Camp Confidential 06 - RSVP (15 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 06 - RSVP
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They reached the table. Pete smiled broadly at Chelsea and said, “Hey, how you doing, Chelsea? Long time no see.”
“Only six months. That’s not all that long,” she said in a flat voice. She didn’t stand up to hug him or anything.
Pete was cool, though. He sat down in Marissa’s chair and faced Chelsea, his hands between his knees. Marissa sat on the other side and Natalie and Simon took Julie and Grace’s chairs.
“Did you have any trouble getting to the reunion?” he asked.
“Just trouble deciding whether or not I should bother to come,” she replied. She kept eating her pizza.
“Well, I’m glad you did.” Pete replied.
Chelsea shifted in her chair. Natalie caught her glancing toward the dance floor, and on impulse, she whispered to Simon, “Would you ask her to dance?”
He raised his brows. She nodded encouragingly.
“If you want me to,” he whispered back. “She does seem kind of lonely.” He cleared his throat. “Hey, Chelsea, would you like to dance?”
She gave him a withering glance. “I only dance with cool boys.”
Simon’s face turned bright red. Natalie was just about to let Chelsea have it for being so rude when Adam and Alex came trotting over. Alex looked flushed from dancing.
They both said hi to everyone at the table and then Adam asked Natalie, “Is it true my sister got herself delivered to your apartment building in a
trunk
?”
“He doesn’t believe me!” Alex informed them.
Natalie giggled. Then she pointed as Jenna came skipping back to the table nibbling on a big piece of chocolate cake. “Ask her!” She turned to Simon. “Let’s go bowling and ride go-karts!”
“You’re on,” he said.
Natalie glanced over at Chelsea. Her head was tucked down as she steadily ate her pizza. She seemed so uncomfortable that Natalie felt sorry for her, despite how rude she had been to Simon—and everyone else. She wanted to say to her, “Please just relax and have a good time. We want to be friends with you. You’ll see later at my house that we really want you to be happy.”
But she was hesitant to talk to her at that moment. She was afraid Chelsea would just twist whatever she had to say and try to hurt her feelings.
So she regretfully walked past her with Simon. Then they pushed through the double doors, laughing and giggling, and headed for the elevators. Bowling was on the next floor down, and the go-karts were on the lowest floor.
“What shall we do first?” Natalie asked Simon.
“Everything!” Simon replied, and they both cracked up.
The rest of the reunion was a blur. Natalie and Simon ran into everyone from the bunk, either bowling or riding go-karts, and watching part of Josie’s movie (Natalie had already seen it at a sneak screening at her dad’s over Christmas break). It was like a wonderful dream that went by all too fast.
Before she knew it, she had hugged and said good-bye to Julie and Marissa. Then Simon walked with her to the two limos her mother had hired to transport the girls of Bunk 3C to Natalie’s apartment. The seven girls who had come straight to the reunion had their suitcases and sleeping bags with them. The limo drivers quickly stored their luggage and instructed the girls where to find the sodas and snacks.
“We know the drill!” Grace said airily. She waved her hands at Natalie as she popped out of the moon roof. “C’mon, Goode, let’s kick it!”
Simon and Natalie faced each other. The girls hung out of the two limos making kissing noises and chanting, “Natalie and Simon, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
They both tried to ignore the others. “It was so awesome to see you,” Simon said to Natalie. “Maybe we could hang out over spring break?”
Natalie didn’t know how she managed not to shout “
Yes!”
Instead, she said warmly, “I’d like that.”
“Cool.” His smile was shy. The girls in the limos whistled and cheered.
Wincing, Natalie grinned back and said, “I have a sleepover to host.”
“You’ll do great,” he said, and she realized that he knew she was nervous even though she hadn’t told him.
“I hope so,” she confessed.
He gave her a quick wink and squeezed her hand. All her bunkmates made groaning and barfing noises. “I have complete faith in you, Natalie.”
“Thanks.” Her hand was tingling. So was her face.
She turned and climbed into the first limo. Grace, Jenna, Alyssa, Karen, and Chelsea were already seated. She was disappointed that Alex was in the other limo, because she wanted to ask her how it had gone with Adam.
Chelsea still looked as miserable as ever. Natalie was a little nervous about Karen sitting beside Chelsea, because Chelsea had really pushed her around at camp.
Everyone except Chelsea yakked and helped themselves to sodas and pretzels. Karen offered a handful of pretzels to Chelsea, who said, “I’m not hungry.” She could have said, “No thank you,” or “Maybe in a little bit.” But, no. Chelsea had to be superblunt and kind of mean about it.
Grace, Jenna, and Alyssa gazed at Natalie as if they were all thinking the same thing she was. But no one said anything. Everyone pretended not to notice Chelsea’s rudeness, just as Pete, Julie, and the other people at the party had overlooked it as well.
“That was so fun,” Karen said. “I went to a bowling birthday party a few weeks ago, but it was nothing like this!”
“Bowling parties are so over,” Chelsea snapped. “Get a clue, Karen.”
Natalie started to seethe, but Alyssa gave her a look that said, “Chill.”
Before anyone could say anything more, Chelsea looked at Natalie and said, “I hope we’re not going to stay up all night. I’m really tired.”
Then why did you come?
Natalie wanted to ask her. But she held back, muttering, “I think I’ll have some pretzels.”
She had been right to worry about tonight’s sleepover. Chelsea was going to do everything in her power to ruin it.
It had begun to snow by the time the two limos stopped at the curb in front of Natalie’s building. The doors flew open before the drivers could get to them, and all eleven girls tumbled out, laughing and catching snowflakes on their tongues.
Chelsea thought about her mother, throwing back her head and pretending to taste delicious flavors. Her hands were sweating. She didn’t know how to explain to the others how scared she was. All she could think to do was try to stay as calm as possible. And to stay calm, she needed these noisy, immature girls to be quiet for a while.
As if
, she thought angrily.
I can’t believe how silly and loud they’re being!
The entire bunk managed to cram into the elevator and zoom up to Natalie’s apartment. Natalie’s mom was out, and would be back at midnight. As with the Friday night sleepover, all the parents had consented to let the girls stay alone because Natalie’s neighbor, Mrs. Goldberg, was available in case of emergencies.
Alex was astounded at how fancy Natalie’s apartment was. She had known that Natalie’s family was very wealthy, but it was like being in a movie. The island decorations were very elaborate, and she laughed when she found out that the “Fun Shack” was actually the trunk Jenna had arrived in.
After everyone had admired Natalie’s bedroom (and all the pictures of her with movie stars and other celebrities), Natalie broke out more sodas and snacks. Alex had some bottled water. She was relieved to see that Natalie had made sure to provide lots of veggies and cheese. One condition of her coming to the overnight was that she would eat carefully.
Natalie gave everyone some ground rules and explained that they would keep the sodas in the fridge, with spares to restock as they drank the cold ones. Then they talked about the reunion for a long time. Alex got teased big-time about Adam and Peter both. She didn’t mind. It was actually kind of fun to get teased about boys!
After a while, they moved on to other things, and Alex had a sense that the sleepover was officially beginning, just the way Dr. Steve had announced that the party at Village Bowl had just begun.
“Okay! Alyssa has made something really special for everybody,” Natalie announced as her guests arranged their suitcases and sleeping bags in the living room.
Alyssa stood up while Natalie and Jenna walked to a pile of what looked like canvas tote bags. Natalie picked one up and handed it to Alyssa.
Alyssa showed it to the girls. There was a moon, a star, and a pine tree, and the words CAMP LAKEVIEW REUNION BUNK 3C in a semicircle. “I designed the logo, and Natalie’s mom got twelve bags made,” Alyssa explained, as the others ooh’ed and aah’ed.
Then Grace and Natalie passed out the bags.
“Mine’s smeared. No surprise there,” Chelsea muttered as she examined the front of her bag.
Alex looked over at it. Sure enough, the moon and the star had run together, and the letters were smudged.
“Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t notice,” Natalie said, reaching for it. “I’ll trade with you.”
Chelsea firmly held it in her lap. “It’s okay. I’m not going to use it anyway,” she snapped.
There was an awkward moment. Natalie said, “I can get my mom to make you another one.”
“Natalie,
hello
?” Chelsea said angrily. “
I said it’s fine.”
“Okay, then. Moving right along.” Grace cleared her throat as she stood up. “Welcome to the Camp Lakeview Book Club. I am your fearless book club leader. My two assistants will now pass out notebooks and pencils. And then we’ll have a little quiz.”
“I think I’m going to get another soda,” Jessie announced.
“And I have to use the bathroom,” Sarah said. “Go ahead and start without me.”
Grace blinked, a little thrown. Natalie and Alyssa passed out small notebooks and pencils to six of the girls sitting cross-legged on the floor: Candace, Alex, Natalie, Alyssa, Chelsea, and Brynn. Natalie didn’t know where Karen had gone.
Grace rustled her papers. “Okay. These are questions about famous books, okay? The first section is titles. First question. This book is about adult females who are about three inches tall. What’s the title of it?”
Alex got it right away. She chuckled. Beside her, Brynn muttered, “
What
?”

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