Friends Forever? (7 page)

A
t the campfire that evening, Zee listened to the activity around her.

“Cabin six is the best! We have more spirit than all the rest!” a group of girls cheered.

“No, you're not!” another group responded. “Cabin eight is totally hot!”

The two groups cheerfully shouted back and forth. One of the boys' cabins threw a Frisbee around while another played a loud game of cards.

The Beans were lined up on the log benches around the fire. Ally was between Zee and Missy, but she talked more to Missy than to Zee. So Zee talked to Chloe and Jasper. Jasper seemed happy to avoid Landon, who was in a quiet
huddle with Conrad and Marcus.

Ohmylanta!
Zee said to herself. The Beans were supposed to be working together. The camp trip had united other science classes, but it had broken up theirs.

“All right, dudes!” Conrad suddenly shouted to the other Beans. “Marcus and I have a story for you.”

Cool beans!
Zee said to herself. Maybe there was nothing to worry about after all.

“It's a true story,” Marcus put in.

“Yeah?” Kathi asked. “How do you know?”

“It happened to a friend of a friend. His name was Michael.” Everyone quieted down to listen and then Marcus went on. “One day Michael was at the mall with his mom. They had been shopping for about five hours and were really, really tired. So they went back to their car and discovered an old lady sitting in the front seat.”

Chloe leaned forward. “How did she get in there?” she asked.

“They left the door unlocked,” Marcus said. “‘I was so tired,' the lady told them. ‘I couldn't find my car, and I needed a place to rest.' Michael's mom offered the woman
a ride home. ‘That would be so nice of you,' the woman said. But when Michael and his mom got in the car, the old woman pulled off her wig!” Marcus's voice got more excited.

“Why?” Chloe asked.

“Because it wasn't an old lady at all—it was a man pretending to be a woman. And he was sitting on a hatchet!”

“Aaaaaa!” Jen and Chloe screamed.

“Oh, please,” Ally said. “I've heard that one before.”

“Really?” Chloe asked. “Do you know Marcus's friend's friend?”

“No, but it didn't really happen to his friend's friend—or anybody—because it's not true.”

“Why would Marcus lie?” Chloe defended him.

“It's not lying,” Ally said. “It's—”

“Okay, gang!” Mr. P shouted above the noise. “The other teachers and I are going to divide you up into groups for a drum circle.”

“Awesome!” Landon, who was the Beans's drummer, said. “For once, the drums get to be the star.”

“Everyone will get a percussion instrument and the group will play together,” Mr. P continued.

“Who's the leader?” Kathi asked.

“There's no leader,” Mr. P explained. “It's about creating
a sound together—not following someone else's sound.”

“That seems kind of stupid,” Kathi complained as Mr. P handed out small drums, castanets, and rhythm sticks. “I think I did this in preschool music class.”

“Totally babyish,” Jen agreed.

“But that's what the Beans are all about,” Zee reminded them. “Creating a sound together.”

“I thought it was about being stars,” Kathi said.

Conrad adjusted an imaginary collar on his navy-blue T-shirt. “I thought it was about getting girls' attention,” he said. He high-fived Marcus and Landon.

Landon looked over at Zee and Zee tried not to let the panicked feeling in her stomach creep up to her face. She still had no idea what to do when he looked her way.

“I guess the Beans are about those things—sort of,” Landon said. “But tonight we're not the Beans. We're a drum circle. You know, we're still us, but we have a different purpose.”

“And that is…?” Kathi said.

“We're not going to play songs like we usually do,” Landon said. “Instead we'll come to
gether by creating a group rhythm.”

Relief washed over Zee. She was glad someone else understood that the group had to bond together.

But two minutes after the group started clicking, clacking, and banging out rhythms, Zee started to worry again.

Missy and Ally kept whispering to each other. Marcus and Conrad were acting goofy, trying to crack Landon up. Jasper shot Landon dirty looks as if he was the problem. Of course, Kathi and Jen were acting too cool to participate.

Only Chloe was making an effort. She clicked along with her castanets, coaxing Zee with nods. Zee tried to get in sync, but her mind kept returning to the fact that the Beans were falling apart. And she had no idea how to fix them.

Zee stopped writing and thought. That was it! The trouble with the Beans started after Ally arrived. The Beans had had problems before, but nothing like this.

Mr. P banged on the cabin door. “Five minutes until lights-out, girls!” he yelled.

“Anybody need to go to the bathhouse?” Zee asked.

Chloe looked over the top of the book she was reading. “Nope,” she said. “I want to finish this chapter tonight.”

“I'm good,” Ally told Zee. And a chorus of
no
s from the other girls followed.

“Okay,” Zee said. “See you in five.”

When Zee went outside, she heard a strange grumbling voice with a weird accent. “My leg.”

Zee trembled and looked around. “Who's there?”

“Give me my leg,” the voice demanded. It sounded as though it was getting closer.

The Mountain Man!

Zee rushed back into the cabin. “Did you hear that?”
she asked when she got inside.

Chloe had already put her book down. “I did!” she said.

“Me too,” Missy said. With a suspicious expression, she added, “Are you sure it wasn't you?”

“No way!” Ally said. “Zee wouldn't do that to her friends. Plus, look how scared she is.”

“I thought you didn't believe in the Mountain Man,” Zee told her.

“I don't, but I believe you,” Ally said. “If you say you heard something, then someone is definitely out there.”

“Everyone grab a flashlight,” Chloe commanded. “We're going to find the Mountain Man.”

Kathi stood up.

“Are we going, too?” Jen asked her.

“I'm losing too much beauty sleep over this horrible creature,” Kathi explained. “Not that I actually need it. The sooner we find out what's making all that noise, the better.”

“What about lights-out?” Missy asked.

“We'll just have to take a chance that we'll get into trouble,” Ally said. “This is really important.”

The group stormed out of the cabin, shining their flashlight beams into the woods. But all they saw were trees. Silent trees.

Zee heard voices coming from the boys' cabin. She pointed her flashlight at it. “If we heard something, maybe they did, too.”

As the girls approached the cabin, Zee could hear what the boys were saying.

“Who's your favorite band, Jasper?” Marcus asked.

“I suppose that would be GMT,” Jasper said. “They're a British band.”

“Greenwich Meantime?” Landon asked.

“Do you know them?” Jasper said. The moody tone he had been using with Landon earlier had disappeared.

“Yeah,” Landon told him. “I just downloaded their new CD.”

Ally stormed into cabin two. “All right! Which one of you lost a leg?” she demanded. The other girls followed.

“Huh?” Landon said.

“Did you find an extra one?” Jasper asked, cracking Marcus and Conrad up.

“Didn't you guys hear a voice outside?” Chloe asked.

A puzzled look spread across Conrad's face. “No.”

“Maybe because we were talking,” Marcus said.

“We heard the Mountain Man!” Chloe announced.

“He said something to Zee!” Ally added.

In an instant, the room buzzed with excitement, and everyone started talking about this latest evidence. Zee looked from one seventh grader to the next and smiled to herself. If the Mountain Man could get the Beans back together like this, maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Still, she didn't plan on going to the bathhouse by herself anymore.

T
he next morning, the girls finally had to take their turn at the worst camp job assignment—breakfast cleanup, which meant helping the camp staff get the dishes ready to be washed after breakfast. Which meant dealing with half-eaten slop.

Knowing cabin one had to clean up the mess, cabin two's trays were especially disgusting. Marcus mixed his eggs with his milk. Conrad made a revolting statue out of his sausage and fruit. “Ew!” Missy said when she saw it. “That looks like a pile of vomit.”

Just then one of the camp staff members came out of the kitchen with a bucket of fruit and vegetable scraps. “Does anyone want to take this out to the
compost bin?” she asked.

“I do!” Missy's hand shot up.

“I do!” Zee, Ally, Chloe, and Jen echoed.

The staff member handed the bucket to Missy. “Sorry, guys,” Missy said. “I called it.”

“Darn it!” Zee said. “I had no idea you cared so much about composting.”

“Until this moment, neither did I.”

As Missy left with the bucket, the other girls began cleaning up the tables.

“Ewww!” Jen screamed. She hadn't noticed that Landon had wrapped chewed-up food in a napkin—until she picked it up.

“It's a good thing Jasper never leaves food behind,” Chloe joked as she placed his empty plate on the top of the growing stack.

“Where's Kathi?” Ally asked.

“I bet she's giving herself a manicure and pedicure back
at the cabin,” Chloe said.

“Or she hired someone to come give her one,” Ally added, laughing.

Zee slid a lump of unidentifiable food into the trash can. “I wish Kathi had hired someone to do her camp chores,” she said. “I don't think she's done one thing since we got here.”

“Do you know where she is, Jen?” Chloe asked.

“Remember?” Jen began. “She said she had to go to the bathhouse.”

“Wasn't that a while ago?” Chloe pressed her.

“I guess,” Jen said. Then she walked away from the group.

“Maybe she has her period, too,” Ally suggested.

“I don't think so,” Zee said. “She gave me her supply of pads.” That's when she remembered. “Oh no!”

“What?” Ally asked.

Zee leaned close and whispered, “I forgot to bring a pad.”

Chloe looked worried. “Are you…okay?”

“For now,” Zee said. “But I'm a little nervous without an extra.”

“You should go get one,” Chloe suggested. “You don't want to have a…problem.”

“Chloe's right,” Ally agreed. “We can do your work until you get back.”

“You guys are the best,” Zee told her friends. She quickly headed to the cabin. From a distance, she could hear violin music.
That's weird
, Zee thought. The closer she got to the cabin, the louder the sound got. When she opened the door, she saw Kathi playing frantically.

The door shut, and Kathi stopped abruptly. Then she slid her violin behind her back. “What are you doing here?”

“What are
you
doing?” Zee shot back. “You're supposed to be working.”

Kathi let the violin drop to her side and sighed. “This is the only time I can practice for the talent show.” She sounded desperate.

“But we'll all get to practice our acts after lunch,” Zee pointed out.

“I need to do it in private—without Missy.”

“She's performing with you. Why would you want to practice without her?”

“Because it was
my
idea and
my
song, and she's still beating me.”

Zee shook her head, confused. “But there
isn't any winning or losing. It's just for fun.”

“Wake up, Zee.” Now Kathi sounded impatient. “Everything is a competition. Just ask Ally.”

“What does Ally have to do with this?”

“Isn't it obvious?” Kathi asked. “She can't stand to see you doing better than her.”

“But I'm not doing better—or worse.”

“That's not what she thinks,” Kathi told her. “She hates the fact that you got your period.”

“How do you know?” Zee asked suspiciously. Had Ally confided in Kathi about how she felt?

Kathi ignored Zee's question. “And she obviously can't stand that Jasper has a crush on you.”

“Wha—but—” Zee could barely get her words out. “Jasper and I are just f-f-friends!” she protested.

Kathi put her violin back under her chin. “Whatev.”

Zee was so flustered she hurried out of the cabin toward the dining hall. It was true that Ally had been acting a little weird on the trip, but what Kathi had said just couldn't be true. No matter what, Ally and Zee were BFFs.
Right?

“Ohmylanta!” Zee mumbled and stopped abruptly. She'd forgotten what she'd gone to the cabin for in the first place. She spun around. And came face-to-face with Landon.

“Aaaaa!” Zee screamed, startled.

“Is everything all right?” Landon asked. Under the gaze of his warm blue eyes Zee felt like she was melting.

“Oh…uh…yeah…sure,” Zee said. “I just went to the cabin and was totally surprised. And it's strange hanging out with Ally again. I mean, it's great and all, but Jasper—” She stopped when she realized she was rambling.

“What about Jasper?” Landon asked.

Zee shook her head. “Nothing.” She really didn't know what was confusing her about her friend. And she knew that even if she
could
explain it to Landon, she wasn't sure she should. Normally, Zee would be thrilled to run into Landon on his own, but now she
just needed to get away to sort out her thoughts.

Up ahead on the path, Zee saw the perfect distraction. Missy and Jen were heading toward them going to cabin one.

Zee's relief lasted about a second.
Oh no!
she thought. She didn't want Missy to catch Kathi practicing by herself. There was something really sad about the fact that Kathi was so desperate. Zee would hate for anyone else—especially Jen, who for some weird reason admired Kathi—to see her like that.

“Uh…I gotta go,” Zee told Landon.

“Oh…um…okay,” Landon said.

“Hi, Missy,” Zee called out as loudly as she could and rushed toward the girls.

“Are you okay, Zee?” Jen asked.

“Yes,” Zee shouted, spinning around to face the cabin. “I am,
Jen
. How are you—AND MISSY?”

All of a sudden, Kathi zipped out of the Jespt
cabin and stood next to the group. She gave Zee the slightest “thank-you” nod.

“What's up, guys?” Kathi asked.

“Ms. Merr—” Missy began, but Jen cut her off.

“You're acting kind of weird, Zee,” Jen pointed out.

“N-n-n-no I'm not,” Zee protested.

“We just saw you talking to Landon alone. Does it have something to do with him? Are you guys going out now?” Jen persisted.

Zee gulped, hoping to use the extra time to get a response together.
Just say no,
Zee told herself.
That's the truth.
“Wh…uh…huh?”

Kathi stepped closer. “No way!” she said. “Zee needs someone as mature as she is—you know, because she's a woman now.”

“She is?” Jen said. “She's twelve.”

“You don't understand,” Kathi said, putting her arm around Zee's shoulder.

Zee's body stiffened. She hated to have Kathi speak for her. But she also didn't want to talk about Landon to Jen and Missy, either.

The rustle of leaves behind the girls made them turn.

“What are you guys doing here? Shouldn't you be at breakfast cleanup duty?” Mr. P asked.

“Ms. Merriweather told Jen and me to get Zee and K—” Missy began.

“Yes,” Kathi interrupted. “We needed to come get Zee and make sure she's okay.” She looked at Zee and smiled.

Zee decided to ignore Kathi's lie. “I'm fine,” Zee said cheerfully.

“Then I think everyone needs to get back to work,” their teacher told them. “You don't want to be marked down.”

Desperate to do something other than talk about Landon with Jen, Missy, and Kathi, Zee said, “I just have to grab something first,” and headed to the cabin to finally get a pad.