Camp Payback (17 page)

“It’s nothing.” He stuffed his hand in his cargo shorts pocket. “Look, thanks for checking on me, but everything’s fine.”

My teeth clenched. How easily he brushed me off like I meant nothing. Like my concern meant nothing.

“What did Gollum say? Did you tell him the fight was between Vijay and Jake? That you only went…because of me?” I squeaked out the last part, the guilt choking me.

“Bam-Bam intervened. He’d heard what happened from Emily and…” He took a deep breath and stared off in the direction of the moon, still kind of low over the lake where we could see it through the trees. “Bam-Bam went to bat for me. Really fought hard to make Woodrow let me stay. He told him I’d do some kind of overnight intervention thing with him.”

I silently vowed to be extra-nice to Emily for the rest of the summer. “He seems like a good guy. I just hope they kicked Vijay out.”

“As if. Vijay hasn’t used up all his chances like me. His punishment is to have an activity period taken away so he’ll sit in the mess hall for an hour a day.” He shook his head. “Right where I get to look at his ugly mug.”

I was stunned. “You’re kidding? That’s all he gets while you’re given the third degree? I just can’t believe you’d get in trouble
at all
when you didn’t even—”

“Alex.” Javier stared me down, his chocolate eyes fierce in the moonlight. “Don’t make excuses for me. Hitting him was wrong and I’m not getting dragged into situations where I can’t control myself anymore.”

“I didn’t make the drama—”

“But we let him drag us into it. The kid’s not right in the head, and the sooner everyone else realizes it, the sooner he’ll get help. Until then, I’d suggest you stay away from him, too.” He stepped toward his cabin, but I couldn’t let him go yet.

Not on that crap ending note.

“I’m sorry.” I put my hand on his chest to stop him, but then I pulled back. “I should have listened to you and stayed away from the fight. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. I make my own mistakes, and now I need to take that trip with Bam-Bam this week. He told me we were lucky that TV show of yours wasn’t around to catch that on tape or it’d be a lot worse. Oh, and I’m also supposed to hang out with the guys in my cabin more. Like we’re going to suddenly all be pals.” His jaw tightened. “It’s all B.S. But I’ve got one last chance here, Alex. I can’t screw it up.”

I nodded. “I know.”

“My mom—” He swallowed hard. Shook his head.

Nearby, a screen door banged from one of the cabins. Javier put an arm around me and guided me behind a thick tree trunk, and it was all I could do not to lay my head on his chest and feel his heart beat against my cheek. I could do it, too. We were so close.

“I don’t want anyone to overhear us,” Javier spoke against my temple, his words soft against my ear.

I nodded and—against all instincts—stepped back.

“I’m so glad you’re staying.” I snapped a twig off the pine tree, the sticky sap smearing on my fingers. “I’ll try to respect what you want.”

Maybe if I gave him space for a few days, he’d miss me. Besides, we’d be working on the play together. I could see him when he was Tony and I was Maria.

“It’s safer for both of us.” He reached toward me, and I closed my eyes.

Hoping.

His lips found mine in a kiss so light I could have dreamed it. He touched my hair, stroking down the side of my head and twining a finger in one lock before he let it go again and stepped back.

“Night, Alex.” He spoke softly, and I pretended it was tenderness I heard in his voice instead of goodbye.

I had to lick my lips before I could get any words out.

“Goodnight, Javier.”

I walked away before I said how I really felt. We might come from different worlds, but we were the same where it mattered. With him, I didn’t have to try so hard to be accepted, didn’t have to try at all. He liked me for who I was, and that was more precious to me than any payback summer.

……………….

“Where were you last night?” Trinity’s soft voice startled me awake the next morning.

She perched on the edge of my mattress, making me wonder what time it was. It seemed too dark to be breakfast time. Since most of the Munchies were gone, they must be at the showers. Jackie, however, was still in her bunk on the other side of the cabin, softly snoring.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I yawned through my lie, not ready to sit up. Last night wore me out in too many ways to count.

Javier
.

I missed him, even though I knew we’d be together soon. I’d really, really blown it the day before.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You left, and I didn’t rat you out. That means you tell me what happened.”

Trinity wore her glasses instead of contacts, a sure sign she’d just rolled out of bed. The funky purple frames had zebra stripes on the arms. Her nightshirt had a screen print of some Dali image on it—a fact I’d never have known if she hadn’t explained it to me once. The melting watch had something to do with surrealism, I think. But I personally equated it with the way time slowed down at camp. Less focus on the cyber world. No discussions about Twitter feeds and what was trending in social media—especially when that trend was me. The year when I’d first gotten my period, I’d thought the Internet would implode from the comments on my parents’ blog post about it.

Total humiliation.

“I had to see Javier and find out what happened after Gollum dragged him off.” Reluctantly, I elbowed my way to a sitting position, blinking against the gray light and noticing it was pouring rain outside.

No wonder it seemed so dark. The earthy, loamy scents of camp really came to life in the rain. I inhaled the cool, wet breeze that floated through an open window above my bed. It hadn’t warmed up since the night before.

“And?” Trinity waved her hand in a circulating motion—to get my story moving.

“Bam-Bam stuck up for him and said he’d take Javier on an overnight thing—like some kind of ‘scared straight’ thing maybe. So Gollum said Javier could stay, but it’s his last warning. If he messes up again, he’s done here.”

Which meant I needed to make sure that didn’t happen. I didn’t want to stay away from him, but if there was really no other way…

“That’s not fair. Oh, hey, check this out!” Trinity climbed down the ladder, pulled her suitcase closer by the leather handle, and dug through the tangle of colorful tees and shorts. She pulled out a paint-by-numbers velvet canvas of Elvis Presley. “Does my Secret Camp Angel know me or not?”

I examined the dusty, dime-store gift. “Ummmmm. Not.” We both laughed.

Trinity pulled a bra on under her sleep shirt. “So how come Gollum will acknowledge that Vijay was in the wrong and then still give Javier the third degree like it was his fault?”

“Because life sucks.” I smacked the flyswatter against the window screen, scaring the snoozing moths that hovered on the other side.

I would have vented more, but the screen door banged open and Emily charged inside, her red-and-black ladybug umbrella spinning water droplets everywhere as she tumbled in out of the rain.

“Raining cats, dogs, and pine needles out there!” she huffed, tossing aside the umbrella while Piper and Siobhan rushed indoors. “Girls, you’d better hit the showers if you want to make it to breakfast on time.”

There were more grumbles from Jackie’s bed, and she tossed a wadded-up gym sock in the general direction of the noise but it landed with an ineffectual plop on top of the blue duffle bag emblazoned with her school’s name and volleyball team’s logo.

“I agree with Jackie.” I made no move to get out of bed. “Who cares about rushing to breakfast only to hear we’ll be stuck inside all day doing some dumb activity Gollum pulls out of his butt?”

“Someone needs to remember her Kindness Cup manners!” Emily chirped, waving the big pink painted chalice she’d made the year before. “No wonder we’re halfway through the summer and there’s hardly a chip in sight.” She rattled it meaningfully, stirring just a handful of poker chips she’d painted with daisies or covered with unicorn stickers.

It was tough to think evil thoughts with those unicorns staring up at you with their big, blue anime eyes.

Piper rattled a worn box beside her bunk. “We could stay in and play with my Secret Camp Angel gift.”

Jackie squinted at her. “Why would someone give you a
Star Wars
LEGO set?”

“Maybe they think she’s really an alien.” Siobhan stopped toweling her hair and headed to the mirror.

“Or nine years old,” I added, laughing as I forced myself out of bed.

“Wait until you hear about today’s rain activity,” Siobhan called over the top of the whirring hairdryer she’d plugged into the socket near her bed. She smoothed her dark hair with a round brush, making it shine blue-black even in the dull gray light.

I was glad to see she’d recovered from the chess loss the night before.

“I’m afraid to ask,” I said, bored already as I rummaged for a piece of gum to tide me over until I could brush my teeth.

“It’s going to be a whistling, hog calling, lip-syncing, stunt contest,” Emily blurted, bouncing on her toes and spinning around in a circle for good measure.

We all stared. Even for Emily, this seemed over the top.

“What?” I shook my head to clear my ears.

Piper scrunched up her nose and squinted, as if seeing Emily better might help her figure this one out.

Behind Emily, Yasmine strolled into the cabin, drenched to the skin and not seeming to notice. She hummed to herself, in fact. What was wrong with that girl?

“A whistling, hog calling, lip-syncing, stunt contest!” Emily counted out the name on her fingers, her nails decorated with American flags and military stars that were probably some kind of ode to Bam-Bam. “Mr. Woodrow may not remember, but he put
me
in charge of back-up activities and named me the official Rainy Day Director in a planning session last spring.”

“I’m sure Mr. Woodrow appreciates your creativity, Emily.” Yasmine smiled warmly at our counselor.

I tried not to roll my eyes at the obvious suck-up since Gollum had probably wracked his brain to find some task to give our over-eager counselor that wouldn’t wreak havoc on his camp.

“Aww!” Emily grabbed the Kindness Cup and held it out to Yasmine. “Score one for Yasmine being so sweet!”

Somewhere, a unicorn lost its horn.

“Emily?” I toed open my suitcase and scrounged for something clean. “What exactly is hog whistling?”

“You’ll love this.” Emily shoved the Kindness Cup back up on a shelf over her bunk. “I looked up rainy day activities in a book after Mr. W. assigned me the position. And I saw a bunch of silly little stuff, like a whistling contest. An animal sounds contest. A knot-tying contest.”

Jackie sat up and yawned.

“Exactly!” Emily shouted, pointing at Jackie. “Yawn, right? But if we combined them…” She peered around the room, her smiling growing wider and wider until she was all teeth and gums. “We’ve got a fun day of stunts and talents and silliness that will have us all laughing. It’s going to be great!”

She cranked up a contraband radio and started dancing to the beat. Talk about being high on life.

I still had no idea what hog calling involved, but as I slogged out of the cabin and into the rain toward the showers, I wished I could at least sit next to Javier during the event. As friends. A shared laugh would be good for us, even if I wasn’t his girlfriend/friend with potential anymore.

Then again, maybe I never had been.

Javier had one more chance at Camp Juniper Point, but it seemed like I’d already used up mine.

……………….

Tough to share a laugh with the boy you like when he doesn’t even bother showing up. And watching Buster—one of the Warrior guys—actually compete for a bird call prize was fairly entertaining. His turkey call might be dead-on accurate for all I knew, but the contortions involved in drawing in his cheeks and clucking in his throat had potential for hysterics.

While he gobbled and cooed on stage, I slumped in my chair at the rainy day extravaganza and wished Javier had at least come out of the kitchen after breakfast. But I’d watched the double doors for a long time while helping set up the mess hall with a stage and something vaguely resembling theater seating, and my handsome Russian-Venezuelan kind-of-boyfriend had never made an appearance.

“Are you all right, Alex?” Emily slid into the empty seat beside me while the acts changed and a ten-year-old camper in pigtails took the stage with a hula hoop.

“Yeah.” I tried to force a smile. “You did a great job on the event.”

“You have to admit Buster’s hog call was great!” Even Emily couldn’t quite pull off that fib. Her toothy grin seemed a little lopsided.

“It was a turkey call,” I told her, smiling for real this time.

“Oh! Well, that explains that.” She bit her lip hard because—true to her Kindness Cup and Secret Camp Angel roots—she wasn’t the snarky type.

And Buster’s turkey impression would test anyone’s anti-snark powers.

“Emily?” If I didn’t ask her now, I’d lose my nerve.

And I needed a favor to distract myself from what I was feeling about Javier.

“Mmm?” Eyes on the stage, she pumped her fist in the air and whooped as the pigtailed hula-hooper spun the neon green ring on one arm.

“Will you ask Mr. Woodrow about doing the play this summer?” She’d seemed excited about it the night before. “We could do it instead of the talent show. You could direct it.”

The play could distract me from Javier.
Or
it could bring us together, since he had agreed to be Tony in the production. I really, really needed that play to happen.

Emily forgot about the hula-hooper, her eyes meeting mine while the audience applauded politely.

“Me?” She was already shaking her head. “No way, missy. You’re the expert on acting, and this is your idea.
You
should be directing.”

“I’m just a camper!” What was she thinking? Gollum had barely let Emily direct the rainy day activities. What made her think he’d let me direct
West Side Story?
“Gollum will never put me in charge of something so big.”