Fearless (11 page)

I smiled back at her. “I think you're right.”

Just as we were passing Crafts Cabin, we saw Eda out on the porch with a few Junior girls. She had her video camera, and she was filming them as they made placemats out of strips of cloth. When she noticed us walking up the road from the stables, she waved good-bye to the little girls and came over to talk to us.

“Hi, ladies. Did you all have a good time at the stables today?”

“It was awesome!” said Molly. “We're getting better
with every lesson.”

“But we're sore!” said Amber. “We've all got achy muscles from riding all week.”

“Oh, Madison, I got an e-mail from your mom today,” Eda said, looking right at me.

That happened a lot. Just about everyone at some point would get mixed up and call me Madison. Even Mama did it. There were probably times when she called Madison Jordan, but somehow I never seemed to hear that.

I smiled at Eda, because what else could I do? “Oh, really? What did she say?” I asked, trying to sound polite.

“Oh, she was just wondering how your riding lessons were going. She said she'd gotten one letter from you last week, but you hadn't mentioned riding at all.”

Translation: Your mother expects me to spy on you all summer. So were you serious about learning to jump, or was that just a bunch of hoo-ha to impress us?

“Oh. They're going really well. Just like Molly said. Today we did a lot of trot work. And Wayward has us practicing two-point so we can be ready to jump in a couple of weeks.”

That was what she wanted to hear, right? I could just imagine what else Mama must have said in her e-mail.

Has she thrown up lately? Has she thrown up on any of the horses? Will she ever turn out to be anything like Madison, my perfect firstborn nonregurgitater?

Eda smiled happily at me and gave me a one-armed hug. “Great! Why don't you write her and tell her all that? She'll be so happy to hear about it.”

“I will. Definitely,” I said.

“Hey, could you videotape us when we're ready to jump?” asked Molly. “That way, our parents could see the tape later and they wouldn't just have to hear about it.”

“Of course! Anytime,” Eda told her.

“My parents would love that,” said Amber.

“That really is a good idea,” said Whitney. “Seeing ourselves jump would be a good way for us to improve our form.”

“Great! Let me know when you're ready, and I'll come down with the camera.” Eda said good-bye to us and headed off in the direction of the office.

“Oh, that's going to be so cool! We'll have a videotape of us jumping!” said Molly.

I pictured my videotape. I'd be on the back of Odie, and I'd approach the jump just like Whitney had done. I'd be in two-point, bent at the hips, shoulders squared, eyes focused straight ahead. I wouldn't be worried about
any of the things that could go wrong. I'd be fearless.

He'd take off at just the right moment, and together the two of us would fly over the crossrail exactly in the center.

That's what I wanted my video to look like. And maybe it would. Maybe my first jump would be the best movie moment of my life.

But how could I be sure it really would look like that? Real life wasn't always like the movies. And sometimes you couldn't do a retake.

“Okay, Jordan. What should we do? You plan everything, and we'll do it,” said Reb. She was lying on her cot, propped up on one elbow. She looked at me, waiting to see what I'd come up with this time.

“Yeah! You're really good at this stuff, Jordan,” Brittany added from where she sat on Jennifer's trunk. “Our cabin had probably the best fractured fairy tale, don't you think?”

We were all crowded around on Side A, trying to plan tonight's skit. Molly and I were sitting on Rachel's bed, and everyone was staring at me.

At the start of evening program, the counselors had done a short skit for us where they pretended to be campers. They complained about having to be quiet during rest hour, having to be quiet after lights out, and
having to clean up the cabins for morning inspection. They made it funny and everything, but basically, they made us out to be a bunch of whining complainers.

At the end of the skit, Jamie Young, a CA who was best friends with Tis, announced, “You've seen our imitation of you. Now you get to imitate us! Take half an hour to plan a skit. Then come back and perform it for us. So be creative, be funny, but don't be too harsh on us!”

So here we were, all eight of us, trying to come up
with some ideas of how we were going to imitate Rachel
and Tis. And all eyes were on me.

“Well, I think Molly would make a good Rachel, because they sort of look alike,” I said. They were both short, and they had dark brown hair. “And then for Tis, maybe Reb could play that part.”

Reb seemed like a good choice because they were both sporty girls with blond hair. But that wasn't the only reason. Both of them were very sure of themselves.

I paused to see if anyone would disagree, but everyone just nodded and waited for me to go on.

“So I was thinking we should do something about Tis and Rachel that only we know about. Because we're the ones who actually live with them.” I smiled slightly, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do. “What
about the way Rachel talks in her sleep?”

“Yeah, but she never really says anything. She just mumbles,” said Kelly.

“Well, you know how Rachel loves to sing all the camp songs, but she's always off-key? Why don't we have her singing camp songs in her sleep?”

Erin nodded. “Good idea. Yeah, that would be funny. But what about Tis?”

“What about the way Tis kisses her tennis racket?” I suggested.

The whole cabin exploded when I said that. I couldn't believe how hard everyone was laughing. I sat there with a smile on my face and waited for them to get quiet again.

Tis had this really expensive tennis racket that she said had taken her six months to save up for before she could afford it. She had a funny habit of giving it a little kiss on the strings before she'd hang it up on a nail over her bed at the end of the day.

“Oh my gosh! Tis is going to die when she sees this!” said Brittany.

“It'll be great, though! Let's do that,” said Molly. She ran to our side of the cabin and got Tis's tennis racket off the nail to give to Reb.

Reb took the racket from her and held it up, frown
ing a little. “Flat face; long, skinny neck. He's not really my type.”

“We don't care! You have to kiss it!” Brittany told her.

So Reb clutched the racket in her arms and planted six or seven kisses on the strings.

“Everyone else can be campers,” I suggested, “and you'll all be reacting to the singing and the racket kissing.”

“But let's all be in the skit this time,” said Erin, looking right at Melissa and me. “Nobody can say, ‘I don't want a part.' There'll be three Side A campers having to listen to Rachel sing and three Side B campers watching Tis kiss her racket.”

Melissa and I exchanged quick looks. “Okay,” I agreed.

I really did want to be in the skit, even though I knew I'd be nervous. But I'd made up my mind. No more wimping out. Time to be fearless.

I came up with some funny lines for all of us campers to deliver, and after that, we rehearsed everything a couple of times to be sure we had it all down.

Then it was time for us all to meet back in the lodge. All the Middlers were crowding inside and finding seats on the wooden benches or the floor. Our cabin sat
together as a group.

“We'll go first!” Reb announced loudly when the counselors all came in.

Tis saw that Reb was holding her tennis racket. “You better be careful with that! If I see one scratch on it . . .”

“I'll treat it with tender loving care,” Reb said, as we all stood up and made our way to the front of the crowd.

At least we weren't on an actual stage—just some empty floor space at the front of the lodge where no one was sitting. It seemed less intimidating this way.

Even so, I broke out into a cold sweat the second I turned around and was facing all the other Middlers. Luckily, Brittany, Erin, and I were supposed to be sitting on the floor playing cards for our part in the scene, so I felt much better when we sat down. This way I could be sure that my knees wouldn't buckle underneath me.

Brittany dealt the cards, and I clutched mine with my sweaty hands. Could everyone in the front rows see that my cards were shaking? I tried to hold my hands still. The skit had started, and everyone was delivering their lines, but I could hardly concentrate on what anyone was saying.

All I could think of was the fact that I'd have to deliver my one and only line soon. What if when I said
my line, it came out all croaky sounding? Or what if I messed up the words? Or didn't say it loud enough? Why did I even give myself a line in the first place?

Molly was getting a lot of laughs every time she sang in her sleep. But Reb was about to bring the lodge down with her racket kissing. So far everything was going great. But I still didn't dare take my eyes off my cards. Was anyone looking at me? Did my face look as tense as it felt? Hopefully, they were all focused on Reb and Molly.

My line was about to come up. Should I clear my throat now? Or would that make too much noise?

“I'm really worried about her,” said Erin, which was the cue for my line.

I glanced at Reb and opened my mouth, hoping my voice would come out sounding normal. “It could be worse. At least she's not an archery counselor.”

“You're right,” said Brittany. “She'd get pierced lips from kissing the arrows.” That line got a big laugh, just like I hoped it would.

Whew! I was done, done, done! I'd said my one line, and I hadn't choked! And Brittany had gotten a good laugh. My shoulders relaxed a little, and I could feel my heartbeat slowly returning to normal.

I could've given myself the funny line, but I figured
Brittany would do a better job of it. And she had. It had been great.

After the skit was over, everyone applauded, and Reb stepped forward to take a bow. That made the rest of us line up and do the same thing.

“Way to go, Cabin One!” JD Duckworth yelled.

“That was a good one,” I heard Boo Bauer say.

We sat down in the crowd, and I felt weak from being so tense through the whole thing. But I was also so, so relieved.

And happy! I'd done it! I didn't back out! I'd actually gotten up and taken at least a small role in our skit.

We watched the rest of the cabins perform their counselor imitations, and lots of them were really good. I just loved seeing all my friends perform and have a fun time.

Later that night after evening program was over, we were all walking up the steps to the cabin together when Reb made this announcement: “From now on, whenever we have to do any kind of skit, let's just put Jordan in charge.”

“Yeah, good idea,” agreed Jennifer. “Skits, the talent show, all that stuff. It's good to have at least one person in the cabin to take care of all that.”

The talent show! I hadn't even thought about that.
Every summer the whole camp would have a talent show, and each cabin had to do at least one act. It could be anything—singing, dancing, playing a musical instrument. Or doing some kind of skit.

“Okay,” I said. “I promise I'll plan things, but you'll all have to be in it.”

I couldn't believe it! It was so cool that everyone thought of me as the one to plan these things. But there was something else I was thinking about.

I could hardly wait to get back to the cabin. As soon as I crawled into bed, I pulled
Our Town
off my shelf and flipped through the pages until I came to the blue sheet hidden inside. For the first time in weeks, I wanted to read the words printed on this piece of paper. I unfolded it and spread out the wrinkles.

WANT TO BE A PART OF VALLEY
YOUTH THEATER?
AUDITION FOR OUR NEXT PLAY!

WHAT: Our Town

WHEN: Auditions held from 6 to 8 p.m.,

August 1 and 2

WHO: All aspiring actors between the

ages of 9 and 17

HOW: Bring headshot (school photo

okay) and your best acting chops

WHERE: Valley Youth Theater,

708 S. 3rd St.

See you then . . . and break a leg!

I'd first picked up this paper back when I'd gone with Daddy and Madison to see
Oliver!
No one knew about it and what it made me think of doing.

Something daring. Something unexpected.

Something fearless.