“So did you.”
“I’d already gotten a lot.”
Denise crouched slightly so they were eye level.
“That’s what you told us.” Then she added gently, “Mia, everybody here got a lot. That’s what camp was for.”
“I’d already gotten a lot.”
Mia’s eyes dropped.
Ava called from nearby, “That’s why we made the rule!”
I finally asked, “What rule?”
Mia groaned.
Ava answered anyway.
“The Mia Rule. Nobody can give away their turn until they’ve taken one first.”
Despite everything, I almost laughed.
Mia muttered, “It was annoying.”
“We’re keeping it next summer,” Denise said.
She looked at me.
“The Mia Rule. Nobody can give away their turn until they’ve taken one first.”
“Rebecca, when I said I don’t want kids like her coming here for that kind of money, I meant I don’t want a child watching her mother work herself exhausted to pay for camp, then spending three weeks trying to earn every dollar back. And I shouldn’t have said ‘kids like her.’ I was frustrated with what she was doing, not with who she is.”
