne still looks uncertain, but Kristy nods. That evening, as they're all sitting around the campfire, Stacey pops open the beer can, and Kristy surprises everyone when she offers to take the first sip. Stacey says, "It's all yours, Madame President," and passes the can to her. They all watch - Mary Anne with bugged-out eyes - as she drinks.
"Well, how was it?" Mallory asks, after she swallows and sets the can down on the sand.
Kristy hesitates, then mutters, "Just like I remember."
"Like you remember?" Abby repeats. "You mean, you've had beer before?"
Kristy shrugs and looks away. "My dad was always drinking beer," and they know that she isn't talking about Watson, the kind and loving stepfather, but about her real dad, the one that she never talks about anymore and nobody dares to ask about. "He used to give me sips of it." She pulls a few blades of grass out of the sand and tears them up into little pieces.
He shouldn't have done that, Mary Anne almost says, but she bites back the words. Kristy's dad did a lot of things that he shouldn't have.
The beer can is passed around their circle. Claudia exclaims, "Oh my lord, I can't believe we're actually doing this!" and Dawn adds, "This is real beer. I mean, this is really real." At least four of them say, "Remember, this never leaves the island." Mary Anne raises the can to her lips, hesitates, and lowers several times before actually swallowing a tiny amount. Eventually, except for Mallory and Jessi, they each drink a small sip of beer. But none of them like the taste - most of them make faces afterwards, and Abby gags and says, "Yuck!" - so they scramble to the shoreline and pour it out into the moonlit waters of the lake.
"I guess beer is just one more thing adults like that I don't get," Claudia declares, as she fills the can with water and watches it sink into the darkness of Shadow Lake.
"Well, I brought something special along for this camp-out, too," Dawn announces, as they're all walking back to their sleeping bags. "I thought up this really good ghost story to tell. I wanted to wait until late to tell it, so it'll be scarier."
A few of the other girls smirk, remembering how last summer, Dawn, their ghost-story enthusiast, had been more scared of spending the night on this island than anyone. But they settle back in around the campfire and listen closely as she begins the story.
"Well, this happened a few weeks ago, when I was sitting for the Marshalls. When I-"
"Wait a minute!" Mary Anne interrupts, alarmed. "You said this was just a story."
"It is," Dawn explains impatiently. "But I want to tell it like it really happened, so it'll be scarier. But it didn't really happen, okay? I swear. If it'd really happened, you all would've read it already because Kristy would've made me write it in the club notebook."
"Damn right," Kristy puts in, giggling.
"Anyway, I was sitting for the Marshalls," Dawn goes on, "and when I got there, Nina sitting on the stairs, being very cute and making faces - kind of like a fish, like this." Dawn bugs out her eyes and opens and closes her mouth. The other sitters all laugh. "After Mrs. Marshall left, I asked her what she was doing, and she said, 'I'm making faces like the lady with the braid.' I thought she was just being silly, and I went upstairs to check on Eleanor. I went up past Nina, and I was almost at the top of the stairs when she said, 'The braid is around her neck.'"
Mary Anne claps one hand over her mouth, and Claudia whispers, "Oh, my lord..."
"Now, of course," Dawn goes on, after a dramatic pause, "a baby-sitter is supposed to stay calm in all situations. So I was calm. I turned around and asked Nina, 'What do you mean?' And then, Nina pointed up to the empty space above our heads, between the stairs and the ceiling. And she said, very casually, 'The braid is around her neck, and she's hanging by it from the ceiling, making faces like this,' and she bugged out her eyes and opened and closed her mouth."
Stacey bites nervously at her manicured nails. Mal and Jessi clutch each other in horror.
Dawn looks at each of her friends over the campfire flames as she finishes slowly, "That was when I realized the face Nina was making wasn't a fish. It was the face of someone who was gasping for air."
Mallory claps one hand over her mouth, as if she's about to scream aloud. The other girls all shudder and rub the goosebumps from their arms. Abby says, impressed, "Oooh, that was scary, Dawn."
"I am never sitting for the Marshalls again," Mary Anne declares. "Never. I'll make a note of it in the record book when we get back."
"Mary Anne, you can't do that," Kristy argues.
"But now I'm going to feel creeped out whenever I sit for th-"
"It was just a story. Dawn said so. None of it really happened."
Dawn sits back and smiles, listening to her friends arguing and complimenting her on her story. It was still embarrassing to remember how scared she'd been of this island last summer - convinced that it was haunted and pleading with Kristy to drive her back to the mainland, which made her want to bury her head in the sand from mortification. She feels proud and grown-up to have given them such a scare this time.
But later that night, just like last summer, Dawn ends up more scared than anybody.
Around two in the morning, she wakes up to Abby laughing softly in the sleeping bag beside her. She must be having some funny dream. Curious, but not wanting to wake her up, Dawn props herself up and whispers, "Hey, what's so funny?"
"Oh, my dad was so hilarious," Abby answers drowsily, still asleep. "You would've liked him."
Dawn smiles. "I'm sure I would have. I wish I could've met your dad."
Abby slowly blinks both eyes open. She looks at Dawn, then seems to look at something behind her. "Well, say hello," she says, yawning and laughing a little. She waves her hand in a lazy gesture. "He's standing right there."
With that, she closes her eyes and immediately falls back asleep, but Dawn lays awake for a long time. She nervously looks behind her, looks all around their campsite and up at the dark trees of the forest, but sees nothing unusual. But Abby's words are enough to convince her all over again that Shadow Lake really is haunted.