by Tina Wells
After the bus driver unloaded the luggage, Zee pointed to her backpack. “Could you guys help me with this?” she asked her friends.
“Sure,” Chloe said. She and Ally struggled to get the bag off the ground. The two girls managed to lift it high enough for Zee to reach her arms through the straps. Zee leaned over slightly to balance the heavy pack on her body.
“Did you bring your entire closet?” Jasper asked.
“No way,” Zee said. She reached down and pulled out the handle of a small matching suitcase on rollers. “It wouldn’t all fit in both of these.”
Ally looked at Jasper. “Her mother wouldn’t let her take a third bag,” she explained.
“Why did you bring so much?” Jasper asked Zee.
“How can I know what I’m going to want to wear a week ahead of time?” Zee said. “What if I change my mind?”
“I suppose that would be quite disastrous,” Jasper said.
Zee eyed him suspiciously. “Are you being sarcastic?”
Kathi joined the group and saved Jasper from having to answer. She scrunched up her nose and sniffed. “What’s that smell?”
“Yeah,” Jen agreed. “It’s really weird.”
Zee, Ally, Jasper, and Chloe inhaled deeply.
“Does it smell like trees?” Zee asked.
“Yes!” Kathi responded.
“I think that’s nature,” Chloe spoke slowly.
“Well, I hope it goes away,” Kathi said.
“Ow!” Zee said, slapping her leg.
“Why are you hitting yourself?” Ally asked.
“A mosquito bit me.”
“Oh my gosh!” Kathi yelled. “I better hide. Mosquitoes loooove me.”
“Maybe that’s because you both make an annoying, high-pitched noise,” Ally mumbled.
Kathi looked around frantically. “When do we get to go to the hotel, Mr. P?” she called out, pointing to a huge stone-and-log building in the distance.
“That’s the main lodge, for indoor activities and meetings,” Mr. P said. He pointed into the woods in the opposite direction—to ten small wooden shacks with screens in the windows. “We’ll sleep in the cabins.”
“Mr. P!” Kathi shouted, hurrying toward their teacher. “Do my parents know about this?”
“Probably.” Mr. P stuck a pencil behind his ear and flipped through the papers on his clipboard. “Since you’re in science and the band together, the Beans will be in cabins one and two—girls in one, and boys in two. You all can head over and get settled. Meet me at the lodge in fifteen minutes.”
As Mr. P read the assignments for the rest of the campers, Zee and the others walked toward their cabins. Zee quickly realized that rolling suitcases didn’t work very well on dirt paths. To make matters worse, under the weight of her heavy backpack, she couldn’t keep her balance. First, she veered off to the left. Then to the right. Then she stumbled backward. Right into Landon!
Landon steadied Zee by wrapping both of his arms around her. She was certain that he must have been able to feel her heart thumping.
“Oh, uh, thanks,” Zee said.
Landon pulled away quickly. “Are you okay now?” Even with his surfer’s tan, Zee could see that Landon was blushing beneath the blond bangs that hung slightly over his face.
Zee avoided looking directly into his amazingly blue eyes. She was afraid she’d say something like, “I am now” or “Yes, thanks to you.” Yuck!
“Yeah…I’m…uh…fine. Totally.” Zee stumbled a little more but managed to stay upright without any help.
When Landon saw that Zee was okay, he rushed to catch up with Marcus and Conrad.
Jasper hurried to Zee’s side, his own olive-green nylon pack perfectly square on his back. “Why don’t I take your rolling luggage?” he asked, grabbing the handle.
“Thanks!” Zee said.
“That’s very gentlemanly of you, Jasper,” Ally said.
“Well, I like to think it’s what anyone would do.” Jasper looked in Landon’s direction. “Although perhaps I’m wrong.”
Ally moved nearer to Zee. “So did you do that on purpose to get Landon to notice you?”
“No!” Zee and Jasper said at the same time.
Zee, Ally, and Chloe stared at Jasper.
“I mean,” Jasper quickly added, “that’s not exactly the best way to get a guy’s attention.”
“Ohhh?” Ally asked curiously. “Maybe you should tell us what is the best way.”
Jasper gulped and looked down at the ground.
“I’m just kidding,” Ally said with a flick of her hand.
“Besides, Zee and Landon don’t like each other like that anymore,” Chloe defended Zee.
Zee looked at Chloe. Jasper was right—crashing into a guy was not the best way to flirt. But when it came to guys, Ally definitely knew her best. Even though Landon and Zee were just friends, Ally knew Zee still had a major crush on him!
As soon as she entered the cabin, Zee dropped her backpack onto the floor. The other girls rushed past her to claim their beds.
Ally climbed the ladder to the top bunk in the corner of the cabin. “Zee and I will sleep over here,” she said.
Zee looked over at Chloe, who was standing by the bunks next to her.
“Yeah, that makes sense since Ally’s your guest,” Chloe said. “You wanna share with me, Missy? You can take the top.”
Missy tossed her sleeping bag on the bed above Chloe. “Okay. Thanks!”
Kathi and Jen claimed the last set of beds. “I’ll be on top,” Kathi declared.
Of course you will, Zee thought, since that’s where perfect Kathi almost always landed anyway.
“This is so awesome!” Chloe said. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere in a cabin with no electricity.”
“Let me know when you get to the awesome part,” Zee said.
“Look at this!” Missy said, pointing to the messages that covered the walls. “‘Simone loves Thomas.’ It’s carved into the wood, so it will be here forever. That’s so romantic.”
“‘Kari was here,’” Jen said, gesturing to a date written in black marker. “‘Seven. Thirteen. Nineteen ninety-seven.’”
“‘NT plus RB,’” Zee read, then sighed. “Don’t you wish you knew if they stayed together?”
“Remind me to get a marker,” Kathi loudly said to Jen. “I have something I want to write.”
Zee rolled her eyes and wondered how long it would be before Kathi stopped dropping hints and told everyone about her new boyfriend. As Zee bent to get her backpack, something small and brown scurried past her. “Aaaaaaa!” she screamed, quickly climbing up the ladder to sit next to Ally. “I just saw a rat!”
Chloe moved toward the tiny creature, which was escaping through a small hole at the bottom of the wall. “It’s not a rat. It’s a mouse.”
“Same thing,” Zee said.
“Not hardly. Rats are bigger and lots smarter,” Chloe explained. “That’s why they make great pets.”
“I think I’d rather have a dog,” Zee said.
The other girls began to get set up.
“Where do you think the armoires are?” Kathi asked as she unpacked her brown leather Louis Vuitton bag. “I have to hang some of this stuff up before it wrinkles.” Kathi hated any kind of imperfection. The phrase roughing it was definitely not in her vocabulary.
Missy’s eyes grew big. She hadn’t been at Brookdale Academy as long as the other girls, so some of Kathi’s comments still shocked her. “You have to keep everything in your suitcase.”
“Is housekeeping going to wash the dirty clothes?” Kathi asked.
“Um…there isn’t any housekeeping,” Missy said. “You have to take your dirty clothes home like that.”
“You mean I have to mix my clean and dirty clothes in one bag?”
Missy nodded. “Mmm-hmm.”
“I like Missy!” Ally whispered to Zee.
Zee smiled and whispered back, “She’s cool.”
“But I�
��ve got brand-new stuff in here!” Kathi continued. “Some of it still has tags on.”
“Why did you bring such nice stuff to camp anyway?” Chloe asked. “Didn’t you get the information sheet and supply list?”
“I thought it was a joke,” Kathi said, sounding defensive. “I mean, it listed ‘sweatshirt.’ Why would anyone wear something with the word sweat in the name?”
Zee hated to admit it, but she had to agree with Kathi on her fashion point. They were finally out of their horrible school uniforms. Why would they want to wear sweats?
“It doesn’t matter,” Kathi said, trying to change the subject. “I need to send a text message to someone before we go to the lodge anyway.” She gave Jen a sneaky look.
“Who?” Zee asked, unable to stand Kathi’s obvious hinting for one more minute.
“My boyfriend,” Kathi said. “Trey Munson.”
“You’re going out with Trey Munson?” Ally asked. “He’s soooooo hot!”
A proud smile spread across Kathi’s face. “Yeah, he is.”
“I thought Trey was going with Carrie Navatny,” Chloe pointed out.
“That was last week,” Jen put in. “Before Kathi told me to tell Trey she likes him.”
As Kathi headed outside, the boys from cabin two bounded into the girls’ cabin. Conrad started snooping around their bags and bunks.
“So who’s sleeping where?” Marcus asked.
“I’m over there with Missy,” Chloe said, pointing to her bunk. “Zee and Ally are there. And Kathi and Jen are in the other one.”
“Are you just keeping your bags under your beds or somewhere else?” Marcus continued.
“Zee’s probably won’t fit under the bed,” Chloe said.
Marcus got excited. “Which one is hers?”
Zee looked over at Jasper and noticed he wore an uncomfortable expression.
“Well—” Chloe began.
“Wait!” Zee cut her off. She nodded to Jasper. “What’s going on?”
Jasper straightened up his body—and his face. “Not a thing,” he said.
“Still,” Zee said. “I think I’ll keep an eye on my bag.” She dragged it closer to her. The boys were acting oddly. Was Zee going to have to watch out for them just as much as the bugs and bears?
3
Home Out of Range
The Beans followed the dirt path to the lodge. Kathi was already up ahead, and she was weaving to the left and right as she held her phone in front of her.
“What are you doing?” Jen asked when the group got closer.
“I can’t get a signal!” Kathi sounded panicked.
“Maybe it’s your service,” Zee said. She pulled her iPhone out of her pocket. It had a bright blue skin with a big pink Z. “Nope, I don’t have even one bar.”
By now the students were wandering around in the forest, zigzagging past one another with their eyes fixed on their cell phones.
“Can anyone get any bars?” Missy asked.
“I can!” Conrad shouted. Everyone raced over to where he was now standing. “Oh, sorry,” he said, wiping the screen on his shirttail. “That was just a bug.”
“Ugh! This is like living in prehistoric times,” Jen whined. “How did they survive?”
“We should tell Mr. P,” Zee suggested. “He’ll know what to do.”
“He better,” Kathi said as they moved along the trail. “My parents give a lot of money to the school. They won’t be happy to hear I’m being treated this way.”
“I don’t think it has anything to do with money,” Chloe said.
Kathi snorted. “Everything has to do with money.”
The group hustled into the lodge. Students from other science classes were already seated and waiting for the orientation to begin.
Mr. P was at the front of the room. “You guys look like you’ve just run a mile,” he told the Beans.
“We need your help,” Zee told him.
“It’s an emergency!” Kathi added.
Mr. P looked alarmed. “What is it?” he asked.
“We’ve been trying to use our cell phones, but we can’t figure out where to go to get service,” Zee explained.
“Oh, is that all?” Mr. P calmed down. “There’s no service on Brookdale Mountain.”
“Nowhere?” Conrad asked.
Mr. P shook his head. “No.”
“As in…nowhere?” Marcus couldn’t believe it, either.
Mr. P nodded.
“But what if there’s an emergency?” Kathi said.
“Your parents have the camp phone number in their information packet,” Mr. P explained. “And we can call from the office if we need to reach them. Plus, you can log on to the computers here in the lodge and use the internet to email them.”
“Great!” Kathi said. “Where are they? I need to send an email now.”
“Now we’re going to have a meeting. During free time, everyone will have a chance. But since there are so many students and so few computers, there’s a schedule.” Mr. P held up a piece of paper.
The students leaned in to read the list. “Aaaaaa!” Kathi shrieked. “Cabin one isn’t until the end of the week!”
“A whole week without our cell phones?” Zee asked.
“Or IMs?” Ally added.
“There’s no one left to IM and email,” Mr. P pointed out. “All your friends are here.”
Kathi harrumphed. “My boyfriend isn’t here,” she said. “What if he needs to talk to me?”
“Everyone should sit down now,” Mr. P said, ignoring her. “The meeting’s about to start.”
The Beans sat together in the back of the room under an elk head that hung on the wall. “Gross!” Chloe groaned.
“At least he has a smile on his face,” Conrad said. “Maybe he died happy.”
“I bet he’d be happier running around in the woods,” Chloe told him.
“Welcome to Brookdale Mountain, seventh graders!” Ms. Merriweather enthusiastically greeted the group. She’d pulled her blond hair into a ponytail under a baseball cap, and she wore a loose floral dress over a pair of black leggings. “I’m going to go over a few camp rules. First, no food in the cabins. Snacks will be available in the dining hall, and if anyone brought any food with them to camp, we can keep it in the kitchen.”
Zee tried to listen, but her mind wandered, and soon she was planning a makeover for Ms. Merriweather.
A shorter skirt would look great on her, Zee thought.
“No leaving cabins after lights-out—unless it’s for an outhouse emergency.”
Her face would look brighter with lipstick.
“Everyone will have a work assignment each day.”
Huh? Zee thought. This was beginning to sound like even more work than school.
“We’ll post the lists on the cabin doors,” Ms. Merriweather continued.
“These lists are killing me,” Zee mumbled.
Ally turned to her. “Do you think I’ll have to work since I’m not an actual student?”
“You should have to do even more work since you’re not paying tuition,” Jen said. Zee couldn’t tell if she was kidding.
“Now, let’s get to why we’re here—the Science Scavenger Hunt,” Ms. Merriweather said, holding up a disposable digital camera and sheet of paper over her head. “This is a list of plants and animals that are on Brookdale Mountain. The class that finds and photographs the most items on the list by Friday will win the scavenger hunt.”
Jasper’s serious face lit up. “Brilliant!” he cheered. Chloe gave him a thumbs-up.
Marcus raised his hand. “Are we going to have any fun?” he asked.
“Yes,” Ms. Merriweather said, laughing. “We’ll have lots of outdoor activities and build campfires in the evenings. We’ll even roast marshmallows some nights.”
“And don’t forget the talent show on Friday!” Mr. P called out from the side.
Yay! Zee silently applauded. She had a few ideas for what the Beans could perform together and c
ouldn’t wait to talk to the other band members about them. She was sure the Beans’ performance would be the perfect way to end the week.
* * *
Hi, Diary,
Who cares about schoolwork, chores, and wooden toilets?* And so what if there’s no communication with the outside world?! As long as I’ve got my best friends and the Beans, I’ve got all I need. Except my parents. But I haven’t had a chance to miss them, and with everything I have to do, maybe I won’t ever have a chance.
I’m totally tired already, though. My body feels like the camp bus ran over it. And the day is only halfway over!
Zee
* * *
4
Beans Breakdown
“This is so cool!” Jasper said. He stopped beside the trail the fifth-period science students were walking on and bent down to get a better look at a bright orange plant. “I’ve never seen one of these before.”
“That’s because they only grow in California,” Conrad told him.
“How do you know so much about plants?” Jasper asked.
“My grandmother likes me to help in her garden,” Conrad explained.
“I thought you lived in an apartment,” Zee said.
“Yeah. After Obachan moved in with me and Dad, she missed her garden so much, she volunteered to do the gardening for the whole building.”
“Then you should be a big help to us. We have to find a million things for the scavenger hunt,” Zee said, staring at a mysterious bug dodging the air in front of her. “And I’d like to do it as quickly as possible so we can get back to a bug-free zone.”
Chloe lifted a rock.
“What are you doing?” Kathi asked.
“I’m looking for worms and bugs and lizards,” Chloe told her.
Kathi looked like she was going to barf. “Why? They’re gross.”
Ally backed away from Chloe, and Zee giggled. She didn’t plan to come in contact with creepy crawlies on purpose, either.