Camp Confidential 08 - Wish You Weren't Here

by Melissa J Morgan

  Sarah let David and Jenna’s voices fade into the background as she walked ahead. So this wasn’t such a bad day, she told herself. Sure, I was a lousy athlete, but we all have our off days. My ankle will be okay, and I have the next two weeks to prove myself. And I guess I kind of made a new friend.

  She glanced back at David, still bickering with Jenna. She wasn’t sure yet whether that last part was a good or bad thing.

  “SARAH!” Alex’s voice was the first thing Sarah heard upon entering the mess hall. Lunch was already in session, and everyone was sitting with their bunkmates, eating hot dogs and beans.

  Sarah hobbled over to 4C’s table as Jenna and David splintered off to join their bunks.

  “Thank goodness, you’re okay!” Alex cried as Sarah sunk into her seat. “Abby told us you took this huge fall.”

  “It sounded really humiliating,” Gaby added. Sarah noticed she was smiling a little.

  “Yeah, I fell,” Sarah replied simply. “It was no big deal. There was this tree root I didn’t see.”

  “But it was a pretty crazy fall,” Abby put in. “You were all like—ahhhhh!” Abby pantomimed falling backward off her seat. She wore a totally exaggerated, dopey expression, and spun her arms around in a windmill motion. Everyone at the table except Alex, Brynn, and Valerie laughed.

  Sarah glared at her. “It wasn’t quite like that,” she said. “It happened really fast. Anyway, it really hurt, and I sprained my ankle.”

  “Awww!”

  “Oh no!”

  “You’re going to be okay, right?”

  Sarah heard her friends’ expressions of concern, but she was still glaring at Abby, who was pretending not to notice. Abby wore a little smile as she picked at her baked beans. Sarah felt herself seething again. It’s all right that she doesn’t want to be friends, but does she have to take pleasure in my pain?

  “Sarah?”

  Sarah turned and looked into Grace’s concerned face. Oh. Right. “I’ll be fine,” she replied, taking a sip of bug juice. “It’s a minor sprain. It should heal up in a couple days, so I’ll be able to play in the softball tournament, no problem.”

  “Good.” Grace smiled. “I know how important sports are to you.”

  “Yeah.” Candace grinned at Sarah. “To Sars, sports are, like, more important than breathing!”

  Sarah could have sworn she heard Abby laugh. But when she turned around, Abby had covered it up with a loud cough.

  “Anyway,” Abby went on, “at least you weren’t in contention for the captain spots. It would have stunk to have been playing really well, then have to go to the infirmary.”

  “I guess,” Sarah muttered. “Anyway, who got to be captain?”

  “Me!” Abby beamed. Sarah figured it was the biggest smile Abby had ever shown her—maybe the only smile. “I have a team, and this guy Kurt has another team. And guess what? I picked you for my team!”

  Sarah was almost too stunned to answer. “You—what?”

  Abby was still smiling. “I picked you for my team. I mean, everyone tells me you’re this crazy incredible athlete, even if you were off your game today. I just figured, when you really take off, I want you on my team. I want to see it.”

  Sarah stared at Abby in confusion. Is she being sincere? Abby looked serious, but it was so hard to tell when you didn’t know a person well.

  “Great,” she managed to croak in reply.

  “That David kid is on our team, too. Actually, I put you both in the outfield, since you’re friends.”

  He’s not my friend, Sarah thought, and then immediately felt bad. David was a little quirky, but he seemed nice enough. And she had the feeling it would be good to have a friendly face on the team.

  “Great,” Sarah replied.

  “Great.” Abby looked up from her meal and smiled.

  This is going to be interesting, Sarah thought.

  chapter FOUR

  All of Sarah’s friends in 4C were super-sympathetic about her ankle. “Don’t walk on it too fast,” Alex warned her. “And don’t feel bad for having to sit things out. You’ve got to give it time to get better.”

  At the campfire that night, Sarah already felt a lot better than she had that morning. Just being around her friends gave her a little charge, a little bit of confidence that being with Abby seemed to take away. Everyone seemed to think she’d be a huge asset to her team, even from left field. “Sars, you just have the gift,” Brynn told her in a typically dramatic way. “Don’t get all bent out of shape because you weren’t great today. You’ll be great again tomorrow.”

  Sarah, Alex, Grace, Candace, and Valerie were all leaning against the same log, sometimes taking part in the songs and storytelling, sometimes just whispering to each other. These lazy nights by the fire were one of Sarah’s favorite things about camp: She always felt so safe and so happy, relaxing in the fire’s orange glow with her friends. Already, her ankle was starting to feel better, and Sarah felt like her panic this morning was fading into the background. She believed Brynn’s comforting words: She was great. And tomorrow, she’d get back to showing Abby just how great.

  “Who’s that kid I saw you walking with earlier?” Alex asked. “Some boy, with messy brown hair?”

  “Oh, that was David.” Sarah smiled a little rueful smile. “He’s a friend of Adam’s, I guess. He’s a little weird.”

  “Good weird or bad weird?” Brynn asked with a smile.

  “Since when are there two kinds of weird?” Sarah asked. “Just weird, weird. He kept talking about donkey basketball and then pretended he was Bill Buckner.”

  “Who’s Bill Buckner?” Val asked.

  “Never mind.”

  Alex smiled. “I thought he might be some guy you had a crush on. Maybe someone you’d want to go to the dance with.”

  Sarah stared at her friend in disbelief. “What? No.”

  Alex shrugged and turned around to face the fire. “I was thinking I might ask Geoff Darden, from 5G? I think he’s kind of cute.” She sunk down into her sweatshirt and blushed.

  Sarah felt stab of annoyance. Around her, all her other friends were oohing like this was some big secret.

  “You know I think he’s cute, Al,” Brynn spoke up. “Even though he’s a little older. Kind of reminds me of Orlando Bloom. Like in the eyes?”

  “Are you crazy?” Sarah asked. “He’s fourteen. He doesn’t look anything like Orlando Bloom.”

  “I think he does,” Alex agreed. “Brynn, what’s going on with your crush?”

  Sarah looked from Alex to Brynn and back again. She felt like she was in the wrong bunk. Alex barely knew this Geoff kid. Why was she so excited?

  Brynn sighed. “I don’t know. Nothing really, yet. But I would like to ask someone to the dance with me. I definitely want to have a date this year.”

  “What?” cried Sarah, but her voice was covered by Candace’s, who spoke up at the same time.

  “I want to have a date this year, too,” she was saying.

  “You know what we should do?” Brynn piped up suddenly, looking all excited. “I just had this great idea!”

  “What?” Alex asked.

  Brynn smiled. “We should make a pact. All of us will bring dates this year!”

  Sarah’s stomach dropped. She couldn’t believe this was happening. Who were these people?

  “That’s a great idea!” said Grace. “If we all have to do it, it will give us some confidence. Like, I’ll feel more comfortable asking a guy if I know all of you are doing the same thing.”

  “Right!” Valerie smiled. “Besides, it will be fun to all have dates. It’s more fun to have someone to dance with.”

  “We do have someone to dance with,” Sarah spoke up. Everyone kind of looked at her like she was nuts, but she plowed ahead. “Each other. Remember? We all dance in a big circle and have an awesome time. Since when are all of you guys so into boys?”

  Sarah’s friends all looked surprised by her outburst, and a little sheepish. Sarah didn’t ge
t why they were surprised—she’d never been boy crazy like this. But then again, they hadn’t, either. Sarah felt like everyone else had gotten a card in the mail telling them to act totally different, and she was left wondering what happened. They were all looking at her like she was the weird one—but she was the only normal one. Right?

  “I’m not into boys,” Alex said defensively. “I don’t know what you mean by that. I’m not obsessed or anything. I mean, Priya is friends with Jordan. Maybe we can be friends with boys, too.”

  Sarah just looked at her, doubtful.

  “Me neither,” Brynn agreed. “I wouldn’t say I’m into boys. Just . . . kind of interested.”

  Sarah didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. She was starting to feel like maybe she was being unreasonable—maybe they were the normal ones. But she couldn’t help the way she felt . . . like her friends were changing everything. For the worse.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being kind of interested,” Alex said. “I mean, we’re getting older now. Things change, Sars.”

  Sarah was glad for the dim firelight because she felt her cheeks burning. How does that make it okay? What about great things that change into awful things? Again, she didn’t say anything, just stared into the fire. After a few minutes, Val started telling a funny story about what she’d done in ceramics that morning, and the boy discussion was forgotten.

  Still, when everyone was chuckling about Val’s messed-up vase, Sarah snuck away and went to sit with Jenna.

  Sarah wasn’t sure what woke her up the next morning. Suddenly, she was awake in her bunk, but it was darker and quieter than when she normally woke up. And something was going on. She heard her friends rousing, their bunk beds creaking as they strained to see what was going on.

  Then she heard it again: the same sound that must have woken her up.

  “AAAAAAAUUUUGH!”

  Gaby! It was Gaby’s scream, and it was coming from the bathroom! Sarah struggled out of her sleeping bag and started running for the bathroom, trying to make sense of all this in her head. Gaby was always up bright and early, making sure that she’d have plenty of time in the bathroom.

  When Sarah reached the bathroom, most of her bunkmates were gathered around Gaby, who was clutching a towel around herself just outside the first shower stall. Gaby looked bleary-eyed and confused, with a weird pinkish streak running over her left shoulder. Sarah could hear the water still running. She glanced inside and saw that the water coming from the showerhead was bright red!

  “It’s blood,” Gaby whimpered, still half-asleep.

  Fortunately, Becky was standing right next to Gaby, and she reached her hand up to the showerhead to cup some red water in her hand. “It’s not blood,” she said gently, sniffing. “It’s just red.”

  “How do you know?” Gaby asked as Becky examined the liquid.

  “Well, blood doesn’t smell like strawberries, for one thing.” The girls gathered closer as Becky leaned down and sniffed the liquid again, then gingerly touched her tongue to it. “Aha. Girls, I think we have an answer.”

  “What is it?” Alex cried at the same time as Abby and Val.

  “Bug juice!” Becky replied with a big smile. “And I bet I can tell how it got in there. Girls, if someone can just get me the tool kit . . .”

  Sarah ran to the tiny bathroom closet and pulled out a small tool kit in a black plastic case, emblazoned with 4C. She ran over to Becky and handed it to her. “Here you go.”

  Becky quickly opened the kit and fished out a pair of pliers. Then she turned off the shower, stepped inside, and began twisting off the showerhead. After a lot of twisting with the pliers, and then with her hands, the showerhead finally plopped off into Becky’s hand. She glanced into the back, then smiled and held the showerhead out to the campers.

  “Oooooh,” they all murmured, taking in the soaked red powder that coated the inside of the showerhead.

  “Bug-juice mix,” Becky announced. “Girls, I think we’ve been pranked.”

  “But how is that possible?” Gaby cried. “When could they have gotten in here? While we slept?”

  “Either that or last night,” Sarah replied. “They could’ve come during the campfire. No one showered till this morning.”

  Becky nodded, then walked over to the next shower and turned on the water. Sure enough, it also came out bright red—bug juice red. “We’d better clean out these showerheads,” Becky said. “Then we can all take our showers.” She started removing the second showerhead.

  “Who would do this?” Candace asked. “I mean, we’re not really at war with anybody. Are we?”

  Alex shrugged. “Aren’t we kind of always at war with 4A?” she asked. “Besides, this has Jenna written all over it.”

  Sarah wasn’t so sure. If this had been done during the campfire last night—well, she’d been sitting with Jenna and the rest of 4A for half of it. But then, it might have been done in the middle of the night. And Jenna was the master prankster . . . she could definitely see Jenna sneaking into their cabin in the middle of the night like a spy.

  “If that’s true,” Valerie said, “don’t we owe them a prank back? A good one. We’re not going to let Jenna and 4A ruin our morning showers and not get them back!”

  “We are sooooo getting them back for this!” Gaby cried, gathering up her soap and shampoo. “I hope they’re happy now. Taking their normal-colored showers. Because we’re going to come up with the prank to end all pranks!”

  “Huh?” Jenna scrunched up her eyebrows and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Bug juice in the showerheads? Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “Are you saying you didn’t think of it?” demanded Alex, poking her finger in Jenna’s face in full-interrogation mode. “Are you saying it was the work of someone else? And if so, who?”

  “Who?” Jenna uncrossed her arms and looked at Alex as if she was nuts. “How should I know, Alex?”

  “Who else would have the motive, Jenna?” Brynn asked in a typically overdramatic way, flailing her arms around like the craziest lawyer ever. “Why would any other bunk want to mess with 4C? You want to mess with us because you know we’re awesome, and you’re jealous.” Brynn broke into a huge grin as the rest of 4C looked on.

  Jenna looked from Brynn to the rest of her bunk—a long row of curious, annoyed faces. Sarah had thought she would laugh, or at least smile, but she didn’t. Actually, she looked kind of upset. “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. She started walking toward the mess hall.

  Brynn watched her go, putting her hand to her face and stroking her chin. “I didn’t hear an alibi,” she murmured.

  “I don’t think she did it,” Sarah admitted. “Remember, she swore she was going to be good this year.”

  Gaby looked thoughtful. “I don’t believe that for a minute,” she said. “This is Jenna we’re talking about. She talks a good game, but isn’t that part of the whole Jenna thing? She wants to be the best prankster at camp, and to be a good prankster, you’ve gotta be able to lie.”

  “Are you saying she’s just getting better at denying it?” Candace asked. There was a nervous little crease between her eyebrows, like she was too tired to follow this conversation.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” said Gaby. “But two can play at that game, right? Or ten.”

  “So—we need to think of a prank for 4A?” Sarah asked. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  “That’s what I’m saying,” Gaby agreed. “And it better be good.”

  chapter FIVE

  Sarah’s ankle still felt a little touchy that morning, so she spent sports sitting on the sidelines, trying to get a feel for her team. There was no doubt about it: Abby was amazing. She was a great pitcher, with a lightning-fast fastball, but she was a good batter, too, earning two singles and a home run in the first game. Sarah sighed, pulling some blades of grass from the ground and balling them up into little rubbery clumps. She definitely had her work cut ou
t for her if she was going to impress Abby.

  Later, in arts and crafts, Sarah tried to copy Alyssa as they used dusty chalk pastels to draw a peaceful forest scene. “I’m awful at this,” Sarah complained. “It’s like some drawing chip my brain is missing.”

  Alyssa leaned over and smudged the corner of Sarah’s picture with her thumb. Some of the bright yellow chalk blurred and blended into a reasonable copy of the sunny sky. “See? It’s not so bad,” Alyssa said. “You just have to know how to work with the materials.”

  Sarah smiled. It was somehow relaxing being around Alyssa, especially after the weird, bug-juice morning and stressing herself out over sports. “Gaby is going nuts about the prank you guys pulled on us this morning,” she confided. “If I were in 4A, I’d be getting prepared for some serious revenge.”

  Alyssa just rolled her eyes and sketched in a pine tree with a heavy, dark-green line. “Oh, right, the infamous prank that Jenna supposedly did?” She shrugged. “I don’t know anything about it.”

  “But isn’t that what you would say even if you did know something about it?” Sarah asked suspiciously.

  Alyssa just shrugged and laughed. “I guess.”

  “Well.” Sarah sketched in a log covered with moss, then layered some lighter green over the dark colors to show the light hitting the moss. She smudged with her finger and was pretty impressed by the result. “Alyssa?” she asked.

  “Yeah?”

  Sarah busied herself getting the wildflowers on the forest floor just right, not wanting to look Alyssa in the eye. “Are you bringing a date to the social?”

  Alyssa looked surprised, then considered for a few seconds, working on her drawing. “A date?” she asked. “I don’t think so. I mean, I’m sure Natalie will go with Simon.”

  “Sure, sure.” Natalie had been dating Simon since the summer before. Sarah wondered if she had just made herself look like a little kid, making too big of a deal out of the whole date thing.