Camp Confidential 06 - RSVP (13 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 06 - RSVP
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Marissa and Julie brought over large pitchers of soda, one in each hand, and set them down on the table.
“This one’s Diet Coke,” Julie told Alex as she placed it in front of her.
Alex nodded. Even though she knew a lot of the other girls drank diet sodas, she felt singled out.
Just then, Dr. Steve appeared on the little stage at the end of the room. He was wearing his navy blue Camp Lakeview polo shirt and khakis. In fact, he looked the same as he did at camp, except he was a little pale, compared to his usual burnt-lobster hue at camp.
Everyone at the table except Alex, Marissa, and Julie started cheering and screaming. Alex just sat there.
“Hello, Camp Lakeview alumni!” Dr. Steve said. The microphone zinged and he took a step away from it. Then he craned his neck down and said, “Can you hear me now?”
Laughter echoed off the walls.
“Okay, let’s review some safety tips and Village Bowl regulations, and then we’ll get this reunion started.”
More applause and cheers rocked the house. Alex heard some boys hooting and strained to see where 3F was sitting. But she couldn’t see beyond the 3C table. They had so much stuff heaped on it that it blocked her view of the rest of the party room.
Their beloved leader started to blink as he droned a long list of rules and regulations, most of it seeming to center around wearing socks with their rented bowling shoes. As was their habit, the girls of 3C pretty much ignored “Dr. Flutter Bug,” which was his camp nickname because he blinked so much.
Then Dr. Steve finally said, “All right! Our DJ, KMAXX, will be taking requests, so just come up and tell him what you want to hear. And now, I declare this reunion officially begun!”
Everyone yelled and cheered again. Alex couldn’t find it in her heart to say one “yay.”
“That means we can start eating, right?” Grace asked Julie.
“Yes,” Julie said. “It’s a buffet, so you can grab a plate and load up on whatever you want. I’ll bet Jenna will eat at least four burgers. Right, Jenna?”
But Jenna didn’t reply. She was studying 3A’s table as if something was wrong. Alex wondered if she thought the Color War theme was dumb, too.
“I’m eating six pieces of pizza,” Sarah announced. “What about you, Alex?”
“Sure,” Alex muttered. She started to push back her chair at the exact same time as Natalie. She got her ankle caught in her chair leg and fell forward—knocking over the pitcher of Diet Coke. It splashed all over Sarah, completely soaking her from her chest on down.
“Oh, no!” Sarah wailed, leaping to her feet. She was dripping wet. She staggered backward, staring at herself, and burst into tears. “My outfit!”
“I’m so sorry!” Alex cried. “Let me help you!”
Sarah ran for the bathroom. Alex started to follow, but Julie said, “Don’t worry, Alex. I’ll handle it.”
Julie took off after Sarah while the rest of the table immediately started cleaning up the mess. Alex gathered up wads of napkin to sop up the huge pool of soda on the table.
Then Jenna said, “Hmm, oh, dear,” and frowned over at 3A’s table again.
Then all of a sudden, some of the 3A girls erupted into a humongous argument.
Marta yelled, “Just stop it!” at Gaby.
Gaby shouted back, “Oh, just get over yourself!”
“Girls, girls!” Lizzie cried. She started talking to them in a low voice.
Maybe she can come over here next and straighten us out,
Alex thought.
Next, wild music and screeching singing blared from the center of 3A’s table! It drowned out Lizzie, and all the girls started shouting and covering their ears. It was some crazy hip-hop song—and it sounded like Jenna was singing the words!
“Bunk 3A, yo, 3A!
I see that bunk, I run away!
Ooh, ooh, they so fresh!
They put 3C to the test!
Bunk 3A! I’m singing 3A, yo!”
“Oh, this is
so
not working out the way I planned it!” Jenna cried.
Around the party room, most of the other partygoers were cracking up, hooting and laughing. Alex couldn’t help the lopsided grin that crossed her face. Jenna had pulled another prank that was spinning out of control!
“Something’s under the table!” Gaby cried.
As Alex watched in stunned amazement, Jenna dashed over to 3A and dove under their table at the same time that half the bunk did the same. There was a lot of yelling. Jenna disappeared. Then she crawled back out, holding her laptop in her arms!
Gaby and Marta, and some of the other 3A bunkmates headed straight for Jenna as Jenna ran back to 3C’s table.
The music stopped playing just as Gaby yelled, “Knock it off!”
“Help!” Jenna cried, running around to Alex’s side of the table.
At the same time, the DJ started playing the old song, “YMCA” by the Village People. The laughter died down as everybody waited to see what would happen next.
Stephanie and Lizzie trotted toward to the center of the room. So did many of the other counselors.
“Jenna, you are so busted!” Marissa warned Jenna. Then she said to Alex, “I guess Julie is still helping Sarah. Can you girls work on the spill?”
“Yes,” Alex assured her.
“Do not go anywhere, Jenna,” Marissa said.
Then she reached beneath the table, grabbed something made out of navy blue material, and ran to join the others. She was holding a fishing hat just like Dr. Steve always wore at camp, and as the girls started laughing, she put it on. All the other counselors and CITs put on fishing hats, too!
They sang along with the music:
“Campers! Are you longing for home?
I say, campers! Did you bring a cell phone?
Hey guess what! Now that I’m grown I can
serve you breakfast!
Cuz I am a C-I-T!”
The chorus kicked in:
“Camp C-I-T!
I used to be a Camp C-I-T!”
The place went nuts as the counselors and former CIT’s did a funky version of the Electric Side. Then they pulled Dr. Steve, Nurse Helen, Kathleen, and all the other division heads onto the floor. Some of the older campers began to dance.
“This is awesome!” Grace cried. “It’s like they copied Jenna!”
“They did!” Jenna said. “I came up with a funny song first!”
“Yeah, and now 3A is out for revenge,” Grace said as their rivals glared at them. Alex guessed that the only reason they hadn’t stomped over to 3C was because Lizzie had told them not to.
The YMCA-CIT song ended. The dancers all swept a low bow and started applauding all the campers. Everyone at the tables clapped, whistled, and hooted back.
It was crazy, and despite herself, Alex started grinning broadly. She loved her Camp Lakeview family. She really did.
Suddenly, right beside her, Gaby’s voice filled the room, yelling, “Knock it off! Knock it off! Knock it off!
”
in a loop on Jenna’s laptop.
chapter
ELEVEN
Everyone started laughing again—except bunk 3A. And Kathleen, and Nurse Helen, and Dr. Steve.
Jenna swallowed hard and said, “How did
that
happen?” as she worked the keyboard of her laptop and shut it down. She looked freaked out.
Dr. Steve himself walked up to Jenna and said, “Please come with me.”
Jenna followed behind him as he led her to a corner of the room. He began to talk and gesture at her laptop. Jenna’s head was bowed.
“Wow, he looks mad,” Natalie said.
“I’m so glad I’m not Jenna,” Grace chimed in.
Marissa got up and joined them, her arms crossed over her chest. Nurse Helen and Kathleen went over with them as well.
Then Marissa walked Jenna back to the table, carrying Jenna’s laptop for her.
“Wow, that was an awesome prank!” Grace said.
“Dr. Steve didn’t think so,” Jenna sulked. “That man has no sense of humor.”
“Gaby was very embarrassed, Jenna,” Marissa said.
“But I told you guys, that wasn’t part of the prank!” She turned to her bunkmates. “See, what happened, was I made a funny song with Nicole,” Jenna explained. “My new friend back home. Then I recorded it onto my laptop. I recorded a bunch of blank songs first, so I could delay the song, and then I hid it under 3A’s table.”
“That was why you had to carry your blue bag. Your laptop was in it,” Grace guessed.
“Yeah, and then when I said I went to get my purse, that’s when I saw my chance to hide it under there. But then when Alex spilled the pitcher of soda all over Sarah, I got worried that something might happen to it. Then it went off!”
She looked at Marissa. “Like I said, I didn’t mean to record Gaby mouthing off. I must have hit the record button or something when I was trying to get away.”
“Oh, Jenna Bloom,” Marissa said, shaking her head. “You have a gift for turning a small prank into total chaos.”
“I hate to tell you this, Marissa,” Natalie said, “but I think Jenna will take that as a compliment.”
That’s exactly what I was thinking!
Alex thought. All at once, she was confused about how she felt about Natalie. She was really mad at her, but she felt so weird sitting next to her not saying anything. And then Natalie had gone and said the exact same words that Alex had thought of saying. It made her remember how close they had once been. Part of her was totally glad to see her again. Even if she was angry.
I wish I could hit the rewind button and start this whole thing over,
Alex thought sadly.
As everyone sat back down, Julie and Sarah returned to the table. Sarah was wearing a black-and-white skirt and a black sweater. They were a little baggy on her, but it was a good outfit. She looked totally stylish.
“Julie is lending me the clothes she’s wearing to the christening tomorrow,” Sarah said happily.
“You look hot,” Natalie said.
“Jenna got in trouble while you were gone,” Marissa told Julie. “She hid her laptop under 3A’s table and then accidentally recorded and played back Gaby.”
“Yeah, Gaby having a spazz attack!” Grace said, and Jenna tried not to smile. “Everyone heard it!”
Julie groaned. “Jenna Bloom, I swear! You’re shortening my life.”
“I’m sorry, Julie,” Jenna said sincerely. “It’s just . . . so easy for me,” she finished with a sigh.
“Our table is falling into chaos!” Brynn cried. “What shall we do?”
“Maybe we should eat,” Grace suggested.
The girls started to get in line for burgers and pizza slices. Alex stayed where she was.
As they came back with food, Julie sat down in Chelsea’s empty chair.
“Alex, is something wrong?” Julie asked kindly. “You don’t seem like you’re having very much fun.”
Alex shook her head. Then she decided to be honest. She said, “I really liked my Color War idea. I thought it would be funny if both 3A and 3C did it, because we could challenge each other to see who did the theme better. Then it would
be
like a Color War.”
“Oh.” Julie looked impressed. “That
would
have been really fun.”
“Yeah, and Brynn thought so, too,” Alex continued. “But you guys wouldn’t listen. As soon as Natalie said ‘purple,’ there was nothing more to say.”
“No way,” Grace chimed in as she returned to the table with her plate of food. “No one spoke up, so Julie figured we all agreed on purple.”
Alex looked up to see that many of the others had also returned with their food. Natalie stood between Alyssa and Grace, listening carefully.
“I
wanted
to do the Color War idea,” Karen said.
“Yeah, really,” Candace added.
“Oh, Alex, I’m so sorry,” Julie said.
“No wonder you got so annoyed at Natalie,” Grace exclaimed. Then she covered her face with her hands. “Eek. Forget I said that.”
“Well, if Alex thought everyone had been ignoring her, no wonder she sent that snarky IM,” Jenna said.
“It was
not
snarky,” Alex said, mortified. As Brynn gave her a look, she mumbled, “Okay. Maybe it was.”
“It
so
was!” Grace said. “We were all like, ‘What happened to Alex?’”
“Just because I was trying so hard to make things nice for everyone,” Natalie added. Her voice was shaking.
“You took it all over!” Alex cried.
“Talk about a Color War,” Jenna said. “This is like a bunk war.”
“Total war,” Candace echoed.
“Okay, time out,” Julie said. She looked from Alex to Natalie to Marissa.
“Alex, no one meant to ignore your suggestions,” Julie reassured Alex. “Maybe if you had had a chance to explain your idea about challenging 3A, we would have stuck with Color War. I’m sorry I didn’t pay better attention.”

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