Fearless (4 page)

I knew she was trying to be nice, and Tis probably already liked me for one reason: I was Madison Abernathy's little sister. But it drove me slightly insane to be called Maddy Junior. I hoped she wouldn't keep it up. Madison never got called Jordan Senior, which just goes to show how much discrimination younger siblings face.

“It's so cool we got one of Madison's friends for a counselor!” said Molly. “What's your activity? Who's the Side A counselor?”

“I'm on the tennis staff, and my co is Rachel Hoffstedder. Remember her from hiking last year? She's about five foot two, short brown hair?”

“Oh yeah, I remember Rachel,” said Molly. “She's great. We've got two awesome counselors!”

“I knew Eda would make sure of that.” Mama smiled
at Tis. She was overjoyed that a friend of Madison's was my counselor.

“So, Junior—you talk, right? Madison told me you're really into riding. She says you're the adventurous type, and you're gonna try some cool stunts this summer!”

I felt like hitting Madison right in the face with
my pillow. She walked behind Tis and snickered evilly at me.

“Yeah, Molly and I both love horses,” I said to Tis, leaving it at that.

Let's see—Madison still had to hire a skywriter to fly over camp and write in smoke letters across the sky,
My little sister is going to jump her horse this summer or else!
Then her plan would be complete.

Major, major mistake ever saying my goal out loud. Now I was starting to wish that I hadn't even told Molly about it.

We walked past the big stone building of Middler Lodge and then climbed up the steps to the long row of cabins called Middler Line. The cabins were built out of plain wooden planks, and their shiny tin roofs were blinding in the sunlight.

Since we were in Cabin 1, we didn't have far to go. Eric propped open the screen door with my overnight bag, and we carried all our luggage inside.

“All you really need is a roof over your heads, right?” said Eric. He smiled as he looked around, because there really wasn't a lot to Pine Haven's cabins. Basically, the cabin was divided into two big rooms with bunk beds and single cots lined up along the walls. No bathroom, no shower, hardly even electricity. There were a couple of lightbulbs hanging down from the wooden rafters overhead, but the only time the lights were ever on was at night. During the day, plenty of sunlight came in through the large window screens.

“Were you ever in this cabin?” Molly asked Madison. “Is your name anywhere?” She looked around at where hundreds of girls' names were written on every square inch of every wall.

“No, I was in Cabin Two and Three, so you'll find my name in those cabins in about twenty different places.”

“Molly, honey, I'll help you make your bed if you find some sheets in your trunk,” Mama told her.

“Okay, thanks, because I want the top bunk. Jordan will take the bottom.”

Madison and Tis left us to go find some more of their friends, and once we had our beds made, Mama wanted to see if she could help Eda with anything. Eric got drafted to help other parents carry luggage to the cabins.

Molly noticed all of our name tags lying on Tis's cot,
so she pulled out hers and mine. It was kind of a pain wearing them. They were made out of a round piece of wood and lanyard string for hanging around our necks, and we had to wear them everywhere for the whole first week. But it actually was a good way to get to know everyone's name pretty fast.

Molly and I made a stop in Solitary, which was Pine Haven's name for the bathrooms. Eda had told us that even when you went to the bathroom or took a shower at Pine Haven, you probably wouldn't be alone because of the communal bathrooms, and so as a joke, they'd named them Solitary.

Then we went out on the hill to wait for our friends to get here. We found a spot in the grass and sat down, far enough away from all the arriving campers and parents so we wouldn't get trampled on.

“Hey, there's Amber!” Molly shouted when we saw a girl with long dark hair and a slightly crooked nose get out of a car. Amber was a good friend from last summer who spent all her time at the stables too. We ran over to see her.

“Did we get in the same cabin?” Amber asked excitedly when she saw us.

“No, we're in Cabin One, and you're stuck in Cabin Two with a bunch of newbies,” Molly told her.

“Oh,” said Amber, ultra disappointed for about ten seconds. “Well, that's okay. I'll get to meet some new people.” Amber was always looking on the bright side.

We spent the rest of the morning greeting a bunch of our old friends as soon as they arrived and helping them get moved into their cabins. The charter bus pulled in just before lunch, and things really got crazy then. Counselors from Camp Crockett, the boys' camp across town, showed up to help carry luggage and get campers moved in.

Mama and Eric stayed until after lunch, but as everyone was leaving the dining hall, Mama found me in the crowd outside. “Honey, we're going to take off soon, okay?”

Now that it was time for my parents to leave, my insides got all jumpy again. And even though at my age I should have been able to do this without crying, I could still feel my eyes starting to sting a little.

“You'll be okay, won't you?” asked Mama as she hugged me really tight. Her voice had that worried sound, like she was expecting a meltdown at any minute.

“Yes!” I insisted, hoping I didn't sound too irritated. “Mama, do you remember how old Madison was the first time she jumped a horse?” I really wanted to know
the answer. Plus, it distracted me from getting too emotional.

She thought for a second. “She was twelve. But Jordan,
you're not Madison. You don't have to do everything just the way she did it.”

“I know!” I said, and this time I really did sound annoyed. “I was just curious.”

“We're going to track down Madison and say good-bye to her.” Mama pointed at me. “I expect lots of letters. And I want you both to have a great summer, okay?”

“We will,” I told her.

I didn't want to watch them walk away. Instead I pictured a scene in my mind. Running up to Mama on the last day of camp with a big smile on my face. “I did it! I jumped my horse, and it was awesome!” She would give me that
I'm so proud of you
look. And even Madison would have to admit, “I thought you'd wimp out, but you actually did it. Good job, Jordan.”

Everyone was walking up the hill to go to the cabins, so Molly and I followed along. I had a month—one whole month. Time to turn my fantasy into reality.

Late in the afternoon before supper, Molly and I were in the cabin unpacking. The two other girls with us on Side B were Erin Harmon and Brittany Choo.

I liked Erin, even though I didn't know her that well from last year. She had a calm, in-control kind of personality, and her gray eyes made her look like she was always thinking deep thoughts.

“So when do we start doing all the fun stuff?” asked Brittany. “Rock climbing, canoeing, tennis? Everything sounds so cool!” She pulled out a bunch of pink-striped towels from her trunk and stacked them on a shelf by her bottom bunk.

“All of the regular activities start tomorrow,” Erin explained. She was sitting on her top bunk above Brittany,
writing in a journal. “The first day is always crazy, with everyone getting here and finding their cabins and all the parents running around.”

“I thought my parents would
never
leave!” Brittany exclaimed. “I've never been away from home for so long before, and my mom was like, ‘I'm going to miss you so much,' and I'm like, ‘I can't wait to get there!'” she said with a laugh. “So all three of you came here last summer?”

“Yep,” said Molly.

“What kinds of insider stuff do I need to know? Or will you not tell me because I'm the new girl?” She laughed again. You couldn't help but like her. She had dark eyes and black hair, and she was cute and outgoing. She seemed to be one of those people who got along with everybody. Why were some people just born confident?

“It's a tradition that all the new campers have to make the beds for all the old campers,” said Molly with a straight face.

“It is not!” I said, finally joining the conversation for the first time. I'd been trying to think of something friendly to say to Brittany from the moment we first met her, but I didn't want her to think I was pushy and weird.

On the other side of the cabin, we could hear the Side A girls and our other counselor, Rachel, still trying to decide who would get which bed. Jennifer, one half of the Evil Twins, had just arrived. She'd gotten braces since last year, and she was a lot taller, but otherwise, she was the same old Jennifer with her thick auburn hair and her slightly snobby attitude.

I could hear Jennifer trying to convince Melissa Bledsoe to switch beds with her, and even though Melissa was the quiet, mousy type, so far she hadn't given in. The other Side A girl was a newbie named Kelly, and at lunch she'd looked so stressed that she practically made
me
stressed.

Last year, since I was new, it was okay for me to be the quiet type, but now I felt like I should be all outgoing and friendly. I pictured myself saying funny things, giving directions to lost campers and parents, helping the new girls put sheets on their beds.

Instead I was sitting on my bottom bunk with a book in my lap, hidden in the shadows. The towels Brittany was sorting through had more personality than I did.

Molly pulled three books out of her trunk and looked them over. “I wonder which one I should read first.” She held them up for the rest of us to see.

It was just as I figured. All three of them were about the same thing—the
Titanic
. After watching that old movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and then seeing a couple of documentaries on TV, Molly was now slightly obsessed with it.

“What does it matter? You know how it ends already,” I told her.

“Very funny. This one is full of survivor accounts, this one is loaded with pictures of the ship and passengers, and this one is about exploring the wreckage. So they're all about something different.” Molly raised her eyebrows at me. “What are you reading?”

“Nothing special.” I was a little embarrassed letting Molly see the book I'd found in the bookstore last week. Also, I really didn't want to carry on this conversation in front of Erin and Brittany, who I barely knew.

“Hey! Why are you hiding it? Come on, let me see. Is it a mushy romance or something?” She came over to my bed and reached for the book.

“It's nothing! Here, I'll show you.” I flashed the cover at her quickly.

Molly looked at the title and her forehead wrinkled. “
Our Town?
What's that about?” Erin was busy writing in her journal, and Brittany was still unpacking things and getting organized.

“It's just . . . it's a play. About people living in this small town called Grover's Corners a long time ago. You would think it's majorly boring because the people in it die of natural causes instead of drowning during a shipwreck.”

Brittany laughed when she heard that. “I've heard of that play. It's kind of famous, isn't it?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Why are you really into plays all of a sudden?” Molly asked.

“No reason,” I lied.

A couple of weeks ago, my father had taken Madison and me to see
Oliver!
performed at a youth theater. It was so amazing. There were child actors in every single role. Even the adult parts were played by teenagers. And they were just regular kids who lived in the community—not stars or anything. They didn't get paid, of course; they did it for fun because they were kids who were really into acting.

“I guess it sounds pretty interesting,” said Molly, looking at the cover of my book. But I could tell she was about as interested in
Our Town
as she was in watching her toenails grow.

I was glad she hadn't asked to look at it too closely, because I'd hidden something in between the pages. A
folded-up piece of blue paper. It was tucked away safe inside the book.

I flipped the pages with my thumb and caught a glimpse of the blue. I might need this paper later. Maybe. But then maybe not.

Pretty soon we heard Eda ringing the big brass bell on the dining hall porch.

“That means it's time for supper,” Erin told Brittany. We left the cabin and walked down the hill with all the other campers. Even though it was only the first day, being back at camp was already starting to feel normal. That made me even more embarrassed about letting my stress levels get out of control this morning.

“Hey, there's Sarah Bergman and Whitney Carrington! Let's go say hi,” said Molly. Whitney was really into horseback riding too, but Sarah was allergic to horses. Molly still couldn't get over how sad that was, but Sarah didn't seem to mind too much.