The Pretty Committee Strikes Back (23 page)

“I know for a fact that was Layne's doing, not Alicia's,” Claire whispered. “I was just so mad at her for trying to kiss Cam.”

Massie tore off a piece of baguette and dipped it in the raspberry jelly jar.

“I have to go say I'm sorry,” Claire insisted.

“Tell me why you feel that way.” Massie imitated the shrink she had to see when she was having night terrors.

“I just do.” Claire stepped over the bench, grabbed her baby blue puffy coat, and made a dash for the exit.

Massie turned back to the table. Layne was staring at her blankly.

“Nice going, Layne … the Stain.” Massie lifted her eyebrows and half smiled.

Layne pushed back her chair and ran after Claire.

Massie turned to her left, then her right, looking for someone to crack up with. But no one was there. “Coming,” she shouted to no one in particular. Then she ran out of the dining pavilion before anyone realized she had been left behind.

She expected to see the girls fighting outside the door but the campsite was strangely peaceful. The wind had died down, taking the bite out of the cold air. Now it just felt clean and refreshing. Massie felt the weight of sadness inside her body when she realized it was their last day at Forever Wild campsite. It had turned out to be one of the best weeks ever … for her.

The shower house seemed like a logical place to start looking for her friends, because girls in tears usually ran to the nearest sink. But the high-pitched shriek coming from inside the girls' cabin told her otherwise.

“I hate you!” she heard Dylan shout.

Massie picked up speed. She couldn't stand to miss another second. She ran up the porch steps, two at a time. “What's going on?” she asked as she threw open the door.

The warm spicy smell of the roaring fire reminded her of her living room when her parents had company. But wait—who had been using the fireplace? Kristen would never make such a stupid mistake, would she?

It wasn't long before it all made sense. Mr. Myner and Merri-Lee were snuggled together on the couch in front of the fire and Dylan was standing over them with tears rolling down her bright red cheeks. Claire, Layne, Olivia, and Alicia stood behind her with their mouths hanging open. Massie tiptoed over and joined them.

“I am so going to barf up my pancakes,” Dylan shouted at them as she rubbed her stomach.

“Pickles, wait.” Merri-Lee untangled herself from Mr. Myner and stood up. “You're way off base here.”

“You should know,” Dylan sneered. “You're ahb-viously an expert on bases.”

“Good one,” Massie said under her breath. The rest of the girls shook their heads in agreement.

Dylan smiled softly through her tears. Then her expression quickly hardened again. She marched over to Massie's bed and pulled the bagels and cheese out of her pocket. “Here's your stupid breakfast, Kristen.” She held the food under the bed until Kristen's hand reached out and grabbed it.

Mr. Myner stood up and smoothed his hands over the front of his Levi's. “Kristen is here?'

“What are you doing?” Massie mouthed to Dylan.

“Like
they
have any right to preach about rules,” Dylan sobbed. She stuffed her hands in her coat pockets and ran outside.

“Where is she?” Mr. Myner put his hands on his hips and rested a leg on one of the beanbags.

“Outside.” Olivia pointed to the open door. “She just left.”

“Not Dylan,” Mr. Myner snapped. “Kristen!”

“Oh.”

“Hi.” Kristen slowly rolled out from under Massie's bed. The back of her short blond hair was matted and tangled. A gray dust bunny was stuck to the back of her neck.

“How long have you been here?' Mr. Myner demanded.

“Coupla days.” Kristen's voice trembled as she pushed herself up to stand.

“And you've been living under that bed?”

Massie couldn't tell if he was shocked, angry, or impressed.

Kristen nodded.

“This is turning into a real survival story,” Merri-Lee said. “Where's my crew?” She hit a speed dial number on her cell phone and tapped her bare foot while she waited for an answer.

“No cameras,” Mr. Myner insisted. He pulled the cell phone out of Merri-Lee's hands and snapped it shut. “This is very serious.” He didn't take his eyes off Kristen. “Do your parents know where you are?”

Kristen looked at the fluffy white rug below her feet.

“
Kristen
!” he shouted.

She jumped but remained silent.

“At the very least, you are facing a suspension for this stunt,” Mr. Myner said. “So you'd better start talking before it gets worse.”

“No, please don't,” Kristen pleaded. “I only came because I wanted to learn and I couldn't afford the fifteen hundred dollars.”

“Oh, this story is good enough to drive Oprah to binge eat.” Merri-Lee turned to Mr. Myner and pressed her palms together like she was about to start praying. “Please, let me get my crew.”

A look of utter disgust washed over his face. “I refuse to dignify that request with a response.”

Merri-Lee smiled flirtatiously and tickled him under his ribs. “Isn't
that
a response?” She giggled at her own cleverness.

Mr. Myner batted her hand away and turned to Kristen. “What you did was wrong on so many levels—”

“Please, Mr. Myner.” Kristen started crying openly. “If I get suspended, I'll lose my scholarship and my parents will—”

“You should have thought of that before.” He unclipped his cell phone from the side of his Levi's. “Principal Burns,” he said, and the phone dialed her number automatically.

“This is so unfair!” Kristen pushed past Mr. Myner and ran out the door.

Mr. Myner snapped his phone shut. “Get back here, Ms. Gregory.”

“I'll get her.” Massie raced after her friend without a second thought.

“No, you won't,” Mr. Myner barked. “Get back here.”

“Massie, come back,” Claire shouted. “You're gonna get in trouble.”

“That's right—she is,” Mr. Myner confirmed. “Big trouble.”

“I'll get her.” Claire hurried outside.

“Oh puh-lease,” Alicia hollered. “Like they'll ever listen to
you
. Don't worry, Mr. Myner, I'll find them. They'll listen to
me
way before they'll ever listen to Kuh-laire. Be right back.”

Massie leaned up against her birch tree and waited for Claire and Alicia to catch up. But Alicia didn't see her and was screaming, “Massie, stop! Massie, stop!” over and over again until she and Claire found Massie behind the cabin.

“Hurry.” Massie wasn't sure what her plan was. All she knew was that her best friends needed her help.

“We have to go back,” Claire panted. “Or Mr. Myner will kill us.”

“Do what you want, but I'm not going to abandon my friends in their time of need,” Massie said.

“Given.” Alicia smirked.

Claire started chewing on her thumbnail and looked back at the cabin.

“Dylan? Kristen?” Massie shouted toward the forbidden trails that were a few feet away. “Are you back there?”

“Massie?” Dylan whisper-yelled. “Is this a trap?”

“No, this isn't a trap. Puh-lease!” Massie looked genuinely offended by the suggestion.

“Who's with you?” Kristen called.

“It's me, Alicia, and maybe Claire,” Massie said. “If she doesn't run back to Mr. Myner.”

Claire took her nail out of her mouth and folded her arms across her chest. She was in.

“Tell me where you are,” Massie snapped. “Before he finds us.”

“Bear Claw Trail,” Kristen said.

“We're on our way.”

“Wait.” Claire gripped Massie by the shoulder. “If we go back there unsupervised, we'll get expelled. Mr. Myner told us that on the first day, remember?”

Massie glared at her. “What's he gonna do? Expel
all
of us? Puh-lease. We're the most popular girls in the entire grade. The school would be so lame without us and he totally knows that.”

“I know but—”

“Just leave, then,” Alicia snapped. “No one wants you here anyway.”

Claire gave Alicia the dirtiest look she possibly could. Then she pushed through them and led the way up Bear Claw Trail.

Kristen and Dylan were sitting together on a fallen log a few yards away. Both of their faces were streaked with mascara and eyeliner. Massie wanted to make fun of them but decided it was probably better to wait.

“Pickles,” Merri-Lee called from the head of the trail.

“Gir-rls?” Mr. Myner joined in. “Let's talk about this.”

“Hurry,” Kristen mouthed. “This way.”

“How do
you
know?” Massie whispered.

“I memorized the trail maps.” Kristen touched her index finger to her lips then signaled for them to hurry.

They followed Kristen deep into the woods for what seemed like twenty minutes without saying a word. Finally, they stopped to give Alicia a chance to catch up. She was holding her boobs to keep them from bouncing as she hurried toward them.

“Where are we?” Alicia looked around. “The trail ended ages ago.”

Tall bare trees surrounded them on all sides. Even though they had no leaves, they still managed to block the sky. The ground was covered in fallen branches, dead leaves, and patches of thick moss that reminded Massie of the putting green at OCD. She felt insulated by nature. On one hand it felt cozy and cocoonlike and on the other it felt like she was in a coffin, about to be buried alive.

“Uh.” Kristen ran her fingers through her short blond hair.

“Whaddaya mean,
uhhhh
?” Alicia asked.

“Just give me a minute.” Kristen held up a finger. “I can totally figure this out.”

“You better.” Dylan's voice was a flat monotone, like a robot's. “Because there is something behind that tree with big black eyes and it's looking right at us.”

Massie felt her heart drop before she even saw what Dylan was talking about.

“Nobody move,” Kristen whispered. “That will only make it charge us.”

“What is it?” Massie heard herself ask. Her voice sounded distant and strange, like it belonged to someone else, someone who was about to die.

“I believe the Latin term is
Ursus arctos
,” Kristen murmured.

“And in English?” Dylan snapped.

“Grizzly bear,” Claire gasped for Kristen.

“Ehmagawd, what do we do?” Alicia grabbed Claire's arm, then immediately let go when she realized what she had done.

“Crouch down and pretend you're a small nonthreatening rodent,” Kristen said softly.

“What?” Dylan snapped.

“Shhhhh,” everyone seemed to hiss.

“Just do it.” Kristen lowered herself into a squat. She held out her hands and curled her fingers so they looked like tiny squirrel claws. “I read it in your survival guide.”

The girls couldn't argue with her, since none of them had bothered to read the thick handout. In fact, Massie remembered using it to blot her lip gloss minutes before she met up with Derrington.

One by one they crouched down. Massie squeezed her eyes shut, made tiny claws with her hands, and thanked Gawd she would die knowing what it was like to kiss a boy.

LAKE PLACID, NEW YORK NOT QUITE SURE WHERE

Wednesday, February 25th
IT'S STARTING TO FEEL LIKE LUNCHTIME

“No one has any food with them, right?” Kristen whispered.

The girls were squatting like squirrels, trying to outsmart the beast that was glaring at them from behind the trees.

“I wish,” Dylan whispered back. “If I'd known we were going to spend the rest of our lives lost in the Adirondacks, I would have finished my pancakes.”

“Shhhh,” Massie insisted, near tears.

Claire discreetly stuck her index finger in her puffy jacket pocket. She wrapped her fist around the half-eaten bag of gummies and sours Cam had given her to keep them away from the hungry animal that was closing in on her. Hopefully, when their mangled bodies were discovered, someone would find the candy in her hand. It would be a detail the press would find sad and charming. Cam would read the article and know that he had been with Claire during her final hours. If only she could offer the same comfort to her family. The thought of her parents crying broke her heart. But the idea of Todd taking her room, after she'd finally gotten to decorate it her own way, filled Claire with enough rage to face the predator head on. If she could stand up to the Pretty Committee, surely she could take on a wild animal.

Claire slowly lifted the bag out of her pocket, hiding it from Dylan, who had been whining about her hunger pains for the last half hour. There was no way she'd be able to untie the knot with one finger, so she poked a hole through the bag instead, dragged a sour toward the opening, and held it in her palm. Everyone was praying with their eyes closed, so they didn't see Claire throw the candy. She tossed it on purpose to the far left of the animal so it would follow the food and leave them alone. But the sour hit a tree and never made it anywhere near its intended target.

“Ehmagawd, did you hear that?” Dylan opened her eyes. “Someone is shooting at us!”

“No one is shooting,” Kristen whispered. “It was probably just a falling acorn.”

“Are you sure?”

“Totally.”

They closed their eyes and continued praying.

Claire went through the entire poke, drag, and drop process again. Only this time she took two pieces instead of one, in case she missed again.

The second toss was even more pathetic than the first. Claire had no clue where it landed.

“This one is for love,” Claire told herself as she drew back her arm for the third time. She pictured Cam dressed as Camille and remembered him leaning in to give her a kiss. The memory filled her with strength and determination. This time she threw with more power than she knew she had.

Suddenly, the beast tore off as if a land mine had exploded an inch away from its paws.

“It's gone,” Claire announced.

“Ehmagawd, what
was
that?” Alicia opened her big brown eyes.

“It looked like Bambi,” Kristen cooed. “I think it was a baby fawn.”

“Aren't they vegetarians?” Claire asked.

No one answered.

Claire desperately wanted to tell them how she'd saved their lives, but then they'd know she had sours and gummies. And sharing them was out of the question.