Camp Confidential 06 - RSVP (17 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 06 - RSVP
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“We hear you,” Alex told her. “And we’re here for you.”
By the time Natalie’s mother came home, Chelsea had joined the party—for the first time ever, really. She was wearing a long nightgown with Exeter Academy—the name of her boarding school—in a shield on the front. All the girls were in their pj’s, yakking and laughing. Five girls—Grace, Jenna, Alyssa, Brynn, and Candace—were watching the first movie Natalie’s father had ever been in. It was a really bad, low-budget horror movie. They were laughing so hard, they couldn’t sit up straight.
“Hi, Mom,” Natalie sang out. Seated on the back of the couch, she was cradling the most recent issue of
YM
in her lap. The other five bunkmates—Alex, Sarah, Jessie, Chelsea, and Karen—were sitting on the carpet, which was protected by pages from the
New York Times
, while they painted their nails.
“Okay, how many vote for the perfume personality quiz?” Natalie asked.
Alex, Sarah, and Chelsea raised their hands.
“Off the back of the couch please, Nat,” her mom said.
Natalie scooted down. “Did you have a nice evening?” she asked her mom. Then, before her mom could answer, she asked the girls, “Okay, how many want to hear their horoscopes?”
Jessie and Karen raised their hands. Chelsea did, too.
“Chelsea!” Alex protested. “You can’t vote twice!”
“Sure I can!” Chelsea insisted, laughing.
The five girls laughed as hard as the ones who were watching the movie.
“Yes, I did. Anything I need to know about?” Natalie’s mom asked, sounding amused.
“It’s all good,” Natalie told her.
“Well, I’m glad you ladies are having fun,” Natalie’s mom said. “I’ll say good night.”
“Night, Mom!” Natalie called, still laughing.
Her mother left the room. About ten seconds later, she reappeared.
“What is Jenna’s trunk doing in my office?”
Natalie covered her mouth. “We forgot!”
She looked at the crazy mob of girls sprawled all over her living room. It seemed like forever ago that they had stashed the trunk in her mom’s office.
“You forgot why it’s there or you forgot to take it out?” her mom asked. “Never mind. We’ll take care of it tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Natalie said. Her eyes shone. “This is the best sleepover ever!”
“You got that right!” Grace boomed.
Everyone cheered.
“Girls! Not so loud! It’s midnight!” Natalie’s mom admonished them. But she looked really happy.
Almost as happy as Natalie herself!
Everyone slept late on Sunday morning. Then Hannah called to tell Natalie that it was nice to meet all her camp girlfriends.
Then she cleared her throat and said, “May I speak to Alyssa? You can stay on.”
Alyssa got on the extension. Hannah said, “I think you and I got off on the wrong foot. Maybe you and I don’t have much in common besides Natalie. But she’s an excellent friend to each of us. Am I right?”
“You are right,” Alyssa said. “Thanks, Hannah.”
“Cool,” Hannah said, and hung up.
Alyssa smiled at Natalie. “You’ve got an excellent friend, Nat.”
Natalie grinned at her. “Yes, I do. In fact, I’ve got two!”
Natalie’s mom treated everybody to a proper New York breakfast at Mavin Deli. She ordered piles of blueberry and cranberry bagels, and two large carafes of hot chocolate. Chelsea laughed at everyone’s silly jokes and then they all hung their spoons on their noses just like the dorky boys in Simon and Adam’s bunk. Natalie’s mom just shook her head and smiled.
They finished their tasty breakfast and loped through Central Park. It had snowed during the night, and the large, naturally landscaped park in the center of New York City glittered and gleamed. Despite the fact that they weren’t dressed for rough-and-tumble play, the girls plunged into powdery snowdrifts and threw snowballs at one another, whooping with glee.
“We’re all going to have to go soon,” Alyssa said, panting, as they took a break. “We have buses to catch, parents coming . . .”
“I can’t believe our Camp Lakeview reunion weekend is almost over,” Natalie told her. “You were so awesome. You helped me so much. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Nat. Of course,” Alyssa said.
They hugged.
Then Natalie shouted, “Everybody, come here! Mom!” She held out her digital camera. “Take our picture, please?”
Her mother had stood off to one side, giving the girls some room to roam. Now she strode over to Natalie and took the camera from her.
“Okay, girls of 3C,” Natalie’s mom said, backing away as she looked through the viewfinder. “Everyone scoot in tight!”
Snow began to fall as they put their arms on one another’s shoulders. Chelsea stood in the middle of the first row, a girl on either side of her hanging onto her, and she holding onto them.
“Say 3C!” Grace shouted.
“3C!” everyone bellowed, grinning at the camera.
“Hi, Valerie!” Alex shouted.
Everyone yelled, “Hi, Valerie!”
“Hey! This snow tastes like Twizzlers!” Chelsea cried.
At the exact same time, everyone tipped back their heads.
“It does!” Natalie cried.
“It totally does!” Alex yelled.
“Well! This is going to make a strange picture!” Natalie’s mom protested.
“It’s going to be an excellent picture!” Natalie corrected her.
“You got that right!” Grace cried.
The bunkmates cheered and hooted.
They were the girls of Bunk 3C, truly together at last.
chapter
ONE
Dear Hannah:
I guess sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction, huh? Or, the more things change the more they stay the same. Or even, a rolling stone gathers no moss? Whatever, I’m babbling, and you can feel free to insert your own cliché HERE. The point is that if this time last year you had told me that I would be RETURNING to Camp Lake-puke—voluntarily, no less—I would have laughed in your face. And then run away crying.
And yet. Here I am, crowded onto a smelly, oversized charter bus and surrounded by kids singing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” at the top of their lungs. And even though they are only at 87 bottles, and even though some of these kids couldn’t even make the first cut of “American Idol,” I don’t have the vaguest impulse to scream. In fact, I’m feeling pretty zen. I even chimed in for a bar or two, somewhere back around 81 bottles or so.
Pretty amazing, huh?
Not only am I not hating the thought of coming back to camp, but I’m even sort of excited about it. Mom shipped me out with a survival kit of soy chips and Powerbars well in advance this time around. No more tuna surprises for me! And I am all stocked up on magazines. Alyssa’s here sitting next to me—she says hi—and Grace is somewhere up front, leading a small faction of non-singers in a rousing game of bus charades. It’s hilarious. And I can’t wait to see the rest of the girls: Jenna, Valerie, Sarah, Alex, and the other 3C-ers.
And, um, a particular boy.
Yes, Simon. He’s been awesome about writing and calling, as you know, but we’ve only seen each other once in person since the reunion. I’m going into serious withdrawal. I really, really hope he’s as excited to see me as I am to see him. But only time will tell, right? Right. I wish you were here to give me one of your patented pep talks.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little nervous.
Anyway, the natives are getting restless, which must mean that we’re almost there. That, and Alyssa just told me that we’re almost there. See how smart I am?
I’d better sign off. Try not to miss me too much while you’re strolling along the Champs Elysées, eating chocolate croissants and shopping till you drop. You can feel free to send me some French truffles whenever the spirit moves you.
Write soon,
Natalie
Natalie Goode capped her purple felt-tipped pen, folded her letter to her best friend, Hannah, into quarters, and tucked it into the front pouch of her backpack. She sighed contentedly. Hannah was spending the summer in France with her mother, a superglamorous foreign ambassador. Hannah’s parents traveled a ton for work, and over the summers they preferred to travel
with
their daughter, generally to various exotic locales.
Not Natalie’s parents, though. Natalie’s mother was an art buyer, and summers were her time to scout new talent. And Natalie’s father . . . well, he had a pretty offbeat career.
Natalie’s father was Tad Maxwell, a hugely famous movie star who mostly appeared in big-time action movies. He lived in L.A. full-time but was on the road a lot, shooting on location and doing press junkets for his various movies and stuff. Natalie missed him, of course, but her parents had gotten divorced when she was pretty young and so she was used to the situation by now. Her dad loved her; she knew that beyond a doubt, and she never took the time that they had together for granted.
In fact, for Natalie, the biggest thing about having a famous father was worrying what other kids would think of her. At her school, lots of kids had parents who were ultra-wealthy or had high-powered jobs and stuff. So they didn’t think anything of the fact that Natalie’s father was a movie star. But she never knew how other people—and in particular, new people—would react. That was one of the reasons Natalie had been so nervous last summer, when her mother had sent her off to Camp Lakeview—or “Lake-puke,” as Nat had affectionately come to call it (the other reason had to do with a deathly aversion to “the Great Outdoors” that Nat had since gotten over, thankfully).
When Natalie thought about how totally unenthusiastic she had been about camp last summer, she had to laugh. After all, she’d made some amazing friends at Lakeview, and learned a lot about herself in the process. Okay, sure, people were
slightly
weirded out when they found out the truth about her father, but her friends—her real friends—were mostly just disappointed that she hadn’t felt that she could confide in them. And besides, that was all over, now, anyway, Her secret was out in the open.
Way
out in open. Natalie wondered if her friend Alex, a Lakeview legacy and soccer champ, brought her Tad Maxwell poster back to camp this summer.
Or maybe she even got a new one,
Nat thought. Alex could be a little bit of a know-it-all, but she was a dedicated camper and a supremely loyal friend. Natalie was psyched to be bunking with her again this summer.

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