Author's note: I felt like writing something a bit happier than my last chapters. This needn't turn into an angsty tragedy. Also, thanks for the reviews.

Chapter Four

"Do you like camping?" Joan asked Grace. They were both home for the summer after their freshman year and passing some time at Joan's house.

"No," Grace said quickly.

"Do you want to go camping with me next week?" Joan asked, completely ignoring Grace's negavtive reply.

"No."

"Please, Grace. We're going back to school soon, and won't be seeing each other until Winter Break."

"Dude, don't get all politically correct just 'cause I'm Jewish. You can call it Christmas Break like the rest of the country."

"So, will you go camping with me?" Joan continued to ignore Grace's lack of enthusiasm.

"Who's going?"

"Well, you, me, Adam and, um" Joan paused, hesitant, "and Luke."

"Girardi!"

"If I can still be friends with Adam after what he did to me, the least you can do is put up with Luke for a weekend. I want us all to go camping."

"But… why?"

"Just to, you know, spend some time together. It's important to make good memories."

"Any particular reason we need to do this in crowded, dirty campground?" Grace asked.

"Grace," Joan whined, "what will we look back on when times are tough if we don't make good memories with good people now?"

"Where the hell did that come from, Girardi? And since when have I been 'good people?'"

"You're a good person, Grace, and you know it," Joan said flippantly before returning to the subject at hand. "Okay, we have enough sleeping bags for everyone, we're gonna borrow my uncle's tent and Adam volunteered to drive. We just need you to agree to come and find a big cooler for our drinks."

The two friends stared at each other. Grace broke the silence first.

"Fine, I'll go. I'll even get ice for the coolers."

Joan shrieked in her horribly girly way.

"I promise, Grace, it'll be fun," she squealed.

"Whatever, Girardi," Grace got up and headed for the door. Just as she was about to leave, she called back "but I'm stealing the cooler and the ice from the Temple."

"Borrowing, Grace. Good people borrow," she responded, but Grace was already out the door.

xxxxx

"We're gonna give this cooler back, right?" Luke asked as they loaded up Adam's car for the big trip.

"Of course, Luke," Joan said, exasperated, "you can't steal from a temple."

"But stealing from the homeless is okay?" Luke retorted.

Joan's hand flew to her belly button.

"Shut up, dork. I made up for it. And it wasn't really stealing from them."

"Then what was it, exactly?" Grace asked. Adam wisely stayed out of this conversation.

"You know what?" Joan said, "I don't want to talk about this."

"And I didn't want to come camping, but here I am," Grace remarked. Joan ignored her and got into the car.

"Hey," Luke said, "why do you get shotgun?"

Joan stuck her tongue out at Luke.

"Nice, Joan," he muttered, "really mature."

"Oh, so you don't want to sit in back with me?" Grace joked. At least, it was supposed to be a joke. It ended a little too vulnerable, though.

Luke decided to let Joan sit in the front.

xxxxx

Grace Polk was sitting around a campfire with her friends toasting marshmallows. Luke and Joan were bickering the way only siblings can and Adam was watching with mild interest. Grace was surprised when she realized she was having a good time. Who knew she could like something so normal? Damn those Girardis; it was all their fault.

They went hiking the next day. Yes, hiking. The sensitive artist, scrawny geek, angry rebel and bubbly teen went hiking.

"I am never doing this again," Joan announced dramatically, after swatting at the fourth mosquito to land on her.

"We've only gone," Luke checked his walk-odometer "one point three miles. We're not even at the half way mark."

"I cannot believe you brought that thing," Grace said.

"What? This thing's awesome. It can tell you how far many miles we've gone, how many steps I've taken, my heart rate and how many calories I've burned," Luke defended himself. "And look, it's so small I can clip it on my waistband and forget about it until I want to use it."

"What are you, their spokesman?" Grace asked.

Luke ignored her.

"How many steps have you taken?" Adam asked.

"Um, hold on a second." Luke fiddled with the little machine. It beeped three times. "Crap! I restarted it!"

"Boy Wonder can't work technology?" Grace teased.

"This isn't technology," Luke insisted. "It's a piece of crap."

"He can't work a dish washer, either," Joan said.

"Says the girl who sprained her ankle in the washing machine," Luke retorted.

Continuing their argument, brother and sister fell behind.

"Remind me again, why did we date them?" Grace muttered to Adam.

Adam looked pained for a moment.

"We needed them, Grace."

"I wasn't really looking for an answer, Rove."

Adam and Grace finished the hike in silence. Luke and Joan eventually stopped fighting and caught up. All four of them were relieved when they reached the end of the trail.

The trail ended at a fairly large lake at the base of some mountains. To their left were boulders left over from landslides. They sat down in the shade of tree and pulled lunch out of their backpacks. The only conversation exchanged during the meal was about their aching feet.

After lunch, Joan decided to work on her tan. She climbed onto one of the boulders and stretched out. Adam pulled out his sketchpad and began drawing the lake. Grace guessed it would be ten minutes tops before he switched to sketching Joan. Grace glanced at the boulder and saw that Joan had pulled up her shirt to tan her stomach. Grace was embarrassed for her. Shaking her head slightly, Grace looked toward Luke. He was messing with his measuring thing again. Bored, Grace began wandering, poking behind some of the branches and peering into the crevices in the boulders.

Grace inhaled sharply when she saw the empty beer bottles someone had shoved into the space between two rocks. Dammit. She'd been having such a good time. Grace wanted to find the dumbass that had left the bottles there and do bodily harm.

Grace hadn't had anything to drink since the Jake incident. She hadn't even been tempted since summer started. And now this. Such a subtle reminder, Grace thought. It's always with me. Even when I'm with Adam and Girardi and Girardi, and in a different state. There's no escape. At that moment, Grace thought she might cry.

"Grace!" Luke called, "you ready to go?"

Startled, Grace blinked and shook her head rapidly. Get a grip, Polk.

"Yeah, I'm ready," she yelled back just a Luke appeared at Grace's side. "Don't sneak up on people, geek," she gasped.

"You okay?" he asked, "you seem weird."

"I'm good," Grace lied as she started to move toward Adam and Joan. "C'mon, let's go. I want to see how Joan handles the hike back."

Grace turned back to look at Luke when she realized he wasn't with her. He was standing where Grace had been moments before with a look of rage on his face.

"That lazy, horrible, mean—" he started.

"Dude, your insults suck," Grace interrupted, "let's go."

"I'm sorry, Grace."

"Sorry for what?" she demanded.

"That some jerk left beer bottles here," he answered.

"Girardi, don't go there."

Luke stared at her. Grace stared back. She'd forgotten how sharp his gaze was.

"Okay," he finally whispered, "okay. Just… promise me you'll talk to someone if you need to. You don't always have to be the strong one."

Grace walked away and refused to talk to Luke on the hike back.

xxxxx

By unspoken agreement, neither Grace nor Luke mentioned what had happened by the lake during the rest of the trip. Grace had been afraid Luke would corner her at some point and try to talk, but he kept his silent promise. Once or twice Grace thought she saw him staring at her, worry laced in his features, but she could never be sure.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. They went on another hike, tried to barbeque hamburgers and played hours of poker. They used pebbles and pieces of pinecones for chips, and when the weekend was over, Grace the largest pile of random nature bits. For her trophy as first place winner of the "First and Probably Not Annual Camping Trip Poker Tournament" (aptly named by Luke) Joan filled three water bottles with Grace's winnings and Adam wired them together. It wasn't his best work.

xxxxx

They all went off to their separate colleges soon after returning from the trip. As Joan had predicted, Grace didn't see any of them until she was home for Winter Break.

While celebrating New Year's Eve at the Girardi house, Grace made a New Year's resolution for the first time in her life. She wouldn't drink anymore. Grace was certain she could keep the resolution. After all, she hadn't had a drink since that embarrassing Jake incident, and she had only been tempted once. She had been pissed at her Calculus teacher and frustrated with her dad and angry that her roommate wouldn't shut about the fight she was having with her mother. Grace had needed a drink. While she was looking for a jacket to wear to the bar, though, Grace had spied her ugly poker trophy. She had remembered the camping trip, and decided that she didn't need to drink, really.

Grace had never forgotten what Luke said after he saw the beer bottles. "You don't always have to be the strong one." Grace appreciated the sentiment, but she disagreed. The child of a dead alcoholic always has to be the strong one. And Grace was strong, dammit. She was. Instead of paying some twenty-one year old to buy her some drinks, she had finished her calculus homework, stopped avoiding her dad's phone calls and started ignoring her roommate's complaints.

As she toasted with the Girardis and the Roves that New Year's Eve, Grace felt optimistic. She welcomed the emotion, even if it did feel a little strange.