Grace's Twist

by Melissa J Morgan

  “Yeah, but what about you, Grace?” Tyler asked. “You’re usually the first one in the lake.”

  “I know, but I thought I’d take it easy today,” Grace replied. “I’m trying out the lie-in-the-sun-and-read-magazines approach. Natalie and Marissa always look so relaxed and happy after free swim.”

  “Weren’t you reading a book the other day?” Julie asked. “What ever happened to that?”

  Grace felt her face heat up, and it wasn’t from the sun. “I didn’t bring it with me,” she said. “I was expecting to swim.”

  “Tyler!” A voice from the lake interrupted them. It was Stephanie. “Come judge our swimming race! I’m too biased.”

  Jenna and her twin brother, Adam, waved from the water. Obviously they were the ones preparing to race—both of them were all-around great athletes. But their own sister couldn’t call a race for them.

  “Be right there!” Tyler yelled back. He turned to Julie. “Wanna help judge?”

  “Why not?” she said cheerfully. “See you guys later!” They took off toward the lake.

  “Wow, your counselor is big on reading, huh?” Gaby asked when Julie was gone.

  “I guess so,” Grace told her. She really didn’t want to talk about boring books with her new friend—or about why Julie wanted her to read. “What’s your counselor like?”

  “Lizzie? She’s cool.” Gaby glanced around the beach. “Although if she catches me talking to all you 3C girls, she’ll tease me all night! I’d better go. I just wanted to say hi.”

  “Okay,” Grace told her. “I’ll see you in drama tomorrow.”

  “You got it, partner!” Gaby waved and headed off to find some of her bunkmates.

  “Well, well, well,” Natalie said, nudging Grace with her shoulder. “Consorting with the enemy, are we?”

  Grace smiled. “Yes, we are. That rivalry is just for fun.”

  “I agree. Gaby seems nice,” Natalie said. “But I’m still waiting for the quiz.”

  “Me too,” Marissa chimed in.

  “All right, here we go.” Grace read the first question for her friends. She was determined not to think about what Julie had said. After all, the sun was shining, she was having fun with her bunkmates, and best of all, she had a brand-new friend!

  chapter THREE

  “Bunk 5D has Bunk Day on Thursday . . .”

  “Psst, Grace!” Valerie whispered from across the table. “Want my hash browns?”

  Grace shook her head. All of her bunkmates were holding whispered conversations around her. Nobody ever paid attention to the daily breakfast announcements that Dr. Steve, the head of Camp Lakeview, made. At least not until they heard their own bunk mentioned.

  “How about you, Alex?” Valerie asked. “Want my hash browns?”

  “No thanks,” Alex said quickly. “I’m not hungry.”

  “You’re never hungry,” Jenna grumbled.

  “And the cookout tonight will be for bunk 2B . . . or not to be!”

  Dr. Steve got more groans than laughter for his lame joke. Grace glanced over at Brynn, who was now reciting the rest of the “to be or not to be” speech to herself. “I knew it,” Grace joked to Alyssa, who sat next to her. “Brynn has gone into total drama mode. Every little thing that happens from now until her audition for the play will be about acting.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Jenna said from the other side of Grace. “Remember last year when she tried to lock us all out of the bunk so she could rehearse in private?”

  Grace giggled. “She actually dragged one of the counselors’ cots over in front of the door to block it.”

  “But the door opens outward, so it totally didn’t work,” Jenna finished for her. “We just opened the door and climbed over the bed!”

  Natalie laughed, while Alyssa studied Brynn for a moment. “She’s really focused,” Alyssa finally said. “But from what I hear, you’re just as talented as she is, Grace.”

  “. . . a special treat for the third division.” Dr. Steve’s voice broke into their conversation. Grace spun around to watch him. His balding head looked a little sunburned—he must have forgotten to wear his usual fishing hat yesterday.

  “As you all know, the second division and the fourth division have already had their field trips this year,” Dr. Steve said.

  Jenna grabbed Grace’s arm excitedly. “Field trip!” she whispered.

  “Now it’s the third division’s turn,” Dr. Steve went on. “Next Thursday you kids will be going to WetWorld, the new water park up in Norwich.”

  Cheering erupted all around Grace, so she joined right in. In fact, she even climbed onto the bench to celebrate. Two tables over, she saw Gaby do the same thing. They waved to each other over all the clapping and jumping campers.

  “Water park! That is so cool,” Jenna cried. “I hear they have a three-story-high waterslide!”

  “You’ll do that, but you were afraid to dive off the three-foot-high board?” Chelsea sniffed.

  Jenna ignored her, but Grace couldn’t keep quiet. Sometimes Chelsea could be really nasty. “Jenna’s not afraid of diving anymore,” she said. “And I bet you won’t go on the giant waterslide.”

  “Yeah,” Candace agreed. “I bet you won’t.”

  Chelsea frowned. “It would ruin my hair. Think of all the chlorine in places like that.”

  “You’re going to have to avoid the whole park if you don’t want to get chlorine in your hair,” Valerie pointed out.

  “Whatever. I’m sure there’s a wave pool I can lounge by.”

  “Not me,” Grace said. “I’m going on every single ride in the park. Twice, if I have time!”

  Her bunkmates laughed.

  “That’s okay. Karen will hang out with me and not go in the water. Right, Karen?” Chelsea asked, turning to the shy girl.

  Karen didn’t look too happy with that prospect, but she nodded. “Sure,” she said quietly. Chelsea smiled, satisfied.

  Grace frowned. Why did Karen always go along with anything Chelsea said? She obviously didn’t want to spend her time at the water park sitting on a lounge chair. But it was always that way with the two of them—Chelsea called the shots. “You guys are crazy,” Grace told them. “One day in the pool water isn’t going to do anything to your hair. And besides, it would be worth looking like the Bride of Frankenstein to go on the rides!” She pulled the elastic off her ponytail and quickly teased her hair with her fingers. It never took much to make her mass of red curls stand on end. Within five seconds, she had a mop of hair standing straight up.

  Everyone cracked up. Even Chelsea. And, more importantly, even Karen.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Grace noticed Kathleen, the head counselor for the third division, leaning over to talk to Julie. Julie always ate with the bunk, sitting at the head of their table. But Kathleen sat with the other division heads, up at the table in the front of the room. What was she doing here? Neither she nor Julie were smiling. It didn’t seem as if they were talking about the water park.

  “Hey, Grace, have you ever gone on one of those inner-tube rides?” Jenna asked.

  “Um, yeah,” Grace said, dragging her attention away from Kathleen and Julie. “That’s always my favorite ride at water parks. I love when you get to the end and you go down that little tunnel thing. It feels like you’re being flushed down the drain!”

  Everyone was still laughing, but Grace felt a sinking feeling of dread as she noticed Julie winding through the happy campers toward her.

  “Grace, can I talk to you for a sec?” she called over the din.

  Grace didn’t answer. She just followed Julie toward the door of the mess hall. The sounds of hooting and cheering were all around her, but right now the water park seemed very far away.

  “Where have you been?” Alex asked when Grace got back to the bunk. It was chore time, and everyone was busy sweeping, dusting, or cleaning the bathroom.

  “Yeah, what did Julie want?” Chelsea added. “Are you in trouble or something?”
r />   “No, but thanks for asking,” Grace mumbled. As if she didn’t feel bad enough already!

  Alex rolled her eyes and gave Grace a smile. “Never mind,” she said. “You better get going—it’s your turn to take out the garbage.”

  “Whoo-hoo,” Grace joked halfheartedly. But it wasn’t the garbage that was bothering her. It was the memory of her meeting with Julie and Kathleen. She’d been expecting the worst, and that’s what she’d gotten. All she wanted to do was hide under her sheets. If her bunkmates found out what was going on, she would be humiliated.

  And Chelsea was still watching her like a hawk.

  Grace quickly headed over to the cubby where the trash bags were kept and pulled out one for the bathroom garbage and one for the main-bunk garbage. Usually she liked to sing or whistle while doing chores—it got the other girls giggling, and sometimes they joined in. But today she just wasn’t in the mood.

  “Hang on a second!” Sarah cried as Grace picked up the bathroom garbage can. “I have a handful of hair to throw in there.” Sarah wore the bunk’s giant, blue rubber gloves, but she still picked hair out of the shower drain with two fingers, holding it away from herself as if it might attack her. “In fact, I think it’s your hair,” she added, scrunching up her face in disgust.

  Grace squinted at the mass of red hair dangling from Sarah’s outstretched hand. It could just as easily have been Alyssa’s hair, but she decided not to mention that. She just wanted to get her chores over with as soon as possible so that she could go outside and forget about her bad morning.

  “After chores, Brynn’s going to do a dramatic reading of her Music Man scene for the play audition,” Sarah told her, dumping the hair in Grace’s garbage bag.

  Brynn stuck her head out of the toilet area, where she was scrubbing the bowls. “Yeah,” she added. “Why don’t you join me? We can do it together. Or are you going to do The Sound of Music for your audition?”

  Grace’s stomach felt heavy, as if she had swallowed a handful of rocks. “Um, I don’t think I’m gonna audition for the play after all,” she said. “I’ll just do stage crew again, or whatever Bethany makes us do as part of the drama class.”

  “What?” Brynn came all the way out into the bathroom. Grace quickly turned and headed into the main bunk, but it was no good. Brynn followed her. “What are you talking about?” Brynn demanded. “You have to audition! You’re really good. What about our pact?”

  Grace lifted the trash bag and made an exaggerated sour expression. “Sorry, I’m really grossed out by this garbage,” she said, trying to sound like she was holding her breath to avoid smelling the junk. “I have to go dump it.” She hurried across the bunk and pushed through the door, into the sunshine.

  As soon as she was away from bunk 3C, Grace slowed down. She was in no rush to get back. Her bunkmates thought of her as the clown, always bubbly and up for fun. But right now, she couldn’t imagine joking around . . . and she certainly couldn’t imagine having fun!

  She threw the garbage bags into the huge Dumpster near the camp office, then turned to go back. To her surprise, Gaby was trudging up the path toward the Dumpster.

  “Hey,” Grace said. “You’re on garbage duty, too, huh?”

  “Yeah, I tried to get out of it, but no one would trade with me,” Gaby answered. She held out one of her two full trash bags. Grace grabbed it and hoisted it into the Dumpster while Gaby threw the other one in. They started back down the trail that led to the bunks.

  “So what’s your problem?” Gaby asked.

  Grace was so startled that she almost tripped over a maple root in the path. “Huh?”

  “Your problem,” Gaby repeated. “You’ve been moping around all morning. I saw you acting all miserable on your way back from the office earlier, and even now you look like you just ate something sour.”

  “Well, I did have bug juice at breakfast,” Grace joked.

  “Funny. Not,” Gaby said, completely deadpan.

  For the first time in her life, Grace was speechless. She couldn’t tell if Gaby was being rude or friendly. Her tone wasn’t very nice, that much was certain. But in a way, she was asking if Grace was all right. And that was nice. Wasn’t it?

  “I guess I’m just in a bad mood,” Grace finally said.

  They had reached the clearing in the woods where all the bunks were. Grace slowed down, automatically taking a step or two away from Gaby. She came from their rival bunk, after all. A few of Grace’s friends had already commented on the fact that she was consorting with the enemy. She didn’t feel like having to defend herself to 3C right now. She knew they were only teasing, but the situation with her parents had her mega-stressed-out. So stressed that even joking around with her bunkmates seemed hard. “Um, I’ll see you in drama,” she muttered, speeding up.

  “Wait!” Gaby called.

  Grace turned back.

  “Do you want to hang out during siesta this afternoon?” Gaby asked. “We can practice scenes or something.”

  Hang out during siesta? Grace could hardly believe her ears. Girls from 3A and 3C did not hang out together. It was an unspoken rule. And Gaby wanted to break it. How can I say no without offending her? Grace wondered. Should I say no?

  “Come on, we’ll have fun,” Gaby prodded.

  Grace glanced over at her bunk. Most of her bunkmates were lounging around on the steps or at the one dilapidated picnic table out front. Natalie was doing Alyssa’s nails. Alex was reading lines with Brynn. Candace and Jessie were laughing over a magazine. Valerie and Sarah were practicing some kind of backflip. And Karen was French-braiding Chelsea’s hair. They were all paired up, happy in their best-friend twosomes. There was nowhere for Grace to fit in.

  How come she had never noticed this before?

  “Earth to Grace. Please return to Camp Lakeview,” Gaby said in a fake deep voice. “Are we hanging later or not?”

  “Why not?” Grace said. It wasn’t like her bunkmates would care. They already had their camp best friends. Obviously it was time for Grace to get one, too. And Gaby was the only one who seemed interested, even if she was a little hard to figure out sometimes. “I’ll meet you here.”

  “Cool.” Gaby started walking backward toward bunk 3A. “Later.”

  “Later,” Grace answered happily.

  Grace’s happiness didn’t last long. As soon as the bunk sat down for lunch in the mess hall, Chelsea turned to her. “You never told us what Julie wanted this morning,” she said loudly. “Or was it Kathleen who wanted to talk to you?”

  Grace froze with a forkful of bright orange mac and cheese halfway to her mouth. She really didn’t want to talk about that, especially not with the whole bunk listening. In fact, all she wanted to do was forget about this morning.

  Natalie and Alyssa exchanged a look. “Who cares what they wanted?” Natalie said. “Let’s talk about the field trip to WetWorld. I say we go on all the rides together. You know, to show our bunk 3C spirit!”

  “Yeah, let’s show our spirit,” Candace agreed. Grace couldn’t help smiling. You could always count on Candace for support. She never had much to say on her own, so she usually just repeated what everyone else said—as long as it was something nice.

  “But then what’s Grace going to do?” Chelsea asked. “Her new best friend is from 3A. She’ll have to be in two places at once!”

  A few of the girls laughed, and even Brynn and Alex smiled.

  Grace felt her face get hot. She knew her friends weren’t really mad at her for hanging out with Gaby. But Chelsea wasn’t just teasing—she was being snotty. She was always rude, and everyone in 3C knew it. So why were they laughing along with her as if she was just making a joke?

  Grace dropped her fork back down to her plate. She’d had enough of Chelsea’s nosiness and her attitude. If her other friends weren’t going to defend her, she’d just have to defend herself. “Maybe if my bunkmates acted more like friends are supposed to, I wouldn’t have to look for a best friend in 3A,” she snapped. />
  Then she got up and stormed out of the mess hall, ignoring Nat and Brynn calling after her. How dare Chelsea try to tell her who to be friends with!

  Once she got outside, though, her stomach did a little flip. Had she really just yelled at all her bunkmates? They hadn’t meant to upset her, and she knew it. She’d probably even been too harsh to Chelsea.

  Grace sighed. She wasn’t mad at them. She was mad at herself, and she’d taken it out on them. How had she gotten herself into this mess?

  chapter FOUR

  “But I don’t understand,” Grace said the next day in drama class. She was using a thick British accent and a deep voice. “How could a mouse have unlocked the door?”

  “Maybe he had a key,” Brynn answered shrilly. She stood on top of one of the black boxes, pretending it was a chair.

  “A mouse with a key? Preposterous!” Grace bellowed. “Everybody knows mice never use keys. They prefer to ring the doorbell!” She saw a tiny smile flicker across Brynn’s face, but Brynn quickly squelched it. Even though the improvisation exercise they were doing was silly, they both had to take it seriously in order to stay in character. It was hard, though, considering that all their classmates were laughing out loud.

  “All I know is that a horrible little mouse came in and stole all the cheese from my kitchen,” Brynn cried in her best imitation of a frightened old lady.

  Grace’s character was supposed to be a gruff police detective. Making him British was a little addition of her own. She loved the improv part of drama because they were allowed to add personal touches like that to spice things up. Picturing a burly English inspector in her mind, she pretended to pull a notebook from her pocket. “Can you describe the mouse?” she asked in her fake voice.

  “It was small and gray with a twitchy nose,” Brynn said. She added a shudder for effect.

  “I see.” Grace pretended to write that down. “And can you describe the cheese?”

  One of the boys laughed loudly. Grace caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye. He was very tan, with short blond hair and a friendly smile. His green eyes gleamed with amusement as he watched her.