“I don’t know why Tori split up her team that way,” Chelsea said rather loudly. “Everyone knows Alex is the strongest swimmer in the fifth division. I would have put her in the tube and Candace in the kayak. I mean, it’s not rocket science.”
“Chelsea,” Priya scolded, hoping Tori wouldn’t hear.
Chelsea gulped and looked at the team guiltily. “Sorry. Forgot to do the whole ‘think before I speak’ thing there.”
Priya took a deep breath and walked over to Tori. “It’s just the first event,” she said, placing her hand on Tori’s back. “You have tons of time to catch up.”
“Thanks,” Tori said weakly.
“Good sportsmanship, girls,” Belle told them, smiling proudly. “Nice job.”
Priya smiled. Dr. Steve blew the whistle, signaling the end of the race. “Fifth-division girls, Blue, I’m afraid you’re disqualified,” he said into his megaphone. The entire Red team cheered. “Will someone go help Natalie Goode out of her kayak?” Dr. Steve requested.
Tori’s shoulders slumped and she turned around, disappearing into the crowd.
“Should I go talk to her?” Priya asked Belle.
“No. Give her some time to shake it off. She’ll be all right,” Belle replied.
But the rest of the Blue team were grumbling amongst themselves, while Natalie struggled to beach her kayak on the other side of the lake. Tori’s captainship was not off to the best start.
Oh, why can’t a huge whirlpool open up in the middle of the lake and just suck me in now? Natalie thought as she drifted toward the rocky shore next to the diving boards. All along the beach, other campers from the Red team—mostly guys—were waiting for her and cheering her arrival. And why not? Her lack of kayaking ability had just won them the event. They had all left the docks just to welcome her to the entirely wrong part of the lake. Boys were so evil.
Finally, the bottom of the kayak scratched along the bottom of the lake and stopped. Natalie looked around. How was she supposed to get out of this thing without getting soaked? Answer, no-how. This was going to be interesting.
“Hey! Team Blue! You’re about a zillion miles off course!” some kid shouted.
“Need a compass?” another joked. “I mean, the lake isn’t that wide, but if you need one . . .”
“Ha ha,” Nat said under her breath. She tossed her oar into the water, braced her hands on either side of the hole she was sitting in, and hoisted herself up. The second she did, she felt her balance shift and her heart swooped. Suddenly the trees on the shore tilted and Natalie held her breath. She was going over.
The water was cold and it instantly soaked her shorts and shirt. She was upside down under the water and it was so shallow that her head hit the floor of the lake. Nat tried to push herself away from the kayak, but her foot was stuck.
That was when panic set in. She flailed her arms and tried to sit up, but she couldn’t get into a position to reach the surface.
Omigod! I’m drowning! I’m drowning! Natalie thought wildly.
Then a strong hand closed around her upper arm and pulled her up. Natalie gasped for air and coughed.
“Are you okay?”
Natalie shoved her matted hair out her eyes and blinked them open. Standing before her with his hand still on her arm was the most beautiful sixth-division boy in all of Camp Lakeview. Natalie had seen him at mealtime and had always thought he was cute, but never remotely imagined she would ever talk to him. He had shaggy blond hair, blue eyes, a deep tan, and wore a silver medallion around his neck on a leather cord. As an added bonus, he was sporting a Blue team T-shirt as well.
And now here he was saving her from a ridiculous near-drowning in two feet of water while she stood in front of him looking like a wet dog. Fabulous. At least she’d worn waterproof mascara.
“I’m fine, thanks,” she said, trying to tuck her sandy, knotted hair behind her ears. She grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and wrung it out. That was when she noticed that he was standing with his sneakers immersed in the water.
“Oh, God. You ruined your treads for me!” Nat exclaimed.
“Small price,” he said with a grin. “Come on.”
He took her hand and helped her up the shore to where the other guys were standing, still laughing.
“Nice navigating, Blue,” one of the guys in red said. “You couldn’t find due north on a compass.”
“Kind of like you haven’t found a comb or a mirror since you’ve been here?” Natalie shot back.
“Oh! Nice one!” Nat’s lifesaver cheered, holding out his hand to be slapped.
Natalie happily obliged. “Thanks.”
“A girl who’s mastered the perfect comeback. I like it,” he said, eyeing her with appreciation.
Natalie grinned as the tormentor touched his knotted hair. She wasn’t usually big on insulting people, but he’d started it, and apparently the beautiful boy liked her attitude.
“Sheesh, Logan. You don’t have to take her side,” one of the guys complained. “We’re just having a little fun.”
Logan. What a cool name, Natalie thought, the butterflies in her stomach whirling and twirling.
“And she had fun right back. No harm, no foul. Come on. Let’s go find you a towel,” Logan said to Natalie.
“That sounds perfect.” Natalie was full-on blushing as she fell into step with Logan and headed back toward the rest of the camp. Maybe this chance meeting could be the start of something amazing—something that would take the sting out of embarrassing herself in front of everyone. A girl could dream.
Tori leaned back against a wide tree trunk near the back of the crowd at the docks, wishing she could disappear. She had made basically the worst decisions ever when it came to her relay team. Her friends were right. Candace would have been better in the canoe or the kayak, and Grace had been really slow in the tube. And not only had her team lost, but Natalie had been totally humiliated.
She wondered where Nat was now. Tori had a feeling she owed her friend a big apology. Of course, if Natalie had been there to help like she’d promised, the girl never would have ended up in the kayak in the first place.
I thought we were going to do this together, Tori thought, her heart heavy. Then Lainie swoops in and says “hi,” and suddenly Natalie is nowhere to be found.
Soon Alex, Grace, Gaby, and Candace appeared, weaving their way out of the crowd. The first thing Tori noticed was that Natalie wasn’t with them. The second was that they all looked very serious. Tori’s heart skipped a beat. What were they going to do, overthrow her already? Actually, maybe that wouldn’t be the worst idea.
“Hey,” Alex said tentatively.
“Hi,” Tori said.
“We just wanted to tell you not to be upset,” Grace said, slinging her arm over Tori’s shoulder. “It was just one event. We’ll do better on the next one.”
“Yeah. We’ll do better on the next one,” Candace added.
“It was a lame way to start off Color War, anyway,” Gaby said. She yanked a leaf off a nearby tree and shredded it into tiny bits. “They should’ve done something easier.”
“Totally,” Alex agreed.
Tori felt the weight around her heart lighten a bit. At least her friends were trying to make her feel better, even if they did still seem disappointed. “Thanks, you guys.”
“Sixth-division girls! In your boats!” Dr. Steve announced on his microphone.
Just then, Lainie, who was the captain of sixth-division Blue, shoved her way through the crowd with the rest of her team in tow. She looked Tori up and down like Tori was a wad of lake scum.
“Nice way to crash and burn, fifth,” Lainie said snottily. “Now you get to watch how it should be done.”
Tori felt like someone had just punched her in her already weak stomach. Her mouth dropped open and a small, squeaking noise came out. Who the heck did this girl think she was? Tori knew that Lainie had a reputation for thinking she was oh-so-great, but she was also supposed to be Miss Camp Spirit.
She shouldn’t be putting other people down.
“We’re on the same team, you know!” Alex shouted after Lainie. But it was too late. Lainie had already moved on and had disappeared into the crowd at the docks.
“That girl is so overrated,” Gaby grumbled, kicking at a stone on the ground in front of her.
“Why would she say that? I thought this whole Color War thing was supposed to be about teamwork,” Tori said.
“As if,” Grace said. “If there’s one thing everyone at Lakeview has known about Lainie Wilcox since the beginning of time, it’s that she’s only on one person’s team.”
“Her own,” Alex and Grace finished together.
chapter FOUR
Before lunch, Belle allowed Natalie to take a little extra time in the bathroom to recover from her unexpected dunk in the lake. Nat dried her hair with her hair dryer and put on a touch of eyeliner and lip gloss, just in case she saw Logan at the mess hall. She didn’t want him thinking she always looked like a lake monster. With any luck, his second impression of her would be better than his first. Although he did seem to like her, even with the dripping clothes and knotted hair. On their way to find her a towel, he had laughed at all her jokes and had touched her back twice. That had to mean something.
Natalie grabbed her sweatshirt and jogged out of the cabin. There were still some straggling groups making their way toward the mess hall. Up ahead, a group of first-division girls played patty-cake games while they walked. Natalie smiled, remembering when she was obsessed with those games. Then, just as she was about to pass the girls by, one of them stepped sideways on a rock and hit the ground hard.
“Ow! Owwwww!” The girl started to cry, her hands pressed into the dirt.
“Omigosh! Are you all right?” Natalie asked, dropping to the ground.
“I hurt my knee!” the girl cried, her face all red as she rolled over onto her backside.
Natalie winced at the cut on the girl’s leg, all caked with dirt. “Oh. It’s not that bad.”
“It’s not?” the girl asked hopefully.
Someone crouched down next to Natalie and her heart caught when she realized it was Logan himself. “Nah. Not bad at all,” he said.
Natalie smiled at him and he smiled back. Just then, the girl’s counselor joined them, having successfully convinced the rest of her group to stay still for five minutes.
“Lisa! What happened?” the counselor asked.
Lisa sniffled bravely. “I hurt my knee. But it’s not that bad,” she said, mimicking Natalie’s words.
The counselor smiled gratefully at Natalie and Logan. “No. It’s just tiny, actually. But we’d better take you to the nurse to get cleaned up,” the counselor suggested.
“I want her to take me!” Lisa announced, pointing at Natalie.
Nat laughed. “Okay. I can do that.” She held out her hands to the girl and hoisted her to her feet. “You okay to walk?”
“Yeah,” Lisa said.
“Are you sure?” the counselor asked Natalie.
“It’s no problem,” Natalie replied.
“I’ll go with them,” Logan offered. “You know, make sure they get there okay.”
Natalie’s heart skipped a beat and she grinned. The counselor eyed them both suspiciously, but the girls in her group were starting to get loud and she made a snap decision.
“Okay, fine. If I don’t get some food in these kids soon, they’re gonna revolt, anyway. Just take her right there and bring her right to the mess hall when you’re done.”
“Ma’am, yes ma’am,” Logan joked.
“Come on, Lisa,” Natalie said, taking the girl’s hand. Lisa clutched her fingers tightly. “Let’s go see Nurse Helen.”
A few minutes later, Lisa was getting a yellow smiley-face bandage from the nurse inside the first-aid cabin, while Natalie and Logan stood in the outer doorway, leaning back against opposite sides.
“That was really cool, the way you stopped for her,” Logan said to Natalie, touching her sneaker with the toe of his. “Not everyone would have done that.”
“Really?” Natalie said.
“Are you kidding? Most of the girls around here are so self-absorbed, they would have stepped right over the kid,” Logan said.
Natalie blushed and smiled. “Well, why did you stop?”
“I got hurt my first summer here and I remember how scary it was. Even a little thing like that, when you’re away from home for the first time and your mom isn’t there to take care of you?” Logan shuddered. “It’s no good.”
Oh my gosh. Could he be any sweeter? Natalie thought.
“Oh, so you’re a mama’s boy,” she joked.
“Guilty as charged,” Logan shot back with a grin.
Natalie’s heart pounded happily away. It was official. This was a megacrush she had going on here.
“She’s all set,” Nurse Helen announced, ushering Lisa back to the door. “Your friends are gonna take you back to lunch now, okay, hon?”
“Okay!” Lisa announced.
“Wanna hold my hand?” Logan asked.
Lisa rolled her eyes. “I’m eight. I’m not a baby,” she said.
Natalie, Logan, and Helen all cracked up laughing as Lisa huffed by them, all brave now that she was cleaned up and bandaged.
“I like this kid!” Logan announced.
“Me too,” Natalie replied.
They held each other’s gaze for a long moment, and Natalie got the sense that Logan wasn’t just talking about Lisa. He was saying that he liked her, too. And the feeling was definitely mutual.
Tori sat on a log at the campfire that night, alone. The rest of her bunk was gathered closer to the fire, making s’mores. She saw Jenna drop her fifth marshmallow into the fire and groan in frustration. After five summers at camp, Tori would think Jenna would know how to make a s’more. But the girl liked her marsh-mallows burned and almost always left them in the fire too long.
Candace gave Jenna a perfectly formed s’more, then started to make another one for herself. Tori smiled at Candace’s generosity. She wished she could get in on the fun, but she just was not in the mood. She couldn’t stop thinking about the relay race and how badly she’d messed up. Then, every time she thought about it, she remembered that she didn’t even like Color War. If it wasn’t for Belle’s idea of choosing captains by chance, she wouldn’t even care about this stuff. She sighed and leaned back on her hands, pressing her palms into the cold ground. She couldn’t wait until this week was over.
Suddenly a chant rose up from the other side of the fire, started by the fifth-division boys on the Red team.
“Red team! Red team!
Can’t be beat!
Blue team! Blue team!
Kiss our feet!”
Everyone on the Red team cheered, and instantly the sixth-division guys on the other side of the fire added their own cheer.
“We are Blue!
The mighty, mighty Blue!
Watch your backs, Red!
We’re coming for you!”
More cheers and jeers followed and soon most of the camp was caught up in the chanting. Natalie walked over from the fire and dropped down next to Tori on her log. Tori sat up and crossed her arms over her chest, pulling herself in tighter. She’d barely seen Natalie all day, and for some reason seeing her now made her feel annoyed.
“Hey! Want one?” Natalie asked, offering Tori a s’more.
“No thanks,” Tori said.
“So what’s up? Why so glum?”
“Remember when you said we would deal with the captain thing together?” Tori asked.
“Yeah . . .” Natalie said blankly.
“Well, I needed your help today and you weren’t there,” she said. “I had no idea what to do when I was picking the team and I completely messed it up.”
“I’m so sorry, Tori,” Natalie said. “I was all caught up in this conversation and I didn’t even realize we were up until Clarissa dragged me away and told me to get down to the dock.”
“Oh,” Tori said. She wished Lainie had never come over to their bunk that morning. If the girl had never talked to Natalie, then Natalie would have been with Tori the whole time and none of this would have happened. Team Blue actually might have had a chance to win their first event.
“But don’t worry, it was just the first day,” Natalie told her. “We have tons of time to stage a comeback.”
“Yeah?” Tori said hopefully.
“Definitely,” Natalie said. “And I promise I will not steer any more kayaks onto the entirely wrong shore.”
“Sorry about that,” Tori said, brightening slightly. “I really had no idea you couldn’t kayak.”
“Well, now we all know,” Natalie joked. “But it turned out okay, anyway, because I met this guy.”
“Really?” Tori said with a grin. Suddenly Color War was completely out of her mind. There was nothing like a little gossip to make a girl feel better. Especially romantic gossip.
“Oh my gosh, he is so cute,” Natalie gushed. “He was standing right there when—”
“Natalie! There you are!” Lainie Wilcox appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Natalie’s hand, hoisting her up in the middle of her sentence. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”
Hello, rude! Tori thought. Apparently Grace and Alex were right. Lainie really did only care about herself. Natalie looked as shocked as Tori felt by the interruption and Tori waited for her friend to tell the girl off.
“Really?” Natalie said, blatantly excited.
Lainie laughed. “First of all, you should never act all surprised and psyched when someone says they’ve been looking for you. Always—”
“Always act like you were right in the middle of something important,” Natalie finished. “You read Cosmo!”
“Of course I read Cosmo. What self-respecting girl doesn’t?” Lainie said.
“Tori doesn’t,” Natalie pointed out. “She’s more of a Vogue girl.”
“That’s me,” Tori said halfheartedly.
Camp Confidential 16: Golden Girls Page 3
