Some Things Never Change

Some Things Never Change Regan A. Hendricks

Dedicated to my parents and teachers who encouraged me, My best friend, who prefers to be known as, “Miya-Chan”, And (of course!) my favorite dog ever, Kaysey, who sat faithfully at my feet when I wrote this story.

Chapter 1 Summer Begins A moment of joy followed our first few seconds out of the school building. “Summer is finally here!” I screamed at the top of my lungs the second my feet hit the grass of the Elementary School’s playground. Next year I’d be starting the Sixth Grade in Middle School. “No more pencils!” Almost everyone who was rejoicing in our new-found freedom (okay, I’ll admit it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it sure felt like it to us) joined into the famous ‘schools – out chant’: “No more books! No more teachers’ dirty looks!” “Summer is finally here!” I screamed again. We all began to run around in circles to celebrate. Well, to be more precise, the boys did. We more dignified ladies kind of just stuck around to just see the boys make complete fools of themselves. Once they were done running - and we were done giggling – we set off our separate ways. Instead of heading home in our usual big posse, I and my best buds, Olivia and Miranda, decided to set off by ourselves. That way, we could talk about what we planned to do over the summer. Of course, we already had the first three weeks planned out; we were going to a girls-only sleep-away camp for four weeks. Now is a good time to describe my friends. Olivia Thomas is a great artist, and she’s always drawing with one of the many art sets she has in her room. She also likes to eat a lot of snacks. (She carries around a bag of Doritos nearly everywhere.) She’s a bit chubby, but when she needs to she steps on it and RUNS! She does a mean pedicure-she has lots of practice. She would have a lot of practice on fingernails, I bet, but her fingernails are too short for practicing-she’s always chewing them. She has long, dirty blond hair and brown eyes that flicker mischievously when she’s up to something, which is often, considering the trio we’re up against. More about that later. Right now I need to describe Miranda Montanez and I. Miranda is, unfortunately, a

pessimist – no pun intended. She’s fun to be around, but for some odd reason seems to think that whatever could go wrong, will. She loves to read, especially books by Lemony Snicket. Plus, I think she might be Nancy drew in disguise. Seriously! She has strawberry blond hair, carries a detective kit around with her, and solves every Encyclopedia Brown story before she looks at the answers. She’s a pack rat, too. You can always count on her to whip out the most outrageous but useful thing at the most convenient time- yet she always complains that it’s too much to carry. I, Claire Hoffman, am pretty much the leader. I don’t tell them what to do (often), but I’m a bit more outgoing than they are and tend to introduce everyone. I’m also one of those girls who enjoy doing girly stuff but crave sports. I have blond hair, almost white, and have brown eyes that tend to glaze over when I’ve been listening to anything noninteresting for ten seconds. “Attention span of two seconds,” Some teacher whose name shall not be mentioned likes to comment. I have a pride problem, so NO ONE can beat me at ANYTHING or I kinda -excuse me for using improper English, if there are any English teachers out there - freak, honestly. I love to write, so my notebook goes with me pretty much everywhere. I’m also a tomboy most of the time. At sleepovers I can deal with makeovers. Some people comment we were born to be best friends. We all have blond hair, live in little old one-stop-light Fritch, Texas, and happen to live on the same block. I started to daydream about camp. We would do all sorts of fun stuff there! We would learn how to survive in the wilderness; we would be able to talk to other, older girls about how to survive in middle school, which is a place nearly as difficult, so I’m told. “Not to mention, no more of those boys,” Olivia commented, eating out of one of the snack bags she’s constantly carrying with her. I shook off my thoughts of Middle School. “There I go, daydreaming again!” I exclaimed, shaking my head. “What were we just talking about?” “Cool stuff about camp,” Miranda answered with a giggle.

“I, like, can’t wait for our flight tomorrow!” I said excitedly. “Just think: we’re going all the way to California!” “Well, I can’t wait for a vacation from this torture zone,” Miranda mumbled. Now, I can tell you about the trio of boys who have been tormenting and embarrassing us since first grade. Their names are Kris Thomas, David Houdini - named after his great-grandfather-and Nick Don’t-Know-What-HisLast-Name-Is. By now, we are prone to cringe at the very mention of their names. (And no matter what they say, THEY started the rivalry.) First, Kris. To put it simply, he doesn’t often, well, think. He does whatever David or Nick tells him to and believes whatever they tell him. It gets annoying. He’s in my homeroom. I know a bit more about Nick. He’s my age and in my third period class, language arts. His favorite sport is soccer, and, don’t tell anyone I said this, but he’s not really that bad. If he’d stop always going along with pranks, we could totally be friends. Maybe. And, last and least humane, David. He is, in some vague ways, like me. He’s the leader of the group, and has some really sensitive pride. But he’s always insulting us, and he has this thing where you can never tell how he’s really feeling. He has a good poker face, but uses it for all the wrong reasons. I hate him so much. “For once, I agree that there is nothing that could make this trip better than a vacation from them!” Olivia said in a tone of disgust. “Let’s not talk about that,” I interrupted quickly. I didn’t want to jinx our vacation. “How ‘bout we play a game of concentration?” “Sure!” Olivia answered quickly; glad to get off the subject as I was. “The subject can be, ‘Cool Stuff about Camp’. On three - 1, 2, 3 … Go!” “Swimming!” Miranda listed instantly. “Horses!” Olivia went next. “Sports!” I said. “Dancing Classes!” “Arts and crafts!”

“Nature!” “Poison Ivy.” We gave Miranda a dirty look just as we had someone else to glare at - three some ones, to be precise. We were hit with a stream of honey from water guns. “Boys Rule! Boys Rule!” We heard again and again. We were being attacked by Kris, David and Nick- the Monsters. Before we could say a word, they dumped three bags of pink feathers on our heads. If I hadn’t been so mad, I would’ve been impressed. This was their best (let me correct myself, worst) attack all year! I looked at my co-victims. “Get them,” I hissed, too enraged to say anything more. I didn’t have to. Miranda, Olivia and I sprinted after the boys. Our gym teachers have commented that we’re a lot of better runners than most other kids - we should be. We get tons of practice. Like today. “When we catch you guys, you are so dead!” Olivia screamed as she ran full speed ahead. “I spent, like, thirty dollars on this outfit!” “Oh, I feel so sorry for you,” Kris called over his shoulder. They were sprinting as fast as they could, just like we were. They had the last laugh this time, but we’ve had some pretty good shots before, too. I never believed my mom when she told me boys tease you when they like you. Besides, this wasn’t mere teasing. This was torture, elementary school style. They ran to the school playground. We were so mad we would’ve chased them into a tornado – and they knew it. Before we knew what we were doing, we ran straight into the crowd of kids. Every kid that was celebrating by running around the playground was soon laughing at us. “Hey, look!” Our arch enemy called. “The Whatchamacallits are chickens!” I cringed at the nickname she put together. It was so simple but so clever. It was supposed to make us feel like people didn’t even know who we were or what we were. (As if I cared.) Over the sound of people calling us our new nickname, I called, “You three are a set of down-right jerks!” *

*

*

We all went to Olivia’s house first to get cleaned up first, because it was the closest. I glared at the wall as Olivia’s mom finished washing my hair. Olivia, who was finishing peeling off the sticky feathers, complained, “Great. Now we have the nickname ‘Pink Chickens’ until they come up with something else.” “Those boys were just having a little fun,” Olivia’s mom said. “I’m sure they’ll apologize.” Handing me a towel, she told me, “Now go dry off your hair,” as if that was the end of it. I hate it when moms are sensible. “Those…those barbarians wouldn’t apologize to our graves if they pushed us off a cliff!” Miranda spat. “ Oh, I’m sure you don’t mean that,” Olivia’s mom argued, maddeningly calmly. “Besides, you should look on the bright side. You girls have the best-smelling perfume on ever!” Later that evening, as I was packing my bags, I began to daydream of the adventures we’d have. We’d discover a treasure! We’d fight off a bear! I’d discover that my cabin was haunted by the ghost of William Shakespeare who needed me to help him finish his last play and…. Whoa, girl, I thought. Take it easy. You don’t want to be disappointed when the only thing haunting you’re cabin is the smell of dirty socks. I finished packing my bags by putting something I hoped no one would notice; my old teddy bear, Henry. I decided to bring my MP3 player, to. I decided to even bring my bed canopy, Diary, and notebooks. When I was finished, I checked the time. 8:20. Miranda, Olivia, and I meet at 8:30 on the IM every night. I hurried to brush my teeth and choose my outfit for the plane tomorrow, and then jumped on the computer. I don’t even ask my parents anymore, because they know at 8:30 I’m on IM and will tell me if I can’t get on. I always ask to go to another website. I sent an emoticon saying, “Ha-looooo!” Then I typed, ‘anyone here?’ Prettygirl35: Finally, Olivia can tell us what her news is! 123love: Spill, girl! Dolphins_rock: Okay, but its BAD news. 123love: That makes it even more important for you to TELL US RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

Dolphins_rock: Don’t say I didn’t warn you. The Monsters are coming to the camp. David’s Mom’s Aunt runs the place. Their getting in for free – and having SPECIAL TREATMENT!!! 123love: YOU LIE! Dolphins_rock: Nope. Prettygirl35: How did you even find out? Dolphinsrock: David threw a pebble at my window. When I opened the window, he screamed it to me as loud as he could. Ouch, I thought. Olivia has a window on the first floor! Prettygirl35: This is terrible! For once, we both agree that the pessimist is right. I thought. A long moment of IM silence followed that. It might have even been three whole minutes! That’s our record. Dolphinsrock: My Dad bought us some really awesome Text Messengers for the trip! They can deliver messages one whole mile! Prettygirl35: What does THAT have to do with anything? (Grumpily) 123love: I like the ( ), Miranda! (Giggle) Dolphinsrock: I was trying to cheer you up! Prettygirl35: I don’t do cheery when a smiley face just told me of a disaster! Dolphinsrock: Oh, no you DID’NT! 123love: Please don’t fight! Were already going to have enough trouble on our hands! Prettygirl35: Okay… but can I still call Olivia Smiley Face? I think it sounds cute. Dolphinsrock: okay. Dolphinsrock: Great. I might as well have just told my parents they can call me FrooFroo. Prettygirl35: (Giggle) No one knows but us. I promise. “Claire! It’s time for bed! You want to be rested up for the flight tomorrow…and don’t forget to pack your sleeping pills,” My mom reminded me from her bedroom. (I’m a really light sleeper. I’ll explain soon.) “Okay, Mom, just a sec,” I shouted back. 123love: G.T.G. Prettygirl35: C U! Dolphinsrock: Bye!

We all logged off. Our rule is that if one person completely has to log off of IM, everyone logs off. I threw my sleeping pills into my bag (I tried some once; it was bad, but not worse than what happens to me if I don’t take them. I have doctor’s orders to eat all the food groups every single day to keep myself on balance) and flopped onto my bed. Four whole weeks with those boys, I thought. In school, at least most of our classes are separate, and we live blocks away. But at camp, everyone does pretty much everything together. All the sports. All the classes. All the activities. And lunch! They’d probably start a food fight! I remembered a picture I saw of the camp. There are still boy cabins and boys’ bathrooms. The girls’ cabins were arranged in a semi-circle around the lake. The boys will probably throw me into the lake. They know everything about me. That thought alone made me shiver. The saying that says something about keeping your enemies close sure seems to work for them. David knows I love sports. They know if I drink coffee I’ll be really hyper for thirty seconds. (Like, Kuku for coco puffs.) The only thing they DON’T know about is Henry, I thought. And I intend to keep it that way. What if the boys turn on the other girls? We’d have to keep them from telling. They’d get in trouble, sure, but we’d have to stop pranking, to. And that would mean the boys won the battle. I pictured the peaceful lake again. And I wondered just how chaotic it would look after this year, even from above once the boys were finished with it.

Chapter 2 The Plane Well, not much happened on the plane. You don’t really want to know how boring it was . . . Okay. I admit it; you do want to know what happened on the plane. It just so happens that Kris, David and Nick took the same flight with us. And, wouldn’t you know it; we got stuck right across from them in the very back. It was three to a seat, so I was on the outside, Olivia was in the middle of us, and lucky Miranda got the window seat, yet for a few minutes she complained about being to cold. “Miranda, just enjoy the view,” Olivia told her. “Unless, of course, you want to trade me,” She added slyly. Miranda quickly shook her head and looked out the window. “So much for being pessimistic,” She whispered to me. “I heard that,” Miranda said. I giggled. “Hey, Claire? Would you mind giving me a magazine?” Olivia asked. “Sure. Can I have a snack?” “You know it.” It was a two-hour ride and Olivia’s mom let Olivia pack tons of snacks. I saw the boys looking at the snacks enviously. “Eat your heart out, boys,” I told them. (I couldn’t resist.) I started to listen to my MP3 player that had my favorite songs from the old days and my favorite country songs. The trouble began when it was almost time to land. My backpack was open when the ‘Please Buckle Your Seatbelts’ sign flashed. A water tower was in the pilot’s way, so he tilted the plane sideways to avoid it. It was cool for a minute, until Henry fell out of my suitcase and landed right in the laps of you-know-who. “Give me the bear,” I hissed at them.

“We’ll give you the bear…” David said. “On a few conditions. First, you’ll give us those snacks,” he demanded. I sighed and threw three packs to their seat. “Next, you are going to introduce us - without making any faces – to all the girls there.” Kris said. I made a face. “In your dreams!” I said. “Bye-bye bear,” David taunted. I squeezed my fists. “Fine, birdbrains,” I said through clenched teeth. They looked satisfied and began eating their snacks. When we got there, I grabbed my luggage and headed off the plane. Olivia and Miranda hadn’t heard a thing. Either that or they suddenly had an attack of the conscience. At the airport, I noticed a few people with T-shirts stating, ‘Camp Lots’o’Fun’. I couldn’t help but think that it was just about the corniest name on earth. “ Are you girls joining Camp Lots’o’Fun?” One of the counselors asked us. She had curly brown hair, glasses and green eyes. “I’m still waiting for six more people,” she added, checking her notepad. “Are you girls Olivia, Claire, Miranda, Nick…” She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “…David, or… Kris?” “We’re the girls,” I explained. “The boys are related to the Head Counselor.” “Ahhh,” she said, and then walked off. I looked at the girls standing behind her. “And he was, like, soooo cute,” one girl said dramatically, making a big deal of putting a hand on her heart. Everyone else – about twenty other girls – were giggling. They all seemed good-natured and friendly. “Hi, I’m Claire, this is my friend Miranda, and my friend Olivia,” I said, making motions to indicate who I was talking about. I felt a tap on my back. “Uhh…” I decided I might as well get it over with. “And-these-are-Kris-David-and-Nick,” I said in such a rush nobody understood me. Miranda and Olivia gave me an odd look. Then Nick whispered to me, “By the way, we are not birdbrains.”

“Now give me the darn bear!” I mumbled angrily at David as the girl quickly said hi and finished up her story. He did, almost pushing me down in the act of shoving it against my back and snarling, “Keep it. It probably has cooties on it.” It’s almost not a surprise that they still believe in cooties, I thought. It didn’t help that he made sure all the girls saw it first. I directed my thoughts to the girls who would go to camp. I saw two girls who were doubles so far as eye color, hair color, skin color and height go. Otherwise they were completely different. One was wearing makeup, had a designer hairdo, and was almost as dressed up as if you were going to a dance. The other girl was wearing no makeup, had a ponytail, and was wearing camp clothes. These were definitely a classic look-alike-but-are-nothingalike pairs. As the girl finished her story, they introduced themselves. “Hi, I’m Anna,” the tomboy told me, “and this is Emma.” “Are you twins?” I guessed. “Why not?” they asked said simultaneously. Anna shrugged. “People ask that a lot.” She stuffed her hand in her pockets. “For a while people treated us like we were two couples in a mirror.” “Sounds bad,” I said, trying to sound sympathetic. “Hi, I’m Penelope, thanks for asking,” One girl said jokingly. She was African-American and very, very pretty. One girl named Claire went through the so-and-so-meet-soand-so routine. Needless to say, soon everyone was introduced. “That sure was a mouthful,” she gasped afterward. Everyone broke out in giggles. Except, of course, for the boys. They kind of just stood there wondering what was going on. Morons, I thought. Soon, after about fifteen more girls came, we set off to the busses that were painted ‘CAMP LOTS O FUN’. Suddenly, we heard a gross sound. “PLPLplplplplplplp.” Miranda blushed and I realized she stepped on a whoopee cushion filled with the fart spray the boys constantly carry around. They burst out howling with laughter, as if it was the most hilarious thing they’d seen in a long time.

But most the girls barely blinked. If they were planning on impressing any girls, they had made a bad start for themselves. They seemed so immature! Well, I’ll be honest; the best part (by a long shot) was that the fart gas flew out backwards. Soon they stank like skunks! And even if we DID get sprayed a little, it was gone because of the honey smell. You can’t win them all, boys! I thought happily. I had an idea on the bus. I directed Olivia and Miranda to sit by me behind the boys. “Olivia, draw skunks!” I whispered. “Miranda, get some tape!” They nodded. Miranda raised one eyebrow mischievously. How in the world does she do that? I wondered. But now was not the time to ask that question … again. We had pranking to get done. I drew clouds and wrote, ‘Peeuuu!’ on them. When Olivia was finished drawing, I taped the skunks to three clouds and then taped them to the boys’ backs. And then, just like magic, the fart spray they had used for the whoopee cushion rolled out from Kris’ backpack. “Sweet!” I whispered. Olivia was way ahead of me. She got out one of the plastic bags she kept her Fritos in and gave it to me. I wrapped the fart spray nozzle in the plastic bag and sprayed. It barely mad a noise at all. When it was finished coming out, I dumped the bag upside down onto the boys. The fart spray was the kind of stuff that has particles big enough so that you can see the separate particles if you looked closely, so it would settle on the first solid thing it landed on. If we moved quickly, we could make the fart spray settle on the boys. After doing this until there was no more left, I rolled the can up in the bag and put it into David’s backpack. By then they smelled so bad we had to hop seats! In about half an hour, our buss arrived at Camp Lots’o’Fun. The boys broke out of the pictures and tape right away without even noticing, but the spray stuck fast. We lugged our luggage to the spot where everyone else had set their bags, by a stage and microphone. We watched the boys from there.

We didn’t know it, but at that moment Kris was talking to a girl named Selena who was very pretty. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hoping to get cabin C - for crush.” She wrinkled her button nose. “I think you should get cabin S – for stink.” She walked away quickly. He looked shocked. He smelt his shirt and started to gag. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we were giggling. Kris motioned for Nick and David to come here. “Is it just me, or do we smell like my fart spray?” he asked them. “It’s not just you. See if you’re bottle leaked.” Nick directed. “Hey, it’s not in here!” he said. David narrowed his eyes. “I bet a million bucks it was those dragons of girls who did this,” he said angrily. “This means war.” Nick tapped him on the shoulder. “We’re already in a war.” David made his eyes narrower. “The war -of Camp LotsO-Fun” At that moment, we heard someone talking through the microphone. “A-hem,” someone cleared their throat. We kept talking. “AHEM!” Everyone paid attention. “Hello, my name is Patty,” a cocky-looking woman in her forties stated cheerfully. “I am the owner and manager of this camp. You can tell by this badge,” she told us, motioning at a tiny golden badge that about five other counselors had. “I control and schedule all of your activities. If you would like to ask me a question or talk to me, please do not be afraid to come to my office. I can’t guarantee you will get what you want, but I do guarantee you will not get in trouble for asking. I would like to introduce three special guests who re coming this year.” She paused, most likely to take a breath. “My nephew David and two of his friends are coming to camp this month. Please come to the stage.” We smirked as the boys squirmed. “Come on up, I won’t bite!” Patty said. “I wouldn’t be so sure,” I overheard David warn his friends. When the boys reluctantly made their way to the stage, Patty introduced the boys.

“This is David, Nick and-” She interrupted herself and wrinkled her nose. Then, right into the microphone, she asked, “When you boys finish listening to the rules, would you please ask a counselor for directions to the shower?” I heard a lot of girls laugh out loud and even the counselors couldn’t help not giggling. Everyone was laughing, except for us. We had huge smirks on our faces. Revenge is sweet! I thought. I don’t think the boys heard one word after that, including the rules. And I considered that a benefit on our part.

Chapter #3 Cabin 2G When Patty was finished telling us the rules, she gave us all pieces of paper and some Monopoly money. “The paper bills are called, ‘Camp Bucks’.” She explained. “You can use them to get extra things from counselors, favors from campmates, etc. The pieces of paper have a copy of the rules, your cabin letter and cabin-mates, and your Schedule.” She stopped talking and looked at us for a minute, apparently waiting for us to do something. “Well, go on to your cabins!” she told us, as if she had said something about it already. I looked at my paper. My cabin letter was 2G. Apparently they arranged the cabins in alphabet style, but obviously they needed more than 26 cabins with three girls in each, so they repeated the alphabet twice. So the cabin names were ‘1A’ ‘1B’ ‘1C’, and so on. The entire 78 girl’s cabins stretched around the entire lake, so it was a long walk from the Activity center to most of the cabins. My cabin-mates were Laura and Chloe. I was glad I had met Chloe, but I wasn’t that worried about not meeting

Laura yet. She was probably as nice as all the other girls. I read the rest of my guide while Miranda, Olivia and I walked up the path to our cabins. “Oh, no!” Miranda groaned. “I have cabin Y3! And the walk’s uphill!” She complained. “Sorry for you,” I said. “You’d think they would’ve arranged the cabins more conveniently. “At least that cabin will have a great view!” Olivia, our optimist told her. She was in Cabin W2. “I’ll have to visit you and draw the lake.” “Dang, this is a long walk,” Another girl with a Texas drawl complained. She was right. We’d been walking for ten minutes, and we’d only just passed cabin 1L! Soon I realized that each cabin had an animal mascot for itself carved into the wood that began with the letter of the cabin, such as monkey, newt, octopus. (The names were carved into the wood, to, on the top.) After walking for a while, we reached cabin 2G. Its mascot was a goat. Very noble, I thought. Goats. “See ya!” I called. “And text me later!” I made my way into the cabin. Inside the cabin looked cozy. There were three beds, three dressers, and a bathroom. There was a toilet, sink, washer and dryer, but for some reason, no shower. THOSE were all the way near the activity center, which means having to walk the whole way in pajamas. As I began to think that whoever designed this camp was really idiotic, Chloe came in. “Hey, aren’t you the girl who introduced those stinky dudes earlier?” “Yep. So, what’s up?” “Inflation.” I giggled. “Have you met Laura?” I asked. “Have I?! She’s my big sister!” “So how does she act?” “Prissy,” she told me, wrinkling her nose. “Oh.” I began unpacking my things. I chose the bed near a window, so I could look out at night to gaze at the moon. I set up my bed curtain from the ceiling, put my books on the foot, and, seeing Chloe set a stuffed horse on her bed, placed Henry on my pillow. When I was finished, I

stepped outside to check out just how far it was to the showers. (I decided to wait until the next day.) Laura knocked on the door, which I soon discovered that Chloe had locked. I could tell that she was wearing perfume and even from inside. The second Chloe opened the big door-she had locked the outside door- I could tell she also had on mascara. She looked about a year older than me. She’s girlier than I than I expected, I thought. Who wears mascara at camp? Apparently she did. “Let me in, Chloe!” Laura demanded angrily. “Are you sure?” Chloe teased. “I know how much you just love nature,” She added sarcastically. “LET ME IN!” “Okaaaay. Touch-y,” She opened the door. “Hi Laura.” I told her, still giggling. I noticed her hair was wet. She must’ve taken a shower before coming up to the cabin. She looked around. “Hey, look!” she said. “That bed comes with a teddy bear and bed curtain!” she flopped onto the bed I had already claimed. “Heaven knows I need the rest,” she said, interrupting me before I could tell her it was mine. “That walk was way to long for me!” “Laura, that bed’s kind of mine.” “And what makes it yours?” she challenged. “My teddy bear on it. My bed curtain on it. The fact that I was here first and I claimed it.” “Whatevs.” She reluctantly got off the – excuse me, my – bed. “So which one I mine?” “Not that one,” Chloe said quickly, pointing to the one closest to the door. “I claimed it. See, it has Bull's-eye on it.” Bull’s-eye was a cute stuffed horse with a black ring around his left eye. “You’ve had that since second grade! Are you EVER going to get rid of the thing?” Laura asked, apparently extremely annoyed. “Oh, Officer, excuuuse me for decorating, I didn’t know it was against the law!” Chloe answered in a dramatic shrill voice. Laura looked like a Bigfoot when it happened to be shopping for shoes. “You are SUCH a BRA-“She cut herself off

and smiled apologetically. “Sorry, Chloe, I guess I’m just getting a little grumpy,” she apologized. “A little grumpy? Don’t you think that’s an understatement?” Chloe teased. “Don’t push you’re luck, Double Whammy.” “I’ve got some . . . ah . . . stuff too, Beautilicious.” This is getting pretty interesting, I thought, smiling slyly. “You wouldn’t dare!” “She would,” I put in, not able to help myself. They both burst out laughing. “Sorry, Claire, but we’re always like this,” Laura told me, chucking a pillow at her sister. “PILLOW FIGHT!” Chloe bellowed, hurling the pillow back at her. “That’s babyish,” Laura said, but she couldn’t resist. (Even the highly dignified thirteen-year-old can’t resist a good pillow fight.) Soon we were all laughing, with pillows flying top speed through the air. I heard my Text Messenger do its little beep-beep-beepbeep thing that means someone messaged me. I went into the bathroom and shut the door. “WAT R U DOIN, CLAIRE?” I read. It was from Olivia. I typed, “PILO FITE.” “COOL. 1 OF MY CABN MATES HAS A MOHAK.” “SCARY.” “YUP.” The next one was from Miranda. “JUST FINISHED THE DEVISTATING WALK.” I typed, “GOOD GRAMMAR.” “HEHE. I FOUND OUT THE BOYS ARE IN CABIN 3W.” “SWEET.” “THEIR MASCOT IS WALRUS. FITTING.” I giggled. We chatted until 8:00. Olivia’s cabin mate with the mohawk insisted that at 8:00 everyone had to get ready for bed. (Why at 8:00, I’ll never know.) Later, after I had gotten my pajamas and brushed my teeth, I got curled up in my bed with my diary and wrote, Dear Diary, Except for the airport, today was great. But I still think whoever designed this camp was a moron. A few days later at 8:00 sharp, I heard my alarm. Because I’m a light and restless sleeper, while most kids

foggily reached for the snooze button, I usually jump and end up on the floor, tangled in covers. Like I did that morning. After I had finally got untangled, I brushed my teeth and hair – with different brushes – put yesterday’s clothes in the washer and grabbed my backpack that had all my stuff in it. After putting my Camp Bucks into my bag, I finally stepped out of the cabin, wide awake by 8:16. I walked as fast as I could to the showers, hoping to get there before anyone got an eyeful of me in my cherry-print pajamas. I had to be showered, with hair brushed and dried, by 8:25 – which was time for breakfast. Unfortunately, the boys got an early start, to. They had put every single shower on completely hot at full blast since 6:00. There was no warm water left! I hate cold showers, I thought. But I took one anyway. I took the fastest shower I ever had and rushed to be ready for breakfast. When it was time for breakfast, I reached into my backpack for five Camp Bucks so I could get chocolate milk. But instead of my Camp Bucks in their envelope, a sealed note fell out. I hastily picked it up and paid for my chocolate milk. I’ll read the note later, I thought. Breakfast was delicious! It was French toast with oranges. Miranda told us that she was going to make lots of Camp Bucks so she could buy a golf cart to carry us up to our cabins. “They cost 200,” she told us. “I sure have my work cut out for me!” “Maybe we could help you,” Olivia suggested. “We could have a company, sort of, and call it, ‘Claire’s Cabin Cleaning, Co.’” “How come it’s Claire’s name?” Miranda asked. “I don’t know. ‘Cause it starts with C, I guess.” “Let’s do it!” I told them excitedly. “I need more Camp Bucks, anyhoo.” “But you still have 100!” Miranda protested. “Actually, I have 95, and soooo?! I’ll need them later!” We all giggled. I thought about showing them the note, but I decided to read it to myself first. Wouldn’t be very good if it was something embarrassing!

I finished breakfast fast as possible and went to art class. Before going in, I sneaked behind the building and opened the note. When I read it, I just about had a heart attack. It read: As graceful as a swan, As majestic as a horse, The fair maiden that will fall and rise Where the wind blows is a thing to be admired, But from a distance, for me, Until I am brave enough to tell thee. There was no signature on it. I flipped it over and read, Sincerely, Your Secret Poet. “Wow…..” I squeaked in a shaky voice. Some dude has a major crush on me. And he’s a poet, to! Maybe a corny one, but still… I started to feel dizzy. (Like I told you, I love to write.) It was near impossible not to go and shout it out to my friends. But I didn’t. Instead I shoved it into my backpack and rushed into art class. All day I wondered about the note. There weren’t any boys….well, any human boys, (wink, wink,) in this camp. How could that note have gotten there? I was certain I had cleaned out my backpack the last day of school. Maybe I had missed it? I started to feel dizzy again. I realized that it was almost time for Arts And Crafts soon, so I shoved the thing in my backpack and tried to forget about it. That day, while I was pretending I was listening to how to use oil crayons, paddle a canoe and what you need to train a horse on, I was actually thinking about the note – and thinking hard. ‘Your Secret Poet’. What could that mean? How would someone get that thing into my backpack before I left for camp? I KNOW I emptied my backpack the last day of school. I puzzled over the mysterious note all day. At lunch, we discussed the fliers. “That’s great, Olivia!” Laura complemented her. “So cool!” “Olivia is an artist,” Miranda told us in a not-so-realistic British accent. “And you’re the actor, I suppose,” Olivia guessed, giggling.

Miranda gave her the Look. “No, I’m the Mermaid WannaBe,” she said icily, or at least tried to; there was a smile on her face and I could tell she wanted to giggle. Chloe looked at me. “And you are the…” “Tomboy.” “Ah.” We eventually decided that the room-cleaning company was a bad idea, and besides, Miranda was joining the soccer team and needed practice. We chatted and goofed around all lunchtime, and once again, I pretended I was focusing on the conversation when my mind was actually far, far away (or at least in my backpack, where the note was). I wanted to tell them about it, but what if someone overheard, like, say, three creeps named Kris, David, and Nick? Besides, I wanted to decide exactly what I was going to do first. The night after that, I was still racking my brain for an explanation. I was dumbfounded! I’m positive I cleaned out my backpack, I thought. How could the note have gotten in there? I was about to write in my diary about it when me and my cabin-mates heard a knock on the door. I went to open it. Patty was at the door. “Good afternoon, girls,” Patty greeted us. “There’s big news!” “You’re installing a ski lift?” Chloe joked. “No,” Patty answered with a (fake) chuckle. “This camp has a chance to make much more money. I’m going to start advertising for boys to come to this camp in a few days. It didn’t seem fair that I only had room for three boys. The good side is that we won’t have to do any expensI mean, major construction.” “What?!?” I asked, my eyes bulging out of my head. “You heard me,” Patty told me. “I said-” “She heard you,” Chloe interrupted Patty. Patty looked like someone had called her a cuss word instead of just interrupted her. Jeez, I thought. You’d think being interrupted wouldn’t be a big deal for someone who spends all day with girls. “Excuse me, Patty, but where are the boys staying?” I asked. “In the cabins on the other side of the lake.”

“When are the other boys going…you know, the ones already here?” “Actually, they’re going tonight.” A grin spread across my face. And considering that I was, um, rubbing my hands together sinisterly, I might have seemed….well, a little crazy, you might say. “Well, I’ve got to go tell the other girls,” Patty said quickly. “Long walk, huh?” Laura commented. “Oh, no, I have a personal golf cart to drive to the cabins in,” Patty told us, motioning to the cart outside. “There’s only one, but no camper ever gets enough camp bucks to buy it, so I never have to give it up.” She stated with a smirk. “I’ll be going, then.” As soon as she turned her back, I blew a raspberry. She turned around and opened her mouth, but I never got to see it. I was long gone in the cabin. “What do you say we leave the boys a little surprise tonight?” I asked, not thinking. “What for?” Laura asked. “Oh….I really hasn’t told you guys about those...those monsters who have been tormenting us since the third grade?” “No! Tell us ASAP!” (Laura pronounced it A-sap.) “I love gossip!” They were listening intently. I can’t back out now, I thought. So I spilled. I told them about ‘Operation Pink Chicken’. (“Wow, I thought that was just really awesome shampoo,” Chloe joked.) About how they photo-copied our diaries in fourth grade and sold them for a dollar fifty. About the “Teddy Bear Blackmail”. And even about some of our own clever attacks. Chloe burst out laughing. “You put Vaseline on their locker locks?” “Blended with maple syrup and corn starch.” “Wow!” Laura exclaimed, shaking her head. “That even beats the salted root bear trick Chloe invented.” “Works like a charm,” Chloe admitted, grinning. “She loves root beer.” “David loves Sprite,” I said. “I’ll have to write that one down. So are you in?” “You bet! I need to practice for my future career as a prankster/comedian.” She said the “slash” part.

“Well, I’ll call my friends. They’ll want to help.” After a few minutes, I said, “We’re meeting at the other side of the lake at 10:00. Get Ready! And don’t be late!!!” I began packing all the stuff we’d need. “But I need my beauty sleep!” Laura whined.

Chapter 4 What Goes Around Comes Around (And again)

Goes back

A few hours later, we set out, after convincing Laura to come. I thought that it might have been better to let Laura stay at the cabin – convincing her to come took precious time, which we could’ve been used collecting sabotage items. Even though we took the short way around, we weren’t there until at least 10:15. “Thought you’d never arrive,” Miranda commented impatiently. “Sorry, we had to convince Laura to come. Now let’s get down to business.” I took charge. “Do you guys have any ideas?” Olivia answered, “Well, we could slip worms and moss and stuff into their beds.” “Won’t that wake them up?” I asked. I imagined them finding us slipping a worm under their pillow…me smiling stupidly…yikes. “They’d probably trap us in there and use scissors to give us ‘trims’ or something like that.” “I’m outa’ here!” Laura told us, and sped off. “Wait! Laura!” Miranda tried to call her, but she wasn’t fast enough. Laura was long gone. “So, when I pull a prank on her, saying I’ve been bitten by a rattlesnake, she has to do her hair before coming out because her crush might be outside. But when her precious

hair is in danger, those high heels are up and down twenty thousand times before you can say, ‘hairspray’,” Chloe mused. “Hmmm…sounds like Laura,” We all almost giggled way too loud. “So, what’s the deal, Olivia? What are we doing? We can’t do it if there’s a chance they’re awake, I’m not going in there,” I told Olivia. “See, Miranda and I found out that some of their buddies from the neighborhood outside of camp live on the outside of the camp. Tonight they’re having a sleepover, according to what they said.” Dudes have sleepovers? Huh. Guess you learn something new every day, I thought. A few seconds later, I had another thought. Hey, wait a minute! That’s where that note came from! Shoot! “Anyway, we should hurry up and do a full sabotage, just in case we get caught by a counselor,” Chloe suggested. I forced myself to listen to the plan that was being formed by my three accomplices. “Should one of us keep watch?” “Nah. They’re gone, remember?” Miranda answered. “Smiley Face, Sponge Bob, go collect worms and moss.” Olivia nodded. Chloe looked at her funny. “Shakespeare, sort through their stuff and get all their clothes soaking wet. I’ll go with you.” “Wait a minute! Since when am I Shakespeare?” I asked. “And since when am I Sponge Bob?” Chloe repeated. “Since you both knew who you were. Now start the mission.” Miranda said, very official-like. “Roger.” Olivia said, very official-like. We all giggled. “Now, c’mon, we got stuff to do and not enough time to do it. Hurry!” I ordered, and we officially began the sabotage. Me and ‘Sponge Bob’ stepped into their tent and started sorting through their stuff. I found the jackpot in the bottom dresser drawer, under the underwear. (I soaked my hands later, of course.) It was a notebook titled PRIVATE! I recognized Nick’s handwriting and slipped it into my knapsack. There was a teddy bear on someone’s bed, but it didn’t have a name on it, so I figured it

wouldn’t matter that much if I stole it. I set it back on the bed . . . well, close to it . . . err, under it, anyway. So, I short-sheeted the beds. Then, I thought of how great it would be to put shaving cream under the pillows. I popped my head out of the cabin door. “Hey, Miranda, do you have some shaving cream I can use?” She looked through her stuff. “No, but I think Olivia has some Easy Cheese.” “That’ll work.” A minute later, she tossed me a bottle of easy cheese. I made quick work of spraying it under all the pillows. All this sabotaging was making me hungry. Or maybe it was just that I love cheese. Anyway, I sprayed some in my mouth. “Hey, Chloe, what you got?” She showed me some muddy clothes tied in knots, and then threw it in the dresser. We stole all the deodorant and cut the ends of the toothpaste tubes and put a worm inside, and taped it back with invisible masking tape. Then, we took gulps of the mouthwash, only to spit it back in. I know that David has a habit of brushing and mouth washing before opening the medicine drawer for his comb. So, on the inside, I wrote a note: ‘How do you like SPIT flavored?’ on a sticky note. Then, I got freaked out by a noise like rustling leaves and motioned for Sponge Bob to come with me. I could just imagine us making a run for it just as they stepped out of the woods holding paint ball guns. And David would smirk and say, “Guess what? Boys don’t do sleepovers.” Paintballs everywhere. But, although I knew they were inferior to the female species, they weren’t dumb enough to wait until after we had ruined their cabin to paintball us. Unless it was revenge. Well, we went outside and met up with Smiley Face and Miranda and said that we were ready to go. They nodded okay, but first we slipped moss under the sheets, in some stray socks, in the shoes - every horrible place we could think of before running off. I noticed Miranda was running faster than normal, and she was actually FASTER than me! (I’ve been the fastest of us all since we met from playing sports.) I thought I’d never see the day. Well, she was at her cabin in about two minutes, while me and Olivia--code name Smiley Face—got tired after a few

minutes so we started to walk. Olivia is a bit chubby and she didn’t run that well. (But whatever you do, don’t bring it up to Olivia. She’s sensitive.) We walked for a while. The moon was full and reflecting on the lake. I saw all of the flowers that were closed for the night growing around the sycamore trees. It was all so beautiful. I sighed. But then I saw the trash littered all over the side of the lake. So much for nature’s beauty, I thought. I said bye to Olivia and ran the rest of the way to my cabin. (Laura seemed surprised we weren’t scalped, or worse, BALD.) I took my nightly dose of sleeping pills and went to bed. I dreamed about a gorgeous romantic lake that had so many people on it, it was turned ugly. *

*

*

The next day was a Saturday, so I didn’t set my alarm clock, and so I didn’t wake up tangled in covers. I woke up around 10:00 as opposed to 8:00, so I was very relaxed remembering how on the first day Patty told us how on weekends we can get up when we want to eat, and because most her staff is off on weekends, weekends are basically free days. I was so happy to wake up to the sun, not the covers, on my face, on a Saturday morning at camp that I was in totally Zen. Until I remembered that the boys came today. Dang. I wouldn’t have put it past those boys to put all the boys against us. But on the other hand, I don’t think they would because technically they weren’t doing it so it doesn’t ‘count’. I don’t know, I thought. It’s hard to decode boys. I put all my stuff together and headed to the showers. My hair was wet when the new guys came to camp from swimming lessons. A lot of the girls were pointing and – *shudder* ew, so gross- flirting. The boys –those freaks of boys, I mean- were freaking out, no pun intended. I went to go get Olivia. I couldn’t handle this anymore. When we walked back around to where the boys were, they were still celebrating. “We nearly died without you guys!” David shouted. Kris kept doing this windmill thing

with his arms. I think he was either waving or trying to fly. Hard to tell. I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, they were really suffering,” I told Olivia, my voice dripping with sarcasm. Olivia nodded. “Yeah, it sure must be hard to be the only ones a camp with personal menus to order from at dinner,” She told me, her voice at the same level of sarcasm as mine. Suddenly, I noticed we were a bit too close or comfort to those boys. I noticed a light bulb – a dim light bulb, to give details- go up in Kris’ head and I thought, Oh, no. I started to try to run away without giving a hint that I was scared when I realized I had a good reason to. In a flash, Kris pulled out some fart spray- he always has someone him -and sprayed it all over the ground next to me. He plugged his nose and shouted, “Uh! Claire just let off a major silent but deadly, dudes!” All the guys laughed as hard as Kris, David and Nick had a week ago. The fist thing that came to my head was, “Who smelt it, dealt it!” Big mistake. Nick must’ve been reading up on his dumb jokes because he replied, “Who said the rhyme, did the crime!” Even I had to admit it was kind of funny. I couldn’t argue with that. (He seemed kind of guilty, but only until someone gave him a high five.) I was mortified. Completely mortified. I hightailed it over to another spot so I wouldn’t smell horrible all day. It was no use. I suffered from nicknames like ‘Claire the Skunk’ and “Smell-o Fellow’. Even the girls started adding their two cents. It was terrible. I sulked through breakfast, even when my friends tried to cheer me up. I was stubbornly miserable, just like Miranda. Good thing I saw an opportunity for revenge at lunchtime, because otherwise I probably would have ended up like Miranda. The potential opportunity I saw was three bottles of pepper. I grabbed them and waited for the boys to get up and leave their ham sandwiches alone and defenseless. Soon, they did. I seized opportunity and raced over to their table. I emptied the bottles in all three of their sandwiches and then put the pepper that fell out into one of them. I destroyed the evidence…in a trash can before going back to my table to hurriedly tell Miranda and Olivia and Chloe (Laura was sitting with Penelope and some other girls) about my stunt. Suddenly, Olivia’s eyes went wide. “You didn’t put any pepper on Kris’, did you?” She went pale.

“Of course I did! KRIS is the whole reason I DID it!” She went paler. “Kris is allergic to pepper!” She whisper-screamed at me. Oops. I felt the way you do when you realize that your brother’s homework got chewed up by the dog. I started to get up to un-pepper the sandwiches when the boys came back. It was the point of no return. I sat down uneasily and slightly guiltily and watched. At first, it seemed as if it would all be okay. David trashed his, saying it stunk, and Nick nibbled the edge that I hadn’t put pepper on before trashing his. But it apparently wasn’t Kris’ lucky day. He shoved the whole thing in his mouth, chewed and swallowed. He leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. I held my breath. He sneezed. Then, he sneezed again. And again! Soon, he was sneezing left and right. His face also started to go red and his eyes watered. “What - sneeze – was in these – sneeze – sandwiches – sneeze - ?” He asked David. “It’s GOT to be pepper! It’s the ONLY thing that does this to you!” Nick answered for David, panicking. Kris was starting to look bad. His face was beet red, his nose was running, and his eyes were pink and watery. I was a little concerned, but I remembered from the last time that this happened that Kris only has a bit of a headache afterward. I was relieved. Meanwhile, nearly everyone in the cafeteria was laughing hysterically. A counselor ran over to Kris what was wrong. He explained between sneezes that someone must’ve accidentally put pepper in his sandwich and that he was allergic to pepper. He glared at me as soon as she went to get him a tissue, but he didn’t tell. It’s like in the code of the prankster rivalry: Thou shalt not tell on thy’s opponent. I nearly went over and apologized, but when I remembered ‘Smell-o Fellow’ I grew cold feet. I did watch, though. After a minute or two, Kris’ face went back to its normal color, his eyes stopped watering, and the sneezing died

down until he stopped completely. He told the counselors he was fine, that he just wanted to be left alone. They backed off. After lunch, he went up to me and said, “Watch your back, Smell-o Fellow.” I waited till he was gone and grabbed the sign off my back. (I know when there’s a sign on my back from experience.) It read, “Laugh and point at me!” (Obviously David did the spelling.) I tore it up and left it in shreds. Later at canoe lessons (I keep on talking to Olivia and Miranda at Canoe lessons because we almost always have half the time to laze around at canoe lessons), while Olivia ate her Doritos, Miranda said, “I dunno, that was a good prank and all, but Kris is ALLERGIC! As much as I hate to say it, I think you should apologize.” She wined as she said it. “Are you KIDDING?!” I asked. “Kris made a fool out of me this morning! Sure, that prank packed more of a punch than I expected, but if he wants an apology, he’ll have to crack first!” And of course he didn’t so that was the end of it.

Chapter 5 This is Getting Serious The next Monday, up until swimming lessons, nothing too unusual happened. Sausage on a stick for breakfast, glares from the Evil Trio, painting in art class, canoe flipped over in canoe lessons - nothing too exiting. But at swimming lessons, when I searched through the front part of my backpack to get my swimsuit to change into, I heard Patty over the intercom. “Hello, would Claire Woodfrey please come to the mailbox section of camp? There is a special delivery for you!” After asking permission from the coach, I ran to the mailbox section. When I got there, I took out the key Patty gave to us at the beginning of camp that unlocked my mailbox. I excitedly unlocked the tiny mail section that belonged to me for the next two and a half weeks and opened it. I was disappointed when there was merely an envelope in there. I wouldn’t have referred to it as ‘special’. I started to stick it into my backpack when I herd someone chuckle. I looked up and noticed an old man wearing a blue t-shirt with a belly that dwarfed me in comparison. He chuckled again and said, “Now, you know that your parents wouldn’t send you something small enough to fit in that little mailbox, don’t you?” He kicked a cardboard box sitting next to the 2-A to 2-P mailbox square that I hadn’t noticed before and grinned when my mouth dropped to the ground. It was almost as big as the man’s belly! My parents had sent me a care package! “Now, you enjoy that little ol’

thing, okay?” I could tell he was joking. I grinned. “I will, sir, thank you!” I crammed the envelope that I guessed was a letter to accompany the care package into my backpack and dragged it up a few feet, then rested, then dragged, then rested, then dragged - all the way to my cabin. When I got up there, I tore it up like I was the Hulk. Inside, the first thing I saw was… bubble wrap. I tore it off and discovered that there was a lot more than an inch. Mom had purposely packed my box mostly with bubble wrap! I grinned, partly because she had fooled me into thinking that she had packed an entire 3square-foot carton with care package stuff, and partly because bubble rap is AWESOME! (Oh, don’t pretend you don’t love it!) I grinned and took off the last layer, popping as I went along. The next thing I saw was a package of brownies! It had a note on it – it was from grandma! She always makes the best brownies! I shoved one halfway in my mouth and looked at everything else. Mom had bought me a new issue of Archie’s digest and the new issue of my favorite magazine! And those books that I had been wanting to read! But it was the next-to-last things that made me realize why there was so much bubble wrap: a boom box and a CD! I looked at the CD and saw that it was titled ‘Claire’s Mix’. On the back was a list of all my favorite songs. But the very last thing in there made my eyes pop. It was a letter! That meant that the one in my mailbox was from someone else! I Should’ve read the one from Mom first, but instead I fumbled around nervously in my backpack for the other note. As I opened it, I noticed that it had neither an address nor a stamp. That means that the note in my mailbox was from someone at camp! I thought. I ripped it open. Inside, I saw: Claire: Then, the handwriting switched to: If I don’t kiss you soon, I will be in pain. So I’ll give you a hint of who I amYour pain used to be my gain Before Lot’s O Fun camp.

I could tell that someone messed with Mister Gain’s note. I wondered who could have done it, and I realized that the only people who probably knew about it were Kris, David and Nick. I’d have to ask them about it, preferably by screaming it. I taped the two notes into my journal. I put everything in a neat little pile on top of my bed, and ran back to swimming lessons. Unfortunately, I never got to scream it at them because I realized that they either wouldn’t know about it or would pretend they didn’t, and either way, they’d be able to say that I myself told them that someone was sending ‘love’ notes to me. I bit my tongue and decided that I would wait it out. It was a longer wait than I thought it would be. The rest of that day and the next day I kept my mouth shut. But it was getting harder. I finally decided that, that Wednesday, I would ask them about it. So, at the only class I have with all three of them – sports –I confronted them. “Okay, what gives?” I asked them, hands on my hips. “What?” Nick asked, annoyed. He was trying to watch the soccer game. “You messed with…..some mail of mine!” Nick wrinkled his forehead. “What are you talking about?” Nick asked. “My mail that you messed with!” “No I didn’t!” Kris asked, obviously panicking. “I didn’t even know a guy was sending you letters!” “AHA!” I pointed at him accusingly. He slapped his own hand over his mouth, but it was too late. The words were already out. “I never SAID who was sending them or which one of you messed with them!” Nick and David glared at him. “We were supposed to keep the secret! I told you not to give any hints!” Nick punched Kris on the arm. His mind was obviously on things other than the soccer game now. I smiled. “So you do know about this!” I smirked. David rolled his eyes. Typical, I thought. “So we were sending the notes for our friend. So what? It’s none of our business if some weird, twisted, dumb, stupid, desperate guy wants to act all goo-

goo –with you, especially! You’d be the perfect couple, anyhow.” I glared at him. He was enjoying saving his friends. “I mean, if some stupid, naïve, corny, twisted, desperate-” He listed the ‘requirements’ again. I cut him off. “Okay, I get the picture! If you don’t care, you don’t care! Besides, I got the info I need. But by the way, aren’t you calling your friend naïve? ” David bit his lip, and for once, he ate his words. I smiled. I turned around in a complete circle, suddenly changing my mind about walking away right them. “Whose notes did he mess with, anyway?” David, taking my attention away from the other two, said slyly, “So you do need us to tell you that!” Shoot. I hate paraphrases. “Well. If you wanna find out-” David said, smirking and leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head, pausing for dramatic effect. “-You’ll have to beg.” I clenched my fists. “Not on your life!” I turned on my heel and stomped off. As I walked away, I heard David say, “And let ME do the talking next time when we deal with girls!” I considered everything that happened a success, despite David finding yet another way to call me naïve and twisted. *

*

*

Thursday morning, after the usual waking-up-ing routine of freaking out and waking Chloe and Laura, I packed my backpack and got ready to go to the showers. I packed my remaining eighty camp bucks, cleats, shin guards etc. before deciding what to wear. I felt like wearing something fancy that day, so I looked through the dresser I had put my clothes in. After some rummaging around, I picked out my best faint blue kaprees, my hot-pink-and-turquoise bobby jack spaghetti strap tank top, and my fancy gold-and-pink tennis shoes. At the showers I didn’t put my hair up but put an emergency scrunchie in my back pack just in case. I applied lip gloss and blow-dried my hair. I felt on top of the world! Breakfast was frosted flakes and apples. As I slurped up the rest of my sugary frosted milk, I saw David trying to

watch me without me noticing. He was doing a bad job of it. I checked to make sure that there was no sign on my back. There wasn’t. I was suspicious, but I continued to eat my apple and carry on the conversation at my table with my friends. “How am I going to make more camp bucks?” Miranda wailed. “I told you not to buy that water bed!” Olivia shook her head. “You're not even allowed to bring it home!” “Yeah, but it’s still comfy!” Olivia rolled her eyes teasingly at Miranda. I noticed that there was a lot of eyerolling that I experienced every day. As we brainstormed ideas to help Miranda get some more C. B.-s, I thought of a really, really good idea. “Hey, Miranda! You’re a detective! I bet you could have a mystery-solving agency!” Her face lit up. “That’s a great idea, Claire! Miranda could totally do it!” “I don’t know,” Miranda said. “I’m not really that great.” I laughed out loud. “Yes, you are! You solved the case of the missing cupcakes!” “Yeah but…” I realized that Miranda was finding an excuse to be pessimistic. “Oh, don’t try that today! You’re good at this, Miranda!” “Okay, I’ll try it,” She said. She seemed happier than usual. Right then, I realized why Miranda is so pessimistic. It was because she didn’t have any confidence in herself! She thought she wasn’t good at anything! Well, it’s Olivia’s and my job to prove her wrong! I spent the rest of the time at breakfast telling Miranda how great it will be and how many mysteries I thought she could solve. She was glowing! When I went to art class, there was a sign on the door. It read: NO ART CLASS UNTIL 1 PM THIS AFTERNOON. I shrugged and went to swimming lessons, my next activity. After lunch that day, Patty told everyone that we would be doing camp-wide arts and crafts that ‘celebrate Hispanic culture’. She was wearing a huge sombrero that all the boys were pointing and laughing at. “Crafts include Paper Mosaics, Confetti Eggs, Piñatas, and Ojos De Dios’. Go to the art

center for directions on where to go. And you boys -stop pointing or I’ll bring out the other sombreros.” That shut those boys up. I decided that her sombrero was tacky and hurried to go outside- I wanted to make enough Ojos De Dios-s to give one to all my friends, send home some for Mom and Dad, and see how many colors I can make them in and whether I can make the Ojos De Dios look like a picture. It was going to take a while. When I got to the O. D.D. section of camp, I realized that I was the second one. I sat down and got out some materials. Soon the instructor came over to me and taught me how to do it. She was really cool. She had almost jetblack hair, a nose ring, and a few model Ojos De Dios’ for me to look at. She said that her cousin is Hispanic and they trade Ojos De Dios every Christmas as they read the Christmas story. She helped me a lot and even showed me a few pointers to make them look even better. The first one I made, I was going to keep forever, with my filled-up journals, first note that got passed to me during school, first paper I did from every grade, and all the rest of my sentimental things that I would really freak out if the boys knew about, since it would be incredibly easy for them to pour it in the dumpster, and just like that, my memories of my 11-and-three-month life would be gone. (It was pink. The Ojos De Dios was pink, I mean.) I started to make a dark blue and purple one for Miranda. Olivia’s included a center of bright yellow to resemble the sun and a rainbow of neon colors around it. It looked great! I saw David write something on his Ojos De Dios. Probably just translating it for himself so he doesn’t get confused every time he looks at it, I thought triumphantly. I got back to my Mexican art. I used every shade of pink I could think of to make Laura’s –‘cause, hey, -she’s Laura. Chloe’s was harder, because it’s hard to use colors to describe HER personality, but I finally settled for an odd clash of grass green and orange and purple and bright pink. I decided that if it wasn’t perfect for her, it was close. Then, I made one for me. I was mischievous but caring, exited and jumpy. I used all my favorite colors to make a

jagged line through the center, with an almost plaid-like pattern on the rest of it. It took a while, but I thought it was as perfect as it would get. I rushed off to find all my friends and give them their Ojos De Dios’ and hurried back to the table. I made some Ojos De Dios’ for my parents in a rush and headed for the confetti egg section. There was a lot more people there this time and I had to try to do them myself, which resulted in having to toss several eggs. By the time the confetti egg counselor finally got to me, I had wasted a good seven eggs. The counselor had a kind-looking face and copper brown hair, but that was about the end of her relaxing features. Her pink lipstick was smudged, her eyes were tired and little bits of confetti, pieces of egg shells, and yolk inhabited her hair. Yet she was still smiling and patient with me, showing me exactly how to empty the yolk out and put the confetti into the tiny hole. I thought about the mailman and these two great counselors and wondered, Why can’t Patty be more like her employees? As I dodged the confetti eggs several kids were tossing around every now and then, I made a handful of confetti eggs. I put them in a basket instead of throwing them right away, so that I could throw them all at once. But, as I made my sixth egg, I noticed Nick and Kris goofing around. As a mischievous smile spread over my face, I ‘hatched’ an idea. Heehee. Hatched. They leaned against a tree and began to talk. The smile broke into a grin as I grabbed two confetti eggs and walked halfway in the direction of the lady’s bathroom and halfway in the direction of the path by the forest that they were leaning against. I tried to quiet the snapping twigs and cackling leaves as I tiptoed a few layers of forest deep so that I could take them by surprise. When I finally got behind them, excitement conquered me and I forgot about making noise. I ran behind them and, before they could turn around to see me, I stuck the eggs down both of the back of their shirts and cracked them. Then, I ran. I didn’t look back until I got to my table. They were still desperately trying to get the just slightly yolky and

very scratchy pieces of cut-up paper and egg pieces. I laughed out loud before turning around quickly and pretending I had no idea what just happened and I just laughed because I was either insane or someone just told me a joke. Guess which one I sounded like? Anyway, it was hilarious. (Well, pretty funny, anyway.) I went back to making eggs. When I had nine going on ten eggs, I spotted Miranda and motioned for her to run over here - NOW! The girl next to me didn’t mind scooting over so we began to talk. “Hey. Any idea why Nick and Kris are, like, acting like monkeys?” She asked me, raising an eyebrow. I shrugged. “Being morons again, probably.” I snuck a peek over my shoulder and caught them giving me the Look. “Sure are shooting daggers, though,” Miranda noticed, still looking at the boys, no expression on her face. They seemed to be finally getting all of the pieces out of their t-shirts and intensifying the Look. I got bored of rubbing it in their faces and started to talk to Miranda. “ Hey, how’s the business going?” Her face lit up. “You, like, won’t believe this!” “Try me.” “I already solved a mystery- and I got, like, twenty camp bucks!” “WOW! What was it about?” As Miranda described the Case of the Missing Twenty-One Camp Bucks, I eventually stopped making eggs to listen to her story. “So he just got, like, one camp buck out of it?” “Yup. Pretty funny, huh?” “No doubt. Hey, I’m going over to the piñata section. You can have these eggs.” “Sweet. I wanna see how many egg shells I can possibly get into my hair.” “Nice. See ya!” “See ya!” I walked away smiling, knowing that for the first time, I had an entire conversation with Miranda without her being pessimistic whatsoever. Suddenly, I heard Miranda scream- as only Miranda could. I turned on me heel and started to run over to the

table. To my surprise, she was holding a cracked egg in her hand….and there was yolk all over her head! “CLAIRE!” She screeched. “I can’t BELIVE you! You said these were CONFETTI eggs, not raw ones!” I was stunned. “I-I-I…” “I don’t care! You’re worse than those boys, Claire Hoffman!” She stomped off, holding her arms out from her. Every person in the area was looking at me. I swept my eye over to Nick and Kris. They were laughing their heads off, and I realized something. When I was talking to Miranda, they switched the confetti eggs with raw ones! But, unfortunately, before I could confront them, I felt something hit me in the back. I reached to see what it was. Someone threw an egg at me! “Ew…” I said to myself, making the stupid mistake of trying to rub it off on my shirt. “Oh, gross!” Just then, David called out from the other side of the O.D.D. section, “Serves you right, Hoffman!” Because of course the universe wouldn’t let David miss seeing me like that. I started to run off in the same way Miranda did as I was bombarded with raw eggs and cries of, “How do you like it, Hoffman?” I wouldn’t let myself even think that at least no one had a camera. It was so gross and icky. But what felt the ickiest was hearing those boys laugh and laugh and laugh. *

*

*

That night, after showering, trying to clean my favorite clothes, eventually having to throw them away, and convincing the counselor that it was all an accident (yeah, right), I picked up my text messenger and texted an apology to Miranda. In a second or two, she sent a message back. ‘I 4-GIVE U. IT WSNT YOUR FAULT. DON’T REPLY.’ It was dry and flat and I sensed she was still miffed. I sighed an exasperated sigh and leaned back on the bed. “She say no?” Laura asked who was brushing her hair. “She said it’s okay, but I dunno.” “Oh, I bet she’ll be over it tomorrow,” Laura told me as she got up to put her hairbrush away. “Miranda is just like

that. If I were you, I’d stop worrying and start thinking more about how to get them back.” “Since when so you care about our Girls Rule War?” “Since they got people to throw those eggs at you. That was seriously uncalled for. And nice name.” “I agree twice.” I reached for my all-purpose journal and turned on the small lamp on my bed table as Laura turned out the light. “Good night, Laura.” “Night, Claire.” *

*

*

I promised myself that I wouldn’t take a sleeping pill until I came up with a plan. It had to be complex- not just a single prank. It had to prove to them that we, with our superior feminineness, could outsmart them any day. It was like a chess game. After considering several elaborate prank schemes, I turned to the battle phrases. I wrote down all that I cold think of before even considering them. The only thing to do is to counter-attack. Remember the Alamo! Give me liberty or give me death! You no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. Fight fire with fire. Divide and conquer. That was all of them that I could think of. I crossed of the first, second, and third. At a second glance, I crossed off the fifth, too. And, although wise, I thought, The fourth one suggests we do nothing. So we’re left with the sixth. Then, it hit me. “Exactly! We just gotta get them mad at each other!” I said out loud, starting to get exited. I flipped to another page and drew out a plan. This is getting serious!

Chapter 6 Divide and Conquer (?)

By the time I went to bed that night, I had a plan. It was pretty simple, actually. This is what I wrote in my diary: 1. Wait till they’re mad at each other and write mean notes. (Requires research.) 2. Change David’s screensaver to Kris’ favorite one, also David’s least favorite one (when they’re mad at each other). 3. Hide _____’s camp bucks in ______’s mattress. 4. Put something really weird in front of their cabin. Wait ‘till one notices it and remove it when they point it out. 5. Lure two gremlins on top of roof, remove ladder. When third goes out, drop water balloons on them from the tree beside the porch. RUN. 6. Disguise ourselves. Drag one under canoe with other one (or two) on board. Flip over canoe and swim away without looking back. I grinned at the list. It was sure to work! Well, maybe #5 wouldn’t be a good idea, I thought as I crossed it off. Now there were only five steps. In five steps, they’ll be so mad at each other that we can get them good- or just watch them do the dirty work! I smiled to myself as I shut my diary, turned off the light and instinctively took my sleeping pills.

*

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*

The next morning, I didn’t wake up tangled in covers. In fact, I woke up without the alarm clock. Because I hadn’t set it the last night. I woke up groggily, wondering why my alarm clock wasn’t blaring and I wasn’t on the floor. I rubbed some sleep out of my eyes and picked up my alarm clock. It read 8:06 –or so I thought. Rubbing the last bit of sleep out of my left eye, I thought, Good, I have ten minutes to get ready. But as my eyes focused, I realized that it actually said 9:06! Shoot! I thought. My alarm clock is broken! I jumped out of bed to realize that Laura and Chloe were gone! Laura’s bed was neatly made, while Chloe’s was kind of half-made – sheet on the floor and blanket covering the pillow and the floor next to it, because Chloe didn’t take the time to make sure it was lined up. Bull’s-eye was sitting on the pillow with his head hanging down, as if ashamed to be on such a poorly made bed. The bed of a traitor, too, I thought. How could they find the time to make a bed and put a stuffed horse on a pillow, but not wake me up? I muttered to myself irritably as I rummaged through the drawers to find my volleyball t-shirt and bell-bottom kaprees from my hippie costume the previous Halloween. (I wasn’t looking for them; it’s just what I found.) When I finally ran out of the cabin (with my clothes on, since I figured I wouldn’t have time for a shower, anyway), I jogged down the hill to my swimming class that would start in ten minutes, hoping that Olivia would have a spare bag of Doritos on her. As I jogged past the horse pasture, I slowed down. I saw the Evil Trio riding some horses along the gate. Knowing this was my chance to be rude and eavesdrop (or drop eaves), I jumped into a prickly rosebush along the gate. I managed to pick out a few words, and they were just enough. “…. said you ….go messin’ with them!” Nick was saying. I guessed that he was mad that Kris had messed with his buddy’s note. I was right.

“So what? It’s weird hearing about…for Claire when we can’t even freak her out of her…with the news!” I strained to hear better at the sound of my name. “SSSSHHHHHHH!” Nick said, as loud as it was possible to shush someone. “What if someone hears?” “Oh please,” David scoffed in his usual couldn’tcareless way. “It has more to do with me than you, anyway, and I’m not freakin’!” I was confused. By the way David acted, you were just sure that it had nothing to with him. Suddenly, a thought hit me. What if DAVID sent the notes? He’s good enough at his poker face that he could hide his feelings, and certainly the poem-writing. Maybe he’s not as hateful as I thought he was. The second the thought came, a more sane thought kicked it out and replaced it. Are you loony? This is DAVID we’re talking about, the one who started the war and the worst of the trio! He’s probably just closer friends with the guy, anyway. I started to have a flashback to the day we met . . . but suddenly, I remembered that I was supposed to be dropping eaves. Flashbacks and sane thoughts can wait, I thought. This is important! I dropped out of Lah-lah Land just in time to hear Nick say, “Well, then why don’t I just scream it out loud if you don’t care, Mr. Smooth?” Fine,” David replied, still being Mr. Smooth. “I don’t care. It’s not like she’s hiding in those bushes or anything!” I couldn’t help it. I started laughing my head off. Before I could run (or blink), David had me pinned down, with Kris and Nick standing behind him. “What did you hear?” He asked so ferociously that Mr. Smooth was long gone. Nick smirked. “Look who cares now!” He exclaimed. “Shut up,” David said back. I was totally enjoying it. “Just that Nick was mad that Kris messed with the note and that you ‘didn’t care’.” I smiled slyly. He looked like he was about to do something to me that I wasn’t going to enjoy, to say the least. I was scared, and I felt weird having David touching me in any way, but I really enjoyed seeing David freak out. But still…

“Um, David…” I whispered, starting to squirm. “Would you mind stopping giving me an overdose of gross boy fumes?” I was trying to be insulting. He looked at me with a question mark on his face. I realized that this was no time to be smart. “GET OFF!” I screamed. He jumped off with a very embarrassed look on his face. Nick was laughing his head off. “Shut up!” David said, grabbing my arm so I wouldn’t escape. It hurt. He was…uh…tough. (I wasn’t going to give him any compliments.) All of a sudden, I remembered that I wanted to get the heck out of there. I decided to go old-school. I widened my eyes, dropped my jaw, pointed behind David. “OH MY GOSH! LOOK!” I screamed. He looked. I made a break for it when he loosened his defenses to senselessly trust me that there was something worth seeing behind him (sorry, David, but that’s what happened-I tell it like it is!). As I ran and rubbed the spot where he nearly stopped my blood circulation, I looked over my shoulder to scream, “Made you look, Mr. Smooth!” “SHUT UP!” He screamed for the third time that day. I was bursting with smugness. I, Claire Hoffman, made David, or Mr. Smooth, freak out! It was the first time it ever happened. The closest we ever came to seeing him show his rage like that was when he had discovered that we had put Vaseline on his new bike, and all that happened then was he stomped up to us and told us through gritted teeth that we would be sorry we had ever even seen that Vaseline. But he hadn’t screamed at us to shut up. This is gonna be so easy! I bet David will be so mad at those other two that he’ll totally fall for anything that could be their fault! But as I thought about that, it didn’t feel as delicious as I thought it might. In fact, I realized in spite of myself that I didn’t want to cause them much more pain –at least, not then. David’s pride was seriously hurt, and that can just about kill him on the inside – he really did care about appearing cool and unhurt. And David was definitely going to make Nick and Kris suffer. There was no need for me to step in!

And, even though it would be the perfect time for using my plan, I decided to cancel it. I had already ‘gotten’ them – it wouldn’t be fair if I ‘got’ them again. I decided that I had as much pride as David. When I finally got to swimming lessons, I had to swim in my bell-bottoms because I was late. Me and Miranda have that class together, so I just spilled. I told her about the crush notes, the thing that happened with David and everything else for the very first time. She was biting on the eraser of her pencil the entire time. When I was finished, she nodded her head slowly. “And how come you never told me and Olivia?” “Well, I wanted it to be a secret, to see if I could solve it myself.” “You should have brought the case straight to me,” Miranda told me, her lips in a straight line. Usually, I would think that she was just trying to be silly by acting professional…but right then, I just didn’t get the vibe. I decided she was still mad about the egg. “Yeah, right! Before that day that we convinced you to start a mystery solving business, the only thing you would solve was Encyclopedia Brown stories!” She looked hurt. Oops…wrong move. “Of course, that was because you thought that! And boy, were you were wrong!” I followed it up. “You are a really great detective. I can’t believe you never saw it before!” Her face lit up. Score! “Nice save,” She told me. I grinned. “I’ll have the clues ready by the end of the day, but you’ll have to pay!” I stopped grinning. “You have to promise that you will never, ever keep secrets from your best friends, ever again!” I smiled even bigger. “Miranda, you rock!” I exclaimed as I hugged her. “I know,” She answered, as she hugged me back. It was the greatest feeling ever to know that my best friend felt really good about herself, way better than smugness. Eat your heart out, Mr. Smooth, I thought.

*

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*

Well, the rest of the day was pretty uneventful, so, for the first time in this book, you will hear it from the boys’ side of view. So, brace yourself, and try to understand that I’m only doing it for the readers: “Hey, Mr. Smooth,” Nick taunted, for the fifth time since that Claire overheard Kris talking about the notes that she was getting. We rode our horses the rest of the way into the stables. “Shut up,” I snapped. “And stop calling me that!” “Hey, I’m just enjoying myself. After trying to protect you and getting made fun of, you deserve it!” Kris was grinning the way he does when he’s not frowning. “Yeah! And I was just trying to help. It’s been killing you, anyway.” “Oh, just shut the heck up!” I jumped off Sugar, the white stallion I had been riding. “No.” I could feel Nick smirking at me, and it chased shivers up and down my back. I hate it when I’m made fun of. “I can do it if I wanna,” He went on. “Yeah,” Kris agreed, as usual. (Kris agrees with everything.) “If you guys don’t shut up, I’m gonna read your journal over the intercom, Nick,” I threatened. “You wouldn’t!” He gasped. “I would,” I told him, letting my eyes narrow. “Patty will let me do whatever I want,” I added. “Yeah,” Kris said again. (I’ve learned a long time ago not to tell him to stop agreeing. It’s a waste of breath.) “Well, you can’t anyway,” He told me, face lighting up. “I just remembered. Those girls took it.” “And you’re happy about that? Hey, wait a minute! That’s it!” I grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the stable building, my eyes on fire with anticipation. “What’s it?” He asked. Then I saw the same look on his face that was always there when I had a plan. “Let me guess –we’re gonna get back at them?” “No –Claire,” I said, starting to smile. “Why just her?”

“Several reasons,” I answered. “They don’t all live in the same cabin. Claire recently got me –and if she gets me, she gets you- and Claire’s the leader. It was probably her idea to sabotage, anyway, and finally, she has one thing that we can steal that will drive her into the ground, making her beg for mercy and hurting her pride,” I told them, feeling a hint of frustration that they didn’t already get it. “Ohhh,” Nick said, eyes wide. “Do you mean the-” “Yep,” I told him, nodding. “But don’t say it -it’ll ruin the surprise.” (Okay, so I didn’t really say that part –Claire insisted I left you in suspense. Whatever.) Just then, we saw a flying saucer. ( If you don’t like it, Claire, TOO BAD! You asked me to write it for your story, and I did! NO ERASING!) *

*

*

See? I had to practically BEG to get him to write it. I had to put in. How immature, huh? Anyway, back to my story: After horse riding that day, which was my last lesson, I hiked back up to my cabin, where Miranda was meeting me for the clues. I was anxious to find out who the ‘mystery writer’ was. I ran as fast as I could to my cabin. When I got there, I had to stop and breathe on the porch for a minute to breathe so I wouldn’t sound like an actor hiding in a dark room from a monster in a horror movie. (Evidently breathing really loud confuses them, instead of leading them to your location.) When I was done, I opened the door and walked in, taking my sweaty, disgusting shoes and socks off as I came in. I found Miranda getting one of Olivia’s signature pedicures and Chloe and Laura waiting anxiously. There was junk food galore and so many colors of nail polish I decided not even to try to record them all. There were all the makings of a deluxe Olivia pedicure, sleeping bags, and board games. I grinned from ear to ear. Miranda had planned a surprise sleepover! “Whoa! A sleepover? Why?”

“Because, well, why not? We have lots of talking to do. Why not make it fun?” Miranda asked, obviously wanting no answer, while scribbling, erasing, scribbling, erasing, and scribbling –in that order. Laura was interrogating Olivia about her pedicure techniques. “How’d you learn how to do that? Is your mom a professional? Will you teach me to do that?” Then I stopped listening. All the beauty stuff is fun once in a while, but too much gets boring. Suddenly, Miranda jumped. “I got it!” She screeched. The turquoise nail polish that was meant for Miranda’s big toe went down to the skin and streaked. “Miranda!” Olivia protested, reaching for the nail polish remover. “Be still or do your own pedicure!” “So-rry, Smiley Face!” Miranda said, giggling. She sat back down and turned toward me. “I think I have a lead.” “WHOO-HOO!” I yelped, jumping in the same manner she had. “Wait-does everyone else know?” “Yeah,” Chloe piped up. I hadn’t noticed her, because the usually-talk-your-ear-off-ness of her was how I normally knew she existed. “Miranda told us.” “I can’t BELIVE you had a crush and didn’t tell us!” Laura said, goggle-eyed. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I held my hands out. “Hold everything. I DO NOT have a crush. Someone was writing me ‘like’ notes, that’s it. He could be kidding, being a jerk for all we know.” “That’s unlikely,” Miranda assured me, nodding her head. “Psychology doesn’t lie. Boys don’t do that often, except on Valentine’s day, when they more often give Valentines to girls who they think won’t get any, when they even give Valentines to girls they don’t like.” “So, who is it?” “I have no clue,” Miranda told me, grinning at my surprise. “Not yet. I need you to answer my questions completely truthfully.” I agreed without a single thought. I trusted everyone in the room. “Okay. Question number one: when did you get each note? I need you to bring them all to me, if possible.”

“I got the first one the fourth day we were here. Last Wednesday, I got the second one, and those are all I’ve gotten. They’re pasted inside of my diary,” I informed her. I went to retrieve my all-purpose diary from my hiding place, under my mattress. I flipped to the pages I had them pasted. “Okay. Wait a sec while I get the thumbprints.” She reached for the deluxe detective set that she had bought for emergencies. She got out a soft brush and some black powder in a small compartment and brushed it all over the first note. When she was done, I saw several thumbprints. “Aha!” She exclaimed, grinning in obvious pleasure. “So it DOES work!” I could tell she was exited to know that she spent her money well. “Now, Claire, I need my thumbprint and yours. Did anyone else touch this note?” “Not that I know of,” I answered. She scribbled for a few seconds and then got out a compartment a black spongelooking padding. It looked like stamp ink. “Okay, I need you to put your thumb in this ink firmly and then immediately put it in this square,” She directed me, pointing to a square-inch square she drew titled, in her fancy neat writing, ‘CLAIRE’. She held out the compartment and I did as she said, wiping the remaining black ink off my right thumb. She took her finger print and I watched as she crossed off thumbprints that apparently belonged to her and I with differences that were invisible to my eyes. As I looked around, I saw that all my friends were staring at Miranda with wide eyes and oshaped mouths. Miranda looked around and giggled. “It’s in my genes,” She said proudly. I grinned from ear to ear. Miranda hadn’t said one negative thing since she got into solving mysteries. *

*

*

After fingerprints, Miranda moved over as she told me that there were only three people’s thumbprints on the paper, and that after she crossed off the ones that belong to us, she knew that the person had touched the note four times with their right thumb. Olivia was the only one not watching closely as Miranda repeated the procedure for the second

note (she was busy painting Laura’s nails). Once she had crossed off six fingerprints, her eyes widened and she grabbed her notebook and started scribbling. “Who is it?!” I shrieked. “I told you, don’t know. But there are four sets of thumbprints here, not three like the other one,” she informed me, wide-eyed. “Someone else touched these.” “That would be Kris,” I said. “Before delivering it, he changed it to give clues about who likes me.” “Claire, tell me everything you know and suspect about this thing,” Miranda instructed. “Okay,” I agreed. “When we went to sabotage the boy’s cabin and found out about their friends outside of camp, I realized that one of the boys from the neighborhood outside the camp was sending them, and David and Kris and Nick were delivering them, probably for money or something. By now they’re probably in the camp. This morning, Nick was afraid he’d be beat up or something if I found out and was nervous about it and David was saying to chill because he had more to do with it anyway. I think he means he’s closer friends with them or he’s the one who would get beat up or whatever. “David was really mad when he found out I heard what they said. I didn’t hear the whole thing, but he thought I did. Maybe he really is going to beat up if I find out.” When I was finished, Miranda finished her scribbling and chewed on her eraser thoughtfully, looking at me. “Hmm. Well, judging by what Kris’ poem says, who ever it is hated you until they came here, and they started to think you were smart or pretty or something, probably pretty, oh, don’t look at me like that, Claire, that’s what boys notice about girls when they notice them most of the time, anyway. I need you to make a list of all the boys you hated in the fifth grade.” I glared at her for a second more and started to make a list. Wes Shlodowsky Danny Herblike John Kishi Christopher Spier

Thomas Deaver Jacob Trisee Venvcint Budline Miranda looked over the list and got out a pen. She started writing on it. “Hey! What are you doing?” I protested. “Sorry, Claire, but that isn’t everyone,” she explained, still writing. “You forgot Kris, David, and Nick.” “What?!” I protested again, jumping off of the bed. “You don’t really think THEY could’ve been the ones, do you?” “Everyone’s a suspect, Claire,” she informed me professionally, dotting the paper and reaching into her backpack to look for tape to use to paste the suspect list into her notebook. I felt sick. “Well,” Miranda said after scribbling in her notebook again and putting it away, “that’s it. I’ll have to wait ‘till tomorrow to continue our research.” By then, Laura’s toes were hot pink and she was drying them off as Olivia started to wash Chloe’s. Everyone was silent for a minute. “That’s it?” Chloe asked. “We have to wait for our answer?” “Yeah,” Miranda answered, as if it were obvious. “I can’t ask for a list of all the campers right now, and I certainly can’t go asking for fingerprints.” Another silence. “Chloe, what color of nail polish do you want?” We all started giggling, even me, who was still in shock from the fact that Miranda was even considering the boys as an option. Well, not shocked, just surprised she had the same thought as me, I corrected myself. Chloe chose midnight purple and we continued our sleepover without a word of the interview. *

*

*

An hour and a half later, after we all had our pedicures and Laura showed us so many beauty tricks that we ended up making a scrapbook of them (very fun, I have to admit), I

checked the time. 10:27. “Olivia, I’m starved,” I complained. “Pass the marshmallows.” “What do you say?” She joked. “Oh, come on, please,” I answered, giggling. She passed them and I popped one into my mouth. “You know what would be great?” I asked after swallowing it. “What?” Chloe asked while hanging her head down off the couch and catching Bullseye, who she had been throwing up in the air repeatedly. “S’mores.” Olivia Put down her magazine and said, wide-eyed, “YES.” She kept a completely straight face and Chloe started to giggle. “I have graham crackers and chocolate bars. I bet Patty will let us start a fire at the campfire site.” “Well, what are we waiting for?” Miranda asked. “Let’s go!” We all slipped on shoes and started to walk toward the camp center. “Hey, Claire,” Chloe called, walking up to me. “Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “Little Old Lady.” “Little Old Lady Who?” “Hey, how come you’re yodeling?” *

*

*

We ate S’mores until we couldn’t eat anymore and Laura had to restart the fire. (Who knew a girl like her carried matches?)We told stories around the campfire and laughed and shrieked and told secrets. We had a great time. Before it felt like long, Chloe yawned and said, “I’m pooped. What do you say we sleep under the stars tonight? I’ll go get the sleeping bags and pillows.” “No, I’d better go,” I told her, standing up. “I’m not tired until I get my sleeping pills.” In the end, I had to carry five sleeping bags, six pillows, sleeping pills, my diary and Bullseye. I hiked back to the cabin. When I got there, I saw David bolt out of the cabin, followed by Nick and Kris. Nick had his journal, but other than that, I didn’t see them carrying anything.

“What did you do?!” I screamed after them. David answered me with a haughty laugh. I dashed in at full speed, expecting to find everything trashed. I didn’t. Every thing looked completely normal, except for some drawers that were yanked open. I went through my anti-sabotage routine. (I threw away the mouthwash.) When I found nothing out of the ordinary, I decided Nick just wanted his journal back and went on with collecting the stuff. I did mine last. I put my pillow in the sleeping bag and felt for my sleeping pills on the counter. Gone. I looked around the floor and in the cabinet. Long gone. I gritted my teeth and punched the bed. Those boys had stolen my sleeping pills!

Chapter 7 Pride Tastes Horrible I didn’t know what to do. I would have an allergic reaction and not have a wink of sleep without my sleeping pills. Doctor’s orders were to take them every night until something strange happened, which hadn’t happened yet. What am I supposed to do now? I wondered. I put my options down in my head.

Try to steal it back, or go ask for them to get it back. I put on some black pajamas -good for stealth- before going back down the hill. I was about to impersonate James Bond. *

*

*

I trudged down the hill toward the campsite and set out the sleeping bags without saying a word. Chloe was telling some really funny joke that I don’t remember now. Laura had remade the fire again before Olivia said anything. “Claire! Where are your sleeping pills?” She asked, surprised. Four heads turned toward me lightning-quick. My friends were goggle-eyed. “The boys stole them,” I informed them, gnashing my teeth. “I’m gonna go play James Bond and steal it back. There is no way I’m giving David -I mean, those boys- the satisfaction of seeing me beg. NO. WAY.” Miranda continued staring at me, the same way everyone stared at her a few hours ago, when she was cracking the case of Mr. Gain. “Well, in that case…” Miranda finally pulled herself together. “You’ll need my spy equipment.” She reached into her got her backpack, which I hadn’t noticed until then that she brought with us. She got out a plastic cup with the bottom cut out for listening through doors, a flashlight, and a telescope she said was supposed to be used to see around corners. I thanked her, and after accepting many ‘good lucks’, I turned on my flashlight and set toward the dreaded boys’ cabins. When I got there, I saw many boys peek through their windows and smirk. Umpteen times I had to put my finger to mouth just to see them shrug as if to say, “maybe and maybe not.” I hate boys, I thought as I dropped to the ground so I could crawl to the boys’ cabin. I hid in the bush next to the porch. To my horror, a boy I hadn’t met before yanked me out, asking, “WHAT are you doing?!” I gulped. “Truth?”

“That would be nice.” He gripped my arm tighter than David. I winced. “I need to get something back from in there. Will you please keep quiet?” “No,” He said. “David wants to see you beg.” I knew it, I thought. “So he’s making a show of it. Big creep. Look, I’ll pay you fifty camp bucks for you to distract them, bring them out of the cabin.” He thought about it. Finally, he said, “Deal.” We shook hands and he knocked on their door. I dived back into the bush and got scratched on the way. “Hey, guys!” He said when they opened the door. “What do you want, Paul?” David asked grouchily. “I have some…” Paul brought his hand to his head and then tapped the bottom of his shoe. “News for you.” I knew immediately that they had made that up as a code. They probably have a whole dozen words, I thought. Nick, followed by Kris, then David, leaped out of the cabin and followed Paul into the woods. When they were out of sight, I jumped into the cabin. Franticly I looked around the cabin. I dived under the first bed I saw to look for them. My feet were hanging out of the end of the bed. When the door opened. I sat there in shock for a second. “Well, I wonder where Claire is,” David commented sarcastically. Pull your legs in, idiot, I thought as I did as I was told. David chuckled. “Too late, Claire,” He told me. “You should never trust Paul. Dude, forget about the money. It ain’t gonna happen.” Paul walked out of the cabin grinning, I bet. David kneeled down to look under the bed. “You gonna come out of there?” I hated the way he was grinning. “In a few days, maybe,” I mumbled. “We’re gonna pull you out,” David threatened, smiling huge. “Don’t you dare touch me,” I told him. “Move.” He stood up and walked away. I crawled out and sat on the bed with my arms crossed, glaring at David. I glared at the wall behind him as David retrieved his hollowed-out book he had

bought at the dollar store before he went there. He opened it and pulled out the compartment holding my sleeping pills. “Do you want these?” “What do you think?” I snapped. “If I were you, I’d be nicer to me,” He suggested as I wished desperately I could slap that smirk off his face. “You’re not getting these back until I’m satisfied.” I gritted my teeth. “What. Do. You. Want?” I asked, trying to hide my rage. “That’s better. Now wait a minute. I have to get something.” He went into the closet. I got up and bolted toward the door. Sleeping Pills were NOT worth this torture. I’d get them another way. Kris blocked the door. “Sit back down,” He told me. He spun me around and pushed me forward. I sat back down. What else was there to do? Soon David came out of the closet with a red blindfold. “What’s this about?” I asked suspiciously. He didn’t answer and started putting it around my eyes. “And the plot thickens,” Nick commented. “Shut up,” I told Nick. “Okay. Now, beg,” David told me after a moment. “Not on your life,” I refused. “Fine. I can sit here all night,” he told me. I was actually grateful I couldn’t see him smirking. “Okay…” I sighed. I gulped. “Hurry,” He demanded. “P-p-please,” I spat. “Please what?” “Please give me them back.” “Why?” “BECAUSE.” “Because why?” “Because I need them?” I suggested anxiously. “And why should a guy like me care?” “Because I’ll pay you.” “Nice try, but I want compliments, not money.” “Why don’t you just kill me?” “Because there’s a fate worse than death, and besides it’s illegal.” I sighed. “I hate you.”

“I know.” “You’re really going to make me, aren’t you?” “Yes.” “Okay. Um, you’re smart.” This was so humiliating. “Not enough.” “What else do you want?” “Everything you can think of.” “Curse my vocabulary,” I mumbled. Nick snickered. “Shut up. You’re nice, cool and not as dumb as you look.” “Ha ha.” “Fine! You’re smart, nice, cool and creative.” I spat out each word. “And good looking.” “Kill me.” “Say I am.” “Seriously. Kill me.” “Say it.” “Uncle!” I shouted, desperately. “Say it.” “You’re…cute. But I hate you.” Who knew words could hurt coming out of your own mouth? “Good enough, Princess.” “WHAT did you just call me?” “Princess.” “Don’t call me that.” “I can if I want.” “Well, it’s disturbing.” “You’re already mentally disturbed . . . Princess.” “I hate you.” I sighed. “Can I take this blindfold off now? What was it even for?” “Take it off and you’ll know.” I did. And I found myself staring at a video camera. “AAAAHHHH!” I screamed in rage. “I HATE YOU!” “Really? I thought you said I was cute, smart, creative, and cool.” “David, you have overly selective hearing.” “Thanks.” I sighed. “Can I have those sleeping pills now, PLEASE?” I said in a murderous tone.

“Oh, yes, that’s a keeper,” He said, pressing a button on the camera. He gave it to Nick and he put it back into the closet. I yawned. “I’m tired,” I said, not thinking. “Then go outside and open your mouth,” David told me. “WHAT?” “Do you want the sleeping pills?” “Didn’t we already cover this?” I asked. “Take your sleeping pill outside.” “Are you crazy? I don’t even have a sleeping bag! It’s cold!” “So?” I pouted for a minute, and then, after another yawn, I walked outside. “Open your mouth.” “On one condition,” I told him. “I’m tired of doing this, David,” I told him. “This Sunday, meet me at the ball park. Boys against girls, baseball. Winner takes all. We get the ball park to practice.” He started to laugh. “You’re really going to challenge me and my friends to baseball? Everyone knows girls can’t beat boys.” “You’re a sexist pig, you know that?” I caught him by surprise. “If you win, you can put that footage on tape and I’ll grin the whole way through it. If I win, you throw that footage away. Either way, we don’t go back to this pranking.” “You’re on, but we get the ball park the morning before the game. And, Claire?” “What?” “I-I’m sorry for being a jerk about the baseball thing.” “REALLY?” I asked, sure that I was more surprised then than he was when I called him a pig. David never, EVER says sorry. “Yeah.” “You know what?” I sat down. “That was probably the coolest thing you ever said.” He grinned from ear to ear. “That means a lot, Princess.” “Don’t make me take it back.” “Sorry.” He put the pill in my mouth. “Good night,” he whispered before I fell asleep.

That night, I had the most terrifying dream. First, I was riding an elephant with a baseball glove on when David was suddenly on it, too. He opened a can and put some greenish stuff on a spoon and put it in my mouth. It was the worst thing I ever tasted, but I had to swallow it. “What is that?” “Pride,” He answered and fed me the rest of the can. When he was done, he turned into a pig and then into a prince. I had realized he wanted to, um, well…kiss me. (There, I said it. Well, wrote it.) Then, he walked toward me. I tried to run away, but apparently, it’s very hard to run on an elephant. Before I could help it, he caught me and kissed me on the cheek. I woke up screaming. Slowly, I realized that I was not on an elephant and that David was inside his cabin, and that it was morning, and that my friends were sitting around me, looking concerned. Well, Miranda was. Everyone else was waking up and plugging their ears from my blood-curdling scream. “What’s wrong, Claire?” Olivia asked, clutching her ears. “I-I-I dreamt that David kissed me,” I told them. Olivia and Miranda started screaming. Chloe started laughing to death until her face was beet red and she was rolling on the ground gasping for air, grinning from ear to ear. I giggled a little. The door to the cabin opened. “Why are you guys screaming?” A sleepy Kris asked. “Go back to bed, we were just leaving,” I told him, brushing the leaves out of my hair and standing up. My friends packed up their stuff and I picked up the compartment of sleeping pills that David had set beside me before he went outside and gave Miranda the sleeping pills I never used. By the time we were at the cabin, my friends knew the entire run of the night and I knew how, after half an hour I wasn’t back, they went up to the boys’ cabin to find me laying on the ground, fast asleep. They tried to carry me back to the campfire, but when that didn’t work, they just brought their stuff out to where I was and had a sleepover (a silent one) right in front of the boys’ cabin. When we got to

the cabin, I changed into my day clothes and so did everyone else. We walked toward camp. “Holy cow! I just realized something! We have to have a baseball team set up by Sunday!” “Don’t include me,” Laura said sadly. “I’d just be a drag to the team.” “That’s not true,” Chloe told her. “You’d make a great cheerleader. Why don’t you organize a squad?” Laura’s face lit up. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” She wondered out loud. “Claire, we’ll be an excellent cheer squad!” “Everyone else…?” I asked. “I’m in,” Mirada agreed. “I can run way fast since I started soccer.” “I’ll do it,” Chloe volunteered. “I’m no baseball expert, but I can totally be the team captain. I have great organizational skills.” “I’m pretty good at catching the ball. Maybe outfield could be for me,” Olivia offered after a moment. “Awesome! We’re gonna have to work hard if we’re going to have a team ready by Sunday, though,” I told them. “We can do it,” Miranda said. “We have access to all the girls, so those boys can’t snatch up the best players.” “WOW!” Olivia said, suddenly. “Miranda…did you just say something . . . optimistic?!” Miranda grinned. I guess I did,” She answered. Our little pessimist is all grown. . . out of it, I thought, thanks to some detective skills. *

*

*

“Oh. My. Gosh. What was I thinking?!” I asked myself out loud. It was that afternoon and I was pacing at the baseball field. “How the heck am I going to organize a baseball team by tomorrow?” I was seriously nervous. Everyone who I had asked to join said that they’d rather be on the squad. If I could only organize a baseball team, team spirit would be a snap, I thought. Laura was a fantastic cheerleader captain. Chloe had managed to convince a few

girls, but we needed enough to play the outfield and have a few extras. So far, we had seven. “Seven people! SEVEN PEOPLE! How do I go from seven to, um, however many you need?!” “Relax, Claire,” Miranda told me. She had decided against cracking the case so she could help us win the baseball game. “You need nine people to play baseball.” “Just nine? Are you sure?” “Absolutely. Chloe says she could find three or four more people in a heartbeat.” I sighed of relief. “I hope she’s right,” I told Miranda. “She is.” I felt better. “Hey, Miranda. Let’s get everyone who’s helping to practice. We have this baseball field all to ourselves until Sunday morning.” She nodded and we went to knock on all the doors. *

*

*

It was Saturday, right before lunch, and I could tell that we were in trouble. About half the team had no idea how to do ANYTHING. (Well, maybe I’m exaggerating.) I, Miranda, and the huge girl from Olivia’s cabin with a mohawk were the only ones who were really good. The remaining seven were going to need some work. (Chloe wasn’t actually playing the game.) Actually, everyone was fine when we were batting except for Olivia, who would close her eyes when she batted. The outfield was the problem. Most girls couldn’t throw and some couldn’t catch. Some of them were pretty good, but were thrown off by the cheerleaders. By lunchtime, I saw some improvements, but just barely. I decided I was going to have to rub off on them. Lunch was Uncrustables PB&J, baby carrots and Coke since the cook was off for the weekend and Patty was in charge of food. Patty made some announcements. “Hello, everyone! I have some important announcements to make!”

Like you ever talk to us when you don’t, I thought, grumpy because of the baseball thing. “First of all, tomorrow at 1 o’clock PM there will be a boys vs. girls’ baseball showdown. My nephew, David, told me that there is a bet involved. I won’t reveal it, but that leads me to my second piece of news: after the game, we will watch a movie and any videos that the campers are willing to show.” My stomach did a flip-flop. So THAT was how David was planning on showing the footage! And now, I thought, the whole camp will be there to see us fail, if we do. I felt a little queasy. “Finally, our last piece of news,” Patty announced. “Next Sunday, the last day of camp, we will celebrate the Midsummer’s night dance.” I stopped listening, because, although my usual instinct is to forget about all contact with male creatures, my first thought was, aw, man…no way ANYONE will ask me to the dance. I wish…I stopped myself before I finished that sentence and immediately concentrated on Patty to avoid the thought. I took a gigantic sip of Coke. When lunch was over, all the girls went to the baseball field to work on our baseball. The first thing Chloe said was, “Okay. We need to work on our catching. Everyone find a partner and throw the ball back and forth.” After she was done demonstrating how to throw overhand and how far away to stand, we let that go on for about fifteen minutes before we picked out three girls to work on it for awhile while everyone else worked on aiming, and then throwing the ball. I had to admit, Chloe was doing a fantastic job at teaching this game to the girls, but I was being a worrywart. I was so nervous that out team wouldn’t have a chance that I started to look at all the flaws. Anna can’t catch a pop fly. Penelope can just barely get the ball to home base. Only three girls can aim well. I let myself go on and on until I realized that I was turning into Old Miranda and stopped letting myself think about anything but how I could make myself better. We named our team, “Vipers”. Apparently that’s a good strategy because, by the end of the day, the worst players were trying their best to be

better and the least exited people were glowing with anticipation. I considered this day a success and I was convinced that we would have a fairly good shot at winning the next day.

Chapter 8 Play Ball The next morning, I slept in. The alarm clock sounded, but I barely noticed. I slept right through it. When I woke up, I was thoroughly surprised that I wasn’t tangled in covers.

The calendar reminded me that today was the day that I would either win or lose. The whole camp seeing that video tape was the worst thing I could think of. I dragged myself up for breakfast. Once I had got dressed, I started the walk down to the showers. On my way, I snuck a peak at the ball field. I was relieved to see that David was having some trouble. I could tell he was frustrated. After a minute, I nodded with satisfaction and continued walking toward the showers. Unfortunately, David had claimed the ball park for practicing for the rest of the day, so we had to use some empty space in front of the cabins and two spare balls to practice for about an hour. Then Chloe called a meeting. “Okay, team,” She started out, pacing and studying her clipboard in a professional-looking way. “I’m proud to announce that everyone has improved since we started.” The team started cheering. “Whoo-hoo!” “Yeah!” “That’s right!” Chloe put her finger to her lips and everyone got quiet again. “But we could also use some improvements. We all need to be running faster and throwing harder, but we can overcome that. What I need to ask you guys is, are girls just as able to play baseball as boys are?” Everyone shouted, “YEEES!” “Those boys think that we’re going to bomb. Are they right?” “NOOO!” “Are we going to give up without a fight?” “NO WAY!” “ARE WE GOING TO WIN!?” “YESSS!!” “Who are we?!” “THE VIPERS!” “What are we going to do?!” “WIN!” “Well, in that case, let’s run those dudes right into the ground!” “YEAH!” “Everyone put your hands in.” We all put our hands into the circle.

“ONE! TWO! THREE! VIPERS!” We cheered and chanted our name and the cheerleaders continued the pep rally while everyone ran as fast as they could up and down the hill to make sure that we were fast enough. I smiled at Chloe. “Nice pep rally,” I complimented her. “It’s my calling.” We laughed and started to run up and down the hill like everyone else. Once everyone had stopped running out of exhaustion, me and Chloe passed around bottled waters and “good jobs” By the time we started practicing our aim and throwing, it was fifteen minutes to lunch time. We made two lines and instructed everyone to throw the ball at the cabin twenty feet away until they could hit the bullseye. We did this until lunchtime. I was definitely nervous, but made sure not to show it. I kept my cool all the way through a lunch of delicious pizza. When it was almost time for the game to start, I stopped trying to look cool and chewed on my fingernails, which I only do when I’m nervous. I got all of the girls on the team together. “Okay, guys. We’re playing outfield first. The game starts in two minutes. Although I’m going to be incredibly humiliated if we don’t win, I want everyone to just have fun. Okay?” They looked even more uneasy. “You know what?” I asked. “Why don’t we just make them eat our dust?” “That’s better,” someone shouted. I smiled and decided to leave the pep talks to Chloe. *

*

*

“Play ball!” Someone from the crowds shouted after Patty played the national anthem. The pitcher, Lisa (the mohawk girl), nodded and pitched the ball. Kris missed. “Strike one!” I yelled from shortstop. Lisa pitched again and Kris made it to first base. Paul was up next. “Strike one!” I shouted. He swung again. “Strike two!” Lisa pitched the ball as hard as she could.

“Strike three and you’re out!” I yelled. It was the first inning of the baseball team and I put my game face on. I was without a doubt nervous, because David’s team was pretty good, but by the second inning, I realized that we were, too. It was going to be a close race. *

*

*

By the bottom of the ninth inning, the score was 6-7, in the boy’s favor. There wasn’t anyone at the bases and I was up to bat. David was pitching. I had sweaty palms and I was very, very nervous. If I didn’t make it to third, I was in gigantic hot water. All we need is one more points and the tie goes to the runner. It’s all me. Home run! I gritted my teeth and decided that I was going to hit that ball. “Strike one!” Ouch. “Strike two!” David was starting to smirk and I had to look at him do it. Yikes, I thought. No way am I going to let those boys win by one! I hit the ball as hard as I could. “It’s going…it’s going…it’s in the outfield! Home run!” The Vipers started cheering. I grinned and ran to first. The boys picked up the ball. Second base. They were getting closer! Third base! They were right behind me! I pushed myself and ran as fast as I could. All of a sudden, I was sure I would win. I tripped. “OWWWWW!” I screeched. I didn’t even care that I was out and that the Vipers lost the game. My left foot was throbbing terribly and it HURT. “Ow, ow, ow, ow,” I moaned as I tried to stand up. I couldn’t. “Dudes! She’s hurt!” Someone shouted.

Got that right, I thought. “Help!” I moaned. Suddenly, someone picked me up. I didn’t even try to see who. All I could think about was how bad my ankle hurt. “David! What are you doin’?” Someone shouted. “I’m bringin’ her to the nurse’s office!” David answered. It didn’t even register in my mind WHO was bringing me to the nurse’s office. I didn’t care. I just wanted to not be in pain. I started to cry. “Wow! That must be adrenaline or something!” I heard someone say. Then, I just stopped listening. Luckily, the nurse’s office was close to the baseball field. Soon I found myself lying on a stretcher. Nurse Freidan asked what was wrong. “We were playing baseball and she fell and so I picked her up and carried her here,” David told her all in one breath. “You did?” I asked, surprised in spite of how my ankle felt. “Yeah. I got scared.” “Well, that was brave of you, sonny, and luckily, since she didn’t walk on it to get here and she didn’t pull any ligaments, her twisted ankle might be well by next Sunday,” Nurse Freidan told him, smiling warmly. “You did great bringing her here, by the way.” “Thanks,” David said. Great, I thought. I’ll be feeling well in time for a dance I won’t be invited to. *

*

*

“Claire, it’s very important that you stay off this foot until you can twist it around in a circle.” I didn’t even attempt it. I knew how badly it hurt. It was half an hour later, after they had put a heating pad on my ankle and made sure my parents were o.k. with me staying here. My stomach growled. “How am I supposed to go to my activities?” I asked, even though I knew the answer. “You’re not. But you will need someone to bring you meals and keep you company,” Nurse Freidan told me. “Who?” I asked.

“Well, David volunteered.” “He what?” I asked, dumbfounded. “He said that he doesn’t want to make your friends sacrifice their week since he was responsible for this anyway,” She informed me. Well, I guess that is considerate, I thought, but David? Considerate? What’s going on here? I felt confused. “Now, Patty is going to give you a ride to your cabin,” Nurse Freidan told me, “And David will meet you there.” I was still confused. When I had finally escaped from Patty and was in my cabin, I breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally!” I said out loud, to the empty cabin once I had layed down on my bed, “That lady can talk up a storm!” “Tell me about it,” I heard someone say from the side of the room. I turned my head. It was David. “Oh, yeah,” I said. “I forgot about you.” There was an awkward silence. “Why did you want to keep me company?” I asked. “Because my purpose in life is to annoy you.” “Nice, David.” “Thanks.” Another silence. “So what now?” “I dunno. I’m ‘sposed to do whatever you ask.” I started to smile. “Re-ealy?” I asked, drawing out the word. “Oh boy. I know that smile. Before you make my life miserable, I want to tell you that I threw away the clip yesterday.” “You . . . what?” “Yeah. I thought it was cruel.” “HUH?” He chuckled. “You probably thought I was heartless, huh?” “A little…” I was trying to decode this in my mind. “Then how come…” “Honestly…I don’t know,” David answered my question, as if he could read mind. “Maybe I just wanted to hear you say something nice about me.”

I was too dumbfounded to say anything. I just stared, open-mouthed, at him. “Yeah…I’m pretty amazing,” David told me, laughing. “Cool off, hot shot,” I told him, trying not to laugh. “Hey! I made you smile! Maybe we won’t be miserable!” I couldn’t help not laughing that time. He smiled back at me. This is not torture, like all the other times we’ve had a conversation, I thought. I sighed to myself. He probably just feels bad. He’ll go back to his old obnoxious self soon enough. Too bad. *

*

*

By the time Chloe and Laura got back from the movie, David was still being…uh, cool, I guess. He was a cocky goofball, alright, but…a pretty decent cocky goofball. I might have said I liked him, if he was anyone but David. Because then I’d have to be insane, I thought. All of a sudden, I noticed the huge smiles on their faces. “What’s going on?” I asked. “Oh, please, no,” David asked, suddenly wide-eyed. “Yes,” Chloe told him, grinning. David turned bright pink. “What the heck is going on?!” I asked again. “I’m leaving,” David announced. He went for the door. “You guys tell her.” “Oh, no, you don’t, Lover Boy,” Laura told him. “Oh, yeah, I forgot,” David said, still trying to get by. “It’ll ruin the atmosphere and all that junk.” “That’s right.” “WHAT IS GOING ON?!” I screeched. “I’m not tellin’ her,” David told Laura. “Well, we aren’t either,” Chloe told him, “And believe me; she will not rest until she knows.” I nodded at him in assurance. “I have a choice. Sleeping pills.”

“You guys share a cabin with her!” David said in protest. “You have to spend all day with her.” “Am I the only one who can hear me?” I asked out loud to no one in particular. “Just wait a second, Claire, he’s gonna say it!” He sighed. “Okay…but you guys have to leave.” Laura nodded. “Suits me fine,” She said, and brought Chloe out. “But I want to see what she does,” Chloe whined. “Haven’t you seen any romance movies? You don’t eavesdrop on these things.” Laura pulled her out. “What’s going on? Why are they talking about romance movies? Huh?” “Chill. If you don’t laugh at me, I’ll tell you,” He told me. “I promise.” “Claire…um…well, I might as well get it over with… Claire, you are the prettiest, smartest, and most like-me girl I know- which is saying a lot- and I want you to be my date at the Midsummer’s Night Dance.” As you could imagine, I had no idea what to do. David likes me. What? He was sending those messages. Huh? So many thoughts were running around in my head that just decided to faint. I let my eyes roll back and I fell back onto the bed. “You guys can come in now!” He called. “She fainted, Chloe.” I heard the door opening. “So you didn’t chicken out.” “Nope.” “I just have one question…why on earth would you put that kind of video tape on in front of the whole camp?” “I thought she’d feel like she had to say yes.” “You…you tried to bamboozle me!” I sat up as I said that, deciding that I’d heard enough. “You didn’t faint!” Chloe exclaimed. “Well, the only other sane thing to do was to laugh, and I promised not to.” Just then, the door opened. Miranda and Olivia. They were grinning, too.

“I already told her. Don’t give me grief; I’ll get enough of it from the guys.” David told them. “Nick was hilarious,” Miranda told him. “You wish you saw it, Claire.” “Everyone was all, ‘Ohhh!” Olivia said. “David was all acting cool, but-” “Ha ha,” David said sarcastically. I could tell they were bugging him. “So, yes or no, Claire?” He asked me. “Yes or no what?” “Are you going to…go to the dance? As friends, if you’d like.” He asked shyly. The room got quiet. “Um…” I closed my eyes and fell back on the bed again. “Nice try, Claire,” David said. “I know you didn’t faint.” I sat back up. “I…I’ll…think about it.” “Bo-ring,” He whined, somehow still keeping his cool. Heaven knows I wasn’t. “You’ll live,” I told him. He walked out of the cabin. “Oh. My. Gosh. I need a nap,” I told Olivia. “I would, too,” She answered, walking out of the cabin with Miranda. * * * “Dinner in bed is awesome,” I told Laura. “Don’t change the subject, Claire,” Chloe told me, playfully. “Yeah! Don’t!” Laura told me, seriously. “Oh, come on, you guys!” I complained, giggling. “You can’t make me say yes!” “Yes we can!” Laura assured me. “Say yes! Say yes! Say yes!” “Chill, Laura, why do you care so much?” “Because! The whole CAMP is talking about it. Everyone is going to be watching at the dance.” “And I should care because…?” I asked her, popping a grape into my mouth. Laura sighed at me. “The romantic gene must have passed you by.” “Well, not exactly…just…David? Why me?”

“Love is a strange thing,” Laura sighed, as if it answered my question. “Oh, whatever, Laura, that isn’t why,” Chloe told her, rolling her eyes. “Cupid’s arrow obviously just ran amuck.” I giggled. “Score! But seriously, Claire, it’s easy for a guy like David to hide that kind of thing. He probably wised up after we came to camp. I mean, if he was sane, this would’ve happened a looong time ago.” “Nice one.” “Thanks. So what are you going to say?” “If I say sure will you leave me alone?” “No! Then I’d have to show you haw to do your hair and-” “Laura!” Chloe interrupted. “SHH!” I laughed. “At least you’re honest, Laura.” “Thanks…you meant that as a compliment, right?” “Maybe,” I answered. She grinned. “I can’t believe I have to leave you guys next week,” I told them. “I’ll miss you so much!” “We’ll miss you too. But let’s wait until it’s next week for the good-byes,” Laura told me. “Yes or no?” I thought for a second. “You know what? Bring it on,” I answered. “YES!” Laura exclaimed, high-fiving Chloe. “But you have to chill and not freak out for six days. On Sunday, knock yourself out,” I told Laura. “Aw, man! At least let me start on Saturday!” Chloe was standing behind her, franticly waving her hands around and mouthing, “NO! NO! NO!” “Okay,” I told Laura. Chloe folded her arms and shook her head slowly. “Chloe, you’re a riot,” Laura said, turning around just in time to see the last head shake. I guessed that Laura could see it on my face and didn’t ask. “Am I glad I’m an only child?” I asked. “YES!” They answered simultaneously.

Chapter 9 Princess That night, THE strangest thing happened. I felt sleepy. And I went to sleep. Like a normal person. WITHOUT SLEEPING PILLS! And when the alarm sounded, I woke up groggily, instead of jumping out of the bed. I was ESTATIC! “No more pills for me!” I forgot for a second that my ankle was hurt and jumped up. “OWW!” I jumped back onto the bed. “What’s going on?” Chloe asked whoever was making the noise, me. “No more sleeping pills for me!” “Congratulations! And thanks for being my human alarm clock!” “I always hated those things,” I told her, twisting my ankle around gently. “Ow,” I said quietly. I hopped on one foot to my dresser drawers, got out some comfortable pajamas. Hopping on one foot, I changed in the bathroom and hopped back into my bed. “See ya,” I told Laura and Chloe as they left. “See ya, and tell me everything!” Laura told me. I decided to mess with her. “I don’t kiss and tell,” I answered. Her eyes went wide. “Just kidding,” I said, laughing. She grinned. After they left, I looked around the cabin. Now what? I picked up my diary. Dear Diary, I haven’t told you what’s up lately. We lost by one at the ball game yesterday. I twisted my ankle and DAVID, of all people, carried me all the way to the nurse’s office, maybe out of adrenaline or something, ‘cause I don’t think he could have

normally lifted me up. It was kinda weird, but at the time I didn’t care, because my ankle hurt so bad, or badly, if you want to get technical. I have to stay in bed until my ankle feels better, and guess who’s keeping me company? David Houdini. Yesterday he told me that he threw away the clip of me begging blindfolded for my sleeping pills (the ironic thing is that I don’t need them any more) because he thought it was cruel. I was all like, HUH? It turns out that David is kind of a cool guy when he tries to be and that he has a crush on me and I’m going to go with him to the Midsummer’s Night dance. That just about covers it. Oh, here David is, in the cabin with breakfast so I’m done writing. I closed my diary and sat up. “Hey.” “Hey. Were you writing about me?” “Among other –hey, that’s none of your business!” “I gotta remember that trick…” “Some things never change, huh?” I asked him, mildly ticked off. “Yup.” He gave me the plate of scrambled eggs, toast and an orange. “Thanks.” “You’re welcome.” He looked at me uneasily. “Oh, you want me to answer about the dance now.” He nodded. I chewed on my pencil eraser. Maybe I should say no. This is David, after all. It’s a little weird. After all, everyone in the camp saw that clip but me and David. If I went, people would think it was because I wanted to be famous. Suddenly, another thought popped into my head. Excuses, excuses! The thought caught me by surprise, and since I’m the one who thought it, I knew the answer. “Sure.” “YES!” He jumped up and ran a victory lap around the cabin floor. Then he sat back down on the foot of my bed. “That’s cool.” I laughed. “How can you do that?” “Do what?” “Act like you’re overjoyed and then play hard-to-get?” “It’s how I roll, Pri-Claire.”

“Uh-huh.” “You’re welcome.” I smiled in spite of myself. So much had happened in a few days. “Oh-and you can thank Laura and Chloe for talking me into it. I almost said no, but then Chloe told me that I should act like you weren’t mean to me for the past few years and give you a chance.” “I’ll remember that.” “So what do we do for six days?” “Good question.” We didn’t talk for a second. “Hey, David, can you get me my Walkman and CD case?” “Sure. Where is it?” “On the dresser, in the big box.” David retrieved the Walkman and CD case. “Thanks.” “You’re welcome.” I put a CD in the Walkman. To state the obvious, I didn’t get me perfect fantasy. I changed the song. Drew looks at me, I fakeI changed it again. I went through seven songs before I found one that was, um, appropriate for when I was around, uh, David. I decided that it was rude to listen to music from headphones around other people –funny, I wouldn’t have cared at all a few days ago- and put it up. This is boring, I thought. “This is boring,” David said. I looked at him funny. “What? It is,” He answered himself. “I was just thinking that, is all,” I explained. “Ah,” He said. “You know what? I got a DVD player and some DVDs in my backpack. You want to watch some?” “Sure…but why’d you bring DVDS to camp? Oh, never mind, I don’t care,” I answered myself. He smiled a little and went to get his backpack. A few minutes later, he came back with a book of DVDs and a DVD player he’d got for Christmas. “Okay, do you want to watch Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Season 1 of AFV, SpongeBob the movie-”

“Whatever you want is fine,” I said, feeling a little bit uncomfortable. “SpongeBob it is,” he said. He put the DVD into the DVD player and skipped past the previews. Well, there’s no point in describing everything that happened in six awkward days, so I’ll skip right to Saturday evening, after dinner. * * * “Is your ankle feeling better?” Laura asked. “Yeah, pretty much. I can twist my ankle around without it hurting too much, so I’d better start walking it off,” I answered. I tried for the fourth time that day to walk normally and settled with a slight limp. I went over to where Laura was looking through my wardrobe for something I could wear. (I had put her completely in charge of choosing, since she was totally more exited about how I looked than me.) “You don’t have a SINGLE skirt!” “It’s camp, Laura,” Chloe griped, flipping through a national geographic magazine. “SOMEONE’S grouchy when they don’t get invited to a dance,” Laura teased. “SOMEONE ELSE is grouchy when they can’t wear mascara to a swimming pool,” Chloe teased back, less friendly, lowering the magazine to give her sister a drop-thesubject-and-don’t-mess-with-me look. Laura got the message. “I have a blue jean skirt with built-in blue tights, Claire,” Laura suggested, “How ‘bout it?” “Sure, I like it, but am I really going to wear makeup and stuff for DAVID? It’s not even a real date.” “Yes it is,” Laura answered me. “Boys say that when they think you’ll say no. It’s a real date. At least some lip gloss and blush. It IS a dance.” “Whatever, but I’m not wearing blue eye shadow or nothin’,” I told her. “You won’t. It looks unnatural.” “Makeup itself looks unnatural,” Chloe scoffed. “Be quiet, Clo.” Laura was getting annoyed.

“Whatever.” Chloe rolled her eyes and kept reading. “What’s HER problem?” I whispered. “Se wanted a guy named Pete to ask her out but it didn’t happen. She’s ticked off because he was real rude to her,” Laura whispered back. “Too bad,” I answered. “So, I think that a nice pretty spaghetti strap would look fine, do you have any black or red ones?” Laura asked as if we hadn’t just been talking about Chloe. “I got a black one with a pink design on it,” I answered. “Try on the outfit and I’ll see how you look,” She told me. I tried to walk normally over to the bathroom to change. When I came back out, Laura said I looked great and moved on to hairstyles. “My fanciest hair clip I have is a white flower clip. I think we should try your hair down with it a few times and see what we think.” I stood patiently as Laura brushed my hair, arranged it eight different ways and pondered whether to use my hair over my left shoulder or a designer messy bun. They both looked pretty to me but I just wanted to be done so that I could start writing. Eventually, Chloe stopped being grouchy and suggested my hair on my left shoulder with a hot pink hair band, which I loved. Then, I sat down and tried not to flinch as Laura spent half an hour doing my makeup and taking pictures so I could tell her which one I liked best. “That one,” I said, pointing to one with light pink lip gloss, a teeny bit of blush on my cheekbones, faint eye shadow and no mascara. “So you like a natural look, that’s good,” Laura commented. “It’s very flattering.” She told me to wash my face before and after I use makeup and to use Chapstick on a regular basis, which I already did anyway. By the time the day was over, I had started to not notice my ankle hurting and really appreciate the great job Laura was doing. My ankle hurt slightly, but I started to be so exited about the dance that I completely ignored it and walked normally to my bed, to start my nightly journaling. *

*

*

The following evening, I was all dressed and made up. My ankle was almost completely better and I should’ve been feeling great waiting for David. But I was panicking. My fingernails were sore stubs and all the nail polish Laura had applied an hour ago. A swarm of butterflies- no, forget butterflies –a swarm of crows were having a roundevue in my stomach and I was a nervous wreck. “Chill out, Claire!” Chloe told me, patting me on the back. “I’m nervous,” I answered. “It’ll be fine.” “Should I hide?” “No. It’ll be fine,” She said again. I stayed quiet for a moment. “I feel bad for my mom. She won’t see me on my first date.” “Yes, she will!” Laura got out her Polaroid, the one that prints the picture immediately. “Say ‘Cheese!’” “Cheese!” Flash. “We’ll send the picture with you.” She gave me the picture. “Hey…I look good,” I said out loud. “I’ll say,” I heard a voice. It was David. He slapped his hand over his mouth. “Did I…say that out loud?” I decided to give him a break. “Say what?” “Nothing. Um…I’m here.” “Yeah…you are.” “Is your ankle feeling better?” “Oh my gosh, just go!” Laura nudged me out the door. I smiled weakly at David. “Are you as nervous as I am?” David asked. “ Probably.” We started to walk toward the center, where the dance was. I felt better that he was nervous, weird that I was GOING TO A DANCE (even as friends) WITH DAVID HOUDINI, and a little self-conscious because at least twenty people a minute were staring me and David. I even caught a few people pointing. “Yo, David!” I heard someone call.

I turned around to see a huge guy, a full six inches taller than David, who looked like he was a bully. “Oh, no,” He mumbled. “It’s Cody.” “Who’s he?” “Big jerk. Could you do me a favor and pretend to be my girlfriend?” “Why?” “So he won’t destroy me,” David answered. “I’m already your date. Just say that.” “Hey, Dave, I’m talkin’ to you!” “My name’s David,” He mumbled. “What?” He answered loudly. “I see you got your girl. Musta had to bribe her real good to get her to go out with you!” David looked at the ground. “Yeah, you ain’t cool enough to go with her.” He walked over to me. “You’d be better off with me, Girly.” “I like David. You creep me out. Back off,” I told him. Yeah, that caught him by surprise. “Says who?” “Says my girl,” David stepped in. “You just got turned down, Cody. Live with it.” We were starting to draw a crowd. “Nobody turns me down.” He started to get closer. “Stay away from me,” I told him, backing up. “Yeah, Cody, stop freaking the girl out,” someone said from the crowd. David grabbed my hand and started to back away. “Scared, David?” I wouldn’t have blamed him. Cody was starting to really scare me. “Why don’t you do yourself a favor run away?” “ ’Cause you’re too much a jerk for Claire to deal with alone.” “You feelin’ lucky, shrimp?” “I’m not gonna fight around my girl.” “You won’t fight anywhere.” “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Thank goodness, some kid went and told a counselor that Cody was picking a fight. “What’s going on?” “Cody’s trying to get David into a fist fight,” Another kid yelled from the crowd.

“Is that true?” She asked David. David looked at Cody. Cody was giving him a don’t-you-dare look. “Sure is.” “Come with me.” The counselor led Cody away from me and David. Cody looked over his shoulder and, oooh, if looks could kill… “That was scary. Why’d he do that?” I asked David after Cody was gone. “He’s been picking on me since we first got here. I guess he thought I’d run away and you’d go with him, ‘cause you’d think I was a wimp or something. Or maybe he was just jealous,” David suggested. “Probably going to humiliate you or something.” Maybe I shouldn’t have said yes. This is too much attention. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the camp center. It was reasonably decorated. There were darkly colored balloons and streamers and a refreshment table, and speakers playing songs. Some kids were hanging out at the refreshment table, and a few people were already dancing. I looked at David. I knew that everyone expected us to dance, and I knew how to dance, but, I mean, come ON…I’m eleven. A lot of people were staring. I felt a little uncomfortable. “Let’s wait for a faster one and we can dance like we would if we were listening to regular music,” David suggested. I nodded in agreement. We walked over to the refreshment table. Three songs later, it hadn’t got faster and we knew we had to start dancing or the dance would be over before we knew it. So, I showed David how to dance and after a minute I got used to it. “You guys did good at the baseball game,” David said. “Thanks.” We were quiet for a little bit. “You know what?” I asked after a minute. “What?” “It was kind of fun to do pranks and stuff,” I told him. “A little,” He answered uncertainly. “Maybe we could, like, have a water gun fight or something,” I suggested. “I don’t think that it would be a crime.” “We have to leave camp tomorrow,” David said.

“Really? Tommorow? Has it been three weeks already?” “According to Patty.” “So…my back yard? Monday afternoon?” “You’re on, Claire.” “You’re going down.” “After you…ladies first.” I laughed.

Chapter 10 Some Things Never Change The following day, after I got Laura and Chloe’s email addresses and packed up my stuff, I followed Olivia onto the bus with CAMP LOTS O FUN printed in bold letters on the side. “ ’Bye, guys! I’ll write you as soon as I get home! I promise!” I sat down beside Olivia on the outside seat. David and his friends followed us, sitting behind. “Do you guys want some gum?” Nick got some gum out of his backpack. “Tell me again why they’re not attacking us?” Miranda asked. “It’s slightly creepy.” “Relax. At least try to understand that they come in peace,” I suggested. Nick handed me three pieces of gum. “Don’t do it! It might be pepper gum!” Olivia said. Nick rolled his eyes. “For Pete’s sake, Olivia, I’ll try some first,” I said, putting it into my mouth. My eyes started to water and I spit it back into the wrapper. “NICK!” I protested. He grinned. “I told you so,” Olivia gloated. “Okay, I’m sorry, for real this time. Look,” Nick demonstrated how THIS pack of gum was un-peppered and we all ate some. “I would say thanks if you hadn’t tricked me a second ago,” I told Nick. “Just some friendly pranking, Claire,” David said. “Whatever. I guess you’re right. But I’m gonna make Nick eat any food he offers me from now on.” “Lesson learned,” Nick said. I got out my journal. Dear Diary, Before we came to camp, I’d be totally ENRAGED that Nick fed me some pepper gum, but now that the thing with David is over, it’s not as big a deal. STOP READING, GUYS. “How does she DO that?” David wondered out loud as he sat back down. “Three years of dealing with you guys gives me journalreader-sense,” I told him before going back to writing.

Maybe I was just expecting them to be creeps before. It might have been all in my head. I closed my journal and joined the debate of whether or not pop music is lame. “Pop music is totally not lame and, since we’re at the airport and had the last word, WE WON THE ARGUMENT!” I jumped out with my bags before the boys could protest. Unfortunately for pop music, we got seats right next to each other again and the debate went on. After a little bit, we decided to agree to disagree on that one and watched the movie. Olivia gave me some snacks to pass over to the boys. Nick chewed on a cheese cracker and swallowed, making a face. “Very funny, Claire.” “Gotcha! But for real this time. Look, I’ll eat some myself,” I said as Miranda and Olivia tried to stop laughing. Once they believed me that these snacks were not peppered, they opened the bag and started eating. The plane ride was mostly long and boring, after I reread my magazines and listened to my music again. I would’ve taken a nap, but I wasn’t sleepy and it wasn’t nighttime in Texas –I didn’t want to throw my body off track. I was very, very happy when the PLEASE BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS sign went on. “Yes! We’re finally in Texas!” I exclaimed. “Huh?” Miranda said, looking up from her fourth mystery book in a daze. “We’re in Texas!” It was lunchtime and after the plane landed, we ate the remainder of Olivia’s snacks and waited for our parents to come. It turned out to be my mom. “Sorry, guys, but we’ll have to carpool,” She said, and I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t looking forward to it. “How’s your ankle feeling, sweetie?” “Fine, Mom,” I answered. “Don’t worry about lunch – Olivia shared with everyone.” “Everyone?” Mom asked, raising an eyebrow. “Yes, Mrs. Hoffman, we did not starve. Let’s go, guys,” Nick said, and we started walking toward the parking lot. Mom looked confused but she didn’t say anything. “Boys in the front, girls in the back,” She ordered.

“Hey, can I request a seat by Claire?” David asked. “Ask her,” My mom said absentmindedly. “Sure, why not?” I answered. “I’ll sit in the font with Miranda and Olivia, I guess,” Nick volunteered slightly reluctantly. Mom looked totally confused. When I got in an argument about whether or not I sit in the middle, and won, she seemed a little more relaxed. Then Kris brought up how awesome video games were and of course that started another debate and Kris accidentally gave Nick a warhead when he was expecting a jawbreaker, and everyone laughed. When we finally got home, I declared, “Go get your water guns and meet me in my back yard in five minutes or you’re a one-minute bullseye!” The boys and my friends ran to their houses at full speed. “Claire? Why aren’t you guys…”Mom couldn’t find the right words, so I found them for her. “Killing each other? Turns out David has a crush on me and we all agreed not to fight anymore.” “Well, how about that? DAVID did more to stop the rivalry than six moms altogether did. I TOLD you boys tease you when they like you!” She gloated, as if she knew all along why there was no killing each other. “Mo-om! He didn’t like me until we got to camp and you’re going to make me a HUMAN BULLSEYE!” “Go on.” I ran for my water gun and filled it up at the sink. I ran outside in time to meet my friends and Kris and David. “Nick has thirty seconds,” David said. I counted silently in my head. “Fifteen…fourteen…thirteen…twelve…eleven…ten… nine…eight…seven…” Everyone started counted too. “Six! Five! Four! Three! Two!” Nick ran into the backyard just as we said “ONE!” “I’m here!” Nick shouted. “And the war starts now!” I declared, shooting David in the back. “Hey!” He turned around and soaked my hair. “BONZAII!” Nick yelled, shooting Miranda.

“You’re gonna regret that, Nick!” Olivia shouted, using he humongous gun to soak him from head to hip. (He dodged and shot her back.) Before long, we were shooting people randomly and everyone was soaking wet, partly thanks to Kris, who turned his water gun on and spun around in a circle, soaking everyone within range, which worked until his gun ran out of water, after which we all soaked him at the same time. “I’ll get you for that, David! And Olivia! Just let me fill up my gun!” I grinned. There was no more killing each other, David was my first boyfriend, and the boys were shooting each other with water guns. But I was still Claire, Miranda was still Miranda, and while I was standing here being wise for the end of the story, I got drenched by Nick. “No fair, Nick! I was ending a story with a wise comment! I’ll get you for that!” Yup…some things never change.