Over & Out (17 page)

Mia and a couple of the other CITs walked out of the mess hall carrying huge trays holding half a dozen pies each. They stood behind the competitors with the trays so that the pies could be switched out quickly as they were eaten. “You have ten minutes to eat as many pies as possible!” Andie explained. Campers shouted cheers and clapped as the buzzer sounded.

When the first pie was put down in front of her, Jenna took one look and almost threw in her fork right then and there. With crumbly dirt crust and a few pink worms peeking out, the pie looked totally gagworthy! Worm pie?! No one had said anything about having to eat nasty worms, and these looked especially slimy and dirty, like they'd just been pulled out of the mud. Jenna heard the other kids at the table gasp as they looked at their pies, too. But these weren't real worms . . . they couldn't be. All she had to do was close her eyes and take that first bite, and everything would taste just fine. She hoped. But what if she couldn't do it? What if she let her team down? Nope, she decided, that wasn't even an option.

She took a deep breath and dove in. After the first bite, a wide grin broke across her face. The pie was delish! That wasn't dirt . . . it was Oreo crumbs. And those pink worms were watermelon-flavored
gummy
worms! This was her kind of pie—tons of sugar, tons of chocolate, and mmmm good.

She scarfed down the whole thing and moved on to her second, third, fourth, and fifth. From the corner of her eye, she could see the kids around her dropping like flies. The ones who had eaten lunch beforehand were the first to give up and leave the table. Next, it was the younger kids who just couldn't eat as much. But soon, it was just she and her bro, side by side, stuffing their faces.

By the eighth pie, Jenna's stomach was starting to get uncomfortably full, and the gummy worms weren't tasting nearly as yummy as they had before, but she didn't slow down. She looked up once to see Alyssa and Nat and Tori, jumping up and down and screaming her name, so she pushed on, reaching for another pie, and another.

It was on pie number ten that Jenna noticed Adam turning a very interesting shade of lime green. He froze, mid-chew, and bolted for the restrooms, leaving Jenna alone at the table—the winner!

The Red team burst into wild cheers as Jenna finished her eleventh pie, patted her belly, and let out a long, loud burp.

“Jenna Bloom has put the Red team back in the lead, ladies and gentlemen,” Andie announced. Then she turned to Jenna. “How does it feel to eat eleven pies?”

Jenna took the bullhorn. “Great!” she shouted. “I could eat eleven more right now!”

That afternoon the girls participated in a Scrabble tournament, and then finally that night was the camp-wide singdown. It all came down to this.

Jenna had never sung so loud in her entire life. The singdown had been going on for the last half hour, and both teams were performing their final songs for the judges. Grace and Alyssa had written a song set to the music of ABBA's “Dancing Queen” titled “The Great Red Team,” and the entire Red Team was singing its heart out. There were four CITs judging each song on execution, originality, and camp spirit, and Jenna was positive that this song would win the war. She threw back her head and belted out the last verse:

They finished the song, and Jenna grinned.

“There's no way the Blues can beat that song,” she said to her teammates. “It's a winner.”

Then, the Blues began their song:

As the Blues sang, Jenna had to admit that each verse was funnier than the last. Even Dr. Steve was laughing at the lyrics, and a few of the younger kids on the Blue team couldn't even get the words out of their mouths, they were giggling so hard.

As the song ended, Dr. Steve announced, “All of you did a fantastic job the last two days. The judges for the singdown competition will turn in their results to me shortly, and I'll announce the victor at the banquet tonight.” He smiled. “But first, we're all in for a treat. This year's drama production of
Into the Woods
is going to be wonderful. I'll see you at the show.”

Everyone groaned in disappointment, not wanting to wait a whole two hours before knowing who won Color War, but soon everyone started walking to the bunks to get cleaned up for the play and the banquet. Before Grace, Tori, and Brynn left to change into their costumes for the play, the other girls gave them hugs for good luck.

“I won't say ‘break a leg,' ” Jenna said. “Because I've already broken one for you. I hope it brings you lots of luck.”

“Thanks,” Brynn said, and she, Grace, and Tori headed off toward the drama room.

As the other girls went back to the bunks, Jenna hurried to the mess hall instead, to put the finishing touches on the decorations for the banquet. She and the rest of the banquet planning committee worked for the next hour hanging the Color War banners, setting up the decorations, and helping cook the food. When they finished, Jenna took one final look at the mess hall before leaving for the bunk. Everything looked amazing! She was so glad she'd been on the committee, because now she felt like she'd really done all she could to make sure this banquet would be the best ever. She couldn't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces when they walked into the mess hall. Tonight was going to be fantastic.

chapter ELEVEN

“Come on, you guys! Hurry up!” Jenna yelled from the mess-hall stairs. Her friends were taking
forever
, and she couldn't wait for them to see the fully decorated banquet hall. The banquet was the best part of Color War, and in her opinion, anyone with two good legs should be
running
as fast as they could to get there.

They'd just come from the drama club's production of
Into the Woods
, and it couldn't have been better. The props and costumes had been fantastic—papier-mâché trees, velvet cloaks and sparkling fairy tale dresses, and twinkling white lights that were strung across the stage as stars.

“Someday we'll all be able to see you and Grace and Brynn on Broadway,” Nat said to Tori. “I just know it.”

As Nat and the other girls finally climbed the mess-hall stairs, Jenna cried, “It's a miracle! You're actually going to make it to the banquet before my ninetieth birthday!” She grinned. “And thank goodness, because I'm starving.”

Chelsea gawked at her. “I can't believe you're hungry after pigging out on eleven pies. That's disgusting.”

Jenna grinned and knocked on her cast. “It's my hollow leg. I just can't fill it fast enough.” She put her hand on the door to the mess hall. “All right, ladies, get ready to step into the streets of Rome, float down the canals of Venice, feast on pasta and pizza, and—”

“Jenna.” Andie laughed. “Just open the door.”

“Okay, okay,” she said and swung the door open to the oohs and aahs of all the girls as they looked inside. A gondola decorated with flowers, paint, and streamers sat in one corner in front of a mural of a Venetian canal, and kids were already lining up to have their picture taken sitting in it. Street lamps that Tiernan and Sarah had salvaged from the props from
Peter Pan
lined the aisles between the tables, and Pete had even turned a boat tarp into an awning that he'd hung over the window into the kitchen to make it look like the front of a real Italian café. Candles and Italian flags decorated every table, and the Leaning Tower of Pizza was especially impressive. Its twelve pizzas were stacked carefully one on top of another with breadsticks and leaning perfectly to one side. Red and blue Color War banners covered almost every inch of the walls that weren't decorated with Italian scenery, and red and blue streamers and balloons hung from the rafters.

“Wow!” Perry cried. “This is incredible.”

“I think it looks just like Italy,” Karen said.

Chelsea smirked. “Only someone who's never been to Italy would think that.”

“And you've been to Italy, Chelsea?” Alyssa asked, to which Chelsea muttered a barely audible “no” that made Karen smile shyly.

“It looks good, doesn't it?” Jenna asked, forgetting Chelsea's snotty comment as she admired the decorations.

“Good?” Nat repeated. “It looks amazing!”

Jenna beamed. To think that originally she hadn't been that into helping with the banquet! Now she was so glad she had. “I want to show you something,” she said. “Come with me.”

Her friends followed her to a long table at the back of the mess hall that was loaded with cookies and Italian pastries. Pete had even tried to make cannolis, although he'd overdone it on the cream and they were looking a little soggy. But it was what was sitting in the center of the table that Jenna really wanted her friends to see. It was a huge white cake with a red cougar and a blue bear painted on top with icing.

“It's the two Color War mascots!” Nat said. “How cool is that?”

“It was Jenna's idea,” Andie said, ruffling Jenna's hair. “She wanted to do something really special for dessert this year.”

“The inside of the cake's red and blue, too,” Jenna said proudly. “I swirled food coloring into the cake batter. And there's extra-chocolaty filling in the middle.” She smiled. “You can
never
have enough chocolate!”

“I think it's the best banquet dessert we've ever had,” Pete said, coming out of the kitchen to admire it.

Mia nodded. “No matter who wins Color War, everyone will love this cake.”

“We already do,” Tori said.

As Jenna watched her friends laughing and talking at their table, she knew she'd done the right thing when she'd decided not to carry through with her plan for Operation Drowned Rat. She'd put too much work into tonight to risk messing it up. And with such great friends, who needed pranks, anyway?

Of course, even without pranks, things got rowdy in the mess hall as everyone waited for Dr. Steve to announce the Color War winner. Simon, Adam, Devon, and Blake pounded on their table and shouted, “Food, waiter, waiter, waiter, food!” as Andie and Kenny, the designated kitchen help for the evening, brought out trays of chicken parmesan, garlic bread, and Caesar salad and put them on the buffet table.

“It looks like Pete and his fellow chefs totally outdid themselves this year,” Alyssa said as they got in line for the buffet.

“Don't worry,” Jenna said. “There'll be mystery meat tomorrow at breakfast. I'm sure of it.”

As the girls sat down with their food, Dr. Steve took the stage.

“This year's Color War competition was one of the closest in years,” he began. “In fact, there was only a twenty-five-point difference between the two teams, which just goes to show how much good sportsmanship and effort everyone put forth.”

Everyone in the mess hall broke into cheers, and a storm of fists pummeled the tabletops as the two teams chanted, “Red! Red!” and “Blue! Blue!”