Friends ForNever (7 page)

He hadn't even signed his name. I couldn't wait to hear how his first week of camp had gone so I could give Mom, Paul, and Daddy a full report.

Whitney came back from the showers and went straight to Side B to get dressed. Even though we'd made fun of her, I was still curious about what she wanted us to do to solve Cabin 3's “problems,” so when the bell rang for dinner, we all walked to the dining hall together.

“Whitney, how about telling us your plan now?” said Nicole, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Whitney looked at us. “I think the four of us should set an example. We should make a point of never talking about other people behind their backs.” She looked directly at me in a way that made my blood turn to ice water. “I know I brought up the problems we're having, but I only want to make our cabin the best it can be. Maybe I don't always put things the right way, but I always try to be nice to everyone.”

Sarah looked at me with this totally horrified expression.

Whitney kept going. “The other part of the plan is that we shouldn't make fun of people just because they happen to be talented.
I
would never laugh at Natasha if she told me she'd scored a bull's-eye in riflery. And I wouldn't say mean things about Patty if she mentioned that she was going on a river trip with the canoers.” Whitney's voice cracked when she made that last comment, and I looked away. If she was going to break down, I didn't want to see it.

Sarah, Nic, and I didn't say a word. I could not believe what was happening. I felt like a cockroach. Why didn't Whitney just step on me and put me out of my misery?

“The other part of the plan is that we should be honest with each other. Sarah, if you were doing something that really bothered me, I would find a way to talk to you about it. But I would do everything I could not to hurt your feelings.”

I looked up and saw that Whitney's chin was quivering. Sarah opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. She looked like she'd been struck by lightning.

Whitney let out a long, shuddering sigh. “So that's my plan.”

There was the longest, most humongous silence I'd ever heard in my life. It pressed on us like it weighed five thousand pounds. It felt like a black, hairy, suffocating nightmare.

Somebody say something!
I psychically shouted at Sarah and Nicole. But apparently they couldn't hear me.

We walked into the dining hall and took our seats around Cabin 3's table. Whitney calmly put her napkin in her lap without looking at any of us.

Libby poured bug juice into plastic cups and passed them around the table. “Why is everyone so quiet?”

Everyone else started talking, but Sarah, Nicole, and I kept our mouths shut. Too bad we'd learned that lesson a little too late.

When we walked into Camp Crockett's dining hall, I looked around for Blake. I saw him in the crowd of boys and motioned for him to come to me, but he looked away, pretending not to see me. So I marched across the big empty space between all the Crockett boys and the Pine Haven girls. He tried to duck out of my way, but I grabbed his shirttail.

“Come over here and say hi to me, you little creep.”

“Whoever you are, you're not my type.” He wriggled away from me, and all the boys around him started laughing.

“Blake, I'm warning you. Mom told me to check up on you.”

“Is that your sister? I thought she was just some weird girl,” said the boy next to Blake.

“Yeah, that's my sister. And she is a weird girl.” Blake walked up and stood inches away from me with a really defiant look on his face. His hair looked like he hadn't shampooed it in three days, but he had a clean shirt on at least.

“How's it going? Are you having a good time? Have you made some friends?”

Blake crossed his arms and tried to stare me down. “Good. Yep. And yep.”

“Okay, fine. Just thought I'd say hello.” I walked away, but I could tell by the look on his face that he enjoyed this attention and didn't really want me to go. I'd come back and talk to him later when he wasn't being so obnoxious.

I found Sarah and Nicole in the clump of Pine Haven girls still huddled near the screen doors. I waved my hand in front of Sarah's face because she was staring, unblinking, at a spot on the floor.

“I should be boiled in hot oil. Thrown into shark-infested waters. Drawn and quartered.” She looked up at Nicole and me with a hopeless expression. “What is drawn and quartered, anyway? I hope it's incredibly painful.”

“I'm pretty sure it is. Where's Whitney?” I asked.

Sarah nodded toward the dance floor, and I saw that Whitney was already out there with a boy. “Can you believe how well she dances, considering she has a knife stuck in her back?” asked Sarah.

“Excuse me, but not one person has brought up the fact that Whitney was obviously eavesdropping on us,” said Nicole. “She's not totally innocent in this whole thing.”

“The only thing she's guilty of is wanting everyone in the cabin to get along and to love camp as much as she does,” moaned Sarah.

It made me cringe to think of Whitney just outside the cabin door, listening to everything we said. Had she accidentally overheard us? Or did she stick around, waiting to see if we were going to talk about her after she left? Not that it mattered. What we did was brutal.

Sarah's eyes followed Whitney and her guy. “I can't believe I said those things. I crushed her spirit. Like a grape.” Sarah stomped on the floor suddenly, apparently squishing the grape.

“Honestly, she doesn't look that crushed to me,” said Nicole. “She'll be fine.”

“Stop beating yourself up. We were just as bad as you were,” I told Sarah. I thought about how much I'd enjoyed dissing Whitney. It had felt good, in a sick sort of way. It made me feel like I was part of something—a gossip club.

“The thing is, Whitney
is
annoying,” Nicole hissed. “Everybody thinks so. Maybe it was good for her to hear us saying stuff that we could never say to her face.”

“You're annoying!” Sarah's voice rose with emotion. “Darcy's annoying! I'm annoying! That guy over there in the black ‘Rock Star' T-shirt is annoying!” Sarah pointed at the guy and yelled, “Hey, you! Yeah, I'm talking to you. Wipe that annoying look off your face before I do it for you!” When the poor guy realized Sarah was talking to him, his face turned seven different shades of red before he scooted behind a group of boys.

“Sarah, would you get a grip?” I told her, pulling her away. “Look, um . . . there's a way we can fix this. Let's go apologize to Whitney right now.” I could do it if Sarah and Nic went with me. But I definitely didn't want to face her alone.

Sarah shook her head adamantly. “No. Absolutely not. I will never be able to face her again. I'm going to go live on the moon. That way I'll never accidentally run into her and have to look her in the eye. I deserve a cold, dark, deserted life.”

“This makes no sense to me,” Nicole argued. “I can see why she'd be mad at Darcy and me, but you say mean things to Whitney
all the time
. To her face. She's probably not even mad at you.”

“It's not the same! She expects me to mock her to her face. She doesn't expect me to go behind her back and tell other people that she's driving me crazy! Can't you see the difference?”

“Hi, Ugly.” Blake had snuck up on us, since we were so totally focused on our girl crisis.

“Who is this hobbit?” Sarah snapped. “Shoo! Go find some dwarves to play with!”

“Sarah, this is my little brother, Blake. Have you danced yet, you little dweeb?”

Blake clutched his throat with his hands and made gagging noises. “You think I'd dance with any of you Pink Haven losers?”

“Hi, Blake. Wow, you sure have gotten cute.” Nicole put her arm around Blake's waist. “I'll dance with you, Handsome.”

Blake evaporated into thin air. The next time we saw him, he was on the other side of the dining hall, hiding behind a bunch of boys. He obviously knew them. I was glad to see he was making a few friends.

Now Whitney had stopped dancing, and she was standing with Jordan Abernathy and Molly Chapman. She didn't seem to notice that the three of us were across the dining hall watching her.

“She's probably over there right now, telling them what happened,” Nicole speculated. “I bet she'll try to turn the whole camp against us.”

Sarah shook her head. “If you believe that, you don't know Whitney.” She wrapped her arms around herself, like she was trying to ward off cold weather. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. “Even if I said I was sorry, I still hurt her . . . so
much
. . . I don't think she can ever forgive me. I can't forgive me,” Sarah finished off, her voice just above a whisper.

She walked out the door to the porch, leaving Nicole and me standing there.

Nicole let out a long breath. “Wow. I can't believe the drama!”

“Well, we were hoping for a new project. Maybe this is it. Getting Sarah and Whitney back together again.”

Nicole raised her eyebrow. “You think? I'd say Humpty Dumpty stands a better chance than those two.”

“Sarah, you have to come with us,” I insisted.

“No, thanks. I'm not going to be good company today. I'll see you guys later.”

“Look, Whitney's at her riding lesson, so you wouldn't be going to activities with her now anyway,” I reasoned. “If you come with us, we can talk about this and try to come up with a plan.” Plans. If we'd ever needed a good one, now was the time.

“Okay, fine.” Sarah got up off her bunk and we left together.

“Let's go to Crafts Cabin,” I said. “It'll be easy for us to talk there.” Sarah didn't say anything, just walked along, staring at the ground. She was totally depressed, worse than I'd ever seen her. She wasn't even cracking jokes anymore.

“Oh no, here comes trouble,” said Nicole. I followed her gaze. Mary Claire and her little friend Alyssa had spotted us and were heading in our direction.

“Hi, guys,” I said, walking up to them. Nic had said we wouldn't go looking for Mary Claire, but when we saw her, we'd be nice to her. I was going to hold her to that. I introduced them to Sarah, being careful not to mention the word “stepsister.”

“We're going to crafts. Where are you guys going?” I asked.

“Archery,” said Mary Claire.

“
I'm
going to archery. Spud's just following me.” Alyssa peeked out from under her bangs. “Hey, my shoe's untied.” She stuck a grubby pink high-top sneaker out, and Mary Claire dropped to her knees to tie it for her.

“Double-knot it. Do the other one too while you're down there.”

I glanced at Sarah and Nicole, but they didn't seem to notice what was going on.

If no one else was going to say anything, I would. “Wow, Alyssa. You mean you don't know how to tie your shoes yet? Most kids learn that when they're five.” Maybe if I embarrassed her, she'd stop being so obnoxious.

“I know how. But Spud does it for me. She does all my chores.”

“Fascinating. Well, see ya later,” said Nicole.

I couldn't believe what I'd just heard. “What do you mean, she does all your chores?”

“This girl makes my bed. Does my chores every day. She's not bad to have around. If you can put up with her bad breath.” Alyssa smiled, showing off her oversize teeth. It drove me insane the way she called Mary Claire “this girl,” like she wasn't even there. That was even worse than “Spud.”

I looked at Mary Claire. “You make Alyssa's bed for her? And do her chores for her?” Every morning we all had a chore to do to get the cabin ready for inspection—sweeping, emptying the trash, making sure all the wet towels and swimsuits were hung up. Every cabin had a job chart, and each camper's chore changed from day to day.