Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist (13 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist
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As soon as dinner was over, she sprinted back to the office and dialed her home number. “Mom?” she said as soon as she heard someone pick up.
“Hi, honey!” her mother replied. “I’m so proud of you!”
Grace took a huge gulp of air. She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath. “You are?” she asked. “Did I do okay?”
“Is that our brilliant daughter?” Her dad’s voice came on the line.
He must’ve picked up the phone in the den,
Grace thought.
“Hi, Daddy!” she said. “How did I do? Did I get them all right?”
“What do you think?” he asked.
Grace considered. All the questions had seemed pretty straightforward. None of them had given her any reason to doubt her answers. “I think I got them all,” she said slowly. “They weren’t hard.”
“That’s because you really read the book,” her mother replied. “The questions would have seemed hard if you had just skimmed through the chapters without paying attention to what you were reading.”
“You mean the way I usually do,” Grace said.
“Well . . . yes. You’re always more interested in whatever else is going on around you,” her father answered. “But this time you obviously focused on what you were reading and took it in.”
“Yeah, I did,” Grace said. “I just tuned out everything else and read for hours.”
“How did you like that?” her mom asked.
“Not as much as I like hanging out with my friends,” Grace admitted. “But I did like the story. By the time I got halfway through, I really wanted to know what happened to Buck.”
“That’s good enough for now,” her father said. “You got every question right, and we’re happy.”
“Does this mean I can go to WetWorld?” Grace asked. “And audition for the play?”
“Yes and yes,” her mother replied. “As long as you start reading
The Jungle Book
right away.”
“I will! I totally will this time,” Grace promised. “I let you guys down once, and you gave me a second chance. I’m not going to let you down again.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” her father said.
“Good night, honey. We’re proud of you,” her mother added.
When Grace hung up the phone, she did a little jig all the way to the door of the office. She grinned at Kathleen.
“Looks like you passed,” Kathleen said.
“Yup!” Grace ran to the office door and threw it open. Eleven expectant faces gazed back at her. Her bunkmates had all come to wait for the results.
They are the best friends in the entire world,
she thought, touched.
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Natalie said. “How did you do?”
“WetWorld, here we come!” Grace yelled.
chapter TEN
“What’s up, Gracie?” Gaby dropped down on the black box next to Grace at the start of drama class the next day.
Grace couldn’t believe her ears. Gaby sounded completely friendly and normal. As if nothing had happened between them. As if they’d never had a disagreement in their lives.
“Did you see Tyler and Stephanie at breakfast this morning?” Gaby asked. “They were actually holding hands.”
Grace shook her head. How could Gaby just pretend that things were okay between them? Did she expect Grace to forget her bad behavior? Still, Grace couldn’t exactly be rude to her, not when Gaby was acting all nice like this.
“Um . . . I really have to cram,” Grace said. “I didn’t think my parents would let me audition, so I haven’t even bothered to learn the scene.” She turned back to her copy of
The Sound of Music
.
“No kidding,” Gaby said. “I
am
your partner. I know we haven’t been practicing.” She sounded annoyed. But what did she have to be annoyed about? Gaby still hadn’t apologized for lying about her free-swim punishment, and here she was acting as if
Grace
was the difficult one.
“I’m sorry,” Grace said, not entirely meaning it. “We could have been rehearsing an audition scene for you. You never mentioned it, so I just figured you weren’t planning to try out for the play.”
“It’s more fun to have half an hour to play around during drama,” Gaby said. “Who wants to spend time practicing?”
“Um, I do,” Grace told her. “It’s really important to me to get a part in the play this year.” Gaby rolled her eyes, but Grace ignored her. “I’m going to do the scene from
The Sound of Music
like we talked about.”
Gaby played around with the laces on her sneakers. She didn’t seem to want to help, but Grace knew she had no choice. The first half hour of drama was for practicing. Bethany was cool about people sitting and talking quietly with their partners—she knew not everyone wanted to audition. But they weren’t allowed to just goof around or wander away from their partners. So if she wanted to rehearse, Gaby was going to have to sit there and listen.
“It’s the scene where she’s teaching the kids to sing,” Grace said, pulling the typed pages out of her notebook. She hadn’t even looked at them since the second day of drama. She’d been too bummed about the fact that her folks wouldn’t let her try out. But she had the movie
The Sound of Music
on DVD, so she knew the scene pretty well already. “You read the kids’ lines. There aren’t many.” She handed over the pages.
Gaby heaved a huge sigh, as if Grace was asking her to climb a mountain or something.
By the time she’d said two lines, Gaby was yawning. And when it was Gaby’s turn to speak, she was busy putting a little braid in her hair and missed her cue.
“You’re supposed to be helping me,” Grace said, frustrated. “You’re the one who wanted to be partners.”
“That’s because I thought you would be fun,” Gaby said. “I didn’t know you actually wanted to try out for the stupid play.”
Grace noticed Devon and Simon glancing over in her direction. “Shh,” she told Gaby. “Other people are trying to rehearse.”
“So?” Gaby’s voice was as loud as ever.
“Why did you sign up for drama if you think the play is stupid?” Grace asked.
“Who said I signed up for it? I asked for photography, but Lizzie put me in drama.”
“Why?” Grace asked.
Gaby shrugged. “My stupid bunkmate Christa is in photography, and Lizzie wanted to separate us.”
“Because you stole her shampoo?” Grace said.
“I told you I didn’t steal it,” Gaby snapped. “Christa’s just a crybaby.”
Grace didn’t answer. She had a feeling there was more to the story than Gaby was telling her. Based on her conversation with Julie and Marissa, Grace thought that Gaby had gotten in a lot of trouble for bullying Christa.
“Bethany, can I go to the restroom?” Gaby called out. When Bethany nodded, Gaby just got up and left without even glancing in Grace’s direction.
So much for having a scene partner,
Grace thought, exasperated.
I can’t believe I ever thought she could be my best friend.
“Psst, Grace.” Devon leaned toward her. “You can practice with us if you want. We’ll read lines for your scene and you can read lines for ours.”
“Really?” Grace said.
Devon and Simon both nodded.
“Wow. Thanks.” She grabbed her stuff and headed over to them. She tried not to look at Devon’s friendly face. If she did, she knew she’d get tongue-tied and not even be able to read her scene. All she could do was hope that it would be easier talking to Devon using words that someone else had thought up!
Dear Emily,
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. (Repeat at least a hundred times.)
You were right. You said I would be too busy having fun to write to you this summer. And at first I was. But then I got too busy not having fun. There’s this girl Gaby from bunk 3A—that’s right, those evil girls I told you about last year. Anyway, most of those girls are actually okay. But this one is mean. Kind of. Sometimes. She started out being all nice to me, and she was funny. So I thought maybe she could be my camp best friend. Not that I’m trying to replace you!! But it stinks that you’re not here. So I figured I could be friends with Gaby. And as soon as we were friends, she started being weird. Sometimes she’s mean, but then she always says she’s only joking. You know me—I have a good sense of humor. So why can’t I tell when she’s kidding around? I guess I just really missed having one best friend, a partner in crime. But you know what they say—with friends like that! I guess it just goes to show that you really are irreplaceable!
Anyway, I thought I would let you know that I finished The Call of the Wild. Mom and Dad made me take a quiz on it, and I got everything right. Now I just have to read The Jungle Book. I think it will be easy after this one. So, I kept my deal with them to read the book, and now I’m keeping my deal with you. I promised to write and I’m writing!
I wish you were here. You could tell me what to do about the situation with Gaby. I don’t think I really want to be friends with her, but I also can’t stand the thought of being mean or hurting her feelings. Maybe I’m too soft? Who knows. Cross your fingers that I figure it out soon. figure it out soon.
See you in less than a month!
Grace
“Do, a deer, a female deer!” Grace sang as she swept the floor during chores on Wednesday. “Re, a drop of golden sun!”
“Meeee, a name I call myseeelf!” Jenna screeched in a fake falsetto voice.
Everybody cracked up. Grace felt a little bad. They were all probably sick of hearing that song. “Sorry,” she said.
“Grace, you’ve been practicing nonstop for two days,” Alyssa said. “Take a break before you make yourself hoarse.”
“Yeah, you’ll make yourself hoarse,” Candace added.
“Besides, you know the whole scene really well,” Valerie said. She lowered her voice. “You learned it much faster than Brynn did.” Brynn was outside, running lines with Alex as they walked to the Dumpster to throw out the garbage.
“Nah, she’s just a perfectionist,” Grace said. “Plus, Brynn’s had more time to rehearse. Auditions are in an hour and I’m totally not ready.”
“Yes, you are ready,” Marissa said. “You were singing in your sleep last night.”
“Seriously, Grace, you’re a natural,” Natalie said. “You’ll definitely get a part. And then you’ll be the huge celebrity at camp, and everyone will forget all about my father!”
Grace smiled nervously. “I’m finished sweeping. Is it okay if I go over to the drama shack to practice before auditions?”
“Go ahead,” Julie said. “Break a leg!”
“Thanks.” Grace pushed through the door and bounded down the steps. To her surprise, Karen was sitting on the grass in front of the porch. “Hey. Whatcha doing?” Grace asked.
Karen jumped. “Oh! I’m, um, I’m on dusting duty. I came out here to shake out the duster.” She held up their ancient feather duster as evidence.
“You’re shaking out the duster while sitting down?” Grace asked, confused.
“No.” Karen got up quickly. “I was . . . uh . . .”
“Hiding from Chelsea?” Grace guessed.
Karen’s gaze dropped to her sneakers. “No. Of course not.”

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