Rumors (9 page)

When Laurel-Ann and I met up with the group of hikers going on the overnight, Brittany ran up to me as soon as she saw me. “Oh, good! You decided to come. It's going to be great, don't you think?”

I smiled at her. “Definitely! I've been looking forward to this all weekend.”

I was sort of disappointed that Shelby wasn't coming along, but she didn't want to miss her swimming class. Laurel-Ann had stuck close to me all weekend, so I'd given in and decided to let her be my friend. I did feel a little guilty, though, because if I had to choose, I'd probably pick Shelby over Laurel-Ann.

I wasn't thrilled about leaving poor Shelby all alone
with Boo, either. Shelby had decided to put an anonymous note in Boo's mailbox today addressed to “Bubonic Boo”:
You better watch what you're spreading around. You could cause another plague
. I wasn't so sure I liked that idea, but I hadn't been able to talk her out of it. I just hoped that a war didn't break out between the two of them while Laurel-Ann and I were away on the overnight.

We'd already packed our backpacks with clothes and the other things we were going to need for the trip. Brittany's friend Erin was here too, and so were a couple of girls from Cabin 3—Natasha and Ashlin.

Natasha was a very petite girl with glasses, and like me, she was African American. She was always with her friend Ashlin, who had short, dark hair and a tomboy look about her.

“I hope everyone's ready for some serious hiking,” Rachel said to us. She and Jerry, the hiking guide, were busy packing a first aid kit, some tarps, ropes, and other supplies into their backpacks.

One of the older girls, a Counselor Assistant in Training, or CAT, came out of the kitchen door carrying a big cardboard box full of sack lunches. Her name was Lori Espinoza, and she was going along on the overnight with us.

“Okay, everyone grab a lunch,” Lori told us.

Laurel-Ann and I were putting our lunches away in our backpacks when I heard her gasp. “Oh, no! She can't be coming too!”

I looked around to see Katherine Sperling walking up with a backpack on her shoulders.

“I can't believe it!” Laurel-Ann whispered to me. “Katherine's going on this trip!” She glanced sideways at Katherine, who was now talking to Jerry. “Are you sure you still want to go?”

“Yes,” I whispered back. “Don't worry about it. Just try to stay away from her.” I slung my backpack over my shoulders and adjusted the straps.

“But this is an overnight! It's not like a regular hike that we'll be back from in a few hours.” Laurel-Ann stood there, holding her backpack in front of her. “I'm seriously considering leaving. She hates me! She really does!”

“Look, she's not even paying any attention to you right now. It'll be fine,” I tried to assure her.

“Okay, everybody ready? Let's go!” Rachel called out to the group. We followed her up the hill past Middler Lodge, where a trail led off into the woods. Since the trail was narrow and we were all wearing backpacks, we got into single file.

Rachel and Jerry were leading the way, followed by Ashlin, Natasha, and Katherine. Lori was behind her, and Brittany and Erin were in the middle. Laurel-Ann and I were in back because she'd waited to make sure Katherine was in front of us. So far, Katherine hadn't even so much as looked at Laurel-Ann, but that didn't seem to matter. She was still upset that Katherine was going along.

“Last year Katherine hated going to activities,” Laurel-Ann said in a low voice from behind me. “She was always cabin-sitting, and she'd try to get me to stay with her, even though she knows it's against the rules to skip activities. But I know why she goes on hikes. She's got a huge crush on Jerry.”

Jerry was a real outdoorsman. I could see how Katherine might have a crush on him, if she liked the rugged type.

“She has no friends,” Laurel-Ann went on. “She really doesn't. I swear. I remember one time last year …” Laurel-Ann kept talking, and I just admired the beautiful scenery.

Everything was so green, and even though it was a sunny day, it was shady because of all the towering trees around us. Hiking along this trail with a backpack on my shoulders made me feel like a real explorer. I loved
getting away from civilization and being close to nature like this.

It was a long hike, but I didn't mind at all. There was always something interesting to discover. We were hiking beside a little stream, and all the rocks around it were fuzzy and green with moss. When I reached down to touch it, I couldn't believe how thick and soft it felt.

After we'd been hiking for quite a while, Rachel called out from the front of the line, “Anyone ready for lunch?”

“Yes!” we shouted back.

Eating sack lunches outside was like being on a picnic, but the thing I liked best was that we all put our soft drinks into the stream we'd stopped beside so that the icy cold water would cool them down. It was Jerry's idea, and it worked really well, except Laurel-Ann's almost floated away because she forgot to put rocks around her can to keep it in place. While we waited for our drinks to get cold, we munched on peanut butter and honey sandwiches, chips, apples, and oatmeal raisin cookies.

“Everybody give me your trash,” said Lori, going around with a trash bag to collect all the plastic bags, paper sacks, and apple cores. “Remember the rule—pack it in, pack it out.”

Once we started hiking again, Laurel-Ann was upset that Katherine was now right in front of us. “Wonder if we're going to do any fishing after we set up camp?” Katherine said in a loud voice. She looked over her shoulder and flashed an evil grin at Laurel-Ann.

“Well, we don't have any fishing gear with us, so I doubt it,” I heard Erin answer her. She and Brittany were ahead of us in the line.

“Oh, too bad. I hear our campsite is near a great fishing spot. Lots of rainbow trout. And we all know how much Laurel-Ann back there likes rainbow trout!” Then Katherine let out the most annoying laugh I'd ever heard.

“She's so mean!” Laurel-Ann whispered. “I never should've come on this trip.”

“Just ignore her,” I said softly. “If she sees how much it upsets you, she'll keep doing it.”

What was this inside joke about rainbow trout? I was dying to find out. There had to be some way I could get Laurel-Ann to tell me the whole story.

Did Bubonic Boo know about it too? Probably. She seemed to know everything about everyone else's business.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. Laurel-Ann was upset, and even though I did feel bad for her, it just so happened that when something was
bothering her, she got really quiet. So I was actually able to enjoy the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees.

Late in the afternoon, we stopped at a clearing in the woods to set up camp. It was such a relief to finally take my backpack off. My new Pine Haven T-shirt was all sweaty from where my backpack had been, and I didn't realize how sore my shoulders and back were starting to feel.

We were in a beautiful spot. It was wooded all around us, but we'd come to a little clearing where the ground was flat and open. Down a sloping hill was the stream we'd been following for most of the hike. From our campsite, we could hear the sound of the water rippling over the rocks.

“Okay, ladies. We've got tarps to put under you to keep your sleeping bags dry,” said Jerry. “Doesn't look like rain, so we'll be fine sleeping out in the open tonight.” He looked up at the clear sky, visible through the trees above us.

So then we all got busy spreading out the tarps and laying out sleeping bags.

“We'll leave a spot in the middle for the campfire,” Rachel told us.

“Good idea, Hoffstedder,” Jerry agreed. “We need
some girls to gather firewood and some to find rocks to ring the fire with. And we need pine needles and twigs for kindling.”

“I'll help you gather firewood, Jerry,” said Katherine.

Laurel-Ann gave me a nudge. “See? What did I tell you?” She rolled her eyes at the way Katherine followed Jerry around.

Before long, we had our campsite set up. One thing I wasn't thrilled about was that we had to dig a latrine out in the woods behind a tree. But that was the only thing about camping I didn't like.

When it was time to make dinner, we lit the campfire, and Lori, Rachel, and Jerry showed us how to make campfire stew. We got busy cutting up carrots, onions, meat, and potatoes, and all the ingredients went into a collapsible metal pot that we then set into the hot coals so it could simmer.

It seemed like it took forever for the stew to cook, so we all took off our sweaty shoes and socks and played in the stream while we waited. The smell of the simmering stew made my stomach grumble. But when it was finally ready, it was hot and delicious.

“Did everyone leave room for dessert?” asked Rachel, pulling a bag of marshmallows out of her backpack.

“Yum!” said Ashlin. “Did you bring chocolate and graham crackers too?”

“You bet,” answered Jerry. “You can't have a campfire without s'mores.”

We scattered into the woods to find sticks to roast our marshmallows on. Lightning bugs were starting to come out of the grass, and their little lights flashed on and off like blinking signals all around us.

Lori had added more wood to the fire, so now it was a roaring blaze. We all stood around it with our sticks and held our marshmallows out to roast them. The fire was so hot it actually made me sweat, but I felt cool air on the backs of my bare legs. I was glad I'd put on a sweatshirt, because it was a chilly night. The smoke from the fire made my eyes water, but I loved the smell of the burning wood.

All of a sudden, Laurel-Ann's marshmallow burst into flames. “Oh, no! Oh, no!” she shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Katherine laughed so hard I thought she might lose her balance and fall into the fire. Laurel-Ann screamed and tossed the whole stick into the fire, and that made all of us laugh. I felt bad for her, but it really was a funny sight.

“That's okay,” Jerry told her. “You can have this one.” He
handed Laurel-Ann his stick. The marshmallow on the end of it was toasted to perfection. I could see Katherine frowning in the orange light of the fire. Those two really did seem to be mortal enemies for some reason.

“I've got a story,” said Lori. “This is true, by the way.” And then she told us about a cabin less than a mile from our campsite where a man's beautiful redheaded wife had gone out to pick berries one day and never returned. He'd searched for her for years, and sometimes he'd hear her voice calling to him, and sometimes he'd find a strand of red hair by the berry patch. But he never found her.

“But if you listen tonight, you might hear her calling, and when you wake up tomorrow, don't be surprised if you see a strand of red hair hanging from the trees.”

Then Jerry told a ghost story that started off really scary but turned into a joke. After about three or four other ghost stories, Rachel said it was time to get some sleep.

Laurel-Ann had insisted that we put our sleeping bags as far away from Katherine as possible. Ashlin and Natasha had moved theirs close to ours, and luckily Katherine was on the other side of the campfire with Erin and Brittany.

After we crawled into our sleeping bags and turned
off our flashlights, I realized how completely pitch-dark it really was out here. By now the fire was just a bunch of red, glowing coals, and we could hear the sounds of the embers crumbling and popping as they slowly burned down.

All of a sudden, we heard a lot of loud laughter. We sat up and looked across the campsite to where Brittany, Erin, and Katherine were in their sleeping bags. They still had a flashlight on, and all three of them were laughing about something.

“I wonder what's so funny?” Natasha asked.

“I don't know,” said Ashlin. “Something's sure cracking them up over there.”

“I bet it's Katherine,” Laurel-Ann whispered to us. “She's probably telling Brittany and Erin a bunch of lies about us.”

“Well, if she is, they're funny lies,” said Ashlin.

Another shriek of laughter made all of us sit up and try to see across the dark stretch of ground between our group and theirs. The beam of a flashlight was dancing all around, but we couldn't see anything else.

“Hey, keep it down over there,” Rachel's voice called out.

“Okay. Sorry,” we heard someone answer. Then things got quiet, and we all settled back down in our
sleeping bags. The frogs were making that
burap, burap
sound, which I was actually sort of used to by now.

“Let me see it!” a voice said suddenly. And then there was a playful scream, followed by lots of laughing.

Just then we heard Jerry's voice call out, “You know the best way to attract bears at night? Make a lot of noise!”

That made the girls across the campsite laugh so hard that Rachel got up and turned on her flashlight. “What's all the racket about?” she asked them.

“Nothing.”

“All right then. Time to get quiet.”

All the flashlights went off, and the laughter stopped. I pulled my sleeping bag up under my chin and zipped it as far as it would go. I was nice and cozy this way, but a cool breeze was blowing that made my ears cold.

“I know Katherine's over there making fun of me,” Laurel-Ann whispered. “I bet she told Brittany and Erin all kinds of mean things about me.”

“I doubt that,” I told her. “Anyway, they're quiet now, so don't worry about it.”

I could hear Ashlin pulling her sleeping bag closer in the darkness. “Why do you think Katherine's making fun of you?” she asked.

“Because she hates me. Well, not just me. She hates everybody. She's so mean because she hates coming to Pine Haven every summer,” said Laurel-Ann. “She calls it Pain Haven. And you want to know why she hates camp so much? The first year she came, she was only seven. She got dropped off, and then nobody came to pick her up. On the last day of camp, all the other campers left one by one, but nobody came to get Katherine.”