Jenna's Dilemma

by Melissa J Morgan

  “I am so glad I don’t have a brother,” Chelsea said finally.

  “Adam is such a jerk,” Jenna replied.“‘I’m in blue, you know.’ Like we don’t all know he’s ahead of the rest of us.”

  “He’s so obnoxious,” Chelsea agreed. “We need to get back at him.”

  Jenna lifted her head fully for the first time. Chelsea’s eyes gleamed with mischief. “Get back at him? How?”

  “Nothing big,” Chelsea said with a shrug. “Just a small, innocent prank—like the one you pulled on us last night. To remind him who he’s dealing with.”

  Jenna smiled slightly. A prank. Yes. That would make her feel better. Pulling a prank always made her feel better. It would take her mind off diving, off Adam and Stephanie, off her parents. She grinned at Chelsea. Just yesterday Jenna had been beyond mad at the girl for picking on her fear of diving, but suddenly that didn’t matter anymore. If there was one thing Chelsea would be good for, it was pranking. She was fearless and smart. And she didn’t care what anyone else thought of her, which could be a pain sometimes, but it made her the perfect partner in crime. And that was exactly what Jenna needed at the moment.

  “We need a plan,” Jenna said. “A really, really good one.”

  chapter FIVE

  Chelsea and Jenna stood in the bunk bathroom that evening, huddled in the corner by the second toilet. It had started to drizzle outside toward the end of free swim, and the light rain tapped against the windowpane above their heads. As always, the rain brought out the slight moldy smell of the bathroom and made the air thick. Out in the bunk, the rest of Jenna’s friends killed the free time before dinner by writing letters to their parents and friends. Jenna, however, was doing what she did best: plotting.

  “Are you sure you can do this?” she asked Chelsea under her breath. “I can, if you want me to. I can fake it better than anybody.”

  “Come on, Jenna. Julie’s never going to believe you have a stomachache,” Chelsea said. “You’re you.”

  “Yeah. I guess I have used it too many times,” Jenna said, checking her plastic watch. “Okay, we gotta do it now or we won’t have time.”

  “Let’s go,” Chelsea said with a nod.

  Jenna lifted a twenty-ounce bottle of Sunkist her dad had sent in a care package. She nodded at Chelsea, who coughed so that no one would hear the hiss as she

  popped the bottle open. Then Jenna nodded again, and Chelsea started making some of the most convincing barfing noises Jenna had ever heard.

  Stifling a laugh, Jenna quickly dumped the Sunkist into the toilet so it would sound like Chelsea was actually throwing up. When they heard an “Ew” and some movement in the bunk, Jenna tossed the bottle into the trash and Chelsea hit her knees, quickly flushing the toilet. Seconds later Julie appeared in the doorway with half the bunk gathered behind her.

  “Who’s sick?” Julie asked, her eyes darting to Chelsea.

  Chelsea took a deep, heaving breath. Her hair stuck to her forehead as she looked up at Julie with heavy eyes.

  “I don’t feel so good,” Chelsea said.

  “She threw up. A lot,” Jenna confirmed, doing her best grossed-out face.

  Julie crouched next to Chelsea and pushed her hair back from her face. Jenna was impressed to see Chelsea swallowing hard and hanging her head. The girl knew what she was doing. If Jenna didn’t know better, even she would have believed Chelsea was ill. Suddenly Jenna had a whole new respect for this particular new girl.

  “Can you make it to the nurse’s cabin?” Julie asked.

  “I don’t know,” Chelsea said weakly.

  “I’ll take her,” Jenna volunteered. As if the idea had just come to her.

  Julie helped Chelsea to her feet, where she stood, leaning sideways slightly like she was about to fall over.

  “Chelsea? Do you need me to go with you, or is Jenna okay?” Julie asked.

  “No. Jenna’s fine,” Chelsea said, adding a burp. “You have to take everyone to dinner.” She put her hand over her stomach and grimaced. “Ugh. Dinner.”

  “I’d better get her out of here before she ralphs again,” Jenna said, wrapping her arm around Chelsea. Together they staggered to the bathroom door, where everyone parted to let them through.

  “Here, you guys,” Grace said, helpfully grabbing their windbreakers from the pegs by the door. “It’s raining out, and you don’t want Chelsea to get even sicker.”

  “Yeah, you don’t want her to get even sicker,” Candace repeated.

  “Thanks,” Jenna said, feeling a little guilty over Grace’s concern and thoughtfulness. She and Chelsea struggled into their jackets and headed out into the drizzle.

  “Feel better!” Val called after them.

  Then the screen door slammed shut, and Jenna and Chelsea made their way around the bunk. As soon as they were safely out of sight, Jenna stopped pretending to hold Chelsea up and they took off at a run, heading for the mess hall. The plan was simple, but it had to be done within the next five minutes, or they were sure to get caught.

  Jenna’s heart pounded as her feet slammed along the muddy path through the woods. She loved this energized feeling she got whenever she was about to pull a prank. She was half-psyched, half-nervous, but couldn’t stop grinning. When Jenna was pulling a prank it was like the rest of the world and all its problems melted away. All that was left was fun.

  Chelsea emerged into the clearing behind the mess hall first. Jenna looked both ways. The coast was clear. They sprinted to the back of the building and leaned against the wooden planked wall.

  “Whew. Made it,” Chelsea said, wiping some rain off her cheek.

  “I’ll peek inside,” Jenna offered.

  As always, the back door to the kitchen was open to let the air in while the cooks slaved over the hot stoves. Ever so slowly Jenna checked around the side of the door. The three cooks and Pete were all standing at the huge silver stoves, talking and laughing as they stirred huge vats of torture food.

  Ugh. Smells like beef Stroganoff, Jenna thought, scrunching up her nose. This would be one of those bread-only nights for her, but it was good news for the prank. Her brother loved that gooey brown mess.

  “Jenna! Come on!” Chelsea whispered.

  Pulse pounding in her ears, Jenna reached up to the shelf next to the door and grabbed down a five-pound bag of sugar. She was pressed back into the outside wall again before anyone was the wiser.

  “It’s so great how they keep all this stuff right by the door,” Jenna said, hugging the bag to her. “It’s like they’re asking us to steal it.”

  “Okay, let’s go,” Chelsea said.

  Crouching low below the windows, Jenna and Chelsea made their way around the side of the mess hall to the front. Mud splattered Jenna’s sneakers, and rain dripped from her hood onto her nose. When they reached the door, Chelsea peeked inside and quickly jumped back. “The CITs are still setting the tables,” she informed Jenna.

  “Count to ten and check again,” Jenna said.

  Together, they counted up to ten Mississippis, then Chelsea checked.

  “Okay! They’re all back in the kitchen. It’s now or never,” Chelsea said.

  They locked eyes, filled with excitement, then Jenna nodded. “Go!”

  Jenna and Chelsea ran into the mess hall, right over to Adam’s table. There were three sets of plastic salt and pepper shakers, and Jenna grabbed them all up while Chelsea slid under the table. Jenna joined her and opened the salt bottles while Chelsea ripped open the bag of sugar. They sat, cross-legged and facing each other. That was when Jenna noticed a snag in the plan.

  “What do I do with the salt?” Jenna whispered, her heart pounding wildly.

  “Oh, God! Why didn’t we think of that?” Chelsea asked.

  Jenna looked around and was hit with an idea. “My pockets!”

  “Nice!” Chelsea replied.

  Jenna quickly emptied all three salt shakers into her jacket pockets. Chelsea grabbed the bottles one by one and dipped them into
the sugar bag to fill them.

  “This is gonna be so great,” Chelsea said with a snicker.

  “I know!” Jenna whispered back.

  Just as Jenna was replacing all the shaker tops, they heard the door from the kitchen bang open.

  Jenna froze, a chill of fear sliding over her from head to toe. Chelsea grabbed her hand. Their palms were both covered in sweat—or maybe it was just rain. Either way, Jenna could practically hear her friend’s heart beating.

  “You were supposed to make sure all the glasses from lunch got cleaned!” someone scolded. “What are we supposed to do with ten dozen dirty glasses?”

  “Whatever. It’s too late to do anything now. Don’t say anything and no one will notice,” another voice answered.

  Jenna and Chelsea both stuck out their tongues. So much for drinking any bug juice tonight. The two sets of feet clomped right by their table and out the front door.

  “That was close,” Chelsea said.

  Jenna nodded her agreement. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They checked first to make sure the coast was clear, then quickly replaced all the salt and pepper shakers on Adam’s table. It was all Jenna could do to keep from laughing out loud as they raced out the front door and turned their steps toward the nurse’s cabin.

  “Omigosh! This is going to be so funny!” Chelsea cried, dumping the rest of the sugar in the nearest garbage can.

  Jenna shook the salt out of her pockets and it rained down, disappearing into the grass. “I know! Beef Stroganoff is bad enough, but beef Stroganoff with sugar? Gag me!”

  “Come on! We have to get to the nurse’s station and tell her I was sick but that the fresh air cured me,” Chelsea said. “There’s no way I’m missing this!”

  They grabbed hands and ran for the nurse’s station to cover their tracks in case Julie followed up with Nurse Helen later. Jenna could barely wait to get to dinner. So much for Adam thinking she couldn’t pull a prank on him. He had no idea what was about to hit him!

  The key to getting away with a prank was to keep from laughing before everyone else did. Only the prankster herself would know to laugh before anything happened. Jenna had learned this when she had planted her first whoopee cushion on her teacher’s chair, then cracked up before his butt hit the seat. He had stopped, found the cushion, and sent her directly to the principal’s office. But even though she knew this very important rule, Jenna was having a very hard time keeping a straight face while Adam and his friends covered their dinner in sugar.

  “I can’t take it,” Chelsea whispered in her ear. There was a laugh right on the edge of her voice. “I really can’t take it.”

  “When are they going to eat it already?” Jenna replied.

  “Are you okay down there, Chelsea?” Julie asked from the head of the table. “Only eat the bland stuff.”

  “Oh, I am,” Chelsea replied, tearing off a piece of her white bread for good measure. Neither she nor Jenna had touched their drinks or their dinners. Later, after lights-out, they planned on raiding Jenna’s candy stash to keep away the hungries until morning.

  “Here we go,” Jenna said into her napkin.

  She and Chelsea stared as Adam, his friend Eric, and his counselor Nate all took their first bites of food. Adam’s eyes bulged. Then he gagged. Then Eric knocked over Adam’s bug juice while grabbing for his own, splashing the yellow liquid all over Adam.

  “Hey!” Adam shouted, jumping up.

  At that point, Jenna and Chelsea couldn’t take it anymore. They cracked up laughing. Luckily, half the kids at Adam’s table and the rest of the kids at neighboring tables were laughing, too. Spilled bug juice always got a big reaction.

  Adam, meanwhile, seemed to forget his wet lap and remembered the taste in his mouth. He stuck his tongue out a few times like a frog and grabbed Eric’s glass right out of his hands, chugging down half the bug juice.

  Jenna nearly doubled over, she was laughing so hard. Chelsea had tears coming out of her eyes.

  Before they realized what was going on, a couple of the other guys took huge mouthfuls of food. One of them grabbed his napkin and spit the beef into it. Another just spit it right back onto his plate.

  “Ew!” Grace squealed.

  “Ew!” Candace echoed.

  “Pete! What’s with the Stroge?” Nate called out. Nate had a habit of shortening any word with more than two syllables.

  “Oh, that is so gross,” Brynn put in as another of the boys tasted his dinner, then spit it out half-chewed.

  Pete walked over to the table. “Problem, man?” he asked Nate. “Did you salt it? You know you always gotta salt the Stroge.”

  Jenna and Chelsea laughed even harder. This was too perfect for words.

  “Of course we salted it,” Nate said.

  Pete shrugged and bravely grabbed a fork to take a bite of Nate’s food. His lips pursed, but he somehow managed to swallow. “Dude. That beef is covered in sugar,” he said.

  “Sugar?” Nate replied. He grabbed a shaker and shook some sugar into his palm, then tasted it. “I don’t believe it.”

  Adam and Simon tested the other shakers. “They’re all full of sugar,” Simon announced.

  “Oh, gross! Sugar on beef?” Alex said, sticking out her tongue. “Who would do that?”

  Instantly everyone at the surrounding tables looked over at Jenna. Jenna and Chelsea stared back, their eyes wide with innocence.

  “Jenna? Chelsea? Did you really go to the nurse’s before dinner?” Julie asked, sounding weary.

  “What? Julie! I was barfing. Of course we did,” Chelsea said.

  Julie narrowed her blue eyes. “You have made a stunning recovery.”

  “Nurse Helen said her lunch just didn’t agree with her,” Jenna told Julie. “You can ask her yourself.”

  “I think I will,” Julie said as Pete and Nate started clearing away all the plates of food from Adam’s table. “And, Chelsea, don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope, for your sake, that you actually were sick.”

  chapter SIX

  “So, you guys did it, right? I mean, you have to have done it,” Grace said, her eyes shining with excitement as she questioned Jenna a few days later. They were at their photography elective and since it was raining again, they were inside, working on printing the nature photos they had taken earlier in the week.

  “Grace! Adam is right there!” Jenna said through her teeth. She was trying to feed the film through the negative carrier doohickey, and she kept getting it jammed. This photography thing wasn’t as easy at it looked.

  “So you did! I knew it!” Grace said with a grin. The rain had made Grace’s curly hair frizz out, so she had tied it into two short braids. The hairdo and her excited face both made her seem about four years younger than she was.

  Jenna glanced at her brother over her shoulder. Everyone she knew had been asking her the same question ever since beef Stroganoff night, but Jenna always denied it. The last thing she needed was for Julie to find out and punish her somehow, or for Adam to find out and fight back. But she was dying to tell someone that she had pulled it off. What good was pulling a prank if you couldn’t take credit for your creativity? Luckily Adam was busy studying his film strips. He seemed to be taking this whole photography thing very seriously.

  “Come on, Jenna. Tell me,” Grace said. “I’m dying over here.”

  “Okay, yeah, we did,” Jenna said with a sly grin.

  Grace squealed in delight and slapped her hand over her mouth.

  “But don’t tell anyone!” Jenna added. “Nurse Helen backed up our story, but if Julie finds out, she’s going to murder us.”

  “I’ll never tell. Even if they torture me,” Grace said with a grin. She kept giggling as she sorted through her film negatives, and Jenna knew that Grace was happy to be the only one let in on the prank. “Chelsea totally tricked me. I thought she was really sick.”

  “Yeah. Sorry about that,” Jenna said, her guilt from the other day returning. “I felt bad
for making everyone worry.”

  “Eh. It was Chelsea. We weren’t that worried,” Grace joked. Then her face fell. “Oh! That was mean! I was just kidding!”

  “I know! I know!”

  Jenna laughed and finally managed to get the film strip straight in the negative carrier, which was a flat plate with a slot in the middle.

  “Grace? Can you read me the next step?” Jenna said over her shoulder.

  Faith had given them all a list of the steps for printing photographs, and Grace had one on the table in front of her.

  Grace looked down at the paper and shrugged. “Here,” she said, handing the list to Jenna. “I . . . I don’t know how much you’ve already done.”

  “Oookay,” Jenna said, taking the page from Grace. She read the directions quickly and found the next step: Insert negative carrier into enlarger.

  The enlarger looked kind of like a projector. She put the carrier into the machine. Then she turned on the light, and her picture appeared on the empty tray below.

  “Wow! It actually works!” Jenna said.

  Her picture was of a squirrel holding an acorn. She could see the image projected onto the tray in front of her. Jenna was sure that Faith, the photography instructor, had explained the science behind the whole process, but Jenna had zoned out during that part, replaying in her mind the scene of Adam choking on his beef Stroganoff.

  She had been replaying the scene a lot over the last few days, actually. It was just so perfect!

  Jenna focused her image so it would print as sharply as possible. Then she switched off the light so she could insert the photographic paper into the tray without exposing it. Once it was ready, she flipped on the light that was going to magically affix her picture to the paper. She sat back to wait. In her mind she saw Adam, hands grabbing for his throat in slow motion as he tasted his beef-with-sugar. She saw him gagging, saw Eric knocking over the bug juice, saw the splash and Adam’s surprised face. Jenna only wished she could have videotaped the whole thing to show over and over and over . . .