“What’s up, Momma?” Eli raised his eyebrows and hitched up his slipping shorts. Neither boy saw the flash of Jackie’s fist as she clocked the biggest boy, toppling him like a bowling pin.
Victoria circled us again, definitely holding one hand over a cell phone while she shouted over a vague order for us to “settle down” before returning to her call. No wonder Madison had gotten away with so much.
With everyone preoccupied, I seized my chance. Eli had a big personality, but his small body was no match for a highly conditioned cheerleader on a mission. A high kick sent the diary spinning out his hands and into the fire. In seconds, Trinity’s incriminating words vanished into the flames. If only I could make the fall-out disappear as easily.
I rushed to Trinity. “I’m so sorry. You guys were right. They’re all jerks.”
Trinity’s eyes were red and blurry. I reached out a hand but Siobhan stopped me. “Trinity doesn’t want you right now.”
“I’m her friend,” I said, confused. “I got rid of her journal.”
“But who let them have it in the first place? Friends don’t give diaries to the enemy.” Trinity nodded over at Hannah and Eli’s bunch, who were still laughing and making kissing noises.
My mouth dropped. “I didn’t give it to them.”
“Right.” Jackie shook her head in disgust. “And you weren’t responsible the last time you screwed us over either, were you? We’ve heard enough excuses,” Jackie fumed as Seth joined us. Trinity stumbled into Seth’s arms and sobbed. His eyes were as stormy as the rest. I don’t know what hurt more, seeing his arms around her or the anger in his face.
He—of all people—didn’t believe me?
I stepped back and bumped into Kayla. She twined her hand in mine, an unexpected ally when everyone else seemed to hate me.
Strengthened by her support, I said, “If you believe I’d do something that low, then you don’t know me.”
“And
you
know who you are?” Piper cocked her head and studied me. “We loved you, Lauren. The old you. This new one, we don’t even want to know.”
I looked around, shocked to see them all nodding. Seth remained stony-faced. My cheeks were damp and my nose stung like I’d leapt from our pool’s high dive and hit bottom.
“Lauren, you can stay at our cabin. Madison’s bunk was above mine.” Kayla put in. “Even if they catch her, Gollum’s never letting her back at camp.”
I glanced from the girls at Divas’ Den to Munchies’ Manor and shook my head. I might not know who I was, but I definitely knew who I was not. I wouldn’t take up residence with people who stole diaries.
“Go, Lauren.” Trinity’s voice was muffled by Seth’s damp shoulder. “You’re more like them now.”
A part of me curled up black and crisp at their collective nod. They were kicking me out.
Kayla tugged me away. I walked backwards, hoping someone would call out, stop me from leaving. But they turned away, closing ranks.
Numb, I followed Kayla up the path to my cabin. I sank to the wood floor and pointed when she asked me which stuff was mine. Drained, I watched her pack my gear, unable to process that this was really happening. I’d been friends with these girls for years and now they didn’t want anything to do with me.
“Hannah’s going to be jealous when she sees this.” Kayla pointed at my Gucci bag, her side ponytail swinging in the same direction.
I shrugged, her words barely penetrating the fog of hurt that swirled around me. How had things gotten this bad? Was I about to become a Divas’ Den girl? It was exactly the kind of mean, popular girl type I’d wanted to leave behind in Texas.
Except for Kayla. And hey, one friend was more than I had in the Munchies’ Manor cabin at the moment. My hand trailed over Alex’s bunk, my heart in my throat.
Kayla folded my tank tops in threes and matched the seams of my shorts before laying them in the suitcase. Outside, campers returning from the bonfire shouted things like, “Seth my love,” and “Kiss me.” Urgency had me kneeling beside Kayla, stuffing the rest of my things in the bag and zipping it up.
“You don’t want to take a look around?” Kayla held out my pillow. “Make sure you’re not leaving anything important?”
I shook my head, needing to get out of there before Trinity and the rest returned. I couldn’t face their accusations again. Or Seth comforting Trinity.
Kayla stopped my headlong rush out of the cabin with a hug.
“It’s going to be alright, Lauren. You’re moving on, that’s all.”
She was right, I thought, my suitcase wheels making grooves in the ground behind me. But was I moving in the right direction?
* * *
“What the hell was Kayla thinking?” Hannah’s voice poured from the screen windows as we approached Divas’ Den. Something snuffled in a bush beside me and I moved closer to Kayla. Bumps in the night woods could give you a lot more than chills.
“What’s the dif?” I heard Rachel say. “We’ve got an extra bunk.”
“Losers don’t sleep here,” Hannah’s voice sounded final.
I dropped my bag and stood on the path. No way was I entering that lion’s den. Kayla squeezed my arm, her lips straining upward in a failed attempt at a reassuring smile.
“She doesn’t dance like a loser. We could use her for our talent show routine,” I heard Brittany say. “With her fan kicks, we can’t lose. Besides,” she continued. “You owe me, Hannah. You promised the diary wouldn’t go public. Why did you do that?”
“I saw Seth and Lauren together that night on the canoe trip and thought she would have mentioned it to Trinity. I thought, if it was in the diary, I could show Matt that Lauren was still into Seth.”
“But it
wasn’t
in the diary,” Brittany practically shouted. “I thought you were going to sew it shut or put more itching powder on it or…I don’t know. How could you do that to those girls?”
It made me feel slightly better to know at least that Brittany hadn’t wanted to out Trinity’s secrets to the world.
Still, Hannah’s giggle made my fingers tighten on the handle of my suitcase.
“Either way it worked. Now Matt knows Lauren’s been chasing Seth behind his back and Seth thinks Lauren stole the diary from their clique. It’s a win – win,” she crowed. “Now Matt will stop caring about the phony and be with me.”
Kayla’s horrified eyes met mine. She shook her head, and I understood what she was trying to say, that she had had no part of Hannah’s plan. Kayla might be nice, but how could I share a cabin with someone like Hannah? I’d probably end up with a venomous snake in my bed.
“At least with Lauren staying here, Matt will be around more.” Rachel’s voice sounded muffled, like she was brushing her teeth.
“True.” High-heeled sandals clicked across the cabin floor.
“Do you want to go back?” Kayla whispered in my ear. I shook my head. There was nowhere else to go.
The bush beside me shook again. I froze when a skunk waddled out and stopped before us. Kayla gripped my arm and squealed. Didn’t she know we had to stay still in case the skunk got spooked and….
Foul oil skirted from behind his tail, coating us in its deep stench.
…sprayed.
I gagged as Kayla ran to the side of the cabin and retched.
“Fine,” Hannah harrumphed. “I guess Lauren will have her uses so… Hey, what’s that smell?”
My temper rose along with my stench. Grabbing my suitcase, I stormed up the porch steps and banged open the front door to their cabin.
“It’s your new roommate, Lauren,” I charged inside, dragging in the evil odor with me.
The girls dove for their sleeping bags, choking sounds erupting from beneath their pillows.
I smiled despite the throat-convulsing odor. At least Hannah wouldn’t be the only rotten egg in here.
Chapter Sixteen
Cold water pelted my back the next morning, the hot water long gone.
“Lauren,” Kayla yelled from the shower stall next to mine. A hand holding a tomato juice can appeared over the wall. “You want more?”
I grabbed the container and poured the thick red liquid over my head. Spaghetti and meatballs would never taste the same again. My scalp burned as I scrubbed it for the fourth time.
“Any luck?” Kayla called. Her shower turned off and the curtain rustled open.
I took a cautious inhale and gagged.
Yup. I stilled smelled like that old time Looney Tunes skunk, Pepé le Pew. Except Pepé always got the girl. As for me, I’d be lucky if either Matt or Seth was even speaking to me. Smell or no, they both thought I was rotten—Seth for believing I’d given Hannah the diary, and Matt for thinking I’d been after Seth while dating him.
What a ginormous mess.
I turned off the water and shivered at the icy flow running down my calves. Where did they pipe this water from, the Arctic?
Wrapping a towel around my body, I stepped into my flip-flops, then pushed aside the shower curtain. Kayla waited in the changing area, bedraggled hair hanging in her face. She sniffed as I approached.
“You reek.”
I grinned. My first smile in—geez, I honestly couldn’t remember. “And you’re one to talk? Who do you think got us into this mess?”
Kayla giggled, pulling her underwear up under her towel, then fastening her bra over it before pulling the terrycloth away. I followed suit.
The door banged open. A group of pre-teens stared at us, sniffed, and bolted back down the path.
That got us laughing. By the time we were fully dressed, me in a blue and green tie-dye tank top and cut-off shorts and Kayla in a white polo and navy shorts, I was feeling a little more human.
Last night, we’d slept in our sleeping bags on the porch, Hannah waking us with complaints of our smell every time we managed to drift off.
“You want breakfast?” Light glinted off of Kayla’s blond highlights as we stepped out in the dewy morning.
I shook my head. “Ugh. I smell so bad I’m making myself sick.”
“Well, I didn’t want to say anything…” Kayla slanted her blue eyes at me. I picked a pinecone off the path and threw it at her.
“Hey!” she laughed and chucked one back. In seconds we were in a full-on cone war, needles flying, hands filled with sap. I tugged a sticky missile out of my hair just as my former Munchies’ Manor friends appeared on the path, heading for breakfast.
They held their noses as they passed. Piper looked me up and down. “Looks like someone pissed off Mother Earth.”
Jackie peered over her shoulder. “Now she smells on the outside the way she is on the inside.” The group turned and marched away, their heads close and whispers audible.
Kayla looked at me in sympathy. “Those are some mean girls.”
I opened my mouth to protest, then closed it. She was right. They had their moments of mean just like the Divas had their moments of nice. Nothing was as black and white as it seemed.
“Wanna head down to the nurse? See if she has anything?”
“Are you kidding? The most she can give us is, like, baby aspirin. Let’s go see my boy.” Kayla jumped over a boulder in the path that led toward the boys’ section.
“Cameron, right?” I scurried after her. He was a Warrior known for sneaking in camp contraband. An illicit thrill shot through me. I was now
officially
a rule breaker.
We sprinted up the path, following the long shadows that stretched before us. I pulled up short at Warriors’ Warden, suddenly remembering Matt. Would I see him? My heart began to race.
Kayla cupped her hands and raised her voice. “Morning, Cam. Can you come outside?”
A moment later, Cameron appeared at the screen door, his arms gripping the overhead casing. A large hand loomed from behind and tousled his already-spiked hair. A second later, Matt’s grinning face showed beside Cameron’s. His smile faded when he saw me, his nose curling. I studied my chipped blue toenails.
“What the hell happened to you guys?” The door hinges creaked. I peeked up to see Cameron and Matt spill out onto the porch. Matt’s shirtless physique drew my eye, muscles rippling in a way that made me sigh.
“We went to a spa. What do you think happened to us?” Kayla’s hands fisted on her tiny hips.
Cameron narrowed his dark brown eyes and sniffed. “I don’t know if I can fix this in time.”
“In time for what?”
He motioned for us to come closer. It was a brave thing to do, considering our smell could strip paint. He lowered his voice.
“A bunch of us are sneaking out to the D&O tonight.”
Kayla squealed. “
Ohmigod
. The Down and Out. Love, love that place. You are so not going without us.” Kayla stamped her feet hard enough to lose a sandal. “Cam. You have to fix this.”
“Alright. But it’ll cost you. How much have you got? I could use a new shirt for tonight.” Cameron plucked at his faded, olive-green tee.
“Excuse me?” Kayla picked her sparkly daisy sandal up from the bottom step and shook it at him. “You’re my boyfriend. I shouldn’t have to pay.”
He backed into the cabin. “Business is business, babe. When you’ve got the cash, I’ll see what I can do.”
“But we didn’t bring any,” Kayla pleaded.
The screen door clicked shut in answer.
“Scrooge!” she yelled, then turned to me. “Wait here. I’ll go get the money.” With that she took off, leaving Matt and me alone. Awkward.
“So…” Matt stuffed his hands in his low-slung tan cargo shorts and leaned against a birch post. I tried to ignore the sun glistening on his six-pack abs and failed. God, he was gorgeous.
I met his emerald eyes. “So…” I trailed off. Super awkward.
“Are you hanging with us tonight, or with Seth?” He hopped off the porch, made a face, then jogged back up the stairs. “Wow. That
is
strong.” He coughed, eyes watering.
“Thanks. I think I’ll bottle it as a boy repellant.”
I watched a pair of birds snipe at each other, flitting from branch to branch, fighting for territory.
Matt gave me a rueful smile. “Well. It’s not exactly working on me.”
I tried to fight the wave of pleasure rushing through me and failed.
“Matt. You know we’re only friends, right?”
Matt’s face darkened. “According to Trinity’s diary, I guess we’ve been ‘only friends’ longer than I thought.” He turned as if to leave.
“Matt,” my soft plea stopped him. “It’s complicated. But trust me. Everything I said, everything we did, I meant.”