I'll be there. U?

Oh goodness, did he think the question was like an invitation to hang out?

Was it an invitation to hang out?

Yes. Bye. Guilt set in. But at least the guilt replaced the embarrassment of asking her mom if she was having sex.

Kylie stared down at her phone. Why did texting Derek feel wrong? She shouldn't feel that way. They were just ... friends. Heck, Fredericka was with Lucas five times more than Kylie was with Lucas. Ten times more than Kylie was with Derek. And Fredericka and Lucas had been lovers.

Trying to shake off the feeling, she finished the e-mail and hit send.

"Kylie?" Miranda called from the doorway of Della's bedroom. "Did you do it?"

Kylie looked over her shoulder and attempted to focus on Miranda's cheery voice. Frankly, she could use some cheer. Lately, it seemed she'd done nothing but chew on her problems. "Do what?" she asked a smiling Miranda.

"Stuff your bra. Did you do it?" the witch asked.

Kylie bit down on her lip and grinned as the memory filled her head. "Sara talked me into doing it in sixth grade, but I chickened out and hid behind a dumpster and got rid of the tissue before we got to school. She was livid when she saw me and she had super boobs and I didn't."

Miranda chuckled and Kylie could hear Della inside the room laughing as well.

Miranda gazed down at her chest. "I admitted that I did it for a while before I got them for real. But Della swears she never did it, but I can tell she's lying."

"I'm not lying," Della countered, popping out of her room. "Truth is, I might have done it if I hadn't seen Tillie McCoy bump into the locker with her size Cs and then walk down the hall with a square boob without realizing she'd smashed her boob stuffing." Della held her hand out in front of her chest. "Seriously, she had one boob out to here and one squared off to here. Crazy thing was, the guys still couldn't take their eyes off them. I don't think they cared one was square."

Kylie chuckled but what she really felt was embarrassment for a girl named Tillie whom she'd never met. "That would be awful."

"It was," Della said. "I think tissue sales dropped in town due to it, too. Seriously, the next day, all the girls in seventh grade had lost a couple of cup sizes and the boys were depressed for a month. That day I decided that being a member of the itty bitty titty committee wasn't the worst thing."

They all laughed again.

"You know boys stuff, too," Miranda said.

"Stuff what?" Kylie asked.

Della pointed to her pelvic area.

"Seriously?" Kylie asked.

"Seriously," Della and Miranda said in unison.

"They use socks," Della added.

"Socks? Why?" Kylie asked. "It's not as if we ... check down there."

"They think we do," Della said. "Face it, guys have sex on the brain. Girls have romance on the brain."

"Sometimes I have sex on the brain," Miranda admitted. "Well, I mean, I think about it. Does that make me a slut?"

They laughed harder, Miranda included. Then Kylie shook her head, still trying not to imagine a guy with a sock in his pants. "We all think about it, but ... that is just so ... crazy!"

Della frowned at Miranda and pressed her hands on her temples as if she'd suddenly gotten a migraine. "Damn! Why did you have to bring up the sock thing? Now I'm going to be tempted to look at all the guys' zippers tonight to check for sock bulges."

"You're right." Miranda giggled. "It's like an accident on the side of the road. You don't want to look, but your eyes go there anyway." She hit the bottom of her chin with the back of her hand and tilted her head back. "We'll just have to keep our chins and eyes above the waist the whole time. Whatever we do, no bulge checks."

They all laughed even harder.

Best of all, the laughter reached down into Kylie's heart and eased her feeling of impending doom. And for that, she was grateful.

* * *

The dining hall smelled like cupcakes, which Holiday had the kitchen staff fix for the event. A group of campers hung out over by the appetizers, probably saying hello to the new teachers and a few of the new campers who'd come on board at Shadow Falls. Kylie had spotted one or two new faces the last few days, but hadn't actually met any of them yet. She had to face it; she didn't excel at meeting new people. But considering the first school year at Shadow Falls started next week, she'd have to meet them soon enough.

Standing beside Miranda, Kylie realized the place wasn't as crowded as she'd expected it to be. Probably because the reception wasn't mandatory. Nevertheless, over half the campers were present. Then Kylie noted that none of the weres were here. They'd obviously gone off to do their own thing. Again.

Another sweep of the room told Kylie that Derek hadn't arrived yet, either. She wondered if he was still doing Internet searches to see if he could find a diner in the area that Cara M. might have worked at before she'd been killed. The fact that he was helping her with a ghost issue filled her chest with something warm and scary. Scary because she couldn't exactly define the warmth. They were just friends, she told herself again. And she found it harder to believe each time she said it, too.

Helen waved at Kylie from across the room. She had her arm around Jonathon. Kylie admired the relationship the two of them had found with each other. It was sweet and romantic. Kylie grinned and waved back. In spite of knowing her problems were still here, she felt ... lighter, and the grin felt real, too.