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“This is not camping,” Caitlyn said, surveying the tent Vi and Jinx had pitched in her backyard.
Vi, arms laden with snacks, bumped her shoulder as she passed. “Sure it is. Come in and see.”
Though she doubted anything in the tent would change her mind, Caitlyn followed Vi inside. All four windows had been rolled up to let in the weak evening sun. The whisper of a battery-powered fan washed over Caitlyn’s skin, providing a bit of relief from the summer heat.
Vi dumped the snacks onto the floor between two air mattresses before flopping down on one, leaving space for Caitlyn to slip in beside her. Across from them on the other mattress, Jinx lay on her side, Isha sitting near her legs.
“Welcome to The Grand Tent Of Greatness, cupcake.”
Jinx rolled her eyes, which Caitlyn graciously ignored. “I fail to see how sitting in my father’s tent in the heat is preferable to sitting inside in the air-con.”
"I’m surprised you own tents, Kiramman," Jinx said, reaching for a bag of chips. "Thought rich people were all afraid of the dirt.”
“My family has taken yearly camping trips since before I was born. Actual camping, not this,” Caitlyn said, unable to keep the sharpness from her voice.
Isha looked up from her bag of tiny cookies to sign, “ What’s real camping?”
Vi started to interpret, “She asked—”
“I understood.” Her sign lessons had proved useful, and languages had always come easier to her than the math Jayce loved. “Real camping is something you do in the mountains, or at least somewhere away from suburbia. You go for hikes in the woods and swim or fish at a lake. You set up a hammock so you can read in the trees. And, of course, you make s’mores over a campfire.”
Vi and Jinx exchanged a confused look. Isha patted Jinx’s leg to get her attention, “ What is a s-m-o-r-e?’
“Another kind of richy-rich food,” Jinx said with a wave of her hand.
“None of you have ever tried them?” Caitlyn was appalled. “We’ll have to change that. Vi, could you start a fire in the pit?”
“Sure, cupcake,” Vi pressed a kiss to her cheek. “It’s hot when you get all I have to show the trenchers fancy shit.”
“S’mores are not fancy. You’ll see.”
It didn’t take long for Caitlyn to amass the necessary ingredients and four roasting sticks. When she returned to the yard, a fire crackled in the pit, Vi and her sisters keeping their distance.
“Campfires are best when it’s cool out, but the s’mores will still be enjoyable.” Caitlyn set her collection on the outdoor table. She handed a roasting stick to Vi before holding them out to Jinx and Isha with a firm, “No stabbing, no arson.”
“No promises,” Jinx quipped, stealing one of the sticks.
Vi gave her an eldest sibling look. “Jinx.”
She hoisted her stick into the air. “That’s me!”
Isha giggled.
Caitlyn stuck two marshmallows onto her own stick. “You cook them over the fire like this.”
“We’re cooking marshmallows?” Vi asked as the others hesitantly followed suit.
Almost instantly, Isha’s stick dipped too low and caught fire. She yanked it out, and Caitlyn hurried to blow out the flames. “That’s how my mother made hers, she said it gives them a nice texture, but you can try again.”
When her own marshmallows had the perfect golden tint, Caitlyn pulled them off the fire. She set one on her plate and sandwiched the other between two graham crackers, adding a square of chocolate before she pinched it closed.
She held it up, fingers already sticky. “ This is a s’more.”
“It’s just marshmallows and chocolate?” Vi asked, putting her own together.
“ Just, ” Caitlyn scoffed. She’d seen Vi scarf down all kinds of food that ranked well below s’mores.
“I expected something more extravagant.” But when Vi took her first bite, her eyes lit up. “Damn.”
Caitlyn offered her spare marshmallow to Isha, who had burned yet another pair. She and Jinx made their sandwiches side-by-side, Isha grimacing as she touched melted marshmallow.
“Sticky?” Jinx asked.
Isha nodded, and Caitlyn thought she might give up before taking a bite.
Jinx bit into her own and let out a low whistle. “You might actually be onto somethin’ with these.”
It was the closest thing to praise that Vi’s sister had ever given Caitlyn. She tried to look unaffected, but Vi caught her eye and gave her a little wink.
Isha, clearly encouraged by Jinx’s reaction, tried her own s’more and grinned, marshmallow and chocolate smeared around her mouth.
“Next time we’ll go camp in the mountains,” Caitlyn said between bites.
Jinx tensed, but the malice in her expression was less intimidating when she had chocolate on her chin. “What, this ain’t good enough?”
“You don’t think Isha would like camping somewhere more interesting than my backyard?”
Isha lifted her hands from where she had been furiously wiping them on a napkin. ‘I want to swim in a lake.’
“I know the perfect lake for swimming.” She had discovered it with her father, though it was her mother who had jumped off the tall pier hand-in-hand with Caitlyn.
Jinx scuffed her sneaker in the grass. “Vi is scared of bugs.”
“I am not,” Vi immediately protested, finishing her food and wiping the crumbs from her lap.
Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. “I saw you find a spider in the bathroom last week.”
“It was venomous!”
“It was not,” Caitlyn used a now-cleaned hand to reach for Vi, gently squeezing her thigh. “Don’t worry, love, no one will think you’re less tough because you’re scared of bugs.”
“You don’t speak for me,” Jinx said through a mouthful.
Isha shook her head. ‘Bugs are cool, but some of them are scary.’
“They can bite,” Vi agreed, lifting her hand for a high-five. “The kid gets it.”
‘‘But spiders are cool.’ Abandoning her half-finished s’more on her chair, Isha wandered to the table to steal a piece of chocolate.
“The kid gets it,” Caitlyn quoted back at Vi.
“The kid is a traitor, and she knows it.” Before Caitlyn could respond, sticky hands were on her cheeks, a sweet mouth on hers.
She pushed Vi off of her. “Vi, your hands!”
Vi just grinned, unrepentant. Begging for retaliation.
Caitlyn ran her finger through the chocolate dripping from Isha’s abandoned s’more, and used it to draw a line down Vi’s nose.
Vi caught her wrist, tongue darting out to lick her finger.
Jinx screamed. “No! Not in front of me and Isha! I will roast you over this fire, Violet!”