“Boo!” Her voice is deafening in my right ear. I remain still, glaring into the flames, and raise my hand to give her the finger.

“Wow, so you won’t use the f-word, but you’ll give me the finger. You keep throwing curve balls at me, Sier,” she says cheerily.

Jamie’s already clutching a stick loaded up with three marshmallows. She squeezes herself between me and the cute girl I noticed yesterday—who I sat in the vicinity of but have yet to speak a word to. I still don’t even know her name.

Now Jamie’s talking to her like they’re the best of friends. She calls her Thalia. How does she know her already?

Jamie turns back to me. “So you made it!” She lowers her stick over the bonfire. She’s still wearing those stupid overalls with the red plaid shirt. I thought maybe she would have changed into something less embarrassing.

I fiddle with my braid. “Why do you insist on dressing like a farmer from the fifties?”

“Oh, I find them super hot.” She shoots me a vexing smile.

I groan and turn back to the fire. “I’m here. What do you want?”

“Well, first I wanted to share a thing I noticed that we have in common during our session as a sort of olive branch for the miracle exercise fiasco.”

I wait for her to share.

“Um, well, I too had aspirations to travel around the world for work, and I too am facing the very real possibility that—that’s never going to happen for me.”

I glare at her expectant expression.

Jamie gestures excitedly with her hands. “We have similar failed career aspirations—it’s groundbreaking!”

What an extremely depressing thing to have in common.

When I don’t respond, Jamie babbles on, “So yeah … Anyway, um, I know you kind of hate me, and you most likely came here to actually rediscover yourself in some way or another and I’m probably getting in the way of that.”

Eerily accurate. All I’ve been able to think about the last few hours is Jamie. Her presence is quite literally ruining the point of the retreat. How am I supposed to figure out where I’m going next post-ballet if all I can do is think about the past?

“But—” Jamie continues, “I wanted to tell you I’ve had a sister-bonding idea that would involve some travel.” She does a little shoulder dance like this should entice me.

I am a little enticed. I raise my brows.