And then a bloodcurdling scream blasted Nat’s eardrums.
“What was that?” she asked.
A second scream filled the air. It was coming from their cabin.
“C’mon, you guys!” Nat shouted.
She broke into a run, abandoning her half of the duffel. Brynn did the same. Tori set down her suitcase and jetted to catch up.
And everyone raced forward as a third scream erupted from the top of the hill.
“Spider!” Valerie shrieked as she leaped on top of the toilet seat in the 5A bathroom stall. The gold and purple beads on her braids clacked together as she covered her mouth with both hands and knocked her knees together. “Big hairy spider!”
Belle raced into the bathroom with a clipboard containing a thick wad of paperwork pressed against her chest. She was wearing a black spaghetti-strap tank top, black walking shorts, and black flip-flops. She had dark circles under her enormous chocolate brown eyes, and her hair flew behind her like a short black cape.
“Where is it?” Belle asked, dashing into the bathroom and scanning the tile floor. “Look out. It might be poisonous.”
Chelsea and Gaby raced into the bathroom after Belle, nearly wedging themselves in the doorway as they both tried to enter at the same time.
“What’s wrong?” Chelsea shouted.
“Spider!” Valerie jabbed her pointer finger at the shower stall. Valerie could have sworn the insect had doubled in size since she had first spotted it. It was a mutant! “Eek! There!”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Gaby snorted. The heavily freckled girl with long dark brown hair rolled her eyes as she came up beside Belle. Chelsea hung back. The counselor, who was squatting on her haunches next to the shower, was watching Valerie’s nemesis as it extended a big, huge, furry leg to examine the tiled lip of the shower stall.
“That little speck?” Gaby bent over to inspect the invader.
“It’s a wicked scary speck,” Valerie insisted. “It might be a black widow.”
“Well, it’ll be a dead black widow soon enough.” Gaby started to pull off her sandal when Belle waved her away.
“No, Gaby. It’s not a black widow. It’s just a common house spider. I’ll take it outside.”
Valerie fully expected Belle to slide the spider onto her clipboard or grab it with a wad of toilet paper, but instead, she held the clipboard against her chest with her forearms and scooped the spider into her left palm with her right hand. She was touching the insectoid life-form! “Please take it away,” Valerie begged.
Just then, the door slammed open again, and a stampede of footfalls thundered into the bunk.
“What’s the matter? What’s wrong?” voices called. Valerie recognized the lovely blend of her CLFs—Camp Lakeview Friends—Natalie, Tori, Alex, Alyssa, Jenna, Brynn, and Candace. With a joyful yelp, she executed a flawless grand jeté off the toilet seat and galloped past Belle, Chelsea, and Gaby out of the bathroom.
“Hi!” she cried, dancing into a big group hug that included all of her friends.
“Val, what’s the matter?” Natalie demanded, studying Valerie’s face, then craning her neck to see into the bathroom. “Who was screaming?”
“Me, girlfriend! There’s a humongous big spider.” Valerie motioned to the girls to put a lot of distance between them and the bathroom.
“It was a tiny little spider,” Gaby sniped as she and Chelsea came out of the bathroom as well. Gaby shook her head in disgust. Chelsea just looked at the floor.
“Coming through.” Belle’s flip-flops smacked against the soles of her feet as she swerved around the crowd of girls. Her hands were cupped together as she pushed open the door with her hip and went outside.
“She’s carrying the spider. In her bare hands,” Valerie whispered.
Brynn’s brows shot up. “Wow. Cool. Nature woman.”
“Crazy woman,” Valerie said. “Yick.”
“You are such a baby,” Gaby said to Valerie. Then she walked as far from the big pileup of friends as she could. She turned and looked expectantly at Chelsea, raising a brow and practically giving her sandaled foot an impatient tap-tap-tap. It wasn’t everyone who could boss Chelsea around, but Gaby was definitely a world-class bully.
Chelsea stayed where she was for a moment, then walked around the other girls and crossed the cabin to join her. She was still looking at the floor. The two stood between the bunk farthest from the bathroom and the CIT’s single bed as if the other girls were radioactive.
“When did you get in?” Alex asked Valerie, as if trying to pick up where she had left off. “We haven’t seen you all day.”
Valerie stuffed her hands in the pockets of her baggy light green boxers. “My stepmother drove me down the back way,” she said, feeling the warm fuzzies. She and Sharin were getting along so well. “I was going to join you in the parking lot, but Belle said you’d probably be back soon.”
“She was right,” Brynn said. “And we got back a lot sooner because we heard you screaming.”
Valerie laughed. “Now I know how to make you hustle.”
Brynn smiled, too. She looked around the bunk, her smile flickering a little when she got to Chelsea and Gaby.
“We’re all here now except for Priya,” Brynn noted. “Have you seen her?” She looked from Valerie to Chelsea and Gaby.
Valerie shook her head, while Gaby and Chelsea didn’t react at all.
“I just got here and dumped my stuff.” Valerie pointed to a large dark purple carryall silk-screened with FUSION SPACE DANCE WORKS in black letters.
“I hope everything’s okay,” Brynn murmured.
Gaby muttered something to Chelsea that Valerie couldn’t hear. Jenna caught Valerie’s attention and gave her head a little shake as if to say, Don’t bother with those two.
Already? Valerie wondered.
“What about David, Jenna? Have you seen him?” Tori asked.
Jenna shrugged as if she didn’t really care if David showed. “I guess he’s not here yet.”
Valerie figured Jenna was still feeling awkward about the way things had turned out between David and Sarah. David and Sarah had been a couple until the Memorial Day weekend at Jenna’s lake house, when David started liking Jenna. And then Sarah didn’t come back this summer. Sarah had insisted that she and Abby preferred sports camp to Camp Lakeview, but Valerie knew Jenna was concerned that all the boyfriend-girlfriend stuff had influenced that decision. That made two more of the Double-Bunk CLFs who weren’t here.
Just as Valerie shot Jenna a look of support—they had traded a lot of e-mail on the subject—Belle came back into the cabin. She breezed through the main room and returned to the bathroom. Valerie heard the sound of rushing water, and she assumed Belle was washing her hands.
The fruity tang of moisturizer permeated the air as Belle reappeared, rubbing her hands and forearms.
“Crisis averted. And the spider has been returned to the wild.” She didn’t smile, and Valerie was embarrassed that she had gone all hyper about the bug. She just had a thing about spiders.
Then Belle studied her clipboard, her lips moving as she read something off it. She was very pale and thin. Valerie wondered if she’d been sick. There was a vibe surrounding her that Valerie couldn’t quite figure out. She just wasn’t what Valerie had come to expect from a summer camp counselor. Not bubbly. Not someone to gently tease her about her spider freakout and reassure all the girls that she had the matter well in hand.
“It looks like we’re almost all here.” Belle squinted as she counted heads. “One missing.” She glanced down at her clipboard. “You three were on the bus, and I’ve met Valerie, so I’m guessing it’s Priya Shah.”
“Correct,” Alex told her. Since she was such an old hand at camp, she often fell into the role of helping the counselors—especially new ones. Sometimes she even went to the kitchen after dinner to help Pete and the CITs do the dishes.
Belle made a notation on her clipboard. Then she looked up at the group with a
crooked smile.
“I’m Belle Hogan. I’m from Maine and this is my first summer at Camp Lakeview. I was a CIT last year in Bangor.”
“So this is your first year as a camp counselor,” Alex said slowly.
“Yes,” Belle said. “Apparently I’m the second Belle that Chelsea has known,” she added, including Chelsea in the conversation. “She has a friend back home named Belle.”
Chelsea shrugged as if that was no big deal. Gaby frowned at Chelsea.
“You never told me that.”
“I don’t have to tell you everything,” Chelsea shot back.
Woo, snotty much? Valerie thought as a dull red spread beneath Gaby’s freckles. Valerie hadn’t been very happy to discover that both Chelsea and Gaby were in her bunk. She figured the others felt that way, too. They were both very difficult to deal with—even when they were dealing with each other.
“Where’s our CIT?” Natalie asked Belle.
“Clarissa went down to the office to let them know Valerie arrived,” Belle said. “You probably just missed each other.” She looked at Natalie, Tori, and Alyssa. “Let’s see.” Tilting her head, she paused and pressed her finger to her lips. She looked washed out. Maybe it was all the black clothes.
She pointed at Tori.
“You’re our California girl.”
“Like, totally,” Tori replied in a fake Valley girl accent as she moved her shoulders and hips to her own inner groove thang. The other girls chuckled—except for Gaby and Chelsea, who folded their arms and rolled their eyes.
“Alyssa, the artist,” Belle said, gesturing to Alyssa’s dramatic butterfly earrings. “Which leaves New York Natalie.” She tilted her head as she gave Natalie a once-over.
“Guilty,” Natalie said with a grin.
“Well, I know that you’ve all bunked together before,” Belle said, “so we’ll dispense with my get-to-know-you game.”
“Is that the one where we get a bunch of candy to share?” Jenna asked hopefully. “Because you know, we do need to catch up.” Jenna ate candy and sweets practically 24/7. She was such a jock that she burned up all the calories. Even though Valerie took dance, she couldn’t hope to eat as much as Jenna Bloom and still fit into her leotard and tights.
“We do not need to catch up,” Brynn insisted. “We e-mail one another practically every day.”
“Some of us,” Chelsea said quietly. Then she added quickly, “I want a top bunk.”
“Me, too,” Gaby said. “This bunk.” She put her hand on the bunk beside the counselor and CIT’s annex. Then she jerked it away as if she had processed that spending an entire summer one bed over from their counselors was maybe not the best move—plus it was also the bunk farthest away from the bathroom. She extended her arm toward the bunk behind Valerie.
“Wait. I want that bunk.”
“Remember, we’re not going to pick bunks until everyone has arrived,” Belle said.
“Well, Priya’s late,” Gaby argued. “We’re all supposed to arrive before the cookout. The rest of us are here, and the cookout’s going to start in a few minutes.”
“We’ll wait for Priya before we pick out our bunks,” Belle repeated, and there was that edge to her voice again. “So you’ll have to wait until after the cookout to unpack and put your things away in your cubbies.”
“Speaking of which, we left our stuff on the path,” Natalie said. “We’ll have to go get everything quickly before the raccoons snag it. Nature can be so cruel.”
“That’s a joke, right?” Tori asked worriedly. “I mean, they won’t really start pawing through my stuff, right?”
“Not unless they can get your suitcase unzipped.” Natalie grinned at her stricken expression. “I’m just teasing.”
“Then after we get the cabin organized tonight,” Belle continued, “I think a moonlight hike is in order.”
“Aren’t those silent?” Valerie said, sounding less than thrilled.
“We can eat, though,” Jenna volunteered. “My mom sent some cupcakes.”
“Oh, I’ve been dreaming about those cupcakes!” Valerie cried. “They are to die for!”
“‘To die for.’ Knock wood.” Tori rapped her fingers on the bunk’s wooden wall.
“Sounds good.” Belle returned her attention to her regularly scheduled clipboard.
“About the hike,” Tori went on. “And, well, dying. Um, are you sure it’s safe to walk around in the dark?”
Belle cocked an eyebrow without lifting her eyes from the clipboard. She made a check mark about halfway down the page. “Of course I’m sure. We’ll stay on the paths and stick together. Why wouldn’t it be safe?”
“Did they tell you about Cropsy?” Tori took a deep breath. “About the anniversary?”
“ ‘They?’ ” Belle finally looked up at her.
“Dr. Steve,” Tori said. “He didn’t say anything about Cropsy?”
“No.” Belle tapped the back of her clipboard with her pen. “But maybe you should.”
“He’s this psycho-guy,” Tori began. “He stalks campers. And every six years—”
There was whooping and crazed laughter outside. A whole lot of it.
“That’s my brother’s voice,” Jenna said suspiciously.
She went outside. “Adam!” she bellowed. “You huge dork! Put that down!”
She ducked her head back into the room. “Tori, they got into your suitcase! Adam has on your bikini top!”
“Oh my God!” Tori shouted.
Jenna, Tori, Natalie, Alyssa, and Brynn burst out of the cabin.
“Adam spasm, give that back or I’ll strangle you with it!” Jenna yelled, and the other girls started shrieking and whooping.
Maybe this will be a normal summer after all, Valerie thought, grinning to herself.
chapter THREE
Inside the cabin, Belle laid her clipboard against her chest again walked to the bunk’s door. She looked out, tching; then she went outside.
“Boys, enough! those things back to the girls. Now.”
Her voice off. Valerie assumed she was going down the o the scene of the crime.
The whooping faded. Valerie’s friends stopped screaming.
After a few seconds, Belle came back into the cabin, her head with a sigh. “Crisis averted,” she announced.
Go, Belle, thought admiringly.
Belle tapped r finger against the paper on her clipboard.
“Next on ist. Please give me your cell phones and ics. BlackBerrys, iPods, Game Boys, Treos, and tever else has been invented in the last five minutes.”
Valerie ctantly parted with her cell phone and her iPod. The other girls started going through their purses and daypacks, pulling out their cell phones.
“Now we’re cut off from civilization,” Candace said in a stricken tone as she handed her Razr phone to Belle.
“Oh, right. Cut off except for the phones and computers in the administration building,” Gaby snapped. “I don’t know why you guys even bothered bringing your cell phones. I left mine at home.”
“We’ll still be able to e-mail our parents on Sundays, right?” Chelsea asked as she carried her cell phone to Belle’s bed. Valerie caught the anxious note in her voice.
“Yes, same as always,” Belle assured her. “Dr. Steve has a list outside his office where you can sign up for specific slots to send your e-mail from the office desktop.”
Then a high-pitched siren blared through the cabin, and everybody jumped. It whined and keened like a wounded water buffalo. And Valerie actually knew what a wounded water buffalo sounded like from her African unit in geography.
“From your reactions, I’d guess that the siren is new,” Belle said. “That means it’s time for the cookout. You guys can go on down when you’re ready.”
“Good,” Gaby said coldly. “I’m ready. Come on, Chelsea.”
She didn’t even look at the other girls as she and Chelsea left the bunk. Tapping her clipboard with her pen, Belle watched them go.
Jenna, Alyssa, Tori, Brynn, and Natalie stumbled back into the bunk carrying a big duffel bag and a black suitcase. A stretchy purple bikini top dangled from Tori’s fist.
Jenna shook her head in total disgust. “My brother and his friends are so immature.”
“At least we got everything back,” Tori said.
“Yeah, in return for a bribe. Three precious cupcakes,” Jenna groused. “He got his own stash from my mom. He’s such a pig.”
“I need your cell phones and iPods,” Belle told them.
The girls complied. Then the bunkmates filed into the bathroom by twos and threes to spritz off and check themselves out in the mirror above the two white porcelain sinks. Valerie watched as nearly all the girls glammed it up a notch and redid their hair. Tori and Natalie brought out the big guns—colorful plastic pouches brimming with makeup and makeup brushes. Alex just combed her short, straight black hair, while Valerie applied the bronze-tint eye shadow that Sharin had given her for her birthday.
As Alex put her comb away, she smiled at Valerie’s reflection in the mirror. “It’s so good to see you.” Then she laughed and added, “Even though I just saw you a month ago.”
“Same here,” Valerie said warmly.
Jenna popped in. “Can you tell I streaked my hair?” She moved her head left and right. Golden tendrils gleamed among her light brown curls.
“Yes. Very sassy,” Valerie said.
“Thanks. Hey, do you think Chelsea highlighted her hair?” Jenna asked, examining a strand in the mirror. “It looked blonder to me. But I could be remembering it wrong. She didn’t send any pictures.”
“I don’t think she went on our double-bunk blog at all,” Alex said. “Do you remember reading anything from her?”
“No.” Valerie daubed some bronzer on her cheekbones. “She didn’t post. Neither did Gaby.”
“I think Chelsea’s hair is the same as last year,” Alex said.
“So is her attitude,” Jenna grumped. “I really will try to get along with her,” she added, before either of them could say anything. “And Gaby.” She sighed and glanced toward the main room, where Belle was sitting. “But is it okay to privately wish they weren’t in our bunk?”
Hide and Shriek #14 Page 3