Camp Confidential 05 - TTYL (7 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

As she walked toward the curb to hail a cab, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Wait up, Natalie,” Kyle said. He looked down at his feet. “Tell me the truth. Do you have another boyfriend?”
Natalie felt very confused. Why was this so hard? “I don’t have any boyfriend, Kyle,” she said. Technically, at least, it
was
the truth.
“Okay,” Kyle said, smiling tentatively. “I just wanted to make sure. Because . . . well . . .”
A cab stopped at the corner and Kyle escorted Natalie into it. Just like that, all thoughts of Simon—and Hannah—were gone. The butterflies were back. As the cab whizzed toward her building, Natalie realized that Kyle had never finished his sentence. But that was just fine. He didn’t have to.
chapter
FOUR
Jenna
> SUNDAY
Jenna slammed shut the passenger door of her dad’s car and started to trudge up the sidewalk to her mom’s house. Adam and Stephanie lagged behind, carrying their bags and shouting good-byes to their father as he pulled out of the driveway.
Opening the front door and tossing her duffel bag down onto the floor, Jenna felt exhausted. It wasn’t like her weekend had tired her out—just like last weekend, she’d watched a bunch of movies and eaten a lot of junk food. She’d done her homework, and spent tons of time online. Her dad had even let her order a cute new pair of shoes she’d found. But none of it had been tiring. She was just tired, already, after only two weeks of being shuttled back and forth between her mom and dad. And she was tired of her dad trying to make up for the divorce by being Superdad, and tired of getting used to a new house.
Jenna’s mom walked out of the kitchen and gave her a hug. “Welcome back, sweetie!” she said. She hugged Adam and Stephanie, too. “Bring your stuff up to your rooms, kiddos,” she went on. “Steph, I wrote down some phone messages for you, and Jenna, Nicole called last night. She said you didn’t have to call her back.”
“Do you know what she wanted?” Jenna asked, reaching down to take hold of the strap of her bag. She hefted it onto her shoulder.
“No, honey, she didn’t say,” her mom replied.
“Okay, thanks,” Jenna said. She followed Adam and Stephanie up the stairs and went into her room.
She put her bag down on her bed and slowly started to unpack it, lifting out the folded shirts and jeans that were inside. Once she was unpacked, she slid the duffel under her bed and crossed the room to sit at her desk. She picked up the phone, but Stephanie was on the extension in her room. “Steph?” Jenna asked tentatively. “Are you going to be on long? I have to call Nicole.”
“Just a couple of minutes,” Stephanie said. “I’ll knock on your door when I’m done. Or you can use Mom’s line.”
“It’s okay, I’ll wait,” Jenna said, and set down the receiver. She turned on her computer, which always took a while to start up, so she paced around her room for a moment. There was a knock on her door, and Steph walked in, quietly closing the door behind her.
“I missed so many parties this weekend,” Stephanie said, sighing as she flopped down onto Jenna’s bed. She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. “Jen, I’m sick of going to Dad’s.”
“Me too,” Jenna confided, sitting down next to her big sister and slumping down with her head in her hands. “I made plans with Nicole to hang out tonight, but we didn’t get back in time . . . I was supposed to call her at seven, and it’s almost nine thirty.”
Stephanie made a sympathetic cluck. “That really stinks, Jenna,” she said. She straightened up suddenly. “Hey, maybe if we ask Mom, we can stay home next weekend!”
Jenna sat up. “Really?” she asked. “Do you think she’d go for it?”
Stephanie shrugged. “Maybe,” she said. “It’s definitely worth a shot. We’ll just explain that we haven’t felt very settled in—we just got back from camp and we’ve had to be shuttled all over the place. I bet she won’t care.”
“Okay!” Jenna exclaimed hopefully. “Can we go ask her now?”
“Definitely,” Steph agreed. She paused. “The only thing, though, is that I don’t want to hurt Dad’s feelings. So we can’t try to get out of going to his place every weekend. Just this once.”
“Just this once,” Jenna repeated. She smiled. “Let’s go talk to Mom.”
They walked down the hallway to their mother’s room and Steph rapped gently on the door. “Mom?” she called quietly. “Can we come in?”
“Sure, Steph,” their mom’s voice came through the door.
Stephanie pushed the door open. Their mother was lying in bed, reading a book. She slid a piece of paper into the book to mark her spot, and rested it on the bed next to her. Jenna and Stephanie sat down on the foot of the bed. “Mom, we . . .” Jenna looked at Steph for support. Her big sister nodded encouragingly. “We have something to ask,” Jenna went on.
“What’s up?” her mom asked.
“Well, Mom,” Steph began, “we were wondering if we could stay home next weekend, instead of going to Dad’s.”
Their mother frowned. “Why?” she asked, sitting up. “Are you guys not having fun with your father?”
“No, it’s not that,” Jenna said slowly. “It’s just that we just got back from camp, and we had to go straight to school, and I was supposed to—”
“We’re just feeling like we haven’t had time to adjust to being home,” Stephanie said, interrupting Jenna. She threw Jenna a look. “It’s just that.”
Their mom looked concerned. “Well, I’m sorry, girls, but I can’t make that decision. You know very well that it’s been hard for your dad to move away from you, and it wouldn’t be fair if I called him and told him you weren’t coming for the weekend. He looks forward to his time with you. I know if the situation were reversed, there’s no way I’d give up a minute with you kids. I’m sorry, but for now at least, you’re spending weekends at your dad’s. You’ll readjust, I know you will. I know it’s hard.”
Jenna and Steph looked at each other. “But, Mom,” Jenna began.
“Honey, I’m very sorry that this is the way things are,” her mom said, cutting her off. “And your dad is too. But this is just how it has to be right now.” She picked up her book and opened it to the page she’d marked, signaling the end of their conversation.
Jenna sighed. “Fine,” she muttered. She slid off the foot of the bed and stomped out, not waiting to see how Stephanie would take the news.
When she arrived at school the next morning and was shoving her things into her locker, Nicole walked up to her. “What happened to you last night?” Nicole asked.
Jenna rolled her eyes. “Dad made us go out to eat, so we were late getting home,” she replied. “I was going to call you, but Steph was on the phone.”
“Oh,” Nicole said, twirling a strand of hair between her fingers. “I wish you hadn’t been gone this weekend—I ended up having the most awesome party at my place on Saturday night. Everybody—everybody—was there! It was really fun.”
“You had a party?” Jenna exclaimed, closing her locker and turning to face her friend. “Why didn’t you tell me on Friday?”
“It was sort of a last-minute thing,” Nicole said nonchalantly. She reached into her bag and pulled out a pack of gum. “Want some?” she asked, offering the pack to Jenna.
“Sure,” Jenna said, reaching for a stick. “Thanks.”
“So anyway,” Nicole went on, taking out a stick of gum for herself and unwrapping it, “it was really cool. I had, like, fifteen people over and we watched movies and stuff. Like I said, I wish you could’ve been there. I called your house thinking maybe you’d decided to stay home from your dad’s, but your mom said you were gone.”
“Yeah,” Jenna said sadly. “I was gone.”
“Are you going to be around this weekend, you think?” Nicole asked. She hefted her backpack onto her shoulder. “Because I was thinking about having another party!”
Jenna sighed. “I don’t know,” she said. “My mom said I had to go to my dad’s, but I really don’t want to. It’s boring there! So . . . I guess I’ll let you know later this week.”
“Cool,” Nicole said with a laugh. “I really wish you could’ve come on Saturday, so I hope you’re around this weekend! I’ve got to get to homeroom—see ya!”
“Bye,” Jenna responded. She turned and walked toward her class, thinking,
It isn’t fair at all. My parents are the ones who split up—why am I the one who’s suffering?
At lunch, Jenna slid onto a bench next to Nicole. She unwrapped her sandwich slowly, and took a bite of the bologna on wheat toast with mustard—her favorite.
“Everybody’s talking about your party,” she said.
“Yeah, I know,” Nicole said. She bit her lip. “Jen, I really wish you could’ve been there. Why don’t you ask if you can stay home this weekend?”
Jenna sighed and looked down at her sandwich. “Nicole, I really want to. I asked my mom last night if I could stay home next weekend and she said no. She said I just have to get used to this, basically.”
Nicole sighed. “Well, maybe she’ll change her mind,” she said consolingly. “Over here!” she called suddenly. Jenna looked up to see her friend motioning to a group of girls who had just walked into the cafeteria. Molly, Veronica, and Lisa strolled over and set their lunch bags down on the table. “What’s up, guys?” Nicole said excitedly.
“Oh my God, Nic . . .” Molly said. “You know how I was talking to Brad at the party?”
“Yeah?” Nicole prompted, her voice lowered.
“Well, he came up to me at my locker today!” Molly exclaimed.
“Awesome!” Nicole replied. “What did he say?”
“He asked if I was going to go to your house again next weekend,” Molly said. “Do you think you’ll have another party?”
“Um, why not?” Nicole said. “Saturday night.”
“Awesome!” Veronica shrieked. “Are you going to come this time, Jenna?”
Jenna looked down at her half-eaten sandwich. “I have to go to my dad’s,” she said. “I don’t think I can go.”
“That stinks!” Lisa said. “Nicole’s parties are super fun.”
“That’s what I hear,” Jenna mumbled.
“Can’t you, like, fake sick or something?” Nicole said. Her face lit up. “You know, you could pretend like you were sick on Friday, and then you wouldn’t have to go to your dad’s, and then if you told you, mom you were feeling better on Saturday, you could come!”
Jenna thought about it. That just might work! “Maybe . . .” she said tentatively. “I mean, it seems like that might work. . . .” She had
promised
her parents no more pranks. But this wouldn’t be quite a prank . . . would it?
“You definitely should do it,” Lisa agreed.
The bell rang then, and the girls got up. “You should start faking sick a little bit now,” Nicole suggested as they walked toward their lockers. “That way nobody will suspect when Friday rolls around . . . and you just don’t feel so good. . . .” She pantomimed rubbing her belly in pain and rolled her eyes, pressing her hand to her forehead.
Jenna laughed. “I don’t know,” she said. “Seems pretty risky . . . but it might be worth it.”
Alex
> MONDAY
The bell for fifth period rang and Alex hurried to get to her class, pushing past people in her effort to make it to English on time. When she was nearing the classroom, her friend Lucy came running up to her. She grabbed Alex’s arm. “Alex, I just heard that they posted the soccer teams!” she said, out of breath. “Let’s go look!”

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