I thought about the time Maisy waited in line with me at Barnes and Noble for five hours so I could meet Lana Bello, the author of my favorite YA book series. Maisy doesn’t even like postapocalyptic dystopian fiction like the Well Ringer books, but she spent an entire Sunday in line with me so I could get the latest hardcover signed with a personal message from my idol.
“She’s actually not that bad,” I said. “This place just brings out the worst in her.”
I couldn’t help wondering if maybe it was bringing the worst out in me, too, because I could feel myself morphing into the kind of gossiping, exclusionary Mean Girl I hated back home.
Poppy put a finger to her mouth to signal us to stop talking. Hannah picked up the cue and lifted her chin in the direction of the scattering of Christmas-tree-worthy white pines. We had trained our ears after years at camp to know the difference between the sound of an animal rustling the leaves and a person walking through the underbrush.
Sure enough, the Dandelion Bunk girls cut through the clearing and stopped in the middle of the path so they obstructed our way.
Hannah groaned. “As if things didn’t already suck.”
The A twins were wearing long-sleeved swim shirts that accentuated their muscular arms, reminding me what strong adversaries they would be during the bunk tournament. Tinka was wearing a bikini that didn’t look like it was going to hold up for laps around the lake. Kaya’s glam drama was surely admired by her thousands of Instagram beauty account followers, but it was totally overkill for adventure camp.
Tinka glowered at Hannah. “Nice bathing suit. Are you so poor that you needed to borrow one of your mom’s old ones?”
“At least I didn’t borrow a bikini from a kindergartner,” Hannah shot back.
Tinka was concentrating so hard on a comeback that you could practically see the wheels turning in her head, but one of the A twins beat her to the punch.
“Sorry about the Cup, girls,” said the A twin on the left.
“Yeah, you have no chance with that newb in your bunk,” said the A twin on the right.
Isa stepped up to them even though she was probably only a quarter of their combined weight. “Sorry about your hair. Heard you guys had to cut it because of the…” Isa lowered her voice to a whisper “lice.”
“Speaking of rumors.” Kaya put her hand on her outstretched hip for emphasis and fluttered her eyelashes in fake surprise. “Heard the new girl’s such a bad swimmer that she had to be saved with the rescue float.”
“I always thought that thing was just for decoration. The water is, like, knee-high,” said an A twin.
All four of the Dandelion Bunk girls burst into laughter as I cursed the lightning-fast Camp Amelia gossip mill. When I was younger, I had convinced myself there was a bluebird who flew from bunk to bunk sharing camp news. Clearly, I had been watching too many Disney movies with Maisy at the time. Now I’m old enough to know the lake acoustics allowed sound to travel to the far ends of the camp perimeter, making it virtually impossible to keep secrets. Not to mention the mini campers had finished up in just enough time ahead of us to spread the word of our demise on their way back to their cabins.
“I’ve never heard of anyone failing the swim test. Have you?” Tinka said.
Kaya widened her cartoonish eyes again. “Not since we’ve been coming here.”
The A twins said in unison, “The tournament’s ours this year.”
Poppy tugged on my arm, pulling me away from our arch enemies. For once, none of us had a witty comeback because they were right. We had no shot at the Cup with Maisy in our bunk. A feeling of doom filled me, exactly the same as I had felt walking into school every day for the past year.
Suddenly, sharp pain radiated through my shin as it came into contact with Kaya’s tree trunk of a leg. I flew forward and reached out my hands with just enough time to break my fall, landing face first in a pile of dry pine needles.
Hannah reached down and pulled me up. “Are you okay?”
I wiped my hands on my wet bathing suit and tried to ignore the throbbing in my leg. “I’m fine. Really, I’m fine.”
Kaya screwed her face into a synthetic empathetic face. “You should watch where you’re going. You don’t want to get hurt before the tournament.”
I lunged at her. But Isa pulled me back. “She’s not worth it. Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
I followed Isa because I had no choice. The Dandelion girls were twice our size and they fought dirty. Usually, the only way to hurt them was by winning the tournament, which was highly unlikely this year.
I spent the whole walk back to the bunk picking bloody pine needles from the palms of my hands. Usually, as soon as I stepped inside our cabin, I felt like I was home. But as soon as I opened the door, I saw Maisy’s pink, fluffy robe hanging over the top bunk and wanted to scream at the top of my lungs.
Isa slammed the cabin door shut. “It’s bad enough we’re gonna lose the Amelia Cup. But we’re practically handing the tournament over to the Dandelion girls.”
Poppy rubbed her towel over her wet hair. “Can’t you guys see why Maisy’s parents sent her here? Camp Amelia sells itself as a girls’ empowerment camp. I don’t think I’ve ever met a girl who needs to be empowered as badly as Maisy.”
Hannah stripped off her bathing suit and pulled on a pair of vintage gym shorts with a Camp Amelia T-shirt. “I’m all about empowering girls, but Maisy’s not going to make it here the whole summer. The girl can’t even doggy paddle.”
“If we’re lucky, she’ll fail the nurse’s physical and get sent home,” said Isa, as she got dressed.
I collapsed on my bunk in my wet bathing suit. I could feel the cold dampness spreading out on my comforter, but I didn’t care. “I spend the whole school year being invisible while Maisy and the stupid M & Ms rule the school. Now I’m stuck with her for the entire summer!”
I hate the vulnerability of crying, the loss of control, the weakness it shows. But I could feel it bubbling up inside me and rising to the surface in chokes and sputters until the tears were flowing down my cheeks. All of the sadness, loneliness, and betrayal I had felt for the past year spilled out of me as I wondered how I would survive a summer with the person who had shattered me.
“I know things seem about as sucky as possible now,” started Poppy. “But—”
“You don’t get it,” I cut in. “The way the Dandelion girls treat us. The way they make us feel bad about ourselves. That’s horrible enough. But going to school every day and having people look right through me is exponentially worse,” I said.
Poppy climbed in the bunk and laid down next to me with her long legs hanging off the edge. She pressed her face into mine. “You’re not invisible here. You have us.”
I stared up at the gray sheets wrapped around the bottom of Maisy’s mattress. “I feel like she’s everywhere and I can’t get away from her.”
Hannah climbed over Poppy and curled up on my other side. “We’re the ones who are everywhere.”
“She’s ruined my summer.” I wiped my nose with the back of my hand. “She’s ruined my place.”
Not a snuggler, Isa knelt on the floor next to the bed. “Maisy won’t be here for long if she has no friends. She’ll be writing home begging for someone to come get her.”
“You heard Ainsley. We’re stuck with her,” I said.
Hannah sighed. “Maybe if we all stop stressing about the Cup, it won’t be so bad having Maisy here. Obviously, we won’t be friends with her. But if we don’t obsess about winning, we can at least live a drama-free summer with her.”
I sat up. “Don’t you guys get it? The Cup is about the four of us being winners for once in our lives. Back home, I literally have no friends. Isa plays soccer even though she’s sick to death of it because her parents want her to get a college scholarship. Hannah’s mom thinks her dyslexia can be cured with a gluten-free, sugar-free diet. Poppy’s mom is putting an immense amount of pressure on her to become a supermodel.�
�� I exhaled, then asked, “Are we going to let Maisy take away the one thing we have control of in our lives?”
Hannah groaned. “When you put it like that…”
Isa jumped in, “We can’t let Maisy keep us from winning.”
All of a sudden, a realization came over me. I jumped off the bed and grabbed my stack of donut stationary and a Sharpie. I tried to make my pen move as fast as my brain was.
“What?” Isa stood up. “You’re freaking us out.”
I held up my hand as I scratched one more thing down. I was processing too rapidly to talk.
“Seriously, Bea. What’s going on?” asked Hannah.
I dotted my last few Is and crossed my last Ts and then held up my paper, which was filled with squares and connecting lines with the names of every single tournament-eligible camper and bunk at Camp Amelia. “We may not be able to get rid of Maisy, but we might still have a chance at the Cup.”
Poppy let out a huge breath. “Wow! It’s not over.”
“Okay, I haven’t taken Algebra II or whatever you two nerds took to understand that chart. Can you just explain it?” Hannah asked.
Isa cracked up. “It’s not math. It’s brackets, like in soccer tournaments.”
Isa snatched the paper from me and tried to show it to Hannah. “It’s hard to tell with Bea’s crazy-town handwriting, but you see…”
Hannah, who hates anything with words or numbers, waved the paper away. “Forget the chart. Just tell me what’s going on.”
The words tumbled from my mouth. “It doesn’t matter that Maisy is DQed for the swim and the kayak races. She’s our fifth person, and all the other bunks have only four campers, so we can use her as an alternate, which means we only need her to compete in two challenges. As long as she completes the ropes course and is decent on the run, we still have a shot.”
Poppy clapped her hands together. “Maybe we won’t be losers after all.”
CHAPTER FOUR
MAISY
IT TURNS OUT MY NEW-CAMPER CHECKUP WAS REALLY ME GETTING introduced to a psychologist “just in case I want to talk,” which is code for “your dad told us what’s going on.” I have a policy about not talking to therapists because they make me more anxious. The school counselor tried to talk to me right before Mom left, but sitting in her freezing-cold, air-conditioned office while she asked me personal questions made my heart feel like it was beating out of my chest.
But Dr. Beth is different from any counselor I’ve ever met. Her frizzy gray hair hung all the way down to her waist and she was wearing a tie-dyed Camp Amelia shirt with faded overalls. She was barefoot and had a sun tattooed on the top of one of her tan feet and a moon on the other. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, and she had deep wrinkles next to her mouth, which made it seem like she must smile a lot. Her skinny arms were covered with rows of silver bangles and she had thick silver and turquoise rings on practically every finger.
The therapy cabin smelled a little like cat pee, but it had a homey vibe with lots of comfy floor cushions. Even though Dr. Beth looked like someone who shops at Whole Foods, she offered me some french fries from her McDonald’s extra value meal. I’m always up for fries, but accepting food would mean I would have to talk. I had spent so long hiding Mom’s secret, it felt weird talking about it. Why would it be different with a camp therapist?
I shook my head. “No, thanks.”
I looked out the window and saw Ainsley doing burpees on the grass outside while she waited to walk me back to our bunk. It made me even more mad that Dad sent me to such a sporty camp.
“Are you okay?” asked Dr. Beth.
I turned back to her. “I’m not upset about my mom if that’s what you were about to ask. I’m just pissed that I’m stuck at a camp where everyone is obsessed with some stupid tournament. Not to mention, my phone got taken away, so I’ve lost my only connection to the real world.”
Dr. Beth took a long sip of her super-sized grape soda, making a loud slurping sound. “Can’t help you with the tournament business, but one of the perks of meeting with me is the great Wi-Fi service in the therapy cabin.”
I rolled my eyes. “What good is Wi-Fi without a phone?”
Dr. Beth grabbed a laptop off her desk and handed it to me.
“The other perk of meeting with me is that I allow emails as part of the therapy experience,” she said. “So, if you don’t feel like talking to me, you can email your family or your friends back home.”
I had a feeling there was more to this, like she had some kind of trick up her sleeve, but I reached for the laptop anyway. That’s how desperate I was for a window outside of this awful camp. I sat down on the floppy floor pillow and opened up the laptop. Next thing I knew, a black cat jumped out of nowhere and curled up on the floor right by my feet, which explained the cat pee smell.
Dr. Beth laughed. “That’s Stumpy. He’s missing a tail and an eye, but other than that he’s in tip-top shape.”
I didn’t know what was more gross, the missing tail or eye, so I tried not to get a close look.
Dr. Beth kept talking. “You’re not allergic to cats, are you?”
Cats make me nervous because you never know if they want to lick you or claw your eyes out. They’re kind of like passive-aggressive people that way. But that’s not the same thing as actually being allergic, so I shook my head.
“Good, because stray cats have a way of finding me,” Dr. Beth said, as she plopped down on a floor cushion near me, but not close enough to look over my shoulder, so I started my email to Dad.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Worst camp ever!!
Did you know they would confiscate my phone on the bus?
Did you know I would have to take a swim test?
Did you know that if I failed the test, I would have to take swim lessons with the baby campers?
Did you know that I would have to compete in some kind of athletic tournament?
Did you know that my roommates are champions of this crazy tournament and that they would hate me the second they realized how unathletic I am??????
Signed,
The most miserable daughter in the whole world
After I fired off Dad’s email, I looked up at Dr. Beth. She wasn’t paying attention. She was too busy polishing off her Big Mac. So, I minimized my email and went on Instagram.
I went on Madison’s account because she’s the one who posts on the daily. Of course she had already posted a pool pic from Mia’s house. The girls were all wearing their new bikinis from our last mall trip. The caption was A little to the left with a laughy face emoji, a cupcake emoji, and a clown emoji. Madison always captions her pics with an inside joke from the day. It killed me that I didn’t get the joke. This was going to be an entire summer of me on the outside of all of the jokes.
Of course Dr. Beth’s laptop didn’t have emojis on the keyboard, which made it impossible to comment the right way, which would have been: bikini, flame, kissy face, and heart eyes. My only option was to send a DM.
To: @mammamia, @madisonave, @maddywiththegoodhair, @meggylonglegs
From: @maisywintersiscoming
I hate camp. The girls suck and there are bugs EVERYWHERE. They took my phone!!! I feel like I’m in jail. Check your DMs cuz it’s my only way to talk. Miss you guys sm. ILY!! XOXO
I didn’t mention that Bea was in my bunk, or even that I was at Bea’s camp. I didn’t like reminding them that I used to hang out with Bea because that only pointed out how new I was to the M & Ms and what a loser I used to be.
I switched back to my email to send Dad another list about why camp sucks. Dad, who never checks his phone during the workday, had already emailed me back.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Worst camp ever!!
Hi Mini,
Miss you already. The house is too quiet with all three of my girls gone.
You are so much
stronger than you realize, and I know this camp is going to show you that. Give it a chance and you might surprise yourself.
Got to go—in the middle of appointments. Love you to the moon and back.
Love,
Dad
Hadn’t I already proved to Dad how strong I am? I was the one who had to deal with the Mom situation when he was working all the time. Now he’s acting like competing in some stupid camp tournament was going to be the thing that made me tough. I switched back to Instagram where the M & Ms were commenting back and forth on Madison’s post with strings of emojis that I didn’t get. There were the obvious ones, like the sun, a pool umbrella, a bikini, and sunglasses. But I didn’t get the broccoli, Japanese flag, or hammer. I had been gone for one day, and it already felt like my friends were speaking in a different language.
Meanwhile, no one had responded to my DM, which meant I was missing the M & Ms a lot more than they were missing me.
I snapped the laptop shut and handed it back to Dr. Beth.
“Thanks,” I mumbled. “I’m finished.”
Dr. Beth took the laptop and put it on her desk next to a stack of manila folders that looked like it was going to topple over any minute. Then she sat back down on the floor cushion and let Stumpy climb in her lap. “You can use my computer anytime. I’m also here anytime you want to talk.”
Dr. Beth stared at me, like she was waiting for me to tell her my whole life story. Therapists can be tricky like that. One minute they’re looking at you, and next thing you know, you’ve told them all your business.
I didn’t want her to think I was agreeing to talk about the Mom situation, but I really wanted to come back and use her laptop again. So, I asked her the question that had been on my mind since I saw Bea on the camp bus. The one question I couldn’t ask anyone who really knew me.
The words felt scary coming out of my mouth, like I was exposing the worst part of myself. “Did you ever do something really bad? But for a good reason?”
Dr. Beth rubbed Stumpy behind his ears while he purred like a car motor. “I’ve done good things for bad reasons and bad things for good reasons.”
Camp Clique Page 4