by Anna Katmore
“Oh …” I clap a friendly hand on her shoulder. “I so would.”
“I hate you!” she hisses.
“Nothing new.”
“Drop dead!”
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing out loud. “Your answer, tiger?”
A growl rumbles out of her throat before she turns back to Julie and the girls’ squad. “Fine. I’ll do it! One hour each day, nothing on weekends. Now, in God’s name, give them the flag.”
Biting my cheek to hold in my mirth is useless after Chloe’s speech. I burst out laughing along with the boys surrounding me. But the girl with the ginger hair keeps a straight face, though maybe there’s a tiny, smug smile pulling on the corners of her lips, as she hands over our flag.
Faithful to my promise, I loosen Chloe’s ties. With a little shock, I stare at her forearms when they’re freed. From all her hard pulling, there are red welts on her wrists now. I rub them gently with my thumbs. Hurting this girl was the last thing I wanted to do tonight, but she doesn’t appreciate my reconciliation effort.
Angrily, she jerks her hands out of mine and stalks away without looking back at us. Julie welcomes her with a quick hug, which I believe Chloe doesn’t appreciate either. At least, she doesn’t jerk out of Julie’s arms and instead walks along with her. The group of girls hurrying behind them cheers in the darkness, even though they just lost our flag.
Obviously, victory is in the eye of the beholder.
*
It’s been two days since Chloe made the deal to do the acting lessons, and I’ve sneaked to the girls’ side of the camp every morning to watch their progress. Not much to report. So far, she’s randomly made them read out sections from a book to train their voices and learn not to mumble. Right now they’re learning some tongue-twisters together. Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew. I chuckle as I fail terribly at getting that mouthful out in a whisper to myself.
To be honest, it was far more interesting spying on her dancing with the girls than it is watching her blabbering with them. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it firsthand right before today’s acting lesson, but after about half an hour of watching the kids dance from her usual throne—the picnic table—she inconspicuously stepped down and joined them in the first line. Way to go, tiger. Of course, I won’t tell her I saw her—oh my freaking God—having a little fun, but it’s definitely something that will look good in my report at the end of the month.
“All right, that’s enough jaw-breaking!” Chloe shouts, and I, together with the others, look up from my spot by the trees to see what’s next on her schedule. “If you want to act, especially in front of a camera, film team, and hundreds of other people on a set, you must lose all your inhibition and shyness. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s really one of the hardest parts for beginners. To train you in this, I’m going to tell each of you some kind of emotion, and you’re going to convey it to the others using only body language and miming.” She places her hands on her hips. “Understand?”
The girls nod, some of them eagerly, others obviously with some serious concern and reluctance.
The first girl has an easy enough task. Sadness. It takes the group all of three seconds to get it right. The second one is a little trickier. While I would have thought she was trying to communicate anger, it was actually frustration. In the third round, I burst out laughing when the girl with short black hair holds an imaginary boy to her and starts swirling her tongue in the air, making kissing noises.
Chloe whirls around at the sound of my laughter and shoots me a sharp glare. “Didn’t know you booked a front-row seat,” she snaps.
Lifting my hands in a placating gesture, I immediately try to kill my chuckle. “Sorry. No harm intended. I was just curious is all.”
“Go be curious down by the lake and watch some soccer instead,” she commands, but her tone isn’t half as sharp as her scowl. It doesn’t matter, the message is clear enough. I turn on my heel and walk back the way I came. Chloe’s laugh and her explanation to the girl who finally stopped air-kissing drifts after me. “Even though that was quite entertaining, Rachel, I’d suggest you don’t use your whole body to act out infatuation. Try it again with only your eyes, maybe shyly biting your lip…”
Whatever else Chloe thinks would express infatuation is lost on me, because Julie crosses my path. That wouldn’t have been a big deal if she hadn’t almost run me over in her haste.
I turn after her. “Hey, Jules, where’re you off to so fast?”
“Uh, game!” she answers over her shoulder. Obviously, there’s no time for her to stop and say more. She disappears from the path a second later.
Scratching my head, I walk back to the Fox cabin and swap my swim trunks for jeans and a shirt. It’s almost noon, and lunch will be served in less than thirty minutes.
Chapter 9
Chloe
Two kids who are not in acting lessons dash across the space and interrupt Susanna’s performance of a nervous breakdown as she hears that her police husband has died on duty. She’s doing quite an amazing job, and I’m about to yell at the intruders for ruining the flow when, looking up at the sun so high in the sky, I narrow my eyes in wonder. “Somebody have a watch? What time is it?”
“Ten past twelve,” Pixie-cut Rachel informs me.
Holy cow! We’ve gone forty minutes over. “Class dimissed. Go to lunch, everyone!” I sprint into our cabin and run a comb through my hair. If I want a warm meal instead of cold and soaked whatever, there’s no time to change my black top and hot pants to something decent. In no time, I’m out again and hurry after a bunch of my kids down to the lake and along the path around it to the boys’ camp.
“Chloe, can I ask you something?” a voice startles me. I turn to face a girl named Kristina. She’s got acting potential—if only she wasn’t so shy about performing in front of a crowd. But after the past two days of working with the kids, I’m confident we’re going to achieve that somehow.
“Shoot.”
“If there’s, let’s say, a guy you found cool,” she begins. “And nice. And…attractive…”
I roll my eyes and snicker quietly, because I know exactly where this is going. “Who’s your crush?”
“Uh…” Her eyes widen in surprise. Yep, I’m not a complete schmuck. “Just someone…a random…er, guy.”
Now I start laughing. “All right, don’t tell me his name then. So what was your actual question?” Hopefully she’ll hurry up, because we’re almost at the dining hall and my empty stomach is rumbling. She has another twenty-five feet before our ways part at the entrance and I enjoy my lunch in peace.
“Well, so…I was wondering if you had any advice for me about how to start a conversation with him.” Her face crumples, and I slow down, because I never thought one of them would actually come to me with something this parental.
“You want my help with chatting up a guy?”
She blushes. It really doesn’t look nice. Her gaze dropped to the ground, she nods.
“Gee, the most apparent thing would probably be to just say hi.” I can’t help the sarcastic edge to my voice, even though I get a dull feeling in my gut when she bites her lip and her shoulders drop.
“I did do that,” she informs me, her voice small.
“Okay. And what did he say?”
“He said, ‘Hi, Kristina.’”
For the sake of her probably aching little heart, I try for some enthusiasm that I can’t seem to really feel. “So he already knows your name. That’s great.”
“He knows most of the girls’ names.” She dares a quick glance at me. “But he hasn’t said more. And I don’t know how to start up something longer.”
Hm. This is tricky. And we just reached the door to the dining hall, too, so I shouldn’t give a crap about this kid’s hopes for a summer fling. But when she lifts her brown eyes to me under her auburn bangs, I draw in a deep breath and stop. Facing her, I cross my arms over my chest. “All ri
ght, here’s what I would do if I wanted to chat up some guy in this place. I’d find out what he likes to do and what he’s good at. Then I’d ask him nicely to teach me. Boys always love it when you give them the feeling that you admire them.” I purse my lips and pull my eyebrows together. “What does he like?”
“He plays basketball every day, and he’s really good at it, too.”
“There you go.” I push my mouth into a grin and lift my hands in a ta-da gesture. “That’s your perfect chat-up chance.”
Kristina thinks about my words for a moment, then her mouth curves into a smile. She nods. Problem solved. Everything is good. I’m starving. Now let’s go eat.
Justin is the only one sitting at the counselors’ table again—like most times when I’ve entered the dining hall the past three days. Is this becoming a habit, Two and Three being late for meals? At the moment, I couldn’t care less, though. I wind my way through the crowded hall and take my usual seat across from Justin.
“Hey, tiger,” he greets me.
“Hey, Four.”
Instead of the expected sigh of irritation, he just stares at me. “You’re late.”
“Yeah. Brats kept me there too long, and I didn’t have a watch on me,” I mumble and take a food-laden tray out of Mindy Something’s hands as she serves our lunch. Roast pork today. Awesome. I skip the soup and cut off a piece of pork, then shove it into my mouth.
His gaze is still on me, and a smirk is playing on his lips.
“What’s there to grin about?” I mutter in irritation as I cut off another bite of meat.
He blinks twice, never taking his eyes off me. Elbows braced on the table on either side of his plate, he steeples his fingers under his chin.
Oh hell, this is getting annoying. “What?” I snarl.
His food still untouched, he hesitates another second with his answer. “Why don’t you just admit it?”
“Admit what?”
“That you actually enjoy teaching acting.”
“I don’t.”
“You do.”
Across the room, the door opens, and Greyson comes in with the head Owl in tow. They wind through the tables, hurrying toward us. Jaw clenched, I focus on Justin again. “Do. Not.” And even if the acting lessons didn’t turn out as bad as expected, I wouldn’t tell him that in a million years. It’s none of his business.
“Oh, tiger, you so do.” Eventually, he drops his gaze to his meal, but his chuckle annoys the hell out of me.
“I had no choice. It was a mean trick,” I snap. “One that you played a certain role in.” When Julie and Greyson lower into their seats at our table, I stake them with a sinister scowl. “And why the hell are you two late all the time?”
Both look at me like I’m coming after them with a chainsaw. Julie makes fish movements with her mouth, no sound coming out. And Greyson, no less lost for words, lowers his head and starts spooning up his soup with bashful speed.
Rolling my eyes, I finish my lunch. On the plus side, my mood, after arriving at this table, begins to lift again with each bite I chew and swallow. The first week is over, and the deal was: no lessons on the weekend. After lunch, I’m free to hang out by the lake for two and a half days, doing absolutely nothing but trying not to turn into a burnt crisp.
After Grey inhales his roast pork and has a go at his dessert, he licks some cream off his top lip and turns to Justin. “Did you have any luck with the equipment?”
Listening with only half an ear, I test the dessert cream by dipping the tip of my teaspoon into it and licking it off. Lemon. Ugh. Not my thing. I shove the bowl away and put the spoon down.
“Yep,” Justin replies, obviously enjoying his dessert. Of course, he’s always been a fan of sour things. “I gave Jeff from the shop a call, and he agreed to deliver the stuff tomorrow, early in the morning.”
Now I’m just a little curious. “What are you talking about?”
Both guys look at me with questioning eyes. “Paintball,” Greyson says, as if I’m an idiot.
“Paintball?” That stupid game where everybody comes out spotted like a giraffe? “You’re going to let the kids play here at camp?”
Justin’s gaze grows a bit more puzzled. “Weren’t you listening this morning?”
I offer him a tight-lipped smile. “Don’t take it personally, but I make it a rule not to listen to anything you say.” This morning I was way too busy thinking up new lessons to teach the acting group. I wouldn’t have noticed if they’d screamed in my ear.
He returns my grin with a smug one of his own. Nope, he didn’t seem to care or take my jibe personally at all. “Well, maybe you want to listen now, so you’re not too shocked tomorrow when kids are chasing you with paintball guns.”
“Chasing me?” I laugh. “Hardly.”
When he raises one eyebrow in question, I clear my throat and sit up straighter, just in case he missed the essential information. “I’m not playing freaking paintball.”
“Everyone’s playing. That includes you. So I suggest you be ready at nine tomorrow.” He chuckles and licks his lips. “Unless you want me to come find you in your bed and wake you up with a paintball shot to your ass.”
Hah! I fold my arms under my chest, knowing exactly how that’s pushing the girls upward on display, and show my teeth in a bittersweet grin. “In your dreams, Andrews.”
*
I wake up to noise in the cabin. Opening just one eye, I spy on Julie flittering around the room, getting dressed, then disappearing into the bathroom. My eyes are still sleep-sticky, so I rub a hand over my face then blindly pad my hand across my nightstand for my watch. Ten past six. Is she crazy?
With a moan, I pull my blanket over my head and roll to the other side, trying to fall asleep again. Just as I’m drifting off, the Owl returns from the bathroom and starts talking to me.
Hidden under the covers, her voice comes across as an illegible blur. Anyway, I don’t give a damn about what she says. It’s the weekend, for heaven’s sake. We can talk again on Monday.
Woosh! The covers are pulled off of me. Jerking upright in bed, I screech, “What the hell?”
Julie stands in front of me, my blanket under one arm as she plants both hands on her tiny waist. “Come on, Chloe. Breakfast is in twenty minutes. I know you need longer than that to get ready.”
“I’m skipping breakfast. Now give me the covers and leave me alone.” Through clenched teeth, I add, “Please.”
“But we’re playing paintball today.”
“Correction: You’re playing paintball. I’m slipping on my bikini in an hour and will relax with a little picnic down by the lake.”
The corners of her mouth drop sadly. “You’re really not coming?”
“Nope.”
“Oh.” That face on a five-year-old would have made me wonder if she was going to cry. But Julie swallows her disappointment fast and tosses the blanket back on my bed. She forces the edges of her lips up into a smile that’s definitely not heartfelt. “Have a nice day then. See you later.”
When she’s finally out the door, I curl up for another round of sleep with the covers back in place. But after such an abrupt wake-up, there’s no chance of drifting off again. Mumbling a curse, I eventually get out of bed and put on my black string bikini. My hair goes up in a ponytail so my neck can tan, too.
Outside on the porch, my gaze skates over the place. The entire campsite is quiet. No girls anywhere. Breakfast should be over by now, so they’re probably all getting ready for this kindergarten game. Fine with me. Silence is nice for a change. Barefoot, I walk down the stairs and lower onto the bench, leaning my back against the table and bracing my elbows on the top. The sun warming my face and front is a nice replacement for the covers Julie snatched away from me earlier. This might become a good day yet.
It can’t be later than nine, but the heat is already creeping up the thermometer, the air growing thick and moist. Time for a swim in the lake. The kink in my neck from dipping my head back for so lo
ng stings as I sit up and open my eyes. For a moment, there are only black dots dancing in my vision. After that, Justin is.
“Jeez!” I blink a couple of times, until my focus returns one hundred percent. “What are you doing here?”
When he folds his arms over his chest, his muscles twitch beneath the fitted black tee he’s wearing. “Came to get you.” His camo pants, patterned in all shades of forest, look a little out of place next to my bikini. But to his credit, they look mighty hot on him.
“Well, soldier number four,” I drawl, dismissively leaning back into my former position, “I’m sorry to inform you that you’re wasting your time. I already told you yesterday that I don’t want to play.”
“Okay then,” he says and suddenly grabs my hand, pulling me up from the bench so fast that only a gasp escapes me. The next instant I’m draped over his shoulder and the damn moron is carrying me up the stairs to our cabin. “This isn’t about what you want, tiger. It’s about your duties as a camp counselor.”
“Are you crazy? Put me down!” Rebelling, I drum wildly on his back and call him every foul name that comes to mind, but he only grips my legs harder, not intending to let me down. The stubble of his cheek rubs against my thigh when I wiggle on his shoulder.
Justin kicks the door open and two seconds later, he throws me down on my bed. Stunned, I gape into his eyes as he puts a knee next to my hip on the mattress, hands on either side of my head on the pillow, and leans down so far that I can feel his breath on my face. “Get. Dressed,” he commands.
“Who are you to give me orders?” I snap.
“Right now, I’m your boss. And if you refuse to comply with my rules, I’ll also be the one writing to my boss and arranging to get you kicked out. Without delay.”
I gulp. Even though my cheeks are burning, I know that there can’t be any color left in my face at the moment.
“You have five minutes. I’ll wait outside.” Justin pushes himself off my bed and saunters out into the morning. Dumbfounded, I stare at the closed door.
