by Rock, J. K.
She stalked away before I could explain that even though I’d been surrounded by ‘friends’ and a boyfriend at those parties and pep rallies, I’d always felt alone. Kind of like now.
Alex joined Trinity and Piper as they draped a daisy chain around the front door of their lean-to. Apparently Piper had won the battle for the place. Across a leaf-covered path, Siobhan picked Silly String off Jackie, who had obviously gotten a taste of her own medicine after settling the dispute. Siobhan was laughing, using the purple goo to shape a necklace and matching bracelet.
Everyone was having fun except me. Even Emily was happily distracted from her ongoing war with Rob. She stood between the girls’ huts and the boys’ shelters with Bam-Bam, the two of them looking cozy. She’d chosen the clever outdoorsman over the hot jock, even though every other Juniper Point female thought Rob was gorgeous. Maybe she knew better than to get tangled up with a guy all the girls wanted.
A sharp whistle cut through the chatter and laughter. I turned to see Rob jogging past Emily, flexing his muscles in a not-so-subtle display. He cupped his hands to his mouth now that he had everyone’s attention.
“Cliff diving!” he shouted. “Anyone who wants to jump, follow me!”
A chorus of cheers answered him as a handful of boys and a couple of girls raced toward the shore. The terrain was high on one side, providing a perfect spot for cliff jumping. Not that I’d try it. Way too scary. Besides, I was too unsettled by Alex’s comments. Did the whole camp think Matt stayed with me for sex?
God. Was that what Seth thought, too? He hadn’t said anything, but knowing him, he wouldn’t.
When I had sex it would be with someone who loved the real me and was in it for the long haul. Matt knew the cheerleader better than the astronomer, and Seth called our relationship quits at the end of every summer. Neither one had what I needed for such a big step. Feet dragging, I followed Piper and Trinity toward the water’s edge. The rest of the campers would play games down by the shore. I noticed Hannah walking down toward the shoreline too. She must have gone to the boys’ shelters first, because she matched her pace to Matt’s. He’d changed into dry clothes, his gray T-shirt tight around his wide shoulders. Hannah ate him up with her eyes while her long auburn braid swung in time to her steps.
Jealousy rose up and bit me. I felt an ugliness that I wouldn’t have dreamed of feeling until Alex had stirred the beast inside me. What if Matt was staying at camp for more reasons than just me?
What if Hannah was one of them?
Just then, Alex and Vijay jogged past, chasing each other around the trees and sneaking kisses while the counselors were preoccupied. When they got around me, they slowed down and held hands the rest of the way to the beach.
“You got a great hut,” a voice beside me said suddenly. Kayla and Brittany joined me. They were wearing matching pink T-shirts that said Divas’ Den BFFs on them in purple.
Somehow, the sight of the T-shirts brought to mind Alex’s dig about not lying to someone who kept every Friends Forever bracelet.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It was a miracle we got to the island first this year.”
“We heard Emily wanted to show off for Rob,” Brittany volunteered. “Is that true? It looks like she’s trying to make him jealous now.” She pointed to the beach where Emily had stolen Bam-Bam’s fishing hat and wore it on her head while dragging wood into the fire pit.
“I have no idea what anyone’s thinking anymore,” I answered, too tired to play the games necessary to keep a social life afloat.
This was camp, damn it. I just wanted to sing a song and eat a freaking marshmallow. Was that so much to ask? Besides, I hated gossip and I wasn’t going to start it. I’d been bitten in the butt by it myself with this new rumor about Matt’s sex life.
“So true,” Kayla agreed, surprising me. “Take the dance, for example. I had no idea that Hannah had adding itching powder to one of my essential oils just to play a trick on you. I don’t know why she did it, but I’m sorry.”
“Really?” I hadn’t confronted Kayla or anyone else from Divas’ Den about the incident, but I appreciated the confession. “Hannah needs to grow up.”
“Totally.” Brittany adjusted the strap of a tiny backpack decorated with a full moon and a winged purple fairy. “But Eli tricked Hannah with the itching powder a few days before and she was dying to pass on the torment. I kept waiting for her to sprinkle it in my sheets.”
She gave an exaggerated shudder while we stood around the beach. Hannah worked on an elaborate French braid while openly staring as Matt and some of the guys from his cabin threw the frisbee. I was shocked he hadn’t gone cliff diving, but then Matt’s behavior continued to surprise me. Whenever I thought I had him figured out, I realized again I didn’t know him at all.
Seth, on the other hand, must have gone to the cliffs. His bunkmates Garrett and Julian had gone too, as I didn’t see them on the beach. Eli was missing from Matt’s cabin.
“What a crappy thing to do.” I thought about confronting Hannah right now, but I was afraid that, if I opened my mouth to speak to her, I’d end up accusing her of sleeping with Matt instead. My thoughts were all over the place ever since that conversation with Alex.
A whistle blew, and I turned to see Bam-Bam standing at full attention like he was back in the military. Ramrod straight, he held his hand up.
“Quiet!” he commanded in a voice that made me wonder if something was wrong.
We all shut up instantly. Sometimes you can just tell when you need to fall in line. Even Emily quit dragging her dead branches to see what he wanted.
But then, as one, we all heard a faraway sound that made my blood run cold.
“Help!” a man’s shout echoed over the island.
Bam-Bam took off at a sprint up the beach and we all followed. Emily, Vicki, and every last camper left the Frisbees and the footballs to race toward the sound.
“Help!” the hoarse shout came again. Closer. Louder.
“It sounds like Rob,” one of the boys said from nearby.
I looked for Seth, needing his reassuring strength. Could he be the one in trouble? My heart picked up speed. I spotted Matt at the front of the pack with another one of his friends and Bam-Bam. Whatever made a counselor shout for help like that had to be serious.
The trip to the cliff diving spot was a high climb and I was out of breath by the time I got there. Matt and Bam-Bam were in the water. Emily stood at the edge of the cliff, peering down into the river.
“What happened?” Brittany shrieked.
And for once, her words spoke for every last one of us. Someone squeezed my hand. Someone else gripped my shoulder. I swallowed hard as all of us seemed to hold our breath.
“It’s Eli,” Emily said, her voice raspy and her face snow-white. “He didn’t resurface.”
Chapter Twelve
I froze as Emily’s words sunk in, terrified for Eli. Hannah’s friend Rachel reacted first, her feet kicking up dirt as she sprinted to the cliff’s edge and dove. Her strong arms flashed toward the river’s center. “Eli!” she shouted, then plunged underwater. Several campers followed, including Seth. In seconds the deep blue water roiled with campers and counselors alike.
Amazing that it took an accident like this to make everyone put aside petty differences for the sake of a camp mate. Not all of us got along at Camp Juniper Point, but we were a family. Losing Eli would be like losing a brother, the one that put frogs down your wet swimsuit and ate all the cherry popsicles. My heart clenched at the thought of anything happening to him. The possibility was too horrible to imagine.
Brittany swiped at her damp cheeks. “He’s dead!” she wailed.
I put my arms around her, as did Kayla. “They’ll find him,” I said, feeling much less sure than I sounded. How had such a fun day dissolved into a nightmare? I looked away from the river, blotting out the image of an unconscious Eli lying on its bottom.
As I led Brittany down the cliff to the beach, I caught Alex’s
questioning look. Siobhan, Trinity, and Piper stood beside her, eyes glued to Jackie who surfaced and dove with the other would-be rescuers. Alex’s face spoke volumes. She was surprised to see me with Hannah’s group instead of them. But as Eli’s girlfriend, Brittany needed me—needed us all—more.
“Oh no!” Hannah blurted suddenly.
Shocked at her uncharacteristic emotional display, I rubbed her shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”
She held up her messy French braid. “Okay? Do you know how long it took me to fix my hair? Now I’ve got to start over. Be right back, Brit.” She sprinted toward her lean-to without a backward glance.
What a friend. “Call 911.” Anger bubbled inside. “Hannah’s got a hair emergency.”
A half-sob/ half-giggle escaped Brittany. She pulled back. “Thanks, Lauren. Sometimes Hannah can be such a, a…”
“Bitch,” Kayla finished, though she looked over her shoulder before saying it.
Funny. Before this year, I’d always felt afraid of Hannah and the power she wielded over camp. I never knew her best friends felt the same way.
“No sign of him!” someone called from the river.
My heart rate picked up. What if they didn’t find Eli? I couldn’t imagine what Brittany must be feeling. If Seth or Matt was missing, I’d go crazy.
“It’s going to be okay. They’ll find him. They will,” I murmured. Kayla squeezed my arm. When I met her eyes, they were warm with gratitude.
A sudden breeze carried a familiar, whining voice.
“It was just a joke! Ouch!”
Brittany, Kayla and I gaped as Bam-Bam hauled Eli into camp by the ear. The swimmers emerged, some bending at the waist, their breaths coming in hard, short gasps. Relief flooded me when first Matt, then Seth staggered onto the beach.
“Everyone out of the water. Eli’s fine.” Bam-Bam barked. “Head count in two minutes.”
We surged toward Eli but pulled back as Bam-Bam marched him to his lean-to. Rumors leapt, eventually reaching us. Apparently, Bam-Bam had caught Eli hanging out downstream. After cliff jumping, he’d swum underwater around a bend, resurfaced, then hid.
“I’ll kill him,” Brittany sputtered. For some weird reason, that made me laugh. But before I could apologize, Kayla joined in, followed by Brittany.
Her friend Rachel stumbled over and flopped on the sandy ground, chest heaving. “What’d I miss?”
Brittany shook her head. “Thanks, Rach. But it was just a prank.”
“Are you freaking kidding me? I’ll kill that kid.” Rachel’s frustration turned into surprise when we burst out laughing again.
“Join the club.” Kayla rolled her eyes and smiled in my direction. But some of my happiness melted away when I spied my Munchies’ Manor friends hugging each other in relief. I wished I could have shared this moment with them. They were as happy that Eli was safe as we were. So what was up with the invisible wall separating us? I’d crossed into the popular world in Texas and survived. Maybe my friends needed some of the same experience…minus the itching powder pranks. We’d never bothered getting to know the girls in Divas’ Den, assuming they were the enemy. Some were actually nice, like Kayla and Brittany and possibly even Rachel. All this time I thought they hadn’t given us a chance. But the truth was, we hadn’t give them one either.
I hugged Brittany and stepped back. “Will you be okay?”
Hannah strolled up, hair restored, and draped a possessive arm around Brittany.
“I think we can take it from here. Why don’t you go back where you belong?” I looked from Brittany to Kayla to Rachel, waiting for one of them to disagree. But their expressions were neutral and Kayla avoided my eyes. Did they agree with Hannah or were they too afraid to speak up? Either way, the queen bee had returned and I was dismissed from her royal court.
My flip-flops stirred up pine needles as I crossed toward my Munchies’ Manor gang. A few campers gathered wood for the fire while others laid out potato chip bags, rolls, hamburger patties and hot dog packages on the picnic tables. The counselors lit charcoal in grills raised on cemented pipes, the hickory scent making my stomach growl in anticipation.
Now that the Eli drama had passed, the counselors took a quick head count, then the Frisbee game resumed while sunbathers looked on. Hannah, outfitted in a white string bikini that would have never passed Gollum’s dress code, waved at Matt when he joined me.
“Hey, babe.” Matt ruffled my hair.
“Hey. That was really brave of you, looking for Eli like that.” I slid my hand in his, enjoying Hannah’s pout. For today, I wasn’t going to worry about conquering my inner bitchy side. At least not where Hannah was concerned. How could she have been worried about her hair during that scare with Eli?
“Were you worried?” Matt’s lazy smile turned my senses up to sizzle.
I nodded, eyes drifting over the cut torso revealed by his wet T-shirt. He was hotness personified. For a moment I fantasized about pulling him behind one of the lean-tos and stripping off that clinging shirt. Alex was planning a night with Vijay after a week of dating. And I was a big-time hold out, apparently, for remaining a virgin after months of dating.
Seth strode by, his sidelong amber glance grazing over me. Matt jerked us to a stop. He pulled me close and gave me a passionate kiss that left me breathless. But when I opened my eyes, it was Seth he was staring at, not me.
Seth pulled a towel over his head and stalked away. Obviously, he’d received the message loud and clear—“Lauren Carlson, property of Matt Butler.”
Annoyed at Matt’s possessive move, I strode away. I didn’t appreciate being branded like a Texas Longhorn. Maybe I should have paid more attention at that damn intervention my cabin mates had tried to give me.
“Yo, Butler!” one of his friends called behind us. “Help us with the volleyball net.”
I kept walking.
“See you later,” he called to my stiff back.
“Much later,” I muttered under my breath, wondering how he could seem so different when we were alone.
I jogged to catch up to my friends who headed toward the forest.
“Hey. Where are you going?”
Trinity turned. “I spotted sage and wanted to pick some so I could smudge everyone’s leantos. Want to come? Ouch!” she exclaimed when Jackie tucked a daisy chain in her dreadlocks. I remembered that smudging meant waving burning sage to get rid of bad energy. It sounded like we could all use some sage.
“Wouldn’t you rather tan with the Divas?” Siobhan put in, her safari hat obscuring her delicate face. There was no meanness in her tone. It was the matter-of-factness that killed me.
I linked arms with Alex. “I would if my friends were about to catch some rays instead of poison ivy. Come on, you guys. I was just comforting Brittany. Eli’s her boyfriend.”
Piper plucked a candy wrapper off the ground and stuffed it in her recycle bag. “We were worried about him too. But they don’t want us around. Remember the rash they gave us the last time you hung out with one of them?” I stumbled over an exposed root as we tramped through the brush, the thick canopy of oak, pine, and maple trees blotting out most of the sunshine. My forehead beaded with sweat in the humid air.
“One of them? You make them sound inhuman.”
Siobhan tipped up her hat. “Sometimes I wonder.”
“I am Hannah, the Demon Queen from Planet Hades,” Alex intoned.
“Some of them are cool. And Hannah’s the one who put the itching powder in the body perfume. The other girls didn’t know about it,” I insisted.
Alex snorted. “I believe that just like I believe you and Matt have only gone to first base.”
Technically, it was farther than that…but still, why wouldn’t they give these girls a chance? “We should hang out with them sometime.”
Jackie snorted. “Like that will ever happen.”
I dodged a fat toad hopping past. “What? Is there some kind of law against it?”
“Look. We didn’t make the
rules, okay?” Siobhan slapped a mosquito on her shoulder.
“So why follow them?” Hadn’t my friends always prided themselves on their uniqueness, refusing to join cliques to fit in?
An uneasy silence descended as we trudged along, the path narrowing so we passed single-file. Bickering forgotten, we charged into a real-life Monet painting with navy, sun- dappled water swirling behind a field of rippling lavender sage, white Queen Anne’s lace, and yellow buttercup wildflowers.
“Try not to pull up the roots,” Trinity cautioned, ever worried about damaging the ecosystem. Without a knife, it was hard to cut through the stalks. Alex and I twirled the green branches until they came off in our hands while Siobhan and Piper bent them back and forth, making them break. Jackie glided from one plant to the next, snapping plants like they were toothpicks.
“Thanks guys. That’s enough,” Trinity called after fifteen minutes. I flopped on a boulder next to Siobhan and Piper and admired the sparkling water. Downstream, Trinity plucked petals from a daisy and threw them one at a time into the water.
“Hope she’s going to smudge our hut.” Alex tickled me behind the ear with a bouquet. “I want to get lucky tonight.”
“What?” Siobhan exclaimed. “Don’t you think you’re moving way too fast?”
“Yeah.” Piper lifted her head and frowned at Alex. “Your parents wouldn’t approve of your ‘unwholesome’ thoughts.”
Awesome. Help from unexpected allies. Maybe Alex would pay attention if more people stood up to question this rush to ditch her virginity.
Alex pouted. “I’m so sick of them writing about me and their perfect life. I want to do something spontaneous and not care if it’s wholesome or not. Besides, I’ve known Vijay for, like, ever.” She kicked off her Keds and dipped her toes into the rushing water.
“But not as BF/GF,” Trinity put in, joining us. She gathered our sage and tied it together with string from a fraying friendship bracelet.
Alex kicked a small spray of water at the group. “Hello. We’ve been dating for seven days. Camp time is different. That’s like a year in the real world. And what’s the big deal? It’s just sex.”