Rumors (7 page)

“Good idea,” I said. That was it. The first chance I got, I'd buy some Pine Haven T-shirts at the camp store. Maybe then people would stop talking about how I dressed.

Erin and Brittany invited me to go swimming during afternoon free time, but I wanted to visit Samantha
and get my practice in, so I told them some other time.

The cabin was almost empty when I walked in, but not empty enough. Betsy was on Side A, and Laurel-Ann was lying on her cot, writing a letter.

“Oh my gosh, what happened?” she gasped when she saw how dirty my shorts were.

“Nothing,” I said. “I just got back from a hike.”

All I wanted to do was change clothes and get out of there as fast as possible before Laurel-Ann sucked me into a conversation.

It reminded me of the corn maze at the Illinois State Fair, with all these twists and turns and dead ends. Once you got stuck in the maze, it was almost impossible to find your way out again. A conversation with Laurel-Ann was like that: Once she pulled you in, it was hard to get out.

She'd been trying really hard to be my friend, maybe because she felt sorry for me for being new. What she didn't seem to get was that I was perfectly happy going to activities by myself.

“Was it the Angelhair Falls hike?” she asked. “Were you the one they pretended to throw in? Gosh, I wish I'd known you were going on that hike. I would've told you that they do that every year to a new girl. And what if those stains don't come out of your shorts?”

“It's no big deal,” I said. “It's just …” I sat down on my bed. “Don't tell Boo, all right? Once she hears this story, she'll probably tell everyone something completely different.”

I could just imagine Boo's version of what had happened to me on the hike. Something about how I'd gone on a mad rampage when someone made a comment about my clothes. The whole group had to tie me up and toss me into the water to cool me down. Then I'd gotten so mad I started a forest fire to send smoke signals to my movie star parents to come rescue me in their private jet plane.

Laurel-Ann sat up and looked at me. “What do you mean?”

“I think Boo's been talking about me behind my back,” I said. There was a good chance that Laurel-Ann already knew this, because she might've been one of the girls in the bathroom that day. But I didn't care at this point. I wanted all this gossiping to stop.

Laurel-Ann covered her mouth with one hand. “Really? That's terrible! What's she been saying?”

“She's going around telling people my mother is a movie star and I'm trying to hide my identity. And I live in Hollywood.”

“It's so rude the way she asks you all those questions.
And she's always making fun of people. She doesn't like me. I know she doesn't. Has she been saying anything about me?” She plucked nervously at the rubber bands on her braces.

“No, I try to avoid her as much as possible.”

“You don't really live in Hollywood, do you?” asked Laurel-Ann.

“Of course not! Some of my friends are on a school trip there right now, that's all. They sent me postcards. My mother works at a TV station. She's not a movie star.”

We heard the screen door open, and my least favorite cabinmate walked in. “What's going on?” Boo asked us.

“Nothing,” Laurel-Ann said.

Boo stared at us. “Why are y'all giving me such dirty looks? I didn't sneeze in your Cap'n Crunch.”

“We're not giving you dirty looks,” said Laurel-Ann, grinning at Boo with a fake smile. “We're just talking. Not about anything. Just totally boring stuff.” Then she looked worried. “I didn't mean you're boring, Kayla. I meant Boo would be bored.”

“You got that right. I'm bored already.” Boo sat down on her bed and pulled off her tennis shoes and socks. “I just came from Solitary. And guess who's locked in a stall crying her eyes out again?”

“Who?” asked Laurel-Ann with wide eyes.

“You're no fun. You're supposed to guess,” said Boo, tossing one of her dirty socks up on Shelby's bed.

“Is it Shelby? Really? She's so homesick,” said Laurel-Ann. “I think that's so sad. We should try to cheer her up when she comes back. She just needs to make some friends, and then she'll—”

“She just needs to grow up.” Boo said, tossing her other dirty sock on Shelby's bed. “I can't believe that someone our age acts like that. I started coming to camp when I was eight, and I never got homesick. She's twelve. Get over it already.”

I stood up and brushed the dirty socks off Shelby's bed. They fell to the floor. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe she's not homesick?” I snapped. It made me furious to hear Boo making fun of Shelby and spreading even more gossip.

“It's obvious she's homesick! She cries herself to sleep every night.” Boo stood up and tossed her shoes on the bottom shelf by the door.

I'm ordinarily not a violent person, but at that moment I wanted to grab one of those shoes and shove it down Boo Bauer's throat. “Maybe she has a good reason for crying! Maybe it has absolutely nothing to do with being homesick!”

Boo stood frozen in place, staring at me. “You know something, don't you?”

“I don't know anything.” I turned away from her. My dirty shorts were lying on the top of my trunk, so I stuffed them in my laundry bag.

“Ha! Oh yes, you do! I can tell by the way you're acting.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. I hated the way Boo was making me feel right now, like she could see right through me. And I did feel like I was hiding some deep, dark secret.

“It could be something horrible!” said Laurel-Ann. “Like maybe her dog died. Or maybe it got hit by a car and it's suffering, and her parents wrote her and told her that they need to put the dog down, but she's begging them to wait till she gets home so she can say good-bye, but all the time she realizes—”

“Hyphen, where do you come up with all this stuff?”

“I've got an idea! Maybe I should ask her if she has a dog and see what her reaction is. If she bursts into tears, then we'll know the truth.” Laurel-Ann twisted one braid around her finger with a hopeful look on her face.

Boo gazed at me, and now all of a sudden she was really serious. “Is it something about her mom? Yesterday I overheard her talking to Gloria. She was saying something about how she missed her mom.”

“It's none of our business!” I blurted out. “This is something private that Shelby doesn't want to talk about.” I couldn't believe that Boo was standing there, admitting to us that she was in the habit of eavesdropping on other people's conversations.

“Oh my gosh! That's it, isn't it?” Boo walked over and sat down on her cot, looking stunned. “I thought she was just homesick. I didn't realize something had happened to her mom.”

Laurel-Ann was staring at me too. “I guess her dog's okay then.”

“You've got butterscotch pudding where your brain's supposed to be!” Boo snapped at Laurel-Ann. “Can't you see this is serious?” Boo turned back to me. “Kayla, you obviously know what it is. Her mom's not dead or anything really bad like that, is she?”

I clamped my jaw shut and refused to say anything. I'd promised Shelby, and I wasn't about to break that promise, especially not to satisfy Boo Bauer's curiosity.

“Oh, wow! Oh, wow! That's it, isn't it? I can tell by the look on your face!”

“You better not say anything to Shelby!” I hissed. “If you spread rumors about her, I'll …” I couldn't think of what to threaten her with.

So I went to my trunk and grabbed my sheet music. I had to get out of there, fast.

“Kayla, wait!” Boo called to me. “Just tell me if it's true!”

But I headed straight for the door without answering.

I'd promised Shelby! I'd sworn I'd never tell anyone! And I hadn't … exactly. I felt like Boo had dragged it out of me.

But maybe she'd keep her mouth shut for once. Maybe she wouldn't go around talking about Shelby to everyone the way she'd talked about me.

Maybe.

But then again, maybe not.

“I told you not to tell!” Shelby yelled at me.

I'd been sitting at the piano, enjoying a few minutes alone, when she'd come storming through the door and confronted me.

I looked up at her. “I didn't tell! I swear I didn't.” My fingers hovered over the keyboard, but I'd stopped in the middle of the piece I'd been practicing.

“Then how come everybody knows now? It seems like the whole camp has found out!” Shelby propped her thin arms on the top of the piano and glared at me.

I'd have to tell her what really happened and just hope she wouldn't still be mad at me. “I didn't tell anyone, but the other day, Boo sort of … guessed.”

“Guessed? How could she guess?” Shelby brushed her bangs out of her eyes. Her hair was wet, like she'd just come from the shower.

“Well, she was laughing at you for crying at night. All I said was that you might have a good reason for crying. And then she started grilling me. I never told her! I promise. You can ask Laurel-Ann if you don't believe me. She was there.”

“You swore you'd keep it a secret!” Shelby's face twisted into a frown. She refused to even look at me.

“Boo's the one who's been going around telling everyone. Not me. Do you know she actually admitted to Laurel-Ann and me that she was eavesdropping on you and Gloria one day? She said she'd, quote, ‘overheard' the two of you talking in the cabin.”

Shelby stared at me in disbelief. “She actually said that?”

“Yes! I'm telling you, she's a terrible gossip. She's been talking about lots of people, not just you. So don't take it too personally.”

Shelby shook her head. “She does tease me all the time. Like, when I walk by her, she'll make these sniffling sounds, and when I look at her, she just says, ‘Sorry. Allergies.' Like it's some big joke or something that she's heard me crying.”

“You have nothing to be ashamed of, Shelby. Don't pay any attention to what Boo or anyone else says. You shouldn't be embarrassed.”

Shelby let out a slow breath. “Thanks.”

“How'd you find out? Did you start hearing crazy rumors about yourself?” I wondered how Boo had taken Shelby's story and twisted it around till there wasn't any truth left at all.

She looked at me with raised eyebrows. “No. Not crazy rumors. Just people all of a sudden wanted to talk about their dead grandparents and cats and dogs every time I was around. I sort of figured out what was going on that way.”

I stared down at the keyboard. “I'm really sorry. That Boo Bauer! Why can't she learn to keep her mouth shut?”

Shelby gave me a sly look. “Maybe we should start spreading rumors about her. Give her a taste of her own medicine.”

I smiled slightly. I was glad that Shelby didn't seem mad at me anymore, but I didn't really want to get caught up in something like that.

“I don't know. I don't like all this gossiping. Once a rumor starts, it gets spread around so fast. It's like the plague. It's a good thing it's just words and not deadly
bacteria. The whole camp would be wiped out in one afternoon.”

Shelby laughed and snapped her fingers. “That's it! Bubonic Boo! Maybe that's where that nickname comes from! I mean, what is her real name, anyway?”

“I have no idea. I've never heard anyone call her anything else.”

Shelby was chuckling evilly. “Bubonic Boo. I love it! I'm going to start calling her that.”

“Hey, what's it like on Middler Line now?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “I came down here to get away from all the craziness.”

“It's gotten worse,” Shelby said. “Nobody's at activities. Everyone's in line for the showers. I was lucky to get one when I did. People are running around trying to borrow clothes. It's insane.”

“Tell me about it. I've had girls I barely know ask to borrow my clothes,” I told her. Not that I minded. For once, people weren't giving me a hard time about my new clothes, so I was happy to let them borrow whatever they wanted.

Ordinarily, late afternoons at camp were fairly peaceful. After activities were over for the day, we had free time to do whatever we wanted before dinner.

But this afternoon was different. Supposedly, tonight
we were having our first dance with the boys of Camp Crockett, and suddenly Middler Line had turned into a madhouse.

I'd been practicing Mozart's Piano Sonata no. 16 in C Major, so I started playing it again. Shelby came and sat down on the bench next to me while I played. It wasn't long, though, before other girls started coming to the lodge with their hair dryers to look for electric outlets. Since the cabins didn't have any plugs, the lodge was just about the only place in camp where people could use anything electric.