Pranked (7 page)

I glanced at Melissa, but I had no way to talk to her without Reb and Jennifer hearing us. Maybe she wouldn't even care. We all got into bed, and Tis turned out the lights. Then Melissa made a funny noise. We could hear her kicking her covers around in the dark.

“Melissa, is everything all right over there?” called out Reb in a sugar-sweet tone. I could hear Jennifer snickering from the top bunk.

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure? Need me to tuck you in, since Rachel isn't here?”

“No thanks.”

“Okay. Just know that if you need anything—I'm here for you.”

I felt a little bad. If I'd remembered earlier, I probably would've warned Melissa so she could fix her sheets before lights out. Maybe she didn't even mind that much. I mean, it wasn't
that
big a deal. The way Reb had talked about it, short-sheeting sounded like something really bad, but it was just a little prank.

I wouldn't mind if somebody short-sheeted me. I don't think.

Evil Twins—that is so last year.

I was a triplet now. Could my life get any better?

“No way am I wasting my time going to activities!” said Jennifer. Even though Rachel and Tis warned us all about no cabin-sitting, almost everyone was ditching activities to get ready for the dance with Camp Crockett. If there even
was
a dance. We still didn't know for sure, since there hadn't been an official announcement.

Reb just laughed. “I can't believe how stupid everyone's being. You think you'll meet some guy tonight and start a major, long-distance relationship? Please.” She looked at me. “Want to go to archery? It won't take
all
afternoon to get ready.”

I nodded. “Sure.” If Reb wanted to go to archery, so did I.

Jennifer grabbed her robe and towel. “Well, it may sound pathetic, but these dances are practically the highlight of my summer. I'm going to meet someone tonight. And I have to look incredible. So I'll see you guys later.”

I was surprised she wasn't coming with us, but I was kind of glad it was just Reb and me. On the way to the archery range, I asked Reb, “Why don't the counselors just tell us if there's a dance?” All day they'd acted like it was some big secret.

“So we don't do what Jennifer's doing. Cut activities to get ready,” Reb explained. “Jennifer's boy crazy. Going to an all-girls school does that to her.”

I thought maybe we'd run into Darcy or Nicole or some of the other girls, but we didn't. Except for the archery counselor watching us, Reb and I had the whole range to ourselves, which was cool. But when we got back to Middler Line late in the afternoon, it was a madhouse. Every single shower had a line of about four or five people waiting.

Devon Fairchild came out of one stall. “There is not a single ounce of hot water left,” she announced through clenched teeth, and everyone groaned.

“Reb, we screwed up. We should've stayed with Jennifer. Now we've got to wait in line an hour to get a cold shower,” I said.

Reb swung her arm around my neck and gave me this sly grin. “We're not waiting in line for a shower. I know where there's no waiting, and still plenty of hot water.”

I just looked at her but didn't say anything. We got our soap and shampoo and put on robes. We walked down Middler Line past the showers and just kept going. Then we went across the hill toward Junior Line. I smiled when I saw where we were heading.

“The Juniors don't get to go to dances, so they'll all be at activities now. Besides, those grubby little rugrats only take about two showers all summer, anyway.”

She opened one of the shower stalls and turned on the faucet. Then she stuck her hand into the water and smiled at me. “Warm as bathwater.”

“You are a freaking genius!”

She laughed. “I know.”

So not only did we both get a hot shower, we didn't have to stand in line. Before I met Reb, I would've just been one of those girls waiting her turn. It was so cool to be friends with someone who knew how to get things done. Plus, all afternoon it'd just been the two of us, Reb and me, without Jennifer or the rest of the fan club. We'd had a great time together.

I wasn't trying to take Jennifer's place, but sometimes I felt like Reb and I had more in common. We were both more tomboyish, for one thing. I wasn't as athletic as Reb, but I was better at stuff than Jennifer, and I thought Reb admired me for that.

Everybody was in the cabin when we got back. On Side B, Molly was doing Jordan's hair, and even Melissa was putting mascara on her pale eyelashes. Jordan's older sister, Madison, came by and warned us, “You guys better be good. The CATs will be on Porch Patrol.” I had no idea what that meant. The CATs were the Counselor Assistants in Training, and Madison was one of them. They were sixteen, and they had the perfect arrangement. They were too old to be campers and get bossed around, but too young to be counselors and have responsibilities, so they could do whatever they wanted.

“It's about time you all showed up!” Jennifer yelled at us. “I'm having a wardrobe crisis! You guys have to help me.” She pointed to three outfits spread out on Reb's bed. “Which do you like best?”

“The denim skirt and the pink tank,” Reb advised.

“Yeah, I agree. But now what am I going to wear?” I was looking through my trunk. I just didn't pack that many nice clothes.

“Here, you can wear this.” Reb pulled out a rose-colored shirt from her trunk and handed it to me. “This will look good with your dark hair.”

I almost drooled all over the Abercrombie shirt.

“Don't you want to wear this?” I asked.

“Nah, I'll wear this one.” She held up a pale blue Abercrombie polo. “You can borrow some jeans, too, but they might be a little long. I'm wearing my cargos.”

“Oh, well, thanks, but I'll wear my jeans.” I have one and
only
one pair of Abercrombie jeans. “But thanks for the shirt. It'll look great.”

“I wish I was your size.” Jennifer looked at us both and grimaced.

“Oh, please. You'd trade those big twins in to be
our
size?” asked Reb.

Jennifer crossed her arms over her chest. “Are they too big? Do they look freakish?”

Reb burst out laughing. “Jennifer, try to find one guy on the planet who would say, ‘Hmmm, her breasts are simply too large. I find them freakish.' ”

“God, I should've been dieting this week! I knew the dance was coming up!”

“Shut up!” Reb and I both yelled at the same time. Jennifer is the last person in the cabin who needs to diet. I can't believe how weird some girls get about food.

I stood in front of the tiny mirror, trying to see how I looked in Reb's shirt. Practically everything she owned had a moose on it. I had to go through massive amounts of pain and suffering just to get my one little measly pair of Abercrombie jeans.

I first asked my mom for them back in the fall. But when she saw the price tag, she almost had a seizure right there in the mall. “Absolutely not!”

So I asked for them for Christmas. That was
all
I asked for too. If they were so ridiculously expensive, maybe they should be my one and only Christmas present. When Christmas morning came, I got the jeans, but I could tell Mom wasn't happy about having to give in. She gave me this long lecture about the value of a dollar and not being fooled by designer labels, but while I sat there and nodded, I was wearing my new jeans.

“Thanks again for the shirt. I'll be really careful with it.”

“Don't worry about it. You can have it if you want it.”

“Oh, no! I couldn't
take
it. I'll just borrow it,” I said.

“Kelly, it's a shirt. It's not like I'm giving you a kidney.” She turned away, acting like it was no big deal. I could tell I'd embarrassed her by drooling over the shirt.

“Here. We should wear these so we'll be triplets.” Jennifer handed Reb and me matching pink wristbands. “At St. Cecilia's, since we wear uniforms, the hip girls all do something different to stand out. Like one day it's striped scrunchies in our hair. Or we all wear blue socks a certain way—you know, rolled down like a doughnut or just slouched. We have to sneak around the dress code since we can't wear much jewelry. You can tell who's hip and who's not by how they're accessorized.”

“What cause is this? Breast cancer?” Reb asked.

“No. Our school had them made. They say St. Cecilia's, but look—I turned them inside out and wrote ‘Terrible Triplets' on the other side.”

Reb rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” But she did put on the wristband to make Jennifer happy. I put mine on because I loved being a triplet.

By dinnertime there still hadn't been an official announcement about the dance, but everyone was all dressed up. We were having spaghetti and garlic bread, and all the old campers said that was a sure sign there was a dance. The garlic bread was supposed to be a joke—nobody would get kissed with breath smelling like garlic. None of us ate any of it.

Jordan pointed out that all the CATs were missing from their table in the center of the dining hall. Then all of a sudden, they burst through the dining room doors. They were all dressed in camo, carrying flashlights, and some of them even had branches and leaves taped to their shirts.

“Ladies and . . . ladies! We know you've been anxiously awaiting an opportunity to see some guys of the male persuasion!” When they said that, we all screamed. “Well, your wait is almost over!” they shouted. “Tonight we'll be going to Camp Crockett for an evening of song and dance!” The noise was earsplitting!

“But be careful! If those Crockett boys want you to sneak away to the bushes for a make-out session, we'll be watching to make sure that nobody leaves the dining hall porch!” Then they all started singing.

Porch Patrol! Porch Patrol!

Start yellin' for that good ole porch patrol!

If he tries to make first base, you had better slap his face,

And start yellin' for that good ole porch patrol!

So now it was official. In thirty minutes we'd be leaving to go to Camp Crockett for Boys.

They took us over in a bunch of vans and trucks. The dance was in Camp Crockett's dining hall, so all the tables and chairs had been moved to make space for dancing. We walked in, and all of us girls stood clumped together by the door. The boys were way over on the other side of the dining hall. Most of them weren't even looking at us. They were laughing and talking and acting like they were all just hanging out in their dining hall for no reason. There was a huge empty stretch of floor between the boys and us, practically the size of the Grand Canyon. How would anyone ever walk across that big empty space to get to the other side?

I could tell right away that none of
them
had spent all afternoon getting ready for this major event. I suppose they went to the trouble of taking showers. Maybe some of them had even put on clean shirts. To think we put all that energy into looking nice for these boneheads.

“I see three, maybe four guys I could dance with without throwing up,” said Reb.

“Well, I'm not wasting any time,” Jennifer said. “I say, ‘See and be seen.' ” She pushed to the front of the group of girls, where she'd be more visible. As we stood there, a few people started to dance. Reb kept making sarcastic remarks until a boy walked up and asked her to dance.

“Sure, why not?” Miss Casual. So now both Reb and Jennifer were dancing, and I was by myself. I was about to go find Erin or Brittany or one of the fan club girls when I turned around and almost fell over a boy.

“Wanna dance?”

“Okay.”

I followed him out to a spot on the floor. He was okay-looking, but he never even said one word to me. When the song ended, he just walked off.

Next
. But I didn't say it out loud.