Pranked (10 page)

“Where ya going?” Libby asked me again.

“I don't feel very good,” I said, my voice quavering. No lie there. My heart was hammering so hard it felt like it was going to pop out of my chest any minute now, like an alien. If she needed more proof, I was sure I could puke my guts out right now with very little effort.

Libby frowned at me. “You don't look very good. Are you sick?”

“Yeah!” I said it a little too loudly. But maybe loud was a good thing. Maybe Reb and Jennifer would hear me and stay out of sight. Had Libby seen the underwear? Was she the one we'd seen lurking around?

If I could keep Libby's eyes on me and away from where Reb and Jennifer were hiding, maybe things wouldn't get any worse than they already were.

“Who's your counselor . . . Rachel?”

“Ah, yeah. But I didn't want to wake her up.”

“Oh.” Libby looked at me closely. Was she concerned or suspicious? I really couldn't tell. “Want me to walk you to the infirmary?”

“No. I mean, I feel better now. I think I'll just try to get some sleep.” I put one foot behind me, ready to turn around and walk off, if Libby would just let me go.

“Hold on a second. You should probably go. There's some kind of virus going around, you know. A bunch of girls have ended up in the infirmary. C'mon. I'll walk you down there.”

Oh, great! Now would she force me to go to the infirmary? I needed a way out. I stuck my hands in my jeans pockets and looked up at Libby, trying to put a pitiful expression on my face. “Well, I'll tell you something, if you promise not to say anything to anybody, okay?”

Libby nodded, all reassuring and everything.

“Well . . . this is kind of embarrassing. I was homesick. Tonight, all of a sudden, I started missing my parents, especially my mom. All because of dinner.”

“What about dinner?” Libby asked.

“Well, it was awful. Stewed tomatoes make me gag, literally. And then I'm not crazy about black-eyed peas, either.”

Libby laughed.

“Anyway, I was thinking about my mom's cooking and wondering what
my
family was having for supper. And that just made me think about everything at home. I felt lonely, so I was going to the infirmary to talk to the nurse. But after I got dressed, I wasn't crazy about walking down there in the dark.”

We walked over and sat down on the steps to Solitary.

“So you're sure you're not sick?” Libby put her hand on my forehead, and that actually made my chest tighten a little bit, because my mom does the exact same thing.

“No. I guess I just needed someone to talk to.” I smiled at her. Might as well lay it on thick.

“You know, I was homesick my first summer at Pine Haven too.”

“Really?” I asked. Wow. We were actually having a moment.

“Yeah.” Libby laughed, remembering. “It was terrible. I was ten, and I hated, I mean absolutely
despised
camp. I wrote my parents all the time, begging them to come get me. But then I started having a great time, and I cried when my parents came to pick me up, 'cause I didn't want to leave.”

I smiled. “I won't tell about you being homesick if you won't tell about me. Deal?”

“Deal! Well, are you gonna be okay now?”

“Yeah.” I stood up and breathed. I'd managed to get out of this, amazingly. “Thanks a lot, Libby. I feel a whole lot better now.”

“Sure.” She gave me a quick hug, and then I headed toward Cabin 1 and she went toward Cabin 3. I prayed that Reb and Jennifer would figure it out and come back to the cabin when the coast was clear.

I tried to be as quiet as we'd been earlier, but all I really wanted to do was get in bed as fast as I could. I could see one big lump in Rachel's bed and a smaller lump in Melissa's bed, but both Reb's and Jennifer's bunks were still empty.

I got into bed and pulled off my jeans. I lay there and tried to hold my trembling legs still. Where were those guys? What if Libby caught them, too? Did Libby believe me? If she'd seen us at the flagpole, why didn't she bust me right then?

For two eternities I lay there waiting. I was about to go stark raving mad when I heard the screen door open very softly. My heart leaped in relief. Two shadows came in. They didn't make a sound. I knew it was Reb and Jennifer, but they were so quiet and so dark, it was a little scary to watch them.

I was dying to whisper to them, to find out if everything was okay. But I didn't dare. I just lay there. Reb slipped into her bed, and Jennifer climbed up to the top bunk with the springs squeaking a couple of times. It didn't matter, though, because the beds always squeak when someone turns over.

I could almost
feel
Reb and Jennifer wanting to say something to me. But not now. Too much had happened. We couldn't chance it. Talking could wait till morning. It would
have
to.

The next morning, when the rising bell rang at eight o'clock, it took every ounce of energy I had to drag myself out of bed. My brain felt like it was covered with a layer of fuzz. How many hours of sleep did we get, anyway? Three? Four, maybe?

With everyone around, we still couldn't talk about our adventure, but we gave each other quick, silent looks. All I could think about was how pretty soon everyone would see a Little Mermaid bra and panties up the flagpole.

We had to do our morning chores before inspection. After I'd finished sweeping and Jennifer and Reb had made their beds and emptied the trash, the three of us took off together for the dining hall.

Thankfully, Jennifer had only a slight limp this morning.

“I'm glad you're okay,” said Reb. “It'd be tough to explain how you sprained your ankle in the middle of the night. You really had me scared you'd hurt it bad.”

“It's fine. I told you that last night,” Jennifer replied. It was cool that Reb was so concerned about her. I knew that if anything ever happened to me, she had my back.

As we passed the lodge, we could see the flagpole. And there was Melissa's underwear, in broad daylight now. The panties were just hanging there limp, but the bra was caught in a little breeze.

“Ah, look at our hard work.” Reb sighed.

The funny thing was, Chris Ramirez and Maggie Windsor walked right under the flagpole and didn't once look up. I guess some people wouldn't notice if their hair was on fire. I was beginning to wonder if maybe nobody would notice, or if people did, then maybe they wouldn't even think it was funny.

But then a group of girls walked by, and one of them, JD Duckworth, saw the underwear and started laughing. “Attention! Is anyone missing some lingerie?” She stood there and made sure that everyone walking by saw them. JD was a complete nutcase. She actually got caught by the Porch Patrol at the dance last week.

“It's so perfect that JD's the one who saw them!” whispered Jennifer.

“I know!” Reb agreed. We stopped under the flagpole with everyone else, acting totally innocent.

Reb cupped her hands over her eyes and looked up. “Why, JD—is that underwear I see?”

JD looked up too. “Why, yes, Rebecca, I believe it is. Are you missing any undergarments?”

Reb patted her chest like she was checking. “Nope. Not me. All my underwear is present and accounted for.”

“Well, it's not mine, either. I think the bra belongs to somebody who's an A cup. Hey, Jessica—what's your bra size?” she yelled at this girl walking by.

As we stood there, we saw that Melissa was walking this way with a totally oblivious look on her face. Now JD was yelling at the top of her lungs, “Attention! Attention! Would the owner of an Ariel bra and panty set please report to the flagpole immediately?”

The three of us watched Melissa's every move. It was like you could read her mind. First she saw all of us standing around. Then, since we were looking up, she looked up too. Her forehead crinkled and her eyes squinted, like she was thinking,
Is that what I think it is?
Then she looked down really quick, like she didn't want to make eye contact anymore.

“Well, hi, Melissa,” said Reb, all friendly. “Do you know anyone who's missing Little Mermaid underwear?” Nobody thought anything about the question, since JD had been harassing every single girl who walked by, asking her bra size. But Melissa actually jumped when Reb said that to her. She didn't make a sound, though. She looked at Reb, then she looked away, and then she took off for the dining hall without looking back.

“She must really be hankering for a bowl of Wheaties!” Reb had her elbow propped on my shoulder, and then she bent over and laughed so hard I thought everyone would suspect what was going on, but nobody did.

Inside the dining hall nobody at our table said anything about the underwear, but halfway through breakfast, Cabin 2's table clapped their hands to signal that they had a “parley-voo” to sing. Parley-voos were songs that campers made up to sing about some sort of camp news—like missing underwear.

Somebody lost her bra today, parley-voo.

Somebody lost her bra today, parley-voo.

Somebody lost her bra today.

She's too flat to need it, anyway!

Inky, dinky, parley-voo!

JD was in Cabin 2, so I was sure she was the mastermind behind that one.

After breakfast somebody had taken the underwear down, but at least everyone in camp had already seen them.

“We've got to go someplace private to talk,” Reb whispered to us. She was right. The three of us hadn't been alone since last night.

We decided to get our tennis rackets and go to the tennis courts. Tis and the other counselors weren't there yet, so we sat down at the end of the court with our backs against the fence. Finally we had some privacy.

“Triplets rule!” said Jennifer. She made us all touch wristbands, which Reb always thought was pretty stupid, but I thought it was fun.

“I can't believe we actually pulled it off!” I said.

“Yeah, but who took them down?” broke in Jennifer. “All that work getting them up there and then—”

“Hey, it doesn't matter, though,” Reb interrupted. “If anything, it makes it more mysterious. Like, first they're up there, then they're gone.”

“But Kelly, what happened when Libby caught you? We almost died when we heard her!” Jennifer gasped.

“
You
almost died! I almost wet my pants! But then I opened my mouth, and this whole involved story came out about how I was homesick and wanted someone to talk to, and blah, blah, blah. I never knew I could lie like that!”

“You did an amazing job of thinking on your feet,” said Reb.

“Yeah,” I agreed, loving the compliment, but I was worried about something. “But what if Libby suspects that I put the underwear up there? She did catch me wandering around in the middle of the night.”

“So what?” asked Reb.

“She could tell Eda.”

“Yeah, you're right.” Reb sounded worried. “Then Eda would make you fly your own undies from the flagpole every day for the rest of camp, and we'd all have to stand there and salute while you raised them.”

“Oh, shut up!” I gave her a shove.

Reb laughed. “The best part, though, the
best
, was Melissa's face when she saw her bra and panties flying from the flagpole! That was un-freaking-believable! I wish I'd had a camera!”

By now people were showing up, so we had to quit talking. We asked Santana Hickman to play with us in doubles. She and Reb destroyed Jennifer and me, but Reb showed me a couple of things about my serve, and it actually got a lot better.

When we walked past the flagpole after morning activities, we noticed that the flag was in place. “Do you think Melissa will get her underwear back?” I asked.

“Jeez! Who cares? It's just underwear! You act like you've never had a practical joke played on you.”

“Have
you
?” I asked, because I couldn't imagine Reb ever being a victim.

“Are you kidding?
All
the time. I live with the two biggest practical jokers on the planet—my dad and Zach.”

Jennifer raised her eyebrows. “Really? Like what do they do?”

Reb rolled her eyes. “Oh anything and everything. Too many to count.” She paused for a second. “Like this one time—the first time we ever went skiing. I was just a tiny kid, about five I think, and I was terrified of riding the lifts. So Dad said he'd ride with me, and when we were way up high, he rocked our chair back and forth, and he looked all panicked, and he goes, ‘Uh-oh, I think there's an avalanche coming!' When we got to the top of the lift, Dad practically had to peel my fingernails out of the back of the chair. He laughed his butt off over that one. And Zach, he'd pinned a note to the back of my jacket that said, ‘Throw snowballs at me,' and I couldn't figure out why this group of boys kept laughing and pelting me with snowballs.”