Hide and Shriek #14

by Melissa J Morgan

  “Privately,” Alex murmured. She wrinkled her nose. “And, privately? I wish the same thing.”

  “Me too,” Valerie added. “Privately.”

  When Valerie came out of the bathroom, Belle was sitting cross-legged on her bed, hunched over her clipboard as she wrote furiously. Valerie hoped she hadn’t heard Alex, Jenna, and her talking about Gaby and Chelsea.

  Out of simple curiosity, she tilted her head, trying to see what Belle was doing, but Belle jerked and glanced up sharply at her.

  “Yes?” she said, sounding a little brusque as she flipped the clipboard over and pressed her palms down on it.

  “Oh, sorry.” Valerie started to move away.

  “It’s all right. You just startled me, Valerie.” She kept her hands on the clipboard. “Is there something you wanted?” Her voice still sounded edgy. Was her left eye actually twitching?

  “No. I’m good,” Valerie replied, still feeling awkward. First she’d freaked Belle out with the spider spaz-out, and now she had accidentally snooped into Belle’s private counselor business. She wasn’t starting out very well with her new counselor.

  Semi-dejected, she went outside. Jenna followed after her, moving away from the door and looking over her shoulder.

  “What was that all about?” Jenna whispered.

  Valerie shook her head. “She didn’t want me to see what she was writing down, I guess. Maybe it was something confidential.”

  “Yeah, but she didn’t have to strangle her clipboard to keep it from talking.” Jenna pantomimed choking herself. “Belle . . . killed . . . the . . . clipboard. It knew too much!”

  Valerie laughed. Belle’s reaction had been pretty extreme.

  Natalie joined them. In addition to a lot of makeup, she had put on some perfume. She looked as if she had stepped out of the pages of Teen Vogue to go to prom, and not to a camp cookout. “Who killed what?”

  Valerie described what had happened as Brynn joined the party. She kept her voice low and moved the group away from the door. She didn’t want Belle to overhear them.

  “Maybe Belle was writing up some kind of incident report,” Brynn said. “About what we said about being stuck with Gaby and Chelsea.” She had on perfume, too. Valerie wondered if it was the same perfume Jordan had bought Brynn for her birthday. What was it like to get a present like that from a guy?

  “Maybe she’s reporting us,” Candace fretted.

  Alex looked troubled. “I always like my counselors a lot. But Belle . . .” She made a little face. “I don’t know. Maybe I just have low blood sugar.”

  “Then let’s eat!” Jenna cried, jog-walking down the steep hill past them.

  “Careful,” Alex called after her. “It’s awfully early in the summer to go to the ER.” After stepping into a gopher hole last summer, Jenna had wound up in a cast, and she had had to sit out most of the events in Color War. Luckily, there had been a pie-eating contest and Jenna, with her love of sweets, had won the event for the Reds.

  “Hey, girls!” Clarissa shouted as she trudged up the hill toward them. Her eyes rested on Val for an extra second. “Hey, you,” she added. “I was wondering when I’d finally get to see you today.” She leaned in and gave Val a hug. Then she continued toward their cabin. “I need to go talk to Belle, but I’ll see you all at dinner, okay?” She walked a few more steps before turning around to add in one more thought. “I’m so glad I’m working with your bunk.”

  The five girls exchanged devilish grins. “So are we!” Val shouted back.

  “So. Are. We,” she said more quietly to her friends.

  They continued tramping down the hill. The vast lake glistened in the distance. The shadows had lengthened, and overhead, thunderclouds rumbled. Valerie wondered if they would be able to go on the hike tonight.

  Everything seems kind of off, she thought as she gazed around at her friends. Maybe I should have gone to dance camp in Philly, like LaToya. But that would have meant spending the summer with LaToya, and frankly, Valerie needed a break from her imperious stepsister.

  The thing was, though, she was starting to wonder if she needed a break from Camp Lakeview, too.

  I thought we would have good times with a fun counselor like last year, Valerie thought. But so far, it looks like it’s us versus Gaby and Chelsea, and I’ve managed to tick off Belle. What is in those pages that she doesn’t want me to see? She doesn’t seem like the camp counselor type at all.

  Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m not the camper type anymore. I don’t feel right here. Something’s wrong. The others are noticing it, too.

  An owl hooted. It was the middle of the day, when owls should be asleep, right? Valerie wasn’t sure. She was a city girl. She didn’t know much about birds and raccoons and nature stuff.

  Then something moved inside the branches of a pine tree as she passed it, and she jerked.

  For heaven’s sake, she thought, I’m acting like such a baby. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had better stay on her guard.

  On the other side of Shadow Lake, Jeremiah Wheatly lowered his binoculars and smiled.

  “She’s here.”

  His friend Dan nodded absently as he bent over the hull of the overturned dinghy. The inch-wide crack ran down the center.

  “Good. Stop spying on her and hand me the chain saw.”

  Jeremiah bent down and picked up the bulky object with his one good hand. It was hard to learn how to do things with one arm. His whole life had changed since the accident.

  Dan grabbed the starter cord, tugged hard, and let the chain saw rip.

  “Careful with that thing. You wouldn’t want to cut off your arm,” Jeremiah said over the roar of the engine.

  They both laughed.

  “I have to do something to get her to notice me this year,” Jeremiah half-shouted.

  “Well, what’s she into?”

  Jeremiah thought a moment. “She likes ice cream.”

  “Then give her some ice cream.”

  “She also said she likes horror movies and roller coasters and Stephen King novels.”

  “Sounds like she likes a good scare,” Dan offered. “It’s perfect. Give her some ice cream and then just scare her right into your arms!”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Jeremiah yelled.

  The chain saw whined.

  Last to leave the bunk, Belle picked up the box of electronic items and headed for the screen door. Just as she began to push it open, her own cell phone trilled inside her daypack. She shifted the box to her hip, unzipped the pack, and hurriedly fished out the phone.

  “Hello?” She nodded, listening. “So far, so good. I’m keeping an eye on them.”

  She listened hard. Then she took a deep breath. “Yes, I understand. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.” She shut the phone and replaced it in her pack.

  Then she went out the door to join her unsuspecting campers.

  chapter FOUR

  Jenna inhaled the yummalicious aroma of hamburgers on the grill as 5A reached the grassy expanse beside the lake. The yellow diving dock shone in the sun. She had conquered her fear of diving two summers ago. What would she master this year?

  Pete, Dr. Steve, and Susan, the head counselor of the fourth division, were manning the oversize grill. All three gave Jenna a friendly wave as she grabbed a paper plate and joined the line of campers waiting for food. Brynn and the rest of their group came up behind her—Tori after Brynn, then Natalie, Valerie, Candace, Alex, and Alyssa. There was no sign of Gaby or Chelsea.

  Then . . . there he was. David.

  He was standing with a bunch of guys by the big wooden pagoda, laughing and eating a hot dog. He had freckles across his nose, just like her. And thick lashes around his golden-brown eyes. And a supersweet smile.

  What total girlbait.

  He didn’t see her, and she ducked her head, suddenly very shy. She hadn’t seen him since Memorial Day weekend at her family’s lake house. They had e-mailed a lot and spoken on the phone a few
times, but to see him here, in person . . . she swallowed hard. He had gone from liking Sarah to liking her. Maybe he would decide to like someone else here at camp. Jenna was new to the whole “like” thing. She didn’t know how to spot the signs if the guy you were totally into decided to move on. Besides, she wasn’t even sure if she was totally into David.

  Well, okay, that wasn’t true. Her heart was pounding and her hands were sweaty. From taking two summers’ worth of the zillions of surveys and quizzes that Natalie read aloud from her fashion magazines, Jenna knew those were two of the signs of true like.

  “Jen!” he cried as he looked up and spotted her.

  “Oh, there he is,” Brynn murmured, as if she were crushing on David, too. Jenna felt a prickle of confusion and jealousy, until she ticked her glance to the left. Jordan, Priya, and Spence were headed for them as well. She realized that Brynn had been talking about Jordan, not David. And, ooh, interesting note: Priya was walking with Spence. During the school year, Priya had had a crush on a guy named Riley. But that had fizzled out. But Spence had liked Priya since the Washington, D.C., field trip last summer. Was Priya now into him, too?

  “Hey,” David said, reaching Jenna’s side.

  She was stunned. He had grown at least a foot! Okay, maybe half a foot. Okay, maybe an inch. A whole inch since May!

  “Hi,” she said. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  He cracked up like she had said the funniest thing he had ever heard. Her eyes grew a little wider. There were little bits of stubble on his cheeks and under his nose. David was shaving!

  “Heya, Brynners,” Jordan said as he walked up to the line, giving Brynn a quick, shy hug as Priya squealed happily and bear-hugged Jenna, then Brynn, then went on down the row of girls.

  “Guess what, you guys!” Priya said. “We got lost on the way to camp!”

  “No way.” Brynn’s forehead wrinkled. “Is everything okay?”

  “Duh,” Priya teased her. “We’re here, aren’t we?”

  “We did almost run out of gas,” Jordan said. “I was just about to strap the ol’ gas can on Priya and send her foraging for supplies out in the forest. But when she got out of the car, she saw the Camp Lakeview sign.” He shook his head. “Which is not very helpful when it’s lying in a ditch.”

  “In a ditch?” Tori asked. “Which way did you come?”

  “The same way as the bus,” Priya said. “It was by total accident that we saw the sign.” She blushed. “We had to pull over because I was feeling a little car-sick. Just one mile from camp, I decided I needed some fresh air.”

  “However, she did not barf, I am happy to report,” Jordan added, giving her some noogies. Then he ducked and added, “But she could blow any second! And believe me when I tell you that Priya hurling is most impressive!”

  “Jordan,” Priya said between clenched teeth. It was obvious to Jenna that she was mortified to be discussing the subject in front of Spence.

  “One mile?” Tori persisted. “The Camp Lakeview sign said one mile? And it was in a ditch?”

  “Yeah.” Priya and Jordan both nodded. “And heavily spray-painted.”

  Natalie, Tori, and Alyssa looked puzzled. “What’s wrong?” Jordan asked.

  “When we passed that sign, it was upright. And it wasn’t spray-painted,” Tori said.

  “Maybe it was a different sign,” Jordan ventured. “But ours was in a ditch and it had been spray-painted with the words, ‘Go back.’ ”

  “In big red capital letters,” Priya added.

  “Red like blood?” Tori asked anxiously.

  “Red like primer, more likely.” Jordan gazed at the girls. “Hey, you’re all freaked out. No big, chicks. It was obviously a prank.”

  “Right,” Tori said slowly. Then she said, “Was the paint wet?”

  “I didn’t check,” Priya said. “I wanted to get here.” She frowned. “But Jordan’s right. It’s no big deal.”

  “No, it is a big deal,” Tori said again. “It’s Cropsy. I know it is!”

  “What’s a Cropsy?” Priya asked.

  “A homicidal maniac who lives in the woods,” Tori began.

  Jordan started snickering. “No way.”

  “Yes,” Tori argued. “It’s a true story. Every six years, he . . .” She scrunched up her face as Jordan snickered some more.

  “He what?” Priya urged Tori, nodding at her.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Tori said, giving Jordan a pretend evil eye, but in a friendly way. “When certain people aren’t around.”

  “‘Certain people’?” Jordan asked, pressing his fingertips against his chest. “Me?”

  Tori nodded. “Yes.”

  Jordan made his hands into claws and pawed the air. “By then, it may be too late, mwahaha.”

  “It’s too late for you, anyway,” Tori said. “I’m pretty sure you’re on his list.”

  “The list of death?” Jordan shot back. He grabbed his neck and made his mossy green eyes bulge out. “Tooooo . . . laaate for meeee. Run, Brynn. Run, Priiiiyaaaa.”

  “You shouldn’t tease,” Tori said. “Or you really will be on his list.”

  From her place in line ahead of them, Valerie snapped her fingers.

  “That’s what our counselor was doing! She was making the list of Cropsy’s new victims. I thought I heard her muttering ‘Jordan’ while she was writing.”

  Priya smiled evilly at Jordan. “Right. Cropsy. She keeps track of all the people who dare to make fun of him.”

  “Then I’m dead,” Jordan said, rolling his eyes in theatrical sorrow.

  “I am going to miss you,” Priya said. “All those years of beating you at Horse. Of inventing disgusting concoctions for you to eat when I whup you at wall-ball. Of watching your ‘Spoon’ spoon slide down your ski-slope nose. How very sad.” She sighed.

  Jordan sighed along with her. “Brynn, will you miss me?”

  Amused, Brynn hugged her empty plate against her chest. “I’ll bring flowers to your grave every opening day of camp,” she promised. “Unless, of course, I’m at camp.” She pantomimed tossing the plate over her shoulder.

  “Maybe I could get buried here, then,” Jordan suggested helpfully.

  “I have a very serious question,” David asked. Then he started laughing. “If Jordan dies during the cookout, can I have his hamburger?”

  “Humph. I don’t think I will die any time this summer, if that’s the way you guys are going to be,” Jordan huffed. “Dead and disrespected. Not going there.”

  “Who says the choice is up to you?” Tori asked softly.

  She turned to Jenna. “Bloom, you’ve been coming here the longest of anyone,” she said. “Have you heard about Cropsy?”

  “Kinda sorta,” Jenna said, wrinkling her forehead. All the Bloom kids had gone to Lakeview for years and years. Stephanie had even been a counselor. “I vaguely remember Steph talking about him a few years ago. But I think she thought he was just a camp legend.”

  Jenna wondered if Adam remembered anything about Cropsy.

  “He’s not a legend,” Tori said. “He’s a real person.”

  “Cropsy’s not the real threat. The lions are really the ones to watch out for,” Jordan declared. At their questioning looks, he spread his arms wide.

  “You haven’t heard about the man-eating lions of Shadow Lake?”

  He dropped his voice. “Long ago, there was a circus train that came through this very part of Pennsylvania. The train crashed. The lions got free and ran off into the woods. They gobbled up all the rabbits, and then they gobbled up all the squirrels, and then they started gobbling up the local kids.”

  “What a relief,” Priya drawled. “Just the local kids. Like that ice-cream guy who always gives us extra scoops.”

  “Jeremiah,” Jenna said. She grinned. “I think he was crushing on Clarissa last year.”

  “Ooh, we’ll have to check that out when we go into town,” Brynn enthused. “Let’s ask Belle if we can do a town run on Sunday.” Sunday
s were special days for fifth division campers—they had a late brunch and then they got to laze around and do stuff like go into town for treats and shopping. Not that there was much to buy except little patchwork teddy bears and a cookbook put out by the volunteer fire department auxiliary and knickknacks like that.

  “Please, ladies, this is not about crushes,” Jordan reminded them. “After they ate all the locals, they started gobbling up Lakeview campers. Remember Tom Esposito?”

  “He had to go home last summer because he had mono,” Priya said.

  “That’s just what they told us.” Jordan pursed his lips and growled. “Rrroarrrrr.”

  “Really?” Candace asked in a strangled voice. Her lids flickered as if she might faint.

  “Really,” Jordan said, his mouth twitching.

  “He’s making it up,” Priya told her. “He’s such a kidder.” She smacked Jordan on the arm. “Don’t freak out my bunkbud with your hideous lies, Jordan.”

  “Ow!” He rubbed his bicep and caught Priya’s wrist as she prepared to punch him again. “Okay, okay, it’s all a hideous lie,” he told Candace. “Or, as we say, a tall tale,” he said to Priya. “Urban legend. No harm meant.”

  “Okay,” Candace murmured. “Good.”

  Everyone got their hot dogs, burgers, and sides and found places beside the lake to sit and eat. David stuck close to Jenna, which made for much happiness. Even nicer, her idiot twin Adam stayed way far away. No doubt he was still waiting for the three cupcakes she owed him.

  Jordan didn’t hang with Brynn as much as Jenna had expected he would. Mostly he chatted with all the 5A girls, and he kept getting up and leaving to say hi to guys he knew. By the pensive look on Brynn’s face, Jenna could see that she was disappointed.

  Why did we ever start liking boys? she wondered. They are so confusing.

  Then David said, “I’m going to go get another hamburger. Would you like one, Jenna?” and Jenna went all warm and gushy. How thoughtful!

  “No, thanks,” she said, trying to keep the tell-tale sounds of total luuurve out of her reply.