Friends Forever?

by Tina Wells

  That’s weird, Zee thought. I wonder what took Mr. P so long to get back to his cabin? She quickly wrote her name at the bottom of the entry, pulled the sleeping bag over her head, and tried not to think about what was lurking outside.

  “I’m ready!” Chloe announced the next morning. “Everybody, hurry up, or we’ll be late for kitchen duty. We have to set up the dining hall for breakfast.”

  “We get to eat before we start working as long as we are there on time,” Missy said. She looked as bright and cheerful as Chloe.

  Zee was still half asleep, and her blurry eyes had trouble focusing on the girls. “I don’t think I got even an hour of sleep last night.”

  “Chloe told me about what you saw outside,” Jen said as she twisted a red ponytail holder around her thick hair. “Do you really think it was the Mountain Man?”

  Zee tied the shoelace of her red Converse high-top. “Who else could it have been?” she asked. Then she stood with the others.

  “Uh, Zee,” Ally said, pointing at Zee’s feet. “I don’t think you want to go out like that.”

  “Ohmylanta!” Zee groaned. On her right foot, she had put on her polka dot Converse. She quickly replaced the polka dot sneaker with the other red high-top. They went best with the pink top and red shorts she’d quickly grabbed from her suitcase when she woke up just a few minutes before.

  “Let’s go to the dining hall!” Chloe cheered. Everyone moved toward the door, except Kathi.

  “Are you coming, Kathi?” Jen wondered.

  “You guys go ahead, and I’ll come later,” Kathi told her.

  A cramp in Zee’s stomach reminded her that she had more to worry about than the Mountain Man. “Ow!” she complained, clutching her middle.

  “Oh my gosh!” Chloe said. “Is it your stomach again?”

  “Yes,” Zee explained. “I’m afraid something might be wrong.”

  “It’s probably nothing,” Ally said. “Once you eat, you’ll feel better.”

  Chloe looked from Ally to Zee. “I dunno. I think you should visit the nurse.”

  “Oh yeah,” Ally quickly said, slipping her hand through Zee’s arm. “I’ll go with you if you want.”

  Zee waved her hand in the air dismissively. She realized the nurse might send her home. She’d love to be back with her parents, sleeping under her cozy comforter at night and taking a warm shower in the morning, but she was not going to miss all the camp fun. “You guys go ahead. I’ll meet you at the dining hall.” She grabbed the mesh bag she’d decorated with Jibbitz. “I still have to go to the bathhouse.”

  “Okay,” Chloe said, “but don’t take too long. We don’t have much time before the other seventh graders get there. You don’t wanna miss breakfast.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Ally said.

  “What do you mean?” Chloe asked.

  “Breakfast might be horrible,” Ally told her. “It’s not exactly French cuisine.”

  “Zee and I usually don’t eat French food anyway,” Chloe pointed out. “American food will be okay.”

  Zee started to worry what Chloe might think of Ally. Even though Zee knew Ally wasn’t a snob, Chloe might get the wrong idea.

  “You guys are never going to find out about the food unless you get there,” Zee said, heading toward the bathhouse. “Save me a seat!”

  In the bathhouse, Zee put her bag near the sink, then headed toward one of the stalls.

  Zee unzipped her shorts and gasped. A spot dotted her underwear. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. Still there. Her heart pounded. She looked closer. Then her mind flashed back to a recent conversation with her mother. The phrases floated through her head. “Stomach cramps.” “Tiredness.” “Blood.”

  Suddenly, it all made sense. Zee had gotten her period!

  “Ohmylanta!” Zee said. “Is that even possible?” The book called Your Changing Body that her parents had given her had said she’d get boobs first.

  Wait! Zee thought. Maybe she’d missed something. Maybe she had gotten boobs in the middle of the night. Excited, Zee looked down, but she was disappointed. She was as chest-free as ever. Figures.

  Zee had bigger problems, though. She didn’t have any pads or tampons, and there wasn’t a drugstore for miles. What would she do? Where would she get some? Normally, if she needed a teacher’s help, she’d ask Mr. P, but it wasn’t like he’d have any pads.

  After quickly brushing her teeth, Zee headed back to the cabin. She needed to change her underwear and figure out how to get supplies.

  Kathi was stretched out on her bunk, furiously typing on her BlackBerry.

  “Are you still here?” Zee asked.

  Kathi didn’t look at Zee or stop typing. “Obviously.”

  “But you’re supposed to be helping out with kitchen duty,” Zee said. “Don’t you want to have breakfast?”

  “I’d rather miss breakfast than serve slop,” Kathi said. She typed with one hand as she reached into a bag that was next to her and pulled out a breakfast bar. “Besides, I’ve got my own stash.”

  “We’re not supposed to have food in the cabin,” Zee reminded her.

  Kathi shrugged. “Whatev,” she said. “Let’s see Brookdale Academy kick me out. They’d have to kiss my parents’ big checks good-bye.”

  Zee knew the no-food-in-the-cabin rule was to keep animals out. The last thing she wanted was to bunk with a raccoon—all because of Kathi’s selfishness. But Zee didn’t feel like confronting Kathi at the moment, so she changed the subject. “So can we send text messages now?”

  “No, I was just typing a few to send out when they rescue us.”

  “Rescue us? From what?”

  “Look around,” Kathi said. “This isn’t exactly the Four Seasons. I was brought here under false pretenses.”

  “You were? What did they tell you it would be like?” Zee asked.

  “Well, not like this. I had no idea anyone would volunteer to live like this.” Kathi paused, then added, “No offense.”

  “For what?”

  “It seems like this is your kind of thing,” Kathi explained. “Don’t you make your own clothes?”

  “Sometimes. What’s that got to do with it?”

  “Nothing,” Kathi said quickly. “Anyways, I’m sure my boyfriend is worried about me.”

  “Why?” Zee asked.

  “I guess you wouldn’t understand since you’ve never had one.”

  Zee stiffened. “I guess.”

  Kathi’s eyes squinted at Zee. “Hey! Why aren’t you on kitchen duty?”

  Zee sighed. She really didn’t want to tell Kathi her news, but she was desperate. Kathi was the only human being around at that moment. With her tall body and big boobs, Kathi looked more like a freshman in high school than a seventh grader. She probably knew more about periods than anyone else in the cabin.

  “I just got my period,” Zee blurted out.

  In an instant Kathi had Zee in a hug. “That’s so awesome. You’re a woman!” Kathi said, then added, “Even though you don’t look like one.”

  “There’s just one little problem,” Zee said, ignoring Kathi’s remark. “I don’t have anything with me—you know, like pads.”

  “No prob.” Kathi hurried over to her shoulder bag and pulled out a package. “You can have these.”

  Zee looked at the pouch Kathi had handed her. “I can have all these? Don’t you need them?”

  “No. I brought them just in case. You’re going to need to start doing that, too.”

  Zee took out a pad and slipped the rest in her tote bag. “Thanks for the tip.”

  “Oh, I can give you lots of advice,” Kathi explained. “Now we can be in a secret club together.”

  “Secret?”

  “You know, so people who don’t understand don’t try to get in.”

  Zee flashed on Ally and Jasper’s conversation about London on the bus. And Ally and Missy’s conversation about living abroad in the cabin. Zee felt a twinge of jealousy tighten inside her. It wo
uld be nice to have something special to share with someone—even if it was with Kathi.

  “Cool beans,” Zee said.

  “GWP.”

  “GWP?”

  “Girls with Periods,” Kathi said matter-of-factly. “It’s code, so no one knows what we’re talking about.”

  “Oh, right.” Zee was in shock—but not about getting her period. Was Kathi really asking her to be in the same club? “Are there any other members?” Zee asked.

  “Jen hasn’t gotten hers yet,” Kathi said. “Have Chloe and Ally?”

  Zee shook her head slightly. She felt weird about sharing such personal information about her best friends with Kathi.

  “What about Missy?” Kathi asked.

  “I don’t know,” Zee said.

  Kathi thought a second, then mumbled, “Maybe I finally beat her in something.”

  Zee jumped when the cabin door opened with a thud. “Ms. Merriweather says you two need to come right now if you don’t want to be on cleanup duty,” Ally told them. “I had to beg her to let me leave to warn you.”

  “Okay,” Zee said. “I just need a second to put my pad in.” She flashed an excited grin and held up the square blue package.

  Zee expected Ally to jump up and down or hug her like Kathi had or…something. Instead, Ally just calmly said, “Oh, you got your period?”

  Zee’s smile melted. Kathi leaned close to her ear. “See? You have to be in the club to understand,” she whispered. Then she headed toward the door and in a normal voice said, “I’m out of here. The only thing grosser than serving institutional food to other people is cleaning up their disgusting leftovers.”

  As Zee watched Kathi move down the wooden steps, she felt a tug. Did she really feel closer to Kathi at that moment than to Ally?

  * * *

  Hi, Diary,

  I have sooooo much to tell you! I didn’t think I’d get my period until after everyone else. Like way after. But now I’m one of the first ones. I feel different and not-so-different all at once. It’s like when you have your birthday, and mostly you’re the same as the day before—but you’re also a year older.

  Unfortunately, I may not be the only one who has changed. Ally is acting funny. But not the good kind of funny. Why isn’t my BFF happier for me? Don’t best friends get excited about stuff like periods? I know I’d be sooo excited for her. Did I do something wrong?

  Zee

  * * *

  7

  Man Handled

  “Hey, Jasper!” Chloe shouted. “Bring the camera over here. I think I found something.” After breakfast, all the seventh graders were back in the woods looking for plants and animals for the scavenger hunt.

  “Looks good to me,” Ally said, making a check mark on their sheet.

  “At this rate, I think we might actually win,” Zee said excitedly, slapping the spot on her leg where a bug had just landed. “Too bad we don’t have to find bugs. They keep coming to me.”

  “Maybe it’s not such a good idea to wear shorts in the woods,” Chloe said. She had on stretchy blue sport pants with a stripe down each side and a white long-sleeve T-shirt.

  “But aren’t they cute? Look at all the pockets,” Zee said. “I got them just for camping.”

  “Then perhaps you should have applied some insect repellent,” Jasper suggested.

  “My mother provided me with numerous bottles of that, too.”

  “That’s such a great idea, Jasper,” Ally said.

  Jasper blushed and looked at the ground. “Thanks.”

  Zee couldn’t believe that Ally had actually found a way to flirt with Jasper over bug spray.

  “What are they doing?” Chloe asked, pointing to Kathi and Jen, who were sitting on a huge boulder, reading magazines.

  The fifth-period science class had divided up so they could find items faster. Zee, Jasper, Chloe, and Ally had ended up looking together in one part of the woods. Missy, Landon, Conrad, and Marcus were farther down the path.

  “What they always do,” Ally said. “Avoiding work.”

  “I thought Kathi got straight As,” Jasper put in. “How can that be?”

  “She makes sure the group she’s in works hard to get an A for her,” Ally explained.

  “Maybe Kathi is the Mountain Man,” Chloe suggested. “You know—to scare us all so much, we have to end the field trip and go back home.”

  “I don’t think so,” Zee said. “She was in the cabin last night.”

  “Oh yeah,” Chloe said, looking disappointed.

  “Still, I’d be happy if I never heard creepy groaning noises like that ever again,” Zee said.

  “That was probably just my stomach growling. I was pretty hungry when I went to bed,” Ally joked.

  “Well, unless your stomach can throw its voice outside the cabin, I don’t think so,” Zee said. “And it certainly wasn’t you limping into the woods.”

  “We’re not sure we saw anything limping in the woods,” Ally said.

  “Did you guys hear anything in your cabin, Jasper?” Chloe asked. He had moved a few feet down the trail and was searching around for other scavenger hunt items.

  “I was exceedingly tired last night,” Jasper said without looking up at the girls.

  “What if there really is a Mountain Man?” Zee wondered out loud.

  “There’s not,” Ally insisted.

  “How do you know?” Chloe said.

  “Who was the first person to ever mention the Mountain Man?” Ally asked.

  Zee thought. “I guess it was Adam.”

  “Exactly.” Ally nodded.

  “Why wouldn’t Adam tell the truth?” Chloe asked.

  “Because he loves to make Zee crazy. And it’s working.”

  Out of nowhere, a loud cry echoed through the woods.

  “That sounds like Conrad!” Chloe said.

  Zee, Chloe, Ally, and Jasper rushed down the dirt path toward the noise. Even Kathi and Jen got off their rock to see what was happening. When they reached the other group, Conrad was lying on the ground. Marcus and Landon were huddled around him. Missy ran over from where she had been hunting for specimens.

  “What happened?” Missy called out.

  “Something grabbed me from behind and started dragging me away,” Conrad explained. His voice was shaking and scared. “When I screamed, he let go.”

  Tingles ran up Zee’s spine as she noticed the tracks from Conrad’s body being dragged.

  “The Mountain Man,” Zee whispered.

  “What did you say?” Marcus asked.

  “I think it might have been the Mountain Man,” Zee said. “Did you see anything, Missy?”

  Missy shook her head. A couple of tiny leaves stuck out of her silky brown hair, and a trail of dirt streaked her forehead. “No. Conrad thought it would be a good idea for me to go into the woods over there and look for stuff.”

  Conrad stood up. “I heard a ripping sound.”

  Zee gasped. “Look!” she said. A piece of flannel hung from the tip of a low tree branch. “That looks like part of a man’s shirt. That must have been what you heard.”

  Kathi twisted up her face. “Ugh! If that’s what he’s wearing, I hope he stays on the mountain.”

  Craaaaaack! The sound echoed loudly, cutting through the forest.

  Zee grabbed Jasper’s arm. “What was that?” she asked.

  Marcus, Conrad, and Landon looked around. Conrad seemed even more terrified than he had before.

  “Yeah, what was that?” Landon asked.

  Ally eyed him suspiciously. “Have you guys found anything for the scavenger hunt yet?”

  “Well…um…uh,” Conrad stammered.

  “I found a few things,” Missy said, holding up the camera. “Missy’s the only one, huh?” Ally said.

  “We do still have tons of items on our list,” Marcus said.

  Landon’s face suddenly brightened like a lightbulb had gone off in his head. “I have an idea. Maybe Zee could work with us, too.”

&nbs
p; “Why?” Jasper quickly asked.

  “Well, that way the groups would be more even, and Missy won’t be the only girl,” Landon explained.

  “I don’t think we should be penalized because you guys haven’t found much,” Jasper countered.

  “It’s not a punishment,” Landon said. “We’re all on the same team—fifth-period science.”

  Jasper turned to Zee. “Don’t you want to be with your friends?”

  Flustered, Zee almost couldn’t speak. She felt caught in the middle of her best friend and the boy she had a huge crush on.

  “Umm…yeah…,” Zee said. “But everyone here is my friend.” She looked at Landon and Jasper. And Chloe and Ally. “Everyone is friends with everyone. Right?”

  The Beans stared at one another awkwardly. Missy, Conrad, and Marcus looked confused. Kathi and Jen looked smug. Landon and Jasper looked angry. And Chloe looked like she was biting her tongue.

  Ally took Jasper’s arm and guided him away from the group. “Come on! Let’s get back to work.”

  “You’re awfully serious about the scavenger hunt,” Kathi said to Ally.

  “Even though you’re not getting graded,” Jen added.

  Zee looked at Kathi and Jen. Someone has to be, she thought.

  Ally put her arm around Zee. “I’m just looking out for my best friend.”

  Ohmylanta. Zee felt like a total idiot. Just because Ally didn’t go nuts about Zee’s period didn’t mean they weren’t still best friends forever. Duh!

  “What happened after that?” Ally asked Missy. The two girls were talking about their travels as cabin one walked into the main lodge for afternoon cleanup duty.

  “The plane made an emergency landing—right in the center of a big field!” Missy told her. “The villagers rushed over to say hello.”

  “Were they mad?”

  “At first, they didn’t know how to react,” Missy began. “But my dad took out his digital video camera and started filming them.” Missy’s father was a documentary film-maker. “They loved seeing themselves.”

  “That’s so cool!”

  “And it turns out a woman was giving birth,” Missy went on, “so my mother helped deliver the baby.”