Read Lucky Penny for Free Online Page B

chest. “I’m not sleeping in there,” she spat out.
    “Bagsy top bunk,” a girl with long red hair yelled, running for the cabin door.
    “Go ahead,” I said to the girls hanging behind, waiting for me to give them permission to enter.
    “Erica, are you going to join us?” I didn’t approach her. She wore her hostility like a coat of armor, but I could see the cracks. Her hands trembled slightly as they hung at her sides.
    “I’m not going in there.”
    “Okay. When you’re ready to join us, we’ll be inside.”
    I could try to talk her into it, but something about the hard girl in front of me told me it would do no good. She was defensive and unwilling for a reason.
    Turning my back on her, I walked up the cabin’s steps. The sounds of chaos spilled out of the tiny cracks between the wood. Before heading inside to try to instill calm, I glanced over my shoulder at Erica. “You might not think it, but I’ve been in your shoes before. It’s okay to let your guard down once in a while.” I smiled softly. “I look forward to getting to know you, Erica.”
    It was the truth.
    Something about Erica called to me. Gut reaction, intuition—I didn’t know what to call it, but I saw some of me in her. I’d been that girl before—lost, scared, and alone—and someone had helped me. He had showed me that living in foster care didn’t have to be all bad.
    Now, maybe, I could be that person for Erica.

“T hat’s it, Lucy. You can do it. Just a little farther. Reach, REACH,” I yelled, willing her to stretch a tiny bit farther to grab the ledge. My words seemed to give Lucy the strength she needed, and with one last push, she extended her arm, stretching as far as possible until her fingers touched the ridge of the wall and she managed to get a firm grip on it.
    “Go, Lucy! Pull yourself up.”
    Her small hands held on for life as she tried to find a foothold in the wall to hoist herself up.
    “Come on, Brannon, Lucy is almost over. We can’t have the girls beating us. We’re men, Brannon. Men.”
    I shot Blake a questioning look, and he grinned across the obstacle course at me. This was the second time this week our cabins had been paired together to participate in activities. Although the cabins completed most of the activities individually, some—like raft building, the obstacle course, and games day—built teamwork by pitching one cabin against another in competitions.
    Blake continued to shout words of encouragement to Brannon while pride settled in my stomach as Lucy kicked herself over the wall and tumbled down the other side into the mud pit. Her shrieks caused the other girls behind me to laugh. I turned to face them and said, “Is that how we support our teammates? Get over here and cheer our girl on.”
    They joined me, yelling words of support to Lucy. Erica, although she had participated in the activity, stood positioned away from us slightly and didn’t join us to cheer on Lucy.
    “Erica, we all cheered for you,” I said, hoping she would find it in herself to show Lucy some support.
    She shrugged refusing to meet my eyes. “So. I didn’t ask you to.”
    Unwilling to engage in her attempt at an argument, I ignored her.
    Five days in, and I was still no closer to breaking the ice between Erica and me and the other girls. Brianna—Erica’s only friend—had even warmed up a little, participating fully in all the cabin and camp activities, although she still seemed wary of me.
    Lucy reached the end of the course, and we all rushed over to her to celebrate her achievement. As the smallest and youngest girl in our cabin, the obstacle course had worried Lucy. The huge grin on her face showed just how important it was for her to be able to complete the course.
    “Boys, what do we say?” Blake led his group of disappointed faces over to us.
    Reluctant mumbles of ‘well done,’ ‘good job,’ and ‘congratulations’ came from their group. Blake stepped forward and bent slightly to