Friends Forever? (4 page)

Z
ee stopped writing and thought. And thought. And thought. Nothing came. Even with everything that had happened that day, her mind was blank. Too exhausted to think anymore, she closed her diary. Whatever she had to say would just have to wait until she'd gotten a good night's sleep.

 

Walking to the cabin from the bathhouse, Zee dragged her feet. Her body was achy and tired. Even the toothpaste and brush felt heavy. She couldn't wait to collapse on her bunk
and close her eyes.

“Hey, Zee!” Jen called behind her.

Ohmylanta!
Zee thought. Talking to anyone—especially Jen—felt like torture at the moment. “What's up?” she asked.

Jen hurried to catch up with Zee. “I saw the way Landon was looking at you over the campfire.” She made kissy noises.

“Really? What do you mean?” Zee asked.

“You two should totally go out!”

Zee shook her head. “We're just friends.”

“I don't know,” Jen said in a singsong voice. “I thought you had a big crush on him.”

“Well,” Zee responded. “Like I said, we're just friends.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Jen said skeptically.

“What about Kathi?” Zee asked. In sixth grade, Kathi and Landon had been boyfriend and girlfriend for a while.

“Pfffft,” Jen muttered. “She so doesn't care anymore. Seventh-grade boys
do not
interest her.” Then she walked off.

As Jen strode ahead, Zee couldn't stop thinking about what she had said. Maybe Jen was right. Maybe Landon did feel the same way about her that she felt for him.

But Zee had told her parents that she wasn't ready for a boyfriend. How could she go back on her word? Now she was
really
confused!

By the time Zee got back to the cabin, thoughts were bouncing all around her head. Thoughts about Landon. The other girls talked in the glow of their flashlights. Zee was glad to listen and be distracted from her thoughts.

“This cabin is so disgusting,” Kathi whined.

“Oh, I wouldn't complain too much,” Missy said. “When my mom was with Doctors Without Borders, we saw how people in other parts of the world really live. There are tons of people who would be happy to live in a place as nice as this.”

Ally swung her head around to face Missy. “Your mom worked for Doctors Without Borders?”

“Do you know about them?” Missy asked.

“Yeah. In France we call it Médecins Sans Frontières,” Ally told her. “My parents wrote a story about the organization.”

“That's so awesome!” Missy said.

“What country were you in?” Ally asked.

“Uganda, Kenya, and Zambia. We moved around Africa,” Missy explained.

Zee smiled. Ally fit right in with the new group. Even though it's not something that Ally and Zee had in common, the fact that Ally lived in a different country actually meant she had more in common with Jasper and Missy.

Zee was so happy to be with her friends. Maybe her worries about Landon weren't such a big deal after all.

Exhausted from the busy day, Zee floated off to sleep, but a pain in her side woke her up. When it happened again, she began to worry. As quietly as she could, Zee clicked on her flashlight, opened her diary, and continued with the entry she had started earlier.

Zee tiptoed across the cabin toward the door. As she reached for the handle, she heard grunting.
Ooog ooog
. Then a horrible scraping sound.
Screech screech screech.
The Mountain Man!

Zee was so afraid, she froze. Nothing moved, except for her trembling hand. Without thinking about it, she rushed over to Ally, reached up to the top bunk, and shook her best friend. “Ally!” she whispered. “Wake up!”

Ally's eyes barely opened. “What is it?” she grumbled.

“I think the Mountain Man is outside.”

“We can check it out in the morning,” Ally told her, rolling over in her sleeping bag. “I just want to sleep.”

Zee looked around in the dark, then moved toward Chloe. “
Psst.
Chloe,” Zee barked in a whisper.

Chloe's eye popped open. “What's going on?” she asked, worried.

“I think the Mountain Man is outside,” Zee told her.

“Let's find out!” Chloe grabbed her flashlight. Zee followed as Chloe raced toward the door.

“Wait for me,” Ally said, carefully climbing down the ladder in the dark.

“I thought you were too tired,” Zee pointed out.

“I changed my mind. I don't believe in ghosts and monsters,” Ally said, “but it might be fun to look.”

 

S
nap.
A twig broke under Zee's feet.

“
Shhh
,” Ally said, leaves crackling as she stepped.

“It's impossible to be quiet out here,” Chloe whispered. “There's so much stuff on the ground.”

“We just need to watch where we walk,” Ally told the other girls.

“I can't see anything,” Chloe said in her softest voice. “Can you?” Her flashlight's beam danced from tree to tree.

“I guess we should have brought more than one flashlight,” Zee said.

Chloe's beam settled on a huge figure in the distance.

“Aaaaaaa!” Chloe screamed.

“
Shh!
” Ally put her finger to her lips.

“Did you see him?” Zee asked Chloe.

“
Him?
” Ally asked. “It was probably a tree or a boulder or something.”

“That was the Mountain Man! Trees and boulders don't move,” Chloe said.

“How do you know it moved?” Ally asked. “You had your flashlight on it for, like, a second.”

“Yeah, 'cause he moved.”

“Ooow!” Zee cried out as pain twisted her stomach.

“Shh!”
Chloe said softly.

“Sorry,” Zee apologized. “My stomach hurts.”

It was too late. The male chaperones' cabin squeaked open.

Mr. P stepped outside. “It's midnight. What are you girls doing out here?” He didn't sound happy.

“Ummm…” Ally paused for a second. “Zee's stomach hurts. We were just helping her to the bathhouse.”

“In case she throws up,” Chloe added. “Are you all right, Mackenzie?” Mr. P asked seriously.

“Yes, it's just a little stomachache,”

Zee assured him. She felt horrible but
not because of her stomach. The girls had just lied to Zee's favorite teacher. But what could they do? Even though Zee didn't mind talking about the mysterious creature with her friends, she wasn't quite ready to tell her teacher. Not until she had more evidence that the Mountain Man existed.

Back in the cabin, the other girls went right back to sleep, but Zee tossed and turned. Between her stomachache, the Mountain Man, and telling Mr. P a half-truth, her mind wouldn't stop whirring. There was only one thing to do. She pulled out her diary.

Shuffle. Shuffle. Squeak.
Footsteps passed by Zee's cabin and entered another one.

That's weird,
Zee thought.
I wonder what took Mr. P so long to get back to his cabin?
She quickly wrote her name at
the bottom of the entry, pulled the sleeping bag over her head, and tried not to think about what was lurking outside.

 

“I'm ready!” Chloe announced the next morning. “Everybody, hurry up, or we'll be late for kitchen duty. We have to set up the dining hall for breakfast.”

“We get to eat before we start working as long as we are there on time,” Missy said. She looked as bright and cheerful as Chloe.

Zee was still half asleep, and her blurry eyes had trouble focusing on the girls. “I don't think I got even an hour of sleep last night.”

“Chloe told me about what you saw outside,” Jen said as she twisted a red ponytail holder around her thick hair. “Do you really think it was the Mountain Man?”

Zee tied the shoelace of her red Converse high-top. “Who else could it have been?” she asked. Then she
stood with the others.

“Uh, Zee,” Ally said, pointing at Zee's feet. “I don't think you want to go out like that.”

“Ohmylanta!” Zee groaned. On her right foot, she had put on her polka dot Converse. She quickly replaced the polka dot sneaker with the other red high-top. They went best with the pink top and red shorts she'd quickly grabbed from her suitcase when she woke up just a few minutes before.

“Let's go to the dining hall!” Chloe cheered. Everyone moved toward the door, except Kathi.

“Are you coming, Kathi?” Jen wondered.

“You guys go ahead, and I'll come later,” Kathi told her.

A cramp in Zee's stomach reminded her that she had more to worry about than the Mountain Man. “Ow!” she complained, clutching her middle.

“Oh my gosh!” Chloe said. “Is it your stomach again?”

“Yes,” Zee explained. “I'm afraid something might be wrong.”

“It's probably nothing,” Ally said. “Once you eat, you'll feel better.”

Chloe looked from Ally to Zee. “I dunno. I think you should visit the nurse.”

“Oh yeah,” Ally quickly said, slipping her hand through
Zee's arm. “I'll go with you if you want.”

Zee waved her hand in the air dismissively. She realized the nurse might send her home. She'd love to be back with her parents, sleeping under her cozy comforter at night and taking a warm shower in the morning, but she was not going to miss all the camp fun. “You guys go ahead. I'll meet you at the dining hall.” She grabbed the mesh bag she'd decorated with Jibbitz. “I still have to go to the bathhouse.”

“Okay,” Chloe said, “but don't take too long. We don't have much time before the other seventh graders get there. You don't wanna miss breakfast.”

“I'm not so sure about that,” Ally said.

“What do you mean?” Chloe asked.

“Breakfast might be horrible,” Ally told her. “It's not exactly French cuisine.”

“Zee and I usually don't eat French food anyway,” Chloe pointed out. “American food will be okay.”

Zee started to worry what Chloe might think of Ally. Even though Zee knew Ally wasn't a snob, Chloe might get the wrong idea.

“You guys are never going to find out about the food unless you get there,” Zee said, heading toward the bathhouse. “Save me a seat!”

In the bathhouse, Zee put her bag near the sink, then headed toward one of the stalls.

Zee unzipped her shorts and gasped. A spot dotted her underwear. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. Still there. Her heart pounded. She looked closer. Then her mind flashed back to a recent conversation with her mother. The phrases floated through her head. “Stomach cramps.” “Tiredness.” “Blood.”

Suddenly, it all made sense. Zee had gotten her period!

“Ohmylanta!” Zee said. “Is that even possible?” The book called
Your Changing Body
that her parents had given her had said she'd get boobs first.

Wait!
Zee thought. Maybe she'd missed something. Maybe she
had
gotten boobs in the middle of the night. Excited, Zee looked down, but she was disappointed. She was as chest-free as ever.
Figures.

Zee had bigger problems, though. She didn't have any pads or tampons, and there wasn't a drugstore for miles. What would she do? Where would she get some? Normally, if she needed a teacher's help, she'd ask Mr. P, but it wasn't like
he'd
have any pads.

After quickly brushing her teeth, Zee headed back to the cabin. She needed to change her underwear and figure out how to get supplies.

Kathi was stretched out on her bunk, furiously typing on her BlackBerry.

“Are you still here?” Zee asked.

Kathi didn't look at Zee or stop typing. “Obviously.”

“But you're supposed to be helping out with kitchen duty,” Zee said. “Don't you want to have breakfast?”

“I'd rather miss breakfast than serve slop,” Kathi said. She typed with one hand as she reached into a bag that was next to her and pulled out a breakfast bar. “Besides, I've got my own stash.”

“We're not supposed to have food in the cabin,” Zee reminded her.

Kathi shrugged. “Whatev,” she said. “Let's see Brookdale Academy kick me out. They'd have to kiss my parents' big checks good-bye.”

Zee knew the no-food-in-the-cabin rule was to keep animals out. The last thing she wanted was to bunk with a raccoon—all because of Kathi's selfishness. But Zee didn't feel like confronting Kathi at the moment, so she changed the subject. “So can we send text messages now?”

“No, I was just typing a few to send out when they rescue us.”

“Rescue us? From what?”

“Look around,” Kathi said. “This isn't exactly the Four Seasons. I was brought here under false pretenses.”

“You were? What did they tell you it would be like?” Zee asked.

“Well, not like
this
. I had no idea
anyone
would volunteer to live like this.” Kathi paused, then added, “No offense.”

“For what?”

“It seems like this is your kind of thing,” Kathi explained. “Don't you make your own clothes?”

“Sometimes. What's that got to do with it?”

“Nothing,” Kathi said quickly. “Anyways, I'm sure my boyfriend is worried about me.”

“Why?” Zee asked.

“I guess you wouldn't understand since you've never had one.”

Zee stiffened. “I guess.”

Kathi's eyes squinted at Zee. “Hey! Why aren't
you
on kitchen duty?”

Zee sighed. She really didn't want to tell Kathi her news, but she was desperate. Kathi was the only human being around at that moment. With her tall body and big
boobs, Kathi looked more like a freshman in high school than a seventh grader. She probably knew more about periods than anyone else in the cabin.

“I just got my period,” Zee blurted out.

In an instant Kathi had Zee in a hug. “That's so awesome. You're a woman!” Kathi said, then added, “Even though you don't look like one.”

“There's just one little problem,” Zee said, ignoring Kathi's remark. “I don't have anything with me—you know, like pads.”

“No prob.” Kathi hurried over to her shoulder bag and pulled out a package. “You can have these.”

Zee looked at the pouch Kathi had handed her. “I can have all these? Don't you need them?”

“No. I brought them just in case. You're going to need to start doing that, too.”

Zee took out a pad and slipped the rest in her tote bag. “Thanks for the tip.”