Willows vs. Wolverines

by Alison Cherry

  I actually have a ton of energy and would much rather do something else, but I don’t want to force her into anything. So I say, “Sure, sounds perfect,” and Mackenzie finally smiles.

  She grabs her notebook, and we head toward the Social Lodge and spread out under the tree we like best. After we spend some time rehashing how perfect the spaghetti prank was, Mackenzie starts looking a lot better. “Did you see Stuart’s face when he first heard the voice?” She giggles. “I thought he was going to faint.” She makes an exaggerated terrified expression and bugs out her eyes, which makes her look like a lizard.

  I throw my head back and try to replicate Val’s giant belly laugh, and Mackenzie looks at me weird. “Why are you laughing like that?”

  “Like what?” I say. “That’s how I always laugh.”

  “No, it’s definitely not. You sound like the Wicked Witch of the West.”

  Huh, I guess that was a failure. I’ll have to practice some more when I’m alone.

  “Anyway,” I say, “the Willows were asking so many questions about ‘Tomás’ last night, I had to make up all this stuff. And they wanted to see a picture of him—thank god there was no Internet. And Lexi wrote him a letter during Cabin Group today asking for more prank ideas. I guess I’m going to have to disguise my handwriting and write back.”

  “Want me to do it?” Mackenzie asks. “I can make my handwriting all spiky and messy.”

  “Really?” I say. “Yeah, that would be great! Thank you!”

  “It’s no big deal,” Mackenzie says. “So, when should we do another prank? I thought maybe—”

  “Hey, Izzy,” comes a voice from behind me, and Mackenzie slams her notebook shut. I turn around and see Roo and Lexi and Ava.

  “Hey,” I say. “Have you guys met? This is my best friend, Mackenzie. She’s in Maple. And this is Roo, Lexi, and Ava. They’re my cabinmates.”

  They all say hi, but nobody seems very interested in Mackenzie, who immediately looks down and starts pulling up tufts of grass. It’s no wonder she hasn’t made any new friends here, if she acts like this whenever she meets new people.

  “So, the camp-wide karaoke competition is on Monday,” Roo says. “We’re going to sing ‘Chillin’ ’ by the Squeegeez.”

  “Cool, okay,” I say. I have no idea why they’ve made a special effort to come tell me this.

  “Do you like that song?” asks Ava.

  “I don’t really know it,” I say. I probably heard it at my cousin Bianca’s quinceañera—her little sister spent the whole night begging the DJ to play Squeegeez songs. All she ever talks about is who the singers are dating and which one got a haircut.

  Lexi gives me a huge smile. “Well, you’re going to have to learn it, because”—she pauses and holds up her hands like she’s about to make a big reveal—“we want you to sing with us!”

  I look at Mackenzie for some sort of explanation, but she looks as baffled as I am. “Well, yeah. Aren’t all the Willows singing it?”

  Roo rolls her eyes like she’s frustrated by how slow I’m being. “Not everyone in the cabin participates. I mean, they do in the little-kid cabins. But once you’re older and the point is to win, you have to be more exclusive.”

  “Oh,” I say. “Who else is doing it?”

  “Just us,” Lexi says. “Ava will sing lead, and the rest of us will sing backup and dance. I’m choreographing! We won last year when we did ‘Your Diamond Eyes’ by Shazamazon with Juliet. It was the best!” She bounces on her toes.

  “Um, it’s really nice of you guys to ask me,” I say. “But you should probably get someone who actually knows the song. Plus, I’m not that good at dancing.”

  Roo sighs. “Izzy, we’re offering you an opportunity. If you don’t want it, that’s fine. But I want to make sure you understand what you’re turning down.”

  I blink at them for a second, and then it clicks. This isn’t really about the karaoke competition—it’s much bigger than that. Roo and Ava and Lexi were impressed by my prank, and they’re offering me a place at the tip-top of the cabin social ladder. Including me in the karaoke competition is their version of letting me wear the FOXY shirt.

  “Oh,” I say. “I—Oh. Okay. I guess I’ll be a backup singer, then. Thanks.”

  “Perfect!” Lexi squeals. “Yay. Come on, let’s go over to the amphitheater and start rehearsing!”

  “Wait, now?”

  “Well, yeah. It’s Free Time. And it’s not like you’re doing anything.”

  I glance over at Mackenzie. “Actually, we were kind of in the middle of—” I start, but then I realize I can’t tell them what we were doing. They have no idea Mackenzie’s been helping with the prank war, and they can’t ever know. If I tell them I can’t rehearse right now, that sitting under a tree is more important than representing the Willows in an important competition, they might decide I’m not loyal enough to our cabin. And then they probably won’t let me be in charge again when it’s time for our next prank. It’s pretty clear that I only have power because they’re letting me have it, and that means they could take it away again if I make one false move.

  “Never mind,” I say. “We can finish this tomorrow, right, Mackenzie?”

  My best friend’s eyes widen. I try to send her a telepathic message—please, please, please let me off the hook without asking any questions—and she must get it, because she says, “I guess so.”

  “Great! Do you want to come watch us rehearse?” I look up at Roo. “That’s okay, right?”

  She looks at me like I’m nuts. “Um, she’s our competition.”

  “But I’m not singing with the Maples,” Mackenzie says.

  “So? You could still report back to the people who are singing. How do we know you won’t steal our routine?”

  The idea of Mackenzie stealing our choreography is completely ridiculous, but all three of the Willows look serious, and I don’t want to start an argument. “Um,” I say to her, “I guess you should . . .” I don’t want to say leave us alone out loud, so I give her a sort of half shrug instead.

  “Yeah, okay,” Mackenzie says. “I’ll go write some letters or something.”

  “Great! I’ll see you later.” I give her a big smile as I stand up and brush off the back of my shorts. There’s no reason to feel guilty, really—one day of Free Time without me isn’t going to hurt Mackenzie. She should probably go back to her cabin and rest, anyway, after how sick she was last night.

  I follow Roo and Lexi and Ava to the amphitheater. I haven’t been here yet except during the treasure hunt, and it’s pretty cool in the daylight—there’s a stage area at the bottom, and rows of semicircular stone seats slope up away from them, like the bleachers at a football stadium. Trees surround it on all sides, so it feels really peaceful. Roo pulls her forbidden phone out of her pocket and cues up the Squeegeez song so I can learn it, and we all huddle around to listen through the tinny speakers. The second the singing starts, Lexi says, “That’s Sven. He’s soooo cute.”

  Ava shushes her. “How is Izzy going to learn the words if you talk over it?”

  “I’m starting it over,” Roo says. She taps her screen, and the introduction plays again.

  From what I can tell, the song is about a girl who’s so hot that she literally raises the temperature of the summer. It’s unbelievably stupid, and it’s also super catchy. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be stuck in my head for the rest of my life. I try to pay special attention to the backup part. Fortunately, there’s a lot of oohing and aahing during the verses, so Ava’s the only one who has to sing lyrics like, “Baby, let me be the ice machine that brings your temperature down.” (Throughout the course of the song, the lead singer also requests permission to be the girl’s ceiling fan, swimming pool, and Popsicle.)

  After we’ve listened to it a few times and I’ve got the tune down, Lexi starts teaching us the dance steps. They’re way more complicated than I expect; there’s spinning and kicking and a little fake tap dance in the middle. I do
n’t believe she expects us to do this while we’re singing, but Roo doesn’t seem to have any trouble picking it up. When I stumble on a turn and crash into Lexi for the fourth time, I wonder if she’s going to kick me out, but instead she smiles and says, “It’s okay, you’ll learn.”

  I’m sweaty and bruised by the time Roo says, “All right, that’s enough for today. I have a surprise for you guys.” She retrieves her backpack from the stone steps and unzips it. I hope the surprise is cookies or something—I definitely deserve one after what I’ve been through for the past hour—but instead, she pulls out a wad of shimmery fabric. “Look what I brought!” she sings.

  At first I can’t tell what I’m looking at, but when Lexi grabs it and shakes it out, I see that it’s a stretchy dress with a silver top and a blue-and-silver sequin skirt. “OMG, they’re perfect!” she says. “I can’t believe Miss Amanda let you borrow them!”

  “Who’s Miss Amanda?” I ask.

  “She’s the head of the dance studio we all go to,” Roo tells me. “She’s incredibly strict about taking costumes out, but she trusts me.”

  “That’s cool,” I say. Now that I know they all take dance together at home, their gracefulness makes a lot more sense.

  Lexi hugs the dress to her chest. “I love them sooooo much. Let’s try them on!”

  “What, now?” I say.

  “Just over our clothes.” Lexi starts pulling the dress on over her tank top and shorts.

  I’m hoping Roo will say she only brought one dress with her, but she reaches back into her bag and pulls out three more. “This one should fit you,” she says, tossing it to me. “You and Juliet are about the same size.”

  I try to keep a pleasant expression on my face as I put the dress on over my FOXY shirt. It fits okay, but it’s so short it barely covers the tops of my thighs. I try to tug it down, but it’s made of stretchy fabric, so it springs right back up. “Isn’t this kind of . . . small?” I say. “It’ll fly up whenever we spin.”

  “It’s supposed to,” Roo says. “I’ve got silver spankies for us to wear underneath. Like what cheerleaders wear under their skirts.”

  Lexi’s using the front-facing camera on Roo’s phone as a mirror, and she turns it toward me so I can see myself. “You look great,” she says. “See?”

  It’s not like the dress covers any less of me than my bathing suit, and the whole camp sees me in that every day. But I’m pretty sure I look a lot more ridiculous in this than I do in my red Speedo. I’ve never really thought that much about my body before, but now all I can see is elbows and knees and angles. Then again, if this is the price I have to pay to be part of the group, I guess I can shimmy my hips for three minutes in this silly sparkly skirt.

  I swallow hard. “Looks great. We’re definitely going to win.”

  I guess that was the right thing to say, because Roo beams. Then she reaches for her fancy camera and loops the strap around her neck. “All right, girls, squish together,” she says, and Lexi and Ava sling their arms around my shoulders and pose.

  I’m not thrilled by the idea of the whole camp seeing a photo of me wearing a sequin dress over a too-big orange T-shirt. But even if I look stupid, this photo will remind everyone that the most popular Willows sought out my company during Free Time and that I got to wear Val’s shirt. I tug the dress down as far as possible so that the big white letters peek out, and then I look right into the lens and smile as wide as I can.

  CHAPTER 9

  It’s always weird waking up the first Sunday at camp and realizing I don’t have to put on nice clothes and go to church. When I was little, we never really went except on holidays, but my grandma started taking Lina and me every week when she moved in three years ago, after my grandpa died. Mass is pretty boring most of the time, but I do like the music and the stained glass, and lighting a candle for my grandpa after the service is nice. Before we head out for flag raising this morning, I open up my sock drawer, touch my Virgin of Guadalupe picture, and say a little prayer for him inside my head. It’s not quite the same, but it still makes me feel calm.

  Our second round of activities starts today, and Mackenzie and I have Archery together first thing in the morning. I mean to walk over to the range with her after breakfast, but Roo and Lexi waylay me to talk about our karaoke performance. Mackenzie waits for me by the door, glancing anxiously at the clock every thirty seconds or so, until I finally gesture that she should go ahead without me. It’s only after she leaves that I remember I promised to show her the way, since it’s the same direction as the ropes course. I’m sure someone else will help her, but I still feel bad.

  By the time Lexi’s done telling me about how she thinks we should replace one turn with another kind of turn, I’m so late that I have to run. I get to the range and jog up to Mackenzie just as the counselor in charge is handing out bows. “Hey,” I pant. “Sorry. Lexi wouldn’t stop talking. Did you find this place okay?”

  “Yeah, Lauren walked me over,” she says. “She has Ropes Course.”

  “Who’s Lauren?” I ask as the counselor hands me a yellow bow.

  Mackenzie looks at me funny. “She’s my bunkmate, remember?”

  “Oh, right. Didn’t you say she was ignoring you?”

  “Not anymore. She’s actually super nice, and she’s really funny. She told this joke at dinner the other night that almost made me snort juice out my nose.”

  “What was the joke?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “I can’t tell it right. You had to be there, I think.”

  “Yeah, I get that. Val told a joke like that the other night that involved porcupines and balloons, and it was so funny at the time, but I can’t really remember why now.”

  Mackenzie makes a noncommittal humming sound, and then the conversation ends because the counselor starts teaching us archery range commands. Then she calls us over to get arrows from a giant bin. As I’m picking some out, someone pokes the back of my shoulder, and when I turn around, there’s Twizzler Josh. He must’ve been lurking behind me this whole time.

  “Hello, nemesis,” he says.

  “Greetings, archrival. How was your breakfast this morning? Did it wriggle?”

  He starts picking out arrows. “I’ve got to admit, I was impressed by your first attempt at a prank. Not bad for a bunch of girls.”

  I roll my eyes. “Oh, please. There was no ‘attempt’ about it. We have an amazing picture of your face when that spaghetti started moving.” I demonstrate the expression, eyes bugged out and mouth open wide.

  Josh shrugs, and against my will, I’m impressed by how unruffled he seems. “It’s nothing compared to how you’re going to look when you see what we’ve got planned for you.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it. You Wolverines are all talk and no action. It’s been an entire week, and you still haven’t managed a single prank.”

  Josh backs slowly away from the arrow bin. “Juuuust you wait. It’ll be worth it when it comes. And in the meantime, I’m gonna kick your butt at archery.”

  “Like you kicked my butt on the ropes course?”

  “It’ll be easier if I imagine your face as the bull’s-eye.” I watch as he walks over to the target at the end of the row and drops his arrows into the quiver. He does it with a little flourish, like he expects me to still be watching him. I turn away quickly so he doesn’t get the satisfaction of knowing I actually was.

  Mackenzie’s not quite done getting her arrows, but I grab her arm anyway and tug her toward the target next to his. “Come on, let’s go to that one.”

  “What? Why?” she says. “Who is that guy? Wait, do you like him?”

  I make a face like I’ve licked a dead fish. “Eew, Josh? No! He’s a Wolverine. We have to be close so we can spy on him. For pranking purposes.”

  “Sure. Right.” Mackenzie looks like she doesn’t believe me at all, but it’s true. I don’t want to be near him, I just feel like I should be for the sake of my cabin. Plus, I want to beat him at archery. And pranking. And
everything.

  “Archers to the shooting line!” calls the counselor, and I step forward so I can shoot at the same time as Josh. Since we’re both right-handed, my back is to him, and I try to nock my arrow and draw my bow with perfect form, in case he’s watching. When the counselor shouts, “Fire at will!” I let my arrow fly, willing it to plunge deep into the center of the target. Instead, it bounces off the edge and falls onto the grass. I’m annoyed to see that his arrow is sticking out of the red ring of his target, only a few inches from the bull’s-eye.

  “Whatever,” I say. “I’m just warming up.”

  Josh gives me an innocent look. “I didn’t say anything.”

  Unfortunately, he really is much better at archery than I am. Even with Mackenzie’s gentle encouragement, I don’t improve much, and only two of my six arrows hit the target at all. Josh hits his target with all six arrows, including two in the yellow bull’s-eye area. When our counselor blows her whistle three times, which means we should stop shooting and collect our arrows, I trudge angrily toward my target.

  “It’s okay,” Josh says. “Not everyone can be good at everything.”

  “Oh, shut up,” I say, and then I turn my back to him so I can gather up my arrows in peace. I refuse to let him see how red my face has gotten.

  Mackenzie shoots next, and she does better than me, but she’s not as good as Josh either. Of course, I don’t mind if she does well. When she’s done collecting her arrows, she steps back and stands with me so the third girl in our line can shoot. “I swear I used to be better at this,” I grumble.

  Mackenzie shrugs. “We haven’t done it in a whole year. We could come practice some more during Free Time, if you want.”

  I look down at the grass so I don’t have to meet my best friend’s eyes. “Oh, umm . . . I actually have to rehearse with Roo and Lexi and Ava during Free Time.”

  “Really? Again?”

  “And probably tomorrow, too. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize what a big deal this whole karaoke thing was. I mean, it’s not a big deal, that’s not what I mean. But I have to learn this whole dance routine, and it’s actually pretty hard.”