Lakeside Secrets

The shimmering **water** of Camp Wawanakwa's lake had been my domain all summer. As the snack shack girl, I spent eight hours a day watching everyone live their best lives while I slushed ice and pretended not to notice. Basically, I was a professional **spy**—minus the cool gadgets and the actual importance.

Then there was Jordan, the CIT who kept staring at me from across the dock. Jordan with the stupid crooked grin and the way they looked at everyone like they were the only person in the universe. Classic crush behavior, right?

Wrong.

One afternoon, I caught Jordan sneaking behind the boathouse. My spy instincts kicked in—I followed, because obviously I had zero chill. What I found made my stomach do somersaults: Jordan wasn't meeting someone for a secret hookup. They were talking to their mom on the phone, voice cracking, crying about how they didn't want to be "that person" anymore. About how they'd been **bearing** this secret for two years and couldn't anymore.

"I think I might be nonbinary," Jordan said, and something in my chest cracked open.

I should've walked away. I should've pretended I never heard. Instead, I stepped out and handed Jordan a napkin from my pocket. "For the tears," I whispered. "And also, I like your pronouns."

Jordan stared. Then laughed through the tears. "You **spy** on everyone here, don't you?"

"Occupational hazard."

We sat by the **water** until sunset, Jordan coming out to someone for the first time, me realizing maybe I'd been **bearing** my own secrets too—about how I hated feeling invisible, about how I wanted to matter to someone the way Jordan was learning to matter to themselves.

The next day, Jordan showed up at the shack with rainbow bracelets. "For you," they said, sliding one onto my wrist. "Thanks for not making it weird."

"Weird is my middle name," I said, but I was smiling.

Some secrets, I learned, aren't meant to be kept. And sometimes being a spy means seeing exactly what someone needs you to see—when they're finally ready to show it.