Page 1 of The Beach Trap

PROLOGUE

2007

There’s something unique about friendships forged between girls at summer camp. Maybe it’s being away from home, separated from other friends or family, and the need for some kind of connection to ward off homesickness. It could be the setting, all that fresh air, the tall trees and sparkling lake water, or the fact that each day feels never-ending, like the camp itself is a miniature universe. Whatever it is, these friendships are special: tinged with the scent of campfire; solidified in whispered conversations in the dark cabin; strengthened by secrets shared and pranks pulled. Magical.

If Kat Steiner and Blake O’Neill hadn’t met at such a camp, they never would have become friends; their lives were as different as the lives of two twelve-year-old girls could be. Kat lived in Atlanta with her mom and dad in a big, fancy house in a wealthy neighborhood. She had thick, wavy brown hair, and her mother took her to an expensive salon every six weeks for a deep conditioning treatment. She attended an exclusive Jewish private school, where she was one of the most popular girls in her class.She took piano and tennis lessons, spent her weekends at the mall with her friends, and always wore the right brand of jeans.

Blake lived outside Minneapolis in a cozy house with her grandparents. She had wispy, pin-straight blond hair, and her grandmother trimmed the split ends with nail scissors every few months. She went to a public junior high school where she kept her head down and tried not to attract attention. She spent her weekends reading books and helping her grandparents with chores around the house. She’d never had many close friends, and she didn’t even know what the right brand of jeans was.

But on that first day of Camp Chickawah, on the shore of a small lake in northeast Minnesota, as the throng of girls was sorted into their cabin groups, something between Kat and Blake clicked. Maybe it was because Kat was out of her element, absent her trusty group of followers, and she was looking for someone willing to fill that role. Blake never would’ve been brave enough to approach Kat on her own, and in fact, when their counselor told the girls in Cabin 10 to find someone to share bunks with, she spiraled into a panic. She was seriously contemplating running down the bumpy dirt road that led away from camp, catching up to her grandpa in his old pickup truck, and begging him to take her back home.

Then Kat turned to Blake, her brown eyes shining, and said, “Wanna be bunkmates?”

Blake couldn’t believe her luck. “Okay,” she said, breathless.

And so it began.

After that, they were inseparable, a unit of two that had become one, Kat-and-Blake giggling in their bunks at night, Kat-and-Blake paddling a canoe on the lake, Kat-and-Blake making matching friendship bracelets during craft time. And in the second-to-last week of camp, they teamed up for the Camp Chickawah talent show together. They’d chosen to lip-sync to the song “BuildMe Up Buttercup” by The Foundations, because they’d both grown up listening to it in the car with their parents. Plus, it had an echo that lent itself conveniently to two different parts.

Kat took the lead, of course, and Blake was happy to let her. They were in the dining hall rehearsing, Blake standing directly behind Kat. Kat started with the first line of the chorus, and Blake popped her head out for the echoing “Build me up!”

Kat was feeling pretty pleased about how it was going when the door to the dining hall opened and someone walked in.

It was their counselor, Rainbow, which wasn’t her real name—all the camp counselors took special names for the summer. The nickname usually fit her, but not today. Right then she looked like a storm cloud, the kind that gets heavy and swollen before the rain starts to fall.

Both girls stopped and looked up. Blake stepped out from behind Kat.

“Kat,” Rainbow said, “I need to talk to you.”

Kat’s first thought was that Rainbow had figured out that last night she’d snuck out of the cabin to take a late-night canoe ride on the lake. Blake had been there, too, of course, but Kat had been the instigator.

“Okay,” Kat said, steeling herself.

Rainbow glanced at Blake. “Alone,” she said.

With those words, Blake knew instinctively that Rainbow was bringing bad news to Kat. She recognized the expression on the counselor’s face; her school secretary had looked just like this on the day Blake’s mother had died in the car accident. White face, tight mouth, sort of flustered and fluttery.

“Blake can stay,” Kat said. “She’s my best friend.”

Blake’s chest swelled with warmth; she hadn’t been anyone’s best friend in years. Not since moving to Minnesota to live with her grandparents.

She stepped closer to Kat and the two girls linked hands.

“Okay,” Rainbow said. “I’m so sorry, Kat, but your grandfather has passed away. Your father is coming to pick you up—he’s on the first flight out tomorrow.”

Kat blinked. Her first thought was dismay that she wouldn’t be able to do the lip sync—they’d practiced so hard, and there was no way Blake could do it on her own, and they were supposed to have hot fudge sundaes after the talent show.

But then it hit her: Sabba was dead. He was the only grandfather she’d ever known, because her mother’s father had died when Kat was just a baby. Her eyes filled with tears as a thousand memories rushed into her mind: the time he’d tricked her into jumping into the ocean water even though it was freezing, how he’d hide one of her shoes so she couldn’t leave when it was time to go, and that he gave the very best hugs in the world.

Meanwhile, Blake’s heart ached for her friend. She knew what it was like to lose someone—she’d been through it more than once. She squeezed Kat’s hand tighter, sending a silent message:I’m here for you.

Kat squeezed back.Thank you.

“You should head up to the cabin and start packing,” Rainbow said. “We have dinner soon and then campfire, and your dad will be here pretty early tomorrow.”

“Can Blake help me pack?” Kat asked, her voice shaky. The last thing she wanted right now was to be alone.

Rainbow’s face softened. “Of course.”

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