Teri had stared, frozen, as more messages had come in. With each beep, her panic increased. Bobbie Stone apologized for the late notice, but said that it was an emergency and she needed to hear back from Kat as soon as possible.

Teri called Stevie immediately.

No answer.

This sent her heart racing. She did not like to be the one in charge, the one deciding things. It always made her nervous. She was always sure she was making the wrong choice. But with nobody telling her what to do, it seemed she had no option—she would agree to babysit. Because what if she said no, and then Bobbie Stone reached out to Kat’s mom? And then Kat’s mom called Kat’s phone?

It was too risky.

So Teri had texted Bobbie Stone back, pretending to be Kat. She told her that she could come a little later, but for the moment, she would send her friend Teri to the house ASAP.

Teri had called Ryan Camper on the drive over, to cancel their Netflix-and-chill date. She explained the situation, but Ryan had not been understanding. He’d accused her of lying, then hung up on her—which was not the Camp Ogilvie Way! Had they just broken up? She called him back, but the call went to voice mail. So typical of him. Teri was honestly exhausted by the games Ryan Camper played. He never just said how he felt.

But she tried to put these thoughts behind her as she drove. It seemed like the only benefit to this was that it would distract her both from wondering if Ryan was going to call back and thinking about the cast list. She was hoping to be cast as one of Lear’s daughters, but all she truly wanted was not to see the dreaded words at the bottom of the cast list: Teri, please see me about assistant directing.

As she drove, she tried Stevie again. No answer.

There was a dented yellow car in the driveway of the Stone house, with a Hertz sticker on the back. This seemed out of place—it was a big house, all glass and (ironically) wood with a three-car garage. Teri was ushered inside by Mr. Stone, who wore a tuxedo and looked about her dad’s age.

“Sorry for the late notice.” He led Teri down the hall. “We completely forgot about this event. I had to fly back from DC early and didn’t even wait for a ride at the airport, just grabbed a rental car. I told them not to even bother cleaning it, just took the first one they had.…”