Read Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist Online
Authors: Melissa J Morgan
Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist (16 page)
“Yeah, I want to keep my feet on the ground for a few minutes,” Valerie agreed. “That slide was fun, but it knocked me out!”
“So let’s go over to the arcade, and we’ll all play whatever games we want for half an hour,” Grace suggested. “Then we can do the Tarzan rope-swing ride.”
When they got to the arcade, Brynn took off for the karaoke booth. Alex and Jenna headed to Shoot-the-Starfish. Karen went with Sarah and Valerie to check out the ancient video games like Pac-Man.
“Let’s play that Loch Ness game,” Natalie said.
Grace glanced over to the game, which was basically Whack-a-Mole with miniature Loch Ness monsters instead of moles. The game looked pretty boring. But playing the game at that moment were Simon, Adam, and Devon.
“Yeah. Let’s go,” Alyssa said, trying to sound casual.
Grace burst out laughing. “You guys are so obvious!” she said. “You just want to hang out with your boyfriends.”
“Adam is not my boyfriend,” Alyssa said.
“But you want him to be,” Nat replied.
“Not as much as you want Simon to be yours,” Alyssa shot back.
“Please,” Grace said. “You both like them, and they like you. It’s disgusting.”
“Well, you like Devon,” Nat said.
“I do not.”
“Fine,” Alyssa put in. “Then let’s not go play the Loch Ness game.” She exchanged a smile with Natalie, and they both stared at Grace, waiting for her reaction.
Grace thought about it. Devon
was
cute. And he was a good actor. And he seemed to like her. He’d helped her prepare for auditions, and he’d complimented her a few times now. But that didn’t mean she
liked
him. Still . . . it couldn’t hurt to play the same arcade game he was playing. And her friends really wanted to hang out with his friends. “No, that’s okay,” she said aloud. “We can play the Loch Ness game. It looks like fun.”
was
cute. And he was a good actor. And he seemed to like her. He’d helped her prepare for auditions, and he’d complimented her a few times now. But that didn’t mean she
liked
him. Still . . . it couldn’t hurt to play the same arcade game he was playing. And her friends really wanted to hang out with his friends. “No, that’s okay,” she said aloud. “We can play the Loch Ness game. It looks like fun.”
She led the way over to the game booth, ignoring the fact that Natalie and Alyssa were totally laughing at her.
By the time they got to the booth, the boys were at the front, each armed with a giant rubber-tipped mallet. A buzzer rang, and the little Nessie heads began popping up from holes in the board along the front of the booth. Immediately the guys went to work, smashing the mallets down on anything they could hit.
Natalie and Alyssa cheered loudly, and Grace couldn’t help but join in. When the buzzer rang again to signal the end of the game, Adam had one Nessie hit and Simon had two. Neither one of them qualified to win anything. But Devon had five hits.
“Choose your prize,” said the guy in the Scottish hat behind the counter. “A stuffed Nessie or a stuffed lobster.”
Devon turned around. “Grace, which one do you want?” he asked.
Grace told herself to ignore the fact that Nat’s eyes were bugging out of her head and Alyssa’s gasp was so loud that everyone in the park could hear it. It was harder, though, to ignore the heat creeping up her neck, signaling that she was about to turn bright red from embarrassment.
“Um, the Nessie,” she said.
The Scottish-hat guy handed over a little stuffed animal that looked like a brontosaurus wearing a plaid scarf. And Devon turned and gave it to Grace.
Don’t be a dork this time,
she ordered herself.
Come up with something cool to say.
she ordered herself.
Come up with something cool to say.
“Thanks,” she said.
Devon just nodded, flashing one of his adorable smiles.
“Now when people say the Loch Ness monster is just a legend, I can show them this to prove it really exists,” Grace added. There! That was at least a little bit of her true personality.
Devon laughed. “Yeah, it would be hard to argue with that.”
“Let’s go play the water-ski game,” Adam said. “I’m better at that one.” The boys took off toward the interactive games. Devon hesitated for a moment. “Did you know I got a role as one of the Lost Boys?” he asked.
“Yeah, congratulations,” Grace said. “I knew you’d get a part. Your audition was amazing.”
“Not as amazing as yours. You have real talent,” he said seriously. “But now that we’re both in the play, maybe we can run lines together to practice.”
Grace felt a strange little tingle move up the back of her neck. “Sure. That would be fun.”
“Cool.” Devon gave her a little wave as he walked off after his friends. Grace realized that she was still grinning stupidly, but somehow she couldn’t make herself stop.
“You were right about that Loch Ness game, Grace,” Alyssa said as Natalie collapsed into a fit of giggles. “It
was
fun.”
was
fun.”
“Fun to watch you flirt with Devon!” Natalie crowed.
“Just because Devon and I are friends doesn’t mean I like him,” Grace said.
“Yeah, right,” Natalie replied.
“It doesn’t,” Grace insisted. “We’re just going to practice for the play together. That’s all.”
They both smirked at her, and she couldn’t blame them. As much as she hated to admit it, she kind of had a crush on Devon. “Okay, we believe you,” Alyssa told her, obviously lying.
“Good,” Grace said. “Because I don’t like boys. It is a cute Nessie, though.”
“You guys had Grace for the whole time at the arcade,” Valerie said. She grabbed Grace’s arm as soon as they all got out into the parking lot where the bus was. “Sarah and I get her for the ride home.”
Natalie pouted. “She was supposed to sit with us on the way there and she didn’t. I think we should get her now.”
“Ladies, ladies, there’s enough of me to go around,” Grace joked. “Let’s just sit right across from one another. That way we all can still talk.”
“We’ll sit in front of you,” Jenna added, following them. “Our whole bunk should sit together.”
“Yeah, then Grace and I can practice our scenes for you on the way,” Brynn suggested. She was playing a Lost Boy in the play, and Grace was grateful that Brynn didn’t seem to be mad at her for getting a bigger part.
With everyone laughing and talking—except Chelsea, who was grumpy because she’d gotten a sunburn—they made their way to the big field-trip bus. Just as Grace was about to climb the tall steps, Gaby walked up next to her and gave her a little shove to push her out of the way.
“Hey!” Grace yelped. “You almost knocked me over!”
“Oh, sorry.” Gaby sneered at her. “I guess I’m not supposed to touch you now that you’re such a big star.”
“You’re not supposed to push anyone out of the way whether they’re a big star or not,” Brynn snapped, stepping up to defend Grace.
“What do you care?” Gaby said. “She stole the part you wanted!”
“She won the part fair and square,” Brynn said. “That’s part of being an actor, so I have to learn to deal with it. I’m not going to hold a grudge against my friend for doing a better audition than me.”
“You wouldn’t understand that, though,” Alex said, coming to Brynn’s side. “You obviously don’t know anything about being a true friend.”
“Yeah, you don’t know anything about it,” Candace put in.
“You’re just a bully,” Chelsea said. “Everybody knows it.”
A few of the girls in 3C exchanged smiles. That was the pot calling the kettle black! But it was nice to have everyone in 3C standing together. They really did work well as a team.
“You’re all losers, anyway,” Gaby said. “I don’t know what I was thinking making friends with someone from your lame bunk.” She scurried into the bus to get away from them.
“Say what you want, it won’t bother us,” Jenna called after her. “We know how cool we are.”
“So cool that we have the two best actresses in the third division,” Alyssa said.
“And Jenna and Alex, the best athletes,” Natalie added.
“And we’re the scavenger-hunt champs,” Sarah said.
“And we’re totally going to win color war,” Valerie put in.
By now, they were all laughing. “Plus, we’re the smartest, prettiest girls in the entire known universe,” Grace joked. “And we’re extremely modest.”
Grace felt a swell of happiness as her bunkmates all high-fived one another. Why had she thought she needed a friend outside of the bunk? They all climbed into the bus and made their way toward the back seats.
Grace noticed Gaby sitting with Christa near the front. Gaby pointedly looked away when Grace passed.
Oh, well,
Grace thought.
I guess that’s the end of our friendship.
She had lots of problems with Gaby’s behavior, but Grace had a hard time staying mad at people. She’d hoped that they could at least be friendly to each other, even if they weren’t going to be best friends. But Gaby clearly didn’t see it that way.
Grace thought.
I guess that’s the end of our friendship.
She had lots of problems with Gaby’s behavior, but Grace had a hard time staying mad at people. She’d hoped that they could at least be friendly to each other, even if they weren’t going to be best friends. But Gaby clearly didn’t see it that way.
“Come on, Grace!” Sarah called. “We saved the aisle seat for you.”
Grace hurried back to the group of seats her friends had taken over. “It’s bunk 3C on wheels,” she said. Everyone laughed as she plopped into her seat, letting her stress over Gaby melt away.
Who needed
one
best friend when you had eleven?
one
best friend when you had eleven?
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camp CONFIDENTIAL
Alex’s Challenge
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chapterONE
Jenna was addicted to sugar. Sometimes, she had cupcakes. Other times, she passed out Swedish fish. That night, she had the largest quantity of Nerds that Alex had ever seen. The round, little balls of candy were pink and purple. As Jenna passed them around—you had to admit she was awfully generous—some Nerds inevitably went flying. Gnat-sized streaks of unnatural color dashed through the air like Fourth of July sparklers. Alex couldn’t help it; she peeked up to watch the scene, her mouth beginning to water. She loved the sharp, sweet flavor of Nerds in particular. Just as she was going back to writing her letter, a handful of the hard sugar pellets nicked her left cheek.
“Agh!” Alex yelled. Those buggers really hurt.
Some girls started to grumble while others laughed. After six weeks together, everyone knew the grumblers (Chelsea, Karen, and Alyssa) from the goofballs (Jenna, Grace, and Natalie) without even giving it much thought. That’s what had happened at Camp Lakeview every year Alex had been there: The girls would get “thisclose,” and sometimes there was this magical warm and fuzzy feeling between them, like you’d met eleven soul mates. Other times, like during the War of the Nerds, “thisclose” was a catalyst for crankiness.
“Hey, did you get some?” Valerie asked Alex quietly.
“Yeah, they left bruises on my cheek,” Alex answered as usual. “Seriously, though, I don’t want any,” she added. This time, Alex went back to writing her letter for real. She had to concentrate on seeming busy; that way the girls were less likely to pay attention to her. Alex wouldn’t disturb a fly—and she liked herself that way. She was the original get-along girl and never caused commotion. She didn’t even yell at Jenna’s twin brother, Adam, when he snapped her bra strap earlier that day. Except for Brynn, who was her best camp friend, most people didn’t know what made her tick. Maybe Brynn didn’t even know.
“Okay, cool,” Val said. “More for me then.”
“I
know
you didn’t just hit me in the eye!” Chelsea yelled into the air. Lights-out was in fifteen minutes, but she was always in bed first. She claimed that her face broke out if she didn’t get enough beauty sleep. Chelsea even tried to get the other girls to quiet down early, as if that would’ve ever worked.
know
you didn’t just hit me in the eye!” Chelsea yelled into the air. Lights-out was in fifteen minutes, but she was always in bed first. She claimed that her face broke out if she didn’t get enough beauty sleep. Chelsea even tried to get the other girls to quiet down early, as if that would’ve ever worked.
“Aye, aye, Captain Chelsea,” Grace mimicked. “You better watch out, or you might lose a tongue, too.”
“Grace, please stop,” Chelsea said.
“Oh, we’re just having fun,” Jenna said. With so many brothers and sisters, she was pretty good at keeping the peace—as long as she wasn’t at war with Adam.
“Well, not to be a party pooper . . .” said Natalie. She was the daughter of the hot movie star Tad Maxwell. Alex had to hand it to Natalie; Natalie wasn’t stuck-up or glamorous or Hollywood at all. (She did love teen magazines, but that was forgivable.) “But I have to sweep the floor tomorrow, and you all are making things more difficult,” Natalie continued.
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