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Mal never liked summer.
Summer was the dullest season, life washed away with gray grass, gray trees, gray spray paint lining red brick buildings by her school. See, Autumn was painted in the warmth of yellows and oranges, bleeding through onto leaves and sweet potato pie. Winter was a sharp contrast of harsh white and blue making up ice rinks, or marshmallows in hot chocolate. Spring was gray, too, but the bloom of the pink and red flowers she ran her hands through on the way to class made the months just a bit brighter for Mal.
Summer was a downer; it was as if all her friends saw something clearer, more beautiful, beyond the dull pattern that Mal felt trapped by during the hottest season. She pulled herself through, still, with slushies and punk rock, and bright red apples from the grocery store. They were a good substitute for the apples she picked from her neighbor’s tree by the porch, which only grew once in a blue moon. Those were gray, not red, but they were sour and tangy and different so Mal liked them the most.
——
“C’mon, kid, you gotta find something to do. Be adventurous! Learn something new!” Charlie finished wiping off the last of the washed plates as Mal sat cross-legged on a stool, cautiously strumming new chords on her acoustic guitar. “You’ve almost never got all this free time. Spend it wisely.”
“But-” To Mal’s immediate discontent, her mother ruffled her cropped hair into a tangled mess. “Mom, please.”
“Hey. I gotta go to work, but I am leaving you with some brochures and trusting you to at least look at them. There should even be a music camp ad somewhere in there that I’m sure you’d love.” Charlie smiled apologetically as she picked her purse up from off the kitchen table, bright pink and sparkling. Nodding to the bowl of apples placed at the center of the table, she added, “Also, please eat some fruit. You can’t live off junk food forever, Mal.”
Mal rolled her eyes, but nonetheless stopped strumming and took a fat gray apple from the bowl, crunching into its side. It was tart, and cold, and perfect. She balanced the guitar on her knees and waved goodbye to her mom as she closed the door behind her, locking it with a click.
Mal’s eyes flicked across the stack of laminated folders, placed neatly upon the seat of a chair, only for a moment. Maybe there would be something interesting there, after all.
——
A camp for hardcore lady-types did seem very cool at first, Mal had to admit as the faded yellow taxi pulled up into a grassy parking lot, surrounded by pine trees. But that mood was nonetheless dampered at the moment she looked around. In the middle of the forest, nearly all of the landscape was gray - the tall, stretching trees seemed to dominate the sky as much as the skyscrapers downtown. All of the adults that Mal assumed were camp counselors were dressed nearly head to toe in that bland gray.
Regardless of the bland color that left a sour taste in her mouth, Mal bravely cuffed the sleeves of her fuzzy red flannel and forged on ahead. She wove through clusters of new campers and their overly emotional parents, tapping a beat to an unwritten rhythm on her leg and slinging her backpack carelessly over a shoulder. Roanoke Cabin, Roanoke Cabin, Roanoke. Cabin. Roanokecabin, she always tried her best not to forget important names.
And then she bumped into the prettiest girl she’d ever seen, fumbling with a map and a bag, loose gray shirt hanging on her shoulders. Mal, being the polite kid her mother knew she’d raised, offered to help.
“Uh, no thanks, I think I got it-” The bag slipped from her fingers, and Mal caught it in one hand. “I mean. Um. Sure.”
Feeling brave, she threw the girl a wink, and her face instantly flushed bright red. Nice.
Alright, casual conversation time, Mal thought to herself. She knew how to do this. “So, what cabin are you in?” she asked, and the girl grinned somewhat sheepishly.
“Roanoke Cabin, I think? I got signed up late, so…” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I hope that’s where I’m supposed to go.”
Oh! “Hey, I’m in Roanoke too! We can walk over there together!”
The girl brightened at the offer and said, “Really? Yeah! That would be awesome!”
It was almost as if it was meant to be.
Mal thought of this, but didn’t say it out loud, ‘cause that would be weird. And the last thing Mal wanted was for this cute girl who she’d met less than a minute ago to think she was weird.
“I’m Mal.” She offered a hand and a smile.
The girl took the handshake and returned the smile, smooth and sweet. “Molly.”
And in that single second, Mal froze, and looked, really looked at her for the first time.
“Oh, you have… Really pretty eyes.”
They were like nothing Mal had seen before. Warm and soft and colorful, more than anything else on Earth.
The girl - Molly - blinked once, twice, and then gasped. “Oh. Oh, so do you.”
It was like all the world had come alive at once.
Slowly, surely, the gray melted away like slush in the spring, letting a new color bleed through onto the canvas of the forest. It was a brilliant color, one that felt like hot weather and new music and stolen, tart apples. Time seemed to have stopped, just the two of them, alone in a bright world as color seeped into every crack and corner.
It all snapped together, the missing puzzle pieces. She couldn’t see it before, not any of it.
And then, just as it had started, it was over, and Mal felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. Uh. Wow. Alright, cool, okay, great. “Hey. Quick question, Molly.”
Molly was shaken from her daze by the words, despite seeming to have just gone through a small religious experience. “Yeah, Mal?”
“What color’s your shirt?”
“Green,” Molly said to her, breathlessly. “Bright green.”
——
From that moment onward, the summertime only got brighter and more colorful as it went on. Days were filled with hide-and-seek in the deep greens of the forest, of minty cake frosting, and of tart green apples shared over a picnic cloth. Everywhere Mal went, the gray retreated, leaving the world to be filled with laughter and adventure and love.
And those warm green eyes became a second home to Mal, after awkward chats and mad dashes through crypts and heart-racing kisses on pirate ships. Of all the places; a pirate ship was not at all where Mal was planning to have her first kiss. But that was beside the point.
The girl with the smile and the falling bag became so much more, became everything to Mal, became Molly. The girl with the green eyes who lit up Mal’s world.
Summer became Mal’s favorite season.