Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist (10 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist
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When Grace got back to the bunk, she was surprised to hear voices coming from inside. Everyone else was supposed to be at a camp-wide nature meeting. Dr. Steve had gotten an environmental conservationist to come and teach them about endangered species. Grace thought it sounded interesting, but reading was more important right now. She’d gotten permission to go back to the bunk so she could spend her time with Buck in
The Call of the Wild
.
But somebody else was clearly there.
Grace was about to open the door when she heard Chelsea raise her voice. “Because I said so!” she was saying. She sounded angry.
Grace hesitated. Maybe she shouldn’t interrupt.
“But, Chelsea, I love water parks,” Karen’s quiet voice drifted out. “The most fun I ever had was at a water park when I was eight.”
“Have you ever seen what people look like when they go on those rides?” Chelsea argued. “Your hair gets all flat and stringy, and your makeup washes all off.”
“I never noticed that,” Karen replied.
And why does it matter?
Grace wondered. Should she go in there? Part of her wanted to rush in and help Karen deal with Chelsea. But those two were best friends, after all. They seemed to be having an argument, and Grace didn’t think she should stick her nose in their business.
“Well, it’s true. We’d look horrible if we went on all those rides.”
“But it would be fun.” Karen sounded wistful. Grace was surprised Karen was disagreeing with Chelsea at all—Karen must really love those water rides if she was willing to fight for them.
Suddenly Chelsea gave a little sob. It sounded fake. “I can’t believe you’re changing your mind about this,” she said. “You promised to hang out with me by the wave pool.”
“I know,” Karen said. “Don’t be mad—”
“You know that swimming makes me sick,” Chelsea interrupted. “If we go on those rides, I’ll get water in my ears and get an earache. And if water gets in my eyes, it will ruin my contact lenses.”
But you go swimming in the lake every day,
Grace thought.
“But we go swimming every day,” Karen said.
“Yeah, in the lake,” Chelsea answered. Her voice wavered as if she were trying to hold back tears. “Where there’s no chlorine to sting my eyes. And where I can keep my head out of the water so my hair doesn’t get ruined. And I don’t get water in my ears.”
Grace shook her head. Chelsea was coming up with all kinds of excuses, but Grace suspected that the real reason she didn’t want to go on the water rides was that she thought she’d look bad with wet hair and no makeup. Chelsea was so pretty that she’d be gorgeous no matter what. But she took a lot of care with her appearance. Maybe she didn’t feel confident without her makeup.
Still, it wasn’t fair to keep Karen from doing what she wanted just because Chelsea didn’t want to be alone.
Tell her that, Karen,
Grace silently willed.
Tell her you want to go on the rides.
“Well, if it means that much to you . . .” Karen said.
“Thank you!” Chelsea answered, her voice normal again. “We’ll have a great time getting a tan.”
“I usually just get sunburns,” Karen replied quietly.
Grace took a deep breath and opened the door. “Oh, hi, guys,” she said casually. “I didn’t know anyone was in here.”
Chelsea looked startled. Karen just smiled. “We came back to get Chelsea’s sunglasses,” she explained. “The light hurts her eyes.”
“Plus, who wants to listen to a boring lecture?” Chelsea added, trying to joke. She watched Grace carefully, as if waiting for her to say something.
She wants to know if I overheard them arguing about the water park,
Grace realized.
But she had no intention of saying anything about what she’d heard. She wasn’t happy that Karen had given in to Chelsea, but it wasn’t really any of her business.
“Julie said I could skip the lecture so I can read,” she said, flopping down on her bed.
“We better get back before Julie comes looking for us,” Karen told Chelsea.
“Yeah. See you later, Grace.”
Grace smiled and waved as they left. It was hard to understand Chelsea sometimes. But right now she had to focus on her book.
“Hey, Grace, your
friend
is here.” Valerie’s tone was sarcastic.
Grace looked up from her book. She’d been reading in the bunk for an hour and a half straight. “Huh?”
Valerie nodded toward the porch. “That girl from 3A. Abby?”
“Gaby,” Grace corrected her. “She’s here?”
“On the porch. I guess she didn’t feel like taking siesta with her own bunkmates,” Valerie said.
“I guess I can’t avoid her, huh?” Grace murmured. “Did you tell her I was here?”
“Well, I wasn’t gonna lie,” Valerie said. “Just go out and talk to her. The sooner you get rid of her, the sooner you can get back to reading.”
“Yeah,” Candace said. “The sooner you can get back to reading so you can come to WetWorld.”
“Oh, all right.” Grace got up and went out onto the porch. She wasn’t in the mood for small talk, but she figured Gaby must have a reason for coming here. She probably wanted to apologize for telling Natalie and Alyssa about Grace’s secret. “Hey, what’s up?” she said when she reached Gaby.
“Hi, Gracie!” Gaby chirped. “Wanna hang out?”
“I can’t,” Grace said. “I have to read.”
Gaby frowned. “Is this because I wouldn’t hang out with you during siesta the other day?”
“No,” Grace said honestly. “Although it is a little weird that you feel comfortable coming over to my bunk when you told me to stay away from your bunk.”
“I told you I was just kidding about that.”
“Yeah, I know,” Grace said. “It still seems a little weird to me, though. And it sure didn’t sound like you were kidding. Anyway, I really have to read.”
“Look, I’m sorry,” Gaby blurted out. “I shouldn’t have told your bunkmates that you lied about WetWorld.”
It didn’t seem like much of an apology, but still Grace felt a little better. At least Gaby realized that what she’d done was rude and wrong. “That’s okay,” Grace said. “I might get to go to WetWorld after all.”
“Cool,” Gaby said. “How?”
“I have to finish this book by the end of the weekend,” Grace explained. “And then my parents are going to give me a quiz. That’s why I can’t hang out right now. I have a lot of reading to do.”
“Okay. How about at free swim? Do you want to be swim buddies? It’s so hot out, I’m dying to go in the lake.”
“Um, I don’t think so,” Grace said. “I was planning to read during free swim. Julie even let me get out of arts and crafts this morning so I could read.”
“Then you don’t have to read during free swim,” Gaby said. “Give yourself a break. Get some exercise.”
“But I can’t,” Grace insisted. “There’s no way I can finish the book unless I spend every single second reading.”
“Oh, come on, don’t be so boring,” Gaby said. “I thought you were supposed to be fun.”
“I
am
fun,” Grace replied. “Just not right now. Being too much fun is what got me into this mess. If I’d paid more attention to school and spent less time having fun, I wouldn’t have to be cooped up in here reading all day.”
“It’s only one hour,” Gaby pointed out. “And we just made up after our fight. Please?”
Grace sighed. How could she say no to that?
“Okay,” she said. “I guess I can take one hour off from reading.”
Once Gaby had gone back to her own bunk, Grace managed to finish the chapter she was on and start the next one before it was time for free swim. Changing into her bathing suit, she decided Gaby was right. She’d been reading nonstop for hours. She could use a break.
It was hot out, with no wind. The lake barely even had ripples on its surface. Perfect for swimming laps, which Grace couldn’t wait to do. When she got in the water, she knew her stress about the quiz on Sunday would start to melt away. She’d cool down, enjoy the feel of the water against her skin, and clear her mind from the adventures of Buck for a little while. She couldn’t wait to get into the lake. She put her swimming clip on her nose and looked around for Gaby.
Grace found her sitting on a towel near the shallow part of the lake. “Hey!” Grace called, walking over. “Ready to swim?”
“Oh, I don’t want to swim,” Gaby said, squinting up at Grace. “I figured we’d sunbathe.”
Grace almost laughed. She and Gaby were two of the palest, most freckled kids at camp. Neither one of them was ever going to get a tan—all sunbathing would do was burn them to a crisp or leave them with twice as many freckles. “I’d rather swim,” Grace said. “If we were just going to lie in the sun, I would’ve brought my book.”
“I would’ve brought my book,” Gaby repeated in a high-pitched imitation of Grace. “Can’t you talk about anything but that dumb book?” she added.
“I have to finish it,” Grace cried. “I told you that! You said you wanted to swim.”
Gaby heaved a huge sigh. “Oh, all right,” she said as if she were doing Grace a big favor. “Let’s go in.”
“Cool.” Grace turned and started toward the deeper section where they could swim laps.
“Let’s just go in over here,” Gaby called behind her. “Like we did the other day.”
Grace glanced back, surprised to find Gaby standing near the shallow end where all the little kids swam. “Why?” she asked. “We can’t really swim there. It only comes up to our waists.”
“We don’t have to
swim
swim,” Gaby said. “We can just splash around and get cooled off.”
“But I want to swim laps,” Grace said. She tried to remember whether she’d ever seen Gaby swimming in the lake. “Aren’t you a green yet?” she asked. Maybe Gaby hadn’t learned to dive this summer, in which case she’d still be in the yellow group of swimmers. They weren’t allowed to go in the deep part during free swim.
Gaby snorted. “Please. I’m a blue already.”
Now Grace was really confused. If Gaby was in the blue group, it meant she was an expert swimmer who’d already passed her swimming safety test. So why didn’t she want to go in the deep section? “Well, come on then,” Grace said. “Let’s go swim.”
“But our towels and stuff are over here,” Gaby argued. “I don’t want to have to walk all the way back from the deep part to get a towel.”
“It’s a hundred degrees out!” Grace pointed out. “It’s not like you’ll be cold walking ten feet farther.”
“I’m not in the mood to swim,” Gaby said. “My contact lenses are bothering me.”
“Oh. I didn’t know you wore contacts.”
“Yeah, and I can’t put my face in the water with them in,” Gaby said. “So I can’t really swim. All I can do is go in over here where I can keep my head out.”
Grace frowned. “Then how did you pass your test to be a blue?”
“I wore my glasses that day and took them off to swim. Are we done with the third degree?” Gaby said. “Come on.” Without waiting, she walked into the water in the shallow section.
Frustrated, Grace pulled off her nose clip and followed. Wading around in muddy water wasn’t exactly her idea of a good time. She was annoyed at Gaby, but she was even madder at herself. No matter how hard she tried, she just didn’t seem able to say no to Gaby.
Walking around in the shallow water was boring, so they only stayed in the lake for ten minutes. Then Grace had to sit on shore and listen to Gaby tell gossipy stories about her bunkmates until free swim was over. Grace had never been so happy to hear Tyler blow his whistle.
“Everybody out!” he yelled. “See you tomorrow!”
“Okay, bye,” Grace said in a rush, gathering up her towel.
“What’s the hurry?” Gaby asked.
“I have to go read.”
“Well, hang on, I’ll walk with you.” Gaby slowly picked up her towel, shook it out, and folded it neatly. Grace bounced from one foot to the other in impatience. Finally Gaby was ready to go.

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