Sarah’s face went pale. She wanted to faint, to disappear, to launch into outer space. Anything other than to have to look at the faces of all of her disappointed, angry friends.
Make that ex-friends, she corrected herself.
“It’s Natalie’s father,” Avery repeated. “Here! As a surprise! Isn’t that crazy?”
Sarah’s eyes went blurry with tears. In the distance, she could see Natalie looking at her. Natalie didn’t seem angry—only worried and sympathetic.
Someone who really cared about me, Sarah thought, and what did I do? I stole her life story. I totally used her. And then I blew her off all summer long.
Some friend I am.
The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. But Sarah’s heart thumped in her chest so loudly she couldn’t believe no one else was hearing it. She didn’t know what to do, what to say, where to go. She dropped her spoon, her precious spoon, that only seconds ago had seemed like the most important thing in the world, on the ground. Even though it was tiny, it echoed loudly in the room.
Everyone was staring at her. Gaping. Incredulous. There was no way around this hole that she’d dug herself into. So she did the only thing she could think of to do.
She ran.
chapter SIXTEEN
“So, what did your dad say about the whole thing?” Jenna asked Natalie. The two were making their way back to the tent for morning cleanup after breakfast and rehashing last night’s major scene.
“Oh, he didn’t really pick up on all of Avery’s drama,” Natalie said. “I just told him that she was kind of a weirdo.”
What can I say? Natalie thought. It’s the truth. She wasn’t sorry. Avery had said much worse things about her and her friends, after all.
“I mean, I haven’t seen him in so long, so we just wanted to hang out and talk and do some catching up. He wanted all of the gory details on the Outdoor Adventure Weekend.”
“I hope you didn’t hold back. You could probably win some good sympathy points, you know?” Jenna said.
Natalie smiled. “Please. We got to see his new movie first, before anyone else in the world. I don’t need any more sympathy points. The Amazon Files, so cool. And they filmed it in the actual Amazon! But anyway, it didn’t work.”
“What didn’t work?” Jenna asked.
“Hanging out with my dad. I mean, it worked, like, it was great to see him—and really great to go to that diner nearby and eat something not cooked by the kitchen staff—but I couldn’t get my mind off of Sarah. She must have been so embarrassed last night. Even though what she did was wrong, and even though she’s been so lousy to us . . . I just feel horrible for her.” Natalie couldn’t shake the image of Sarah’s pale, scared face from the night before. It didn’t matter that Sarah had lied and avoided the Lakeview girls all summer. Right now, Natalie just felt for her. Call her a sucker; she just couldn’t help herself.
Jenna nodded. “I do, too. Maybe we should try to talk to her?”
Natalie stopped walking, and pointed in the near distance. She’d just spotted Sarah on her way back to her own tent. Maybe Sarah didn’t deserve their sympathy or their support, but Natalie couldn’t just walk away from her former friend. “Now’s as good a time as any.”
Jenna trotted up to Sarah and called her name. “Sarah!” she said. “Hey—wait up. We want to talk to you.”
Sarah stopped in her tracks, peering up at the girls. Her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, as though she’d been crying. “No one wants to talk to me,” Sarah replied sadly. “Why should you guys be any different? Or were you just going to tell me off, too?”
“We’re not going to tell you off,” Jenna assured her.
“Why do they want to talk to you? Because they’re losers, just like you,” Avery said, swooping in like a vulture, her eyes glittery and mean. “You should talk to them, Sarah. In fact, you should be their BFF. You guys are all such weirdos. You deserve one another.”
Jenna bristled. Enough was enough. Hadn’t Sarah learned her lesson by now? Hadn’t they all? There was no reason to be nasty; there never had been.
She made a decision. Avery needed to be shut down. Immediately.
She stepped forward. “Maybe you’re right, Avery. Maybe we do deserve one another.” She put her hands on her hips and looked Avery squarely in the eye. “But that’s nothing compared to what you deserve.”
“Whatever,” Avery snapped.
“Whatever is right,” Jenna said. “You’re not worth it to me—or to any of us. But I promise you that you’re going to back off and leave Sarah—and the rest of us—alone.”
Avery snorted. “Why would I do that?”
Jenna smiled sweetly. “Because if you don’t, we’ll tell everyone about your pathetic little crush on Jackson, and how he doesn’t even know you’re alive.” She narrowed her eyes. “We’ve seen all of those love letters you wrote to him. The ones you keep under your bed. We know that you follow him around like a puppy dog. And that he couldn’t care less.”
Avery gasped, the color draining from her face. Obviously she had no idea her actions were so transparent. Though Jenna couldn’t imagine how that could be the case. Really—she’d pelted Jackson with marshmallows. What was that, if not a declaration of unrequited crushage?
“Don’t worry, we won’t say anything,” Jenna said. “That is, if, like I say, you leave us—all of us—alone. For the rest of the summer.”
Avery squinted, then bit her lip, finally managing to choke out a response. “Fine!” she stammered. “Fine.”
She raced off.
Jenna turned to Natalie and the two dissolved into giggles. Who knew the wicked witch of Walla Walla would be that easy to fell? If only they’d tried standing up to Avery sooner, maybe the summer would have gone differently.
Maybe things would have been different with Sarah.
Jenna turned to Sarah, wondering what she thought of the scene that had just played out. Maybe she’d understand that since the Lakeview girls were standing up for her, they forgave her. They wanted their old Sarah back. They wanted to try and make things work again.
But Sarah, too, had disappeared.
As much as she wasn’t wild about the whole Outdoor CORE theory, Natalie had to admit that sometimes it made a little bit of sense. Tonight, for example.
When word got around among the staff that Sarah had been making up strange stories about her past, to the disbelief of her fellow campers, they had collectively decided to organize a bunch of team-building exercises for evening activity to help restore everyone’s sense of faith and camaraderie.
The Oak girls were doing trust falls. Natalie was pleased to see that Avery had adopted an entirely new persona for this exercise, one that was extremely cooperative and friendly. In fact, her whole demeanor had changed since Jenna had called her out on her crush on Jackson. Just like everyone else—Avery had things that she wanted kept close to the vest.
Of course, her new attitude was probably fake, Natalie reasoned, but it was way more pleasant to deal with than Sourpuss Avery. She’d take it. It was probably the best they were going to do this summer.
“Earth to Natalie! Are you paying attention?” It was Brynn, standing atop a short footstool, ready to fall backward into her tentmates’ interlocked arms. “For this to work, we need to have trust.” She winked. “Trust fall, you know?”
“No, I know,” Natalie said, feeling distracted. “I just . . .” she caught Sarah’s figure out of the corner of her eye, sitting un der a tree, separate from the rest of her tent. Who was going to catch Sarah when she fell?
Natalie knew the answer to that: her old friends. Her always friends. From Lakeview.
“I think we should try talking to Sarah again,” Natalie said, sighing. “She just looks so sad and lonely.”
“I agree, we all feel bad for her,” Priya put in, “but come on. She spent all summer ignoring us and siding with Avery against us. And now that things have blown up in her face, it’s not like she’s c
ome running back to us. It doesn’t exactly seem like she’s dying for our support, does it?”
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” Chelsea put in. “I mean, I should know. Sometimes you keep to yourself because you’re afraid of being rejected. And Sarah is probably really embarrassed about what happened in the rec hall.” She shot Avery an accusatory look, and Avery had the good grace to look ashamed of herself. “I think Natalie’s right. I think we should give it another try. Sarah is one of our old-school crew—we owe it to her and to the Lakeview legacy not to give up so easily.”
“What she said,” Natalie said, smiling at one friend and making her way slowly toward another hopefully once and future friend at the same time. She beckoned to the group. “You all have to come with.” Avery opened her mouth to protest, but Natalie cut her off with a wave of her hand. “Including you.”
The girls marched off, Avery dutifully one pace behind.
Sarah looked up from her perch under the tree—she should have known what kind it was, after so many weeks of Walla Walla, but under the circumstances, she couldn’t make herself care, it seemed—to find Natalie and the entire Oak tent crew wandering toward her looking purposeful. Great. Just what she needed. Another horrible reminder of all of the stupid mistakes she’d made since coming to Walla Walla. Awesome.
“We need to talk,” Natalie said. Her voice was firm and insistent.
“I don’t have anything to say,” Sarah said, standing up and brushing grass off the backs of her legs. “I mean, nothing that’s going to make any of this make sense for you guys.”
“What happened, Sarah?” Natalie asked gently.
Sarah couldn’t believe how patient Natalie sounded. How open. Even after everything that had gone down. She shook her head sadly as her eyes welled up again. “I don’t know, honestly.” She took a deep breath and decided to come clean. Now was as good a time as any—Joanna was there, and even Avery had joined the group, managing to look reasonably pleasant about it. Sarah didn’t know what that was about, but she appreciated it, anyway. She sighed and started to talk.
“When I came to Walla Walla last year, I was terrified of starting over with a whole new group of girls. You guys know I’m shy, right?”
Natalie nodded encouragingly.
“So when Avery came up to me on the first day of camp and asked me what my story was, I blanked. And the first thing that came into my mind was you, Natalie, and how you have this great, wild, crazy story. So I just . . . lied. I didn’t mean to, I promise. It just popped out. But Avery was so impressed, and then everyone else ate it up, and . . . the whole thing just spiraled out of control.”
“We understand,” Jenna chimed in. “We’ve all been in situations where we didn’t feel like we could be totally honest.” She thought back to the summer when her parents had announced their divorce, and how she hadn’t wanted to share her bad news with any of her friends. Of course, she had eventually learned that opening up can help to lighten a burden. She wanted Sarah to learn that, too.
“We’ve all been in situations like that,” Natalie echoed. She glanced at Avery meaningfully. “Haven’t we?”
Avery was silent.
Suddenly, the last person that Jenna would have expected to speak out, did.
It was Joanna. She stepped forward and elbowed Avery sharply in the ribs. “Avery,” she prompted, don’t you have something to say to Sarah?”
Avery shrugged. “Not really.”
Now Joanna full-on pinched Avery on the shoulder. “Come on.”
“Ow!” Avery shot Joanna a dirty look while Jenna stifled a giggle. “Fine.”
“I’m sorry,” Avery said quietly, looking at Sarah. “I’m sorry that I made you feel like you had to lie to impress me.”
“And?” Joanna asked.
“And . . . it doesn’t matter who your father is.”
“And?” Joanna repeated, arching an eyebrow.
“And what?” Avery asked, exasperated. “What else is there?”
Joanna rolled her eyes. “I think there are some other people that you owe apologies to, also.” She tilted her head toward Jenna and the rest of the group.
Avery sighed heavily. She looked up at the rest of the Lakeview girls. “Okay, fine. If you insist . . . I guess I really need to work on making new people feel at home.”
Atthat,Nataliehadtochuckle.“Understatement much?”
Avery nodded, taking it all in. “You hate me. I get it. I know I deserve it. But you have to understand—Walla Walla was my turf for so long, and when I heard that a bunch of new girls—who were all friends—were coming in together, I was afraid of how things were going to change.”
“You were afraid?” Natalie asked, her voice high-pitched with disbelief. “How do you think we felt after we found out about the whole ‘Outdoor CORE’ thing?”
“Well, actually, I felt kind of good about it,” Jenna reminded everyone, raising her hand.
“Oh my God, Jenna, can’t you see that we’re having a moment here!” Natalie teased her.
This small joke broke the tension. Everyone laughed and exchanged tentative looks.
“I was excited about having you guys here at camp,” Sarah said, “but right away I realized that my secret was going to come out. I didn’t know what to do. I had backed myself into a corner. The only solution was to keep you as far away from my friends as I possibly could.”
“Hard to do when there’s a huge game of Assassin going on,” Natalie said, prompting a vigorous nod from Sarah.
“Yup. And I can’t believe I won, too—the same night I was called out for being a big, fat liar.” She laughed shortly. “Some winner. No one even wants to talk to me anymore.”
“We’re talking, aren’t we?” Natalie pointed out. She moved to Sarah and put an arm around her shoulder, squeezing tight. “We’re all talking. And that’s the way it’s going to be from now on.” She looked at Avery with a challenge in her eyes.
“That is the way it’s going to be from now on,” Avery confirmed.
“In fact,” Natalie went on, “we’ll do you one better. Do you still have the final spoon from your triumphant victory?”
Sarah looked confused. “Yeah, but why? You want to go another round of Assassin?”
Natalie shook her head no. “Nah, that’s enough cutthroat competition for yours truly. But I happen to have it on good authority that the kitchen staff stored a bunch of leftover ice cream and sundae toppings from the other night.”
Sarah’s eyes lit up. “Oooh! And there’ll be another staff meeting tonight, so we can sneak out after lights-out.”
“I know all of the back paths,” Avery reminded them. “I can get us to the mess hall and back without being spotted. That is—if you promise not to turn me in for sneaking out,” she joked shyly.
“Honor code? What honor code?” Jenna grinned.
“We’ll make our own Make Your Own Sundae night,” Natalie confirmed. “That is, if you don’t mind sharing your spoon with the rest of us.”
“Of course I don’t mind,” Sarah said gratefully. “That’s what friends are for!”
EPILOGUE
Dear Nicole,
It’s been a whirlwind week here at Camp Walla Walla! Yes, yours truly DID win the game of Assassin. But for a while, it seemed as though I had lost just about everything else. I . . . told some lies in order to try and impress some people, and it finally caught up with me (it’s a really long story, but I’ll fill you in on all of the gory details when I get home.)
All of my old friends from Lakeview who are here have been amazing and have given me another chance with them, even though I really don’t deserve it. The Walla Walla originals, not so much, although they are slowly but surely starting to come around. Avery’s been a lot more sensitive than I would have EVER thought she could be, I have to say—she even offered to speak to Josie and Tara about us swapping bunks so I could be with my old crew. But I decided to pass; there’s no point in running away from my Walla Walla
friends. I just have to deal with the fact that I kinda have to prove myself all over again. To everyone. My real self, this time. And anyway, I get to hang with my Lakeview buds every day. So it’s not perfect, but we’re getting there.
It’s been a roller-coaster of a summer—and not at all what I expected when I signed up for camp again—but at the end of it all, if I can sort things out with everyone, then I get the best of both worlds, and even if I can’t—well, it’s a reunion with old friends, and finally, we’re all having a blast—together!
Better late than never, right?
Miss you—can’t wait to see you at school!
—Sarah
chapter ONE
Posted by: Natalie
Subject: Who Wants to Be a Supahstah?
Or superstar if you’re doing normal-speak. Brynn, I can see you stretching your hand toward the ceiling and me-me-me-ing even though I haven’t given any of the deets yet. Take a breath. Good. Now read on. This director friend of my dad’s is shooting a movie in Guilford, CT and she needs a ton of middle-grade extras. The movie is this time travel thriller where Sam Quinn is searching for his lost son through all these different time periods.
Some ammo for parents that need convincing. The director has kids of her own, and is all about the importance of school and bedtime and all that, so she’s only shooting the big scenes with all the extras on weekends. If you want in, all you gotta do is show up at 8943 Stockton Ave two weeks from Saturday at 10.
Love you! Mean it!
Nat
Natalie was so glad the Camp Lakeview blog hadn’t shut down when the camp had. It had just kind of morphed into the Lakeviewalla blog. Mostly Lakeview girls—make that former-Lakeview-now-Walla-Walla girls—but with a few old-time Camp Walla Walla girls mixed in. Like Avery, who had been one of Natalie, Jenna, Sloan, Chelsea, and Priya’s tentmates over the summer.
Reunion #21 Page 16
