A Fair to Remember #13

by Melissa J Morgan

  Natalie’s mother laughed. “Hello, Jenna,” she said.

  “Hi, Mrs. Goode!” Jenna replied.

  As soon as Nat’s mother had moved off to talk to Jenna’s dad, Jenna let out a happy squeal. “You guys have no idea how good it is to see you,” she said, elated.

  “It’s amazing just to be here,” Natalie said, pushing her stylish sunglasses up into her dark hair. “Jenna, this place is incredible. Your house is just steps from the lake. Very posh.”

  “Eh, this old place?” Jenna said, beaming nevertheless.

  A compliment from Natalie was like a compliment from the editor of Vogue. Having grown up in Manhattan with an art-dealer mother and a world-famous actor for a dad, Natalie was pretty much the last word on what was cool.

  “I can’t wait to see inside,” Valerie said, her dark skin glowing with excitement. She was already decked out for the patriotic occasion in an American flag T-shirt and denim shorts. She even had red, white, and blue beads at the ends of all her tiny braids. “Are we all staying in the same room?”

  “Yep. We have the big guest room,” Jenna said. “They get the small one,” she added, gesturing over her shoulder to where the boys were helping her father unpack the car.

  Suddenly Alex’s jaw dropped. “Adam is here?”

  “Ooooooh!” Natalie, Val, and Brynn all teased.

  “The couple of the century reunites!” Natalie added.

  “Come on, you guys. We are not the couple of the century,” Alex said, clearly embarrassed.

  Jenna had to force herself not to roll her eyes. How had she spaced on the fact that her brother and Alex were in like? Now they were going to have to spend the whole weekend listening to ooey-gooey couple talk. Maybe it was a good thing Sarah hadn’t come along. If she had, there would be two couples to deal with.

  “Anyone heard from Grace and Alyssa? Or Tori?” Jenna asked, hoping to change the subject.

  “Yes! Grace just called from her cell a little while ago. They’re about an hour away,” Brynn said.

  “And Tori’s flight gets in tonight,” Natalie added. Tori was coming all the way from Los Angeles to join the festivities. “Her dad got her a driver, so she’ll be here around dinnertime.”

  “Cool,” Jenna said. She couldn’t wait until everyone was here. It was going to be awesome to have the group together again.

  “Natalie! I’m going!” Nat’s mother called. “Come over and give me a hug.”

  “Oh, Mom,” Natalie said, rolling her eyes. Still, she walked over to her mother’s SUV and wrapped her arms around her.

  “Omigosh. Here they come!” Brynn said under her breath, clutching Alex’s arm. Sure enough, Adam, David, and Mr. Bloom were all on their way over. The guys clutched their bags and sleeping bags, and Mr. Bloom carried a big cooler.

  “You guys! Don’t make a big deal!” Alex said through her teeth, although she was pretty much beaming with joy at the sight of Adam.

  Ugh. That’s my brother, Jenna thought. She’s all psyched over my dorky brother!

  “Hi, Adam,” Alex said shyly as soon as Adam made it up the stairs.

  “Hi, Alex,” he said, his face all blotchy.

  Then they just stood there and stared at each other. The giddy tension in the air was so thick, the hair on Jenna’s arms stood up.

  “Hi, everyone!” Mr. Bloom said, bringing up the rear. “Hope you haven’t been waiting too long.”

  “Just a few minutes, Mr. Bloom,” Brynn offered.

  Alex took a deep breath. “So, Adam—”

  “Hey, David,” Adam said, turning to his friend. “Wanna go check out the lake?”

  “Totally!” David said.

  They dropped their stuff on the porch, then turned and sprinted off like their lives depended on it.

  “Don’t worry about us! We can bring everything inside!” Jenna’s dad shouted after them.

  Jenna and the other girls all looked at Alex, whose face had completely crumbled. Jenna felt like she could throttle her brother. How could he be so rude? Already this whole boy-girl thing was turning out to be a big mistake.

  “This room is huge!” Brynn said, walking into the guest room and dropping her bags on one of the throw rugs.

  Alex followed Brynn and placed her things down next to hers. Valerie, Natalie, and Brynn rushed around the room, checking out the two double beds, the closet, and the attached bathroom. Alex wished that she could share their enthusiasm, but at the moment she was just feeling confused. At first she’d had no idea that Adam was going to be there. Then she’d seen him and gotten all excited, and then he’d totally blown her off. She’d gone from fine to psyched to blah in about five minutes. That could really throw a girl off.

  “Alex! Check out the view!” Brynn said, leaning one knee on the window seat.

  Trying to get in the spirit, Alex joined her friend and looked out. The immense bay window had an incredible view of the lake and the trees and the mountains beyond. Alex took a deep breath and sat down, gazing out at all the wondrous nature.

  “You all right?” Natalie asked, wandering over. She sat down next to Alex on the cushion and smoothed her pink flowered skirt over her knees.

  “I don’t get it,” Alex confessed. “It seemed like Adam didn’t even want to see me.”

  “No. He totally did. Didn’t you see the look on his face when you first said hi?” Natalie reminded her.

  “Yeah,” Alex said with a small smile. “But then why did he run off? We haven’t seen each other in months.”

  “Listen, I have totally been there,” Natalie said. “You know that disastrous date I had with Simon in Mystic? I looked forward to that forever and it turned out to be nothing like what I expected.”

  Alex’s stomach turned. “Right. And then you guys broke up,” she said, alarmed. “Are you saying that Adam and I are going to break up?”

  Natalie’s eyes widened in panic. “No! No! Not at all. Just . . . try not to expect too much from him. Give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he is a boy.”

  “And boys are totally weird,” Brynn put in.

  “I’ll second that!” Jenna exclaimed, bounding over.

  “Me too!” Valerie put in.

  “Remember that time Kyle from my school told everyone we were dating when we so weren’t?” Natalie said.

  “That was nothing. You should have heard David in the car just now. His ‘Would You Rathers’ were completely gross,” Jenna said. “I don’t know how Sarah puts up with him. He is just so immature.”

  “I thought you liked gross stuff,” Alex said, confused.

  “Oh yeah. That’s right,” Jenna said, blushing slightly. “But still. The point is, boys are weird. Especially my brother.”

  Alex smiled. “Thanks, guys. You’re right. I should just chill out.”

  “Exactly! Chill out and have some fun,” Natalie said. “That’s what this weekend is all about, right?”

  “Right!” the others agreed.

  Natalie gave Alex a quick hug, then jumped up to unpack. Alex saw something move out of the corner of her eye and her heart caught when she saw Adam and David down at the lake, throwing rocks into the clear water. She liked Adam so much. What if he wasn’t just being a weird boy? What if he didn’t like her anymore?

  Suddenly the door to the guest room was flung open and in stepped Grace and Alyssa.

  “Let’s get this party started!” Grace shouted, throwing her arms wide.

  Alex laughed. Sometimes when Grace was around, she just couldn’t not laugh.

  “Hey, guys!” Jenna cried as everyone jumped up for more hugs.

  “All right! Which bed is mine?” Grace asked.

  “Oh, no! You guys got here late so you get the floor tonight,” Brynn told her. “Tomorrow we switch.”

  “Fine by me,” Grace said.

  She whipped her sleeping bag out and laid it on the floor between the beds. Then she dropped her suitcase on it followed by a book. A big, fat book that landed with a thud.
r />   “What is that?” Valerie asked.

  “That is my evil history teacher’s idea of a joke,” Grace said, sitting down next to the book. “I may as well tell you guys the bad news now. I have to study this weekend.”

  “I knew something was up!” Alyssa said. “A girl just does not bring a book that heavy with her on a vacation weekend unless there’s a good reason.”

  “You’re kidding,” Alex said. “You have to study?”

  “Yep. I have a huge history test on Tuesday and if I don’t pass, I won’t be at Camp Lakeview this summer,” Grace said. “I’ll be in . . .” She paused to swallow and make a disgusted face. “Summer school.”

  “No!” all the girls cried at once.

  “And my school doesn’t even have air-conditioning!” Grace grumbled.

  “In that case, we will totally help you study,” Brynn said, sitting down next to Grace. “We’ve all seen what happens to your hair in the humidity.”

  “Ha-ha,” Grace said, but smiled.

  “We’ll totally help. Whatever we can do, Grace,” Valerie put in, slinging her arm over Grace’s shoulders.

  “Camp Lakeview would not be Camp Lakeview without you,” Alex added.

  Grace grinned up at her. “Thanks, you guys. But let’s not think about this right now,” she added, shoving the book under her sleeping bag. She jumped up and threw her arms over her head. “Let’s party 4A/4C style!”

  Natalie turned on the stereo on top of the dresser and suddenly everyone was dancing and whooping and singing. Soon enough, Alex was having so much fun that she forgot all about Adam and his weirdness. For now.

  “Tori, I love your pj’s!” Valerie said as Tori walked out of the bathroom later that night. “Where did you get those?”

  Tori looked down at her silk shorts and top, which were covered in cartoon cupcakes. She tied her long blonde hair atop her head and smiled.

  “They’re cute, right? I got them at this new shop on Rodeo. Iphegenia was there buying the same ones,” she said, her blue eyes shining.

  “Iphegenia?” Grace squealed. “I heard she just had her legs insured for fifty million dollars.”

  “You have the life, Tori,” Brynn said, leaning back with one of her celebrity magazines.

  “Whatever. I just wish I didn’t live so far away from all you guys,” Tori said, sitting down and slipping her feet into her sleeping bag. She grabbed a handful of popcorn out of the big bowl Jenna had brought up and popped a kernel into her mouth. “I love California, but that plane ride is not fun.”

  “Speaking of fun,” Jenna said, whipping out a sheet of blue paper. “My dad gave me the schedule for the weekend events.”

  “Cool!” Valerie said, grabbing the paper from Jenna’s fingers. “Let’s see what’s going on around here.”

  Tori and Natalie gathered around Val as they read over the list of events. Val’s eyes took in phrases like “dance in the gazebo,” “finger-lickin’ barbecue,” “potato-sack race,” and “face painting.” When Jenna had told them this was going to be an old-fashioned good time, she hadn’t been kidding.

  “Hey, Jenna. What’s this?” Alyssa asked, stepping out of the bathroom with a black box in her hand.

  Jenna hopped off the end of her bed to check it out. “Omigosh! I can’t believe that’s still in there!” she exclaimed, her eyes widening.

  “What is it?” Val asked, curious.

  “Blue hair dye,” Jenna said, holding the box up. “I bought it when I was about ten and my mom and I were fighting about my haircut. I wanted to cut it short and my mom didn’t want me to, so I rode my bike to the drugstore in town and bought this with my allowance. Once I threatened to dye my hair blue if she wouldn’t let me cut it, she gave in.”

  “I totally remember that haircut!” Alex exclaimed. “You looked like a Muppet!”

  As the longest campers at Camp Lakeview, Alex and Jenna had been together through almost everything. Including plenty of bad hair.

  “Alex!” Grace scolded as everyone laughed.

  “No! She’s right. I did,” Jenna said. “Now I always listen to my mom when it comes to my hair.” She looked at Alyssa. “Do you want to use it?”

  Alyssa had a long history of experimenting with her hair and its color.

  “Maybe. It could be cool,” Alyssa said with a shrug, pulling some of her hair in front of her face to inspect it. “You know, get in the patriotic spirit. But I think I still need to think about it,” she added, placing the box back in the bathroom.

  Valerie returned her attention to the schedule and her eyes suddenly fell on something intriguing.

  “Check it out, you guys! There’s a talent contest on Monday afternoon!” she announced, holding the page up.

  “No way!” Grace said.

  “Cool! We have to do it!” Brynn added.

  Grace and Brynn were the two actresses of the group. They never turned down an opportunity to get up onstage.

  “Maybe I could choreograph a dance for us!” Valerie suggested, excited. She had been taking dance lessons this past year and was getting really good at it. “How cool would that be?”

  “Oh, we would so win,” Tori said. “Who could resist eight gorgeous girls dancing?” she added, batting her eyelashes.

  Everyone laughed. Jenna stood up, popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth. “I’ll do it, but only if you guys don’t mind me crushing all your toes.”

  “Jenna! You are not a bad dancer,” Natalie protested.

  “Wanna bet?” Jenna said. “Turn on the music.”

  Grace was closest to the stereo, so she cranked it up. Instantly Jenna started dancing around, throwing her arms out off beat and totally playing around. She looked like a confused chicken, jutting her hips all over the place and wagging her head around. Valerie was pretty much rolling on the floor with laughter after about two minutes. As was everyone else.

  Then the door flew open and Adam and David jumped in armed with cans of Silly String.

  “Ambush!” they shouted at the top of their lungs.

  Natalie screamed and ducked for cover, but everyone else was too taken off guard. Suddenly Adam and David unleashed a Silly String attack, running all around the room and dousing everyone with the sticky stuff.

  “Stop! Stop!” Grace cried, shielding her hair.

  “Get out, you freaks!” Jenna shouted.

  “Get them!” Valerie yelled.

  She grabbed a pillow and started fighting back, even though she could barely see through all the string. Tori, Brynn, and Grace jumped up to help, using their own pillows to battle back. Soon the guys were out of string and the room was completely covered. All eight girls descended upon them with pillows and they were forced to retreat. Jenna slammed the door on them the second they were out in the hall.

  “We so got you!” David shouted.

  “Take that!” Adam added.

  Valerie, Jenna, and the others turned around to survey the damage. There wasn’t a blanket, sleeping bag, or piece of furniture left un-stringed. The girls were going to have a lot of cleaning up to do.

  “Stupid boys,” Jenna grumbled.

  chapter THREE

  “Would you rather . . . stand on your head for an hour or . . . eat an ice cream sundae with anchovies?” Tori asked Jenna as they made their way onto the fairgrounds on Saturday morning. They had gathered up a bunch of blankets and snacks in their backpacks, along with magazines, half a dozen pots of nail polish, and a Frisbee—everything eight girls needed to entertain themselves during a sunny day in the park.

  “Ice cream with anchovies, definitely,” Jenna said.

  “Eww!” her friends all cried.

  “You will eat anything!” Brynn said, sticking her tongue out.

  “What? If you stand on your head that long, your brain explodes!” Jenna told them. “It’s, like, a scientific fact.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Alyssa said with a smile. “But your face would probably be red for a very long time.”
/>   Jenna laughed. Playing “Would You Rather” with her friends was so much better than playing it with Adam and David.

  “How about, would you rather stand on your head for an hour or take a huge history test the day after Memorial Day weekend?” Grace said grumpily, looking down at the textbook she was holding to her chest.

  “Take a huge history test!” Valerie told her, slinging her arm around Grace’s shoulders. “Especially when you have all of us to help you study.”

  Grace brightened a bit as the girls came to the makeshift fence surrounding the carnival area.

  “Check it out!” Jenna cried, racing forward.

  Behind the fence, a troop of big, burly men were setting up a dozen cool-looking rides. There was a Sidewinder, a Tilt-A-Whirl, a Gravitron, a Ferris wheel, and tons of other colorful rides that hadn’t been put together yet. Plus there were tons of games, like a dunking booth and a dart-and-balloon game with huge stuffed animals hanging from their rafters, just waiting to be won. But what really got Jenna’s attention were the food stands. Cotton candy, hot dogs, deep-fried Oreos, ice cream, pretzels. Everything a girl could ever want to eat. Jenna spotted a woman behind a counter dipping apples in caramel sauce. Jenna actually licked her lips. Those apples looked like heaven.

  “I’m so going on that one!” Grace said, pointing at the Gravitron.

  “If you go on that and don’t barf, I’ll give you a million dollars,” Valerie told her.

  Grace shoved her hand out. “Deal.”

  “Hey! When do the rides start up?” Jenna shouted to the man closest to the fence.

  He scratched at his sizable belly and looked up at the sun. “’Round six o’clock. Come back then and we should be good to go.”

  “Cool!” Jenna cheered.

  “Come on, you guys,” Natalie said. “Let’s check out the rest of the fairgrounds.”

  As the girls walked around the fence, they saw tons of families setting up picnic blankets for lunch. Kids ran around with balloons tied to their wrists and a few clowns circulated the crowd, doing magic tricks and making balloon animals. A bunch of high-school guys were playing a game of tag football in the center of a huge field, and big band music was being piped over hidden speakers.