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What has Brynn done for me lately? Alex wondered. Brynn hadn’t even said anything to Chelsea when she harassed Alex just before. Alex honestly didn’t think she should be the one to apologize this time.

  “It’s okay, Alex. Let’s just go the scavenger hunt and forget about it,” Valerie said. “It will all blow over soon.”

  “Yeah. Sure.” Alex shrugged, trying to shake off the icky feeling the fight had given her. Valerie had to be right. This couldn’t go on forever.

  Could it?

  chapter SIX

  When the girls returned after the scavenger hunt—they had lost to their rival bunk 3A—no one was in a giddy mood. Before lights-out, Brynn and Alex used to sit around and talk. They’d often share their dreams and secrets and rehash the day. Nothing of the sort happened that night.

  Alex hadn’t expected it, but it still stung when Brynn took her script over to Grace’s bed and started reading.

  It was getting more and more awful by the day—not just for Alex, but also for the other girls who felt like they were being forced to take sides. The most worrisome thing for Alex was that Chelsea and Brynn had been talking more. Alex was terrified that the two of them would gang up together against her and make the last days at camp one big pile of steaming Hamster Surprise.

  This was not how Alex had imagined the end of camp! She was so disappointed. She’d managed to have a little fun—like at the formal banquet planning meeting—but she just couldn’t enjoy the other camp activities with Brynn acting like they weren’t even friends anymore. Alex started wishing that she had gone to paint with Brynn that night instead of to the planning meeting. Maybe then nothing would’ve gotten this bad, Alex thought. But then another, less quiet voice perked up inside her head.

  Why should Brynn always get her way? Alex asked herself, vowing to stand her ground on this one. It’s like she just expects me to go play with her.

  As the days went on, woodworking was a much-needed break once a day from the girls and their dramas. Valerie didn’t care much about it. She mentioned a few times that her friendship with Sarah was totally over.

  “If she’s that sensitive, and if I can’t talk about my girls at home, then so be it,” Val explained. “My mom says sometimes friendships fade, and you should let them go gracefully. If Sarah wants to dump me over one little stupid comment I made, I guess we weren’t that close in the first place. Hmph.”

  “It still stinks, though,” Alex added, feeling totally dumped herself. “I hate the way Brynn ignores me.”

  “Likewise,” Val said. “Did you see the way they were holding hands at the flagpole this morning? I couldn’t even giggle about Dr. Steve’s mismatched knee socks—did you see he had one blue and one orange on today?—because I was fuming over the way those two are acting.”

  “He did?” Alex asked, shocked that she hadn’t noticed.

  “I am not kidding. He did,” she answered. Val never said anything nasty about Sarah or Brynn, and Alex knew she must’ve been steamed to have an outburst like that. Alex tried so hard not to say mean things about people, either—though sometimes she did drop an opinion of Chelsea. Alex wondered if Brynn was talking badly about her. Oooh, she better not be, Alex thought.

  “I don’t know about me and Sarah,” Valerie said, “but you and Brynn will make up soon. Maybe Brynn is just wigging out about the play.”

  “That’s true. She always stresses out before performances,” Alex said, rolling her eyes. “It’s so stupid. I mean, I don’t freak before Color War or soccer games.” For Alex, it was just the opposite. She was so excited for the activities she was good at that her mood actually improved when the pressure was on.

  “I know,” Valerie added.

  At least, with Valerie, Alex felt like she had someone to talk to who really understood. Valerie was always cracking jokes to make Alex smile when she felt like kicking trees. Alex’s feelings about Brynn were so up and down. One second, she’d hate her for causing such a big fight. The next second, Alex missed her as if she were a long-lost member of her family. Alex would have given anything to have Brynn back the way she had been during the earlier part of the summer.

  “Nice.”

  “What?” Alex looked up to see Adam standing over her. He nodded appreciatively at the wood she was sanding. She had to admit that the chess board was really coming along.

  Valerie excused herself and went to the bathroom. Alex knew what Val must’ve been thinking. Val thought Adam would be a good match for Alex, so she left the two of them alone together whenever she got the chance. Alex wanted her to stay, though! Adam was hanging around too much and making her really nervous. It was weird.

  “What are you guys working . . .” Alex trailed off, realizing that by the time she could get her thoughts together into a normal speech pattern, Adam was already gone.

  She could see, from where she was sitting, that Adam and his friends were making a wooden table. It was simple, just a round slab of wood with a base and a pole to hold it up, but it was beautiful. Camp would be over soon, and the boys were working hard to get finished. They were sanding down their project and starting to stain the pieces. They hadn’t practiced spitting or tried to steal her soccer ball for three whole days. It was nice when boys acted normal. Alex just wondered if they really would finish that table.

  She wasn’t too worried about Adam anymore—at least not about his broken heart, anyway. If Alyssa had dumped him, he seemed to be over it. He was laughing and having fun with Jenna and his other friends. He didn’t even seem to be bothered when Alyssa/Trevor and Natalie/Simon hung out together in front of him. Alex just thought it was weird that they would parade around considering what had supposedly happened.

  At lunch, Alex heard Jessie and Jenna gossiping about it.

  “Your brother really did get shafted, didn’t he?” Jessie said in her usual to-the-point way.

  “I wouldn’t say shafted,” Jenna answered. “There’s probably more to the story than we realize.”

  Jenna did not like that Adam was starting to flirt with girls—in fact, she made that gesture with her mouth and her finger where she gagged herself any time the subject came up. But she also didn’t like anyone other than herself even remotely putting him down.

  “It’s just too weird,” Jenna said, turning to Alex. “Why does everyone act crazy about boys? And about my brother? Ewww!”

  Alex put her granola down; she was done. She didn’t think Adam liked her as anything more than a friend. But if he did, as Valerie said, that would completely have freaked her out, and Jenna, too. Ugh, this is so not me! Alex thought.

  “I definitely do not want to talk about boys,” she added.

  Later, Alex and Val headed to free swim as usual. They had become regular partners by default ever since their respective “friend breakups.” Alex kept hoping that Brynn would just come up to her and apologize or at least try to work it out. They couldn’t go home for the summer not speaking. That would be awful. But instead of the two of them making up, things just kept getting worse.

  Brynn was walking to the shoreline holding hands with Sarah and laughing so loud that people in Los Angeles could probably have heard her. Even though Alex and Val were only a few feet away, Brynn didn’t even bother to acknowledge their presence.

  At least Sarah and Val were being civil to each other even if they weren’t best friends anymore. Brynn was just being impossible. Alex didn’t understand what was going on, or what she had done.

  “I’m going to talk to her,” Alex said to Valerie after they jumped off. The girls were dripping wet, and they were tired from playing Frisbee earlier. Brynn was sitting with Natalie on the blanket, and Alex thought that would be as good a time as ever to work their differences out.

  “Are you sure? You want me to go with you?” Valerie said, looking at her waterproof watch. If Alex was going to talk to Brynn, she didn’t have much time. Free period was over in five minutes, and then they had to hurry to their Color War meeting to find out which teams the
y were on.

  “I’ll be fine, but thanks,” Alex said, feeling scared about speaking to Brynn. But she also just wanted to get it over with. This not talking for a few days was just ridiculous. They’d barely gone an hour without speaking before!

  Alex headed toward the girls, forcing herself to stop thinking about how mad she was and focus on smoothing it out. Val had been telling her in woodworking not to think any bad thoughts—about herself or about Brynn. Val insisted that not dwelling on drama kind of made it undramatic (and that was a good thing!). Alex thought about how she and Val were kicking tail on the chess set (so what if it was because Jeremy had been helping them?). Things were going slightly better for Alex, so she hoped that Brynn would come around, too.

  Natalie and Alyssa watched wide-eyed as Alex walked toward the three of them. They started gathering their notebooks and lotion, taking the hint to go somewhere else.

  “Thanks, you two,” Alex told them. Then she looked Brynn in the eyes. “Can we talk, Brynn?” she asked. Alex kept standing while Brynn changed positions on her blanket. Alex felt like a tree that was getting ready to topple over.

  “I have nothing to say to you, Alex Kim,” Brynn answered, not even looking up from her teen magazine.

  “Come on, we’ve been best friends for so long. We can talk about this,” Alex said, thinking about how she kind of missed whispering to Brynn before they fell asleep at night. She missed their inside jokes, and she missed jumping rope together. They had been practicing the double ropes all summer because Brynn complained that she wasn’t coordinated enough.

  Brynn said jumping rope made her feel more athletic. Alex had a blast teaching it to her. When they had done it, with Jenna and Valerie taking turns twirling the ropes, Alex remembered feeling how great it was to just hang out and get along. It was like they all had a rhythm that went together.

  Where has our friendship gone? Alex wondered, lost in her daydream.

  “What are you just standing there for?” Brynn asked, annoyed and flipping the pages of the magazine so hard, they almost ripped. “We’re not best friends anymore. Can’t you just deal with that?”

  Ouch, Alex thought. That was low. She had meant well, but she didn’t know what to say to Brynn anymore.

  “Just go hang out with your new best friend, Valerie,” Brynn said, not caring that Chelsea and Karen were just a few feet away. Chelsea wasn’t even trying to act like she wasn’t listening.

  Alex was still standing there, and she was still about to topple over. She had to will away her tears. They were going to fall down her face and embarrass her if she didn’t run away soon.

  But before she took off, she added, “Fine. Then you go have fun with your new best friend, Sarah.”

  Alex stomped away, heading toward the bunk as quickly as her legs would take her.

  Back at the bunk, Alex couldn’t hold back any longer. She was crying. Really crying. Alex wondered if Adam had felt a little bit like this—totally heartbroken—when Alyssa had dumped him. Alex thought that losing your best friend had to be about a million times worse.

  Everyone at free swim had seen the whole thing, even if they hadn’t heard what the girls had said. But Valerie was the only girl who followed Alex back to 3C. She hugged Alex and asked her what happened. Alex explained, thankful that she had someone she could count on.

  Valerie was turning out to be a much better friend than Brynn had been lately. Maybe they really would be best friends one day—but that couldn’t happen overnight. Camp was almost ending, and Alex didn’t know for sure if Valerie would be back next summer. Alex would be—she always came back.

  “I have an idea that might make you feel better,” Valerie said, rubbing Alex’s back and handing her tissues. “Do you really miss Brynn?”

  “You know, even though she’s been impossible lately, I do miss the old Brynn,” Alex said, definitely not missing the new Brynn. “We had so much fun together before she started working on Peter Pan. I don’t know what’s gotten into her, really.”

  “Okay, then,” Valerie went on, “I have an idea. . . . But it’s kind of weird, and you just have to hear me out.”

  “Go for it,” Alex said, slouching and pulling her knapsack close to her like a security blanket.

  “We should do something nice for them,” Valerie added, reaching up to mess with her braids as if she were nervous. “Brynn and Sarah, I mean.”

  “Who? Brynn? Why? She’s been nothing but nasty,” Alex said. She really did think she had tried as hard as she could. “The ball is in Brynn’s court now.”

  “Don’t let her make the decisions for you,” Valerie said. “Why don’t we make little friendship boxes in woodshop for Brynn and Sarah? Let’s just put a note inside them that says, ‘Whatever happens, remember the good times when we’re all apart next fall. Good luck with everything.’ Or something like that.”

  “Why on Earth would we go to all that trouble for them?” Alex asked. She was totally bewildered by Valerie’s suggestion. But her tears were drying up at least, and that was a good thing.

  “Because it’s just the nice thing to do,” Valerie added. “My mom gave me this idea. Whenever someone really ticks you off, and you’ve done all you can do, just give them a nice token of friendship, like a note or gift, and know that you’ve done the right thing. My mom brings my dad M&M’s, his favorite kind—the peanut ones—whenever they’ve been at each other’s throats, no matter who is right or wrong. And you know what? They always stop fighting. No one stays mad when you do something nice for them.”

  “I don’t know about this,” Alex said, getting up so she could get dressed for the Color War meeting—she sure wasn’t missing that.

  “Let’s just give it a try,” Valerie said, getting up, too. “Instead of the chess set. Our friendships are more important than some game, right? We still have a few more days of woodworking. It can’t hurt.”

  “What about the stool for your dad that you were working on?” Alex asked, thinking of ways to get out of going through with this crazy plan. It really did seem like Brynn should be making her something nice, but Alex tried to stay open-minded about Valerie’s idea.

  “I finished it. Jeremy helped me yesterday,” Valerie yelled from the shower.

  She didn’t have anything to lose. Alex decided she’d try it. She did feel kind of good about doing something sweet, even if it was for Brynn. Valerie’s suggestion made a little bit of sense, she guessed. Alex was always volunteering to help everyone—especially the counselors—because it made her happy to do so. Good deeds had a way of boosting Alex’s self-confidence. And she could definitely use a boost, she figured.

  At the very least, things certainly couldn’t get any worse.

  The Color War meeting was the best. At least Alex thought so. The whole camp—hundreds of kids of all ages—arrived for the meeting after dinner. There was a small campfire burning near the flagpole. Dr. Steve stood behind the fire, creating a stage for himself, as if he were presenting the Oscar nominations or something. Every kid sat with his or her bunk, excited, knowing that the “enemy” could be sitting right beside you. Once they got their assignments, bunkmate would compete against bunkmate for the victory.

  But before that happened, everyone sang silly songs like “Green and Yeller” and “Who Stole My Tree?” to get pumped up. Then Dr. Steve made everyone hold hands and meditate (Alex couldn’t believe he added meditation to his weirdness this summer) as a show of solidarity before giving his speech.

  Dr. Steve went on for twenty whole minutes, just like he did every year, about sportsmanship and no pranks and healthy competition and team pride and camp rivalry and even went on a tangent about how Color War could teach every person about world peace.

  “The leaders of our world should come to Camp Lakeview!” he yelled, waving his fishing hat in the air. The kids only clapped a little bit—mostly, just the counselors cheered because he was, after all, their eccentric boss. Alex and Valerie couldn’t help but giggle.
r />   “Oh my dog,” Valerie said, rolling her eyes and nudging Alex in the side. “He’s not even kidding!”

  “Oh yes, he means every word,” Alex added.

  Then, amid hundreds of hushed, anxious campers, the envelopes were handed out. That was something different they were doing this year. Every camper was getting a sealed letter with his or her team assignment on it. For some reason, Dr. Steve thought it would be good for each camper to try to keep his or her team assignment a secret until breakfast the next morning. Then, after breakfast, the competition lists would be posted outside of each cabin.

  Color War took place over two days and consisted of a mix of group events and division events. Group events—where kids of all ages competed together in games like singdown and potato-sack race—were worth fifty points for the winners. Division events—where kids competed for their teams against their own age group during games like Scrabble and tug-o-war—were worth twenty-five points for the winners. There were four group events, two per day of Color War, and several division events. The counselors had to do a lot of planning!

  Alex couldn’t get on board with the secret thing. How was she going to get to bed that night without somehow letting it slip?

  “The point is to absolutely torture us, which clearly he considers to be great fun,” Valerie said.

  But Alex suspected another reason they were doing it this way. Last year, the Blues stayed up all night making confetti that they threw in the mess hall oatmeal. Maybe he was trying to keep night-before pranks to a minimum. Or maybe this was just another “camp challenge.”

  Julie handed Alex her envelope, and she tore it open. Inside, there was a blank white paper with a small blue dot in the center. Alex was thrilled to be a Blue. It was her favorite color, so it had to be lucky. She just hoped that her closest 3C friends were Blues, too.

  “What’d you get?” Valerie whispered.