Camp Dork

by Beth Vrabel

  As I got closer to my A-frame, my heart hammered and my lungs demanded way more air than usual. If my hunch was right and I could prove it, April might be so happy to have her laptop back she’d forgive me for lying to Jer and telling Kira about her boogie-picking past. I stopped outside of the A-frame and listened hard.

  There was definitely someone rustling around in there!

  Gathering all of my courage, I ninja-jumped into the A-frame, yelling “Kee-yah!” and striking a fighting stance that would make Miss Betsy proud.

  Only the person I suspected wasn’t there.

  Instead, I faced April.

  “What are you doing here?” she gasped. She, too, was in fighting stance. Both of us awkwardly lowered our arms.

  “I’m trying to catch the thief.”

  “Me, too. I came here instead of heading to the mess hall when Nurse Gabby told me I could leave.” April threw her arm around the A-frame. I followed the gesture, taking in the overturned beds. “I think I know who did it.”

  I tried not to smile too wide at April’s words. She was talking to me! Inside, I squealed like Megan, but outside I worked on keeping my lips level. “Me, too.”

  April righted Megan’s mattress and smoothed Kira’s sleeping bag so it looked like it had that morning. “Let’s say who we think it is at the same time. Three, two, one—”

  We said the same name.

  Jessica.

  “It just makes the most sense,” I said. “Everything was taken when we were out of the A-frame but still together in other parts of the camp.”

  “Like during screen time!” April added. “And she only took things that could be resold. Remember how she asked Kira how much her bag was worth? And she noted that Megan’s bracelet is pure silver? Everything she took was expensive.”

  I hadn’t thought of that, but it made the trilobite and sneaker snatching make more sense. “We’ve got to find her stash so we can prove it.”

  “Yeah, and her mom comes to pick her up in the morning. If we don’t find it now, we might not ever!”

  I looked around the mess in the A-frame. “Did you do this?”

  April’s face flushed a little. “I was trying to find the stolen stuff and sort of got carried away.”

  “I’ll start putting things back where they belong. When I can’t find something at home, Mom always makes me clean up. I always end up finding it.”

  “Cool,” April said. “I’ll check the perimeter.”

  I grinned, glad to be on the same side again. “April, I’m—”

  “Save it, Lucy,” April snapped. “I want to catch Jessica, just like you do. It doesn’t mean I’m ready to forgive you.”

  I combed through everything in our A-frame. I felt a smidge guilty about touching all of the other girls’ things. I shuddered a little when I saw Amanda’s journal. I swear, I didn’t open it! When April was searching, it must’ve just flopped open. There were about a thousand trilobite sketches. Some of them had hearts where the eye sockets should be.

  Finally everything was back where it had been and still no stolen goods.

  I joined April outside. At least, I tried to. I walked all around the A-frame and couldn’t find her anywhere. “April?” I whispered.

  “Here!” she hissed back.

  One thing about April hasn’t changed. When she’s into something, she’s way into it. I spotted her climbing the side of our A-frame. It sounds harder than it actually is, I guess, since the frame is made of wide logs. She swept her hands between the logs. I stepped back when a spider drifted down toward me.

  “Are you sure that’s a good move for the recently concussed?” I called.

  April landed quiet as a cat beside me. “Keep looking.”

  I grabbed a flashlight from my bag and checked under the A-frame. Nothing.

  “Let’s think!” April said. “The bracelet! When Jessica found it, she had to have gotten it from somewhere.”

  “But she never left the A-frame,” I said. “Not really.”

  “She found it on the stoop!”

  Both of us rushed to the front of the A-frame. I could see April’s hands shaking as she tugged on the planks. Sure enough, one popped up.

  We cheered when we saw the pile of stolen items underneath the step. April and I even gave each other a quick hug. Then I ruined it by holding on a bit too long. April stiffened and pushed me away. “Let’s just see what’s in here.”

  Carefully, I lifted out Amanda’s trilobite. April fished out her laptop and Kira’s makeup bag. We put them on my bed. “We did it!” I squealed. “We figured it out!”

  “I know!” April said. “We did it!”

  It was just like old times.

  But when we went back to the stoop to get the rest of the stuff, Jessica stood in front of us, arms crossed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  April’s face paled and she stepped back toward the bunks. For as fierce she can be when she’s sparring, she really backs off when someone’s angry.

  “Look!” I made my voice as angry as Jessica’s. “We know you’re the one who stole all of our stuff. Now that you’ve been fired—”

  “Thanks to you!” Jessica stormed.

  “You think you can get away with this, but you can’t. We caught you. Now we’re going to Mr. Bosserman, and you’re going to tell him the truth!”

  Slowly I felt April move toward me. Her hand shook when she put it on my back, but it seemed to help her gather some courage. “Yeah, Jessica. It’s over. You’re leaving anyway. Just turn yourself in.”

  Jessica’s eyes darted between us. “I hate kids. Especially spoiled rotten ones. What kind of kid needs designer bags, sneakers, and laptops?” She blew out all the air in her lungs. “Fine,” she said. “Fine! Let’s go.”

  “Where?” I asked.

  She huffed and puffed again. “To Mr. Bosserman, like you said. I’ll own up to it.”

  Everyone was heading back from the mess hall as we left the A-frame. April and I stood on either side of Jessica. If she tried to run for it, we’d be on her like Shemanda to a fossil.

  “Hey, over here!” Jessica shouted as the campers and Mr. Bosserman approached. The sun was going down, sending reddish rays across the campsite and into their eyes. A bunch of them squinted in our direction. Jessica waved her arms. “Over here!” she shouted again.

  Kind of a strange way to kick off a confession, I thought. April must’ve felt the same because she flashed me a worried look.

  “I’ve got ’em!” Jessica yelled. “Caught them red handed, bragging about all they stole!”

  “What?” I said.

  “We caught you,” April hissed.

  Jessica plastered on her kitten-poster-camp-counselor face, all smiles and wide eyes. “Now, now, little camper wampers! Who’s going to believe you?”

  Mr. Bosserman led us back to the A-frame, where all the stolen goods were still spread out on my bunk. “Tell me what’s going on now, onest.” He pinned me in place with his angry look. I looked to April for help, but she was pale and shaking. Tears ran down her cheeks.

  “April and I—”

  “They admitted it,” chirped Jessica, clapping her hands. “I came back here when I noticed they were missing. Sure enough, they were talking about how they fooled everyone!”

  “Liar! You’re a pants-on-fire liar!” I yelled. “She’s the thief!”

  Jessica shook her head and made a sad face. “What would I want with a bunch of kids’ stuff?” She turned toward Mr. Bosserman and said, loud enough for all the gathered campers to hear, “This girl has been making trouble since the day she came to camp. It was all a distraction, so we wouldn’t focus on how she and her friend here were lifting things from the rest of us!”

  “That’s not true! Tell her, April!” I pleaded.

  April sobbed. “It’s not true!” she sputtered, but her shaky voice wasn’t convincing, even for me.

  “But they don’t even like each other,” said Kira, who grabbed her bag
from my bed and blew some of the dirt off of it. I shot her a thankful smile, but she narrowed her eyes at me.

  “Part of the plan,” Jessica lied. “I heard them giggling about it. Didn’t they come here babbling about being in some sort of pact?”

  “Pack!” I stomped my foot. “We’re in a pack, not a pact!”

  “So you admit it?” Mr. Bosserman lowered himself on the bunk next to mine, suddenly seeming very old and sad.

  “No!” I cried. “You don’t understand! April and I both were looking for the thief! We found this stuff under the stoop. Jessica is the one who stole everything!”

  “Nice try, kid,” Jessica said, smiling at me. She turned back toward Mr. Bosserman. “I told her I suspected her last week. I tried to convince her to give back all the stuff she stole. It’s why she ran off when we were at the fossil site and threw that stunt at breakfast. It was all a plot to get me fired for suspecting her!”

  “Why are you doing this?” I pleaded with her. Suddenly my head throbbed. “Tell them, April!”

  It took April a long time to stop crying so hard she couldn’t speak. “We didn’t do it!” April finally said. “I swear! It was Jessica.”

  “Take me through the thefts,” Mr. Bosserman asked.

  “The first was my bag,” Kira said. “It was stolen during our first night of camp, while we slept.”

  Mr. Bosserman’s eyes darted to me. I shook my head when I realized what he was thinking: that was the night I’d gone to his caboose. He knew I’d been awake. He knew everyone else was asleep because he had walked me back. I could see the disappointment in his heavy sigh.

  “What about the next one?” he asked.

  “It was my bracelet,” Megan squeaked. “But Jessica found it.”

  “It must’ve fallen out of their hiding place,” Jessica added.

  “No, you got it out of your hiding place.” I stomped my foot again, but couldn’t stop the tears streaking my cheeks.

  “Then it was my trilobite necklace!” Amanda held it up, not noticing Mr. Bosserman’s shudder as she slipped it back over her neck.

  “Amanda, Sheldon!” I turned toward my friends. “You know that we’d never, ever—”

  They looked from me to April, then turned to each other. Without a word to us, they disappeared behind the other campers.

  Jessica stepped in front of me, blocking my view of anyone but her. “All easy picks. Interesting, isn’t it? All these things went missing when one or both of these girls was around?”

  “Almost as interesting as you being around!” I turned away from her toward Mr. Bosserman. “Think about it! She was here in our cabin, same as me and April! She was the one who took me to the nurse and ducked out during screen time! She’s the one who did it! Tell them, Jessica!”

  Jessica just smiled.

  Mr. Bosserman sighed. “I’ve got to think on this.”

  “What’s there to think about?” For a second, Jessica’s fake smiley mask faltered. Mr. Bosserman saw it, too. I could tell by how he tilted his chin toward her and then let his eyes slide over to us.

  “Girls,” he said to me and April, “follow me. Jessica, continue packing.”

  “Wait a sec! You’re still going to fire me?”

  Mr. Bosserman glared at her. “Regardless of who did what, you were responsible for these girls, and you didn’t do your job.” He started to leave, stopped, and pointed to a different counselor. “You, keep an eye on her as she packs.”

  “Phew!” I sighed. “You believe us.”

  “Never said that,” Mr. Bosserman grumped. “Just covering my bases.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mr. Bosserman led us to an office at the eMagine mess hall. “Don’t think of sneaking off,” he said. “I just need some time to sort this through.”

  I opened my mouth to argue our case again but he held up a stop sign hand. “Save it. I’ll have plenty of questions later.”

  April sunk into one of the office chairs, tears still leaking down her cheeks. “No one believes us!” she cried.

  “Well, you didn’t exactly help!” I glared at her. “If anything, you made it worse by the way you acted.”

  “Oh, shut up, Lucy!” she snapped. “I got scared, okay? I don’t like arguing!”

  “You don’t have a problem arguing with me lately!”

  April’s mouth popped open then snapped shut. “Hmm. You’re right.” She shifted in her seat. “You’re always pointing out that I stink at sticking up for myself and my friends. But I don’t have a problem standing up to you.”

  I spun around in another office seat, wondering what she was getting at. “So?”

  “So you were a real jerk, you know that, right?” April crossed her arms. “What you said to me in front of Kira? It was a real mean thing to do. And what you did to Jer and Megan? That’s terrible.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. And I’m sorry. But—”

  “You don’t get to do that!” she yelled. “You don’t get to add ‘but’ to an apology!”

  I wanted to argue, but I couldn’t. She was right. I was wrong. “Fine. No buts. I’m sorry.”

  “Fine,” April answered, spinning around in her chair.

  In a moment we were both spinning; I spun so fast I got dizzy. I sort of heard Nurse Gabby’s voice in my head saying this wasn’t a good thing for April’s concussion recovery, but I couldn’t stop. Soon we were both laughing.

  “We shouldn’t be having fun!” April gushed. “We’re in a little room, accused of stealing.”

  “Yeah.” I giggled back. “And you’re mad at me!”

  For some reason, this made us both laugh harder, spin faster. In the middle of all the spinning, our chairs bumped, sending us both wheeling toward the wall and slowing to a stop. I let my eyes unfocus as the room kept on swirling even though the chair was still.

  “Can I ask you something?” I asked.

  April sprawled out in her seat. “Sure.”

  “Are you SSCPB?”

  April nodded.

  “All that stuff about figuring out who you want to be? That’s what you’ve been doing these last couple of weeks?”

  “Yeah.” She sighed. “At Autumn Grove, it’s already decided, right? I’m a dork, just like Sheldon, Amanda, you, and Sam. And there’s nothing wrong with that.” She shot me a look, cutting off my response. “But what if I want to be different? You know, evolve like these fossil species? Even with the pack, I’m tired of getting pushed into lockers. Tired of having to shout everything because no one will listen to all I have to say.”

  I didn’t respond right away, to let her words sink in. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

  “Well, I do.” She turned toward me. “Do you remember a few weeks ago when I got my hair cut? I was so excited, thought I looked really great. No one noticed.”

  “I noticed.”

  “Yeah, you did.” April half-twirled and then went back. “I don’t know what I’m trying to say, exactly. You know, if I went back to school and kicked butt in gym class the way I did here at Field Day, no one would notice. They’d just cheer for Henry, like always, because he’s the one we all think of as the good athlete.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “And if I went to school talking differently or doing my hair differently, it wouldn’t matter. I’d still be a dork.”

  “So?” I said.

  “Well, maybe I don’t want that. Maybe I don’t want to be that April anymore. It’s not just that I don’t want to be a dork. I like our pack. I just want to be April first. Does that make sense?”

  I squished my lips together, trying to sort how I was feeling. Something she wrote as SSCPB came back to me: Some people don’t want you to change. They might like you just the way you were. Or maybe they like how the old you makes them feel. That was me, all right. I wanted the fun, silly April who said everything in bursts. I liked that April! Little voice piped in that I liked how that April made me feel. I owned up to that and realized it was true. I li
ked that I had always felt cooler—and, honesty alert, better—than that April.

  What I read about Sascha not being willing to change popped into my head, too. Was I being like that? Was I the one breaking up the pack, just because I wasn’t letting it change?

  “I’m sorry, April,” I whispered.

  “There are a lot of things I still want to work on. You’re right that I stink at standing up for myself and my friends,” she murmured.

  I shrugged. “No one’s perfect. Does this mean …”

  April smiled. “I want us to all be friends. I want to be in the pack. But I’m not going back to Autumn Grove. Mom and Dad signed me up for a charter school in the fall.”

  “But—” I bit back my anger. This meant I wouldn’t see her in the halls anymore! That she’d be going to a whole new school. “Oh,” I said instead. “But we’ll still see you after school, right?”

  April nodded. “Absolutely!”

  She grinned and threw back her head. Just like old times, we howled.

  A knock at the door choked off our howls.

  “What if it’s the cops?” I asked.

  April started to shake. “I don’t think they’d knock.”

  The door handle turned, and both April and I gasped.

  Sam! He stood in the doorway. Real, in the flesh Sam, with wide chocolate eyes, brown curls all messy, smile slow and steady on his real, standing-there-in-the-doorway face. Sam!

  “What are you doing here?” I shot to my feet. I rushed forward to hug him, but it was like I ran into an invisible wall of awkwardness. I punched his shoulder instead. He punched me back. “Shouldn’t you be in California, doing a triple axel or something?”

  “That’s ice skating.” He smiled, one of his usual happy-to-see-my-friend smiles, and the awkwardness wall broke apart.

  “Surprise,” Grandma said, with an edge to her voice. She stood just behind Sam. “Sam’s gymnastics camp ended yesterday. He convinced his mom to let him spend the rest of the week here, since they’d already registered and paid and all. Supposed to be today’s biggest surprise, until Harold tells me my granddaughter is a suspected thief!”