Second Time's the Charm

by Melissa J Morgan

  “Seriously,” Tori broke in, looking up from her simple coffee mug. “There’s a boutique on Melrose that sells that sort of stuff, like funky housewares and whatever. You could totally sell your vase there. It’s that good.”

  “Aw, shucks, you girls,” Alyssa said, blushing a little bit. Natalie knew that her friend had total confidence in her amazing artistic abilities but didn’t really like being the center of attention.

  “We can say we knew you when,” Natalie joked.

  “No, I’m not kidding. My mom’s friend owns the shop—Astrid Landon? You know, that model? My dad does her contracts, and that’s how she became friends with my mom.”

  “You know Astrid Landon?” Given that her father was pretty much a megastar, Natalie didn’t usually get weird or celebrity-struck. But Astrid Landon was a different story. Astrid Landon was, like, her father’s arch-nemesis.

  Her father tried to be discrete about these things, but Nat had gotten the story out of him over one Fourth of July weekend several years ago. Tad’s long-time girlfriend, Josie McLaughlan, had been on the short list to play against him in one of the Spy sequels, but at the last minute, Astrid’s agent had pulled some strings. . . . Josie was a good sport, of course, but she’d been terribly hurt. In the long run, the movie had done modestly at the box office and the whole incident was forgotten, but Tad had sworn he wouldn’t work with Astrid again. And now Tori’s family was, like, best friends with her?

  That wasn’t something Nat could hold against Tori. Was it?

  No, those sorts of things happened in Hollywood all the time, Natalie knew. It wasn’t Tori’s fault she was on the wrong side of a celebrity-feud. It was just . . . annoying.

  “Yeah, she’s great,” Tori gushed. “I wish they would let us keep our cell phones up here. I’d take a picture of that vase so I could show it to Astrid when I get back home.”

  “I know. When I first got here last summer and they took our phones away, I thought I was going to go into withdrawal. But you get used to it,” Nat said. Part of the whole “embracing the great outdoors” thing and all.

  “Maybe you can,” Tori said. She sighed. “You’re just more . . . rustic than I am, I guess.”

  Natalie bristled. She knew Tori didn’t mean it as an insult, and she knew it was silly to compete. It was especially silly to compete over who was the bigger princess. But.

  Silly or not, Natalie couldn’t help feeling that her new friend, the one she had been so excited to induct into the cult of summer camp, was stealing her shtick.

  Ridiculous.

  “Maybe I just need a hottie trail guide,” Tori went on. “You know, someone with great eyes. Like Simon.”

  “Huh?” Natalie said, feeling clumsy and inarticulate.

  “Simon. I’m sure that getting lost in the woods with him helped you develop a new appreciation for nature, right?” Tori winked.

  “Yeah, and, um, he’s taken,” Natalie said. “Sorry.”

  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Natalie realized how much harsher they’d come out than she’d meant. What was wrong with her? So Tori was friends with a model; she was from L.A., Natalie could understand that—probably better than anyone. And Tori was getting along with Alyssa—that was a good thing. Camp was for chick-bonding; the more, the merrier, Nat and Alyssa always said. And so what if Tori thought Simon was cute? He was, that was for sure. She could hardly be blamed for noticing.

  Tori chuckled lightly. “Of course he’s taken, Nat. I was just kidding.”

  Natalie cleared her throat. “Right,” she said quickly. “Me too.”

  But deep down, she wasn’t so sure.

  chapter SEVEN

  “You were born in San Francisco? I had no idea!”

  “Yup, my parents were big-time hippies, back in their day.” Simon smiled at Natalie, then shuddered. “It’s very disturbing to think about my mom in a miniskirt with ironed hair.”

  “We can move on,” Nat replied, laughing.

  “Don’t you think you’ve done enough probing for one afternoon?” Simon teased. “You’ve got my favorite color, my career goals, the name of my first pet—”

  “Dearly departed Peanut—” Nat cut in, mock-somber.

  “And now you know where I was born. You’ve got enough data for an E! True Hollywood Story.”

  “I just want to be thorough,” Natalie replied.

  “I really want to run a piece in the Visiting Day newspaper issue, and this interview is like my audition. It has to be great.”

  “I just hope Jesse thinks I’m as fascinating a subject as you do,” Simon joked.

  “Who said I think you’re fascinating?” Natalie quipped. I mean, I do, but . . .

  “It’s written all over your face, Goode,” Simon said.

  “It’s nice that you’re so confident,” she said, trying to recover. She glanced at her watch. “Oh! Free choice is almost over. I want to go grab Alyssa before swim.”

  “Sure thing,” Simon said easily. “Get ready for next week, when the tables are turned and you are subject to my inquisition.” He put his index finger to his chin in a Thinker sort of pose. “I’m going to catch up with Ben and Gabe.”

  “Sounds fun!” Natalie chirped. It really did. Mainly because it was fun just being around Simon, no matter what they were doing.

  She tucked her notebook and pen under one arm and wandered over to where Alyssa and Tori were sitting. It looked like Alyssa was interviewing Tori, even though Tori wasn’t on the newspaper. It must have been just for fun.

  But if it was just for fun, what was that slight echo of jealousy churning in Natalie’s rib cage?

  “Favorite flavor of jelly bean would have to be . . .” Tori drummed her fingers against the table and stared off at an imaginary point on the horizon. “Ooh—I love that buttered popcorn one. I mean, it really tastes like buttered popcorn!”

  “Well, Alyssa won’t go for that,” Nat cut in, grinning. “She likes to keep her salty and sweet separate.”

  Alyssa raised an eyebrow at Natalie. “You don’t know everything about me, you know,” she said somewhat pointedly.

  Nat swallowed. Alyssa hadn’t said anything rude or especially harsh, but, for some reason, a sudden chill had come over Nat. Of course she didn’t know every last little thing about Alyssa. But they were best friends. That in itself meant that Nat knew a lot. More than a lot.

  “Um, okay, then,” Natalie said, making a huge effort to recover from the hiccup of weirdness. “So what’s your favorite flavor, then?”

  To Natalie’s great relief, Alyssa broke into a smile. “Pink grapefruit. It’s true. I’m a fan of the pure sugar rush.”

  Natalie giggled. “Simon likes that one, too.”

  Alyssa nodded slowly, collecting her own notebook and pencil. The cold freeze had come back over Nat. “Now, see, Simon you know everything about. That, I can believe.”

  This time there was no mistaking the edge in her voice. But Nat had no clue what to do about it. This was Alyssa, after all. They had never had a fight before. Ever.

  “Um, what’s that supposed to mean, Lyss?” Nat asked uncertainly. She looked from her old friend to her new friend. Tori, in turn, suddenly seemed extremely interested in her shoelaces. And uncharacteristically quiet.

  Alyssa shrugged and ran her fingers through her inky, dyed-black hair. “Nothing. Never mind.” She looked Natalie directly in the eye. “Let’s go back to the bunk and get ready for free swim.”

  All at once, Nat was relieved Normal Alyssa—magazine-reading, horoscope-loving, free-swim-sitting-out Alyssa—was back. Nat was so grateful for this abrupt change of heart that she decided not to make a thing out of the random burst of crankiness.

  Everyone’s entitled to one, now and then, she thought to herself. Right?

  “Okay, so you have your pick,” Natalie said. “Lucky us, I just got a brand-new shipment in from my mom yesterday.” She fanned a handful of magazines out tantalizing them, like a card dealer at a casino. �
�We’ve got People, In Touch, Us Weekly, and—my personal favorite—Star.” She giggled gleefully. “Note that this may or may not be the very same photo of a certain blond pop princess on each cover.”

  “So, in effect, they’re all really the same magazine,” Alyssa noted drily.

  “Well, sure, but that’s that beauty of it. Multiple viewpoints!” Natalie exclaimed brightly. “I mean, you can’t ask for more incisive coverage, right?”

  Chelsea dropped her towels next to where the girls had set up camp. “Whatever,” she muttered, managing to sound incredibly bored and totally irritated all at once. “It’s so lame that you never bother to go in during free swim.”

  “Yup, we’re lame,” Alyssa said agreeably. She and Natalie couldn’t have cared less what Chelsea thought of them. She smoothed a glob of sunscreen onto her pale shoulders and leaned back onto her elbows. “And we like it.”

  “Amen,” Natalie said, popping a pair of oversized sunglasses on her face. She poked Alyssa. “Warn me if I start to get that weird glasses tan, okay?”

  “Definitely,” Alyssa promised.

  Chelsea glared at the girls and wandered down to the shoreline with Karen. The rest of the bunk was in the water, too—all except for Tori. She’d been joining them in their sunbathing more and more lately.

  “Tori’s taking forever to change, huh?” Natalie observed, flipped idly through a magazine.

  “Yeah, I think she was helping Mia bring something to the kitchen. I don’t know for sure.”

  “Speak of the devil,” Nat said, looking up as a shadow fell across her torso. It was cast by Tori’s tall, lanky body as she leaned over the girls.

  “Here I am! The party can start!” she said playfully.

  “We were just starting to worry,” Alyssa said. “We wouldn’t want you to miss a moment of celebrity gossip.”

  Natalie laughed. It was true, Tori knew a ton about Hollywood and could always be counted on to tell good stories. But . . .

  Well, maybe she was being crazy—probably, she was being crazy—but there was a part of her that didn’t want to share Alyssa with Tori. She felt like she hadn’t had any one-on-one time with her BFF lately. And then there was that odd moment at the end of newspaper. . . . She and Alyssa really needed some quality time. But she couldn’t just exclude Tori. Tori was her friend, after all. And, anyway, that would be just . . . rude.

  “Goody!” Tori squealed, spreading out a huge, fluffy beach towel and stepping out of her flip-flops. She took off her shorts and T-shirt to reveal a very adorable ruffly tankini that did little to quash Natalie’s mild waves of irrational jealousy. Tori was the picture of a cute California surfer girl. How . . . annoying. “Oh.”

  “What, ‘oh’?” Natalie asked. “You’ve got your tabloids, you’ve got your sunscreen . . . where’s the bad?”

  Tori frowned. “It’s just . . . I read those already. My mom sent them up to me a few days ago. They all contradict each other, anyway. Totally not reliable journalism.” She turned to the girls thoughtfully. “I know it’s everything we stand against, but it’s kind of sweltering out here. Anyone want to go in the water?”

  Natalie gasped dramatically and clutched at her chest. “Heavens, no! Do you have any idea what lake water does to my hair?”

  Tori laughed obligingly, but Alyssa was busy shimmying out of her tank top. “Definitely,” she said. “I am dying of heat.” She looked over at Natalie. “You don’t mind, right? I mean, more magazines for you.”

  Nat shook her head slowly, feeling a little bit horrified and sort of like she had stumbled into an alternate universe. Alyssa was spending free swim with someone other than her? Alyssa was spending free swim in the water?

  It must be opposite day, she thought, the wheels in her mind clicking and whirring. In the Bizzaro World. “I don’t mind at all,” she said numbly, trying to muster up some semblance of a smile.

  “Oh, good,” Alyssa said. She quickly tied her hair up into a sloppy bun on top of her head. She gave Natalie a quick smile. “We’ll be back.”

  She grabbed Tori’s hand and the two scampered off, down to the waterfront, without another thought to sunning, magazines, or to Natalie.

  “Well, you look . . . thoughtful.”

  “Hmm?”

  “That must be a really interesting magazine article,” Mia said, smoothing out her towel and shaking her golden hair across her shoulders. “That’s the third time I’ve tried to get your attention.”

  “What?” Natalie blushed. “Sorry, it’s not, uh, personal. I’m just caught up in . . .” She trailed off, looking down at her open magazine. She hadn’t been able to focus on a single word in the twenty minutes or so since Tori and Alyssa had gone off to be swim buddies. “I don’t know,” she confessed. “You caught me. I’m spacing.”

  “Looks like you’ve got something serious on your mind.”

  Nat regarded Mia. She liked her CIT a lot, but it wasn’t the same as the relationship she’d had with her CIT last year, Marissa. She and Marissa had been bona fide friends, even with the difference in their ages. They still e-mailed each other, and Marissa could always be counted on for some great advice. Too bad she was in Big Sur with her family this summer. Natalie didn’t know Mia that well, but Mia was definitely cool, and very outgoing, and in the week since they’d been at camp, she had always been there for the girls. Maybe it was worth a shot at opening up to her?

  What the heck, Nat thought. It couldn’t hurt, could it?

  “You’re gonna think this is silly,” Nat said, hesitating slightly.

  “Try me,” Mia said encouragingly.

  “It’s just . . . I was really looking forward to coming back to camp this summer—and especially to see Alyssa, you know?”

  “But?” Mia prompted.

  “Things are a little weird,” Natalie admitted.

  “Not exactly the way that they were last summer. I don’t know why.”

  “Well, is there anything different about this summer?” Mia asked. “Anything specifically that you can think of?”

  Nat nodded. “There’s . . . well, there’s Simon.”

  “Ah, the boyfriend,” Mia said sagely. She shook her head. “So often the root of all girl issues. But you were with him last summer, no?”

  “Not exactly. I mean, I was into him, but we weren’t, like, boyfriend and girlfriend the way we are now.”

  “So, things have changed. They’ve changed for the better, in some ways, and really, we’ve all got to learn to go with the flow, but the truth is that these things happen. It’s normal. Maybe Alyssa feels a little bit left out, now that you’ve got a ‘thing’ with a guy. Also normal. The trick is to make sure she understands that she’s still your BFF. Even if you’re splitting your free time between your girl friend and your boyfriend, you can still make sure they both know how important they are to you.”

  Natalie looked up at her CIT curiously. “You make it sound so simple. How do you make it sound so simple?”

  Mia grinned. “I am wise beyond my years.” She gave Natalie’s ponytail a little tug. “Trust me, you guys have a true friendship. All you have to do is talk to her.”

  Listening to Mia, Natalie was inclined to believe her. She was older, so she had experience on her side. And she sounded so sure of herself, it was impossible not to get caught up in her enthusiasm and determination. She would talk to Alyssa. It was a good idea. Alyssa needed to know that she wasn’t going to be replaced by Simon—or any boy—anytime soon.

  Natalie glanced back down to the waterfront. Alyssa and Tori were barely within her view; they’d wandered off into the green water, which was the deepest end of the lake. A tiny prick of doubt pinched at Natalie’s insides. She had been honest with Mia about Simon, but there was something she had left out of the equation. Because even if Natalie could be sure that Simon wouldn’t interfere with her relationship with Alyssa . . . she wasn’t so sure that Tori wouldn’t, either.

  There were no guarantees. At least, not until s
he talked to Alyssa. And put all of this ridiculousness out of her mind.

  Natalie didn’t get a moment alone with Alyssa until much later that night. Tori had hung with them during siesta, giving out killer manicures and showering the girls in her newest batch of makeup samples that her mother had sent. Then Alex, Grace, Valerie, and Sarah had come by to play cards. And of course, dinner itself was way too loud and crowded for the sort of heart-to-heart Nat was planning. She finally cornered Alyssa on their way out of the mess hall, corralling her aside and letting the rest of the bunk speed up until they had some semblance of privacy.

  “What’s going on, Natalie?” Alyssa asked. “You’re looking at me all . . . twitchy.”

  Natalie laughed. She was feeling twitchy, and it bode well that her friend could recognize that. Maybe this Talk wouldn’t be too terribly painful after all. She looked at Alyssa shyly. “It’s just that I feel like things are a little, um, off between us lately.”

  Alyssa’s typically porcelain skin flamed crimson. “What do you mean?” she stammered.

  Now it was Natalie’s turn to falter. She had Alyssa’s attention, all right—she just didn’t know what to do with it. “I, uh, don’t know how to describe it exactly, but it feels like it’s a little, I guess . . . tense? Like there’s something you’re upset about that you’re not sharing with me?” She took a deep breath. “I mean, if there is something, Lyss . . . you know you can tell me anything.”

  She paused, waiting for Alyssa to respond. For one excruciating beat, all Natalie could hear was the sound of both of their breathing and the scrape of their shoes along the dirt path. She thought she might crawl out of her skin if Alyssa didn’t have a reaction, and soon. She tilted her head back toward her friend. “Please. Say. Something?” she begged.

  Alyssa swallowed hard and took a deep breath through her nose. She looked for all the world as though she were gearing up to say something Important. Thank goodness, Natalie thought. We so need to get to the bottom of this!

  “Here’s the thing—” Alyssa began, her voice hushed and low.