I can’t stand the idea of going back to face the reporters. To the stares from customers and the A-Team. And soon I’m going to have to think about what the reporter meant when he said he interviewed my mother at her hotel.

I hear a metallic skitter, and Aiden stops paddling for a few strokes.

“Lucky, lucky,” he says. “Two for two.”

Finally, something goes my way.

One more blister later, we’re picking up speed, finally working together and starting to glide smoothly through the water. Loon Lake is spreading out in front of us, tiny and almost perfectly round. It’s nothing like the other inland lakes around here that buzz with boats and jet skis; there are no houses, no cabins, no docks. Scrawny, leafless trees are dense around the perimeter. They should be ugly, with their naked gray branches and thin, barkless trunks, but they’re strangely beautiful.

“Do you think Ellis knows my name?” I ask. My hands hurt and I’m barely paddling.

Aiden laughs. “Because he calls you New Girl?”

“Yeah. I mean, he does know my name, right?”

Aiden’s voice is gentle. “He definitely knows your name.”

I groan. “I’m never going to remember everyone. I don’t know how you even manage to hire that many people with A-names.”

Aiden laughs and the sound drifts up softly, caught on the wind rushing past us. “I can’t decide if I want to tell you or not.”

“Tell me what?”

“Promise not to tell Ellis I told you…”

“Okay…”

“Those are all fake names—Alex, Andy, Allison and Avery—Ellis just wanted to mess with you for being late. Don’t tell him I told you though.”

“Oh my god, and he seems so nice!” I’m joking of course, but also, what the hell? Day one and already I’m the fresh meat to torment?

“He is, he’s just trying to make work fun. He’s been telling me for years about the games he makes up for everyone at work—stuff to take their mind off the fact that it’s ninety degrees out and they’re on the verge of heat stroke.”

“Oh god,” I mutter. Is this job really so horrible we have to have games and pranks to distract us from the horror of it?

Aiden laughs. “Seriously, I’ve only worked here for a week now, and it’s fun. I’m sure you’ll have a great summer.”

“I thought your parents owned this place. You haven’t worked here before?”

“Nah. In the past my summers were busy. This summer’s the first time I’ve had the time to do it,” he says.

“Well, I won’t tell anyone I know about the name thing, but I can’t promise I won’t have some fun with it.”