Natalie's Secret #1

by Melissa J Morgan

“So, you’re new, huh?” Natalie prodded as Alyssa shuffled the deck. They had settled in a grassy patch just outside the bunk and were waiting for the last two campers in 3C to arrive. Natalie had a sinking feeling that once they were all present and accounted for, there’d be icebreakers and more rounds of endless introductions. She was thankful to have a few moments, at least, outside and away from the chaos.

  “Uh-huh,” Alyssa nodded. “For the past two summers, I’ve been doing these drawing classes at a college in Middletown—that’s right near where I live.”

  “In Pennsylvania?” Natalie asked.

  “Nope, it’s Jersey. Way in the south. Anyway, there’s nothing special about the school, but, you know, I like to draw, so that was a pretty cool way to spend the summer.”

  “Why’d you come here?” Natalie wanted to know. Alyssa didn’t seem like any more of a camp person than Natalie was.

  Alyssa made a face and pushed her long dark hair off her shoulders. “You know. Parents. They decided I need to be more ‘social.’” She made air quotes with her fingers and wrinkled her nose.

  Natalie laughed. “I know what you mean. My mother told me that camp would help me build character. I told her I already have enough character.”

  “Totally. And you know”—Alyssa paused conspiratorially—“I bet Alex has enough character for the three of us combined.” She winked to take the edge off her words. “Anyway, my mother wouldn’t budge. I even tried to sic my dad on her, but he wasn’t biting.” Alyssa dealt the cards out. “What about yours?”

  “What about my what?” Natalie asked, pretending not to get the question. She wasn’t prepared to talk about her father just yet.

  “Your dad,” Alyssa said slowly, as though Natalie were a five-year-old. “Did he think you need more character, too?”

  Natalie shrugged. “My dad’s not really in the picture,” she said simply, hoping that Alyssa would let the subject drop.

  Alyssa flipped over the first card of the deck. “Ace of spades.” She raised an eyebrow in Natalie’s direction.

  If she was wondering about Natalie’s father, she didn’t ask.

  “My name is Grace, and I like gummy bears,” Grace said, giggling. She gestured to the girl sitting beside her, Indian-style. “This is Chelsea and she likes cheesy music, and that’s Alyssa and she likes art class. And Candace likes card games and Jenna likes jewelry.” She paused, frowning in concentration. “Alex likes athletics.” She exhaled.

  Natalie and Alyssa hadn’t gotten very far in their game before they had been called back in. The last two girls had arrived and it was time to do the “get-to-know-one-another” thing before dinner. Natalie’s suspicion about icebreakers had turned out to be dead-on, and now she and her bunkmates were seated on the floor of the bunk, each offering one piece of information about herself and then forced to recite the names and details provided by the others before her. Based on where in the circle the game had begun, Natalie counted that she would be responsible for remembering every girl but two.

  Natalie had a terrible memory.

  “I’m Brynn,” said the girl seated to Grace’s left. Brynn had very short, very dark red hair and very pale skin. Her eyes were a bright, twinkly green. She had been one of the last two girls to show up, and it turned out she was best friends with Alex. They had even requested to bunk together, and they’d been inseparable since Brynn had arrived. Well, nearly inseparable, anyway—at least they weren’t sitting next to each other in the circle.

  Brynn had a very loud voice for such a small girl. She wanted to be an actress, she explained, and was planning to spend most of her summer in the drama shack. Natalie had to admit that Brynn seemed very dramatic, so maybe that was a good thing. “I’m Brynn and I like Broadway shows. Grace likes gummy bears—so do I, Grace”—she beamed—“and Chelsea likes cheesy music and Alyssa likes art class and Jenna likes jewelry. Candace likes card games. And Alex likes athletics,” Brynn said, flashing a blinding grin at her friend.

  The bunk erupted in applause. Brynn hadn’t faltered on a single name or detail. Even Natalie had to admit that she was slightly impressed. She took a moment to survey the circle of strange faces once more. In addition to the names that Brynn had just rattled off, she had also met Sarah, a friend of Alex and Brynn’s and another big-time jock who was very into running (Natalie couldn’t understand why anyone would be into running. What was the rush, anyway?), Karen, of course, the strange and youngish girl who’d been there all morning and had arrived with a collection of stuffed animals so large that it almost concerned Natalie, and Valerie, whose dark skin and cornrows reminded Natalie of Hannah from back home. Finally, there was Jessica, who wore her long, light brown hair in a sloppy bun on the top of her head and refused to answer to anything other than “Jessie.”

  The circle grew quiet, and Natalie realized that everyone was looking at her. Right, my turn. She took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “My name is Natalie and I like . . . new experiences,” she said, cringing inwardly at how corny the words sounded coming from her lips. Apparently, it was the right thing to say, though, because Alyssa was giving her a sly grin and Julie was smiling away, full of encouragement.

  Anyway, maybe if she tried hard enough, she could make herself believe it was true.

  “Guys! We have extra hot dogs! I repeat, we have extra hot dogs!”

  Natalie couldn’t help but laugh to hear Pete shouting to be heard over the noise. Good luck, she thought. The entire camp had turned out for the cookout that evening, and campers were seated in clusters across the lawn, breaking off into countless individual conversations. Seeing everyone seated and enthusiastically eating, Natalie felt overwhelmed all over again. There were more campers at Lakeview than there were students in her entire school! Suddenly, Natalie was wondering if she was as social of a person as she had originally thought.

  No, don’t think that way, she scolded herself. You’re just freaking out because everything is strange and new. But it won’t be this way forever. What would Hannah say if she could talk to you? She knew what Hannah would say: “Chill out, girl—like it or not, you’re at camp for the summer, so you may as well relax and make the best of it.” Hannah was totally practical and levelheaded that way. It was so annoying.

  And anyway, it wasn’t as though Natalie was off in a corner by herself. She and Alyssa had squatted down in a circle with the rest of bunk 3C. Alex and Jenna were big on bunk unity. It was easy to see why they would both be favorites of any counselor.

  Natalie felt a finger in her ribs and turned to find Alyssa poking her. “Sure you don’t want another hot dog?” The corners of her mouth were turned up in an impish grin.

  “Ugh, I don’t even want to think about what the first one did to me,” Natalie protested. “There must be something wrong with them. You were smart to stick to the side salads.” She waved her paper plate in the direction of a group of boys who had jumped up and made a mad dash for the barbecue pit the minute Pete announced second helpings.

  “Oh, my brother and his friends’ll eat anything,” Jenna said. “It’s so gross.”

  “Which one’s your brother?” Natalie asked.

  “Well, the one who’s standing on line like he hasn’t eaten in weeks—so not true, by the way—is Adam. He’s my twin and he’s in 3F. So you’ll meet him when we have electives and stuff. My sister Stephanie is a CIT. She’s good friends with Marissa so you’ll meet her soon, I’m sure.”

  “Oh, we have electives with the boys?” Natalie asked. Suddenly, camp was sounding just a little more interesting.

  Jenna shuddered. “Unfortunately. For most of the day, you travel with your bunk to different activities, but twice a day you get to go to your electives, and those are a mix of everyone in our age division. Oh, and they have swim sessions and meals with us, too. We’re gonna have to stick together if we want to avoid getting splashed. Although,” Jenna leaned in, a mischievous look on her face, “I’m usually pretty good at pulling pranks on them and stuff.
They never know what hit ’em.”

  Natalie nodded. “Good to know.” At this point, she was more interested in scoping out the boys than in playing pranks on them. Was that going to be just one more thing that set her apart from her bunkmates? She pushed herself up from the ground and dusted any stray grass off her legs. Nature was turning out to be very . . . well, messy. “I’m gonna toss my trash. Does anyone have anything for me to throw out?” she offered. Jenna and Alyssa shook their heads no.

  Natalie fought her way through a swarm of nasty-looking insects and gingerly tossed her plate and utensils into the garbage can. A bit of mayonnaise splashed up onto her arm, making her a prime target of the insects’ interest. “Oh, ick,” she grumbled, and wandered toward the barbecue table to grab a napkin to clean herself up.

  “Look, he said there are a ton of hot dogs left.”

  “But, um, I still have my hamburger, Chelsea.”

  Natalie turned to see Chelsea and Karen standing next to the barbecue table, apparently in the midst of some serious negotiations. It was plain to see that Karen definitely did have an entire hamburger sitting untouched on her plate. Which Chelsea definitely had designs on. Natalie watched the exchange with curiosity.

  “Come on, Karen, I’m starving. And I’m allergic to hot dogs. Don’t you want to do me a favor?” Chelsea pressed.

  “Well, but . . . I mean . . . how can you be allergic to hot dogs? Or, I mean, if you’re allergic to hot dogs, then wouldn’t you also be allergic to hamburgers?”

  “Well, okay,” Chelsea said, quickly backtracking, “I’m not exactly allergic. But it’s, like, I really don’t like them and they really make me sick. Ever since I was little. Anyway,” she continued, “my mother is going to send me up a care package next week, and I can totally hook you up. I mean, wouldn’t you want a pack of Twizzlers or something? That’s fair, right?”

  Karen looked unconvinced, but she was obviously afraid to stand up to Chelsea. “Um, I guess,” she said. “Yeah, fine.” She pushed her plate at Chelsea and walked away, her head down.

  “Wait a minute!” Chelsea called after her, smiling like the cat that had swallowed the canary. “Don’t you even want to get a hot dog?”

  Karen rushed off, not bothering to answer. Natalie observed the entire exchange silently, thinking. She didn’t like what she had just seen. Was Chelsea some kind of bully?

  “Where’d you go? We thought you’d, like, fallen into the garbage can or something,” Grace teased when Natalie had made her way back to the bunk. “Or were you having a little last-minute hot-dog-eating contest?”

  Before Natalie could answer, she was interrupted by the sound of hoots, whistles, and feet stamping on the ground. She glanced over and saw that Alex and Jenna were the cause of the commotion. They were hissing and booing at a group of girls walking by.

  “What’s the sitch?” Natalie asked, turning to Grace, who had also joined in on the shrieking and hollering.

  “It’s bunk 3A,” Grace explained between whistles. “They’re our rivals.”

  “Based on what?” Natalie asked.

  “Oh, gosh, I don’t even remember anymore. They’ve played all kinds of jokes on us over the last few summers. Somehow, it just developed. I mean, it’s all in good fun. You’ll see—just don’t leave your toothbrush out at night, is all I’m saying,” she warned.

  Natalie didn’t like the sound of that one bit. All in good fun? Really? she wondered.

  When was the fun going to start, then?

  chapter FOUR

  Within five minutes of first waking up, Natalie immediately noticed two things. The first was that it was about thirty degrees below zero in the bunk, and her cute little sleep shorts were really not doing the trick of keeping her warm. She remembered that Julie had tried to warn her the night before of how cold it could get in the mountains, but for some reason, she hadn’t let herself believe it. Note to self, she thought, thrusting her hands underneath the covers and rubbing them vigorously across her bare legs in the hopes of warming them up, for future reference: Julie knows stuff.

  The second thing Natalie noticed—and this was going to be an even bigger problem, she decided—was the horrible trumpet blaring through the open windows. We couldn’t have just set an alarm clock? she wondered.

  Okay, so she wasn’t a morning person.

  From across the room, someone groaned. “For Pete’s sake, please make that noise stop!” It was Grace. She clearly wasn’t a morning person, either.

  “What time is it, even?” Natalie demanded. She had worn her cute pink waterproof sports watch to bed (at last, she’d finally have a chance to make use of all of its “outdoor” settings), but she had no intention of taking her hands out from underneath her blanket to check.

  “It’s quarter of,” Julie said brightly, bouncing across the room. She looked as freshly scrubbed and perky as ever. Natalie suspected she even looked that way in her sleep.

  “Quarter of what?” Natalie pressed. “I don’t believe in getting up before the sevens.”

  “Well, my dear, I’m sorry to have to break it to you, but if that’s the case, then you’re going to have to stay in bed for another fifteen minutes. But that would only leave you fifteen minutes to get dressed. Your call.”

  Natalie flew up in bed. “We have half an hour to be ready for breakfast?”

  She looked around the bunk. To every side she could see girls rummaging through their cubbies in various stages of dress. Karen was sitting on the edge of her bed holding a sock up in front of her face, looking confused.

  “But, Julie,” Natalie said, careful to keep the edge she was feeling from creeping into her tone, “it takes me at least twenty minutes to shower.”

  “Well, then you’d better hurry, Natalie. And tomorrow morning, you’ll just have to try to get up before the bugle. Does your watch have an alarm?” Julie asked. She didn’t sound unsympathetic, just matter-of-fact. But that didn’t make Natalie feel any better.

  “Well, I guess I can rush,” Natalie said. “Whatever. I can do makeup when we get back from breakfast.”

  “I’m sorry, Nat, but after breakfast we really only have a half an hour or so, and that’s for our bunk chores,” Julie said. “But you don’t need makeup to look gorgeous!”

  Speak for yourself, Natalie thought glumly, hoisting herself reluctantly out of bed, stepping into her flip-flops, and padding off into the bathroom.

  As she shuffled into a shower stall, she was nearly mowed over by Alex, who was running a comb through her wet hair. Of course, Natalie thought. It only fit that Alex had woken up on time to shower. She was, like, Supercamper.

  Natalie stepped into a stall and turned the hot water on full blast. She ducked under the stream—and let out a startled shriek.

  “What is it?” Julie asked, rushing in.

  “It’s FREEZING!” Natalie shouted. The water was about as cold as the morning air in the bunk had been. Also, a huge clump of wiry hair was poking its way out of the drain. Gross.

  “Sorry,” said a voice from the direction of the sinks. “I might have used up the hot water.” It was Chelsea.

  “Are you allergic to cold water?” Natalie mumbled sarcastically, surprising herself. She hadn’t meant to be nasty, it had just slipped out.

  “Did you say something?” Chelsea asked.

  “No, I didn’t say anything,” Natalie replied quickly, covering. “I didn’t say anything at all.”

  She ducked back underneath the cold water, resigned to her fate for this morning, at least.

  If Marissa had been around in the morning, she probably would have been able to give Natalie some “quick tips to getting gorgeous FAST.” After all, she had about a million magazines strewn on top of her bed, and that was the gist of most of the headlines Natalie had seen. But Marissa was long gone by the time the girls of 3C had woken up. Julie explained that it was because as a CIT, Marissa had to work as a waitress in the mess hall. So she had to get there early to set up for the morning m
eal.