“Fine,” Roo grumbles, but she doesn’t look happy about it.
By pooling everyone’s wardrobes, we manage to find four pairs of black leggings and four red tank tops. The leggings I’m in belong to Petra and are a little long on me, but they’re still way better than the itty-bitty ballet costumes. Honestly, it’s hard to be too upset that the ugly sequin dresses are gone.
We get to the competition late and don’t see the kids from Cottonwood or Chipmunk or Rabbit, but we catch the rest of the competition. Every other cabin just gets up onstage, stands in one place, and sings, and I realize for the first time how completely over-the-top Roo and Lexi and Ava have gone with all their choreography. I mean, I’m all for winning, but I can’t help feeling a little resentful that I gave up so much free time with Mackenzie to practice this ridiculous song about air conditioners when it wasn’t necessary. I search the crowd for Josh so I can give him a death glare, but I can’t find him anywhere. He’s probably too scared to show his face after what he did.
Four girls from Maple do a pretty good rendition of “Shake It Off,” and then it’s our turn. The emcee announces us, and I try to catch Mackenzie’s eye as I hop down the steps toward the stage, hoping for a “good luck” or a thumbs-up. But she’s too busy congratulating her own cabinmates to notice me. A girl with a long blond ponytail slings an arm around her shoulders, and my stomach twists as Mackenzie hugs her back. I didn’t know she was on hugging terms with anyone here besides me.
Concentrate, I tell myself.
We climb up onstage and strike our opening poses, hips cocked and heads down, and I suddenly get a rush of nerves. As much as I love being the center of attention, most of the people here at Camp Foxtail are still strangers, and it’s a little intimidating. But then, in the moment of quiet before the music starts, Val shrieks, “Go Willows! Those are my girls! Woooo!” and everything feels okay again.
The opening chords play, and I lift my chin, beam at the crowd, and give this insane song everything I’ve got. Ava grips her microphone and works the crowd like a real pop star, and Roo and Lexi and I spin and kick and “ooooh” in perfect sync. I don’t mess up once, and when the song ends and a wave of cheering and applause washes over us, it feels fantastic. Even the counselors judging the competition stand up for us, though I’m pretty sure they’re not supposed to show who their favorites are. I see a few camera flashes from the crowd, and I smile as big as I can, hoping these pictures will end up in the end-of-camp slide show.
The four of us bow, then wave at the crowd as we head toward the stairs on the side of the stage. The second we’re on the ground, we crush into a jumping, screaming group hug. “That was perfect!” Lexi squeals. “We killed it, you guys! Take that, Wolverines!”
The emcee is actually announcing the Wolverines right now, but Roo talks right over him about how much the judges loved us, so I don’t pay any attention. The boys and their failed attempt at sabotage don’t matter right now, not when we’ve had such a stunning success. If they thought they were going to throw us off by stealing a few sequins, they’re worse at pranking than I thought. We’re going to win this competition and the prank war.
And then the entire camp bursts out laughing, and when I turn around to see what’s so funny, my mouth drops open.
Four Wolverines are standing in front of the microphone, dressed in tiny ballet costumes covered in blue and silver sparkles. The skirts are shorter on them than they were on us, and several inches of boxer shorts hang out the bottom, spray-painted silver to mimic our spankies. The boys have blue and silver ribbons tied around their heads, and they’re all preening and tittering and flipping imaginary ponytails over their shoulders. Josh is one of them, and when he catches me looking, he drops into a low curtsey. He’s stuffed the top of his costume with balled-up socks, and one of them pops out and rolls across the stage, which makes everyone laugh harder.
And then the Wolverines’ music starts playing, and things get worse. It’s the same exact Squeegeez song we just sang, the one I idiotically mentioned right in front of Josh. The judges double over laughing when they realize what’s happening, and Roo’s eyes bug out so far that I’m worried her head might explode.
“They were spying on us,” she sputters. “How dare they!”
“It’s the only explanation,” I agree, because I’m pretty sure Roo would smother me with a pair of spankies if she ever found out what really happened.
“We need to get them back immediately,” she says. “You sent that letter we wrote to Tomás asking for another prank idea, right?”
“Yeah, of course. I bet we’ll hear back any day now. But if you want to do something before then, I can think up a prank without him. I actually have an idea that might—”
Roo cuts me off. “I don’t think you understand how serious this is. We can’t do just any old prank. We need help from a professional.”
“Right, okay,” I say. Mackenzie better hurry up with that letter.
As they sing, the Wolverines shake their hips so the sequin skirts swish back and forth. Their choreography is a mess, and all of them are off-key, but I guess that makes it funnier, because the entire camp is cracking up. When I look over at the rest of the Willows, I catch Val stifling a traitorous smile. It feels like a small betrayal, but I guess I can’t blame her that much. If the boys were making fun of someone else right now, I would probably think it was funny too.
When the song ends, all four of them turn around, lean over, and flip up their skirts, and everyone shrieks when they see the iron-on letters on their scrawny boxer-covered butts.
The letters spell out:
W-E-E-P, W-I-L-L-O-W-S!
CHAPTER 11
The Willows take second place in the karaoke competition.
The Wolverines take first.
Second out of twenty is great, and if we had lost to anyone else, we’d be thrilled. But losing to the Wolverines is absolutely infuriating. “This is so unfair,” wails Lexi as we make our way out of the amphitheater, trying to ignore the Wolverines’ jeers and laughter. “We worked so hard, and we were so much better than them. All they did is steal our song and our dresses and act stupid, and now they’re getting all the attention!”
“Male privilege strikes again,” Roo says. “My mom says girls almost always work harder and still get less respect, and it’s so true.” She shoots a death glare at Stuart, who’s wearing one of the sequin costumes on his head as he dances in circles around Val and sings the line about the ice machine over and over. Val snatches the costume away and smacks him with it, which makes me feel a tiny bit better.
I spot the Maples ahead of us on the path, so I run to catch up. Mackenzie’s laughing about something with that blond girl from earlier, and I touch her arm to get her attention. “Can you believe what the Wolverines did?” I say.
Mackenzie looks back and forth between me and the other girl, like she’s not sure who to answer first. Finally she says, “Um, I have to talk to Izzy for a second. I’ll meet you back at the cabin for you-know-what, okay?”
“Sure,” the other girl says, and she jogs ahead to find her friends.
“What was that about?” I ask. “What’s you-know-what?”
“Just cabin stuff. What were you saying about the Wolverines?”
It seems like it should be obvious what I was saying. “They stole our song! And our costumes! Can you believe they had the nerve to dig through Roo’s drawer? Oh god, they probably went through all our drawers. They probably touched my underwear!” The thought of Josh looking at my underwear makes my face go pink. I guess he wouldn’t have known which was mine, but still.
I expect Mackenzie to be outraged on our behalf, but she looks totally calm. “I mean, it’s not really that unexpected, is it? You guys are in a prank war. It’s not like they were going to leave you alone after the spaghetti thing.”
“All we did was scare them, though. It was funny. Taking our costumes and making fun of us in front of the entire camp is t
otally different!”
“You didn’t want to wear those costumes to begin with,” Mackenzie says.
“That’s not the point. The dresses didn’t belong to Roo. They were from her dance school, and she has to return them, and now they’re probably all stretched out. Plus, we would’ve gotten first place if they hadn’t pulled that dumb stunt.”
Mackenzie shrugs. “You still got second. And it doesn’t really matter that much, does it? It was just a silly competition. And their dance was kind of funny.”
Even though I thought the exact same thing earlier, her words still sting. “Are you taking their side?” I snap.
Mackenzie stares at me. “Um, obviously not. I’m the one thinking up ways for you to prank them, remember?”
“Shh!” I look around to see if anyone heard her, but nobody’s paying any attention. I lower my voice. “Okay, sorry. I know you’re on my side. Speaking of that, do you think you could hurry up with that letter from Tomás? The Willows are really angry, and I want to start planning a way to get the Wolverines back, but they still won’t listen to anything I say unless it comes from him.”
A weird expression crosses Mackenzie’s face for a second, but then she says, “Yeah, okay. I can probably give it to you tomorrow.”
“That’d be great. And make sure nobody sees you writing it. Including that blond girl.”
“That’s Lauren,” says Mackenzie. She sounds annoyed that I don’t already know that, but how could I? It’s not like she ever introduced us.
“Okay, but seriously, don’t tell her, all right?”
“I’m not going to tell her,” Mackenzie says. “This whole secret agent thing was my idea, remember?”
We’re at the point where we have to separate to go to our cabins, and Lauren turns around and calls, “Mackenzie, come on!”
“See you tomorrow,” she says.
“See you,” I say, and she walks away.
She still hasn’t congratulated me on our performance.
* * *
Mackenzie slips me the letter the next morning during Archery. It’s sealed in an envelope with a made-up return address and everything, and the stamp even looks like it has a postmark over it. I have no idea how she did that; she’s seriously a pranking genius.
“Thank you so much,” I whisper to her. “You’re the best. I’ll volunteer to do mail call later and slip it in with the rest of the letters.”
Josh is suddenly right next to us. “What’s that?” he asks.
I scowl at him and stuff the letter into my back pocket. “I’m not talking to you, archrival.”
He gives me an innocent smile. “Why? Didn’t you like our performance last night?”
“Shockingly enough, I don’t love it when people break into my cabin and steal from me. You certainly seemed to enjoy prancing around like an idiot, though.”
“It’s not ‘breaking in’ if the door is open. You should’ve hidden your costumes better if you didn’t want them borrowed. And I’m pretty sure the judges enjoyed our performance too, Miss Second Place.”
“At least our dance was original,” I say. “We didn’t have to resort to spying to think of something good. You only won because of male privilege.”
He ignores me. “So, what’s in your pocket?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s clearly not nothing, or you would show me.”
I pull out the envelope and hold it up. “It’s a letter from my brother, okay? Will you leave me alone now?”
“If it’s from your brother, how come she had it?”
“She has a name—it’s Mackenzie. And she had it because there’s a part where he said hi to her, so I let her read it.” I’m pretty proud of how natural the lie sounds and how quickly I came up with it.
“I’ve known him practically my whole life,” Mackenzie says.
Josh scratches his head, and his bright red hair sticks straight up on one side. “I heard your brother is some sort of prank master.”
Man, word spreads faster here than it did at Camp Sweetwater. “Where’d you hear that?” I ask.
“I have my sources.”
“Well, so what if he is? Why do you care?”
Josh shrugs. “I mean, I personally think it’s cowardly to rely on your connections instead of thinking up pranks yourself, that’s all. I was actually a little impressed by that spaghetti prank, but I guess I shouldn’t have been, if it wasn’t your idea.”
I wish more than anything that I could throw the truth in Josh’s face, but obviously I can’t say anything if I don’t want it getting back to the Willows. Plus, if I’m honest with myself, I am relying on my connections. It’s just that my connection is Mackenzie, not Tomás.
I shoot Josh my best sarcastic sneer. “Oh, I’m sorry, do prank wars have rules now? Because I was under the impression that all was fair in love and war. Not that there’s any love here. Only war.”
“Listen, feel free to cheat if it makes you happy,” Josh says. “We’re going to beat you regardless.”
“Shooters to the line!” shouts our counselor.
Before I pick up my bow, I stuff Mackenzie’s letter deep into my sock, where I’m sure Josh won’t be able to steal it.
I finally get to read the letter on the way to Horseback Riding, and it’s absolutely perfect. Mackenzie has taken the prank we were plotting in Arts and Crafts and worked out all the details, and it’s much funnier now than anything I could’ve thought up myself. I should do something nice to thank her; maybe I could plan a funny prank for her, like we always do for each other’s birthdays. Last year she put a confetti cannon in my locker that went off when I opened the door, and I was picking gold glitter out of my hair for weeks. I got her back by standing on top of the breakfast table at Camp Sweetwater with a top hat and cane and singing a ridiculous song about how wonderful she was. The year before, Delilah helped me get hundreds of helium balloons with Mackenzie’s face printed on them, and we crammed so many of them into our cabin that it was hard to move around. But I guess I don’t really have to do anything for her now—Mackenzie said a well-executed prank is its own reward, and I can pretty much guarantee flawless execution.
We actually get to go on a real trail ride during Horseback Riding, and I get assigned a big black horse named Anna Sewell. Mei’s on Drusilla again, and even though we’re supposed to ride in a straight line, we end up riding side by side in places where the trail is wide enough. “You guys were so great at the karaoke competition last night,” she says. “Your dancing looked so professional. I can’t do that kind of thing at all.”
I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed hearing praise and reassurance from a friend until Mei’s compliment slips into the gap Mackenzie’s silence has left inside me. “Thanks,” I say. “I’m happy with how it went, aside from the pranking thing. I wish Roo and Lexi and Ava had picked a different song, though. I can’t get ‘Chillin’ ’ out of my head.”
“Can I tell you a secret?” Mei says. When I nod, she whispers, “I actually like that song.”
I start giggling. “Seriously? It doesn’t make any sense. ‘Baby, let me be the ceiling fan that brings your temperature down’? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know, but it sounds so happy! I play it all the time at home. It drives my big sister crazy.”
“Well, annoying your siblings is always a plus.”
“Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.” Mei’s smile fades. “Do you miss your brother a lot now that he’s away at college? My sister’s applying to schools this fall, and she really wants to go to UCLA. That’s all the way in California. I’m going to be so lonely without her.”
“Yeah, I miss him sometimes,” I say. “But he goes to University of Michigan, so he’s not that far away. And I have a little sister, too, so I’m not lonely.”
“Was it awful right when he left, though?” Mei asks. “I feel like it’s going to be the worst.”
“It was definitely sad, but then I got used to him b
eing gone. We still talk. I’m sure you and your sister will too.” Fictional Tomás is getting totally out of control. I had only ever meant for him to be a shadow looming in the background and giving me credibility. But now the Willows want to know all about him, the Wolverines are angry about him, Mei’s trying to bond with me over him, and Mackenzie’s pretending to be him.
“Your brother must be happy that you’re carrying on the Cervantes’ pranking legacy,” Mei says.
I laugh. “That sounds so official.”
“The prank war is official!”
“Do you think it’s okay that he’s helping us?” I ask. “It doesn’t, like, violate the prank war rules or anything?”
“Prank wars don’t have rules. The rule is, do whatever it takes to win.”
I wonder if she would still think that if she knew about all the lies I’ve told the Willows. “Okay, that’s what I thought,” I say. “I’m only asking ’cause one of the Wolverines said it was cheating.”
“They’re probably jealous because our prank was so much better than theirs.”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Do you think Tomás will write back soon with another idea?” Mei asks. “I can’t wait to get them back for what they did to you guys. That was not cool.”
I smile and shift my leg so the paper crunches between my sock and my horse’s side. “Definitely,” I say. “I bet we’ll hear from him any day now.”
From: Izzy Cervantes
To: Mom
Tues, July 19, 2016 at 2:46 PM
Hey Mom,
I bet you’re surprised to be hearing from me by e-mail, but don’t worry, nothing’s wrong. Val let me write this on her phone because we couldn’t wait days for a letter to get to you. You know that ugly old fake-fur coat in the basement that used to be Great-Aunt Roberta’s? Can you send it to me so I can cut it up for a crafts project? Val says to ask you to overnight it, if you can. We need it really soon.
Willows vs. Wolverines Page 9
