Reality Bites #15

by Melissa J Morgan

  A car!

  “Guys,” Grace said, “do you hear that?”

  Priya scrunched up her eyebrows in concentration. “That?” she said finally. “Is that a car?”

  “Probably,” Belle replied, looking at the map. “This trail crosses route 17 right through those trees.”

  Route 17. Grace felt her pulse quickening. “Belle,” she said, “do you think Gaby might have gone to a main road? Maybe she’d try to hitchhike?”

  Belle looked horrified. “Hitchhiking is so dangerous!” she cried. “I’d hope Gaby would know that.”

  Priya shook her head. “Gaby may know that in her head. But when she really sets her mind to something . . .”

  Belle looked thoughtful. She flashed her flashlight through the break in the trees, then started walking. “Come on, guys,” she called behind her. “Let’s check it out.”

  Priya, Chelsea, and Grace followed closely behind. Route 17 was deserted at this time of night. Camp Lakeview was located in a tiny town to begin with, and it seemed like they rolled up the sidewalks at 8 P.M. It was completely dark now, and Grace got a creepy chill from all the silence. She looked up and down the street. Gaby was nowhere to be seen.

  “Huh,” said Belle, sweeping the beam of her flashlight back and forth. “Well, I guess we should be relieved. Maybe Gaby’s smart enough not to hitchhike after all.”

  But Priya was aiming her flashlight at the ground. “Belle,” she said suddenly, urgency in her voice.

  They all followed the beam of Priya’s light to the ground.

  A pink flowered luggage tag lay in the grass.

  GABY PARSONS. PHILADELPHIA, PA.

  chapter ELEVEN

  “You are so right,” Gaby was saying, grabbing the armrest between the truck’s seats as it sped around a curve. “Paris Hilton is underrated.”

  Her host glanced at her with an approving smile, then snapped her gum and ran a finger through her unruly, ruby-dyed hair. “I’m not saying she’s the next Britney,” she said cheerfully, taking another curve on two wheels. “But it must be hard to be taken seriously when you’re, you know, a socialite.”

  Gaby just nodded.

  The girl slammed on the brake to stop at a red light and both she and Gaby lurched forward. “So, you wanted to go to . . . ?”

  “The bus station.” Gaby spoke as loudly and clearly as possible. She had the sense she wasn’t dealing with a rocket scientist here. But whatever. This girl might be a few tacos short of a combo platter, but she had a driver’s license, and that’s all Gaby cared about.

  “The bus station. Riiiight.” The light turned, and the girl punched the gas. They careened through the intersection, missing the turn that would take them to the center of town. “Mind if we make a quick stop first? I just remembered, I left my license back at my apartment.”

  Greeeeaaaaat, thought Gaby. If we get pulled over, which is likely, since this girl never downshifts, they’ll find an underage fugitive riding with an unlicensed speed demon. Perfect! But she said, “Sure, that’s fine.” The sooner they got this girl’s license, the sooner they could get to the bus station and Gaby could be on her way home.

  “What did you say your name was again?” the girl asked as they drove back into a wooded area.

  “Gaby,” Gaby replied calmly. “Gaby Jolie? I’m a college student.”

  “Riiiight,” the girl replied. “I’m Charisma.” Charisma blew a huge bubble with her gum. “So you were camping with your friends?”

  “Yeah, and we got separated,” Gaby agreed. It was the story she’d come up with last night. “My one friend probably thinks I’m still with my boyfriend, and my boyfriend probably thinks I’m with my friend. You know how it is.”

  “Sure,” the girl replied. “Like, right now? My cat probably thinks I’m out with my pet turtle.”

  Gaby gripped the armrest a little harder. “Riiiight.”

  Charisma took one hand off the wheel to pull the gum off her face, then swerved to avoid hitting something in the road. “Did you see that?! It looked like a panther!”

  “I think it was a squirrel,” Gaby replied, starting to wonder if she was going to make it to the bus station. It’s a good thing this is a one-horse town, she thought to herself. There aren’t many people or cars for her to slam into. “Um, where’s your apartment?”

  “Right up here.” Sounding calmer, Charisma pulled off onto a dirt road. Gaby relaxed as they drove through some trees and past a few small shed-like buildings. Last stop, she thought, and then it’s the bus station and home for me. She felt a little giddy at the thought of being so close to finished. I really pulled this off!

  A cluster of buildings came into focus up ahead. Gaby smiled, relieved to have survived the ride to Charisma’s apartment, but just as quickly, the bottom dropped out of her stomach. In the middle of the log-cabin buildings was a flagpole—flying the Camp Lakeview flag! And suddenly, Gaby realized she was looking at the mess hall, the gym, and the camp offices—all from the rear.

  “Hey!” Gaby cried. “What the—”

  “Here’s the deal,” Charisma announced in a totally different, less ditzy voice, parking the car and turning in her seat to face Gaby. “I’m a Camp Lakeview legacy. I live around here now, and I know that college students don’t often turn up on deserted roads dragging duffel bags and looking maybe thirteen.”

  Gaby pouted, stung. “Try fourteen.”

  “Whatever.” The girl waved her arm like, who cares? “I don’t know what the heck you were thinking, even considering getting into a car with a stranger. I could be anybody! I could be a serial killer!”

  Gaby scowled. “But you’re not.”

  “Because you’re lucky!” Charisma glowered. “Now, we’re going in there and I’m handing you over to the camp president. I don’t know what little squabble you had with your bunkmates, but you’re going to have to work it out or call your parents. And don’t even think about pulling a fast one on me. I play dumb well—especially when I need to distract someone from where we’re headed—but I am not really dumb,” she said, getting out of the truck and around back to get Gaby’s bag.

  For a moment, Gaby considered making a run for it. Sure, she’d have to lose the bag. But maybe she could make it to the bus station on foot? She shuddered, realizing that her bunkmates were probably at the social right now, thinking she was on a plane to Australia. What would she tell them?

  “Gabrielle?”

  Gaby was stunned by her mother’s voice. She looked up and spotted her mom running toward the truck from across the parking lot, where her own sedan was parked. Gaby’s dad stood outside the driver’s-side door, a mixture of confusion and relief on his face.

  Gaby opened the door and ran to her mom without thinking. “Mom!” Before she could remember what she’d been about to do, she was pressed up against her mother’s chest, crying.

  Dr. Steve looked at Gaby warily from behind his desk. “What you’ve done, Gaby, is grounds for expulsion,” he said.

  Expulsion. Yes! Just like I planned. Gaby rubbed her nose and tried to look crushed. “I know,” she said quietly. “I really messed up.”

  “You really did,” Dr. Steve agreed. “Do you have any idea how much danger you put yourself in? You might have been injured on the trails, and who would have helped you alone at night? You were extremely foolish to hitchhike. As Charisma told you, she might have been anyone. I shudder to think what kind of character might pick up a young girl in the middle of the woods.”

  Gaby shuddered. Actually, she hadn’t thought of it that way. A few more tears leaked from her eyes.

  Dr. Steve handed Gaby a tissue and then sat back in his chair, rubbing his chin. “Tell me again why you ran away, Gaby.”

  “It was everyone!” Gaby cried, sticking to her script. She was impressed by how genuine she sounded, now that her voice was raspy from crying. She took the tissue and blew her nose, turning to her father with the puppy-dog eyes. “I know I really shouldn’t have left, and now
I’ve wasted a lot of your money since I’m going to be expelled. But everyone was so mean to me this summer!”

  Dr. Steve looked skeptical, but Gaby could see that her mother was struggling with whether or not to believe her.

  Dr. Steve reached out, took the crumpled up tissue, and threw it into the trash behind him. “Here’s the thing, Gaby,” he said. “I talked to all of your bunkmates. And your story doesn’t match up with theirs.”

  Gaby’s mouth dropped open. He talked to her bunkmates? She hadn’t been expecting that. Thank God I’ll be expelled and won’t have to face them. She felt fresh tears coming on as she fished for a way to save this. “That’s because they hate me! They don’t want to get in trouble and they’re all against me!”

  Dr. Steve held up his hand as if to say, “Enough.” A few hot tears leaked out of Gaby’s eyes. “They all agree,” he went on, “that you told them you had an older brother.” He glanced up at Gaby’s parents. “A boy by the name of Jake.”

  Gaby’s dad’s brow creased in confusion. “Gabrielle is an only child,” he insisted.

  “Exactly,” replied Dr. Steve. “And Jake is a character on a reality program that we watched. Survival Camp. The only problem is, he ended up winning the competition, and Gaby had to leave camp to make it look like she was on the prize vacation with his family.” Gaby felt her heart thumping hard. She could feel her parents looking at her, surprised and disappointed, but she couldn’t look back at them. This certainly wasn’t the first time she’d lied to them, but it was the first time she’d been caught in a lie this big and it frightened her.

  “Why would you do that, Gaby?” her mom asked, sounding concerned. “Why would you make up such a preposterous story?”

  Gaby didn’t answer for a second.

  “It was them!” she said finally, desperately. “They were all excluding me, and I—”

  “Again,” Dr. Steve broke in, looking sternly at Gaby, “that doesn’t match up with your bunkmates’ stories.”

  Gaby looked at the floor. Her face felt hot, and she had a lump in her throat.

  She didn’t say anything.

  After a moment, Dr. Steve sighed and shifted in his seat. “Gaby’s bunkmates,” he went on, “seem to think that Gaby sometimes has trouble relating to the rest of them. She can be bossy or she can be overly sharp. They all agree that the Gaby-Chelsea dynamic isn’t a good one, but they say Gaby came up with this lie on her own.” He paused. “Possibly as a bid for some positive attention.”

  Gaby felt her mother’s hand on her arm.

  “I don’t understand,” Gaby’s father said. “Gaby’s a great kid. At home, she’s very popular.”

  Gaby’s mother rubbed her arm. Her voice was gentle, but insistent. “Gaby says she’s very popular,” she corrected. “But sometimes, she seems lonely.”

  Gaby kept staring at the floor. Tears welled up again, and one slid down her nose and plopped on the ground. Actually, Gaby was lonely a lot. She had a couple of close friends, but they were best friends with each other, not her. And lots of the time, Gaby felt left out—like she had to compete for their attention.

  At camp, she liked feeling like she was surrounded by friends. Until she slipped and said something snarky, and then she was alone again.

  Her mom moved her hand to Gaby’s back and began rubbing, then pulled Gaby close.

  “Maybe,” her mom was saying, “Gaby feels awkward making new friends.”

  Gaby started to cry then. It wasn’t like when she’d been crying before, when she’d just been so relieved to see her mom and that she wasn’t alone anymore that the waterworks had turned on. Now she was sobbing big, heavy sobs.

  Dr. Steve watched them all. “Listen,” he said. “As I explained, this would normally be grounds for expulsion.”

  Even through her sobs, Gaby stiffened. Normally? I have to go home!

  “But in Gaby’s case,” Dr. Steve went on, “I think it would be a greater punishment, and a greater lesson, for her to stay at camp. To face the friends she’s lied to. And to try to find some healthier ways to make friends.”

  Gaby felt like her stomach had dropped out. Her sobs reached a fever pitch and her mother rubbed her back.

  “I think you’re right, Dr. Steve,” her father agreed. He looked at Gaby. “Gaby, I’m sorry you feel left out, but I think you must learn a lesson from this behavior. And I can tell you that after camp, your punishment won’t be over. You’re going to spend a few weeks grounded and doing extra chores, so you’ll have plenty of time to think about how foolish this was.”

  Gaby shook with sobs. She couldn’t believe this. I can’t believe I have to face my whole bunk again. How did I screw this up so badly?

  Dr. Steve handed her another tissue. “You know, Gaby, there are easier ways to make friends.”

  Gaby nodded, trying to pull herself together. She wiped her eyes again, trying to halt her sobs. “I don’t know what they are, though.”

  She looked up at Dr. Steve, and he met her eyes. “Maybe it’s time to learn.”

  chapter TWELVE

  “Hey,” Priya said, falling into step beside Grace and touching her arm. “Don’t beat yourself up. We searched as hard as we could.”

  “Yeah,” Chelsea added, coming up on Priya’s other side. “And you were the best one of the four of us.”

  Grace just shook her head. “I didn’t find her, though,” she said sadly. “In the end, that’s what matters.”

  “Come on, Grace,” Priya said gently. “If it wasn’t for you, we never would have checked the road and found the luggage tag.”

  “Yeah,” added Chelsea. “Now even if another team hasn’t found her, we can tell the police where she was, and where she probably caught a ride.”

  Grace just sighed and nodded.

  By this time, they’d walked back onto the main camp grounds. Loud music floated over from the gym, where a dull roar of voices and flashing colored lights reminded them of the social they were missing.

  “Spence must be lonely,” Chelsea said with a teasing smile as they passed by the gym.

  “You know what’s funny?” Grace asked, realizing as she said it. “I haven’t thought of him once since we’ve been out here. What happened to Gaby just seems more important now.”

  Priya nodded slowly. “Right.”

  The lights were on in bunk 5A’s cabin, and they could hear voices inside, low and serious. Grace had butterflies in her stomach. Oh no. They didn’t find her, either. They’re probably in there with the police!

  With a deep sigh, Belle swung the door open and gestured for them to enter. “Home again, home again, ladies.”

  With a heavy heart, Grace followed Priya and Chelsea in. In the main room, all the rest of 5A was sitting in a semicircle. Grace felt her stomach drop. Until she noticed who was sitting in the middle.

  Gaby!

  Gaby’s eyes and nose were bright red, like she’d been crying for a while. It wasn’t until Grace had digested the idea that Gaby had been found that she noticed Dr. Steve sitting next to her. Gaby’s eyes were downcast and she looked exhausted, nothing like her usual alert self. “Anyway,” she was saying. “I know it was wrong and I’m so, so sorry for making you guys worry.”

  “Gaby!” Priya cried out and rushed toward her friend, throwing her arms around Gaby. “Omigod! I’m so glad you’re safe! We found your luggage tag by the road and we got so worried.”

  Gaby looked up at Priya, her dark eyes surprised and grateful. “Thanks, Priya,” she said softly. In the same quiet voice, she told them all about her adventures: stupidly sticking her thumb out for a ride to the bus station, only to get picked up by Charisma.

  “Oh my God!” Natalie cried as the rest of the bunk started cracking up. “She did not! Say! That Paris! Hilton! Is underrated!”

  Gaby managed a little smile. “She did,” she said sheepishly. “And later? She thought a squirrel was a panther. And she was driving like a crazy person, and she told me she didn’t even have her lic
ense.” She shook her head. “I thought, if the cops pull us over, we’re a fugitive and a mentally ill person without a license. We’re so dead.”

  The rest of the bunk erupted in giggles. Even Grace had to laugh at that one. Gaby’s smile grew a little and she looked away, a pleased expression on her face.

  “It turns out Charisma was kidding, though,” she continued. “She needed an excuse not to go to the bus station right away, and she was acting dumb to keep me from noticing that we were driving right back to camp. I was really mad at her for taking me back here, but all things considered, it was pretty nice of her.”

  “Very nice of her,” agreed Dr. Steve.

  “Very nice of her,” Gaby echoed with a smile.

  “Well,” Dr. Steve said, standing up and looking at Belle, “I think Gaby is back in capable hands. We’ve had a long talk, and Gaby is going to be helping out in the mess hall instead of taking electives next session.” He paused. “She’s also going to be e-mailing her parents every day, and helping out in my office each morning before breakfast. So I can keep an eye on her.” He smiled gently at Gaby.

  To Grace’s surprise, Gaby smiled back, sheepishly.

  “And she will not be allowed to perform in the play this weekend. Her role will be played by her understudy.” Gaby looked disappointed by that part of her punishment, but she seemed to understand. How funny, Grace thought, that the role I was so jealous of barely seems to matter at all anymore. Actually, she was looking forward to watching the play—from the audience.

  Dr. Steve looked at his watch. “It’s nine thirty,” he announced. “I know I said earlier that bunk 5A would not be attending the social, but since you all worked so hard to find Gaby, I’ll tell you what. You can all head over to the gym for the final hour.”

  Everyone jumped up, cheering and whooping.

  “All right!” Brynn cheered. “Jordan will be so surprised to see me!”

  Everyone stood up, and as Dr. Steve left, Tori announced, “No hair and makeup, ladies. There’s no time. Let’s get our au natural butts over to the gym.”