Right then she remembered another and more immediate problem she had to contend with. "What's the Meet Your Campmates Hour real y about?"

"Oh, it's kind of cool." Miranda grew animated again. "Half of us write our names on a piece of paper and the other half draws. We are paired together and spend an hour getting to know each other. Of course, it's always better if you get a hot guy."

Great, with Kylie's luck, she'd get stuck with Perry. She felt her face grow red when she remembered she'd checked his genitals.

* * *

After breakfast, Kylie stepped out of the dining hal to talk to Sara who'd gone to the drugstore to buy a pregnancy test earlier that morning. Unfortunately, she'd bumped into her mom's best friend at the checkout counter. Sara had been able to ditch the test before the woman noticed it, but the whole encounter had brought her right back to where she started-with no idea if she was pregnant or not.

"How's it going at the camp?" Sara asked.

"Just peachy," Kylie answered. She would have loved to have talked to her best friend about everything that had happened but she knew better. No way would Sara understand when Kylie herself didn't.

"That bad, huh?" Sara replied. "Aren't there any cute guys?"

"A few," Kylie answered, and then she changed the subject back to Sara, and they talked for another ten minutes about Sara's dilemma. Kylie stil had her phone in her hand when her mom cal ed a second after she'd ended her conversation with Sara.

"How was your first night?" her mom asked.

"Okay," Kylie lied, stil undecided how to deal with her mom and her questions.

"No night terrors?" her mom asked.

"No," Kylie answered. No, as in I didn't wake up screaming bloody murder. I just passed out when a bloody ghost showed up for a visit. After a visit from a shape-shifting kitten and a perverted toad.

"That's good," her mom said. "So what al are you doing today?" Her mom's voice had that fake cheeriness that Kylie always hated because she knew it wasn't real.

"I have meetings with one of the camp leaders, a meet-and-greet hour where you meet one-on-one with another camper, and then I think there's some kind of art program and a hike this afternoon."

"Sounds like a ful day," her mom answered.

"Sounds boring," Kylie retorted.

Her mom ignored her remark. "Have you spoken with your dad?"

Kylie hesitated. "He cal ed and left a message, but I haven't had a chance to cal him back." Another lie. She'd had a chance, she just didn't know if she could lie as wel to him as she did to her mom.

"Wel , when you do, check and see if he plans to come up Sunday for parents day. If so, I'l wait until next week."

"You two can't even be in the same room together now?" Kylie asked, not trying to hide her feelings. Her throat tightened with emotion. "Couldn't you two have at least stayed together until I left for col ege?"

"It's difficult, Kylie," her mom said.

"Yeah, on everyone." The emotion grew in her throat, but when she looked up she saw Del a walking toward her and she fought back the need to cry. "I've gotta go."

"Okay," her mom said. "Have a good day and cal me tonight, okay?"

"Yeah." Kylie closed the phone just as Del a stepped up beside her.

"Hey," Kylie said. "I looked for you during breakfast."

"I ate earlier." She rubbed her stomach and Kylie tried not to think about what Miranda said about the vampire rituals. But the thought was already there, making the half of the Danish she'd consumed feel heavy in the pit of her stomach.

"You'l get used to it." Del a grinned as if she knew what had caused Kylie's frown.

"Maybe," Kylie said. Then, remembering to be honest with Del a, she added, "But I doubt it."

Del a chuckled, then her smile faded. "Sorry about your parents. How long have they been separated?"

"Do you make it a habit of eavesdropping?" Kylie slid her phone in her pocket.

"I wasn't trying to listen in." Resentment rang in Del a's voice. "It just, you know, happened."

Kylie bit down on her lower lip and let go of her frustration when she remembered that Del a had confided in her about her own family issues. "I'm sorry. It's just hard. It happened last week."

"I can imagine." Sincerity creased Del a's forehead. Then her expression changed. "Oh, I almost forgot what I came to tel you. Remember I told you Derek had a little thing for you? I was wrong. It's not little. It's a big thing."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because Brian, the blond vampire, just drew your name for the Meet Your Campmates Hour and Derek asked him to swap."

Kylie compared spending an hour with a strange vampire to spending an hour with Derek, who made her miss Trey, and she didn't know which was worse. "What did Brian say?" she asked, unable to stop herself.

"He said no ... unless Derek was wil ing to pay for it."

"No way. Tel me he didn't give him cash to get my name."

"Okay. He didn't give cash to get your name." Del a laughed and leaned in as if she had some juicy secret to tel . "He's paying in blood, Kylie. A pint, to be exact."

"Blood?" Kylie stood there shocked. The shock quickly turned into disgust. "He can't do that," she said.