Pranked (9 page)

We had the cabin to ourselves, so the three of us dragged the bag to Side A.

“Let's dump it all out on Rachel's bed so we can find our stuff,” said Reb. She immediately started smoothing out all her clothes and carefully folding them in a stack. I've never met anyone so neat in my life.

“Hey, that's my shirt,” I said.

“Jennifer, this must be your bra.” Reb swung it around her head like a lasso.

“Gimme that! You freak!”

“Whose bra is
this
?” I picked up a Little Mermaid training bra covered in pictures of Ariel. When Reb and Jennifer saw it, they both burst out laughing.

“Read the name tag to see whose it is,” suggested Reb.

I wasn't crazy about examining someone else's bra up close, but I looked at the tag sewn inside. “Melissa's! Isn't that so sweet?” We all cracked up.

Reb gasped and pulled something out of the laundry pile. “Here are the undies that go with it!” The three of us were practically rolling on the floor, we were laughing so hard. I felt a little bad that we were making so much fun of them because it was pretty private. I mean, I wouldn't want someone looking at my underwear and laughing. But it was just so goofy. If my mom had packed something like that for me to bring to camp, I would've burned it the first day.

“Hey, hey, HEY!” Reb yelled. She had this maniac look in her eyes. “I've got a fabulous idea! Let's fly these from the flagpole so everybody in camp can appreciate them.”

My stomach had the same nervous feeling I got when a teacher was passing out a test. “I don't know, Reb. Haven't we done enough? We short-sheeted her, and then that guy at the dance . . .”

“Kelly, c'mon. Remember the pink underwear? This is our chance to do something just as funny.” There was a big debate about who'd pulled off the pink underwear prank at Camp Crockett Saturday night. Some people thought it was the CAs and others said it was the CATs. Neither group would admit to it.

“We'll get caught,” I said. “Everybody'll see us.”

“Not now, genius. Tonight. After everybody's asleep. We'll sneak out of the cabin and do it. Then tomorrow morning, they'll be flapping in the breeze.”

“It'll be great!” Jennifer agreed. “The Terrible Triplets strike again.” She fingered her wristband, which she was still wearing and had insisted that Reb and I keep on too. Reb thought it was stupid. I didn't mind it. I thought it was cool we all wore the same wristband.

“Exactly,” Reb said. “We haven't been very terrible lately. We'll lose our reputation. Okay, here's what we'll do. . . .”

Once Reb made up her mind about something, there was no stopping her. She really was amazing. As I listened to her, I could tell she was working out all the details in her head as she went along. And she had thought of everything.

She said we should wait till two a.m. to make sure all the counselors were back from kitchen raids. She said she'd try to stay awake, but just in case, she had a little alarm clock she would put under her pillow so no one else would hear it. She kept stressing how quiet we had to be so we wouldn't get caught.

“What about flashlights?” Jennifer asked.

“Too risky. Somebody might see the light. It's not that far to the flagpole.”

So that was the plan. I felt jittery, but in a good way. It would be a challenge to sneak out of the cabin and pull off this prank without getting caught. And then the whole camp would wake up and find a Little Mermaid bra and panties flying from the flagpole. It
was
pretty funny. And anyway, nobody would know whose underwear it was. Except us. And Melissa, of course. It wasn't
that
embarrassing.

Later everyone came in and picked out their clothes. If Melissa noticed that some of her underwear was missing, she didn't say anything. We could hardly wait for night to come.

Rachel should've suspected something, because we all got in bed with no fuss. Then we just lay there in the dark, waiting. I kept shifting from my side to my back to my stomach. Lights out was ten o'clock. That meant we had a four-hour wait.

“Quit flopping around over there,” Reb whispered. “I'm trying to sleep.”

“Sorry.” I smiled.
Good cover, Reb
. I closed my eyes and tried to be still.

And then, about fifteen minutes later, Reb was shaking me. She put her hand over my mouth and whispered, “It's time.”

Good thing she'd covered up my mouth, because I kind of grunted. Two a.m.? Already? Then I noticed how quiet and still everything was. I sat up on the edge of my bed, and my head was heavy.

I'd stuffed a pair of jeans and a dark blue T-shirt under my covers, so I pulled those out and slipped them on. Jennifer climbed down from the top bunk like a burglar.

A shadow stood by the bunk beds, and even though I knew it was Reb, it still sort of freaked me out because it was so dark and I couldn't see her face at all. The shadow motioned toward the door, and Jennifer and I tiptoed behind. I could just make out the outlines of Melissa and Rachel sleeping in their cots a few feet away. I held my breath as I crept past them.

We all three stopped at the door. Slowly Reb put out her hand and pushed gently against the screen door. It opened with a soft groan. All three of us froze and waited. Nobody stirred, so Reb waved at us to go through. We slipped soundlessly through the door.

Whew. We'd made it outside. I let all my air out like a balloon deflating. We walked down Middler Line, the only sound our sneakers padding along the soft dirt path. It felt strange to be out in the middle of the night. The air was cool and everything was perfectly quiet, but it wasn't the same as it was during the day when everyone was at activities and the cabins were empty. You could kind of
feel
everyone asleep in the cabins. I looked up, and the sky was velvet black with a million little sparks of silver. Reb was right. There was enough light for us to see.

But when we got to the steps going down to the lodge, it was pitch-black from all the trees. Now we could barely see. We were stumbling down the stone steps when I felt a hand brush past my arm. Then there was this huge thud and a scream. I could just make out a dark form at the bottom of the steps. It was Jennifer, lying there in a heap.

“What happened?” Reb whispered at her hoarsely. Jennifer groaned in pain.

“Uh, I . . . slipped.” I could hear her suck in her breath.

“Are you hurt?” Reb's voice sounded worried.

“Um, yeah . . . my ankle. I twisted it.”

“Oh great! It could be sprained. We gotta get you to the cabin . . . or the infirmary. Kelly, give me a hand.” She swung one of Jennifer's arms over her shoulder, and I took the other.

“Oh, stop it! It's not
that
bad. I can make it to the flagpole, at least.” She pulled away from us and took a few careful steps.

“Look, I do a lot of sports, and you shouldn't mess around with injuries. You could hurt it even more by walking on it. We've got to go back.”

“No way are we going back now! How can you even suggest that?” Jennifer's voice rose, and Reb and I both shushed her.

“Don't you think your ankle is more important than some stupid prank?”

I couldn't help smiling. It was sweet that she was so worried about Jennifer. She really was loyal to her friends.

“Listen. It's my ankle. I know how it feels. And I'm telling you—it's fine. I know for sure I can make it. Let's just go.” Jennifer limped ahead of us. Reb reached out and grabbed her by the elbow for added support. We really didn't have very far to go. The flagpole was just past the lodge near the top of the hill.

When we got there, we all looked up to the top of it at the same time. Reb reached inside her jacket and pulled out Melissa's bra and underwear. “Give me a hand.”

For some reason Jennifer and I both applauded softly, and then we laughed because we'd thought of the same thing.

“No kidding.” Reb sounded annoyed. “I've never done this before.”

I helped her untie the rope looped around the pole. It made my hands cold to touch the bare steel. The metal clasps on the rope banged against the pole and made a hollow clang. Next we hooked the bra through the top clasp and put the bottom clasp through one of the panty legs. Then we pulled the rope to raise the underwear up and tied the rope in place.

“Mission accomplished,” Reb said, and we all slapped hands. We looked up at the underwear at the top of the pole. We could barely see it. One thing was for sure—Melissa's underwear wasn't nearly as big as a flag.

“It might be funnier if Melissa was, like, a D-cup,” said Jennifer.

“Maybe we should salute and then sing ‘Under the Sea.' Wait—make that ‘Under the Shirt.' ” Reb snapped to attention like an army guy and was about to start singing when I clapped my hand over her mouth. We all laughed.

All of a sudden Jennifer grabbed my arm. I looked at her, but she was staring at something off in the distance. “I just saw something move!”

“Where?” Reb and I both whispered. All the blood drained down my legs and I was frozen in icy terror.

“There! In front of Crafts Cabin.”

“I don't see anything,” Reb whispered back.

“But I did! And it was somebody. But they're out of sight now,” Jennifer insisted.

“Well, let's just go,” Reb suggested.

“No! They'll see us!” Jennifer hissed. She was still staring at the same spot.

“Then we should definitely get out of here!” For the first time ever, Reb actually sounded scared, and that made me feel like having a full-blown panic attack. There was somebody else out here, creeping around in the dark, maybe
watching
us?

We started moving. Should we run or walk or creep? We mostly crept. When we got to the steps by the lodge, we figured we were out of sight from any “night stalkers.”

“Jennifer, how ya doing? Are you gonna make it?”

“Yeah, it's okay. It hurts a little, but I can walk on it.”

“She may be okay, but I'm dying,” I groaned in agony.

“What's wrong with
you
?”

“I've
got
to go to Solitary. Jennifer made me so nervous I can't hold it anymore.”

“
Now
? You have to go
now
?”

“No, tomorrow morning will be just fine,” I snapped back at her.

“What next?” Reb growled. “Well, c'mon. We'll be going right by there, anyway.”

We stopped at the top of the steps. “You go ahead. We'll wait here.”

I took short, quick steps so I wouldn't lose my grip. The lights of Solitary practically blinded me after being in the dark, and I staggered into my favorite stall—the third one on the left, which had a little poem on the wall inside:
If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat
.

I sat there and read that poem for the 437th time. I sighed, feeling so much better. But when I flushed, the toilet was so loud I was afraid I'd wake the whole camp. I stood still, waiting for the noise to stop. Then I stepped out of the door of Solitary and walked down the line to where Reb and Jennifer were waiting.

“Hold it!”

Every muscle in my body froze. My heart stopped and my knees buckled. All the air went out of my lungs and I stood still, paralyzed.

“Where do you think
you're
going?”

I think I stood frozen in that one spot for about ten minutes, maybe more. Not breathing. Not moving. A muscle in my face twitched, and I locked my knees to keep them from folding up. Slowly, ever so slowly, I looked around.

Behind me was Libby Sheppard, one of the swimming counselors. We both stood there in this little patch of light shining from Solitary, looking at each other. Good thing I'd already gone to the bathroom. I was shaking so hard now I couldn't hold my legs still.

Libby had on a sundress, and her purse was over her arm. She must've just gotten back from leave. Leave! All that careful planning—we'd never even thought of that.