Friends Forever?

by Tina Wells

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

  “Café Lulu in Paris,” Kathi said. “We go there every time we visit. They have awesome pastries. Have you ever been?”

  “No,” Zee told her. “I’ve never been to Paris.”

  Kathi looked at Zee as if she had a zit right between her eyeballs. “Really?” Kathi said. “I didn’t know there actually was anyone who had never been to Paris. I guess you were busy visiting other parts of France?”

  “No, I’ve never been to France.”

  “Oh,” Kathi said, then turned back to Ally and Missy. “Have you ever had the tarts? Mmmm. They’re my favorite.”

  It was no use. Zee was on the outside. Being Ally’s BFF again would just have to wait. Zee just hoped she wouldn’t have to wait forever.

  * * *

  Hi, Diary,

  I can’t remember ever not being best friends with Ally. I know I have other friends, but that’s what started the problem. I want Ally back.

  The worst part is, she’s supposed to live with my family next week. I want her there, but she might not want to stay with me.

  My Questions for Ally

  (If I could get her to talk to me to answer them)

  Are you going to give me the silent treatment next week, too? In my own house?

  Will you sleep in my room?

  Will you talk to my parents?

  Will it be the longest week of my life?

  Zee

  * * *

  Zee and Chloe studied the evening work assignments on the cabin door.

  “Firewood,” Zee read out loud. “I’m supposed to do it with Ally, but she switched assignments with one of the boys in cabin two so she could be with Missy. What do you have?” she asked Chloe.

  “Yay! S’mores,” Chloe told her. “I hope I don’t end up eating all the chocolate!”

  “Save some for me,” Zee said.

  As Zee headed down the path toward the campfire area to start collecting wood, a voice called out behind her. “Zee!”

  Zee turned around and stopped. It was Landon! Her heart pounded as she repeated in her head, No big deal—he’s just a friend, and he hurried to catch up.

  “Hey!” Landon said once he’d reached Zee. “I didn’t expect to see you on firewood duty, too.”

  “Why?” Zee asked.

  “Because Ally switched jobs with me. I figured it was because she wanted to have the same job as you.”

  “No,” Zee said, and sighed. “It’s the opposite. She’s not talking to me right now.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’m not exactly sure,” Zee said. “Having her back in Brookdale is harder than I thought it would be. She’s not really acting like herself.”

  “How’s she acting?”

  “Kind of jealous.”

  “Of you?”

  “Sort of.” Zee paused. “Of my friendship with Chloe—and Jasper.”

  “I know how she feels.”

  “You do?”

  “I’m jealous of Jasper, too.”

  “Why?”

  “He gets to hang out with you a lot,” Landon told her. By now, he and Zee had reached the campfire area.

  “Well, yeah, because we’re really good friends.”

  Landon took one step closer to Zee and leaned forward. His face was right next to hers. Zee’s heart sped up. Then Landon kissed her! It happened so quickly, Zee couldn’t believe it.

  Suddenly, Zee’s legs wobbled. “I thought we were just friends,” she said.

  “Is that what you want?” Landon asked.

  No way! Zee thought. But for some reason, she couldn’t get the words out. Something was holding her back.

  “I don’t know,” she finally said.

  “Well, we better get the wood to the campfire,” Landon said, looking embarrassed. He hurried to collect an armful of sticks and rushed off.

  Zee looked around. She had come to camp with three best friends, but now she was all alone—after the most amazing moment of her life. Her first kiss!

  * * *

  Hi, Diary,

  Landon kissed me! A real kiss. On the lips! I really want to tell Ally, but I’m afraid she might not care. Who can I tell?

  Person: Chloe

  Pro: She’s my best girl friend.

  Con: She knows I promised my parents that Landon and I are just friends.

  Person: Kathi

  Pro: We’re GWP’s together.

  Con: She thinks he’s too immature for me.

  Person: Jasper

  Pro: He’s my best boy friend.

  Con: He hates Landon. (Why can’t they get along!?)

  Person: Missy

  Pro: She’s really nice.

  Con: We’re not good enough friends yet.

  Person: Jen

  Pro: OMG! She would care and would want to know!

  Con: That’s too weird.

  This was supposed to be one of the best weeks of my life. Me and Ally—just like old times. Instead, my BFF hates me. How can I fix this—without losing my other friends?

  Zee

  * * *

  Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. The wall next to Zee’s head vibrated. She looked at her cabin mates, all sound asleep. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Zee’s heart started pounding.

  “My leg.” A deep, rough voice came from the other side of the cabin wall. The Mountain Man was inches away from Zee!

  The ground crackled as the Mountain Man walked—toward the cabin door! “Arroo. Ugha.” The noises didn’t sound human anymore, and Zee’s whole body shook at the thought of what might happen when she finally came face-to-face with this stranger. But she didn’t intend to find out. She opened her mouth to scream.

  “Who’s out there?” Mr. P’s voice interrupted Zee.

  There was no response. Zee could hear the Mountain Man run away.

  Ohmylanta! Zee thought. What if he hadn’t been awake? What if the Mountain Man had actually come into the cabin?

  Of course, now Zee couldn’t sleep. The Mountain Man was still out there—and Mr. P might be sleeping the next time he attacked.

  Zee got out of bed and looked at Ally sleeping soundly on the bunk above. Then she tiptoed to Chloe. Pssst! She quietly tried to wake her. Chloe didn’t stir.

  “Chloe!” Zee loudly whispered in her ear. Chloe rolled over to her other side and faced the wall away from Zee. Zee reached up and gave her a little shake. “Chloe!”

  Chloe’s eyes popped open. “What?” She sat up straight.

  “The Mountain Man was here,” Zee told her friend in a quiet voice.

  “How do you know it was the Mountain Man?”

  “I think he’s looking for his leg.”

  “We don’t have it!” Chloe was starting to sound angry.

  “That’s not what he thinks.”

  “Let’s go check,” Chloe said. She slipped out of her sleeping bag and grabbed her flashlight.

  “Okay, but we better not wake anyone else,” Zee said. “I think Mr. P would be really angry this time.”

  The girls quietly moved across the cabin floor so they wouldn’t wake the others. Chloe walked so close behind Zee, they were practically one person. Zee carefully pushed open the door and looked around. In the dark, they couldn’t see much. Which was a relief. As long as the Mountain Man wasn’t nearby, Zee was happy. They took a few steps forward.

  Before Zee knew what was happening, she’d fallen to the ground.

  “What happened?” Chloe asked, panicked.

  “I tripped over something.”

  “Are you all right?”

  Zee got up and brushed herself off. “I’m fine. What was that?”

  Chloe shined her light on the forest floor. At first, all she saw was the usual—leaves, twigs, and pinecones. Then she found something that didn’t belong in the woods—a crutch.

  The light danced around as Chloe’s hand started shaking. “How did that get here?” she asked loudly.

  Zee took a step back—as Mr. P hurried out of h
is cabin. “What’s going on?” he shouted. Zee didn’t need to see his face to know he was angry.

  “We heard…uh…something,” Zee explained.

  “What?” Mr. P asked impatiently. Up close, Zee could see that he was wearing a black Yes No concert T-shirt and flannel pajamas. Raccoon circles surrounded his sleepy eyes, and his hair stuck up every which way.

  Chloe glanced down at the crutch. “That’s what we were trying to figure out.”

  “This is your second warning this week,” Mr. P told them. “I think we might have to take some disciplinary action.”

  “But someone banged against the wall of the cabin and woke me up,” Zee defended herself.

  “Really?” Mr. P sounded concerned. “Who?”

  Zee decided that she probably shouldn’t try to explain that a hairy one-legged mountain creature in search of his missing limb had interrupted her sleep. Mr. P was a really cool teacher, but without more evidence, he might not be ready to hear the truth.

  “Um…I don’t know,” Zee told him.

  “We’ll talk about this when we get back to school next week—as long as I don’t see you out here again.” Mr. P rubbed his head and turned to go.

  Chloe quickly bent down and picked up the crutch. Then the girls carefully went back up the cabin steps.

  13

  Man-Oh-Man

  The next morning, all the seventh graders met in the lodge for announcements. As she waited, Zee watched the door. She had saved a seat for Ally—just in case. Chloe sat on the other side of her next to Jasper.

  When other kids tried to sit in the empty seat, Zee politely explained, “I’m saving that for someone.”

  But when Ally arrived with Missy, they sat at the far end of the row. Zee was sure Ally saw her—even though Ally tried to make it look as though she didn’t.

  Marcus, Conrad, and Landon came in together.

  Landon smiled and waved at Zee. As Marcus and Conrad went to sit by Ally and Missy, Landon came over to Zee.

  “Can I sit here?” he asked.

  At first, Zee couldn’t answer. Didn’t Landon feel weird about the kiss? Her heart felt like it was planning an escape—right through her ribs.

  Jasper spoke for Zee. “She’s saving that seat.”

  Wait! No! Zee thought. That’s not what I want to say! She took a deep breath to calm herself down, then said, “Actually, you can sit there.”

  Jasper looked shocked. “You were saving it for Landon?” he asked.

  “Uh…um…,” Zee said.

  “Thanks!” Landon said, ignoring Jasper, to Zee’s relief.

  With Landon next to her, Zee expected her face to turn red and her heart to start pounding again. She looked down at her hands to see if they were shaking.

  Instead, Zee was surprised that she felt completely normal. After the kiss, Zee expected everything to change. But it was like her period. On the outside she wasn’t different at all.

  In fact, the only person who seemed to be noticing that something out of the ordinary was happening was Jasper.

  And Ally. When Zee looked at her, she looked away.

  “Okay, everyone, just a couple of quick announcements before we break for breakfast,” Mr. P said. “Please have all of your belongings packed before the talent show this afternoon. We’re going to leave as soon as it’s over.”

  As quickly as Zee’s heart had risen when Landon sat next to her, it sank as she thought about performing in the talent show without Ally. Zee had really tried to make things right with Ally, but now there was nothing more she could do.

  “Also—” Mr. P continued, pointing to the door in the back of the room marked INFIRMARY, “the nurse reported that a crutch is missing from her office. She accidentally left it leaning against a tree near cabin fifteen. So if you find it, please return it to her. Okay, that’s all.”

  A crutch? Zee thought. She and Chloe looked at each other and knew they were thinking the same thing. “That’s the crutch we found!” they said together.

  “But how did it get all the way over from cabin fifteen to our cabin?” Chloe wondered out loud.

  “And why did whoever brought it over pound on the cabin and grumble about his leg?”

  Then the girls heard a sudden burst of laughter. They looked around. At the other end of the row, Conrad and Marcus were high-fiving each other as they hurried toward Zee and Chloe. Landon doubled over laughing and Jasper joined in.

  “Has anybody seen a crutch?” Conrad asked.

  “Or a leg?” Marcus added.

  “Yeah, if you find a leg, you should probably give that to the nurse, too,” Conrad agreed.

  “Very funny,” Chloe said, giving Marcus a shove.

  “You were the Mountain Man this whole time!” Zee accused.

  “Yup,” Conrad confirmed.

  “We weren’t sure if you’d fall for it, but it was actually way too easy,” Marcus put in.

  “I don’t get it,” Zee said, still trying to put the prank together. “What about when you were dragged in the woods?”

  “That’s right!” Chloe said. “We saw the piece of ripped shirt stuck to the tree branch.”

  “Thanks to the lost and found,” Conrad explained. “They’ve got all sorts of cool stuff in there.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. I know I saw something huge run into the woods,” Zee reminded the boys. “You’re not that tall.”

  Conrad climbed onto a chair, then onto Marcus’s shoulders. “Something about this tall?” Marcus asked.

  Chloe stamped her foot and shook her head. “I can’t believe you tricked us!”

  “Actually, we had no idea it would be so easy,” Conrad said.

  The teasing continued through breakfast. “Aaaaa! It’s the Mountain Man!” Marcus said in a high-pitched voice.

  “Oh, he’s so scary,” Conrad joined in.

  “And hairy,” Marcus added.

  “I thought you were going to tell Mr. P everything last night,” Conrad went on. “That would have been hilarious.”

  By now, all of the Beans knew about the boys’ trick and were laughing.

  “Okay. Okay,” Zee said when she stopped. “You can stop talking about it now.”

  Secretly, though, Zee wished Ally would say something—even if it were just “I told you so.” Instead she continued to pretend that she didn’t even know Zee was there.

  Then Zee realized that Jasper was laughing loudest of all. She looked at him suspiciously. “Did you know what they were up to?” she asked.

  “Give me back my leg,” Jasper said in a weird voice with a strange accent.

  “How could you make Jasper do that?” Chloe accused Conrad and Marcus.

  “Make him do it?” Conrad said. “It was his idea!”

  Zee’s mouth dropped open. “I thought you were my friend!” she said.

  “I am,” Jasper told her. “But I’m also friends with my cabin mates.” He looked in Marcus and Conrad’s direction, but Zee noticed he avoided looking at Landon. “Everyone needs lots of friends.”

  Of course! Jasper was right. He didn’t have to choose between Zee and Chloe and the boys. They could all be friends.

  * * *

  Hi, Diary,

  I shouldn’t feel bad about having more than one friend—no matter how long I’ve been BFFs with Ally. Now that Ally lives in France, I need other people. And I can’t just dump them when Ally comes to town. Still, she’ll always be my BFF—even if Chloe and Jasper are my best friends, too.

  But Ally needs to know that. She was probably feeling totally weird about coming back to Brookdale. Instead of everything being the same, there were a lot of changes—Chloe, Jasper, Missy, Mr. P, the Beans. I was trying so hard to make everything fit together, but I ended up making it fall apart.

  Now I’m going to fix it.

  Zee

  * * *

  Zee got her chance to make things right with Ally later that morning when they both finally got their computer time.

  * * *r />
  E-ZEE: Hi.

  * * *

  Zee started to send an IM to Ally; then she stopped herself. No, that’s not right, she thought. “Hi” was enough to start a chat under normal circumstances, but these weren’t normal circumstances. Zee had much more to say. Zee might have only one shot to get Ally back. She hit the delete key and tried again.

  * * *

  E-ZEE: I miss u. I am really sorry about taking C’s side w/ the cabin decorating. I didn’t mean 2 hurt ur feelings—b/c u r my BFF 4ever!

  * * *

  * * *

  E-ZEE: P.S. will u pls b in the talent show??

  * * *

  Zee looked at the screen. Then she looked at her hands, which until that moment she hadn’t realized were actually shaking. She sent the message. And waited.

  And waited.

  Zee peered over at Ally. Did she get the IM? Did she read it? Would she respond? As she waited for a reply, Zee tried to type an email to her parents and Adam, but it was just too hard. How could she tell them about everything that had happened? Zee looked at the computer clock. Ohmylanta! she silently groaned. Only a minute had passed. How is that possible? Zee wondered. It seemed more like fifteen. Maybe Ally had single-handedly figured out a way to make time stand still just to torture Zee. Zee couldn’t blame her.

  Maybe the computer’s frozen, Zee thought. She hit a few keys to make sure everything was working. It was.

  Sitting and waiting was just too much for Zee. The IM might never come. She moved her cursor across the page to log out at the top of the screen, ready to sign off for the day.

  Just as she was about to click on the mouse, a response popped up.

  Ohmy-ohmy-lanta! Zee thought. Of course! Ally took so long because she was writing a response.