Chapter 1

There are three of us, Stacey, Ashley and myself who have been best friends since we started school twelve years ago. Oh, my name is Margaret Mary, but everyone calls me Peggy. The only time I use Margaret Mary is in church, and even then, only when I must. But, getting back to the story, the three of us have been best friends, pals, and indivisible companions and, if you listen to some people, including some teachers, unpredictable handfuls of excitement or trouble, they never knew which. I suppose it is true, what they say. We have always had a bent for getting into mischief. Nothing serious, mind you. We never hurt anyone or any property either, but I'm sure some of our antics did make some people plenty upset.

In school, if one was absent, three were absent. I don't know why--it just worked that way. If one got an A, three got A's! Who knows why, it just worked that way. And if one got suspended because her skirt was too high above her knee, by golly, all three were walking home within minutes. But we were equally active in good things. We worked hard for the school food drive for some charity in the city. At the holiday, we fed old people free meals in the high school gym. We each worked as candy stripers at the hospital one year. And we each spent as much time eating, sleeping and just being at the other girl's houses as we did at ours. So it was no surprise when we told our parents that we wanted to go up to my uncle's summer cabin for a week after graduation. And it came as no surprise to us that all three parents said, "Hold on, we need to talk about this a bit." But, eventually, they relented and we got it set up and one week after graduation ceremonies were completed, the three of us set out for our very first truly independent week.

(Note to the reader: Do NOT shake your head and say "Oh, I can just imagine what kind of trouble these girls are going to find..." That's not fair to them. They could all be bright, intelligent and worldly young ladies. You never know.)

We got it all set up with my uncle. We asked him to stock the place with a list of food that we knew how to cook, and also asked him to make sure the boat was working and ready. Here it was, June fifteenth, and we were on our way. Excited? You could say that. We were thrilled to be on our own, if only for a week, away from prying eyes and snoopy neighbors and girls jealous of our friendship. We were ecstatic.

The cabin was farther in the woods than I remembered. I had only been here twice, once when I was very small, and another time in sixth or seventh grade. As I remembered it, we only had a short drive to get to the store, but in fact, the cabin was at least a mile and a half down a private lane before we even got to the gravel road. Lined with trees on both sides, the only way to describe it was wilderness forest, but wow, it was sure pretty. The cabin was like what I imagine most summer time lake places are: three bedrooms, one bath, a kitchen with an eating area and a living room with a television that only received one channel. My uncle had a boat for water skiing, some dumpy looking thing for fishing, and a little one person sail board. They were all ready to go, although I didn't think any of us had any interest in fishing. It was probably his idea of a joke. As far as I was concerned, water skiing, swimming and laying in the sun were the only things on my agenda for this week.

We pulled in late Saturday afternoon, and by mid day Tuesday, we had used all the gas in the tanks for skiing and needed to go back to the store for more. That probably was the beginning of our downfall. We put both gas tanks in the trunk, drove the few miles to the corner and then a few more to the country store and gas pump. So far so good, but our appearance there turned a few eyes, most notably the three guys hanging around the service bay at the gas station. We didn't even get the tanks out of the trunk before they were next to our car investigating who the three new girls were, and why they needed gas for an outboard motor. It was all going well until they asked where we were staying. I didn't answer them directly, just said up the road a little ways. Then one of the guys asked what kind of boat we had, and Stacey, without thinking, told them the brand and what the boat looked like.

"Oh, you must be staying at Joe Kelly's place."

"Yes, he is my uncle. He invited us up to spend some time with his family."

"Well, you must have gotten your weekends crossed then, because they are all at Disney World this week. That's all his boys been talking about for months. You girls there all by yourselves?"

If ever trouble had stood up to announce its presence in capital letters, it was right then. Why in the world did we have to tell them so much about ourselves? Now they knew where we were staying, and that we were alone as well.

We went back to the cabin, but nobody said a lot on the ride. I think all three of us were tempted to suggest that we pack up and go home, and that this "on our own" stuff in the north woods wasn't such a great idea. But nobody said anything, and when we arrived, we unpacked the gas and hit the water skis again. I think we all slept with one eye open Tuesday night, but we never heard from the boys again so by Wednesday, we were back to our good spirits and fun times.

Even though we had pledged to each other not to talk about boys all week, the subject did come up that afternoon as we lay on the beach absorbing the rays. Each of us had a guy that we were dating on a regular basis, not going steady or anything, just a current date guy.

Ashley was the one that brought up the subject first. "What do you supposed the guys are doing this week while we are gone?"

Stacey shot back," We said we weren't going to talk about boys this week."

Ashley ignored the comment. "Do you think they would go out with other girls while we're gone?"

"Why would you think that?" I asked.

"Well, Rob was kinda mad at me when we left."

"What was he mad about?" Stacey was honesty quite surprised that the subject of boys had taken so long to come up.