“Ah,” she said, trying to sort out the mixture of feelings that she was experiencing.
“Walla Walla isn’t for everyone,” Ian said tactfully.
Natalie nodded. Inside, though, she couldn’t help but think that Walla Walla may not have been for everyone, but she, at least, was not a quitter. That was for sure. Knowing that she’d been able to pull off something that other people—boy people, even—didn’t have the strength for made her feel totally proud of herself and excited about how the summer was shaking out. Okay, so Walla Walla wasn’t at all what she had expected when she signed up, but she was making the best of it. And doing a darn good job of that, as well.
“I hope the letter answers some of your questions,” Ian said and went off, presumably to locate some of his own campers, or maybe even to pig out on ice cream.
Once Ian had left, Natalie ripped open the envelope and scanned her letter. In it, Reed confirmed exactly what Natalie had suspected—he was not cut out for Walla Walla, but after the way that things had gone down with the two of them the other day, he was too embarrassed to tell her about his plan to leave to her face. Hence, the letter.
Dear Natalie,
By now you must know that I’m on my way back to L.A. I hope you don’t think I’m too lame for leaving, but Outdoor CORE was just too much for me to take.
Even with all of the Outdoor Adventure stuff, I still had a great time with you—you were definitely the best thing about Walla Walla.
I hope you have a good rest of the summer (watch out for spiders in the outhouse!), and I hope you forgive me for not being able to say good-bye to your face. I miss you! Maybe we’ll see each other again in L.A.
I know you’re probably upset about how I was flirting with Brynn, and I don’t blame you. I really have no excuse, except to say just that I’m sorry and you deserved better than that. I hope that we can still be friends.
—Reed
It was a little bit cowardly.
Well, no—it was a lot bit cowardly. But Nat still had to give a guy credit for trying to do the right thing. Even if it was sort of too little, too late.
Way too little, too late.
“Whatcha got?” Brynn asked, sidling up to Natalie and glancing over her shoulder at the letter.
“Reed. He left this for me. When he went back to L.A.” Natalie looked at Brynn. “He’s gone. Can you believe it?”
Brynn scanned Natalie’s face. “Well, at least we know he kept up his beauty regiment while he was here. So he can hold his head high when he steps off that plane,” she cracked. “But, wait—are you okay with this?” she asked, her tone serious.
Natalie was grateful that she had good friends like Brynn, people who truly cared about her feelings.
“Definitely,” Nat said. And she truly meant it. How could she not be okay with Reed’s departure? So what if she didn’t have a boyfriend anymore. What she did have—girl power—was way better than some dumb guy who clearly couldn’t be counted on.
A dumb guy who couldn’t be counted on who trimmed his nose hairs. “It’s better for him. He wasn’t happy, you know? I think at the end of the day, he really wanted to spend the summer back in glamorous Hollywood.”
Sarah knew she was in trouble the moment she heard Natalie mention the word “Hollywood.” Of course, Avery, who’d been feverishly making her way through a pile of whipped cream and sprinkles (just whipped cream and sprinkles, no ice cream—it was kind of weird) had picked up on it. Her hearing was better than bat sonar. Avery immediately grabbed Sarah’s elbow and dragged her over to the other end of the table, where Natalie and Brynn were discussing Reed’s disappearance.
Sarah felt awful. She didn’t know what had gone down between Reed and Natalie, but the last thing that she wanted to do was stir up even more trouble right in the middle of some preexisting drama. But drama, of course, was all Avery ever wanted. And Avery usually got what she wanted.
She just wasn’t sure how and when she’d ended up one of Avery’s top partners in crime.
“Too bad Reed didn’t want to stick around and spend the summer with you,” Avery snapped at Natalie. “But it’s probably for the best. You’re not exactly his type.”
Natalie arched an eyebrow as Sarah cringed inwardly. “Meaning?”
“Meaning he needs someone who understands his Hollywood lifestyle,” Avery said.
By now Sarah was long past the point of cringing. By now, all she wanted was a turbo-eject button that would launch her out of the rec hall and this horrible conversation for good. But this was camp, not a science fiction movie, and therefore, she was stuck right where she was.
Avery turned to Sarah.
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Sarah tried to project her thoughts at Avery, to no avail.
“It’s too bad, Sarah, that Reed didn’t spend more time with you,” Avery said, smirking. “Maybethen he would have found someone who, you know, got him. And the whole L.A. connection thing.”
Sarah’s face was so hot that she thought it might burst into flames. She couldn’t look up, couldn’t risk eye contact with Natalie or Brynn. She could feel their gazes burning a hole in her, could feel them willing her to jump in, to explain this all away. But it was too late for that. Way too late. She didn’t know what to say. There wasn’t anything to say. There wasn’t anything to do.
So Sarah did nothing. Said nothing. And when Avery stalked away from the Lakeview girls, Sarah followed mutely at her heels.
chapter FIFTEEN
Something was different, Chelsea realized.
It was the morning after the ice cream sundae bar, and even though no one looked especially excited to be trudging upslope to calisthenics, there was a buzz, an energy in the air that was totally impossible to ignore.
Luckily, her friend Jenna wasn’t the type to ignore it.
After doing some fact-finding, Jenna slipped subtly into formation next to Chelsea and immediately launched into her stretches and toe-touches.
“Well?” Chelsea whispered impatiently.
“It’s Assassin. It’s almost over,” Jenna explained. “Last night at the sundae bar, MaryEllen Masters called Heather Duffy out for bringing her spoon to the social and eating with it!”
Eating ice cream with your spoon. Huh. It was actually a vaguely genius plan, Chelsea realized. Except, of course, for how it had backfired.
So not so genius after all. She chuckled to herself.
“So how many people are left?” Chelsea asked.
“Just a few. But according to some of the older campers, the game won’t last much more than the night. Once it gets down to this few people, someone makes a mistake and leaves their spoon someplace obvious or out in the open. Everyone’s all sloppy and tired.”
Chelsea found that she actually felt sort of let down by this news. Sure, she’d been out of the game for a while now, but she had still been somewhat swept up in Assassin-fever. For all that Avery was a pain in the butt, the suggestion about the game had been a smart one. It had really brought everyone together, even the Lakeview girls.
“I’m bummed,” Jenna said, echoing Chelsea’s thoughts. “I mean, even though I’ve been captured and everything, it was still kind of neat knowing that the game was going on, and people were being all weird and twitchy and stuff. And, you know, it kind of gave us all permission to snoop around in one another’s things and be sneaky.”
“Always fun,” Chelsea agreed. She definitely wasn’t above being sneaky now and then.
Inside, though, she had to wonder: Was the end of the game really such a bad thing, after all? Some of them had uncovered some not-fabulous things about their so-called friends, hadn’t they? Natalie sure had, when it came to Reed. And if there were any other skeletons tucked away in any closets, Chelsea wondered if they might not be better off staying buried at this point. She didn’t know what would happen if the other girls—the Walla Walla girls—figured out that Sarah had lied to them about who her father was. That was bound to
lead to fireworks—the bad kind of fireworks. And the last thing any of them needed was fireworks.
Hadn’t there already been enough trouble this summer? She sure thought so.
Natalie sighed. Archery was so not her thing.
Not to mention, it was hard. The strings on her bow were set so tightly that her arms had to strain against the tension. She was grunting with exertion and wiping beads of sweat off of her upper lip. All in all, it was not her most glamorous moment.
“Sarah!” Natalie looked up to see that Jonathan, the archery instructor, was beckoning Sarah toward Natalie, who stood at the ready, bow poised. Not surprising, since Sarah was a natural at archery.
“Sarah,” Jonathan called, “can you work with Natalie on her stance, please? I’ve got to set up the targets for next period.”
The deer-in-the-headlights look on Sarah’s face mirrored Natalie’s own internal panic, but she tried not to let it show. She willed herself to be as calm and normal as possible as Sarah ambled over, clearly stiff and uncomfortable.
“Uh, I think the problem is that you’ve got your feet too close together,” Sarah ventured, glancing downward. “They should be farther apart, and the back leg should be straighter—” she stepped around and pressed against the back of Natalie’s knee, gently forcing the leg to lock in place.
“Kind of like a reverse warrior!” Natalie exclaimed, starting to feel like she was maybe getting it.
Sarah looked at her blankly.
“In yoga,” Natalie explained.
“Oh.” Sarah didn’t have much more to say to that.
Sarah watched, awkward and silent, as Natalie fumbled with her bow. Finally, it was too much for Natalie to bear. She put her bow down and turned to Sarah. “I just—I wanted to say to you,” she began, hesitant, “that it’s okay. I mean, about what you told everyone. Like, I know that you told them that your dad was a movie star, like mine is. So that people think that my life is basically yours. I’m not mad or anything.”
Sarah was quiet.
“I guess I can kind of understand why you might have done it, if you were new, and feeling shy and stuff,” Natalie went on, “but don’t you think that if you need to lie to impress people about who you are, then maybe those people aren’t really your friends after all?” She turned to look Sarah directly in the eye, but Sarah wouldn’t meet her gaze.
For a moment, no one said anything. Then Sarah took a deep breath.
“How’s the stance coming?” Jonathan called, looking over to see what the girls were doing.
Quickly, Natalie scampered into place the way that Sarah had shown her. Jonathan flashed them both a thumbs-up. Natalie smiled at Sarah, hoping that maybe she’d come out with whatever had been on the tip of her tongue. But one look at Sarah confirmed that the moment was over. She’d shut down, and definitely wasn’t interested in talking anymore.
Natalie couldn’t believe it. She’d been so understanding, giving Sarah the perfect opening. And still, it wasn’t enough. Sarah wasn’t going to talk.
So that was that, Natalie realized. At least for the foreseeable future.
“Sorry that archery turned out to be kind of a bummer for you,” Jenna said, patting Natalie on the shoulder consolingly. “You have other skills and talents. That’s why we love you.”
“Gee, you’re sweet,” Natalie said, pushing a chicken finger across her plate without enthusiasm. “And here I thought my sole purpose in life was to win the world over with my athletic skills.”
The girls were chowing down after a long day, despite the fact that the dinner option left more than a little bit to be desired. The good news was that tonight was the much-anticipated movie night! Even Jenna, who knew that she was enjoying her time at Walla Walla more than some of her fellow Lakeview girls were, was looking forward to some real-world relaxation. “We’re gonna have fun tonight,” she assured Natalie. “No more thinking about horrible things like sports. What do you think the movie is going to be?”
Natalie shrugged. “That’s the thing about a surprise. I expect to be surprised. I literally have no idea.” She stuck her tongue out at Jenna.
“Ha-ha.” Jenna munched on a carrot stick thoughtfully. “I wonder if it’s going to be something with, like, a summer theme or something. You know? Anyway, David said he and the guys were going to head over to the rec room early to save seats. So we can sit with them if we want.”
“Cool,” Natalie said. “It’s nice that you guys are good with being friends even though the boyfriend-girlfriend thing didn’t work out.”
“Right?” Jenna agreed. “I think we’re just better this way. But what about you? I’m just sorry that Reed turned out to be kind of lame in the end.”
Natalie opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, Avery jumped in. “Please. That’s what you get for going for guys your own age,” she said snidely. “Boys can be so immature. That’s why you have to go for someone older.” She gave them a withering look and returned to picking at her dinner.
Jenna wanted more than anything to jump up on the top of the table and announce to the whole entire camp that Avery had been making a fool of herself chasing after a C.I.T that she had no chance with whatsoever. All of her talk about older guys was just that—talk. She would have done it, too, if it hadn’t been for Natalie shooting her a warning look.
Jenna took a deep breath and counted to ten in her head. Exposing Avery wouldn’t do any good, she knew. Natalie was right. The best thing they could do was just ignore her. What was it that Sloan was always saying, anyway? Oh, yeah—it was that karma had a way of coming back to get you when you least expected it. Which meant that something was probably in store for Avery, and sooner rather than later.
Karma was a boomerang that way.
Jenna couldn’t help herself. Avery hadn’t made any friends of the Lakeview girls. She was just hoping that Avery got her payback. She sure did deserve it.
Sarah couldn’t believe it.
No—seriously. She couldn’t. Believe. It.
She glanced down at the spoon wrapped tightly in her fingers. It was Alton’s spoon, a guy from the Redwood tent, and she’d found it in a pair of old high-topped sneakers that he’d hung from a power line that ran the length of the upslope area. In the right shoe, to be precise. And the only reason that Sarah had even known to look there was because she’d spent days watching Alton walking to and from his tent after activities and meals, and each time, he glanced at the sneakers on his way past. Until finally, she grew suspicious.
It wasn’t easy. She’d had to pull a chair out under the sneakers and locate a stick that was long enough to prod the sneakers from around the wire—smacking herself in the forehead with the shoes in the process, thank you very much, and nearly falling backward off the chair and breaking her neck. But it was worth it. Anything for the game.
She’d won. She was tripping. This was her first year that she’d won Assassin, and she knew that Avery would be psyched (if a little bit jealous, which, Sarah had to admit, was kind of fun to imagine).
Not only that, but she’d manage to keep everything together. Under control. Maybe the Lakeview girls had discovered her horrible secret, but the Walla Walla girls hadn’t.
In fact, the main reason she’d won the game at all was because her own secrets had forced her to stay constantly vigilant and on her toes.
In the end, it had all worked out. Her secrets were still safe.
Sure, okay, fine, maybe things were beyond weird with the Lakeview girls. And it was starting to look unlikely that she and Natalie would ever really be friends again. But those were just the sacrifices that she was going to have to make in order to keep her social standing with Avery and the Walla Walla crew.
Her secrets were still safe. And really, that was all that mattered, wasn’t it?
Sarah felt a twinge of guilt and brushed it aside. She glanced at the bright, neon-orange face of her digital sports watch and realized that movie night was starting any second. She had to g
et to the rec hall. She couldn’t wait to burst in and show everyone the very last spoon. She couldn’t wait to announce that she had won.
She literally couldn’t wait one more second. She flexed her toes, bounced on her heels, and dashed off in the direction of the rec hall to announce her stunning victory.
People were going to go nuts when they found out.
As she drew closer to the rec hall, Sarah could hear the sounds of voices inside, chatter, laughter, and general excitement. Movie night had begun! She was late! She was missing all of the fun!
She quickened her pace, trying to calm her breathing as she made her way to the back door. With any luck, she could slip in without anyone noticing. She’d just have to announce her grand victory later on. The thought made her giddy. Would she be able to contain herself throughout the whole movie? She wasn’t sure.
She pulled the door open and stepped inside.
Unfortunately, as she entered the rec hall, she didn’t realize that rows of folding chairs had been set up in preparation for the movie. Sarah stomped directly into a chair, sending it crashing loudly down the aisle.
The entire room turned to gape at her.
It was only then that Sarah realized what was going on at the front of the room. Or, more specifically, who was at the front of the room.
Tad Maxwell. The Tad Maxwell, Hollywood star. Natalie’s father.
Or, if you listened to what Sarah had told everyone, Sarah’s father.
One look at everyone’s faces told her that her secret was out. Way out. Completely and totally out.
Avery jumped up out of her seat, eyes flashing. “Hey, Sarah!” she called, her voice dripping with menace and anger. “Look at the surprise we have for movie night! Natalie’s father, Tad Maxwell, is letting us screen his new movie before anyone else in the world sees it, as a reward for making it through the Outdoor Adventure Weekend.”
Reunion #21 Page 15