Promises

August 1996: Age 11

You stared out the window of the ugly yellow school bus that was taking you to the last place on earth you wanted to be. Indiana was having one of its famous summer storms, and quite honestly, it fit your mood. You mouthed off just a little bit to your mother and it got your butt sent away to camp for a month. It sucked.

The ride was about an hour and you had to suffer through the same four group songs with overly enthused counselors. Finally, you arrived and trudged through the mud, eyeing the other kids getting off the buses around you. They all had the same excited gleam in their eyes that honestly made you a bit sick. You rolled your eyes and stood in line for cabin assignment. A perky blonde college student smiled up at you as you gave her your name. She scanned her list and highlighted a horizontal line, indicating that you were in cabin L with three other girls around your age. You thanked her and made a B-line to drop your stuff off and hopefully get a few minutes alone before your roommates showed up.

You had no such luck, as two of the three girls had already set up shop. You smiled curtly at a friendly red head and a spunky blonde, who had taken one lower and one upper bunk, leaving you to quickly grab the last upper one. The red head spoke, "Hi there! I'm Eve and this is Arianna." Nodding at them, you answered, "Y/N." The blonde smiled back. "Are you from around here? Eve and I grew up together just down the road." You hated forced small talk, especially when you were in such a fowl mood. "Nope. I'm about an hour south of here…so no chance of escape." The girls awkwardly looked at each other and returned to what they were doing. You were just assembling a few of your things when the door slammed open. "Hi! I'm Beth Walker, I'm twelve, and I can't wait for all of us to be pen pals!" You stared at the tall girl who had made quite the dramatic entrance. Kill me now. She, of course, set her bag on the bed directly beneath yours, continuing to gab while she unpacked her things. Ten minutes had passed and she hadn't even paused to take a breath. Eve and Arianna were hanging onto every word she said. Finally, a siren sounded outside of camp, saving you from the ongoing drawl of this perky girl.

The four of you exited your cabin to line up in front of the spunky college student who had checked you in, along with some of her friends who probably just wanted to pad their resumes. After listening to their spiel about how this was going to be the best month ever and all mandatory emergency information, they gave each cabin a task. The residents had to work together to find several places around the campsite and be the first to meet one of the counselors in the final place. You weren't particularly invested in winning the dollar store trophy, but dammit if you weren't competitive. The counselors blew the starting whistles and your cabin huddled up with the list. A Band-Aid, a book, a soccer ball, and a key were the things handed to each of you, the key ending up in your hand. You all turned the objects over to find numbers taped to each. The 1 belonged to Eve and was taped under the book. The four of you at the same time said, "A library!" Running to the camp map, you all rushed to the fourth building on the left and up the stairs. Seeing a brunette college student, Eve handed her the book and she smiled. "Eve, this is your domain, pick any book and it's yours." Her face lit up and you immediately pinned her as the bookworm. Oh good, a competition to get to know your cabin mates. Next up was Arianna with the soccer ball, leading you all to the soccer field around the back. The Jock. You turned to face Beth holding the Band-Aid and you all thought to yourselves. You actually saw the light bulb illuminate in Beth's mind when she shouted, "The nurse's office!" This one stumped you. The germophobe? No, she had no problem running through the soccer field and getting a bit dirty. An activity that you (though you didn't care to admit it) enjoyed as well. The four of you made your way to the office, Eve and Arianna pulling ahead. You turned to Beth. "So you collect Band-Aids?" She giggled. "No, no it's nothing like that. I like nursing." You gave her a look. "We're eleven. No one our age actually wants to be a nurse." She laughed again. "Technically, I'm twelve. But seriously, I do. My dad isn't around so it's just me, my brother, and my mom. She's a nurse, and my hero. Sometimes she lets me come with her to the hospital and it's my absolute favorite thing. So yea, I'm gonna be a nurse." You smiled and looked down, glancing up only when Beth brought her hand up to cradle a chain around her neck. Your blood went cold when you saw the familiar metal rectangles and quickly averted your eyes. Beth apparently noticed. "You an army brat too?" You looked up at her. "That obvious, huh?" She smiled and grabbed your hand and you let her, though your instinct was to pull away. "I saw you eye my tags. And not for nothing, but that look usually means one thing. When did you lose him?" You decided to pull your hand away then, "Four years ago, though he just deployed again last year." She tilted her head in confusion and you clarified, "He's a bastard who would rather disappear in the middle of the night than keep a promise to his kid." She seemed uncomfortable with your language, but you had heard your grandpa use the same phrase when he argued with your mom about the subject. Beth became silent. It was then that your group finally arrived at the nurse's office and she was shown around, though she kept glancing your way. It made you plain uncomfortable and you instantly regretted sharing. Once Beth was satisfied with the tour, it was up to you with the key. Honestly, the four of you were stumped, until the nurse coughed briefly and nodded her head at a nearby sign. The KEY to friendship is this way. Unconsciously, you grabbed Beth's hand and led the group to the locked door at the end of the hall. Sliding the key in, you got an immense amount of joy feeling each mechanism unlock with the object. You creaked open the door to reveal nothing other than a dance studio, a college counselor standing in the middle holding the sad-looking prize. "Congrats Cabin L! You made it to the end of the line! Y/N, this room is especially for you. A little birdy told me you enjoyed dancing quite a bit, and we wanted you to enjoy your month here. Feel free to use this room during any down time we may have. Now ladies, you have found all of your designated areas and there's still about a half hour left. Use this time to get to know each other. See you all tomorrow morning for the festivities!" She walked out and Eve and Arianna began conversing among themselves, having no interest in including the other two cabin mates.

"What promise did he break?" Beth's blunt statement took you by surprise. You responded, unsure. "Uh, it's kinda personal." She snorted. "Look, we're gonna be together all month. I already know we're gonna be besties, but I have no issue annoying you to that point either. So it's up to you. Share now, or forever live with my constant pestering. Ask my brother, I'm very persuasive." Wow, this girl was weird….but also slightly growing on you. You sighed. "He uh, promised me he wouldn't leave again unless he had to. That we would spend the summer together and…be a real family again. He was gone before I woke up the next morning."

"Well, how do you know he had a choice in the matter?"

"I did some digging. We have a family friend that's good at finding things out. Kind of a surly, old, shut in, and, well, turns out dear old dad was taken off the deployment list until further notice. He actually called and asked to go. Well, you probably guessed that I didn't even want his tags after that. Not that he even offered." She brought her hand up and squeezed the chain around her neck once more. A light tap on Beth's shoulder brought you both out of the conversation. It was a counselor, and she looked pretty upset. "Beth sweetie, I'm so sorry but we just got a call from your mom. I'm afraid you're gonna have to pack your things, she needs you home." The two of you shared a look and followed the counselor to the cabin. She waited outside to give you some privacy. You watched Beth pack in silence. It was your turn to be blunt. "You think it's something serious?" She looked up at you from placing a few shirts in a duffel bag. "Nah, my brother just gets in weird moods sometimes and I'm the only one who can really deal with him. Ten bucks says he pissed mom off and she's just panicking." You nodded and twiddled your thumbs. "Sooo, listen, I've never really told anyone about that part of my dad that wasn't a close friend or already dead. I'm—"

"Guess we're just gonna have to be pen pals then."

"Wait, what…?"

"I already told you Weston, whether you like it or not, we're gonna become best friends, so either write your address down or I'll just have to get it out of one of the counselors." You laughed and grabbed a pen off the desk, writing your actual address down for this acquaintance. She grabbed the paper and slipped something else in your hand. Looking down, you saw her tags. "Oh no, I can't. You just met me, how—"

"Just take them, okay? My dad and I had a great relationship and I'd give anything to see him again. But I don't need some necklace to remind me of that. So I want you to have it. To remind you that not everyone is like your dad. I, Beth Walker, promise on that pair of old military tags that I will keep in touch and write you every month 'till the day I die." She held out her pinky and you, hesitantly, wrapped yours around it. She pulled you in for a hug. "Take them on adventures and write to me about it." You squeezed her, "It's a promise." And thus, an extremely weird friendship was born.

Beth never came back to camp, but her first letter arrived on the seventh of September and every seventh of the month after that. You always responded and the two of you kept your promise…until the day she died.