The rest of the day was pretty boring. Liz had to do something for one of the counselors, Tina hadn't shown up since that morning, Hailey was with a few other people playing tetherball, and Peter was doing I don't know what. So, it was just me, the cabin, and the Lord of the Rings book. I'd gotten to chapter 4 and it was just starting to get exciting when Melanie walked in.

"Oh, hi," I said as she walked over to her bed.

"Hi." She had a frown on her face as she went through one of her bags. Suddenly, something shot out of her hand and fell on the floor next to me.

It was a photo of her and some guy—I couldn't tell what he looked like because the sun was shining right on thatside of the photo.

"What's that?" I asked out of curiosity.

"It's nothing," she muttered, walking over and picking up the photo. The minute she moved it out of the sun I saw exactly who the guy was.

"That's... Peter," I blurted.

Melanie narrow her eyes. "It's none of your business!" She stalked back over to her bag, picture in hand.

I realized that they must've been together at one point in time. 'That would explain last night's little scene,' I thought, 'She thinks I'm moving in on her guy.' I felt a sudden weird pang in my chest. They'd looked so happy in that picture...

"Look, I know you and Peter are together, and I'm not trying to move in on your guy—" I started.

"He and I... We're over! You know what? I don't care if you move in on him! He's just going to throw you away like he did with me!" she yelled. With that, she stomped out of the room, dark brown ponytail swinging as she walked.

'That's what Davy must've meant yesterday...' I realized. 'Peter's and Melanie are unhappy because of their breakup, and now they're at the same camp together, and that just makes things worse. Plus, Melanie's still crazy about him and... I bet he's still crazy... About... Her.'

I rested my head on the pillow behind me and sighed. Peter still liked Melanie, so there wasn't much of a reason for me to consider moving in on him.

~An Hour Later~

I was still thinking about Peter and Melanie when I heard a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" I hollered, straining to see through the screen door.

"A guy with a wool hat," came the familiar Texas accented voice.

I grinned. "Hey, Mike! Are you allowed to come in?"

"I got written permission to talk to you for fifteen minutes. They're stricter on me than Peter since I'm not the one who carried you here." He walked in and sat down in one of the chairs that Hailey had left by my bed.

"So, what's up?" I asked.

"It's Peter. I don't know if you know this, but he and Melanie were together a few months ago, and then they broke up..."

I nodded. "Yeah, I know that."

"Well, I have a theory that Peter's still crazy about Melanie, and—"

"She's still crazy about him. Yeah, I know that. If they like each other that much why did they break up?"

"She... Sort of cheated on him."

"Oh..."

"Anyways, Peter knows that she's not the best kind of girl for him. She's a little bit of a flirt whether or not she realizes it. And she has a tendency to chest unless she really likes the guy she's with. Other than that, she's ok."

"What are you saying? Get him to meet other girls? I mean, there's Liz, and Hailey, and Tina, and a whole bunch of other girls here."

"What I'm saying is he doesn't want to meet another girl. He doesn't trust anyone, even us guys, and we're his best friends! What I'm thinking is that if you hung out with him he'd start to trust girls again."

"Perhaps it's just that he's not ready to be in another relationship so soon, you know?" I couldn't see the point of forcing Peter into a relationship when he didn't want one.

"I've thought about that, and the thing is, he is ready. He just can't gain enough trust in any one girl to ask them out. As a matter of fact, yesterday I heard him debating out loud on whether or not to ask this one chick that he's kinda into out." He looked at me as if I should know who that girl was.

"And who's the lucky girl?" I found myself asking. I didn't have any clue who it was.

Mike stood up. "You'll figure it out sooner or later. Could you just promise me this one thing, please?"

I sighed. "Alright, but I don't have the slightest clue as to why you're asking me to do this."

He smiled. "You'll figure it out. See you later, Rina."

"Bye." And then Mike left.

I still didn't know why he asked me this.

~After Dinner~

Peter came in after Liz and Hailey had left with the dishes. He wasn't carrying his guitar now, so I sort of felt my smile fade as he sat on Liz' bed. I loved his music.

I have something very weird to tell you," he announced as soon as he sat down.

"And what's that?" I asked.

"I think Mike's into you. He was playing his guitar and sort of singing this song about a girl," he answered.

"And what makes you think that I'm the girl?"

"He said 'She's got pretty dark hair, she don't got a care about what anyone thinks. Eyes the softest brown and the sweetest smile. She's true, she's honest, she's the girl in my dreams.'"

"Why do you think it's me? Besides the brunette with brown eyes part."

"Well, so far you don't care what anyone thinks, or you haven't heard the rumors—"

"What rumors?" I gasped.

"Well, someone said that you... Er... Um... Never mind. You'll hear about it sooner or later." He looked down, embarrassed that he'd said anything.

I sighed. Whatever it was, it was probably nothing.

"Ok, well, so far I find you really honest, and true. And you do have a cute smile." Peter grinned a little.

"Aw, thanks, Peter," I said. I would've hugged him if I could, probably. Oh well.

"Do you like Mike?" he asked.

"Well, I like him as a friend. I'm kinda into someone else right now." Oh, if he knew who I was into...

He nodded a little. "Oh. Well, he is a nice guy from what I hear." He grinned as I giggled a little.

"I know that, but I just don't like him. That's all," I told him.

"Ok, ok. I get it. Hey, how's your ankle?" he asked, looking at my foot, which was still propped up on the pillows.

"It doesn't hurt right now. Actually, it hasn't hurt at all today," I replied.

Then I thought, 'Maybe it's healed.' I decided to try moving it a little bit.

Very gingerly, I moved my foot up, and off of the pillows. Peter raised his eyebrows as I slowly sat upright on the bed and then stood.

"It doesn't hurt. I thought sprains took longer than that to heal," I exclaimed as I walked around the cabin.

Just then, Thalia walked in. She looked at Peter and then plastered this completely fake smile on her face.

"Oh, hi Pete. Hello, Rina," she said.

Peter frowned. I'd overheard he hated being called "Pete".

"Hi, Thalia," he said. I nodded in acknowledgement. I didn't want to talk to this chick.

"Oh, I see you're walking now, Rina," Thalia noted, glancing at my feet.

"Oh, yeah," I said, refusing to say anything more. She had this strange look on her face, right behind her fake smile.

"Oh, I have to ask, is Peter your next client?" she asked me. I frowned.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh, honey, it's ok. We all know how poor your family is and what you have to do to make money. Dealing, I'm so sorry," she ended her sentence with enough accent on the sugar-sweet facade she was putting up that it made me and Peter cringe.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Peter looking very uncomfortable. Was I about to find out the rumor he hadn't wanted to tell me?

"Aw, honey, really, you can't go on pretending. Just let it go. Everyone knows that you're a... You know..." Thalia trailed off, a very evil look in her eyes.

"No..." I muttered. I understood right away exactly what she meant. And I was not that. I was not that at all.

"That is not true at all," I stated. Thalia pretended to look surprised.

"Why, you're so stubborn! Don't worry. You're secret is safe with everyone at camp," she walked over and patted my shoulder. I grimaced slightly.

"Well, I must be going. I have other business to attend to." She flounced over to her purse (which was sitting on her bed,) and walked out, not after waving at Peter. As she walked out, I swear I heard thunder crash and an evil witch cackle.

"It's not true. I know that," Peter said quietly.

I clenched my fists. "I know it's not true! I ain't no slut!"

I had said worse things in my life, but I never said "slut" to describe myself. So, I was obviously really, really ticked off.

"Most people can tell that you're not! It's obvious you're a Christian," he said, walking over and standing in front of me.

"It is?" This was news to me.

"Yeah. You've got this sort of "glow" around you. You and Liz, that is. You can tell by the fact you don't swear... Out loud, at least," he answered.

'Wow... I have a "glow". Cool!' I thought to myself. That made me forget a moment about what Thalia had said.

"That's... Cool. I'm glad most people notice," I said.

"So am I. It sort of salvages what's left of your reputation," he noted. I smiled. He was trying so hard to make this seem as less awful as it could be. It was sweet. A lot of guys wouldn't care.

"I really hope that my parents don't hear about this." I sighed. They would freak if they thought I was "selling myself" for money.

Peter nodded and we went outside. It was twilight, with just a little bit of red-orange sunlight.

I sat down on the steps and put my head in my hands. This stupid rumor was probably going to ruin the rest of camp. Was there any way I could stop it? I didn't know.