Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist (17 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist
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“Boo!” said Alyssa, Natalie’s best friend. Alyssa, a funky, artsy girl, hurled a few more candies at Chelsea just for fun.
“I
said
stop it!” Chelsea yelled again. Karen went over to calm Chelsea down, and it was clear they were gossiping about everyone else. Brynn and Grace started talking about the
Peter Pan
play again, and other girls rolled their eyes. Natalie and Alyssa whispered something to each other, and so did Valerie and Sarah.
Alex just didn’t get it. They were all down about something. Natalie was worried about Simon, who hadn’t come to talk to her during free period that day. Grace complained about her parents, who were making her read
The Jungle Book
. Chelsea whined that she needed a nose job (she so didn’t—her beak was as cute as a Barbie doll’s). Jenna said that Adam was driving her insane because he kept asking about her bunkmates without telling her which one he was interested in. Brynn didn’t know how on earth she’d memorize all of her lines in time to perfect the voice she would need in order to deliver them.
Alex breathed in deeply, trying not to get teary-eyed. She knew it wasn’t nice of her to be jealous of them, but she was. She would’ve traded any one of their problems—she would even take two or three of their issues at once!—to get rid of her own. She wanted to know what it was like to be stress-free. She would’ve given her athletic ability—all of it—for just one day where she didn’t have to worry, worry, and worry some more. There she was with the girls who knew her best, if anyone knew her at all, and still, Alex felt totally alone.
Chelsea, surprisingly, had risen from bed and walked over to Jenna’s bottom bunk in her pink-feathered night slippers. Who knew what she said to Jenna, but she went back to her bed with a new handful of Nerds.
“You want some, Alex?” Chelsea asked, interrupting Alex who was deep in thought. She hadn’t been concentrating on the letter, but she was a pro when it came to making it look like she was.
Alex tried to be as casual and busy as she could when she answered, “No, thank you.” She started writing on her sheet of paper energetically. She wanted it to look like she was inspired so no one would want to break her train of deep thought. No one would’ve wanted to, either—no one except Chelsea.
“What? Are you watching your weight?” Chelsea said, grabbing the satin sleep mask she wore at night.
“No,” Alex said sharply, fighting that teary-eyed feeling as hard as she could.
“Hey, everyone, maybe we should try to be as slim and trim and perfect as Alex,” Chelsea remarked.
Alex held a death grip on her pen. She poked a hole through her paper with it. She wanted to scream, to rip Chelsea’s pink slippers to shreds. But mostly, she just hoped that no one could tell how flustered she was at that moment.
“No,” Alex said. She had been born with a naturally slender, stereotypically Korean body like her mother’s. The truth was, Alex couldn’t gain weight if she ate every single box of Nerds produced at the Nerd factory. Tired of always being the skinny girl, she had tried everything she could to pack on some pounds. She ate super-sized combo meals, protein shakes, and cheese-oozing Italian foods—her body stayed as tight and fat-free as a hardback book. So a year ago, Alex started working out to build muscles and bulk up that way. To her surprise, she found out she was really good at sports—all sports—but especially soccer and swimming. Being athletic that summer had started building her confidence. Being teased for her pickiness was breaking her down.
“Lights out!” Julie, their counselor, yelled. Alex was thankful to be rescued.
Valerie got out of bed lightning fast to flick off the night lamps. The girls went back to whispering about whatever as Alex cried herself to sleep.
“Final electives!” Julie yelled the next morning. Everyone needed to pick their final free-choice classes for the last two weeks at Camp Lakeview.
Alex huddled with her best friend, Brynn, to make the big decision. Brynn was such a drama queen, and Alex couldn’t have been more opposite. For that reason, their friendship worked. Brynn created action and excitement. Alex loved her for it—Brynn kept Alex from ever getting bored.
“I have to take drama, of course,” Brynn said.
“Is there any chance I could talk you into taking ceramics with me? Pleeeease!” Alex whined. She wished she and her best friend could finally have a class together. After all, there was no way Alex could take drama—she considered herself allergic to the spotlight.
“Just take drama with me,” Brynn said. “I’ll help you! It would be so cool. You never know—you might be a star.”
“No,” Alex answered. “No, no, and no.”
“I love you, Alex, but you can’t ask me to give up my whole entire life for you,” Brynn said, kind of teasing, kind of not teasing.
“Okay, okay,” Alex relented.
The other girls from the best bunk, 3C of course, flocked to Julie’s sign-up clipboard. Julie was always smiling, and everyone loved her. It didn’t even bother her to get bum-rushed. While Alex waited patiently for the mob to clear, she heard Jenna sign up for photography again with her brother Adam. Alex was happy to see they were getting along better again. Jenna’d had a rough spot a few weeks ago when she’d pulled a crazy prank, letting all of the animals free to howl and poop and cry during the camp social. Grace and Brynn signed up for drama and vowed to be partners. Natalie and Alyssa asked to be on the newspaper together, and Val, always the free spirit, signed up for woodworking.
“You just want to be with the boys!” Chelsea teased her.
“I’m not stupid,” she said, flipping her long cornrows into Chelsea’s face. Alex knew that Val was just playing along, though. Val was really good at woodworking whether more boys happened to be in that class or not. She’d already made a cutting board, a lamp, and a carved plaque with an elephant on it that she’d hung on her bunk.
When the coast was clear, Alex made her move.
“Here comes young Mia Hamm,” Julie said, making Alex blush. “So, what’ll it be?”
“Ceramics, please,” she answered. Alex had seen the necklaces some girls had made in the last session. They were these shiny, round beads that hung from a leather strap. Alex knew her mother, an art teacher, would love to have one. She was so excited to be in ceramics that she had saved that class for last.
“Wait, um, Alex,” Julie called a few seconds later. “Could you please do me a favor?”
“Sure, anything,” Alex said. Julie was truly cool. Anyone would do anything for her.
“I see that ceramics is full, and I promised Christa from 3B that she could be in the class because of all the trouble she’s been having with Gaby,” Julie said.
“Um, well,” Alex said, feeling her hopes sink into the hungry part of her stomach. “Okay,” she added. Alex didn’t know how to say no even though she desperately wanted to. She visualized kicking herself for not signing up for ceramics earlier.
It’s my own fault
, she thought.
“Sweetie, you are
the best
,” Julie said, hugging her. “I know I can always count on my awesome Mia Hamm.”
Alex smiled widely. She loved making other people happy, especially Julie. She watched as Julie found Christa, a shy girl with few friends, and told her she would be in ceramics. Christa’s eyes and smile were gigantic. Alex was disappointed, but she felt so good about giving up her spot. She had done the right thing; she was sure of it. But then why, at that moment, did she feel so sad?
chapter TWO
When Alex was on the soccer field, there was no Chelsea to antagonize her. There were no free-choice mishaps. There was no Brynn overdramatizing about her drama class. There were no cranky campmates. There was, for once, only Alex. And she was the star.
She had been looking forward to the afternoon because that day, for their usual post-breakfast bunk activity, her mates were taking on their rivals, the girls from 3A. Both bunks had chosen to play soccer. When the announcement was made, Alex felt like she would finally have a good day, and she was right. As usual, she had been chosen as the leader of her 3C team, and that made her feel confident. She wasn’t the fastest runner—Sarah had that strength. She also wasn’t the strongest goalie—Jenna could make that claim. But Alex
was
the most fearless player. The ball was her pet. Alex could skillfully follow it, volley it, chase it, and kick it as if it were attached to her Diadora soccer cleats. The soccer ball met its match every time Alex took to the field.
But the other team, the girls from bunk 3A, was playing a really good game. Alex wanted to win, and the score was six for her team, eight for the enemies, er, opponents. She started to freak out. Alex would rather lick bugs every day for two weeks than lose a game of soccer. She thought of her favorite childhood book,
The Little Engine That Could.
She knew it was silly, but that story—one her mother had read to her once a week from nursery school through the first grade—always got her spirits up. She’d tell herself, “I think I can, I think I can,” whenever she got nervous before a test or game or meeting with a teacher. Then during whatever made her nervous, she’d change the words to: “I know I can, I know I can.”
Today, with the other team’s score creeping up, she added another line to the cheerleader in her head. She thought,
I know I can. I know we can. I know, I know, I know.
She didn’t like to brag or anything—bragging was bad manners according to Alex—but she had to get herself psyched to win three more points and take the game. As the next time-out happened, she took charge—something she’d been doing a lot this summer—and gave the only advice she knew that would help them win.
“You all are awesome! You are better than these girls! You can kick their tails—I’ve seen you do it before. Now come on!” she yelled. The girls from 3C just watched her.
Candace said, “We can kick their tails!”
Jessie yelled, “You betcha!”
Others stood in the huddle with their mouths open. Some were really passionate about soccer, but most just saw it as a way to have some fun. Those who weren’t as competitive were the ones Alex had to get pumped up.
“My shins are getting sore,” Alyssa said, bending over to rub them.
“My throat hurts,” Chelsea whined, twirling her hair around her pointer finger.
That’s when Valerie stepped in, “You all are fine. You have to be! We’re gonna win!” Valerie was always like that—she had the sunniest attitude of anybody. Alex was starting to realize that Val was never, ever in a bad mood.
“That’s right, we are,” Jenna added with pursed lips and furrowed brows. She took soccer as seriously as Alex did.
“Who’s the best?!” Alex yelled, relieved that the whiners—there were always two or three on every team—had been shut down. She was even more relieved that Valerie had been the one to do it. She was such a cool girl. No one could argue with Valerie.
“Um, you are,” Natalie answered, looking at Alex.
“No!” Alex laughed. “
We
are!”
After the pep talk, Alex started talking strategy. She told Sarah to run past the other team’s best runner—that would distract her from the game at hand. Jenna had three girls to cover. Brynn was supposed to stand near the goal and block anyone who came toward Alex when she went in for the point. Even the whiners came on board for the winning plans. By the end of the time-out, no one was unmotivated anymore. Instead, their expressions were determined. The girls looked like they took this game seriously, and even better, they looked like they wanted to win.
They huddled up in a circle like a bunch of NFL football stars and yelled their bunk cheer, “We be 3C!” It wasn’t poetry, but it was catchy. They high-fived and cheered one another as they ran back to the field. The other team watched them quietly. Alex could tell her opponents were worried, and she was glad. Her team really did have the edge on the winning mindset, which meant they were halfway there.
Alex was so pumped. She stole the ball from Gaby, wheedled it through the players with ease, and scored. Then she scored again. And again. Because of Alex’s talent and the rest of the crew’s enthusiasm, they were able to take the game, and they took it fast. Neither team could even believe what had happened. The girls from 3C, with Alex in the lead, had won. But most surprising is that it hadn’t even been very difficult. Alex was proud and happy and confident all at the same time.

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