Camp Confidential 05 - TTYL (2 page)

Read Camp Confidential 05 - TTYL Online

Authors: Melissa J Morgan

After a few hours of shopping, Natalie’s feet started to hurt, and she could definitely sense the beginnings of a killer sunburn. It hadn’t occurred to her to put on sunscreen for a day of shopping, but they’d been doing a lot of walking outside, and her shoulders were red and felt warm. “Frappuccino break?” she suggested. They were near the south end of Central Park, and she knew that there was a coffee shop just on the other side of the street. “We could go sit in the park and talk. I feel a serious need to give you the full 411 on Simon!”
“I’m actually kind of hungry,” Hannah said. She put down her bags on the sidewalk and reached into her pocket, pulling out her cell phone. “Wow, it’s almost six already! I should probably get home.”
“I can’t believe it’s so late!” Natalie replied. “Why don’t you come to my place? We’ll order in and put aloe on our shoulders. My dad sent me a package of DVDs over the summer that I haven’t watched. What do you say? We’re way overdue for a gossip session!”
Hannah bit her lip and picked up her shopping bags. “I don’t know, Nat. My mom said she wanted me to help with the food shopping, and I promised I wouldn’t be gone too long . . .“ She trailed off and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. ”I’d really better go; I’m going to go catch the subway. I’ll see you later, though—Tuesday for sure! Bye!” Without another word, Hannah headed down the street toward the uptown subway station.
“Don’t you want to split a cab?” Nat called after her, but Hannah didn’t turn around. Natalie walked to the corner and raised her hand to hail a taxi.
Weird
, she thought.
Not like Hannah to pass up movies and takeout.
A yellow cab pulled up next to her and she got in.
Whatever. She’s probably just tired
, she decided. “I’m going to Seventy-ninth and West End,” she told the cab driver. The meter clicked on, and she sat back against the cool, smooth seats, enjoying the air-conditioning. It was good to be back in New York—but it was strange; she had thought seeing Hannah would be more fun.
I’m being crazy
, she decided.
All that fresh air went to my brain. It’s the only explanation. Right?
Jenna
> SATURDAY
Jenna looked over at her brother, who was lying on the couch in their dad’s basement, reading some new comic that he had brought along for the weekend. She sighed loudly, and when he didn’t look up or comment, she sighed again, louder this time. Finally, Adam looked up. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, sounding annoyed.
“I’m so bored, Ad,” Jenna replied, hoping her voice sounded as pitiful as she felt. She could not believe that she was stuck at her dad’s new place on her first Saturday night back from camp—in a town where she didn’t know anyone but her two brothers and her sister, and where there was absolutely nothing to do.
The night before hadn’t been bad; it had been two months since the four kids had been all together, and it was great to see their dad. They had stayed up really late (later than their mom ever would have let them) and watched talk shows and the late movie and told their dad all about camp. And then they’d slept in the next morning, which had been great after getting up at the crack of dawn all summer. But then as Saturday had rolled on, Jenna found herself wanting to die from boredom.
“Why don’t you watch TV?” Adam suggested. He rolled over onto his stomach and looked back down at his comic book.
Jenna sighed for a third time. “Adam, you know Dad doesn’t have the cable hooked up yet.”
“So? Watch network,” Adam said. “You’ve been at camp. Just pretend you’re still roughing it.”
“It’s Saturday night!” Jenna cried. “There’s nothing
on
network.
Nothing
. Maybe, like, some Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. Anyway, I don’t feel like watching TV. We’ve been staring at that screen all day.” She knew she had a point there. After breakfast, their dad had insisted on taking them to Blockbuster, where they’d rented more movies than they could ever watch in a weekend. Even a weekend in a boring town where they didn’t know anyone and where there wasn’t anything to do.
The five of them had watched one movie, but then Steph and Matt had escaped to the mall, and Dad had gone upstairs to do some more unpacking and decorating.
That had been seven hours ago. Jenna and Adam hadn’t left the basement since. They’d watched another movie, checked out every single website they knew, and finally, Adam had retreated to the couch with his comic book. At around one, their dad had brought down a piping hot pizza he’d ordered, plus a two-liter bottle of soda. They weren’t in the mood for pizza because their mom had taken them out for pizza the night before, but they didn’t want to hurt their dad’s feelings. So they ate and talked for half an hour or so, and then interminable boredom had set in when their dad went upstairs to clean. Three hours later, they had completely run out of things to do.
Just thinking about how bored she was made Jenna feel worse. “Adddaaaaam,” Jenna whined. “Can’t we, like, play cards or something?”
Adam looked over his comic at her. “If Dad has cards, they’re not unpacked,” he said. “We’ve ransacked this place. Come on, just check your e-mail or something.”
“I already did. When did Steph and Matt say they were coming home? Maybe they’ll take us out.”
Adam snorted. “To where, pizza and a movie?”
Jenna flopped onto the floor. “And I’m supposed to be the joker,” she said. She sighed. “Even just driving around would be better than this.”
Just then, a car pulled up. Jumping up and clapping her hands together, Jenna shouted, “Thank God! They’re back!” Adam didn’t respond but just rolled back over onto his back.
Jenna ran up the stairs two at a time. “Steph! Matt!” she called excitedly. “Do you guys want to—” When she reached the living room, she stopped. The door was wide open, but looming inside the entrance was a guy who was definitely not one of her siblings. It was a delivery guy, with a bag overflowing with Chinese takeout in one hand and a two-liter bottle of soda in a plastic bag in the other.
“Look, Jen!” her dad said, beaming. “I ordered us takeout!” He handed some folded cash to the delivery guy, who shoved the money in his pocket, turned, and left. Jenna’s dad swung the door closed and carried the food into the kitchen. Jenna followed and sank into a kitchen chair while her dad opened cabinets, taking down plates and glasses.
“And,” her dad said, looking excited, “open up the freezer! There’s a surprise in there, too!”
Jenna sighed and got up. When she opened the freezer, she gasped—it was absolutely chock-full of tons of different flavors of ice cream! Her dad laughed out loud. “I figured you probably didn’t get much ice cream at camp,” he said. “So I thought I’d make up for it.”
“Wow, Dad,” Jenna said slowly. “You certainly did.” She sat back down at the table. “But . . . I mean, we did have takeout for lunch,” she went on. “And we went out for dinner last night. Mom took us.” Her dad put the plates down on the table, and then slipped into a chair, looking dejected. She could tell she’d hurt her dad’s feelings, even though she hadn’t meant to. “But this smells delicious,” Jenna said quickly, trying to make him feel better. She opened a box and dumped a pile of lo mein onto her plate, then picked up chopsticks and dug in. “Seriously, it’s great,” she said, slurping up a noodle.
Her dad looked up hopefully. “I was thinking after dinner, we could get out the Scrabble board and play,” he said. “You and me, and Adam if he wants to. What do you say?”
“That sounds great,” Jenna responded, thinking,
Anything’s better than another movie.
Her dad reached out and fluffed her hair. “Great, kiddo,” he said. “Why don’t you run and get Adam for dinner?”
On her way down to the basement, Jenna heard a car pulling into the driveway. “Are they back?” Adam called up to her, hearing her footsteps on the stairs.
“I think so,” Jenna said, walking over to sit next to him. “Listen, Ad . . . we’re having takeout for dinner again. That car we heard before was the delivery guy.”
Adam looked at her in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?” he said, putting down his comic book. “That’s like, three meals in a row. I thought Dad would maybe grill hamburgers or something.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jenna said. She rolled her eyes. “He’s like, trying to be Superdad. How much do you want to bet he tries to take us to the zoo or something tomorrow?”
“Seriously,” her brother said, sitting up. “On the other hand, though, Mom hardly ever lets us eat restaurant food every night. Maybe this’ll be nice—kind of break up the monotony of Mom’s chicken and rice, chicken and noodles, chicken and potatoes . . .“ Jenna laughed. ” Chicken with asparagus . . .“ Adam went on.
Jenna picked up a couch pillow and whacked him with it. “Come on, loser,” she said. “Let’s go eat. And then I’ll kick your butt at Scrabble.”
“I can hardly wait,” Adam said dryly. He got up off the couch and Jenna followed him upstairs to the kitchen, where Steph and Matt were regaling their dad with tales from their long day at the mall.
Looking at the Chinese takeout boxes, Jenna suddenly had no appetite. “I think I’m gonna go to bed, Dad,” she said.
“Why, peanut?” he asked, looking concerned. “You feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just tired,” she said. “Long day, and all.” She walked out of the room.
“What about Scrabble?” her dad called after her. She stopped and turned back to him.
“Maybe tomorrow?” she said. “I’m really tired.”
Her dad got up and crossed the kitchen to where she stood, her arms crossed over her chest. “Really, Jen, are you feeling all right?” he asked.
“Seriously, Dad, I’m fine,” she snapped.
“Okay,” he replied. “But if anything’s wrong . . .”
“Nothing’s wrong. I just want to go to bed.” She walked away, even though she could tell her dad was still standing there.
In the bedroom that she was sharing with Steph, she lay down on her bed. After a few minutes, Steph walked in. “What’s up with you?” her sister asked accusingly.
“Nothing,” Jenna replied. “I’m just tired.”
“Look, Jen, I’m sure you had a boring day today. And don’t think it’s escaped me that this is the third meal of takeout we’ve had in the last two days. But don’t be so hard on Dad. He’s having a rough time right now.”
“Aren’t you bored too, Steph?” Jenna asked, sitting up on the bed.
“Yes. I totally am. Do you know what I did today?”
“No,” Jenna admitted. She looked up at her sister. “What did you do?”
“I went to the mall with Matt, who just wanted to ditch me and go hang out at the Discovery store or something. So I went to Barnes and Noble and read magazines. Like
all
the magazines. I was starting on
Outdoor Living
when Matt finally came and asked if we could go home.”
“Oh,” Jenna said. “I guess it was a pretty blah day for everyone.”
“Yeah, it was. Now, can you come eat dinner and play Scrabble with us?” Steph said, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently. “Seriously. Dad really wants to.”
Jenna got up. “Yeah, all right,” she said.
The two girls walked to the living room, where Adam had set up a card table and was placing chairs around it. Their dad walked out of the kitchen with a huge bowl of popcorn. Catching Jenna’s eye, he smiled. “Nobody wanted dinner,” he said. “Guess we just have to eat ice cream and popcorn.”
Jenna smiled. She had to admit, that didn’t sound too bad.
SUNDAY
In the morning, Jenna woke up before her sister and brothers and wandered out to the kitchen. She was hoping to catch her dad alone to ask him if they could go back home a little earlier than planned, just so she could meet up with friends or get some shopping done before school started. She wanted to get things ready for school after being away all summer.
But she stopped short in the doorway: Her dad was sitting at the table, but he had his head in his hands and his shoulders were shaking. At first, Jenna thought he was laughing—but then she realized that her dad was crying. She tried to back quietly away, but he looked up suddenly.
“Jenna! Good morning, sunshine!” he said, trying to act like nothing was wrong and quickly brushing a stray tear from his face.

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