Jenna's Dilemma

by Melissa J Morgan

  “Jenna! What’re you doing!?”

  Startled out of her daydream, Jenna stood up to find Adam glaring at her. Oh, no! Had she zoned out so far, she had actually confessed to the crime or something?

  “Your paper’s not straight! Your picture’s gonna be all crooked,” Adam said, gesturing at her enlarger.

  “Geez! Sorry, Mr. Perfect.”

  She undid the little flaps that held the paper in place and adjusted it.

  “No! You can’t move it once the light’s already on!” Adam said, his eyes wide.

  “Oh, right,” Jenna said, remembering the instructions. Her face flushed, and she resecured the paper, but it was too late now. She had already moved it. What was going to happen to her photo?

  “And how long has the light been on, anyway? Did you even set the timer?” Adam asked.

  “The timer!” Jenna exclaimed. She had been so focused on daydreaming about her prank, she had missed the most basic step. She reached over and turned the light off, and Adam shook his head like he just couldn’t believe how stupid she was.

  “What?” Jenna said, pulling her photo paper out of the tray. “I’m sure it’s going to come out fine.”

  Trying to look more confident than she felt, Jenna walked over to the tubs of chemicals near the wall and slid her photo into the developing liquid. Much to her disappointment, Adam followed as if he was determined to see if she had messed up. Jenna snapped on a pair of plastic gloves and waited.

  See? I remembered the gloves. I know what I’m doing, Jenna thought. I paid attention!

  Grace joined Adam and Jenna at the developer and they all leaned in to watch as the image appeared. This was the best part, as far as Jenna was concerned. Watching Faith’s photos magically appear during her demonstration had been totally cool.

  “Which picture did you choose, Jenna?” Faith asked, joining them. Her small glasses were perched at the end of her nose, and her long brown hair was pulled back in a low ponytail. She wasn’t much older than Julie and the other counselors, but she tried to make herself look like she was.

  “It’s a picture of a squirrel holding an acorn,” Jenna said proudly. “I think it’s really good.”

  That moment something started to appear on the page, but it didn’t look anything like a squirrel. At first, there was a big black blob right in the middle, surrounded by other fuzzy blobs that could only be the leaves and rocks the squirrel had been sitting on. Behind the center blob, there were a bunch of gray speckles. Then the image started to turn darker and darker.

  Pressing her lips together, Jenna grabbed the photo out of the developer and put it into the stop bath, which was what they called the liquid in the next bin. At least she remembered that part.

  “Oh, Jenna,” Faith said. “It’s okay. The great thing about having a negative is that you can try to print from it again and again until it comes out the way you want it.”

  “And you definitely didn’t want it that way,” Adam said.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Grace said. “Your next one will be fabulous. I know it,” she added, looping her arm around Jenna and sticking her tongue out at Adam.

  Jenna couldn’t have been more grateful for Grace’s save, because she never could have said anything herself. She knew that if she opened her mouth, she was going to burst into tears. She stared down at her blackened photo, her face burning with embarrassment. For a veteran Lakeview camper who thought she knew how to do everything, Jenna was certainly getting a lot wrong lately. And she didn’t like the way it felt.

  By that afternoon the rain had stopped, though the sky remained overcast. It was a little windy and chilly, but as long as there was no water falling from the sky, free swim was still on. As the rest of the campers streamed from their bunks, laughing and screeching, their towels billowing behind them as they ran for the lake, Jenna trudged behind her friends. It used to be that free swim was Jenna’s favorite part of the day. Now she was just wishing the rain would come back so they could all hang out in the cabin and play cat’s cradle and checkers and Clue. Jenna was starting to hate the lake.

  “Cheer up, Jenna,” Julie said, falling into step with her. “If the weather keeps up like this, at least we’ll still get to have the scavenger hunt tonight.”

  Jenna brightened a bit as Julie quickened her steps to catch up with Marissa at the head of the crowd. Scavenger hunts were the best evening activity there was. And since Jenna knew the camp like the back of her hand, her group always completed their lists and brought home the blue ribbon.

  “What’s a scavenger hunt?” Natalie asked as she and Valerie caught up with Jenna.

  “What’s a scavenger hunt?” Jenna repeated, her jaw dropping. “You’ve never done one?”

  “Um . . . no,” Natalie said. “Doesn’t sound like a New York kind of event.”

  “Omigosh, scavenger hunts are the best,” Jenna said, warming to the topic. She loved being able to teach the newbies like Natalie about camp traditions. “You get this whole long list of things that you have to find, and whoever finds the most stuff on their list, wins.”

  “What kind of things?” Natalie asked, interested.

  “Everything from a single acorn to a four-leaf clover to a napkin from the mess hall, or one of Pete’s baseball caps,” Jenna said. “It’s different every year.”

  “Yeah, but last year we were the only ones to get one of Pete’s caps,” Grace added, joining the group. “Thanks to Jenna.”

  “You stole one of his caps?” Natalie asked.

  “I would have, but he found out that they were on the list, so he hid them all,” Jenna replied. “Not even his own bunk could find them.”

  “So how did you get one?” Natalie asked.

  “She talked him into giving her one,” Valerie replied, hooking her arm around Jenna. “The girl is good.”

  Jenna grinned as everyone agreed. It was the baseball cap that had helped them beat out bunk 4A last year and take first place.

  “So? How did you talk him into it?” Natalie asked.

  “Well, last year my big brother Matt was still a counselor here and he had these two tickets to that AlternaFest concert at the end of the summer,” Jenna said. “Everyone knew he had them and that he hadn’t decided who to bring yet, so I just told Pete that if he gave me the cap, I’d tell Matt how he had helped me out. Then Matt would think he was really cool and take him to the concert. After that, he finally gave in.”

  “Jenna? That’s not talking him into it, that’s bribery,” Natalie said with a laugh.

  “Whatever it was, it worked,” Valerie said.

  “So did Pete get to go to the concert?” Natalie asked.

  “Nah,” Jenna said. “Matt took his new girlfriend, Keira, but Pete said he understood because she was ‘so totally hot,’” she added, doing her best Pete impression.

  Everyone laughed as they reached the lake. As Grace and Valerie dropped their stuff, a couple of guys from 3F walked over to them.

  “Hey, Val. You swimming?” one of them asked.

  Valerie flushed and smiled. “Yeah. I’ll be right in.”

  “Cool,” he said. Then he and his friends turned and ran for the water.

  “Who was that?” Jenna asked.

  “His name’s Christopher. He’s a newbie,” Val said. “He asked me to the social this morning.”

  Jenna’s heart dropped. “You have a date, too?”

  Val shrugged, and Grace groaned. “Everyone is going to have a date except me!” Grace said.

  “No way,” Jenna said. “I am not going to have a date, and neither is Alex or Sarah or any of us who haven’t gone totally boingo bonkers.”

  “Yeah, Grace,” Natalie said. “Don’t feel like you have to have a date or something. It’s not a big deal.”

  “All right, but you have to swear that you will not have a date,” Grace said to Jenna, her face more serious than Jenna had ever seen it. Apparently this whole date thing was really getting to her.

  “I
swear on my life I will not have a date,” Jenna said.

  Grace broke into a grin. “Thanks, Jenna. Come on, Val. Let’s swim!”

  Valerie and Grace raced to the water, but Jenna hung back. Natalie placed her bag on the ground and glanced at Jenna.

  “You going in?” Natalie asked.

  “I don’t really feel like swimming,” Jenna said. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to look cold.

  Natalie looked from her friends splashing in the water back to Jenna. “Do you want to practice diving? ’Cuz I could come with you.”

  Jenna instantly tensed. “That’s okay.”

  “I learned how to dive when I was really young. My mom made me take lessons from the time I could, like, stand up,” Natalie said. “It took me a while, too, but it’s totally fun once you get into it. Maybe I could help.”

  “Why does everyone think I need help?” Jenna snapped, her good mood gone. Her arms dropped to her sides, and her fingers curled up into angry fists.

  Natalie’s face fell. “Well, I just—”

  “I don’t, okay? I don’t need help from you or Adam or anyone,” Jenna said. “I just don’t feel like swimming.”

  With that, she placed her towel down on the grass and sat, her knees pulled up under her chin. Natalie hovered for a second, but Jenna just stared out at the gray sky and the even grayer water. She couldn’t believe that Natalie, a first-year camper, was offering to help her out with something. Jenna was a total veteran compared to her. She was supposed to be helping Natalie with stuff. Not the other way around.

  “All right,” Natalie said with a shrug. “I’ll be hanging out with Simon if you change your mind.”

  Jenna stayed angry for only a few seconds as she watched Natalie join the boys and saw the rest of her friends doing gymnastic moves in the water. Then she started to feel awful. Jenna had practically bitten Natalie’s head off, and Natalie had still left the door open for Jenna to ask for help. Natalie was so friendly, and Jenna had just treated her like a jerk. What was wrong with her?

  Normally, Jenna was pretty easygoing, but she just couldn’t seem to take it anymore. She couldn’t take everyone reminding her of what a loser she was. She had thought that coming to camp would help her get her mind off the things that were going on back home, but it was like the longer she stayed here, the worse she felt. And the worse she felt, the harder it was to keep from showing it. The first two weeks of camp had been okay, getting to know new people and getting back into the swing of things, but the more she settled into her routine, the harder it was to act like everything was okay. All she wanted to do was go back to last summer, when camp was still fun—back when she knew what she was doing.

  chapter SEVEN

  After half an hour of sitting by herself in the sand, Jenna got bored and asked Tyler for a special pass to go back to her bunk. She told him she didn’t feel well, and all he had to do was take one look at her sad face and he believed her. Normally campers weren’t allowed to wander off by themselves, but Tyler took pity on Jenna. He told her that since she knew the camp so well, being a fourth-year and all, he would let her go, but she had to keep to the path and go straight back. For once, Jenna had no problem following a rule. At that moment, all she wanted to do was lie down on her bunk and sulk.

  But as she cut through the woods, Jenna started to feel a little better. Here she was, walking back to her bunk all by herself. Natalie never would have been allowed to do that. She wasn’t experienced enough and didn’t know her way around. There were still perks to being Jenna.

  High above, the sun started to break through the clouds, causing the droplets of rain on the leaves to dance and sparkle. The birds in the trees woke up and started chirping as if it were morning and not late afternoon. Jenna passed by the rock where she, Alex, and Brynn used to hang out and trade gum when they were second-years. She saw the tree where Matt had carved his initials with the rest of his bunk. When she came to the edge of the clearing by the cabins, she saw the old, crumbling tool shed where she and her friends had hid last year after raiding the boys’ cabin. This was Camp Lakeview, her home-away-from-home. It was impossible to stay depressed here for long.

  Hey, maybe Marissa’s hanging out in the cabin, Jenna realized suddenly, quickening her steps as she passed by the other bunks. Marissa and the other CITs usually got a break during free swim since they had to work meals and all other hours of the day. Hanging out with Marissa would cheer her up. Maybe Jenna could even get her to tell the story of her first dive again and try to get back some of that confidence.

  Jenna bounded up the steps and yanked open the screen door, hoping to find Marissa on her cot, flipping through the latest copy of Allure. Instead, she found Marissa and Stephanie sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bunk floor, doing their nails. The whole bunk was filled with the sour scent of nail polish remover. Jenna stopped in her tracks.

  “Hey! What are you doing here?” Marissa asked. Her tone was totally normal, but the question made Jenna feel like an outsider in her own bunk.

  “I didn’t feel well, so Tyler said I could come back,” Jenna replied.

  “What’s wrong?” Stephanie asked, her face all-concern. “Is it your stomach? Your head?”

  “Don’t worry about it, Mom,” Jenna said, instantly grouchy again. “I just want to lie down.” She so didn’t want to be babied right now. Why did her sister have to be there? Couldn’t Jenna ever get Marissa all to herself? Marissa was supposed to be Jenna’s CIT. She was supposed to be here for Jenna, not Stephanie.

  “Okay, but if you need anything, you just let me know,” Stephanie said. “We Blooms have to take care of each other,” she added with a wink.

  Gag me, Jenna thought.

  “You’re lucky you have your sister at camp with you,” Marissa told Jenna with a smile. “Especially since I never know what to do when campers are sick. I become Panic Girl. The not-so-super-hero,” she joked.

  “Yeah. So lucky,” Jenna said flatly. “Nice polish, Marissa,” she added, standing awkwardly off to the side. She wasn’t sure whether she should join them or stick with her story and crawl into her bunk. Could she really just lie there while Marissa and Stephanie had fun without her?

  “Thanks,” Marissa said, snapping her gum as she held up her fingers to check them. “It’s called Very Berry. Wanna try some?”

  Jenna was about to say yes when Stephanie cut her off. “Oh, please. Polish is pointless on Jenna. She bites her nails to bits.”

  Flushing, Jenna hid her hands behind her back. Her nails were a little destroyed, but Stephanie didn’t have to announce it like Jenna was some kind of joke.

  “So, you’re going to wear your red sundress?” Stephanie asked Marissa.

  “I think so,” Marissa replied. “And you have to wear that new mini. The boys will go speechless.”

  “You guys are talking about the social, aren’t you?” Jenna asked, dropping onto Natalie’s bottom bunk. “Again.”

  “Like there’s anything else to talk about around here,” Stephanie said with a laugh.

  How about we talk about you getting out of my cabin? Jenna thought, though she knew she’d never say it.

  “So, Jenna, what are you going to wear?” Stephanie asked. “I hope you brought something cool this year.”

  Jenna’s expression darkened. Was Stephanie trying to say she had looked like a dork at every other camp dance? Jenna thought of the lavender dress with the lace on the sleeves that she had brought for this year’s event. When she had packed it she’d thought it was perfect, but with Stephanie and Marissa talking about red dresses and denim minis, now it just seemed way too babyish.

  “Who cares what I wear?” Jenna said. “It’s just the stupid camp dance.”

  “Social,” Marissa and Stephanie reminded her, then laughed as if there was some kind of personal joke between them.

  “Whatever,” Jenna said, finally giving up. She climbed up into her bunk and lay down on her side, on top of the covers. Starin
g at her colorful collection of bumper stickers that were taped to the wall, Jenna fumed over her sister. Who did she think she was, criticizing her clothes and trying to take care of her like a mother? And why did she have to hang around Jenna’s bunk so much? Couldn’t she just leave her alone?

  Jenna sighed. She reached out and flattened the bent corner on her Six Flags Great Adventure sticker.

  I should prank her next, she thought as she listened to her sister and Marissa discussing all the CITs and counselors at camp, predicting who would kiss by the end of the summer and which couples would break up. Totally boring. Oh, yeah, Stephanie is in total need of a pranking, she thought. If only because it’ll give her something else to talk about!

  “Where are they?” Jenna asked, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

  “I don’t know, but I’m getting worried,” Alex said. “3A just ran by, and they looked psyched.”

  “We cannot let 3A win,” Brynn said. “We just can’t.”

  It was the middle of the scavenger hunt, and Jenna and the rest of her bunk were waiting for Val, Sarah, and Grace to return from the sports shed. At Jenna’s feet was a pillowcase full of items from the list. All they needed to complete it were a horseshoe, which Val and the others were getting, and the last bonus item, which even Jenna hadn’t figured out how to get. Not yet, anyway.

  “There they are!” Natalie cried, pointing toward the edge of the woods.

  Sure enough, Valerie, Grace, and Sarah were all running toward them, red-faced and gasping for air.

  “We got it! We got the last horseshoe!” Valerie whispered.

  “Did 3A get one?” Chelsea demanded.

  “Yeah,” Sarah said, bending at the waist. “They got there right before us.”

  “Now we have to get this last item to win,” Jenna said, holding up the list. “But how are we supposed to get a picture of the top of a counselor’s head?”

  “What kind of scavenger hunt is this?” Alyssa asked.

  “Yeah! What kind of scavenger hunt is this?” Candace echoed.