Just Like Me

by Nancy Cavanaugh

  Gina screamed. Everyone did. Everyone except the rest of us in White Oak. But Gina didn’t just scream. She grabbed me. And the egg we were passing began to topple. I leaned to one side trying so hard to save the egg that Gina had just placed in my spoon, but I lost my balance. As I tried to steady myself, I stepped backward and stumbled. My left foot landed right in our basket of eggs, and the cracking I heard under my foot shook my insides more than that super huge, super close bolt of lightning.

  I screamed louder than anyone.

  And everyone in White Oak yelled, “Oh no!”

  Just then Donnie’s whistle blew, ending the game.

  I lifted up my foot. My old torn and tattered green-and-white gym shoe was so full of eggs that Sarge Marge could’ve thrown it into a frying pan and made someone an omelet bigger than even Becca could eat. Vanessa, Meredith, Becca, and Avery came to see how bad it was. We looked down at our basket full of gooey egg yolks, watery egg whites, and broken pieces of eggshell all mixed together, and we knew that our chance at winning had been crushed. Again.

  Tori came over from where she was watching. “Oh girls! I’m so sorry!”

  “I’m the one who’s sorry,” Gina said. “It was my fault. I made Julia fall.”

  “It was my fault too,” I said. “I should’ve just let that last egg fall. We still would’ve won.”

  I looked at Vanessa and waited for the screaming to start. Earlier in the afternoon, Gina and I had talked about how our cabin’s troubles might not really be over.

  Vanessa held her jaw tight, as if she was trying to keep her anger from coming out, but it was just too much to keep a lid on.

  “You two are unbelievable!” Vanessa spat out in a whisper as Tori turned to go help Donnie count eggs so that they could tally up the scores. “I don’t know which one of you is worse.”

  “Vanessa,” Avery warned, “don’t forget about all those dishes we washed and all the food scraps we scraped off this floor. We don’t want to have to do that again.”

  “But we were winning by a mile,” Becca said. “And now we’ve got nothin’.”

  Besides my stomach butterflies, which were frantically flapping their wings as they woke from hibernation, I felt my heart thumping like a dog scratching an itch.

  “We can’t fight!” Avery said. “Teamwork. Remember? Do you really want to wash this floor again?”

  We all looked around at the broken eggs littering the wooden floor. All our work from this morning was covered in slimy egg whites, thick, sticky egg yolks, and shattered pieces of eggshells.

  “It’s just such a bummer!” Vanessa said, sounding more disappointed than mad. “I really thought we had this!”

  “Me too!” Becca said.

  I let out a huge sigh, relieved that our cabin’s peace hadn’t shattered like so many of the eggs all around us had.

  I knew Vanessa and Becca’s competitive spirit must be smashed into tinier pieces than those eggshells. But thankfully they decided not to lash out at Gina and me.

  Instead, Vanessa said, “It was just an accident.”

  “Yeah,” Meredith said. “It wasn’t anybody’s fault.”

  “Technically…” Avery started to say.

  “Avery!” Becca yelled. “Technically, there’s nothing else to say about this. No explanation needed.”

  Even though Tori had gone over to help Donnie, she had kept her eye on us. When she saw that we were somehow managing to get along, even after such a devastating loss, she smiled bigger than she had on the first day of camp. We had just lost what we’d been working so hard to win, but she had just won what she had wanted all along.

  Dear Ms. Marcia,

  Losing that game and not fighting about it makes me wonder if there might just be a red thread holding all of us together after all.

  Julia

  23

  As quickly as that loud clap of thunder had come, the storm changed from thunder and lightning to light rain, and the six of us headed out of the mess hall. We ran through the rain, getting wetter and wetter as we went. I stepped in a few big puddles on purpose, hoping to wash the egg off my shoe, and by the time we got back to the cabin, we dripped and shivered in the damp, cool evening air.

  “I’m really sorry, you guys,” I said, as we peeled off our wet clothes and grabbed our pj’s. “The whole thing was my fault. I should’ve just let that egg fall.”

  “But I never should’ve grabbed on to you, Julia,” Gina said. “It’s my fault, really.”

  “It’s nobody’s fault,” Avery said.

  “She’s right,” Vanessa agreed.

  “We just have to forget about it and move on,” Becca said. “That’s what my soccer coach always says after we lose a match.”

  I put on a pair of dry socks, hoping they would warm me up.

  “I just can’t believe I stepped right in that basket!” I said, still feeling responsible, no matter what everyone said as they tried to make me feel better.

  “I know,” Gina said. “We were beating everybody by a mile.”

  “More like ten miles,” Vanessa said. “We were awesome!”

  Even though it was way too early for bed, just as fast as there were six piles of wet clothes on the floor, the six of us were zipped up in our sleeping bags trying to get warm.

  Then the screen door opened. It was Tori. Before she came all the way into the cabin, she turned around, shook the umbrella she had been carrying, and then propped it up outside on the porch.

  “Girls,” she said, coming back in the cabin and kicking her wet flip-flops off into the corner. “I’m so proud of you! You were amazing tonight! I know how much you wanted to win that game.”

  We all looked at her as we pulled our sleeping bags up even tighter under our chins, trying to warm up more. No one said anything. I kept thinking that it was easy for her to be happy and proud. She had won her prize. She had gotten what she wanted. The girls in her cabin were at peace.

  But we didn’t get what we wanted—victory and a chance at those first-place T-shirts. It didn’t seem fair.

  I was glad everyone in White Oak was being such a good sport about it, but I was still really bummed.

  Tori went on. “I found out from Donnie that because of the way the next few events are scored, you girls still might have a chance to win third place.”

  “But we don’t win the T-shirts for third place,” Vanessa said.

  Ever since we’d decided to try to work together and win the camp competition, all of us really had our hearts set on getting those first-place T-shirts, especially Vanessa. I think she liked the idea of walking around in a shirt that proved to everyone she was a winner.

  “No, I’m afraid not,” Tori said.

  We all sighed.

  “Why don’t you girls play cards or something?” Tori said. “It’ll get your mind off the game. I have to head back to the mess hall to help clean up all those eggs.”

  We watched Tori hurry back down the hill with her umbrella, but we all stayed in our warm sleeping bags.

  “Hey, at least we don’t have to clean up the mess hall,” Vanessa said, squeezing herself tighter into her covers.

  “You’re not kidding,” Becca agreed.

  It was quiet for a minute except for the rain pitter-pattering on the leaves outside the cabin windows.

  “You know, you guys,” Gina said, “third place would still be something.”

  “Yeah, but I really wanted that T-shirt,” Vanessa said.

  Gina was right about Vanessa. Feeling better than everyone else was really important to her.

  “But we should still try for third,” Avery said.

  “I guess we’ve got nothing to lose,” Becca added.

  “Except third place,” Vanessa said, sounding like she was up for the challenge of leading our team to third place after all.
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  “What events are up next?” Meredith asked.

  “Four Fruit Hop Relay and Wheelbarrow Water Balloon Relay are tomorrow afternoon,” I said. “Then the next day, there’s a basketball tournament and the big Rowboat Relay Race.”

  “When are we supposed to practice?” Vanessa asked. “There’s no time.”

  “We can practice the Fruit Hop Relay and Water Balloon Relay tomorrow morning during free swim instead of going swimming,” Avery said. “And I bet Tori would let us practice basketball right after breakfast on Saturday instead of whatever she had planned for our cabin activity.”

  “But there’s no time to practice with the rowboats,” Becca said.

  “Who needs practice when you have two rowboat champs in your cabin?” Vanessa asked, smiling at Avery and Becca. “With you guys as the anchors of the team, White Oak’s gonna own that finish line.”

  We were amazed at Vanessa’s huge compliment to Avery and Becca. Maybe everyone in White Oak really was learning how to “Be the Missing Peace.”

  “So are we all in?” Gina asked.

  “Let’s do it!”

  • • •

  After everyone fell asleep, Gina and I leaned over the edge of our bunks and whispered to each other, just the way Avery had thought that she and Becca and I would be doing all week long.

  “A lot of times, I goof around and slip and fall in a game just to be funny or to make Vanessa mad,” Gina confessed.

  “Yeah, but everybody knows you weren’t goofing around tonight,” I whispered back. “Nobody thinks you did it on purpose.”

  “I know,” Gina said. “But what happened tonight is exactly why I do goof around.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If you goof around, it means you don’t really care about winning,” Gina said. “So then when you lose, it’s no big deal. But when you want to win and you lose, it really stinks.”

  I was quiet for a minute, thinking about what Gina had said. She was right. It was much harder to have lost the game when we all really, really wanted to win.

  “I sometimes pretend I don’t care about other stuff too, because then when things don’t work out, it’s easier to act like it’s no big deal,” Gina admitted.

  I wondered what other stuff Gina pretended about.

  “Hopefully we’ll have better luck with third place,” I said, yawning.

  Gina yawned too and whispered, “I hope so. G’night.”

  And then I heard her roll over.

  The quiet cabin made the chirping crickets outside sound louder, and as I lay there in the dark and listened to everyone sleep, I thought about what Gina had just told me. I reached into my cubby and grabbed my journal and flashlight.

  Dear Ms. Marcia,

  Does pretending really change anything?

  Julia

  24

  Later the next day, we all sang, “I got all my sisters with me…” as we came into the mess hall for dinner. The smell of macaroni-and-cheese and hot dogs filled the air.

  We settled around our cabin’s table, happy to be sitting down after a super busy day of practice, a long hike in the woods, the Four Fruit Hop Relay, and the Wheelbarrow Water Balloon Relay.

  “All this winning is wearing me out,” Gina said with a huge, dramatic sigh.

  “Not me!” Vanessa said. “I’m ready for more. I say, bring it on!”

  “Me too,” Meredith agreed.

  “Me three,” Becca chimed in.

  “But I am superhot and sweaty,” Vanessa said, holding up her hair and waving her hand on the back of her neck. “It must be about ninety degrees today.”

  “At least,” Becca agreed.

  Everyone’s cheeks were hot and red from all the running around we’d been doing.

  “Where’s Avery?” Tori asked as she stopped by our table and noticed one empty spot.

  “She went back to the cabin to get something,” Becca said. “She said she’d be right back.”

  “Okay,” Tori said. “It’s my turn to help with serving setup. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  And she headed toward the counter at the back of the mess hall.

  “Here comes Avery,” I said just as DDDJ made his way toward the head table.

  “Here,” Avery said. “Because cool campers make stronger competitors.”

  She reached across the table and handed a Chinese fan to Vanessa and another to Meredith.

  “Cool,” Vanessa said, popping hers open and waving it in her face.

  “Nice,” Meredith agreed.

  Then Avery handed a fan to Gina too.

  “Thanks!”

  “I saw yours lying on your bed, Becca,” Avery said, handing Becca her fan.

  “Sweet!” Becca said.

  Then Avery turned to me.

  “Julia, I still have one left for you if you want it,” she said, holding up the last fan.

  “No thanks,” I said, unfolding my napkin and putting it in my lap.

  “Why wouldn’t you want it?” Vanessa asked, lifting her hair up again and this time waving the fan at the back of her neck. “These things are great!”

  “I just don’t want one, that’s all,” I said.

  “She hates everything Chinese,” Becca said, waving her fan fast and furiously in front of her sweat-flushed face.

  “I do not!” I said, surprising myself at how defensive I sounded, and at the same time wondering if Becca was right.

  “Name one Chinese thing you like,” Becca said.

  “Becca,” Avery scolded, sounding like an elementary school teacher.

  “Well, I can’t help it. It’s true. She doesn’t like Chinese food. She hated that one-day Chinese culture camp we went to last summer, and she won’t even use a Chinese fan.”

  “Just forget it,” Avery said.

  DDDJ headed toward the microphone to lead us in prayer, but our table’s conversation continued.

  “I thought all Chinese people liked Chinese food,” Vanessa said.

  “Can we just drop it?” I said. “Just because I don’t eat Chinese food or wave a Chinese fan in my face all day doesn’t mean that I hate everything Chinese.”

  “Julia’s right, you guys,” Gina said, defending me. “Just leave her alone.”

  Thankfully, just then DDDJ shushed us for the dinner prayer, so our conversation had to end. But even though the talking stopped, the waving of fans at the White Oak table didn’t.

  In the beginning, I hadn’t taken a fan from Avery because I didn’t want people to look at me weird, but now that I was the only one in White Oak who didn’t have one, I felt like people were looking at me weird anyway.

  As soon as Donnie’s prayer ended, Becca yelled, “I think we need a toast!” And she raised her plastic cup full of milk.

  So we all did the same.

  “To our White Oak teamwork!” Vanessa said.

  “We killed it out there, you guys!” Becca said, and then she drank her whole cup of milk in one gulp.

  I took a deep breath, breathing in the mac-and-cheese and hot dogs’ smell as the servers came around with the platters. I couldn’t wait to eat! It smelled so good that it was hard to imagine this was the same place that had smelled like Christmas-clove-ham just a few days ago.

  “Glad my lovelies are doing so well today!” Tori said, coming back and sitting down with us.

  She looked like she was the happiest counselor in the history of Camp Little Big Woods.

  And for the next few minutes, no one said anything because it was all hot dogs and mac-and-cheese.

  “This is my favorite camp meal,” Avery finally said between bites.

  “Yeah, this has to be the best mac-and-cheese of all time!” Becca said, shoveling a huge spoonful into her mouth.

  We continued devouring our dinner,
taking second and third helpings while we relived the victorious moments of our day over and over again.

  “Did you see how fast Vanessa and Meredith made it down the field in the Water Balloon Wheelbarrow Race?” Avery said. “You guys were awesome!”

  “You guys were too!” Vanessa said.

  “We were the only team to not break a single water balloon,” Gina said. “You know how hard it was for me to not make jokes and toss those balloons around like they were ticking time bombs?”

  “And, Gina and Julia, you two were the best at Four Fruit Hop Relay,” Meredith said.

  In the Four Fruit Hop Relay, campers had to hop down the field with an orange under each arm, an apple under their chin, and a banana between their knees.

  “You guys were so good, it looked like you walk around holding fruit like that all the time,” Meredith continued.

  “Very funny,” Gina said, shoving a bite of hot dog in her mouth.

  “The other teams never had a chance,” I said, feeling happy that in less than twenty-four hours we had turned my giant misstep into two huge victories. We really were headed for third place.

  “I have one word for White Oak…” Becca said. “Sweet!”

  As we ate warm chocolate-chip, coconut dream bar brownies that Sarge Marge had just taken out of the oven—possibly the best food I’d ever put into my mouth—Donnie got up to the microphone.

  “Well, campers, I want to congratulate all of you on some fine teamwork. I think just about everyone has proven that they can ‘Be the Missing Peace,’” Donnie said.

  Campers all around the mess hall clapped and whistled and high-fived the cabinmates at their tables.

  As soon as there was a break in the celebratory noise, Donnie kept talking. “The counselors have all been on special assignment this week looking for a team that deserves extra points for taking our ‘Be the Missing Peace’ theme to an extreme. And there’s one team that’s guilty as charged.”

  Donnie looked straight at our table.

  “The girls in this cabin started out practically enemies,” Donnie continued. “But now, not only are they competing quite well together, but they also seem to have become friends.”