Camp Confidential 16: Golden Girls

by Melissa J Morgan

  “Oh, well I read Vogue, too, but there’s nothing like Cosmo for real-life advice,” Lainie sniffed.

  Right. Advice on how to snag guys, how to change yourself for guys, how to play games with guys. Yeehaw, Tori thought sarcastically. Meanwhile, Natalie and Lainie whispered to each other and giggled, and Tori couldn’t help wondering if whatever they’d said was about her. But no. Natalie wouldn’t mock her . . . would she?

  “So, did you bring it?” Lainie asked.

  “Got it right here,” Natalie said, patting the pocket of her sweatshirt.

  “Got what?” Tori asked.

  “I told Lainie and the girls I’d give them a Blue-team pedicure tonight,” Natalie said. “Wanna come?”

  Tori looked at Lainie, who stared back at her like she was totally undesirable. “Yeah. You should come,” the girl said with zero enthusiasm.

  “Thanks anyway. I think I’m going to go get some s’mores,” Tori replied, getting up.

  “Okay,” Natalie said. She was clearly completely oblivious to the fact that Lainie didn’t like Tori at all. “I’ll talk to you later, Tori.”

  And then, off went Tori’s best friend, trailing after the most obnoxious girl at Camp Lakeview.

  Lainie’s friends sat in a circle on a flat rock just off the edge of the clearing where the campfire was held. Natalie had noticed them over here before, and it had always seemed so cool, like they had their own private space. They even had their own light source, since they were so far from the fire. Three large, standing flashlights were set up in the center of the rock, pointed in all directions.

  “I think it’s so cool that you even thought to bring blue nail polish to camp,” Lainie said as they made their way over. “I never think that far ahead.”

  “I guess I’m kind of a planner,” Natalie admitted.

  “Not me. I’m a spur-of-the-moment girl,” Lainie said. “Like this morning. I saw you doing your toes and I thought ‘I have to talk to that girl. She seems cool.’ So I did.”

  Natalie felt a rush of pride. Lainie thought she was cool! “Thanks. I’m glad you came over.”

  “You’re welcome,” Lainie said with a laugh.

  Natalie’s brow knit. Did that mean what she thought it meant? That Lainie thought Natalie should be grateful she introduced herself? Nah. No one was that full of themselves. Or if they were, they weren’t that obvious about it. Lainie must have meant something else.

  “Got her!” Lainie announced, sitting down between Daniella and Liliko in what appeared to be the only free space.

  “Hey, Nat!” Trish said, as the other girls gave her vague hellos.

  “Hi.” Natalie stood on the edge of the circle, feeling awkward. There was no place for her to sit, so she shoved her hands into the back pockets of her denim shorts and tried to look casual. “So . . . who wants to go first?”

  She pulled the nail polish out of the pocket of her pink zip hoodie.

  “Do me!” Lainie said, shoving her feet forward.

  Finally, the other girls parted so that Natalie could get through the circle. She climbed into the center of the circle and sat down at Lainie’s feet. It was pretty dark, what with her back blocking one of the flashlights, but she figured she had to at least try. She pulled her toe separators out of her pocket and placed them on Lainie’s feet.

  “Wow. You really do come prepared. Like a Boy Scout,” Lainie said, a hint of teasing in her voice. Natalie let it slide and got to work. Lainie wouldn’t think the toe separators were so funny when she had perfectly unsmudged nails.

  “So, Lainie, any Christopher contact today?” Daniella asked as Natalie painted Lainie’s big toenail.

  “Totally. You all saw it!” Lainie said. Her friends stared at her blankly. “At lunch? When he asked me if he could have our salt?”

  “Oh, yeah. Did you see the way he looked at her?” Patty said. “He’s totally crushing on you, Lain.”

  “Oh, totally,” Trish agreed.

  “Right? I mean he could have asked any of us, but he asked me,” Lainie said excitedly, sitting up slightly. Her foot jerked and Natalie painted a blue line across the side of her big toe.

  “Oops. Sorry,” she said.

  Liliko scrounged a tissue out of her woven purse and handed it to Natalie. Natalie quickly wiped off the mistake.

  “So, Christopher is . . . ?” Natalie said.

  “Her lifelong crush,” Daniella announced, shooing a moth away with a wave of her hand. “Only it’s been six summers and they still haven’t even smooched.”

  “Hello? His parents didn’t allow him to date before now,” Lainie said. “But I have it on good authority that he had a girlfriend during the school year, so there’s no stopping me now.”

  “So what’s he like?” Natalie asked, psyched to get some sixth-division gossip.

  “Oh, he’s totally cute. He has light blond hair and these amazing green eyes. He’s kind of short, I’ll admit, but totally athletic,” Lainie replied dreamily. “Plus he’s a camp legacy, like me. And every year we’ve been here we’ve been on the same team for Color War.”

  “It’s like fate,” Liliko said.

  “He sounds perfect for you,” Natalie put in.

  “You think?” Lainie asked excitedly.

  “Are you kidding? Athletic, hot, and a legacy? You guys would be, like, king and queen of the camp,” Natalie said.

  Lainie grinned. “I like the way you think, Goode.”

  Natalie’s heart fluttered at the compliment. This was going very well.

  “Um, that’s only what we’ve all been saying for years,” Patty interrupted. “But camp is almost over, Lain. When are you going to make your move already?”

  Lainie blushed slightly at this and leaned back on her hands. Clearly she was embarrassed, and Natalie’s heart went out to her. She knew how hard it could be when your friends wanted to get involved with your love life.

  “Well, sometimes you’ve gotta be delicate with these things,” Natalie said. “She can’t just pounce on the guy. She might freak him out.”

  “Exactly!” Lainie said, her eyes brightening. “See? This girl knows what she’s talking about. She totally dated that fifth-division hottie for, like, two summers. What’s his name, again?”

  Natalie grinned. She could not believe that Lainie had been keeping tabs on her. “Simon,” she said. “But we’re just friends now.”

  There’s another certain someone I’m interested in, she thought, her heart fluttering. But she wasn’t about to bring that up now. Not when she had no idea whether that certain someone was interested in her.

  “You stayed friends?” Trish said in awe. “Wow. That’s, like, impossible.”

  “Yeah. What did you do, hypnotize the guy?” Liliko joked.

  “The girl’s good,” Lainie said with a smile. “Bet you could all take some pointers from her.”

  Natalie saw Daniella and Patty exchange an irritated glance, but she ignored them. She didn’t much care what the two loudmouths thought of her. All that mattered were Lainie and the other nice girls.

  “Do me next!” Trish exclaimed as Natalie finished up Lainie’s toes.

  “No problem,” Natalie said, scooting over.

  And clearly, when it came to Lainie, Trish, and Liliko, Natalie was totally in.

  chapter FIVE

  “Score!”

  Tori gasped for breath as Jenna slammed the soccer ball right into the back of the net. Gaby made a great dive for it, but it soared right by her outstretched fingers.

  “That’s three to nothing!” one of the sixth-division girls on the Red team taunted Tori. “Good luck coming back from that.”

  Tori felt like reaching out her foot and tripping the girl, but she couldn’t. That would rank as serious unsportsmanlike behavior. And besides, she had to go to the center of the field for the dropping of the ball. Or whatever it was called.

  “Tori! Get your head in the game!” Daniella shouted from the sidelines. She and her little friend Pa
tty had spent the entire game sitting on the bench sunning themselves. Apparently soccer was “not their thing.” Well, it wasn’t Tori’s either, but at least she was trying.

  Clarissa, who was acting as one of the referees, dropped the ball, and Alex and Jenna both lunged for it. Jenna got control and kicked it upfield to Priya. Once again, Tori found herself running toward her own goal, just hoping to stop the ball somehow before Red scored. For a fourth time.

  Then Tori saw Alex sprinting up behind Priya.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Tori shouted, running as fast as she could in case someone needed to pass to her.

  Alex deftly stole the ball and turned around, moving right back in the other direction.

  “Yes!” Tori cried, almost tripping herself as she turned on her heel.

  “Go, Alex! Go!” Lainie shouted.

  Tori raced upfield. There was no one in front of her. Maybe Alex would pass her the ball. Maybe she could actually score! She saw herself booting the ball with the side of her foot. Saw it sailing over the head of the sixth-division girl in front of the net and saw her entire team crowding around her in glee. The very idea made Tori giddy. What she wouldn’t give to do something right in this Color War.

  “Tori! Hold up!” someone shouted from the sidelines.

  The whistle blew and suddenly Clarissa was standing right in front of her. “Offside!” she cried, waving her arm.

  “What?” Tori asked, stopping short. Her lungs hurt from all the running and she put her hands on her hips.

  “Sorry, Tori. You were offside,” Clarissa said with a shrug. “Red gets the ball.”

  Offside? Tori thought. What in the world is offside? “Huh? But I don’t—”

  “Oh, man!” Gaby shouted from the goal.

  “What are you doing?” Liliko yelled from somewhere behind her.

  “Even I know that,” Daniella said.

  “Can I get a time out?” Lainie shouted, throwing her hands up in a T. She looked exasperated as she trudged to the sidelines.

  “That’s a time out, Blue team!” Clarissa shouted, blowing her whistle again.

  Tori, along with the rest of her exhausted team, followed after Lainie. Now that Tori had stopped running around, she could feel all of her muscles tightening and the icky feeling of her shirt sticking to her body. Why anybody wanted to do sports was beyond her.

  “All right, that’s it,” Lainie said, grabbing a paper cup full of water. “Tori, Candace, Natalie—you guys are out. Daniella, Patty, Trish, you’re in.”

  “Wait a minute! You can’t do that!” Tori protested.

  “Oh, I think I just did,” Lainie snapped in reply. “There’s no way we’re gonna win this thing with a bunch of girls on the field who don’t even know the rules.”

  “That is so not fair. They don’t even want to play!” Tori replied, venting her frustration. “Besides, you can’t just decide for all of us. I’m a captain, too, you know.”

  Lainie snorted a laugh. “Yeah, but you’re fifth division and I’m sixth, which means I overrule you. Besides, you clearly have no idea what you’re doing.”

  “Hey!” Alex cried.

  “Uh, isn’t that a little bit harsh?” Gaby piped in.

  Tori felt buoyed by her friends sticking up for her, but she couldn’t help noticing that Natalie wasn’t saying a thing. What had happened to “we’re in this together?” It was almost like Natalie was taking Lainie’s side. Like maybe Nat’s friendship with Lainie was more important to her than her friendship with Tori. On top of all the gasping for breath and the muscle pain, now Tori’s heart hurt, too.

  “I’m just trying to win Color War,” Lainie said, crushing her cup and tossing it toward a nearby garbage can. It fell right in, of course. “Isn’t that what we all want to do?”

  “Yeah,” a few of the girls mumbled halfheartedly.

  “That was lame. Do you want to win or not?” Lainie shouted.

  “Yeah!” everyone, even Natalie, shouted in return. Tori felt like she was going to burst into humiliated tears.

  “Then let’s get out there and do it!”

  The team clapped and cheered as they ran back onto the field, but Tori felt completely deflated. She dropped onto the bench and hung her head. Candace sat down next to her and placed her hand gently on Tori’s shoulder. Tori appreciated the effort and tried to smile, but it was difficult.

  “Well, she does have a point,” Natalie said, sitting as well. “The three of us don’t have any clue what we’re doing out there.”

  It was so the last thing Tori wanted to hear. She didn’t even acknowledge what Natalie said, and didn’t look up when Natalie stood again and started roaming the sidelines, cheering for their team. She also didn’t look up when the Blue team scored a goal, then another, then another. Not even when Lainie made the final goal right before the buzzer, bringing the Blue team a victory.

  “That was an amazing goal you made, Lainie,” Natalie gushed that evening on the way to dinner. “It was, like, right out of the Olympics or something.”

  “I just did what I had to do to win,” Lainie said modestly, lifting her shoulders.

  “I wish I could have helped, but soccer is not my thing,” Natalie said. There was total silence. No one disagreed with her. Natalie felt a twinge of embarrassment in her stomach. She felt like they were all laughing behind her back.

  “Yeah, but you cheered for us on the sidelines,” Lainie said finally. “That totally helped.”

  “Yeah?” Natalie asked uncertainly.

  “Definitely. Right, guys?” Lainie looked around at her friends and they all chorused their agreement. “See? Cheering the team on is just as important as being out on the field,” Lainie said, patting Natalie on the back.

  “Thanks,” Natalie said, buoyed. “I can be very loud.”

  Lainie and the other girls chuckled.

  “Oh, hey! There’s Tori! I’ll be right back,” Natalie said.

  She jogged up ahead, dodging a couple of younger boys who were waging a thumb-wrestling match as they walked, and came up alongside Tori and Candace.

  “Hey, guys!” Natalie said. “How’s it going?”

  Tori stared straight ahead as she walked. “Fine.”

  Natalie’s chest tightened. Was Tori purposely being cold to her? “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “Nothing,” Tori said.

  “Wait, are you still mad about the soccer game?” Natalie asked. “So Lainie took us out. We never would have won if the three of us had stayed in. What’s the big deal?”

  Tori stopped walking and turned to Natalie, her sandals crunching on the rocky path. “She totally humiliated me!” Tori cried, her eyes wet. “She basically told me I stunk right in front of everyone! And what was with that overruling thing? No one ever said that older captains could overrule younger ones.”

  “Tori, I . . . I’m sorry if your feelings were hurt, but she did turn out to be kind of right, didn’t she?” Natalie said, biting her lip.

  Tori’s jaw dropped and she made a high-pitched noise. An offended noise.

  “What? I mean, we did win with the team she chose,” Natalie said. “And the rest of us can participate in other stuff. Someone had to sit on the sidelines.”

  “I have to go,” Tori said flatly.

  Then she turned around and speed-walked off, her arms crossed tightly over her stomach.

  “Me too,” Candace said. Then she raced off after Tori.

  Natalie stood there, letting the rest of the crowd go around her. What was wrong with Tori? Natalie thought she hadn’t even wanted to be captain, so why was she taking the whole thing so seriously?

  She took a deep breath and looked around. Maybe she should find Alex or Belle or someone and try to figure this out. But instead, her eyes met someone else’s. They met Logan’s intense blue eyes. He was looking at her from all the way on the far side of the still moving crowd. Natalie’s heart skipped a couple dozen beats and she smiled.

  “Hey,” Logan mouthed, lifting
his hand in a wave.

  “Hey,” Natalie replied, waving as well.

  And just like that, Tori and her weird overreacting were all but forgotten.

  Priya walked into the newspaper cabin for her first elective session, just hoping it would go by quickly. It was so difficult, trying to concentrate on normal camp things when Color War was going on. But Dr. Steve insisted the camp maintain some sense of schedule, so mornings were still the same as always—elective classes each day. Then in the afternoon, the competition would erupt all over again. Priya’s nerves sizzled just thinking about it.

  Inside the newspaper office, a dozen kids of all ages milled about, flipping through old issues or looking at photos on a lightboard, waiting for the counselor to start the session. At first, everyone was just a murky shadow, but as soon as her eyes adjusted from the bright sunlight to the dimmer fluorescents, Priya noticed that Tori was sitting at a table near the center of the room. And she was chewing on her hair.

  “Hey, Tori!” Priya said with a grin, pulling up a stool. “I didn’t know you were in newspaper!”

  Tori dropped her long blond ponytail and swung it over her shoulder. “Yep. I was hoping to do a gossip column or a fashion piece, but Dana already negged them both,” she said with a sigh.

  Dana was the counselor in charge of the newspaper, and she took her job very seriously. Rumor had it she was off to Harvard in the fall and was hoping to get a job on the Ivy League school’s esteemed paper. She was a real reporter, so the Camp Lakeview newspaper had to be a real paper.

  “Well, I’m sure you’ll think of something else to do,” Priya said confidently, pulling last week’s issue of the newspaper from the center of the table. “Hey! Maybe we can do something together!”

  Tori smiled wryly. “You sure that would be okay? Red team and Blue team on the same side?”

  “There’s no Color War in here, right?” Priya said. “At least, that’s what Dr. Steve says.”

  “Thank God,” Tori replied, rolling her eyes. She slumped forward slightly and toyed with a wax pencil on the table.

  “Hey, is everything okay?” Priya asked.