Devon laughed. “Yeah, it would be hard to argue with that.”
“Let’s go play the water-ski game,” Adam said. “I’m better at that one.” The boys took off toward the interactive games. Devon hesitated for a moment. “Did you know I got a role as one of the Lost Boys?” he asked.
“Yeah, congratulations,” Grace said. “I knew you’d get a part. Your audition was amazing.”
“Not as amazing as yours. You have real talent,” he said seriously. “But now that we’re both in the play, maybe we can run lines together to practice.”
Grace felt a strange little tingle move up the back of her neck. “Sure. That would be fun.”
“Cool.” Devon gave her a little wave as he walked off after his friends. Grace realized that she was still grinning stupidly, but somehow she couldn’t make herself stop.
“You were right about that Loch Ness game, Grace,” Alyssa said as Natalie collapsed into a fit of giggles. “It was fun.”
“Fun to watch you flirt with Devon!” Natalie crowed.
“Just because Devon and I are friends doesn’t mean I like him,” Grace said.
“Yeah, right,” Natalie replied.
“It doesn’t,” Grace insisted. “We’re just going to practice for the play together. That’s all.”
They both smirked at her, and she couldn’t blame them. As much as she hated to admit it, she kind of had a crush on Devon. “Okay, we believe you,” Alyssa told her, obviously lying.
“Good,” Grace said. “Because I don’t like boys. It is a cute Nessie, though.”
“You guys had Grace for the whole time at the arcade,” Valerie said. She grabbed Grace’s arm as soon as they all got out into the parking lot where the bus was. “Sarah and I get her for the ride home.”
Natalie pouted. “She was supposed to sit with us on the way there and she didn’t. I think we should get her now.”
“Ladies, ladies, there’s enough of me to go around,” Grace joked. “Let’s just sit right across from one another. That way we all can still talk.”
“We’ll sit in front of you,” Jenna added, following them. “Our whole bunk should sit together.”
“Yeah, then Grace and I can practice our scenes for you on the way,” Brynn suggested. She was playing a Lost Boy in the play, and Grace was grateful that Brynn didn’t seem to be mad at her for getting a bigger part.
With everyone laughing and talking—except Chelsea, who was grumpy because she’d gotten a sunburn—they made their way to the big field-trip bus. Just as Grace was about to climb the tall steps, Gaby walked up next to her and gave her a little shove to push her out of the way.
“Hey!” Grace yelped. “You almost knocked me over!”
“Oh, sorry.” Gaby sneered at her. “I guess I’m not supposed to touch you now that you’re such a big star.”
“You’re not supposed to push anyone out of the way whether they’re a big star or not,” Brynn snapped, stepping up to defend Grace.
“What do you care?” Gaby said. “She stole the part you wanted!”
“She won the part fair and square,” Brynn said. “That’s part of being an actor, so I have to learn to deal with it. I’m not going to hold a grudge against my friend for doing a better audition than me.”
“You wouldn’t understand that, though,” Alex said, coming to Brynn’s side. “You obviously don’t know anything about being a true friend.”
“Yeah, you don’t know anything about it,” Candace put in.
“You’re just a bully,” Chelsea said. “Everybody knows it.”
A few of the girls in 3C exchanged smiles. That was the pot calling the kettle black! But it was nice to have everyone in 3C standing together. They really did work well as a team.
“You’re all losers, anyway,” Gaby said. “I don’t know what I was thinking making friends with someone from your lame bunk.” She scurried into the bus to get away from them.
“Say what you want, it won’t bother us,” Jenna called after her. “We know how cool we are.”
“So cool that we have the two best actresses in the third division,” Alyssa said.
“And Jenna and Alex, the best athletes,” Natalie added.
“And we’re the scavenger-hunt champs,” Sarah said.
“And we’re totally going to win color war,” Valerie put in.
By now, they were all laughing. “Plus, we’re the smartest, prettiest girls in the entire known universe,” Grace joked. “And we’re extremely modest.”
Grace felt a swell of happiness as her bunkmates all high-fived one another. Why had she thought she needed a friend outside of the bunk? They all climbed into the bus and made their way toward the back seats.
Grace noticed Gaby sitting with Christa near the front. Gaby pointedly looked away when Grace passed.
Oh, well, Grace thought. I guess that’s the end of our friendship. She had lots of problems with Gaby’s behavior, but Grace had a hard time staying mad at people. She’d hoped that they could at least be friendly to each other, even if they weren’t going to be best friends. But Gaby clearly didn’t see it that way.
“Come on, Grace!” Sarah called. “We saved the aisle seat for you.”
Grace hurried back to the group of seats her friends had taken over. “It’s bunk 3C on wheels,” she said. Everyone laughed as she plopped into her seat, letting her stress over Gaby melt away.
Who needed one best friend when you had eleven?
Turn the page for a sneak preview of
camp CONFIDENTIAL
Alex’s Challenge
available now!
chapter ONE
Jenna was addicted to sugar. Sometimes, she had cupcakes. Other times, she passed out Swedish fish. That night, she had the largest quantity of Nerds that Alex had ever seen. The round, little balls of candy were pink and purple. As Jenna passed them around—you had to admit she was awfully generous—some Nerds inevitably went flying. Gnat-sized streaks of unnatural color dashed through the air like Fourth of July sparklers. Alex couldn’t help it; she peeked up to watch the scene, her mouth beginning to water. She loved the sharp, sweet flavor of Nerds in particular. Just as she was going back to writing her letter, a handful of the hard sugar pellets nicked her left cheek.
“Agh!” Alex yelled. Those buggers really hurt.
Some girls started to grumble while others laughed. After six weeks together, everyone knew the grumblers (Chelsea, Karen, and Alyssa) from the goofballs (Jenna, Grace, and Natalie) without even giving it much thought. That’s what had happened at Camp Lakeview every year Alex had been there: The girls would get “thisclose,” and sometimes there was this magical warm and fuzzy feeling between them, like you’d met eleven soul mates. Other times, like during the War of the Nerds, “thisclose” was a catalyst for crankiness.
“Hey, did you get some?” Valerie asked Alex quietly.
“Yeah, they left bruises on my cheek,” Alex answered as usual. “Seriously, though, I don’t want any,” she added. This time, Alex went back to writing her letter for real. She had to concentrate on seeming busy; that way the girls were less likely to pay attention to her. Alex wouldn’t disturb a fly—and she liked herself that way. She was the original get-along girl and never caused commotion. She didn’t even yell at Jenna’s twin brother, Adam, when he snapped her bra strap earlier that day. Except for Brynn, who was her best camp friend, most people didn’t know what made her tick. Maybe Brynn didn’t even know.
“Okay, cool,” Val said. “More for me then.”
“I know you didn’t just hit me in the eye!” Chelsea yelled into the air. Lights-out was in fifteen minutes, but she was always in bed first. She claimed that her face broke out if she didn’t get enough beauty sleep. Chelsea even tried to get the other girls to quiet down early, as if that would’ve ever worked.
“Aye, aye, Captain Chelsea,” Grace mimicked. “You better watch out, or you might lose a tongue, too.”
“Grace, please stop,” Chelsea s
aid.
“Oh, we’re just having fun,” Jenna said. With so many brothers and sisters, she was pretty good at keeping the peace—as long as she wasn’t at war with Adam.
“Well, not to be a party pooper . . .” said Natalie. She was the daughter of the hot movie star Tad Maxwell. Alex had to hand it to Natalie; Natalie wasn’t stuck-up or glamorous or Hollywood at all. (She did love teen magazines, but that was forgivable.) “But I have to sweep the floor tomorrow, and you all are making things more difficult,” Natalie continued.
“Boo!” said Alyssa, Natalie’s best friend. Alyssa, a funky, artsy girl, hurled a few more candies at Chelsea just for fun.
“I said stop it!” Chelsea yelled again. Karen went over to calm Chelsea down, and it was clear they were gossiping about everyone else. Brynn and Grace started talking about the Peter Pan play again, and other girls rolled their eyes. Natalie and Alyssa whispered something to each other, and so did Valerie and Sarah.
Alex just didn’t get it. They were all down about something. Natalie was worried about Simon, who hadn’t come to talk to her during free period that day. Grace complained about her parents, who were making her read The Jungle Book. Chelsea whined that she needed a nose job (she so didn’t—her beak was as cute as a Barbie doll’s). Jenna said that Adam was driving her insane because he kept asking about her bunkmates without telling her which one he was interested in. Brynn didn’t know how on earth she’d memorize all of her lines in time to perfect the voice she would need in order to deliver them.
Alex breathed in deeply, trying not to get teary-eyed. She knew it wasn’t nice of her to be jealous of them, but she was. She would’ve traded any one of their problems—she would even take two or three of their issues at once!—to get rid of her own. She wanted to know what it was like to be stress-free. She would’ve given her athletic ability—all of it—for just one day where she didn’t have to worry, worry, and worry some more. There she was with the girls who knew her best, if anyone knew her at all, and still, Alex felt totally alone.
Chelsea, surprisingly, had risen from bed and walked over to Jenna’s bottom bunk in her pink-feathered night slippers. Who knew what she said to Jenna, but she went back to her bed with a new handful of Nerds.
“You want some, Alex?” Chelsea asked, interrupting Alex who was deep in thought. She hadn’t been concentrating on the letter, but she was a pro when it came to making it look like she was.
Alex tried to be as casual and busy as she could when she answered, “No, thank you.” She started writing on her sheet of paper energetically. She wanted it to look like she was inspired so no one would want to break her train of deep thought. No one would’ve wanted to, either—no one except Chelsea.
“What? Are you watching your weight?” Chelsea said, grabbing the satin sleep mask she wore at night.
“No,” Alex said sharply, fighting that teary-eyed feeling as hard as she could.
“Hey, everyone, maybe we should try to be as slim and trim and perfect as Alex,” Chelsea remarked.
Alex held a death grip on her pen. She poked a hole through her paper with it. She wanted to scream, to rip Chelsea’s pink slippers to shreds. But mostly, she just hoped that no one could tell how flustered she was at that moment.
“No,” Alex said. She had been born with a naturally slender, stereotypically Korean body like her mother’s. The truth was, Alex couldn’t gain weight if she ate every single box of Nerds produced at the Nerd factory. Tired of always being the skinny girl, she had tried everything she could to pack on some pounds. She ate super-sized combo meals, protein shakes, and cheese-oozing Italian foods—her body stayed as tight and fat-free as a hardback book. So a year ago, Alex started working out to build muscles and bulk up that way. To her surprise, she found out she was really good at sports—all sports—but especially soccer and swimming. Being athletic that summer had started building her confidence. Being teased for her pickiness was breaking her down.
“Lights out!” Julie, their counselor, yelled. Alex was thankful to be rescued.
Valerie got out of bed lightning fast to flick off the night lamps. The girls went back to whispering about whatever as Alex cried herself to sleep.
“Final electives!” Julie yelled the next morning. Everyone needed to pick their final free-choice classes for the last two weeks at Camp Lakeview.
Alex huddled with her best friend, Brynn, to make the big decision. Brynn was such a drama queen, and Alex couldn’t have been more opposite. For that reason, their friendship worked. Brynn created action and excitement. Alex loved her for it—Brynn kept Alex from ever getting bored.
“I have to take drama, of course,” Brynn said.
“Is there any chance I could talk you into taking ceramics with me? Pleeeease!” Alex whined. She wished she and her best friend could finally have a class together. After all, there was no way Alex could take drama—she considered herself allergic to the spotlight.
“Just take drama with me,” Brynn said. “I’ll help you! It would be so cool. You never know—you might be a star.”
“No,” Alex answered. “No, no, and no.”
“I love you, Alex, but you can’t ask me to give up my whole entire life for you,” Brynn said, kind of teasing, kind of not teasing.
“Okay, okay,” Alex relented.
The other girls from the best bunk, 3C of course, flocked to Julie’s sign-up clipboard. Julie was always smiling, and everyone loved her. It didn’t even bother her to get bum-rushed. While Alex waited patiently for the mob to clear, she heard Jenna sign up for photography again with her brother Adam. Alex was happy to see they were getting along better again. Jenna’d had a rough spot a few weeks ago when she’d pulled a crazy prank, letting all of the animals free to howl and poop and cry during the camp social. Grace and Brynn signed up for drama and vowed to be partners. Natalie and Alyssa asked to be on the newspaper together, and Val, always the free spirit, signed up for woodworking.
“You just want to be with the boys!” Chelsea teased her.
“I’m not stupid,” she said, flipping her long cornrows into Chelsea’s face. Alex knew that Val was just playing along, though. Val was really good at woodworking whether more boys happened to be in that class or not. She’d already made a cutting board, a lamp, and a carved plaque with an elephant on it that she’d hung on her bunk.
When the coast was clear, Alex made her move.
“Here comes young Mia Hamm,” Julie said, making Alex blush. “So, what’ll it be?”
“Ceramics, please,” she answered. Alex had seen the necklaces some girls had made in the last session. They were these shiny, round beads that hung from a leather strap. Alex knew her mother, an art teacher, would love to have one. She was so excited to be in ceramics that she had saved that class for last.
“Wait, um, Alex,” Julie called a few seconds later. “Could you please do me a favor?”
“Sure, anything,” Alex said. Julie was truly cool. Anyone would do anything for her.
“I see that ceramics is full, and I promised Christa from 3B that she could be in the class because of all the trouble she’s been having with Gaby,” Julie said.
“Um, well,” Alex said, feeling her hopes sink into the hungry part of her stomach. “Okay,” she added. Alex didn’t know how to say no even though she desperately wanted to. She visualized kicking herself for not signing up for ceramics earlier. It’s my own fault, she thought.
“Sweetie, you are the best,” Julie said, hugging her. “I know I can always count on my awesome Mia Hamm.”
Alex smiled widely. She loved making other people happy, especially Julie. She watched as Julie found Christa, a shy girl with few friends, and told her she would be in ceramics. Christa’s eyes and smile were gigantic. Alex was disappointed, but she felt so good about giving up her spot. She had done the right thing; she was sure of it. But then why, at that moment, did she feel so sad?
chapter TWO
When Alex was on the soccer field, there wa
s no Chelsea to antagonize her. There were no free-choice mishaps. There was no Brynn overdramatizing about her drama class. There were no cranky campmates. There was, for once, only Alex. And she was the star.
She had been looking forward to the afternoon because that day, for their usual post-breakfast bunk activity, her mates were taking on their rivals, the girls from 3A. Both bunks had chosen to play soccer. When the announcement was made, Alex felt like she would finally have a good day, and she was right. As usual, she had been chosen as the leader of her 3C team, and that made her feel confident. She wasn’t the fastest runner—Sarah had that strength. She also wasn’t the strongest goalie—Jenna could make that claim. But Alex was the most fearless player. The ball was her pet. Alex could skillfully follow it, volley it, chase it, and kick it as if it were attached to her Diadora soccer cleats. The soccer ball met its match every time Alex took to the field.
But the other team, the girls from bunk 3A, was playing a really good game. Alex wanted to win, and the score was six for her team, eight for the enemies, er, opponents. She started to freak out. Alex would rather lick bugs every day for two weeks than lose a game of soccer. She thought of her favorite childhood book, The Little Engine That Could. She knew it was silly, but that story—one her mother had read to her once a week from nursery school through the first grade—always got her spirits up. She’d tell herself, “I think I can, I think I can,” whenever she got nervous before a test or game or meeting with a teacher. Then during whatever made her nervous, she’d change the words to: “I know I can, I know I can.”
Today, with the other team’s score creeping up, she added another line to the cheerleader in her head. She thought, I know I can. I know we can. I know, I know, I know. She didn’t like to brag or anything—bragging was bad manners according to Alex—but she had to get herself psyched to win three more points and take the game. As the next time-out happened, she took charge—something she’d been doing a lot this summer—and gave the only advice she knew that would help them win.
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