I took a new developing reel and showed Jack how to load film, pushing a couple of inches inside the spiraled plastic, loading the rest to sit neatly without touching any other part.

"Now you try."

I pulled the film out and handed the tank and the spool to Jack. He slotted the film in easily and twisted the spool. He made a mess the first three times, on the fourth fed the film perfectly.

"Again," I said, "three times in a row, then with your eyes shut."

Jack laughed.

"I mean it. This part has to be done in complete darkness. We either turn the lights out, or you can put the whole thing in a blackout sack like I did, but you cannot get any light anywhere near the film."

"Shit." Jack shook his head.

"Yeah. But you'll manage."

I watched as Jack closed his eyes and fumbled with the spool. He dropped it, opened his eyes and picked it up, went back to work. I studied him, safe now his eyes were closed, his face a mask of concentration. He was better looking than my kind-of boyfriend Pete, and I'd left Pete at home. This was summer camp, and a boyfriend might help take my mind off the thoughts I kept having about Cherri. I wasn't ready to let those thoughts bubble to the surface. Not yet, I thought, then changed it to Not ever!

I sat on the side of the bench and watched Jack, scanning his chest, studying the way his fingers fumbled with the spool and film. I allowed my gaze to drift over his long legs, scuffed deck shoes reminding me of why he was at camp.

"I think I've got it now."

Jack startled me. When I looked up his eyes were open and I wondered how long they'd been that way, and if he knew where I'd been looking. I felt my face grow warm.

"Okay, let's find out if you remember tomorrow."

"Can I take this to practice with?"

"Sure."

I rinsed the now complete negative in water and squeezed the surface semi-dry, showed Jack the next stage. He stood close beside me as I studied the tiny images on a lightbox. I selected one to enlarge, asked Jack to switch the lights to red.

I focused the image, automatically cropping as I went. Satisfied, I turned the enlarger lamp off and laid a sheet of five by seven photographic paper on the flat base. Such a lot I could explain, but if I tried it would be too much too soon.

I filled the white plastic trays with developer, water and fixer. I switched the enlarger back on and counted. One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand, turned off the lamp and slipped the paper face down into the first tray, tilted the base so fluid washed over the paper. I used tongs to turn the paper over. Jack's face showed the usual pleasure and surprise as the image started to appear in the rocking tray. When the print was ready I lifted it out and allowed the chemicals to drain for a moment before dropping it into the water, swirled and transferred to the fixer. After two minutes I said, "You can turn the main lights back on now."

When Jack came back the print was almost ready.

"That's amazing."

"Pretty cool, yeah?" I'd done this hundredsano, thousands of timesastill excited watching the image appear from nothing.

The picture caught Jack on the dinghy, half bent as he started to raise the sail, looking back at the camera with a grin on his face. Good photograph, I thought. But I was a good photographer. Convinced I was. My Dad said so and he was the best photographer in the world.

I slipped the completed print into a sink of water and pushed it around with my fingers.

"Done."

Jack laughed. "Oh well, in that case, see you around." He started to turn and I was surprised to experience... what... disappointment? But he stopped before he'd gone three paces and turned back grinning. "Joke, Dani," he said, looking at my face.

"Oh."

"And you'll show everyone how to take pictures as good as that?"

"Depends. Some people get it, some don't. That's the hard part, training your eye."

Jack nodded and looked uncomfortable and I had no idea why.

"I know we've just met, but I want to ask you something."

My stomach fluttered with some kind of nerves as I said, "What's that?"

"I was wondering... can I borrow a camera and some film? I'd like to practice before tomorrow if that's alright."

"Sure. You'll have to use one of the crappy school cameras, but they work okay."

"Whatever."

I loaded a spool of black and white into the battered old Praktica and handed the camera to Jack. "Are you going to take pictures of boats?"

"Thanks." Jack turned the camera over, studied it. "No, not boats. My girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" The warmth turned to slush in my belly.

"Yeah. Sara Mitchell. You know her?"

I nodded, numb. "Yeah, I know Sara." Slut.

"Thanks again." Jack lifted the camera, grinned, and was gone.

Chapter 8.

That evening when I carried a tray piled with more carb heavy food over to what I now considered our table Cherri was already seated, surprising me. I'd only known Cherri a little over a week but already her habits were familiar, and timing wasn't one of Cherri's strengths. She made up in other ways. The way she wrinkled her cute nose when she was amused; the way her mouth turned up on one side to indicate she found something funny, just not that funny; the way her tongue appeared in the same corner of her mouth when she was concentrat-ing hard; the way she turned up last for everything, breezing in as though we were the ones who'd arrived too early; the way...

No, Dani, stop! I'd spent two hours in the darkroom with Jack, and up until he told me about Sara had been entertaining pleasant fantasies about what might happen over summer. I'd no right thinking about Cherri this way; didn't want it, didn't need it. Even so no way I was going to sit with anyone else.

"Hey, Dan, how's it hanging?"

I slipped onto the bench next to Cherri and jabbed her in the ribs with my elbow. "That's for me to know and you to find out."

She rolled her eyes. "Promises, always promises. When you gonna let me find out, lover girl?"

I laughed, nervous, but I laughed. "What've you been up to this afternoon?"

"Same old. Not much preparation teaching kids how to play guitar. I changed the strings on the camp's guitars, but they're all shit anyway. I hope some of the kids are gonna bring their own."

"How many you got in your classes?" The course rosters had gone up before dinner. I had ten my first week, a dozen the second. The biggest groups were for sports and water-sports, hiking, climbing and trail riding popular as well. We were at summer camp, after all, and most kids didn't want to spend time indoors learning something new. At least Pinecrest tried to be different and many of the kids came because of the difference. I had.

"About fifteen," Cherri said.

"Boys or girls?"

"Mostly girls, which surprised me." Cherri finished all she wanted of the pasta and pushed her plate aside, poking her spoon at some indeterminate lump of brown cake with a scoop of ice cream on the side.

"Why?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Most of the people I listen to are men, so I assumed it would be boys wanted to learn about songwriting. Apparently not."

"There's a lot of girl singers."

Cherri nodded. "I guess they don't interest me quite as much."

I jabbed her again and she poked me back and we ended up pushing back and forward, giggling.

"Hey, cut it out you two, you'll get a reputation." Tonya dumped her tray on the other side of the table and she and Holly slipped in across from us.

I returned to my food, but Cherri said, "Look who's talking."

Tonya stared hard at her and Holly concentrated on her pasta.

"What d'you mean?" Tonya asked.

Cherri rolled her eyes. "Come on, you know damn well what I mean. You two lovebirds couldn't be more obvious if you tried."

Holly flushed, but Tonya's mouth thinned, her dark skin not capable of showing embarrassmentaor not so I'd notice anyway. The more I got to know the pairaand we had become good friends over the first weekathe more I liked them, the more I grew to appreciate their beauty and grace. Holly was slight and pale. At first glance most people dismissed her as ordinary, but they were missing out on the real beauty, her pale skin flawless. Her smile, when it came, lit up a room, her eyes light brown and flecked with gold, deep enough to drown in. On the other hand Tonya came across as more in your face, clearly attractive, but even a short examination showed hidden depths, secret beauty in small details. Not that I spent much time studying them, of course. Tried not to, anyway. Lying in bed imagining what might be going on in the room across the corridor affected me. I tried to hold out but last night the pressure grew too intense. I slipped my pajama pants down and fingered myself until my belly melted and I shivered and jerked. Afraid afterward I'd made too much noise and Tonya and Holly might've heard. But as sleep claimed me, my body still tingling, I didn't care. Let them listen all they wanted. Let me turn them on for a change. Maybe. Now Cherri had put the idea out in the open, the elephant in the room wasn't going back out the door.

"You want to keep your mouth shut and your eyes to yourself," Tonya said. She glanced at me, gaze cool.

I opened my mouth to defend myself, but Cherri put a hand on my arm. My skin tingled where she touched me and I thought What the hell are we arguing about here? None of us cares who or what you are.

"We're not judging either of you," Cherri said. "And we want to be your friends. I'm only saying you need to be careful."

"Careful? Why should we be careful? What are we doing wrong?"

Cherri sighed, holding her hands up. "Okay, fine. Only trying to give a little advice, but forget I said anything."

Tonya glared a moment longer before starting to eat, chewing slowly. An uncomfortable silence descended on our small group and I played with my own food, trying to distract myself.

"Hey Dani, mind if we join you?"

Jack and another boy stood holding trays, their plates piled high, and I bet they finished everything.

"Uh, sure, if no-one else minds?" I glanced around at everyone, but Tonya and Holly were still deliberately eating. Cherri grinned, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Cherri, this is Jack," I said. "I don't know who his buddy is?"

"Brian," Jack said. "Good to meet you Cherri. So we can join you?" Jack seemed oblivious of the freeze coming from Tonya on the other side of the table.

"Sure," Cherri answered before I could say anything. Jack sat next to me and Brian moved along and sat the other side of Cherri, a ridiculous shiver of jealousy running through me.

As the guys wolfed their food and talked I introduced Tonya and Holly. Brian turned out to be a character, talking enthusiastically about riding the trails he was taking kids out on tomorrow, personality flowing out of him and first Holly then Tonya joined in. Within five minutes they'd included Cherri back in the conversation, and a couple of minutes later let me in too. We talked about past camps, what our specialisms were, what we wanted to do after camp. Tonya was a general counselor and Holly covered track and field, which surprised me again, both of them always surprising me. Jack told us all about sailing. As well as trail-riding, Brian covered soccer and baseball. As the guys finished their foodaand finish they didathe atmosphere grew more and more relaxed.

After half an hour Tonya and Holly rose and picked up their trays.

"Can we have a word, Dani?" Tonya said, Holly standing off to one side, obviously uncomfortable.

"Sure." I'd forgotten all about their earlier suspicions. The expression on Tonya's face reminded me she still had something she wanted to say. I waited, and so did they, before I realized they didn't mean here.

"I'll be right back," I said to the others and followed the girls as they dropped their trays in the racks. Outside Tonya led the way toward our cabin before stopping. Holly suddenly found her feet fascinating.

"I don't welcome you telling everyone in camp about us, Dani." Tonya took a step toward me, getting in my face. Before I could say anything she continued. "I thought better of you than this. We're so disappointed in you."

I got mad instantly. "You think I told Cherri?"

"Yeah, we think you told Cherri. And who else?" Tonya's eyes sparked. Holly continued to study her toes, hair hanging over her face.

"Fuck you!" I put my hands up and pushed Tonya back. She was equal to me in height and carried more muscle, but I was mad. "I haven't told anyone, not a soul, and I'm pissed you think I could."

Tonya didn't back down. "So how come your little girlfriend knows all about us?" Tonya pushed back against my hands and I dropped them when I realized I was pressing against the upper swell of her breasts.

"She's not my girlfriend," I said. "And anyone with a working pair of eyes can tell what you two are."

Holly spoke up for the first time. "I told you Dani wouldn't tell."

Tonya snorted. "You believe the best of everyone, Hol." She glanced at me, a shade of uncertainty in her eyes now. "You really didn't say anything?"

I shook my head, still pissed. "You honestly thought I could?"

"Are we so obvious?"

"Duh."

"Ah shit."

"Tonya," Holly pulled at her lover's arm. "We're going to have to be careful."

Tonya glanced at her. "I don't want to be careful around you, honey."

The sudden change of atmosphere unsettled me and I stepped back. "I'm going to catch the others before they go."

"Sure, Dani. And sorry I went at you..." An edge of anger remained in Tonya's voice and I couldn't tell for sure if I was forgiven or not, whether she truly believed I had kept their secret.