“Worms,” Nat said decisively. “There’s no way I’d get caught naked at school. That’s my worst nightmare.”
Tori walked out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth.
“I know what I’d do for a million dollars. Or maybe just for a dollar.” She grinned. “Kiss Blake Wetherly.”
“Eeeuw!” Chelsea squealed.
“What?” Tori said, looking hurt. “I know he’s a snob, but he’s a cute snob.”
“It’s not that,” Lauren said, her eyes widening. “It’s your . . . your teeth!”
Tori’s hand flew to her mouth. “What’s wrong with them?”
“They’re purple!” Alyssa said, rushing over to Tori. “Your whole mouth is purple!”
Tori screamed and ran for the bathroom, with everyone else following behind. Jenna took an extra long time to get to the bathroom door, but when she finally did, she saw Tori bent over the sink, frantically washing her mouth out with water, while Andie inspected Tori’s toothpaste.
“It looks like purple food coloring,” Andie said. “Someone must have filled your toothpaste tube with it.”
“Why didn’t I look before I stuck my toothbrush in my mouth? Why? Why?” Tori shrieked. “Will it come out? What should I do? I can’t leave the cabin looking like this.”
Jenna stifled a giggle. Tori looked a little like she was turning into a grape from the inside out. Her lips were bright purple, and when she opened her mouth, her teeth were even worse.
“Keep rinsing with water,” Andie instructed her.
“The mystery prankster strikes again, huh?” Jenna said.
As soon as she said it, Andie, Mia, and all the girls turned, in unison, to look at her.
“What?” Jenna asked.
“Jenna, can I talk to you for a minute?” Mia asked, leading her out of the bathroom. When they were out of earshot from the other girls, Mia said, “I know you have a tradition of playing initiation pranks on new campers. You’ve been very good so far this summer, though, so I don’t have any reason to believe that you would do this. But . . . should I?”
“No! Of course not.” Jenna grimaced. She’d been accused of pulling pranks before when she was innocent, especially when Gaby, Chelsea, or the guys from Adam’s bunk planned something, but why did everyone have to always suspect her first?
“Good.” Mia sighed. “I’m sorry I asked, but sometimes it’s hard to break old habits. I’m just glad to hear that you had nothing to do with this. Do you have any idea who did, though?”
“Nope,” Jenna said. “Not even one clue.” And it was true. “But you have to admit it was funny.”
Mia just shook her head, a tiny smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Maybe,” she admitted. “But Tori isn’t laughing.” She sighed. “Come on, let’s help her get cleaned up.”
Tori’s teeth still had a slightly grape-ish tint to them at dinnertime, but luckily, no one else outside of their bunk noticed. Jenna, though, had definitely noticed a couple of suspicious glances Tori had given her, and it seemed like Nat and Alyssa were looking at her with a big question in their eyes, too. The fact of the matter was, regardless of what anyone was saying out loud, Jenna was being treated like the primary suspect for the pranking. And she hadn’t even done anything!
She was almost relieved when, after dinner, she got to escape the bunk for a little while to go to the first banquet committee meeting. No one else from her bunk was on the committee, but she was glad to see Sarah and Tiernan from 4C when she walked through the door. They waved her over to a chair where she’d have enough room to stretch out her leg.
“Thanks for saving me a seat,” she said.
“No problem,” Sarah said. “We heard about the prank you played on Blake the other day with the snake in the bed. That was genius. You deserve the best seat in the house for sticking it to that preppy boy.”
“But . . . that wasn’t me,” Jenna stammered.
“Sure it wasn’t.” Tiernan winked. “No worries. Your secret’s safe with us.”
Jenna started to protest again, but just then Dr. Steve called the meeting to order. Once it started, Jenna remembered why, as much as she loved the final banquet, planning it had never been something she’d been interested in. First, none of the campers could agree on a food choice. Then, no one could agree on decorations. Finally, everyone gave up trying to agree altogether and just started arguing among one another.
“Simmer down, ladies and gentlemen,” Dr. Steve said calmly. “No need to throw the camper out with the bug juice.”
“Huh?” Tiernan whispered.
“That’s Dr. Steve lingo for let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Jenna interpreted. Dr. Steve was always using strange camp expressions that even she sometimes had a hard time figuring out.
“What we need is a theme first,” Dr. Steve explained, “and that will help us pick the music, food, and decorations.”
“How about a baseball theme?” Sarah said. “Hot dogs, french fries, and ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’ ”
“How about a fairy tea party?” one of the third-year girls suggested timidly, her eyes twinkling. “We could all make crowns to wear and paint unicorns on posters and sprinkle sparkly fairy dust all over the tables.”
“Those are both good ideas,” Dr. Steve said encouragingly. “Let’s keep thinking so we have a variety to choose from.”
Ten minutes of brainstorming brought ideas for everything: from country hoedowns (too much like last summer’s square dance) to Mexican fiestas (too spicy) to masked balls (too fancy). Even Dr. Steve was starting to look a little weary, when Jenna hit on the perfect idea.
“What about an Italian feast?” she said. “We could put red-and-white-checkered tablecloths on all the tables, and candles, too. And we could have spaghetti and meat-balls, and chicken parmesan, and—”
“Garlic bread,” Sarah jumped in, getting excited.
“We could even decorate a couple of the canoes to be like the gondolas they have in Venice,” Tiernan suggested.
Dr. Steve smiled, and soon all the kids were coming up with ideas for drinking grape juice out of plastic goblets, building a Leaning Tower of Pizza, and a make-your-own gelato station.
“Could there be Italian fairies?” the third-year girl asked, making everyone smile.
“We’ll see,” Dr. Steve said. “But it sounds like we might have a banquet theme. All in favor of an Italian feast, raise your hand.”
A sea of hands shot into the air.
“Then it’s decided,” Dr. Steve said. “The counselors and I will get the supplies, and at the next planning meeting, we’ll get started on the decorations. And a big thank-you goes to Jenna Bloom for coming up with such a terrific idea.”
Jenna smiled and blushed. For the first time since her accident on the soccer field, she really felt good. Maybe Andie had been right. Being on the banquet committee would help her take her mind off her leg. And now she could make sure it was the best banquet ever.
As she was pulling herself up onto her crutches to leave, she caught sight of Adam standing in the far corner of the mess hall, his camera to his face.
“Hey, Adam.” She waved. “What are you doing here?”
Adam put his camera away and walked over. “Dr. Steve asked me to take some photos for the newspaper.”
“Do me a favor,” Jenna said. “Don’t take any of me in my cast. It’s something I’d rather forget.”
“Okay, no cast pictures in the paper,” Adam said. “But you have to do something for me, too.” He suddenly went from looking like his normal, stinky, teasing, brotherly self to looking shy.
“I can’t believe it!” Jenna laughed. “Are you actually blushing? What could you need that makes you look that ridiculous?”
Adam turned even redder. He reached into his camera bag and pulled out a yellow envelope. “Look, this is totally not a big deal, but . . . would you give this to Alex? Next time you see her, I mean?” He stared at the ground. “It’s a phot
o I took of her on the soccer field. It’s going to be in the last camp paper. But I thought she might like a copy, too.”
Jenna groaned inwardly. A photo was like Adam’s version of a love letter . . . gross! And now he wanted her to deliver it? Had she suddenly grown wings and a bow and arrow? Playing cupid to her brother and one of her best friends . . . this was getting way too weird. But then she looked at her brother, who was still blushing furiously. How could she say no?
Jenna peeked into the envelope. There was Alex, running full force with the ball speeding along in front of her, her short hair fluttering behind her, a huge smile on her face. The photo captured exactly how Alex looked on the soccer field, and you could see from her face how much she enjoyed it.
“This is good, Adam,” Jenna said softly. “Really good.”
“Yeah, well, will you give it to her?” Adam said.
“Sure.” Jenna nodded. “She’ll love it.” She didn’t want to tell Adam that things had been a little awkward between her and Alex lately. Maybe she’d feel better about things tomorrow, and she’d give her the photo then.
“Thanks, sis,” Adam said.
As they walked out of the mess hall together, Jenna thought about the photo with a tiny pang of sadness. If she hadn’t broken her leg, that happy smile would have been on her own face, too, as she kicked the soccer ball straight into the goal.
Jenna had just slid the photo into her cubby hole and grabbed her pj’s to get ready for bed when she heard the bunk door slam. She looked up to see Alex standing in front of her, wearing a very strange tie-dyed T-shirt two sizes too big for her small frame and holding a bundle of clothes in her arms.
“All right, Miss Jokester,” Alex said with an exasperated expression that seemed to be debating between laughing and frowning. “This is all very funny. I don’t even know how you pulled it off with your leg. But where are they?”
“What?” Jenna asked blankly.
“My clothes!” Alex blurted out. “They’re all gone. They disappeared from my cubby and were replaced with these.” She held up the bundle of clothes. “Guy’s clothes. Whose . . . I don’t know.”
“I didn’t do anything with your clothes,” Jenna said. “Honest.” She looked at the clothes in Alex’s arms. “Wait a minute . . . those look like—”
Adam’s clothes, she was about to finish just as Adam himself walked into the bunk, wearing one of Kenny’s counselor T-shirts and a very baggy pair of shorts.
“Jenna, what did you do with my clothes?” Adam started, then froze when he saw Alex. Adam looked from the bundle of clothes he had in his arms to the bundle Alex had in hers.
“My clothes!” they both said at the same time. Then they took turns blushing and mumbling awkward apologies as they switched all of their clothes.
“I’m sorry, guys,” Jenna said. “But I didn’t have anything to do with this. Really.”
“Yeah, sure,” Adam said. “I know one of your pranks when I see it. And I also know that you’ve got way too much free time on your hands now that you can’t play soccer. Funny coincidence, isn’t it? You break your leg, and all of a sudden pranks start happening all over camp. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out.”
“But, but—” Jenna stammered, but Adam wouldn’t hear it.
Once he had his own clothes back, he shot Jenna a dirty look and left the bunk with a still-scarlet face.
After he left, Alex turned to Jenna with a glare. “Thanks for totally embarrassing me,” she whispered. “I can’t believe you’d do that to me, especially when you know that me and Adam . . . that I . . .” Her voice died away. “Adam will never talk to me again, thanks to you.”
“Alex, please believe me,” Jenna said. “I wish I knew who did this, but I don’t. You’re taking this way too seriously. It was just a prank.”
Alex bit her lip, and tears welled up in her eyes. “A prank that was meant to humiliate me in front of the guy I like. Who would’ve known that except you?” She wiped her eyes. “I thought I could trust you. But now I know better.” She walked out without another word.
Jenna looked around at her bunkmates, who seemed to be frozen over their magazines and letter-writing, all staring at her.
“Doesn’t anyone believe me?” Jenna asked, throwing up her hands.
“Hey,” Alyssa said, “if you say it wasn’t you, then it wasn’t.”
“Yeah,” Nat said, and the other girls nodded in agreement, but there was doubt in their eyes. Luckily, Andie and Mia were both out at a counselor meeting, so they’d missed the whole episode. Otherwise, Jenna would’ve had to endure way more than questioning eyes. At least she was grateful that it was only her bunkmates who knew about this so far.
But as Jenna got ready for bed, she couldn’t help feeling that her friends didn’t trust her, either. And she didn’t have a clue how to convince them otherwise.
chapter SIX
The next morning, someone pounding on the door woke everyone in bunk 4A bright and early.
Jenna and the other girls opened bleary eyes to see Becky, the counselor from 4C, standing at the door.
“Can I talk to you guys for a minute?” Becky asked Andie and Mia.
The three of them whispered back and forth for a few minutes, and then all three pairs of eyes focused on Jenna, who was just then groggily sitting up in bed.
“What?” she asked, stifling a yawn. “Don’t tell me Adam broke his leg or something.”
“Jenna,” Andie said, “did you leave the mess hall during dinner last night? Or make any stops on your way back here from the banquet planning meeting?”
Jenna shook her head. “Is this about Alex’s and Adam’s clothes?” she said, panicking. “Because I already told them, that wasn’t me.”
Becky and Andie looked at her blankly. “What happened?” Becky asked. “Alex didn’t mention anything to me about it.”
“Oh,” Jenna said, relieved that Alex hadn’t run straight to Becky to blame her for last night’s clothing switch. “Never mind. Everything’s fine now.”
“Not really,” Andie said. “Last night someone stole all of 4C’s pillows and stuffed the pillowcases with rice. No one realized it until they were crawling into bed.”
Jenna resisted the urge to laugh as she pictured Brynn, Alex, Sarah, and the other 4C-ers tossing and turning on mounds of rice all night long. A smile snuck across her face before she could stop it. “That must’ve been quite a night,” she said.
“The girls spent half the night trying to clean the rice out of their beds,” Becky said, “and the other half searching for the pillows, which still haven’t turned up.”
Andie turned to Jenna. “Between the prank played on Blake earlier this week, the one on Tori, and this, I don’t know what to think. Did you have anything to do with this, Jenna?”
“No way,” Jenna said firmly. Why was it that everyone was blaming her for things these days? “Come on, you guys,” she tried again. “I’ve been supergood this summer. I’ve barely played any pranks. Plus, I played that rice trick on Adam’s bunk two summers ago, and I never repeat a prank.”
Andie sighed. “We’re going to give you the benefit of the doubt,” she said, “and believe you. But hopefully this type of stuff won’t keep happening. And if it does, Jenna, I seriously hope you’re telling the truth, and that you’re not involved. Because if you are, it’s going to mean trouble.”
Jenna nodded. She was at a total loss. Not only was she stuck in this awful cast for the most fun part of camp, but now everyone was turning against her. No one was saying out loud that the pranks were her fault, but she could feel them blaming her. Her own friends didn’t trust her anymore, and that hurt more than anything.
Things didn’t get any better during sports later that morning, either. Everyone from 4A and 4C was keeping a safe distance from Jenna. It was almost as if they were keeping a staunch lookout, waiting for her to pull another prank.
Jenna did her best to ignore the sinking feeling in her s
tomach as the girls warmed up for their scrimmage, but she was getting more frustrated by the second. When she saw Alex and Sarah walk onto the field, Jenna figured that now was the chance to try to make everything okay again. She’d even brought Adam’s photo along to give to Alex. Alex would never stay mad at her when she saw the photo Adam had taken of her.
“Hey, Alex,” Jenna waved to her and gave her a friendly smile. She reached into her sports bag to pull out the photo.
But before Jenna could explain what was in the envelope, Alex frowned and said, “Thanks for keeping us up all night, Jenna. That was really great of you. Especially after stealing my clothes, too.”
Jenna stared down at the envelope in her hands, thinking of the photo inside. She shoved it back into her bag. Fine. If Alex didn’t trust her anymore, why should Jenna stick her neck out for her? Forget it. Being the go-between for Alex and Adam was weird enough as it was. She didn’t owe them anything, especially after being treated like this.
“All right, you guys!” she yelled at the 4As, who were taking their places on the field. “Today’s the day we kill 4C!”
By the end of the second half, they weren’t killing. They were being killed. And Jenna had never been so furious with her friends. 4C was playing better than ever. With Alex and Sarah together on the team, they were proving unbeatable. Alex and Sarah were on fire, kicking goal after goal. And every time Alex scored, she made a big show of whooping and high-fiving. Jenna was starting to feel as if each goal was meant as a little dig at her, and she couldn’t stand to see Alex gloating anymore.
“Nat!” Jenna screamed from the sidelines when Nat, who had the bad luck of playing 4A’s goalie this game, missed another ball. “Are you blind? Why didn’t you catch that?” She knew she was not being the most patient, or understanding, coach in the world at this moment. But this was ridiculous. She was sick of feeling as if no one on her team except for her cared about sports. And she was really sick of having to watch from the sidelines while everyone else played so horribly.
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