Reunion #21

by Melissa J Morgan

  “I’m . . . fine,” she admitted slowly. “I think I was just, uh, taken by surprise, you know? ’Cause I slipped, and I went down, like, right away, and I didn’t even see the mud patch.” Her cheeks were flaming red and she was wishing she’d just pulled herself up and dusted herself off without making such a huge production out of her surfin’ safari. At this point other campers had begun to gather and were taking in the scene with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement.

  “Gosh, are you always such a drama queen?” Hailey asked, her face folding into a sneer.

  “I . . . maybe,” Brynn stammered, at a loss. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “It’s okay, Brynn,” Anika said warmly, rising and extending a firm arm to help Brynn pull herself up. “We’ve all been caught off guard on a hike before. But that’s why it’s so important to keep one eye on the ground, no matter how distracted you are by the beauty of your surroundings.”

  She wasn’t even kidding. She thought Brynn had been all distracted by beauty and happiness and leaves and raindrops and cheery rays of sunshine.

  Now Brynn felt like the biggest party pooper of all time.

  “Right, of course,” she said dully. The beauty of her surroundings. Ha! All she’d been distracted by was the itching on the back of her neck and the earliest signs of pre-lunch hunger pangs.

  Sigh.

  She was beginning to suspect that she really wasn’t cut out for any sort of Outdoor Adventure.

  Clearly, she wasn’t the only one who thought as much. Hailey was still staring at her in total disbelief.

  “Seriously, Brynn,” she was saying. “You’d think that you were the one with the acting genes in your family. Try taking it down a notch—for the rest of our sakes.”

  Satisfied that she’d spread enough nastiness for the moment, Hailey turned on one heel and trotted off to catch up with her friends who were farther ahead, leaving Brynn dumbfounded.

  “Do you have acting genes in your family?” Anika asked, much calmer and friendlier now that it was clear that Brynn was still in one piece.

  “No,” Brynn said, shaking her head in wonder. “Not me.” Hailey’s words echoed in her head.

  You’d think that you were the one with the acting genes in your family.

  But she wasn’t.

  Natalie was the one with the acting genes in her family, of course. Natalie was the one with the famous father. Not Brynn.

  But Natalie had been keeping the information about her father a secret. She’d wanted to get to know the people at Walla Walla without having to wonder if they were only interested in her because her father was Tad Maxwell.

  But Hailey seemed to know something. Which meant that now Brynn had to wonder—was Natalie’s secret out? And if so, who had let the cat out of the bag?

  Had Hailey found out about Tad Maxwell while playing Assassin? Had someone else found out and spread the rumor around?

  Did everyone know?

  Brynn was worried. She knew Natalie would be totally upset to know that rumors were going around about how her father was famous. Brynn crossed her fingers and hoped that, for Natalie’s sake, she’d somehow misunderstood what Hailey was getting at.

  Although—she had to admit—it didn’t seem likely. Unfortunately.

  After an agonizing hike up to the lake, and a night spent sleeping on dirt, Priya was pleasantly surprised to find that—who knew?—she actually kind of liked fishing.

  The experience was unexpectedly zen, from the methodical procedure for baiting the line (she made Jordan—whom she had borrowed from Brynn for the afternoon—deal with the worm, of course, which just seemed fair. Boys liked worms and things, right?) and sending it out into the water, to the ripples that fanned out in the line’s wake. In the early afternoon, the sun was bright but not unbearable, and a breeze came off of the surface of the lake, tickling Priya’s shoulders. She hunkered down on a cluster of rocks, appreciating the chance to give her burning leg muscles a rest.

  Mind you, she still had no idea what she would do if she actually caught anything—she’d probably just get Jordan to throw it back—but for now, she was perfectly content.

  “This could be worse,” she admitted, turning to Jordan with a smile.

  “That’s because you got me to do your dirty work,” he reminded her. He tugged lightly at his line and watched his lure bob up and down for a beat or two.

  “Yeah,” she agreed, “but you’re a boy. You like grossness like worms and other creepy crawly things.”

  He laughed. “Fair enough. But you owe me.”

  “I can live with that. The next time you need help with something girly and non-creepy-crawly, I’m there for ya.” Her stomach rumbled briefly, disrupting her train of thought. “I’m hungry. What do you think is for lunch?”

  He tilted his head in the direction of the lake. “Well, what have you caught?”

  Priya made a face. “No. No way am I eating a fish that we caught ourselves. I mean, I like sushi as much as anyone, but the worms and the bait were bad enough. I refuse to clean a fish or anything like that.”

  Jordan shrugged. “I think it’d be cool to eat something we caught ourselves. But I hear you. And I’m not sure that Tucker would want us to be fooling around with knives and whatever else it takes to filet something.”

  “Good,” Priya said with finality. “Maybe we’ll get some PB&J or something, then.”

  “This is an Outdoor Adventure Weekend,” Jordan teased her. “You are not being very ad—”

  He was cut off suddenly by the sound of cheering. Priya tilted her body, craning her neck over her shoulder and trying to see what was going on.

  It was Sarah, waving two spoons in the air. “These were in one of the tackle boxes,” she called out. “Whose are they? You’re out.” She rolled her eyes. “Seriously guys—the tackled boxes? While we’re fishing? How did you think that you weren’t going to get caught?”

  Molly and Caitlyn, two girls from Sarah’s bunk, stepped forward, looking abashed. “It was ours,” Molly said. “We teamed up to come up with a good hiding spot,” Caitlyn added.

  Sarah snickered. “And this was your big idea?”

  Molly nodded. “We thought it was Tucker’s box. So that he’d be the only one looking in it.”

  “You thought wrong,” Sarah trilled. She looked around, surveying the group. “Looks like I inherit your targets.” She folded her arms across her chest with satisfaction. “Looks like I’m kicking tail in this game.”

  It sure does look that way, Priya thought, turning back to her holding pattern with the fishing reel now that the drama had died down a little bit. Sarah was definitely rushing full steam ahead in this game. The girls even suspected that she’d planted a spoon on Chelsea in an effort to cheat the other day, even though Chelsea had begged off and refused to discuss the matter.

  Priya had no idea why this was all so important to Sarah.

  Then again, there were a lot of things about Sarah that Priya—and the others—really didn’t know anymore.

  chapter TEN

  “Sloan, did you bring your tarot cards?”

  Sloan looked up from the charred marshmallow that she’d been contemplating to find Chelsea regarding her hopefully. She swallowed the last bite of sticky-sweet goodness and licked her fingertips clean. “Sorry, nope. I was trying to pack light.” Seeing as how they were expected to carry their packs all on their own and everything. As much as she loved doing tarot readings, the deck just didn’t seem like a “must.”

  “Pfft.” Chelsea blew a raspberry, visibly disappointed. “Nat doesn’t have any magazines, either. What are we going to do?”

  The campers were all huddled around a massive fire pit that Tucker, Jackson, and Anika had built, relaxing after a feast of hot dogs, chips, soda, and, of course, roasted marshmallows. The pig-out session was seriously welcome after such a long and high-octane day. Sloan was feeling full, sleepy, and satisfied. But she had to admit that magazines, cards, or some other form of enterta
inment would have been a welcome cap to the evening.

  She tilted her head back and took in the star studded sky. It reminded her of a trip she’d once taken to a planetarium when she was younger. The lights had gone out, and the domed ceiling had exploded in pinpricks of glitter. It was nothing like the sky she saw when she went to bed at night back home, in the suburbs. This sky looked just like that. She didn’t know nature could be so . . . vivid. She felt like she could see each and every individual star hovering above, winking directly at her.

  She winked back and popped another marshmallow on her stick.

  Maybe there were some upsides to Outdoor CORE, after all.

  “Um, we could do palm readings,” she suggested, having a sudden wave of inspiration. Palm readings didn’t require any extra equipment or anything like that.

  “Oooh, fun!” Natalie exclaimed. She scooted closer to where Sloan sat and thrust her palm out in front of Sloan’s face. “Me first!”

  The rest of the girls gathered around eagerly. Even Sarah’s tentmates edged closer, although reluctantly and feigning nonchalance.

  “Where did you learn how to read palms?” Joanna asked, not looking at Avery as she moved in toward the group.

  Not that Avery would have noticed, anyway. From the corner of her eye, Sloan could see her pelting Jackson with marshmallows. For his part, Jackson appeared to be trying very hard to be good-natured about the marshmallow attack.

  Better him than any of the girls. The only thing more annoying than a nasty Avery, it seemed, was a hyper, playful Avery.

  Ugh. Pass. Sloan didn’t want that.

  “My aunt in New Mexico is a psychic healer,” Sloan explained, ignoring Avery’s giggle. “She’s taught me lots of stuff. I can do tarot, palm reading, zodiac charts, auras . . .”

  “She’s basically a New Age one-stop shop,” Natalie quipped. She wiggled her fingers in front of Sloan’s face again. “So come on—tell, tell, tell!”

  Sloan chuckled and lifted Natalie’s palm closer to her face. She studied each line, every crease, thinking hard as she watched shadows from the fire dance their way across the surface of Nat’s skin.

  “Ooh, look at that,” she said. “Your love line is thick. It’s very strong!”

  “Really?” Natalie squealed, stealing a glance over toward where Reed was goofing off with David, Jordan, and some of the other boys.

  “Really,” Sloan said. “Except—I think it’s a guy back home.”

  Natalie looked alarmed.

  “It’s just—I see the New York City skyline, you know? Here.” She pointed to the fleshy curve just underneath Natalie’s thumb. “And there’s . . . ooh, fanciness!”

  Natalie’s eyebrow arched, as Sloan knew it would. Natalie may not have liked the news that she and Reed weren’t necessarily True Love Forever, but she did love an excuse to get fancy.

  “Maybe it’s a school formal?” Sloan suggested. “And you’re going to get all done up? Oh—I know! You can wear your Oscar dress!” She was referring to the spectacular gown that Natalie had worn when her father had taken her to the Oscars last year, of course.

  Avery’s ears perked up, and she abandoned her marshmallows. She didn’t waste a second to pounce. She sneered. “Oscar dress? Is that, like, your dorky nickname for your good clothes? Please.” Now she full-on snorted. “You should talk to Sarah about Oscar dresses. Her father took her to the ceremonies last year. So she would know all of the fashion dos and don’ts.”

  Sloan’s jaw dropped open, and Natalie’s arm fell limply at her side. The girls exchanged stunned glances. What had Sarah been telling all of her friends from Walla Walla?

  Suddenly Sloan understood why Hailey had made that weird comment to Brynn about having dramatic genes in the family, and why Joanna had talked about Sarah’s secret. All at once, everything fell into place.

  Sarah’s secret was Natalie’s secret.

  Sloan had no idea why, but obviously, when Sarah first arrived at Camp Walla Walla, she’d lied to all of the other campers and told them that her father was a famous movie star. She’d basically stolen Natalie’s life story and tried to pass it off as her own.

  Sloan was shocked. Why would anyone do something like that? She couldn’t possibly have thought that she would be able to keep people from uncovering her lies. Or that Natalie would ever forgive her for something like this.

  Maybe Sarah thought that was the only way to impress people, the only way she could make new friends. According to Natalie and Jenna, she’d always been a little bit shy and insecure, after all.

  But Sloan couldn’t feel too sorry for Sarah; not only had she lied to them all, but she’d pushed the Lakeview girls away ever since they first arrived at camp!

  Of course, now Sloan understood why Sarah couldn’t be friends with them anymore—if Avery, Joanna, or any of Sarah’s new friends got to know Natalie and the rest of them, they’d figure out Sarah’s lies. Which would leave Sarah back at square one—or worse.

  No wonder Sarah was playing Assassin so aggressively—she didn’t want the Walla Walla girls getting closer to the Lakeview girls, or vice versa.

  Sarah had basically painted herself into a corner. It would have been sad, if she hadn’t sold her old friends out in the process.

  Sloan caught Natalie’s eye and realized right away that Nat had put two and two together, as well. They both glanced at Sarah to find her shooting them a pleading look. Sloan understood immediately that Sarah was begging them not to give her away.

  Sloan sighed. Fine, she thought, I won’t say anything. It was a weird situation, and the last thing she needed was to get caught in the middle of it. Not to mention, she had no good reason to make things rough for Sarah, even though Sarah certainly hadn’t gone easy on any of them.

  It wasn’t Sarah’s secret, anyway; it was Natalie’s. And Natalie wanted to keep it that way. So maybe it was better just to let Sarah’s friends believe her wild stories, for now. It was Natalie’s choice, in any case.

  Thoughts flew through Sloan’s mind at the speed of sound. She was more than ready to curl up in her sleeping bag and call it a night. She had no idea what to make of any of this new information. The only thing that she—and her friends—could be sure of now was that Sarah was not to be trusted.

  Natalie was dreaming. She knew it was a dream, because in it she was at the Oscars, watching from the bleachers as Sarah walked down the red carpet on the arm of Tad Maxwell, Natalie’s father, not Sarah’s, wearing the dress that Natalie had rocked when she had gone to the Oscars in real life.

  Flashbulbs popped and Sarah waved and struck pose after pose as Tad smiled at her and looked on approvingly.

  No! Natalie wanted to scream. This isn’t happening!

  No matter how much Sarah wishes it were.

  She woke with a start to realize that someone was screaming. In real life. Loudly.

  She sat up in her sleeping bag, awake at once. Bloodcurdling shrieks in the dead of night had a tendency to do that to a person. “What’s going on?”

  “No idea,” Jenna said, eyes darting back and forth and clearly trying to adjust to the light. “Someone’s losing it.”

  “Thanks, oh brilliant detective,” Nat said sarcastically.

  “It’s coming from the direction of the boys’ sleeping bags,” Jenna said.

  Natalie’s eyes flew open. “It’s coming from Reed’s sleeping bag!” she realized, rushing over to see what was wrong.

  She wasn’t the first to arrive, however. When she got there, David was holding a small green snake and trying—unsuccessfully—to calm Reed down.

  “It’s just a garter snake,” David said, speaking in low, even tones. “Tucker pointed out a bunch of them while we made our way to the campsite this afternoon. They’re totally harmless.”

  “Not when they creep into your sleeping bag while you’re asleep!” Reed shuddered. “Ugh, I can’t even look at it.”

  Natalie patted him on the shoulder. “It’s pretty gross,” she agre
ed. The idea of waking up to a snake inside her sleeping bag did not appeal.

  Inside, however, she had to wonder if maybe Reed was overreacting just a little bit. Not that she wouldn’t have been completely freaked out to wake up to find a snake in her sleeping bag, but Reed was . . . a boy. And as much as Nat was all about girl power, she did somewhere, in the very back of her mind, think that boys were supposed to be men about things like snakes and other ickiness.

  Like how Jordan had baited Priya’s line for her while fishing that afternoon. Jordan didn’t strike Natalie as the type of guy to lose it if he came across a slithery reptile by surprise.

  Which, in turn, made Natalie wonder just what her “type” of guy really was.

  She was starting to think that maybe Reed wasn’t “the one.”

  She gave Reed a quick hug and went back to her own sleeping bag, hoping she’d be able to fall back asleep. It had been a long day, and she knew they would need their rest for the hike back the next morning.

  As she settled back in, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She looked up to find Avery hovering over her, looking smug.

  “I guess your boyfriend’s not so tough, huh?” Avery asked. Her mouth turned up at the corners, making her look especially mean.

  I guess your friend Sarah isn’t . . . Natalie didn’t even allow herself to finish that thought—there was no point in getting herself all riled up about the Sarah situation, especially since there was nothing she could do about it without outing her secret in the process.

  “I like sensitive guys,” Natalie said, turning her attention back to the here and now. She glared at Avery, annoyed that the girl had managed to pick up on a truth that Natalie herself was trying to avoid.

  “Uh-huh. Sure you do,” Avery said. She stalked off.

  Natalie curled back up into her sleeping bag, zipping it closed up to her neck. She closed her eyes and thought about what Avery had said.