Jenna's Dilemma #2

by Melissa J Morgan

  Jenna couldn’t have been more surprised if Alex had just unzipped her face and revealed that she was actually an alien. Alex didn’t want to be in charge of something? Not possible.

  “Yeah, it’s okay,” Candace put in. “I’m not really into it, anyway.”

  “Me neither,” Karen added.

  “I don’t have to do it, either, Julie,” Jessie offered.

  Julie looked at the rest of them expectantly, waiting for more of them to back down, but no one did. “The rest of you want in?” she asked.

  The table erupted again as everyone tried to make her case.

  “All right! All right!” Julie said, attempting to quiet them. “Like Brynn said, I’m only supposed to submit two names.” She picked up her ever-present clipboard from under her chair and tore off a page of blank paper. “I’ll write everyone’s name down on strips of paper, and then we’ll pick—sound fair?”

  Natalie and Grace and a few others nodded their approval, but Jenna’s heart sank. Her name was never pulled out of hats or barrels or bowls. She was just not lucky with those things.

  “Sarah? Can I borrow your hat?” Julie asked when she was done tearing paper and writing names.

  Sarah pulled off her Red Sox cap, her ponytail flopping through the hole in the back, and handed it to Julie. All the names were dumped in the hat, and then Julie shook it up.

  “Alex, since you were the first to gracefully bow out, how about you do the honors?” Julie asked, holding the hat out to Alex, who was sitting to her right.

  Alex sat up straight and made a very serious face as she dipped her hand into the hat. Jenna held her breath. Alex unfolded the first strip of paper and held it up for everyone to see. “Chelsea,” she said.

  “Yes!” Chelsea cheered.

  So unfair, Jenna thought. Why should a newbie get to be on the committee and not me? At least I’ve been to these things before.

  Julie shook the cap again, and Alex put her hand inside.

  Please just say Jenna, please just say Jenna, please just say—

  “Jenna!” Alex announced.

  “No way!” Jenna blurted, causing everyone to laugh. Alex leaned over to high-five her, and Jenna slapped her friend’s hand. She couldn’t believe it. Her name had actually been chosen! She was going to be on the planning committee!

  “So Chelsea and Jenna will represent us,” Julie said, dumping out the rest of the names and handing the hat back to Sarah. The rest of the bunk sat back, disappointed.

  “Don’t worry, you guys. We’ll all come up with ideas, and then Chelsea and I can give them to the committee,” Jenna suggested.

  Everyone brightened a bit at this plan, and Julie grinned. “Now that sounds fair, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Grace replied, chorused by the others. “Thanks, Jenna.”

  “No problem,” Jenna said, her mind already brimming with possibilities. She couldn’t wait to put her own personal touch on the camp-wide social. Now all she had to do was figure out what her personal touch would be.

  “I can’t believe Chelsea got picked,” Brynn complained as she, Jenna, Alex, and Grace walked back to the bunk together after dinner. “She’s a newbie. Julie should have done it by seniority.”

  “You only think that because I said no, and then you and Jenna would have been after me in line,” Alex said.

  Jenna, Brynn, and Alex would have been at the same point in line, actually, but Jenna didn’t bother to point that out. They all knew it, anyway.

  “So?” Brynn said, kicking at a stone on the walkway.

  “Don’t worry, Brynn. Like I said, if you have any ideas, I’ll bring them up at the meetings,” Jenna told her.

  “Good, because I have about a million,” Grace put in, fiddling with her colorful plastic rings. “We could have a fifties theme! You know, like Grease? Or like a Gone with the Wind theme? Like a Southern ball? Ooh! Or maybe it could be a Mardi Gras theme! I went to Mardi Gras with my aunt and uncle one year, and it was so cool! Well, I didn’t get to see a lot of it because I had to go to bed early, but in the morning there were beads everywhere.”

  “Good ideas,” Jenna said. “Maybe you should write them down or something so I remember them.”

  “Totally!” Grace said, putting a little skip in her walk that made her crazy red curls bounce all around. “I’ll do it when we get back.”

  “Just make sure you give it to Jenna and not Chelsea,” Brynn suggested. “I don’t trust that girl yet.”

  “That reminds me,” Alex said, walking backward to look at Jenna. She glanced around at the other random campers walking and talking nearby and lowered her voice. “Whatever happened to the initiation prank?”

  Jenna blinked. She couldn’t believe it. She had entirely forgotten about the initiation prank this year! Wow. I’ve been really distracted, she thought.

  “Yeah! What about that? You did it to me, Jessie, and Candace last year,” Grace said.

  “And Val and Sarah and the others two years ago,” Brynn added.

  “Yeah. Everyone in the bunk who came after us has been a victim at some point,” Alex pointed out. “Don’t Chelsea, Nat, and Alyssa need to be initiated, too?” she added, raising her eyebrows.

  Jenna glanced over her shoulder at Natalie and Alyssa, who were walking with Valerie, Jessie, and Sarah, gabbing about the social. Now that she knew them so well, she wasn’t sure she wanted to prank Natalie and Alyssa. They didn’t feel as new to her anymore. They were already her friends.

  “Maybe I waited too long,” Jenna said.

  “Hey! Don’t wuss out on us,” Brynn said. “It’s a tradition.”

  Jenna caught a glimpse of Chelsea now, who was walking with Simon, Eric, and Adam, tossing her hair and flirting. Ew! Flirting with Adam? And even worse, Adam was smiling and laughing. He seemed to be enjoying it. Maybe some newbies did need to be pranked.

  “All right,” Jenna said, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she turned back to her friends. “Let’s do it.”

  “When?” Alex asked, her dark eyes bright with excitement.

  “Why wait?” Jenna said, a skitter of excitement racing over her skin. “Tomorrow we make a plan. And tomorrow night, the newbies get initiated.”

  chapter THREE

  The next morning, Jenna stood on the edge of the wooden planks that made up the beginner’s diving pier at the Lakeview lake. The sky was a gorgeous blue with just a few whispy-white clouds. The sun was hot on her shoulders and all around the lake, campers laughed, splashed, and squealed, having the time of their lives. Across the water, in the deep end, the senior boys and girls were doing relay races while their friends shouted encouragement from the sand. Jenna watched them, wishing she were over there having fun instead of standing over the rippling water, terrified.

  In the water below Jenna, Chelsea and Alex dog-paddled, having already made their dives. Behind her were a bunch of other boys and girls in her swim skill level, all gossiping and messing around while they waited their turns. Everyone was happy and relaxed and looking forward to that night’s movie-night viewing. Everyone except Jenna.

  The water looked so far away. Even though she could probably reach down with her toe and touch the cool surface of the lake, it still looked so far. Was she really supposed to launch herself from the safety of the platform and crash headfirst into the water? What if there was something down there? Like a rock? She could crack her head open and die and her body would sink to the bottom of the lake and no one would ever find her and—

  Sometimes having a good imagination really stinks, Jenna thought.

  The whole camp was divided up into colors according to their swimming ability. Those who were just learning to swim were reds and had to stay in the shallow end. Those who could swim but weren’t experts yet and couldn’t dive were yellows, like Jenna. Those who could dive and were practicing for their deep-end swim test were greens. The experts, who had passed the final test and could do it all, were blues.

  At the end of last summ
er, Adam had accelerated right through green and straight to blue, and Jenna had been totally jealous. Not many eleven-year-olds were blues, and it killed her that Adam was so far ahead of her. But staring at the water just then, she felt she wouldn’t have minded staying a yellow forever.

  “Okay, Jenna, just put your hands together over your head like a V,” Tyler Bernal, the swim instructor, told her. He was in the lake, one hand holding onto the ladder to the pier, the other treading water.

  Tyler was new to camp this year, and with his curly dark hair, tanned skin, and killer smile, every girl at Lakeview was in love with him—especially Jenna’s sister Stephanie. Half the camp was whispering about the possibility that Tyler and Stephanie would be a couple before summer’s end. Even Jenna thought Tyler was pretty cool. But if he really made her dive headfirst into this lake, that opinion was going to change.

  Jenna did as she was told, but her knees were shaking so violently, they were actually knocking together. This was something Jenna had thought only happened in cartoons.

  “Good, now bend forward toward the water,” Tyler instructed.

  Jenna bent at the waist. She felt like she was going to throw up. This whole feeling was new to Jenna. Normally she wasn’t scared of anything.

  “Come on, Jenna! You can do it!” Alex called out from the water, clearly sensing her terror.

  “Good, now bend your knees a little, tuck your head, and dive,” Tyler said.

  You make it sound so easy, Jenna thought. Like I’m not about to die.

  “Okay, Jenna, on the count of three,” Tyler prodded gently.

  Jenna squeezed her eyes shut. She could hear the first-year campers giggling and splashing at the shallow end of the lake. She could hear the water lapping against the platform. She could hear Tyler counting up.

  “One ...”

  I can do this, I can, Jenna told herself. Though her pounding heart didn’t seem to agree.

  “Two . . .”

  I can. I can. I can . . .

  “Three!”

  Jenna opened her eyes, saw the water, and panicked. She stumbled back from the edge of the platform, and her bare heel caught in one of the grooves between the boards. Luckily, Grace caught her before she could fall on her butt.

  “Are you okay?” Grace asked, pulling off the little nose clip she always wore for swimming.

  “I can’t,” Jenna heard herself say, shaking her head. “I can’t do it. I just can’t.”

  Tyler was out of the water in an instant, walking over to her with his red swim trunks dripping all over the planks. “It’s okay, Jenna. You don’t have to do it today,” he said. “We can work on it some more.”

  “Yeah, don’t worry, Jenna. You don’t have to do it today,” Candace said, repeating Tyler’s words like she always repeated everyone’s. “It’s no big deal.”

  “Remember last year? It took me, like, forever before I could even put my head under the water,” Grace reminded her. “I felt like such a total freakazoid! But you were the one who told me to just take my time, and by the end of the summer, I was swimming.”

  Jenna’s heartbeat started to return to normal, and she managed to smile at her friends. They were right. She didn’t have to get everything on the first try, did she? Besides, she was the best softball player in the bunk and the best kickball player. She didn’t have to be great at everything.

  Just when she was starting to feel better, Chelsea and Alex stepped up from the ladder.

  “Omigosh! You looked hil-ar-ious standing up there all shaking,” Chelsea said, holding her stomach as she laughed. “I can’t believe Jenna Bloom is afraid of diving!”

  “Chelsea!” Alex said reprovingly.

  Jenna’s cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

  “You know you’re not going to move up to green if you can’t dive—right, Jenna?” Chelsea said. “You’ll be stuck in the kiddie end next summer while we’re all hanging out over here.”

  “Like I really want to hang out with you,” Jenna shot back. Why did Chelsea have to be so mean? And only some of the time. If she were mean all of the time, at least Jenna and the others would always be prepared, but it was like one second she was a completely normal friend and the next second she was being a total jerk.

  “All right, girls. That’s enough,” Tyler said, putting his hands on Chelsea’s shoulders and steering her to the back of the line. He rejoined Jenna and crouched next to her. “Check it out,” he said, lifting his chin toward the next platform where the diving boards were.

  Jenna watched as her brother Adam climbed the five steps to the mid-level board, walked confidently to the edge, and dove off. He barely made a splash when he hit the water. All his buddies and some of the other blues cheered for him when his head popped up again. Even Sarah, who had been in blue forever, and Natalie, who had been put in blue right away after taking her swim test, applauded for him. Adam’s grin was practically blinding.

  “If your brother can do it, you can do it—right?” Tyler said.

  Jenna swallowed hard. There it was again, the Bloom Curse. Now she felt like an even bigger loser because Adam was so far ahead of her. Back when Grace couldn’t duck under the water, everyone was patient and cool about it. But now, if Jenna didn’t catch up with Adam, everyone would tease her for being so far behind her brother. It was so unfair.

  “Want to try it again?” Tyler asked.

  Jenna shook her head. “No.”

  “You sure?” Tyler asked.

  “Can’t we just do it at the next lesson?” Jenna asked. She crossed her fingers behind her back and added, “I’m sure I’ll be ready by then.”

  “Yeah. I’m sure she’ll be ready by then,” Candace echoed.

  “Okay,” Tyler said, standing up again. Jenna felt relieved that he was no longer staring her straight in the eye. “Why don’t you sit with your feet in the water while the rest of the campers take their turns? When we’re done we’ll all go for a swim.”

  Jenna nodded silently and sat on the edge of the pier. She stared down at the surface of the lake as she swirled her legs around, keeping her back to the diving platform. The last thing she wanted was to have to keep watching her brother show off his skills. For the first time in her life, Jenna couldn’t wait for swim period to be over.

  Jenna sighed as she used her fork to make crisscross designs in her puddle of ketchup. Lunch was almost over, and most of the girls in her bunk were gathered around a new magazine Marissa had gotten in the mail, taking a quiz titled “What’s Your Style Personality?” Jenna was so not interested.

  “Want my Tater Tots?” Alex asked from the seat across from Jenna.

  Jenna eyed the pile of potatoes that were left on her friend’s plate. Did this girl never eat? “Sure,” she said, pushing her plate toward Alex’s. Alex used her fork to shovel the Tots over to Jenna, who promptly drowned them in ketchup.

  Alex glanced down the table. Once she seemed convinced that everyone else was occupied, she leaned in toward Jenna. “So, you were really scared this morning, huh?” Alex asked.

  Jenna’s eyes flashed, but then she looked at her friend and realized she wasn’t teasing her. Alex’s dark eyes were open and concerned. Jenna looked down at her plate.

  “I just don’t get how you do it,” Jenna said. “I mean, you’re not scared?”