Wendy nodded. She kind of got it. Her mom was a caregiver for a bunch of old people and spent her days shuffling from apartment to apartment in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, spoon-feeding them apple sauce and wiping their chins. Or that’s what Wendy always imagined anyway. Sometimes she’d have to stay overnight, and it always stunk. Wendy’s dad was cool but he was pretty strict, and growing up he never got the voices of the characters in Wendy’s favorite books right. Not like her mom did. But Wendy was lucky that her dad was there, and so was her grandpa, and so was Nell. Even if Nell could be a total bore and pain in the butt, she was near-constant company—and while she loudly complained, she always let Wendy dictate what they played as long as she could choose what show they’d watch after dinner. And even still, she mostly let Wendy get her way. Conny and Casey just had each other. “Oh, okay, do not tell me you have a problem with taste. HGTV is elite. It’s decadent. It’s luxury. One day I will meet your mom and she and I will watch House Hunters together, and we’ll bond over all the gore-filled movies you two make us watch. Just you wait.”
Wendy visibly brightened at the idea of a movie night. They had been at the retreat just long enough that her feelings about the cabins had fluctuated dramatically: from utter despair, to rose-colored excitement, and then a plateaued acceptance of the situation with little spikes elation with every new experience. Movies and a fort would have been enough to churn up any childish excitement, and Wendy was desperate for things to be excited about. She opened her mouth to reply, ready to make plans, when Conny tacked on with everyone. Which—duh, she thought, but it was directed toward herself as her cheeks warmed. She didn’t know she’d be a little disappointed by that distinction until she heard it out loud, and it was clearly an obvious one. “That sounds in-cred-ible,” Wendy replied, imbuing her words with the enthusiasm Conny likely expected. And she was enthused. Totally enthused. She loved her friends and she loved spending time with them and she wanted to do something fun. But still. There was still a small part of her that for a split second fantasized it as a specific Wendy-and-Conny thing. “I’m recruiting Iso to help me bully you into adding a musical into the line-up. Preeeetty sure I saw West Side Story’s still on Netflix. And I am preemptively vetoing more than one scary movie, and the one you are allowed can’t be too scary. Everyone’s already super spooked.”
In response to Conny’s light teasing, Wendy wrinkled up her nose at him. “Watch it, kid,” she ribbed, and took a step close enough to bump into him on purpose. Back then she had just turned nine and had never been much of a crier, but she still cried as soon as her parents drove away. And then she cried through arts and crafts, and then through lunch and woodworking and swimming lessons. She cried until she made herself sick, and then the counselors finally got a hold of her mom on her cell phone. It was Wendy’s first time away from home, and her mom hadn’t been keen on it either. Even her dad’s look of disappointment didn’t kill her relief when their beat-up sedan came rumbling back up the rocky, dirt road. “The poor things couldn’t go six hours without me. Can you really blame them? Besides, I had better things to do. I started a sidewalk chalk club that summer, yunno, and those leadership skills are invaluable now.” Wendy paused in picking at the drying sap and sighed dramatically. She held out her hand for inspection, officially delegating the task of clean-up to Conny. “I’m a hands-on learner, and nature has decided to punish me for it. Just like our education system.” She watched him take out a water bottle, smiled, and pointedly didn’t take it from him. She wiggled her fingers. “Do you know if all trees make sap? That seems like something they’d teach you out there in Wisco.”
as wendy called him out for dissing his mother’s taste in entertainment, he couldn’t help the stupid smile that spread as she so easily jumped on his mother’s side. it was stupid, totally stupid. and her position arguably had very little to do with his mother at all. but a mama’s boy at his core it did warm his heart a little. after a moment he held his hands up in surrender, easily giving up the fight with smile remaining on features. “ i meant no disrespect to hgtv, truly, ” he said, though it was hard to appear genuine when he had that dumbass grin on his features. but it was harder to keep that grin from his face around wendy. “ but i will start preparing now for the property brothers marathon that’s in my future. ” he teased, knowing damn well if he was ever subjected to such a thing it would be the furthest thing from torture he could imagine.
he didn’t like the way he said with everyone. he meant it, of course he wanted to have a fun little movie night with all his friends. he got so lucky at broadripple to quickly find a group of people like he had. but he’d only said it to protect himself. though wendy wasn’t that sort of person he could so clearly see her laughing in his face if he ever accidentally passed that invisible line that revealed his feelings, or even suggested his feelings were anything other than platonic. but she smiled, and as far as conny wasn’t effected by his distinction– which was exactly what he’d wanted. he cringed a little when she mentioned west side story, mostly teasingly. it’s not that he didn’t like musicals, but if the musical numbers were the best part of a film he’d rather just listen to an album. “ i’m not saying no to west side story ... but– ” he paused to suck a breath, “ you gotta build up to that sort of thing. that’s like jumping in the deep end of a wave pool when you don’t even know how to swim, ” he reasoned, and if it was anyone but wendy suggesting it he might mention that he’d rather drown in said wave pool than watch west side story. for wendy he’d totally watch west side story. “ how about ... ” he trailed off, filing through movies he’d seen and either had downloaded or were available on some sort of streaming service that were musical or music centric that would happily bridge the divide between conny’s favourites like scream and get out and anything from the stephen king universe and wendy and isobel’s desire for musicals. “ across the universe? you ever seen it? ” he suggested. though not a huge beatles fan, he had a major soft spot for evan rachel wood and jim sturgess too. “ i’m pretty sure i have it downloaded but i could always hole up in the library for an afternoon to get it. ”
it wasn’t something conny ever really put much thought into, but he realised he maybe didn’t know a whole lot about his friends. of course a lot of that ignorance could be excused because he was new to broadripple and broadripple being a boarding school allowed everyone a break from their families and home lives. but he liked hearing the way wendy talked about her family. even if she was joking around. dopey smile tugged up his lips for a moment before he pressed them together again and nodded his head. “ right, of course– you know i’m surprised they even got as far as dropping you off at camp, how they even thought they could go so long without you? it’s shocking to me, completely shocking. ” he played along, trying to subdue amusement on his features but, as always, totally failing.
when she wiggled her sap covered fingers at him, he gave in easily. swinging bag back over his shoulder and rearranging camera strap so it hung to his side instead of against his chest. unscrewing the water bottle as he stepped closer to her so he could properly inspect the damage. “ but you did learn something, ” he said, taking her hand into his, gentle with his touch like she was injured and not that he was wary about getting sap all over his own hands. “ watch what you’re touching in the woods. ” he looked up from her hand to her to offer a stupid grin, amused with himself, before he looked back down again. he turned her palm upwards, still being soft with his touch, so he could pour a little water into it. curve of her hand catching a little of it while most of it ran off the sticky surface and onto the dirt between them. “ i have no idea, ” he admitted, rubbing the water into the sap and her skin as he attempted to clean it. “ i think most of them do, it just takes a broken branch or like, a cut to see it for some of them. ” if connor roberts were some sort of poet maybe he could have thought about how sometimes people were like that. that it took something drastic to see what they were made of. instead he was hyper fixated on how soft wendy’s skin was, wondering if he’d ever noticed that before, and completely aware of how close they were for this whole interaction. he paused to pour more water on the problem area, cupping her hand with his free hand as he did.