Reality Bites #15 Read online

  Spence still hadn’t said anything.

  Just as Grace was deciding that she had said way too much and was putting together a plan to die of embarrassment, he finally said, “That’s dumb.”

  Grace felt her face flush. “I know,” she said, feeling her stomach drop. “I’m being totally—”

  “I would miss you,” Spence went on. “I mean, I know we don’t know each other well. But I think you’re cool.”

  Grace looked into Spence’s eyes. She couldn’t believe he was being so nice. “Wow,” she said finally. “Thanks.”

  Spence shrugged. “Don’t mention it.” He pulled the WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID? note out of the pile and arranged a pine tree painting next to the drawing of the two girls. “I think the girls. What do you think?”

  “The girls,” Grace agreed.

  Spence grabbed the drawing and placed it in the pile of pictures that would appear in the paper. Before grabbing the next two pictures, he flashed Grace the sweetest smile and reached out to touch her shoulder. “Now we’re getting somewhere,” he said.

  Yeah, thought Grace, and she felt like she was floating up to the ceiling. Now we are.

  “The first rule of Survival Camp—” Dr. Steve began as all the campers gathered in the auditorium that night.

  “Is don’t talk about Survival Camp!” yelled a male voice from the audience.

  Dr. Steve didn’t look upset, though. He smiled. “Actually, yes,” he agreed, “in a way. What I want is for everyone to be quiet and keep their comments to a minimum while the show is playing. Once it’s over, we’ll bring the lights back up and break off into groups to discuss the episode.”

  Brynn was off getting one of her Guys and Dolls costumes fitted, so she wasn’t going to get to watch all of Survival Camp. Grace glanced over at Jenna, who was sitting to her left, but Jenna was already looking over at Alex and smiling. Grace turned to her right, where Gaby was sitting, but Gaby was staring straight ahead, chewing on a hunk of her hair, deep in thought.

  Fine, Grace thought. Guess I won’t have any trouble keeping quiet.

  A huge screen hung over the stage of the auditorium, and the counselors had rigged up some sort of device that would project the show onto the screen so everyone could watch at once. Grace felt weird watching TV at camp, but then a lot of things about camp this year felt weird, so whatever.

  The lights dimmed and a goofy tune played—the intro to the theme song of Survival Camp. Soon Grace forgot all about feeling left out, and the weird events of the day, as she became lost in the story of twelve kids who were sent to live in a remote part of Utah and form pairs to set up camp. The cast was comprised of a lot of familiar characters: the bad boy; the would-be rapper; the spoiled girl; the aggressive, insecure guy; the needy drama queen. Grace felt like she knew some of these characters. They reminded her, in small ways, of people she knew back at school.

  It was almost a shock when the would-be rapper and the drama queen were voted out, and soon the credits rolled and the lights in the auditorium came back up. Grace and her friends all looked around at one another, smiling and blinking. “That was so cool,” mouthed Val. Grace nodded and rubbed her eyes, trying to adjust to the bright light.

  “All right,” Dr. Steve said, running back up onto the stage. “We’re going to break up into discussion groups now. Division three will meet in the mess hall; division four in the gym; division five stay here.”

  Grace saw Jenna and Alex smiling at each other when they realized that the discussion group would include girls and boys. Once the younger kids filed out, Belle and the other division-five counselors moved them onto the stage, where they all settled into a circle. Grace caught Spence winking at her. She grinned automatically and winked back.

  “So,” began Belle, “what did you guys think about the show?”

  “I thought it was cool,” David said. “And I think it was mighty cool of you to let us watch it.”

  “Well,” Belle replied, looking a little flustered, “great, then. But who were some of your favorite characters? Let’s go around and say who we liked the best, and then why.”

  Grace listened as Adam explained that he liked Kyle, the funny guy; Chelsea admitted that she liked Didi, the drama queen; and so on. The conversation went on to some of the specifics of the camps, the various mistakes different pairs had made, and finally the ending.

  “Was anybody surprised by the ending?” asked Hugh, the boys’ counselor.

  “I was,” said Chelsea. “I totally thought Didi would win.”

  “I wasn’t surprised that she and Jim got voted out,” Spence said, “but I was surprised they got voted out first.”

  Belle nodded, looking curious. “Who did you think would get voted out?”

  “Jake,” Spence replied without hesitation. “That kid was hopeless.”

  Grace smiled. Jake was a short, skinny kid with big spiky hair. He was allergic to everything, afraid of heights and the dark, and didn’t know how to swim. Grace agreed with Spence: She had thought Jake was a goner.

  “Well,” said Fiona, another counselor, “why do you think he was allowed to stay? What do you think the judges saw in him?”

  Jenna shrugged. “He’s a nice enough kid,” she suggested. “I mean, he was friendly to everyone.”

  “And he did everything his partner asked him to do,” added Adam. “I mean, the things he could do.”

  “Why do you think they work in pairs?” Belle asked. “I mean, rather than singles.”

  There was silence for a moment.

  “So they can work as a team?” asked Chelsea.

  “Yeah,” David agreed. “They probably look at teamwork and stuff.” He glanced at Jenna with a knowing expression. Teamwork, Grace thought. Exactly what Dr. Steve thinks we’re all so bad at.

  Belle smiled. “So what does that tell us?”

  “Teamwork is important!” cried Jenna, giving an exaggerated punch in the air.

  Belle sighed. “All right. No need to get sarcastic.” She looked at her watch. “Oh! It’s ten o’clock already. Okay, guys, remember where we left off. We’ll all pay special attention to Jake’s progress in tomorrow’s episode.”

  Gradually, everyone started to get up. David and Jenna and Adam and Alex ran over to each other to say a quiet “good night.” Grace glanced over at Spence, who was already heading toward the doors of the auditorium. He turned around and caught her eye, though, and mouthed a silent “good night.” Grace smiled and nodded. “Good night,” she mouthed back.

  Soon, all of 5A was assembled and headed back along the path to their cabin. Belle and Clarissa lagged behind, so the girls started discussing the show on their own.

  “Jake doesn’t have a chance,” Jenna hissed in a stage whisper. “I’m sorry, he’s probably a really nice guy, but he’s no camper. No matter how good at teamwork he is.”

  “Totally,” Tori agreed. “I bet he gets voted out next episode. He just has no skills.”

  Grace turned around to see who was behind her and caught Gaby’s eye. Gaby looked annoyed for some reason, and she was still chewing on her hair, totally lost in thought. Right at that moment, Grace remembered Gaby’s “big secret.” In all the excitement over the show, they’d forgotten to ask her about it.

  “So, guys,” Gaby announced suddenly, sprinting forward so she was in the middle of the pack. “You’re probably wondering about my connection to the show.”

  Everyone turned around slowly. Their expressions said that no, they hadn’t been wondering about her connection to the show, and in fact, they’d forgotten about it completely until she brought it up. Still, they looked curious.

  “Oh yeah,” said Priya. “So what is it? I totally forgot.”

  Everyone murmured agreement, gathering around Gaby with expectant looks.

  “Do you know someone?” asked Natalie. “Did you, like, go to school with one of those kids?”

  Gaby practically beamed. Her face was flushed with excitement as she shook her head. �
�Not really,” she replied. “I mean, kind of. If you want to get technical.”

  “Technical?” asked Candace. “What do you mean?”

  “Tell us!” cried Alex, her eyes bugging out in frustration. “Come on, Gaby. What is it? Just tell us!”

  “Well,” said Gaby slowly, clearly enjoying keeping them waiting. “You know that Jake kid?”

  Tori nodded furiously. “Sure. Jake. What about him?”

  Gaby smiled. She looked around at all the faces, clearly enjoying every moment. “Well,” she said simply, “he’s my brother.”

  chapter FIVE

  That’s right, he’s my brother! Gaby couldn’t keep the huge smile off her face as she realized how perfect that was. Only first names were used on the show—so nobody would realize that she and Jake weren’t related. Besides, Jake clearly wasn’t cut out for camping—he was probably going to be voted out in the next episode. Once he was voted out, Gaby could just say “oh, tough luck,” and go back to her life as usual. But in the meantime, all eyes were on her—and her bunkmates looked beyond impressed that she was related to one of the show’s stars.

  “Are you kidding?” demanded Priya. “Jake is your brother? Shut up!”

  Gaby shook her head. “It’s true,” she said. “He really is.”

  “Oh, wow.” Val looked concerned. “All that stuff we said about him—I mean, we never would have called him hopeless if we knew he was your brother.”

  Gaby shrugged. “You know what, I call him ‘hopeless’ all the time,” she ad-libbed. “At home we’re always fighting because he’s too weak to do this or too scared to do that! I feel like I have to do everything.”

  Natalie was watching her with a calculating look. “It’s interesting,” she said, “how you’ve never mentioned that you have a brother before.”

  Gaby tried to look puzzled. She racked her brain to try to remember whether she’d ever told her bunkmates she was an only child. Why would Natalie remember that? “I haven’t? I’m sure I have.”

  Jenna shook her head. “Actually, no,” she said. “For some reason, I thought you were an only child.”

  Alex nodded. “Me too. I don’t know where I got that, though.”

  Gaby shrugged again and tried to look innocent, directing her words at Natalie. “Oh well. Maybe I don’t mention him that much because there’s not much to say. His grades aren’t that good, and he doesn’t play sports or anything.” She sighed and shook her head. Here’s where I go for that Academy Award. “It’s sad, really. My parents are always asking him, ‘Why can’t you be more like Gaby?’ ”

  Gaby thought she heard a snort coming from Grace’s direction. But when she turned to look at Grace, Grace was staring up at the stars, totally in her own world.

  “Wow,” Tori was saying. “This is so crazy, Gaby. I had no idea your brother was one of the kids. How did he get cast?”

  Gaby thought fast. She always read stories in her mom’s entertainment magazines about kids getting “discovered” in parking lots or malls. “We were at the movies,” she replied. “This guy came up to us while we were in line to buy popcorn, and he was like, ‘I bet you’d be perfect for our new reality show.’ ” She paused, debating whether or not she should add to that, and then continued. “At first they wanted us both. But then they realized I’d been coming to Camp Lakeview for so long, I’d have an unfair advantage against all the other kids.”

  Tori looked confused. “Wait a minute, wait a minute. I thought you had to apply to be on the show? When my dad saw the pilot, it came with all the audition tapes of the contestants.”

  All eyes turned to Gaby. “Right,” she chirped. “When the producer found my brother, that’s what he wanted him to do. Make an audition tape. And we were still really surprised Jake got chosen, like he said on the show. He’s not really good at camping, or hiking—or anything, really.”

  “Huh,” Natalie murmured. She didn’t have a challenging look on her face anymore—but she still didn’t look convinced. She turned and started heading toward the cabin, and all the girls followed.

  “What were you going to do if we didn’t get to watch the show?” Tori asked. “If I knew my brother was competing in this huge reality show and I was missing it, I’d freak.”

  “My mom’s TiVoing it for me,” Gaby replied. “Besides, we’ll all be really surprised if he wins. So it wasn’t a big deal for me to miss.”

  “Yeah, just your brother on national television,” Jenna piped up. “If Adam was on TV, he’d tie us to the couch and force us to watch the whole thing. But I guess Jake’s not like that.”

  “No,” Gaby agreed. “He kind of does what I tell him.”

  Alex smirked. “That, I totally believe.”

  The girls heard footsteps behind them, and Gaby turned around to see Belle and Clarissa running to catch up. “Guys,” she hissed, “Ix-nay on the ow-shay alk-tay. Seriously, I’m not supposed to tell anyone. So don’t let Belle hear.”

  “No problem,” Val said. “We’ll keep your secret. I can’t wait to see how your bro does!”

  Gaby grinned as Belle and Clarissa joined them. Neither can I, she thought. Neither can I.

  “I can’t believe,” Priya whispered in Gaby’s ear as they walked to campfire a couple nights later, “that Jake is still on!”

  “Neither can I,” Gaby replied honestly. They’d watched the third episode of Survival Camp just now and, amazingly enough, Jake was still on. That caused just a tiny twinge of anxiety in the pit of Gaby’s stomach—what if Jake lasted all the way to the end? How would she explain his winning? But deep down, she knew that was still extremely unlikely. The other kids had mastered the arts of whittling, fishing, and shelter building. Jake was still nice to everybody, but he wasn’t good at anything, and sooner or later that had to come back to haunt him.

  Gaby and her bunkmates settled in a grassy area a little way back from the campfire. Belle had stayed in the auditorium to get some materials for the next day’s nature hunt, and Clarissa was talking to a CIT for the boys named Justin. Priya looked around at the lack of counselors and then back to Gaby. “There’s no one here,” she stage-whispered. “Can we talk about Jake and the show?”

  Gaby smiled. It seemed like everything had changed in just the short amount of time since she let her bunk in on her “secret.” Every time they had an unattended minute now, the girls were pumping her for information and insights about Jake. The Guys and Dolls rehearsals were going really well—earlier today, Brynn had complimented Gaby on her “body language.” And even better, Chelsea hadn’t been going on as much about her nightmares. Finally things in bunk 5A seemed to be headed in the right direction.

  “Sure,” Gaby replied with an indulgent shrug. “I mean, if you guys really want to.”

  “We do!” insisted Priya.

  “I have a question,” Natalie spoke up. “You’ve been coming to Camp Lakeview for years now. Don’t you tell Jake about any of the stuff we do here? He acted like he’d never heard of a trust fall tonight.”

  Gaby opened her mouth to speak, but fell silent for a minute. Why? she asked herself. There had to be a plausible explanation. She’d been able to make one up for everything else. “Of course I tell him about that stuff,” she replied. “But brothers never listen. He’s all like, ‘Whatever—you’re blocking the TV.’ ”

  Natalie seemed to accept this. She nodded and glanced away. “Well, it’s good he finally did the trust fall,” she suggested. “I bet that’s what kept him from being voted off.”

  “What are you going to do if he wins, Gaby?” Val asked from the other side of the circle. “You get a trip to Australia! Can you imagine?”

  “I’ve always wanted to go to Australia,” Brynn said. “I want to see the Sydney Opera House, and go camping in the Outback.”

  “Maybe you’ll meet Crocodile Dundee,” Alyssa suggested.

  “Uh, yeah,” Tori said with a laugh, “because no one’s made a new movie since 1986. Alyssa, seriously: think Nicole Kidman an
d Keith Urban. You need a Netflix subscription.”

  Alyssa just smiled.

  Gaby started thinking about going to Australia—the accents! The kangaroos!—before she realized that there wasn’t the slightest chance of that ever happening. She wondered briefly who the real Jake was. Could he be convinced to pretend Gaby was his sister? But then she pushed that thought away.

  “Anyway,” she said, “it’s not happening. Trust me, my brother will screw up and get voted off.”

  “Have you heard from your parents?” Jenna asked. “They must be freaking out.”

  “Uh, yeah.” Actually, Gaby hadn’t heard from her parents since they’d e-mailed back and forth a couple times at the beginning of camp. At the moment, they were at an accountants’ convention in Nashua, an hour or so from camp. “I got an e-mail from them on Sunday. They’re thrilled.”

  “I’ll bet,” Alex said. Everyone was quiet for a moment, enjoying the crackle of the campfire. Gaby took a deep breath of the night air and let out a contented sigh. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this good.

  Suddenly Chelsea shot up from where she’d been lying back in the grass. “Did you guys hear that?!”

  Gaby felt her stomach muscles tighten. Oh, no, she thought, biting her tongue to keep from saying anything. Not Chelsea’s House of Horror again.

  Brynn looked over at Chelsea’s “afraid” face, looking sympathetic and wary at the same time. “What is it, Chelse?”

  Chelsea looked around, squinting to search the dark woods. “I just—maybe I’m imagining things. I heard something that sounded like a moan.”

  Gaby turned around so no one would see her roll her eyes.

  “I didn’t hear anything,” Alyssa said.

  “Oh my God!” Chelsea jumped, gathering her hoodie around her like a security blanket. “There it was again! Hear it?”

  Gaby strained her ears to hear. Waaayyy in the distance, she heard a faint woooo . . . the trees rustling in the wind.