Reality Bites #15 Read online

  “Grace, Chelsea and Priya have been crushing on Spence since camp started,” Brynn had told her. “You can’t take anything they say seriously. I’m sure they didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Of course you’re crushworthy—and Spence would be nuts not to see that.”

  Grace had just smiled and said “thanks.” What Priya and Chelsea had said still bothered her, but it was nice just to be reminded that someone in bunk 5A thought she was awesome.

  Now Belle and Clarissa were in the mess hall, picking up the popcorn and hot chocolate that the girls would have to celebrate the end of Survival Camp. This meant that they were free to discuss Jake’s win.

  Gaby just looked shocked. “I still don’t believe it,” she said quietly. “I mean, I’m going to Australia. Tomorrow. It’s all so crazy.”

  Grace frowned. “Don’t you have to call your parents or something?”

  Gaby turned to face her, startled. “Um . . . yeah!” She laughed nervously. “I guess I’m so in shock, I totally forgot that. You guys, I’m going to run back and call them from the pay phone.”

  “It’s weird they haven’t tried to call you already, huh?” Tori asked. “It’s been, like, an hour since he won.”

  Gaby looked stunned. Then she shrugged, looking more casual. “I’m sure they’re in a complete frenzy,” she said. “I’m sure they were on the phone with Jake, or the producers or something.”

  “Right,” agreed Tori. “They probably had to be briefed by the lawyers.”

  Gaby beamed. “Right.”

  For a few seconds, nobody moved.

  “All right,” Brynn said, motioning with her hand. “Go ahead, Gaby! Aren’t you dying to know the details?”

  Gaby nodded quickly. “I am! Okay—see you in a few.”

  She took off, zigzagging across the sports field, back to the center of camp. The rest of the girls turned to look at one another, smiling and shaking their heads.

  “Wow,” Natalie observed. “She’s a mess.”

  “You would be, too, if you were going to Australia tomorrow,” Chelsea spoke up.

  “I didn’t mean anything snarky,” Nat replied. “She just seems excited.”

  “I’m excited for her,” Priya said.

  “Yeah,” Alex said slowly, “you guys seem close lately.”

  Priya shrugged. “We’re all friends in 5A, aren’t we?”

  “Right,” said Chelsea.

  “We’re all friends,” echoed Candace.

  Right, we’re all friends, thought Grace, watching Priya and Chelsea. Until you have the nerve to hang out with a boy someone else has a crush on, then watch out!

  “Do you think she’ll have to leave camp tonight?” Jenna asked as they started walking toward the cabin again.

  “Probably,” Tori replied. “I mean, if they’re leaving for Australia tomorrow. She’ll need time to pack and everything.”

  Chelsea sighed. “It’s too bad. I’ll miss her.”

  Nat’s eyes bugged out. “You’ll miss Gaby?” she asked. Lately Chelsea and Gaby had been at each other’s throats.

  But Chelsea shrugged. “She’s grown on me,” she replied.

  “Actually,” Val spoke up, “she’s kind of grown on me, too. These last couple of weeks—doesn’t it seem like she’s been a lot easier to deal with?”

  Jenna nodded. “I never thought I’d say it, but yes. A lot less snarky.”

  Alyssa nodded. “And she’s just been talking more.”

  By this time, they’d reached the cabin. Everyone piled in and wandered to their cubbies, grabbing their pajamas. Grace moved in slow motion, not really interacting with anybody as she threw on her Scooby-Doo boxer shorts and a tank top. She shoved her curly red hair into a ponytail and took out her earrings.

  Belle and Clarissa had arrived with the hot chocolate and popcorn, and by the time Gaby came back, everyone was sitting in a circle on the floor, chatting.

  “Um, hey,” Gaby said nervously, eyeing her counselor.

  “Hey,” Belle replied in a curious voice. “Gaby, where were you?”

  “I was at the pay phone,” Gaby said with a shrug. “Personal phone call.”

  “Was it an emergency?” Clarissa asked. “Because otherwise, you really should ask permission.”

  Gaby nodded. “Kind of.”

  “What’s up?” Belle asked, looking concerned now. She put down her mug of hot chocolate and moved to stand up.

  “Um,” Gaby was saying. She looked across the room, a blank expression settling across her features, looking uncomfortable. “Mydogbrokehisfoot,” she said finally, so fast you couldn’t make out the words.

  Grace caught Brynn’s eye across the room. Their expressions were the same: What the heck? Why would Gaby still keep Jake’s role in Survival Camp from their counselors?

  “What?” asked Clarissa.

  “My dog broke his foot,” Gaby replied, a little louder, seeming to come back to earth. “He’s going to be fine, it turns out. But my parents mentioned it in their last e-mail and I got a little—worried.”

  “Oh,” said Belle, looking surprised and a little relieved. She sat back down. “All right, good. But seriously, Gaby? Next time tell us where you’re going.”

  Gaby nodded and smiled, moving in to join the circle. Everyone seemed to be struggling to catch her eye as she took a mug of hot chocolate and a bag of popcorn.

  “Survival Camp was fun, wasn’t it?” asked Clarissa as Gaby sat down on the floor. “I thought it might be kind of predictable, but it was full of surprises.”

  “You can say that again,” murmured Grace, watching Gaby.

  “No,” Gaby whispered, carefully buttering an English muffin as she leaned in so all her friends could hear her. “They don’t know yet. It’s what the producers wanted.”

  Tori looked skeptical. “The producers told your parents to tell you to lie to the camp staff?” she asked. “Why? It’s not like you can ruin the show. We all know how it ended.”

  Gaby shrugged. “Not just the staff. Turns out I wasn’t supposed to tell you guys the truth, either. A lot of legal stuff I didn’t understand,” she replied. “This afternoon, my parents will come to pick me up and they’ll explain everything to Dr. Steve then. For now, we pretend like everything is normal.”

  Tori’s mouth sprung open to ask another question, but right at that moment Clarissa came back, holding a fresh pitcher of orange juice. “All right, guys,” she said. “Go easy on this one.”

  Grace sat back and thought as everyone started passing the pitcher around, and Belle, Keith, and another counselor stood up at the podium to make the morning announcements. There was definitely something weird going on with Gaby. Grace had had run-ins with Gaby before, dating back to her first summer, and she recognized the signs. But Grace didn’t know what it was—she was probably just nervous about Australia, or trying to make the whole thing more dramatic to get even more attention. Whatever it was, Grace was sure it was dumb. And besides—she had her own problems to think about.

  Problems like Spence. The social was that night, and Grace had stayed up practically all night wondering whether she should cancel their date. Could it be true that he was just a big flirt, and wasn’t all that into her? She and Spence had fun together, sure. But what separated a just-friends vibe from a boyfriend vibe? Grace didn’t know, and she knew that Priya had struggled with that question herself. Still, Grace had to admit that she wanted to go to the social with Spence. She wasn’t even sure whether she was all that crazy about him—not in a romantic way, anyway. But she had a great time with him and she was definitely looking forward to it.

  And then there was the Priya and Chelsea problem. So Priya and Chelsea still liked Spence. So what? Grace had trouble admitting it, but a big part of her felt angry at her friend Priya—angry that she could see a boy taking an interest in Grace and assume that he didn’t really like her that much. Why should Grace sacrifice her happiness for them when they hadn’t cared about her feelings?

  She’d s
truggled with it for hours, but finally decided not to cancel the date. She really wanted to go. It would make her happy. When she’d mentioned it to Brynn before breakfast, she’d agreed 100 percent—actually, she seemed stunned that Grace had even considered canceling.

  “What are you, nuts?” she’d asked. “Friend or special friend . . . the important thing is that if you go with Spence, then Jordan and I can double with you guys. It’ll be the most fun double date the Camp Lakeview social has ever seen!”

  “I’m going to miss you so much,” Priya was saying as she hugged Gaby.

  They were standing outside 5A’s cabin. Inside, Belle was still asleep, finishing up the siesta before dinner. Grace had offered to wake her up so Gaby could say good-bye, but Gaby had been weird about the whole thing—oh, no, just let her sleep. Clarissa was in the mess hall, setting the tables. It felt weird to be saying good-bye to Gaby without any counselors around, but Gaby insisted her parents were in Dr. Steve’s office, waiting.

  “Have a wonderful time!” Brynn added. “We’re going to miss you so much in the play.”

  “Oh!” Gaby jumped up like she’d forgotten about that. Her stunned expression soon turned to a calculating smile as she turned to Grace. “You know what? Grace, I give you the part of Sarah Brown.” Grace’s mouth dropped open.

  “Um,” Brynn replied. “I’m pretty sure you can’t just give roles away like candy. Especially since the show is in two days. Plus, you have an understudy! Grace would probably have to audition against her.”

  Grace felt overwhelmed by the very idea. “You know, I just might let that one go.”

  Gaby shrugged. “All right. Just trying to be nice.” She turned to the rest of the bunk and smiled. “Guys, I really have to get going! But thank you so much for the great send-off. I promise to write all about Australia on the blog, and I can’t wait to see you at the reunion!”

  Everyone rotated in to give Gaby one last hug. “Good luck,” Grace said as she pulled away.

  Whatever you’re up to, she thought.

  All the Gaby excitement made the girls ten minutes late waking up Belle (they told her Gaby was in Dr. Steve’s office, but they didn’t mention Jake or the show), which made them fifteen minutes late to dinner, which made Grace twenty minutes late getting to the newspaper room to help clean up from the decoupage craft. All the division three to division five kids were going to go back to their bunks at seven o’clock to get ready for the dance, but they had a few minutes free between dinner and then. Spence and Grace had arranged to meet up in the newspaper room to tidy up a little. When Grace spotted Spence messily picking leaves and glue off the worktable, she ran over.

  “Sorry I’m late,” she said, gathering the leaves into a neat pile and grabbing a trash can. “Um, let’s try this way. You’re going to get glue all over you.”

  “I am not,” Spence replied with mock outrage, pushing his glasses up on his nose and sticking a leaf to his cheek in the process. “I’m doing great. Where were you, anyway? I saw your whole bunk come in late to dinner.”

  Grace sighed. “Yeah, we were late because we were saying good-bye to Gaby.”

  Spence looked surprised. “What?”

  Grace nodded, grabbing a paper towel and some all-purpose cleaner out of the closet. “It was this whole big drama. But I guess I can tell you now, since Gaby’s gone.”

  “She’s gone?”

  “Yeah.” Grace removed the leaf from Spence’s cheek and carefully tossed it in the trash. “You know the show we’ve been watching, Survival Camp?”

  “Of course,” Spence replied.

  Grace nodded. “Well, the kid that won? Jake?”

  “Yeah?”

  “He’s Gaby’s brother.” Grace sprayed the table with cleaner and realized that that just made the whole thing stickier. “Spence, I’m sorry. This is kind of turning into a mess.”

  “It was a mess before you got here.” Spence grabbed a paper towel from her. He sprayed some more cleaner and started scrubbing, and to Grace’s surprise, the glue came up. “Wait a minute, what? Gaby is related to the guy who won? And she left?”

  Grace nodded. “He’s her brother,” she said.

  “Seriously? So why did she leave?”

  Grace shrugged. “Why do you think? She’s going with her family to Australia.”

  Spence just looked at Grace for a moment, not saying anything. Grace figured he must be surprised—her whole bunk had been plenty surprised when Gaby first gave them the news.

  “Grace,” Spence said finally, quietly. “When did Gaby leave?”

  “Right before dinner,” Grace said. “That’s why we were late.”

  Spence frowned. “There’s no way.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Spence sighed. “In the morning, I take nature, right?” he said, his voice still quiet. “I guess our counselor got inspired by Dr. Steve letting us watch Survival Camp, because this morning she wheeled this big TV into our meeting so we could watch this piece on The Today Show about a scientist who discovered a new bug.”

  Grace furrowed her eyebrows. “Um, that’s great,” she replied. “But what does that have to do with Gaby?”

  “Right before the bug story, there was this piece about that kid, Jake, and his family,” Spence went on. “First of all, he had a sister and brother with him—both little kids. And second of all, they were leaving for the airport right after the interview.”

  Grace frowned, trying to take this all in.

  “Wow. So Gaby lied about being Jake’s sister!”

  Which meant . . .

  “I guess she can’t be going to Australia,” she said.

  Which meant . . .

  “Oh my God,” Grace murmured. “Gaby’s not with her parents. So where is she?”

  chapter NINE

  Gaby’s bag was enormous. She’d stashed a bunch of her things in the laundry building, figuring she could have the camp send them later, and had only taken the “essentials.” But now she could see that even the “essentials” were way too heavy to carry. She let her duffel bag fall to the ground for the tenth time and paused to rest on a log.

  She pulled the hiking map of Camp Lakeview’s property out of her pocket to check her progress. She was taking the Elm Trail, a “moderate” trail that locals used for cross-country skiing in the winter. But Gaby didn’t care about any of that. What she cared about was that it crossed a main road about two miles away from the center of camp—route 17. Once Gaby reached that road, she could flag down a ride, get to the bus station, and hopefully be home in Philadephia before nightfall.

  Gaby sighed, wishing she had thought to bring a bottle of water or some snacks. She was missing dinner, and the fact that her bag unexpectedly weighed twenty tons was slowing her down, meaning that it would probably be hours before she ate. For the first time, Gaby felt a twinge of nervousness—or maybe it was just hunger—in her belly. I kind of thought I’d have reached the road by now.

  Slowly, Gaby stood up. She grabbed her bag—every time she put it down it seemed to get heavier—and heaved it over her shoulder. She shoved the map back in her pocket and started walking at a good clip. I just have to keep moving, and eventually I’ll hit it.

  She had to leave camp. That was the downside of this whole Jake debacle. But given the situation, it wasn’t like she really had a choice. Could she go back to her friends and admit that she had lied about the whole thing? Uh, no. So leaving was the only option. And she’d miss everybody, but a little part of her was really eager to get back to air conditioning, her personal broadband connection, and her digital cable. She’d been living in the wilderness a little too long.

  Of course she’d have to come up with a story to tell her parents. They’d be surprised to see her. But Gaby had all that figured out. She’d tell them that camp was terrible this year, that Chelsea was being horrible and mean, and that she just couldn’t take it anymore. Her parents would understand—they always took her side. They’d call Dr. Steve—Gaby wou
ld make them promise not to mention Chelsea—and ta-da! Gaby would get to stay home and bunk 5A would still think she was in Australia.

  It’s the perfect plan. Gaby smiled to herself, still thrilled that she’d thought it all up. Of course, she knew it was possible that people would figure out she’d left without permission, and that there was a slight chance they’d catch her before she worked it all out. Then she’d just tell Dr. Steve that she was having a horrible time in camp, not getting along with anyone, and be vague about the specifics so as not to single out any one culprit.

  CRACK!

  Gaby jumped, wondering what she might have broken inside her bag. The glasses that she was supposed to wear to read? The retainer she was supposed to wear to bed? She took a deep breath, calming herself down. No big deal. Whatever it is, it’s nothing Mom and Dad can’t replace.

  She pulled out the map she’d stolen from Belle’s binder last night while everyone was asleep. Belle had written in little sketches of landmarks for bunk hikes. There were two little wavy lines that crossed Elm Trail about halfway to the road. A brook? Gaby wondered. Some vines? Snakes? Gaby’s skin crawled. While she was willing to do what she had to do to get home, she wasn’t exactly a huge fan of the outdoors.

  If that’s a brook, Gaby thought, I can’t believe I haven’t passed it by now. According to her watch, it had been a full hour since she’d left her friends and snuck into the woods. An hour to go maybe a mile? Gaby shook her head. She knew she was no champion hiker, but come on.

  Standing up and stretching before she grabbed her duffel bag again, Gaby’s eye caught on a pine tree. The trunk had broken about ten feet from the ground, and the pointed top was still attached, bent down over the ground at a 45-degree angle. The tree looked like a sideways seven. But more importantly, it reminded Gaby of one of Belle’s little chicken scratch illustrations. She unfolded the map again and scanned the line for Elm Trail.