Reality Bites #15 Read online

  Everyone slowly moved toward the door, pausing to give Gaby a hug or an affectionate squeeze of the shoulder.

  “I can’t believe you thought you needed to go to all that trouble just to be our friend,” said Priya.

  “It’s true,” said Brynn. “When you think about it, we’re not even that great.”

  “Though it is interesting that you’re more comfortable trudging through the dark forest than just being plain ol’ friendly,” Natalie said as she gave Gaby a wink.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” Alex told her, “even if you are a pain sometimes.”

  Behind her, Jenna grinned and punched Gaby’s shoulder. “It wouldn’t have been the same without you, that’s for sure.”

  “So what was that about?” Brynn asked softly as she and Grace walked to the gym together. They’d fallen a little behind their bunkmates, and Brynn watched Grace with a concerned expression.

  “What do you mean?” Grace asked.

  “What you told Dr. Steve.” Brynn furrowed her eyebrows. “Do you really feel left out, Grace? I was thinking about it, and I realized that yeah, we probably talk a lot about stuff you missed.” She looked sheepish.

  Grace shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s not a big deal,” she said. “You guys have been talking about Cropsy a lot, and the big ‘cliquey’ talk and stuff.” She smiled warily. “I guess I should have been more prepared for that. I just expected to get to camp and feel right at home right away, never realizing that there might be things I had missed.”

  Brynn nodded sympathetically. “It still wasn’t cool of us. I’ve been spending so much time in rehearsals lately, I didn’t even notice. I’m sorry.”

  Grace just squeezed her arm. “Forget it. You’re going to be awesome in that show, and I’ll be in the front row, cheering for you.”

  Brynn grinned. “Thanks.”

  A throbbing dance beat was playing in the gym when Grace and Brynn joined their friends on the dance floor. Grace grabbed a hair clip from her pocket and piled all of her hair on top of her head, immediately moving to the music. All around them, groups and couples were dancing. Far on the perimeter, Grace spotted a familiar bespectacled face, laughing with one of his bunkmates and a couple of division-four girls. Her heart felt like it stopped for a minute. He’s flirting, she thought. I’m gone for a couple hours, and he flirts with someone else. Priya was right.

  But as Grace watched him, he caught her eye and smiled. Come over, he gestured. Grace was torn. She took a deep breath and turned to Priya, who shrugged and gave her the thumbs-up.

  “I’ll be right back,” Grace promised.

  Priya just smiled knowingly. “No hurry.”

  Spence pulled away from the rest of the group, moving over to stand by the concessions table as Grace approached him. He held out a cup of punch as Grace walked up.

  “For the wandering adventurer,” he said with a smile, “whose amazing tracking skills brought back a duplicitous reality show wannabe.”

  Grace smiled, taking a sip of the punch. “Duplicitous?”

  Spence nodded. “Big word, right? Get used to it, babe. Us journalism types have hot vocabularies.”

  Grace tried to hide her giggle with another sip.

  “So,” Spence went on. “Wanna dance?”

  Grace looked up at him and put down her punch cup. Over his shoulder, she noticed one of the division-four girls he’d been talking to staring their way, looking surprised and upset. She probably felt exactly like Grace had felt when she’d spotted Spence talking to her. Grace had a sudden memory of the way Spence had seemed to light up when Chelsea, Gaby, and Priya were flirting with him after newspaper. Grace felt like it really was genuine—Spence liked her. But it seemed like he liked a lot of people. In fact, it seemed as if he liked whoever was standing in front of him.

  And then she remembered something: She thought she liked Spence, but she hadn’t really thought about him at all while they’d been looking for Gaby.

  Was she doing the same thing he was?

  “Spence?” she said. “Can I tell you something?”

  Spence nodded, picked up a punch cup of his own, and took a long sip. “Ahhh,” he said. “Of course you can, Grace. You can tell me anything.”

  I can, she thought. It was really nice, actually. But that didn’t necessarily mean they were soulmates.

  “I like you,” she said, and Spence grinned. “I love being around you, because you’re so easy to talk to and you make me laugh. But I think . . .” She paused. “I think I really like you as a friend.”

  Spence nodded slowly. Like always, he didn’t seem surprised, angry, or defensive. He took a minute to absorb what she had to say, then smiled. “Okay. That’s cool.”

  “I’m sorry,” Grace said. “I hope I didn’t mislead you.”

  “No biggie.” Spence shrugged. “I think you’re a cool chick, Grace. And you’re a great partner on the arts beat. If you want to be just friends, that means I can still hang around you, so it’s cool with me.”

  Grace smiled and looked back at the division-four girl, who was still watching. “I don’t think you’ll be lonely for long.”

  Spence just laughed. “Whatever. Neither will you.” He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “Have fun tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “See you tomorrow,” Grace echoed. And Spence walked away, pausing once to turn around and give her a little wave before walking back to the younger girls.

  Grace waved back and then walked over to Chelsea, who had been watching the scene. Priya, Jenna, Brynn, and Jordan were all dancing nearby in a group.

  “What happened?” Chelsea asked.

  Grace shrugged. “No biggie. I told Spence I want to be just friends.”

  Chelsea’s eyes bugged out. “What? Are you kidding?”

  Grace shook her head and started dancing.

  Chelsea’s mouth dropped open. She leaned over to Priya and whispered in her ear.

  “What?” Priya seemed to jump out of her skin as she turned to Grace. “You don’t like Spence?”

  Grace shook her head, still moving to the beat. “Not like that,” she replied.

  Priya and Chelsea looked at each other.

  “We’d better comfort him,” they both blurted at the same time. Before Grace could react, they were already halfway across the room, headed toward Spence.

  Gaby caught Grace’s eye as she turned around to watch Priya and Chelsea take off. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “That’s going to end well.”

  Grace just laughed and shrugged. “You know what? Not my problem anymore.”

  Gaby smiled. The music changed right then, and Gaby jumped a little, recognizing the opening chords. “I love this song!”

  “Me too,” agreed Grace.

  “Me three!” Brynn said.

  “Me four!” said Jordan.

  “Me five!” cried Jenna.

  They all piled together, laughing and singing and trying to outdo one another with crazy dances. Grace couldn’t get the silly smile off her face as she and Gaby screamed the chorus.

  I might have felt left out before, she thought, but I’m definitely back now.

  Turn the page for a sneak preview of

  camp CONFIDENTIAL

  Golden Girls

  available now!

  chapter ONE

  “Yes!”

  Tori awoke with a start and tried to pry her eyes open. It couldn’t be seven A.M. already, could it? Her eyelids were so heavy they felt like rocks, but she managed to blink a few times and look around. A soft, gray light trickled through the cabin windows—definitely not bright enough for morning reveille. But then what had woken her?

  There was a giggle and someone dropped something on the floor across the bunk. Oh, great. Was someone pulling a prank in the middle of the night? Tori so didn’t want to get involved. Pranks were so childish and pointless. Not to mention potentially damaging to personal property. She rolled onto her side and lifted her pillow over her head to block
out the noise. All she could do was hope it wasn’t a silly-string or TP attack—something that would get the whole cabin up and screaming. Maybe if she ignored the pranksters, they would just leave her out of it.

  “Red team rules!”

  Suddenly someone jumped on Tori’s bed and flipped her right back onto her back. Tori whipped her pillow away to find Jenna Bloom hovering over her with a wild look in her eyes. Her curly brown hair stuck out in all directions and she wore a brand-new red T-shirt over her pajama bottoms. Behind her, the rest of the bunk started to rouse and yawn and look around to see what the commotion was.

  “Are you possessed?” Tori asked, utterly confused.

  “Red team is going to kick Blue butt!” Jenna cheered. “And this year I’m not getting injured, so there’s gonna be no stopping me! Woo-hoo!”

  Oh, God. Color War! Tori thought, her brain finally waking up enough to figure out what was going on. Jenna shook Tori a few times, chanting “Red! Red! Red!” before jumping off her bunk and swinging up to taunt Alex Kim.

  “How do you know you’re on Red?” Alex asked, fully alert as she climbed out of bed.

  “T-shirts in our cubby holes, baby! Color War’s early this year! Red all the way! Woo-hoo!”

  Jenna was now in the center of the cabin, doing a sort of jerky, bizarre-o dance like she was trying to bring on the rain or something. Tori rolled her eyes at Natalie Goode, who was just stretching her arms over her head in her own bed. Natalie shook her head in reply, clearly amused. Everyone knew Jenna lived for Color War. The previous summer she had been all but shut out of participating because she had hurt her ankle right before the yearly ritual began. Tori remembered feeling bad for Jenna, but also a little bit jealous of her. Tori would have loved to be excused from Color War. To her, the competition was all just a little bit silly. Silly, immature, backward, and primitive, to be exact. It wasn’t like it really mattered who won. The teams were chosen at total random and the events ranged from the ridiculous (the singdown finale) to the near-violent (last year’s capture-the-flag tournament had resulted in several injuries). None of this was Tori’s cup of decaf chai tea.

  “I’m on Blue!” Alex announced, finding a new T-shirt in her cubby and yanking it on. Her dark hair staticked out and she smoothed it with one hand.

  “I’m on Red!” Valerie exclaimed, high-fiving with Jenna. The beads at the ends of her multiple braids clicked as she lifted her hair out from the neck of her tee.

  As the rest of the girls yanked out their T-shirts, Tori reluctantly crawled out of bed. She was aching to go back to sleep, but she didn’t want to be labeled as a party pooper. Halfway across the room, Natalie tossed Tori a blue T-shirt. It had that crisp, brand-new cotton smell. It said CAMP LAKEVIEW in small letters above the left breast, and COLOR WAR in huge letters on the back.

  “We’re both on Blue!” Natalie announced, pulling her own shirt on over her head.

  “Sweet,” Tori replied. At least with Nat on her team, she’d have someone to bond with. And maybe laugh with over the silliness of the whole thing.

  “Yeah, Blue team!” Grace called out, her red hair tucked into the collar of her new shirt. She slapped Tori’s hand so hard it stung. “Blue team rules! Blue team rules! Blue team rules!”

  Gaby, who was also wearing blue, joined Grace’s chant. Candace stuck her arms through the holes of her own blue T-shirt and came over to stand quietly near Natalie and Tori. Candace was normally shy, and usually either stayed quiet or repeated everything the other girls said. She had never been the chanting type.

  “Red team rules! Red team rules! Red team rules!” Jenna shouted over Grace and Gaby. Priya, Valerie, Brynn, and Chelsea all joined in with her. Soon Alex came in on the Blue side and finally Natalie joined in as well, clearly not wanting to be outshined by Red. Tori simply smiled and leaned back against Grace’s bunk bed behind her. She just did not have that competitive streak. Apparently Alyssa, who was on the Red team, didn’t have one, either. She had put on her red shirt and crawled right back into bed.

  “Red team rules!”

  “Blue team rules!”

  “Red team!”

  “Blue team!”

  “Red!”

  “Blue!”

  “Girls!!!”

  All the lights in the cabin flicked on and everyone instantly fell silent. Tori turned around to find Belle, the counselor for bunk 5A, standing in the doorway between her room and the main room, her short black hair sticking straight up in the back. She wore her usual black tank top and gray boxer shorts and had a bit of black mascara smudged under her eyes. Not a good look for her.

  “Would you kindly quiet down and go back to bed?” Belle said through her teeth. “I stayed up late waiting for you all to fall asleep so I could put your T-shirts in your cubbies and I’m tired. And tiredness makes me really grumpy!”

  “We noticed,” Chelsea said under her breath, earning a round of laughter from the other girls.

  “Now I want perfect silence until reveille, is that understood?” Belle said.

  Belle was definitely a no-nonsense type of counselor.

  “Yes,” everyone grumbled.

  “Good.”

  Belle turned around and seconds later her cot squeaked under her weight. Everyone, including Tori, giggled through the tension as they returned to their beds. Tori climbed under the covers and after a few minutes, whoops and hollers could be heard from other bunks all over the camp. Everyone was waking up early and finding their T-shirts. Even in her anti-Color War state of mind, a shiver of anticipation shot through Tori.

  “I love Color War so much,” Jenna said dreamily.

  Everyone laughed. So much for perfect silence.

  All of bunk 5A was already gathered in a circle in the center of the cabin the next morning—red shirts on one side, blue on the other—when Natalie finally found the bottle of nail polish she was looking for and joined them. She plopped down between Grace and Alex and placed her foam toe-separators on each foot.

  “What’re you doing?” Gaby asked her. “Are you ever not primping?”

  “It’s for team spirit!” Natalie replied.

  She produced the bottle of blue polish from behind her back and quickly went to work on her toes.

  “Wow! Nice touch!” Grace said. “But how’d you know you’d be on Blue?”

  “I didn’t. I have red, too,” Natalie said. “But personally, I like blue so much better,” she said pointedly, grinning at the red side of the circle. “It’s so much more original.”

  “God, Natalie, could you get rid of that stuff? It’s stinking up the place!” Jenna said, waving a hand in front of her face.

  “It never bothered you before,” Natalie said.

  “It’s not the nail polish. It’s the color that stinks!” Jenna replied.

  The whole Red team cracked up and Natalie went back to her pedicure. “Ha-ha. Hope for your sake they don’t have a stand-up comedy competition this year.”

  “Oooh!” the Blue team chorused. Grace and Alex high-fived over Natalie’s head. Natalie smirked. After three summers here, she was starting to get good at this trash-talking thing.

  “Okay, ladies, let’s call this little meeting to order!” Belle announced, stepping out of her room with her clipboard. The bunk’s CIT, Clarissa, stood next to Belle with two cloth bags in her hands—one red and the other blue. This was new. Natalie was officially curious, and she could tell by the looks on her friends’ faces that they were as well.

  “First, I have some Color War-related announcements,” Belle said.

  “Color War! Yeah!” Jenna cheered.

  Belle glanced at her. “Could we not do that every time I say the words ‘Color War’? We’ll never get anywhere.”

  “Sorry,” Jenna said, pressing her lips together.

  “Anyway, since there are so few fifth-division campers this year, you guys will be combining with the sixth-division girls for some of the events,” Belle said. “Only those that require large t
eams, like soccer and capture the flag. For the rest of the events, you’ll be strictly fifth division.”

  A murmur of interest ran through the circle. The sixth-division girls? They were so cool. And so . . . intimidating.

  “Dr. Steve has also decided that this year, each team in each division will have a captain.”

  “Cool! I’m in!” Jenna announced, raising her hand.

  “I’ll do it!” Alex chimed in as well.

  “Wait a second. What if I want to do it?” Gaby said.

  Belle held up her hand. “In order to avoid having this turn into a popularity contest, I’ve decided to choose captains based on chance. The last thing this bunk needs is more rivalry.”

  Natalie nodded her agreement as she moved to her pinky toe. Since the very first day of camp this year, she and her bunkmates had constantly been feuding about something or another, and only recently had everyone sort of calmed down and started to get along. If they started voting for captains now, everyone would get upset all over again.

  “So, in each of these bags there are six paper circles, five black and one gold,” Belle said. Clarissa stepped forward and placed the red bag in front of Jenna and the blue bag in front of Candace. “Whoever picks the gold circle from each bag will be your captain.”

  “Go ahead! Pick!” Clarissa instructed.

  Candace took a deep breath and reached into the blue bag. She came out with a black circle and sighed, clearly relieved. She handed the blue bag to Alex. Alex closed her eyes and yanked out—a black circle as well. She shrugged and gave the bag to Natalie. Nat quickly capped her nail polish, reached into the bag, and mixed up the circles inside. Then she grabbed one and pulled it out. Another black circle. She handed the bag to Grace.

  “Come on gold! Come on gold!” Grace said. She reached in and yanked out . . . a black circle.

  “Well, it’s one of you two,” Natalie said to Gaby and Tori. Secretly she was hoping Tori would get the gold. Gaby was bossy enough as it was. If she got to be captain, her head might swell to the point of explosion.