As soon as Jonah walked away, Kyle turned to Bay and Amanda.

"So, are you guys coming to the party?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Bay said.

"Ah, I remember my first year working here, when I had no idea what the fuck was going on," Kyle opined. "Basically we get together and get drunk so that we're all hungover as fuck for the saturday rush."

"I'm underage," Amanda said, blowing a bubble. "My dad'd kill me if I got caught."

"Literally no one has ever gotten caught before," Kyle said. "Also, who cares about your dad."

"Of course I'll come, stupid," Amanda said.

"What about you, other newbie?" Kyle asked.

"Uh. I guess," Bay said. "Do I need to bring anything?"

"It's BYOB." Kyle shrugged. "Got too expensive to keep passing that responsibility around the group."

"But I'm underage," Amanda whined again.

"Then make some friends who will buy you some," Kyle said. "This is not the most complicated mental arithmetic in the world."

"Okay," Bay said. "When and where do these parties happen?"

"Right here, baby!" Kyle swung his arms around, indicating the whole of the park.

Bay now immediately understood why Jonah had said no parties. She was feeling less enthusiastic about it by the second, but she wanted to be in the park tonight anyway, so she supposed she couldn't complain. And she was trying to make friends here. That was important.

"And what time?"

"Usually we stumble in somewhere around eleven."

"Late."

"Well, people's shifts don't end until eight, and we want to make sure that everyone has a chance to do whatever they need to do, and all the rest of the staff actually clear out of here..."

"There isn't any security?" Bay asked, nodding to the camera that hung on the side of the wave pool's back wall.

"Oh, you sweet summer child," Kyle said. "Do you think that Mr. Calvin pays for real security?"

"I had been operating under the assumption that he did."

"Like, four years ago I think was the last time that there was any to speak of. This place is..." Kyle shrugged. "A premier destination for people who know how to have fun. Let me just say it like that."

"What if someone gets like, hurt?"

"At the party?"

"No, I mean in general. Like if someone drowns. Shouldn't there be video footage?"

"If you ask too many questions about the dumb way this place is run, you'll give yourself a headache that doesn't go away."

"Jonah said basically the same thing."

Kyle clapped Bay on the back, sending her stumbling forward a few steps. "Jonah is on the right wavelength. You have to be to survive here as long as she has."

"How long has she been working here?"

"Oh, I don't know. I've been here five years, and she wasn't new when I was, so, a while, I guess."

"What's her deal?" Bay asked.

"Why do you care?"

"Curious about my new boss, I guess. Is she going to be good?"

"She could hardly be worse than Rebecca, so I'm fine with her."

"Jonah's nice," Amanda said. "Don't tell her I said that."

Bay laughed. "Okay."

"I'm serious." Amanda popped her gum bubble. "Here's her secret: she pretends to be lazy, but you can get her to do almost anything if you ask her in the right way. Just put up with her grumbling for like five minutes and she'll give you whatever."

"That doesn't seem like an ideal quality for a manager to have?"

"It'll be ideal for us," Kyle said. "Damn, I should ask her to rearrange my schedule. I want Fridays off."

"Are you going to text everyone about that meeting like she asked?" Bay reminded him.

"Oh, yeah."

The meeting in question was held in the largest building in the park, the pavilion. it had a concrete floor, and, despite being fully closed in, was filled with outdoor picnic tables. The whole aquatics staff could easily fit, as usually this building was rented out for corporate summer events and thus seated many people. Bay sat with Amanda and Kyle at one table, and she picked at splinters in it as she idly watched everyone else file in.

The whole assembly was pissed off and sweaty, and Bay noticed that several of the lifeguards that she had talked to were not in attendance. Perhaps they hadn't gotten the memo, or perhaps they had decided that they were not going to stay an extra half hour on the end of their already eleven hour shift. Bay definitely couldn't blame them for that,but she didn't have anything thrilling going on at her house, so she was here. Gotta get that extra $7.50 for staying. Hashtag on the grind or whatever.

She was clearly exhausted after her shift, if those were the thoughts that were going through her head. She contemplated skipping the party that she had been invited to, but reminded herself that she wanted to make friends.

Jonah came in, and walked up to the front of the room, where there was a small raised podium and lectern, in front of a projector screen. No one was paying attention to Jonah. In the group text summoning everyone to the meeting, Kyle had not provided the rationale for it, and had certainly not mentioned that Jonah was the new aquatics head.

Jonah was a fairly plain looking woman, around Bay's age, with short brown hair that probably had been spiky at the beginning of the day, but had now deflated with sweat and heat to lay sullenly against her forehead. She looked around with an expression that read as desperation, even from the distance that Bay was sitting at, and then clapped her hands.

Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap. Then waited for the answering Clap. Clap.

A few people seemed to hear it, she repeated the exercise, more people following along each time. It reminded Bay strongly of being back in middle school, but it was a technique that Jonah had copped from the mandatory lifeguard training the whole staff went through. The instructor there, an overenthusiastic burly man, had made them play clapping games for every conceivable situation. By the end of the training, Bay never wanted to be summoned by clapping again.

But what other choice did Jonah have? At least this was better than more screaming, or more lifeguard whistles. Both of those things were the chorus that sounded the entire long work day.

The staff fell into silence, looking up at the podium where Jonah stood. She fumbled with the microphone for a a second, couldn't get it to work, then just decided to talk very loudly.

"Hey everybody," Jonah said. "Sorry for keeping you all here late today."

"It's okay," someone yelled out.

"Thanks, Markus," Jonah said. "I'll try to keep this pretty quick. I have some news, and some announcements. So, I guess first of all, I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here, and not Rebecca. Well, Rebecca quit. Mr. Calvin--"

Jonah had been about to charge on with her little speech, but she was forced to pause and look around with a rather exasperated expression as the staff broke out into noise of all types. Some people seemed to be enthusiastic about this change, others were confused, some were merely taking advantage of this new chaos to yell out any thought that popped into their head. Next to Bay, Kyle whooped and Amanda looked bored as she texted someone. Bay couldn't assuage her curiosity, and peered over at Amanda's phone screen.

> lol you're sister got promoted

> it's a mess

No reply seemed forthcoming, so Bay made her snooping less obvious as Amanda dropped her phone down on the picnic table with a thunk.

Jonah did the clapping thing again, and Bay politely clapped along. A reluctant quiet once again descended.

"So, yeah, Mr. Calvin promoted me and I'm the new aquatics head." This line could not have been delivered more apologetically unless Jonah had accompanied it with bowing and scraping. "I don't know how long that's going to be fore, and I'm sure we're going to have some hiccoughs along the way, but I'm going to do my best to make sure that the whole aquatics section is run in your best interests."

"And what about the interests of the guests, hunh?" one of the lifeguards yelled.

"Fuck the guests!" Kyle shouted.

Jonah put her hand over her face, either out of embarrassment or to stifle a laugh, Bay couldn't be quite sure.

"I will also make sure that things are in the best interests of the guests, too," Jonah said. "It's going to be a process. Also please don't say things like that around me, because I'm pretty sure I now have hiring and firing power?"

Kyle laughed, but Bay wasn't quite sure that this was a laughing matter.

"Anyway, to that end, I have a couple announcements, and then I'll let you go. First of all, whoever cut the hole in the fence, I am going to need you to not do that. We're not out here to destroy Arcadis property. I don't care if you hop the fence, but if you can't clear it, don't break out the wire snips, okay?"

There was mild laughter. Bay looked down at the picnic table, hoping that no one would see her flushed red face. She had thought that no one would notice the hole, as she had been the one to cut it, a few days prior. Whoops.

"Second, a reminder that during shifts, you need to be on park property, and off shift, you need to not be on park property. Reminder that if you're caught here off hours, you will be fired, and Mr. Calvin might criminally charge you for trespassing. So please obey this rule. Just reminding you that it exists. Thanks."

Everyone was silent, but Kyle leaned towards Amanda and gave a theatrical wink. She let out a breath that could have been a half giggle.

"My last announcement again and unfortunately has to do with the loss of our dearly departed Rebecca. I don't have access to her computer systems, at least not at the moment, so staff records are all over the place. For now, consider that you're working the same shifts that you have been-- that schedule shouldn't change-- and I'm going to do my absolute best to make sure that all timecards are processed correctly and on time, but be aware that there might be hiccoughs, and if you fill your time card out wrong, I might not be able to fix it. If you think you have a problem, see me before the problem gets worse, okay?"

She waited for a general mumble of okay from the assembled staff.

"Does anyone have any questions?" One guy raised his hand. "Zach?"

"Where's Mr. Calvin?"

"At home, I'd assume," Jonah said.

"He couldn't make this announcement himself?"

"I think he prefers to take a more laid back attitude towards staff," Jonah said. From what Bay could tell, the park's owner took a laid back attitude towards almost everything. Not that she had ever met the man. She was just basing that on some of his more strange policies that she had seen enacted.

"Are you qualified to do this job?" Zach pressed.

"I'm going to try my best, and that's what matters," Jonah said with a strained smile.

"Can I switch my shift from Fridays to Tuesdays?" Kyle yelled, without raising his hand.

Jonah turned towards him, the relief on her face plain as she escaped Zach's harsher questioning. "I will have to figure things like that out. If you have a serious problem, I might be able to help you, but we need more staff on Fridays than we need on Tuesdays, so that might not be possible. Talk to me afterwards."

Kyle made a face.

"Can I have a raise?" someone else yelled.

"I don't think I'm authorized to do that," Jonah said back.

"But you do have the power to fire people, I see how it is," Zach said.

"Are there any more actual questions?" Jonah ran an exasperated hand through her hair. "No? Okay, you're all dismissed. See you tomorrow, Saturday crew."

The assembly broke apart into muttering and chaos as some people headed for the doors, and others stuck around to chat.

"There goes my ride," Amanda said, waving a cheeky goodbye as she ran after Jonah, who was trying to escape the pavilion without being accosted.

"Do you walk home or do you have a ride?" Kyle asked Bay, who was standing and stretching.

"Walk," Bay said.

"Want a ride?" Kyle asked. "I have a car."

"Nah," Bay said. "I'm gonna enjoy the nice weather."

"You'd think you hadn't already been enjoying it all day," Kyle said.

"I need a chance to appreciate the cicadas in all their glory," Bay said with a smile. "I'll see you at the party later though?"

"Oh, yeah, for sure," Kyle said, brightening up significantly.

Bay left in the general rush of people who headed back into the woods to take the shortcut back to town. It was by far the fastest route, if you didn't mind going through the woods (which were admittedly a little creepy as the sun was going down). Everyone used their phone flashlights to illuminate the path, having carefully saved up their remaining battery life for specifically this task. As unobtrusively as she could, when they all got to the fence, Bay checked the status of her hole. It had been neatly patched up, but she thought that she might simply be able to use the new wires as a hinge, and still accomplish her same goal.

Most people who were wearing backpacks tossed theirs up and over the fence, before taking running leaps and climbing, hands digging hard into steel wire. Bay climbed as well, with some difficulty, ripping her jeans on the top edge and falling several feet to the ground with the shock and tangle of it.

"You okay?" someone asked, but she couldn't see their face in the gloom, and couldn't identify them.

"I'm fine," she said, and hauled herself to her feet, knowing she'd have a blossom of a bruise on her hip when she got home.

"You'll get used to the fence eventually. Everybody falls sooner or later," the concerned stranger said, then vanished into the darkness.

Bay made it home with no further incident, and fished the spare key out from underneath the mat to let herself in to her dark house. The place was comically empty: her family had moved cross country less than three months ago, and they hadn't yet acquired much furniture to replace what they had sold back in Michigan. Bay hadn't been consulted about the move, since she had been away at school during the entire process. She wasn't happy about it, but she was, as her parents said, less than a year away from being an independent adult, as soon as she graduated college, so the indignity and anxiety of leaving her childhood home in the UP was not really something unexpected.

She figured her family, both parents and younger brother, were out at dinner. She put some rice on to cook, and cleaned herself up so that she would be less filthy before the party. Bay ate her rice bowl standing around in her sparse bedroom. Most of her childhood belongings were packed away in boxes in the basement, and her two suitcases on the floor contained all the things that she had brought home from her junior year of college, that weren't in a storage unit shared with a friend.

The air mattress on the floor gave a sad wheeze when she kicked at it, and she opened up her second suitcase to reveal her true treasures: a whole stash of cameras and lenses, all neatly and delicately wrapped to keep them safe.

Bay had gotten a job at Arcadis for two reasons. The first reason was that her parents had decreed that she couldn't spend the summer sitting around doing nothing and earning no money. The second reason came after she realized that she was going to need to get a job, she figured she might as well find one that was visually exciting. The chaotic, gaudy, run down waterpark would be a suitable backdrop for interesting photography. If she could build up a body of work over this summer, that would make it less of a waste.

She selected the tools she would take with her tonight. SLR with flash attachment, that might be best for party environment. And she wanted to try setting up some pinholes, to do ultra-long exposures, a couple days long, maybe. She headed back into the kitchen and rifled through the fridge, past the leftovers and the almost expired milk, to the tall tupperware where she kept all her film. She pulled out a box of photo paper, and two rolls of 800 speed color film. She tucked the film canisters into her pocket, and found the scissors in the kitchen junk drawer.

Back in her room (windowless), she pulled out the pinhole rigs that she had made ages ago, and laid them out on the air mattress, along with the scissors and photo paper box, memorizing where everything was so that she could transfer the paper into the "cameras" by touch. When everything was set, Bay switched off the lights and gave her eyes a few seconds to adjust, making sure that there were no light sources elsewhere in the room that would wreck her photo paper. She really should get a darkroom light, if she was going to be doing this often, but the concept of buying one and then having to cart it around with her was annoying. So instead, she fumbled around in the dark, cutting the photo paper and jamming it into her pinhole rigs by feel, closing them up tight. Only when everything was safely tucked away could she turn on the light.

There was still plenty of time before this theoretical party was actually supposed to start, and as she contemplated the several hours stretching before her, tiredness overcame her, and she lay down on the half deflated air mattress. She set an alarm on her phone, just in case, and then fell promptly asleep.