Friends Forever?

by Tina Wells

  Mackenzie Blue

  Book Three

  Friends Forever?

  By Tina Wells

  Illustrations by Michael Segawa

  For Phoebe Moragne Washington

  Contents

  1

  Camp Week

  2

  Check-in

  3

  Home Out of Range

  4

  Beans Breakdown

  5

  Mountain Manhunt

  6

  Period? Exclamation Point!

  7

  Man Handled

  8

  Practice Makes Problems

  9

  Offbeat

  10

  Fiddling Around

  11

  Cabin Fever

  12

  Just a Crutch

  13

  Man-Oh-Man

  14

  Cabin One’s Revenge

  15

  Show Time

  16

  BFFs

  Online Glossary

  Read on for a sneak peek at Mackenzie’s next adventure!

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Other Books by Tina Wells

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  1

  Camp Week

  Adam Carmichael pulled his subcompact car into Jasper Chapman’s driveway and turned to his sister, Mackenzie Blue. “Go get Jasper, Zee,” he told her.

  “I would if I could move,” Zee said, pointing to the giant red backpack that was sitting on her lap and nearly touched the car’s ceiling.

  “I can get Jasper!” Chloe Lawrence-Johnson called from the backseat. “My luggage is in the trunk.” She opened the back door and hurried up the walk to Jasper’s front door, her ponytail bouncing with each step.

  “How come Zee and I have to ride with our luggage smothering us, and Chloe gets to put hers in the trunk?” Ally Stern, who was also sitting in the back, asked.

  “Well…,” Adam began, pretending that he was giving the question serious consideration. “Maybe it’s because Zee has another bag and her guitar back there. My trunk could barely fit all that.” He picked up his iPhone and began typing a text message.

  Zee twisted in her seat just enough to see Ally roll her eyes. “It’s not my fault you drive such a little car,” Ally said.

  “If you would prefer to walk the rest of the way, be my guest,” Adam told her without pausing from his text message.

  “Sorry, Ally,” Zee apologized to her BFF. Ally had moved to France the previous summer. But now, she was staying with Zee for two weeks while her journalist parents traveled for work. A former Brookdale Academy student, Ally was joining the others on the annual seventh-grade field trip to Brookdale Mountain.

  Chloe returned with Jasper, who had his bass and the smallest overnight bag Zee had ever seen.

  “Oh my gosh, Jasper!” Ally gasped as the friends got back in the car. “Did you bring enough for the whole week?” she asked.

  “I don’t really need more than a toothbrush and some clothes,” Jasper told her. “Besides, the key to proper packing is how you fold—or should I say, roll—your clothes.”

  “Roll your clothes?” Zee asked.

  Jasper nodded. “You can fit more—and you avoid wrinkles,” he explained in his British accent. Jasper had moved from London over the summer.

  Zee examined the luggage on her lap. “Now you tell me.”

  “This trip is going to be sooo awesome!” Chloe exclaimed as Adam put down his iPhone and began to back out of the driveway. “Isn’t it, Zee?”

  “Sure.” Zee paused. “If you think roughing it in the middle of nowhere is fun.”

  “I do,” Chloe said, smiling. Her southern accent always sounded a little stronger when she was excited. “I hope we see tons of animals. On Brookdale Mountain, there are raccoons, skunks, coyotes—even mountain lions!”

  “Mountain lions?” Zee’s eyes grew. “As in predators with huge, sharp claws and teeth?”

  Chloe laughed. “Don’t worry. We’ll be lucky if we see one.”

  “Lucky?” Zee said.

  “Please tell me that’s a joke,” Ally said.

  “It’s not a joke,” Chloe said. “But it’s really not a big deal. Wild animals are afraid of humans.”

  “I just hope they remember that,” Zee replied. She smoothed her red bangs under her blue headband.

  “Well, I’ll be happy to see some of your American skunks,” Jasper added.

  “I won’t!” Zee said. “The bug bites and outdoor toilets were already creeping me out. Now you guys are making this trip sound even worse.”

  Adam rounded the corner into the school parking lot. “It’s too late to turn back now,” Adam told her. “We’re here.”

  “Maybe I’ll just say I couldn’t make it because I was stuck under my luggage,” Zee mumbled.

  Chloe giggled. “I’ll come pull it off you,” she said, heading around the car to help Zee, as Jasper and Ally got out, too. Chloe pointed to Adam, who was still behind the wheel, back to typing on his iPhone. “I’m surprised Adam drove us,” she said. “I thought your parents were going to.”

  “They were—until my mother started crying while we were eating breakfast,” Zee said. “I’d have been mortified if she’d stood in the parking lot, bawling.”

  “Because you’d end up crying, too?”

  Chloe asked.

  “Exactly,” Zee said. “I’m really going to miss my parents. I’ve never been away from them for as long as five days.”

  “I’ve gone to sleepaway camp for the past three summers, so my parents were fine,” Chloe said. “In fact, compared to six weeks of summer camp, this is pretty much nothing.”

  “What about your parents, Jasper?” Ally asked.

  Jasper held up his bag. “Guess what’s in here besides clothes?”

  The girls shrugged.

  “Sunscreen,” Jasper explained. “Five bottles.”

  “No way!” Zee’s mouth hung open.

  “My mom woke me up in the middle of the night to remind me to put it on—even when I’m in the woods.”

  “Well…you do have light skin,” Ally pointed out.

  “Nobody needs a bottle of sunscreen per day,” Jasper protested.

  “I guess she’s a little nervous about you going away,” Chloe said.

  “Yes,” Jasper agreed. “Quite.”

  “I think you guys are lucky,” Ally told them. “With my parents’ crazy schedule, I never know when I’ll even get to talk to them.”

  “Aww,” Chloe said sympathetically.

  “But Ginny and J.P. are like my second parents,” Ally continued, “so it’s almost as good to have them worrying about me.”

  “I can’t believe you call Zee’s parents by their first names,” Chloe said.

  Ally shrugged.

  Adam emerged from the driver’s seat of his car.

  “What took you so long?” Zee asked.

  “I was tweeting,” Adam explained.

  “Tweeting?” Jasper asked.

  “You know…Twitter,” Zee prompted. “As if the world would fall apart if everybody didn’t know what Adam was doing all the time.”

  “There’s a way to find out what Adam—I mean, someone—is doing every moment?” Chloe asked, her eyes growing round.

  “Drool alert!” Zee whispered to Chloe, but if Adam caught on to the fact that Chloe had a crush on him, he didn’t let on.

  “It’ll be great to get some fresh air and commune with nature, huh, guys?” Adam said, looking right at Zee. He sucked in deeply as if he were standing on the top of Brookdale Mountain.

  Zee had lived long enough with her s
eventeen-year-old brother to know she was being taunted. “How about you commune with nature, and I’ll stay home in my comfortable bed?”

  “Uh…how about no,” Adam countered. “I already went on the Brookdale Mountain field trip when I was in seventh grade. Your turn.”

  “We’ll just be gone until Friday,” Chloe reminded Zee.

  “That’s five whole days,” Adam repeated. “It should give me enough time to convert the twins’ bedroom into a sauna.” He called Ally and Zee “the twins” because before Ally moved, they were practically inseparable. Sometimes they even dressed alike. That day Zee and Ally both had on cargo shorts and similar purple T-shirts.

  “Very funny,” Zee said sarcastically to Adam, even though everyone really was laughing. “If even one piece of paper is out of place…,” she threatened.

  “And how would you be able to tell?” Adam asked.

  Zee paused. Her room was usually a disorganized mess.

  Suddenly, a shout rang across the parking lot. “Everyone, it’s time to board the bus!” Ms. Merriweather, Brookdale Academy’s seventh-grade science teacher was gathering students together.

  Zee looked at her friends. “Let’s go!” Maybe the science trip wouldn’t be so bad. After all, she’d be missing a week of school and hanging out with her best friends in the world.

  Zee, Ally, Jasper, and Chloe placed their luggage on the heap with the rest of the seventh graders’ bags. As they walked toward the bus steps, they were joined by the rest of the boys in their fifth-period science class: Marcus Montgomery, Conrad Mitori, and Landon Beck—the cutest boy at Brookdale Academy.

  All the boys got on the bus, but Adam grabbed Zee’s shoulder. “Wait!” he said.

  “What?” Zee asked. Ally and Chloe turned toward him, too.

  “Watch out for the Mountain Man,” Adam warned.

  “Oh, please,” Ally said, snorting.

  When Adam’s serious expression didn’t change, Zee said, “The Mountain Man?”

  “He lives on Brookdale Mountain….” Adam stopped and shook his head. “Never mind. Maybe he won’t bother you.”

  “Probably not,” Ally said, “since he doesn’t exist.”

  “Who’s the Mountain Man?” Chloe asked.

  Adam wore a faraway expression. “I remember my seventh-grade field trip like it was yesterday.” He turned to look at the crowd around him. By now, the rest of Zee’s science class, Kathi Barney, Jen Calverez, and Missy Vasi, had gathered to listen.

  “What happened?” Zee asked.

  “Someone—or should I say, something—lived on the mountain.”

  “Wasn’t he human?” Chloe wondered.

  “Well,” Adam began, “he walked upright and wore human clothes, but he had hair all over his body.”

  “Ewww!” Kathi exclaimed. “Even on his back?”

  Adam nodded. “Everywhere. Legend has it that he can’t speak, so he grunts. There’s only one phrase he says.”

  “What?” Chloe whispered, mesmerized.

  “I…want…my…leg…back.”

  “He’s missing a leg? How does he walk?” Ally asked suspiciously.

  “He uses a crutch,” Adam answered immediately.

  As Zee’s stomach twisted with fear, she wished she could be more like Ally. Zee was already nervous about being away from her parents for five days, and Adam was not helping.

  “He limps down from the mountain every year during the field trip,” Adam continued.

  “Really?” Kathi asked. “I’ve never heard that, and I know a lot of eighth graders—one in particular.”

  Zee knew Kathi wanted everyone to ask what she meant by “one in particular,” but Adam barreled ahead. “Even if no one actually sees him,” he told her, “there’s usually evidence that he’s been near the cabins.”

  Marcus stuck his face through the open bus window above their heads. “Hey!” he shouted at the girls. “It’s time to go!”

  Ally grabbed Zee’s arm. “C’mon.

  Marcus is right,” Ally said, guiding Zee up the bus steps.

  “Bye-o-nara,” Adam called out. “I’ll make sure all your luggage gets on the bus. ’Cause that’s just the kind of guy I am.”

  “Thanks, big bro!” Zee shouted behind her.

  “See you on Friday,” Ally added.

  The other fifth-period science girls boarded behind Zee and Ally.

  As Zee walked down the long aisle to a seat in the back, she noticed Marcus and Jasper huddled with Landon and Conrad. They stopped whispering and sat up straight as the girls moved past.

  Landon glanced at Zee and smiled. Don’t blush. Don’t blush. Don’t blush, she silently pleaded—as her face got hotter and hotter. Zee had had a crush on Landon since forever. But they’d recently decided to be just friends. She grinned at Landon, then quickly sat down beside Chloe in the row of seats behind the group. Ally sat on the other side of her.

  Kathi, Jen, and Missy filled in the row behind them as Mr. P moved down the aisle. His name was short for Mr. Papademetriou, and he was Zee’s favorite teacher and the director of her band, the Beans. The fifth-period science students were all members.

  “Oh, good,” he said. “You’re all together. I know some of you brought your instruments, which is really cool, because there should be plenty of free time for you guys to get together for jam sessions.”

  “What’s a jam session?” Conrad asked.

  “You know, when you just hang out and play and sing together for fun,” Mr. P explained.

  “Cool beans!” Zee said. Then she called out, “Mr. P, just so you know, Ally brought her flute.”

  “That’s great.” Mr. P smiled at Ally. “You can be an honorary member of the Beans.”

  “Thanks!” Ally said. “That’s so awesome!”

  “The instruments will be kept in the main lodge,” Mr. P continued.

  “Will they be safe?” Kathi asked. “My violin is worth a lot of money.”

  Chloe rolled her eyes and Zee stifled a giggle.

  “Yes, they’ll be locked up when no one is in the lodge,” Mr. P said.

  The bus driver closed the door and started the engine, so Mr. P scrambled for a seat in the front with Ms. Merriweather and the chaperones.

  As the bus pulled away, all of the students cheered. Zee pulled out her diary and began writing.

  * * *

  Hi, Diary,

  I hope I can survive for five days and four nights away from my parents. (I’m already feeling a little homesick.) But it’s also five days with Landon. And Ally. I wish I could be more like her. She’s staying with us for two weeks, and her parents are thousands of miles away. She’s not freaked out about it at all.

  I think I just need to figure out the good stuff and the bad stuff about this week—then focus on the good stuff.

  Zee

  Good Stuff: • Getting to be with Ally, Chloe, and Jasper.

  Bad Stuff: • Missing my parents.

  Good Stuff: • Getting to be with Landon!!!!!!

  Bad Stuff: • Having to walk around sweaty and gross in front of Landon.

  Good Stuff: • No school uniforms!

  Bad Stuff: • Mountain lions, bears, and skunks.

  Good Stuff: • No homework for a week.

  Bad Stuff: • Bathrooms and showers made out of wood. (Splinters!)

  Good Stuff: • No Adam for a week.

  Bad Stuff: • No Adam for a week. (Don’t tell him I said that.)

  Good Stuff: • No lunchroom food.

  Bad Stuff: • Camp food.

  Good Stuff: • The talent show!!

  Bad Stuff: • Living without my laptop, Wii, and TV.

  P.S. Ally grew boobs in France! Plus, she has a boyfriend—Jacques. I’m getting left in the dust. (But I know she would never really leave me behind. Zee + Ally = BFF!)

  * * *

  Zee closed her diary and dropped it in the tote bag she’d made out of a tank top. Then she turned toward Ally, who was leaning over the seat in front of
them, chatting with Jasper.

  “What are you guys talking about?” Zee asked.

  “I was giving Ally a guide to London,” Jasper said.

  “Oh yeah,” Zee said. “I really want to visit the Tower of London. All of those terrible kings and queens lived there and did all those horrible things.”

  Ally sat back in her seat. “That’s definitely cool, but we’re not talking about touristy places.” As she shook her head, her long brown hair brushed her shoulders. “Jasper’s giving me insider tips on the best shopping, secret bakeries, great tea…”

  “I don’t think I could ever trade my Frappuccinos for tea,” Zee said.

  “That’s because you’ve never had real English tea.” Ally leaned forward again.

  “Maybe,” Zee said. She looked at Chloe, who was staring out the window. “Want to make friendship bracelets?” Zee asked her. Without waiting for an answer, she pulled bundles of red, blue, and purple string out of her bag. She placed a container of wooden beads on the seat between them.

  “I found out how to make really awesome chunky ones,” Chloe said as she began braiding. “I’m gonna make the first one for you!”

  “Thanks,” Zee said, slowly turning to look from Chloe to Ally. She wasn’t sure who she’d make her first bracelet for.

  2

  Check-in

  As the camp bus climbed the narrow, curving dirt road, each bump and jolt reminded Zee how far away from civilization she was. Finally, a sign rose in the distance.

  BROOKDALE MOUNTAIN CAMPGROUNDS

  The bus turned onto an even narrower, curvier path, then finally stopped and opened its door.

  Students unbuckled seat belts and scrambled into the aisle. Mr. P stood up at the front. “Everyone, grab your luggage from the last bus and wait for more instructions,” he announced. Then he hurried down the bus steps before the herd of rushing seventh graders.