As the two friends walked back to their cabin, the conversation was full of everything they had missed out on telling each other over the past few days. As Miranda blabbed on about Larry, Lizzie thought how she would try her best to make sure nothing came between them for the rest of the summer. Not Larry, not Jessie, nobody. Their friendship was too strong to succumb to all this petty drama.

Miranda was still gushing about Larry, and could not seem to help herself, as if she had been holding it in for years.

"…so I should really talk to him, you know, tell him well, you know…" she said vaguely, but Lizzie seemed to understand right away.

"So things are okay between you to?" asked Lizzie.

"Yeah, I think so," Miranda answered.

"Ooh, this is so exciting!" Lizzie squealed, clapping her hands together.

"Yeah, I just hope he feels the same way about me," Miranda said hesitantly.

"Oh, please, of course he does. Everyone knows he's completely in love with you. Even when he's acting like he's mad at you, I know he still likes you." Lizzie said reassuringly.

"I hope so," Miranda answered hopefully. "So how do you think I should approach this? 'Hey Larry, there comes a time in every girls life…" Miranda said, sounding like she was giving a lecture at Hillridge Jr. High.

"No," Lizzie giggled, shaking her head.

"How about…" Miranda had started to say, but her voice trailed off as the two girls peered into the doorway of their cabin. A shocked looked came upon both their faces when they saw that the cabin was deserted.

"Omigosh, where is everybody?" Lizzie asked worriedly.

Miranda furrowed her brow and looked around the cabin, as if she were half expecting to find them all hiding under their bunks. "I don't know, I thought the schedule said we had half an hour free until Arts & Crafts."

Lizzie thought back to breakfast. "They must have changed everything around for that canoe race," Lizzie said agitatedly. She cleared her head. "Okay, you go to Arts & Crafts. I'll go to the beach. If there's no one at either, we'll meet half way in between," she asserted.

"Okay, good plan," Miranda confirmed.

The two took off in opposite directions. No matter which activity they were supposed to be at, Lizzie knew they were going to be in trouble. What was it gonna be? No free swim? No phone calls? No ice cream for a week? Lizzie worried about her impending fate as she rounded the bend to the beach. Dozens of kids were swarming the area, tugging at their canoes. And even more were in the water, paddling about.

Lizzie quickly scanned the crowd for a familiar face. Her eyes locked on Gordo, paddling back toward shore in a bright red canoe. And who was that with him? Lizzie squinted her eyes to see. Gordo tilted slightly to the right as he paddled to reveal his passenger. Lizzie felt a pang of shock right in the stomach. Oh no! It was Charlotte, Lizzie thought. Of all people! Gordo reached the shore, and with the help of Charlotte, hoisted the canoe onto the sandy beach. They were working together as a happy team, like they had done it a million times before. A mixture of emotion started overwhelming Lizzie. She could start to feel her blood starting to boil, but simultaneously she felt extreme disappointment and sorrow.

"Here you are!" Miranda exclaimed from behind her. "We should probably get in the water!"

Lizzie jumped at the sound of Miranda's voice from behind her. She tried to snap out of the overwhelming feelings, but she couldn't shake them off. "Um yeah, you go get the life jackets. I've got something to take care of," Lizzie said, as if she were about to cry.

Lizzie watched Miranda walk around the back of the canoe shed. Lizzie started over toward Charlotte and Gordo, but stopped midway, trying to gain her confidence. Once Charlotte had walked away, Lizzie took a deep breath and stomped right up to him. She opened her mouth to yell, but before she could even say a word he blurted out, "Lizzie, I'm sorry," like a small child who had known exactly what he had done wrong.

But Lizzie didn't want to hear any apologies, she didn't even want an explanation, nothing could make her feel better. "You broke your promise Gordo! You promised me you would be my partner!" Lizzie shouted, waving her arms in fury.

"I know, Lizzie, there was nothing I could do!" He said genuinely.

Lizzie could feel her heart slowly starting to ache. "But you broke your promise," Lizzie repeated, crossing her arms.

He looked at her, pleading with his eyes for forgiveness. "Listen, when I came down here, I couldn't find you, so of course I waited." He started to explain.

Lizzie just tapped her fingers on her arm, staring at him.

"Rachel told everyone to find a partner, and I told her you were mine but hadn't shown up yet. She just told me 'too bad' and practically forced me into the canoe with Charlotte. I had no choice! You've got to understand," he said.

"So, you two just sailed off into the sunset!" Lizzie snapped.

Gordo himself was starting to get a bit annoyed that Lizzie was being so unreasonable. "Listen, if you didn't want to be partnered up with Miranda, there were plenty of other people…" he started.

"Lizzie, are you coming!" Miranda interrupted from the edge of the beach.

"Yeah, I'll be right there!" Lizzie yelled back.

"Wait, you're speaking to Miranda now?" he asked, surprised.

"We made up this morning after breakfast," she said matter-of-factly.

"I thought this was about you not wanting to be partnered up with Miranda!" he yelled angrily.

"You still don't get it. Why don't you go make sandcastles with Charlotte," she said, gesturing her head toward Charlotte and Crystal. She turned around and started walking gloomily back to Miranda.

"Alright, let's get in the water, Lizzie," Miranda said.

Lizzie didn't say anything, and just put on her life jacket forcefully. Only until she tried buckling it did she realize it was upside-down.

"Hey Lizzie, is everything okay?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah it's nothing. Gordo and I just…disagree about something," Lizzie said glumly, walking toward the canoes.

"Disagree about what?" Miranda asked, following her.

"Wait! Where do you two think you're going?" Rachel's voice boomed.

Uh-oh, busted, Lizzie thought, but followed suit with Miranda, who didn't seem to detect the graveness of the situation.

"Um…in the water?" Miranda said sarcastically over her shoulder.

"No way. You guys were late to practice today," Rachel said.

The girls spun around. "By, like, ten minutes!" Lizzie argued.

"Try 15. And anyway, you missed the most important part: instructions!" Rachel exclaimed.

"How hard can it be? Get in the canoe and paddle," Miranda said hotly as she edged toward the water.

"Freeze Sanchez! I'm afraid you two are going to have to sit the boat race out!" Rachel commanded.

At this point, Lizzie was incredibly angry. Rachel could not have picked a worse time to pick a fight. "It's not our fault! We were supposed to have free-time after breakfast!" Lizzie said angrily.

"Well you were late getting back, so you didn't hear our change of plans, now did you?" Rachel said curtly.

"But you could have left a--" Lizzie started.

"Look," Rachel interrupted, "I'm not arguing with you anymore. You're big girls who are old enough to know where they're supposed to be! Now I suggest you don't get into any more trouble until I've spoken to the director about your punishment. But hopefully missing the race is punishment enough!" Rachel stormed off to help some kids who were actually going to be in the boat race.

"So much for being a nice counselor," Lizzie muttered.

"Tell me about it," Miranda agreed. "Well if we can't even participate, I'm not hanging around here. I'm gonna go get something to drink, wanna come? Maybe talk about what's bugging you?"

"Nah…I'm just gonna go back to the cabin," Lizzie answered.

"Okay, I'll bring you back something," Miranda said.

Lizzie gave a weak smile and walked back toward her cabin alone.