“Hey. I . . . I was just coming to see if you were okay,” Priya said.
“Thanks,” Tori replied. “I have to go.”
Then she ran out of the infirmary as fast as she possibly could.
Dear Michael,
Okay, forget all about my last letter. I do not belong at camp. You’re never going to believe what happened the day after I wrote to you. Color War started. Okay, that’s not a shocker, but the shocker was, I was made captain of the fifth-division Blue team. It was totally by chance that I got it. It had to be by chance. These girls never would have elected me captain. Why?
BECAUSE I STINK AT BEING A CAPTAIN!
Ugh! I can’t get anything right, and I hate it. I feel frustrated basically all the time. And the most annoying thing about it is that I don’t even care about Color War. I didn’t care about it last year and I wasn’t supposed to care about it this year, either. But now I have to. I have to care about it a lot. Because I’m the captain and my friends are counting on me. They, by the way, care about Color War more than anything. Honestly. I think they care about it more than school and their families.
Well, that’s an exaggeration. Unless you count Jenna Bloom. Thank goodness she’s on the Red team. If she was on Blue, she might have murdered my useless self by now.
The point is, I don’t want to let my friends down, but it seems like that’s all I do. Meanwhile, Natalie has totally been letting me down. She was supposed to be helping me with all this stuff, but instead she’s been following this sixth-division girl, Lainie Wilcox, around like a puppy dog. I thought Natalie was above that kind of worshipping behavior, but apparently not. Apparently she forgets who her real friends are and about the promises she made to them the second an older girl starts paying attention to her. I mean, I know it’s fun to hang out with new and potentially cool people, but I feel like I haven’t really talked to her in days. And I could really use a good talk.
Can I get that hug now?
Miss you.
Tori
chapter SEVEN
Natalie inched forward on the line for the high dive, shivering in her already-wet bathing suit. She couldn’t believe that just a few years ago she had been scared to even go up there. Now she loved the swooping feeling of taking that step off the diving board. Of letting go and waiting for the splash and the cool water to envelop her. She loved it more than almost any other feeling.
“Hey, kayak girl.”
Natalie’s heart caught and a hundred little butterflies beat at her chest with their wings. Okay, that feeling wasn’t bad either. She was already blushing when she turned around to face Logan.
“Hey, yourself,” she replied. He was wearing a cool red and orange bathing suit, and still had that medallion around his neck. “But could you not call me that? I’m trying to forget the whole thing.”
Logan grinned and Natalie’s heart flip-flopped. “No problem. But then I have to come up with another nickname for you.”
The line inched forward. “Why can’t you just use my regular name?”
“That’s so predictable. I don’t like to be predictable,” Logan said. He touched his fingertips to his chin and thought. “Let’s see, I bet a lot of people call you Nat, so that’s out. Natalie, Natalie, Natalie . . .”
Every time he said her name, her skin tingled a bit more.
“How about Lee? Does anyone call you Lee?” he asked.
“Like the last part of my name? No,” Natalie replied.
“Cool. Then that’s it. From now on, you’re Lee to me,” Logan said.
Natalie was no longer shivering. Logan had his very own nickname for her. That was so incredible. It was almost like something a boyfriend would have for his girlfriend.
“I like it,” Natalie said, smiling.
“Me too.” Logan smiled back. “You’re up, Lee,” he added, lifting his chin at the diving board.
Natalie turned and saw that there was a huge space between her and the diving board. Apparently the line had continued to move without her while she was entranced by Logan. Feeling silly, she grabbed the safety railings and started up the steps, her wet feet thwapping on the plastic stairs. All the while, her heart pounded in her chest, knowing Logan was down below, watching her.
This is serious, Natalie thought as she stepped out onto the diving board. I have a very serious crush. She hadn’t felt this way since she and Simon had first met. She felt like she was about to burst.
Natalie could see all the way across the lake from atop the high dive, and she spotted Tori and Candace hanging out in inner tubes in the deep section. Suddenly she knew what she was going to do.
“Go for it, Lee!” Logan shouted.
Natalie held her breath and jumped. Her feet slammed into the cold water and she immediately started to swim toward the deep section, laughing as she surfaced. She could not wait to share her news about Logan with Tori.
“Hey, guys!” Natalie said, getting her breathing under control as she reached Tori’s tube. She grabbed the handle on the side and hung on. “You’re never going to believe what just happened!”
“Oh, what?” Tori said flatly. “You talked to Lainie? Lainie asked you to braid her hair? Lainie laughed at me and you laughed right along with her?”
“Whoa,” Natalie said, taken aback. This was not the response she was looking for. “What’s the matter? You can’t still be mad at Lainie about the soccer game.”
“No. Not mad,” Tori said with a shrug. “Not mad at Lainie, anyway.” She pushed herself off her tube and started to swim away.
“Tori!” Natalie called after her, struggling with the now weightless tube. Tori ignored her and kept swimming. “What’s wrong with her?” Natalie said to Candace.
“I don’t know,” Candace said, looking uncomfortable. “But maybe it’s because, um, we all went to visit Tori yesterday after, you know, what happened. But you weren’t, um, there?”
Natalie’s heart sunk a touch. She had been talking to Lainie at the time, going over her outfit for wowing Christopher. “Yeah, but I heard she didn’t even want to talk to anyone.”
“But still, you’re her best friend here, right?” Candace said, biting her lip. “Maybe she would have, um, like, talked to you?”
Natalie stared at Candace. She wasn’t sure she had ever heard the girl put so many of her own thoughts in order like that.
“I should go see if she’s okay,” Candace said.
Then she paddled around in her inner tube and took off.
Feeling suddenly heavy, Natalie lifted Tori’s vacated tube over her head, clung to the inside straps, and ducked down so that no one at water level could see her. Beneath the surface, her legs dog-paddled away, but up above, she was still. Okay, so Candace had a point. Natalie was supposed to be Tori’s best friend and she hadn’t been there for her right after the vomit incident. But still, Tori should have at least stuck around to talk about it. If she had done that, then Natalie would have been able to apologize and still share her news about Logan. Now Natalie’s supposed BFF didn’t even know what was up with Natalie’s potential BF.
And what was the big deal about Lainie, anyway? So Natalie was trying to meet some new people. Was that so wrong? If anything, Tori should be trying to get along with Nat’s new group, but it seemed like Tori was determined not to like them.
Call Natalie crazy, but she didn’t think she was the only one who was being a lousy friend around here.
“Thanks for coming to this meeting on such short notice,” Priya said, looking around at the other members of the Red team. Chelsea was sitting back on her elbows with her legs splayed out in the sand. Brynn was busy combing her wet hair back off her face, while Valerie shielded herself from the spray of water coming off the comb. Alyssa sat quietly, looking serious, almost like she knew what Priya wanted to talk about, while Jenna’s knee bounced up and down like mad.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s get on with it already,” Jenna said, looking past Priya to the lake. Her eyes trained in o
n some of the fifth-division boys, who were horsing around in the deep section. “Free swim is shortened thanks to Color War, and I want to get back in the lake so I can play Jaws on Adam and David.”
“Right, okay,” Priya said, taking a deep breath. She glanced around to make sure that neither Belle nor any of the other counselors were around, then lowered her voice. “I’ve been thinking . . . maybe we should try to lose one of the Color War events.”
“What!?” Jenna screeched. “Are you insane? Have you completely and totally gone bezerko bonkerolies?”
“Bezerko bonkerolies?” Brynn asked, laughing.
“I make up words when I’m about to have a heart attack, okay?” Jenna cried. “We can not throw—”
“Jenna!” Priya hissed, slapping her hand over her friend’s mouth. “Keep it down!”
Jenna huffed and rolled her eyes, and only then did Priya remove her hand. The last thing she needed was Jenna’s big lungs letting the entire camp in on her plan. This was something that Priya could probably get in big trouble for.
“We cannot throw an event,” Jenna whispered intensely. “That goes against the whole point of Color War.”
“She’s right,” Chelsea said. “No way, no how.”
“Wait a minute, you guys,” Alyssa said, holding up her hands. “Let’s hear what she has to say, first. Priya, why do you think we should throw an event?”
Priya smiled slightly, grateful for the ever-fair and levelheaded Alyssa. “Well, it’s just . . . I kind of feel bad for Tori,” Priya said, keeping her voice low. “I think she’s having a really hard time—”
“Good!” Jenna blurted.
“Jenna!” Valerie scolded, clearly shocked. “Tori is your friend!”
“Not this week, she’s not,” Jenna grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Okay, for those of us who are not crazy and still think of Tori as our friend, I think it would really help her to win something,” Priya said. “It would boost her confidence. I hate seeing her so depressed all the time.”
“So you’re saying we should let Blue win so Tori won’t feel like such a loser,” Chelsea announced.
“I wouldn’t put it that way, but yeah,” Priya said. “I—”
“What!?”
Priya’s heart hit her throat. Everyone froze and the girls facing Priya in the circle went white. Please don’t let that be Tori! Please don’t let that be Tori!
Slowly, Priya turned around to find Tori standing a few feet behind her, a towel wrapped around her wet bathing suit. She’d clearly just come out of the water and been on her way over here to hang out with the rest of the bunk. Instead, she’d overheard the rest of the bunk talking about her.
“Tori—”
“You guys think I’m a loser?” Tori said. “You think I’m so lame I can’t even win one Color War event on my own?”
Priya’s mouth felt dry, like she had gulped up a mouthful of Camp Lakeview sand. “I didn’t mean—”
“Thanks a lot, you guys,” Tori said, interrupting. She grabbed her bag and flip-flops and shot them a scathing look before she headed for the pathway back to the bunks. “Thanks for being such great friends.”
Maybe I’ll just pretend I’m sick, Tori thought, staring into space at dinner that night as the entire world chatted happily around her. Dishes clinked, voices bounced off the high ceiling of the mess hall, laughter popped up at random all over the room. Meanwhile, all Tori could think about was getting into her bunk and pulling the covers over her head. Maybe I could just not get out of bed all day tomorrow. Then it’ll be one day closer to the closing ceremonies of Color War . . .
She still couldn’t believe that Priya was planning on throwing an event just so that Tori could win one. Who did that girl think she was?
“You know, I gotta say, Natalie really is going where no fifth-division girl has gone before,” Grace said, gnawing on a dinner roll. Natalie was sitting at the next table with all the sixth-division girls, having inhaled her dinner so fast she could have been a vacuum. “I’ve never seen sixth-division girls even talk to younger campers, let alone invite them to hang out at dinner.”
“Well, what Queen Lainie wants, Queen Lainie gets,” Gaby said, batting her eyelashes comically.
“It’s kind of lame, I think,” Alex said. “I mean, if Natalie wants to make new friends, great. She can have as many friends as she wants. But I feel like I’ve barely seen her lately.”
“Yeah, we’ve barely seen her,” Candace put in. “And she’s supposed to be on our team.”
“You said it, girlfriend,” Gaby said, which made Candace beam with pleasure. Hardly anyone ever agreed with Candace, because she was usually so busy agreeing with everyone else.
“She hasn’t been much of a team player,” Alex said, sounding resigned. “Maybe someone should talk to her.”
Suddenly, Tori felt the rest of the Blue team looking at her expectantly. She sat up straight and cleared her throat. “I don’t know. I think if we talk to her, she’s just gonna get all defensive and tell us that we’re wrong. We have to wait for her to figure it out on her own.”
“But what if she doesn’t?” Grace asked, wide-eyed.
“Yeah. What if she doesn’t?” Candace asked as well.
Tori slumped again. She didn’t really have an answer for that. Just then, Priya pushed her chair out from the other end of the table. She walked over and leaned on the back of Natalie’s empty chair, across the table from Tori. Tori’s face overheated and she looked away. There was no way she was talking to Priya.
“Tori?” Priya said.
Tori kept staring stone-facedly away. All the other girls at the table were suddenly on alert. The Red team had been there for Tori’s meltdown, and the Blue team could clearly sense that something was not right. Tori wished they would all just go back to their dinner. Now she felt so conspicuous, she wanted to duck under the table and disappear.
“Tori, I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” Priya said, her voice pleading. “I wasn’t trying to be mean. I was just trying to figure out a way to help you get your confidence back.”
“What’s going on?” Grace asked, curious as ever.
“She didn’t tell you?” Priya asked.
“Priya wanted us to throw a Color War event,” Jenna loud-whispered. “As if!”
There was a collective gasp from the Blue team. Now Tori really did sink down. Where was a good sink-hole when she needed one?
“Throw an event!? Why would you do that?” Alex demanded.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tori could see Priya squirming. “Well, I just, I wanted to make her feel better—”
“She feels fine!” Chelsea said. “Don’t you, Tori?”
“Yeah she does! Tori’s a great captain,” Alex added, slinging her arm around Tori’s back.
“The best!” Candace put in.
Tori looked around at her friends, surprised. Suddenly she felt a bit lighter than she had just moments before.
“We just haven’t peaked yet, that’s all,” Gaby said. “But you just wait. Sooner or later, you Reds are going down.”
“Yeah!” Grace, Alex, and Candace cheered.
“Okay!” Priya said, raising her hands and taking a step back. “I was just—”
“Trying to help, we know,” Gaby said sarcastically. “But you’d better not try it, Priya. I’m serious.” She looked over at the rest of the Red team with fire in her eyes. “Any of you guys so much as trips on the obstacle course tomorrow and we’re gonna know you threw it.”
“And you’d better not. Because we’re gonna beat you fair and square,” Alex said firmly.
“Yeah!” the rest of the girls chorused. Tori smiled and sat up straight. This was kind of nice.
“We’ll see about that!” Jenna said.
“Yeah, we won’t hold back one bit!” Brynn added.
“Good!” Alex challenged.
“Good!” the girls on Red challenged back.
Tori laughed. Any
second they were going to turn into kindergartners and start sticking their tongues out at one another. But instead, Priya sat down again and the entire Red team gathered into a huddle, whispering together. Probably going over strategy for the obstacle course.
“Wow, guys. Thanks,” Tori said, turning to her team. “I had no idea you guys believed in me like that.”
Alex frowned. “We haven’t been that supportive, have we?”
“Well, I guess I could have been better, too,” Tori said. “I should have listened to you guys on the dock that day. I was just trying to be a good leader, but I guess part of that is actually letting the team pitch in.”
“We’ll all be better from now on,” Grace said, putting her hand over Tori’s in the center of the table. “We’re there for ya, captain.”
“Yeah. We’re there for ya,” Candace said, putting her hand on top of Grace’s.
“Totally,” Alex said, adding her hand. “And we are going to win that obstacle course ribbon.”
Everyone looked at Gaby. She rolled her eyes and sat forward. “This is cheesy, but okay. I’m here for you all, too,” she said with a laugh.
Tori smiled and glanced over at Natalie. Hers was the only hand missing, and it kind of hurt that she wasn’t there. But Tori didn’t want to dwell on that now. For the first time in days, she was actually feeling good about her team.
Let’s see, what would a good captain do at this moment? Tori thought. Then her grin widened.
“Blue team, on three. Ready?”
Her friends nodded.
“One, two three!”
“Blue team!” they all shouted, throwing their hands up.
All across the cafeteria, the other Blue team members cheered and hooted and hollered. Tori sat back in her chair feeling giddy. Maybe Belle was right. Maybe she did have strengths. And one of those strengths was her friends.
Camp Confidential 16: Golden Girls Page 6
