Rumors (14 page)

There were some trees nearby, and if I could just get over there, I could be away from everyone. I didn't care
what wild animals I might see. The moon was still glowing so brightly that everything was clearly visible—the grass, the meadow all around me, and the shadows of the trees off in the distance.

It could be worse. It could be worse. I tried to think of something to remind myself that there were worse things than reading a bunch of terrible things that people had said about you.

But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of anything.

There was nothing worse. Nothing.

As soon as I got to the trees, I burst into tears. I'd been holding them in so long. I sank down and sat on the ground, holding my head in my hands. My whole body was shaking as the tears came gushing out.

Was that what they thought of me? Were they only pretending to be nice to me? Snobby rich girl? Very unfriendly? And that comment about my piano playing. That was the one that hurt the most.

My tears felt so hot as I wiped them away. I was never going to stop crying. It felt like I could cry all night long. And tomorrow when the sun came up, I'd still be sitting here, sobbing. The way my heart felt right now, I was sure I was never, ever going to stop feeling this sad.

“Kayla? Is that you?”

It was just a whisper, but it scared me so badly that I literally jumped.

“Kayla, are you out here? It's me—Laurel-Ann.”

I could see her moving slowly toward me through the trees. I'd been crying so hard that now I was making little whimpering sounds, which I couldn't seem to control.

“I'm right here,” I said finally.

“What are you doing out here? Are you okay?” She looked like a silver spirit walking through the moonlight.

I tried to answer her, but my voice didn't work. So I just started crying again.

“I saw you leave, and I was worried about you out here by yourself.” Laurel-Ann sat down beside me under the tree. Her face seemed to be almost glowing. “You're crying. What's wrong?”

Every time I tried to open my mouth to say something, words wouldn't come out. I just sat there with my head resting on my folded arms and my knees drawn up, bawling my eyes out.

“It's okay,” Laurel-Ann said softly. I could feel her hand on my shoulder, and very gently she patted my back. That only made it worse, so I cried even harder.

“It's okay. It's okay,” Laurel-Ann kept saying. For once in her life, she wasn't talking too much. She sat beside me quietly and waited for me to get control of myself.

“I—I s-saw something,” I said finally. My voice was all jerky and sobby sounding. “In the book. Mean things. People had written re-re-really mean things.” I could see the look of surprise on her face. “You were right!” I exclaimed, and then the sobs burst out of me again.

“What do you mean? What did you see?”

I wiped my teary face with both hands. “In the book, people had written these horrible comments. I didn't see them the first time Katherine and Brittany showed it to me.” I let out a really loud sniffle. “But then later, after we'd gone out on our night hike, when we were all telling ghost stories and passing the book around, I saw something.”

“What was it?”'

“Pages at the very back of the book. It said, ‘What do you think of Kayla?' and then there were these really mean comments about me.” I started crying again.

I told her all the things that I'd read in there, and how much it had hurt me to think that people were saying those things about me.

Laurel-Ann gasped when she heard what they'd written. “It really said that?”

“I know I wasn't very friendly at first. But there was a reason! We're moving. My first day of camp was my last day in my old house,” I wailed. “And when camp is over, we'll be moving to a new house in a new state. I don't want to move! But we had to. It was for my mom's job. I hate that I have to change schools. I hate that I'm leaving all my friends behind. I don't want to move! I don't want to move!”

I cried and cried and cried, and the whole time, Laurel-Ann sat there beside me with her arm around my shoulders. I'd never said those words out loud. I had tried not to even think them. But now here they were, exploding out of me.

“I don't mean to be snobby. I really don't. It's not that I think I'm better than everybody else. It's just … what's the point? Why make friends that you'll just have to say good-bye to and then never see again?”

“I'm so sorry,” said Laurel-Ann. “I had no idea that you were going through that right now. I've never had to move. I've lived in the same house my whole life.”

I looked at her. “Is that the way people really see me around here? A snobby rich girl? Am I really that unfriendly?”

“No! Not at all! The only person who thinks that
about you is Katherine. It's her book. She's the one who wrote all those things.”

I shook my head. “It wasn't just Katherine. There were different comments. I—I think Erin and Brittany wrote those things too.”

Laurel-Ann stared at me. “Was there anything about me?”

I made a snuffling noise and nodded. “Yes. There were pages for all four of us—Natasha and Ashlin, too. With terrible things written about all of us.”

Laurel-Ann's face looked so pale with her hair hanging down loose around it. “What did they say about me?” she asked.

“Just, you know, about how you talk so much.” I didn't want to be the one to tell her what I'd read. A couple of sobs escaped me. “I just can't believe they would be so mean!”

Laurel-Ann shook her head. “I can believe it! That's how Katherine is. I know from experience how awful she can be.” She was quiet for a minute, and then she looked at me.

“Do you want me to tell you what Rainbow Trout means?”

I couldn't stop sniffling. “Only if you want to,” I said.

“I will, because I know I can trust you not to tell
everybody else. Here's what happened. Last summer Katherine and I were friends. But then she turned on me. I think it was because she doesn't really have a family. She seemed really jealous of me. Anyway, she got mad at me, and so she put a dead fish in my bed—down at the bottom so my feet would touch it when I got in.”

“Where did she get a dead fish?” I wanted to know.

Laurel-Ann shrugged. “I guess from the lake. Anyway, it scared me so bad that I screamed, and everyone got up to see what was wrong. And Katherine just laughed. She wouldn't apologize, and it made the whole cabin smell like fish, and she teased me for the rest of the summer about what a fishy smell I had. She's still teasing me a whole year later! She just won't let it drop!”

So that was the Rainbow Trout story. I'd finally gotten to hear it.

“That is pretty mean,” I told her. “I can't believe she put a dead fish in your bed.”

“It was so disgusting! It was all slimy and cold and wet! You should've heard how loud I screamed. And every time she says ‘Rainbow Trout' to me, it reminds me of it,” said Laurel-Ann.

I remembered how Katherine had stomped on that pretty purple mushroom I'd stopped to look at. She was
capable of being really horrible when she wanted to be. I wished I'd never taught her how to play “Heart and Soul.”

“It doesn't surprise me that Katherine could be so mean,” I admitted to Laurel-Ann. “But Brittany and Erin? How could they be that way too? They seem so nice.”

Laurel-Ann let out a sigh. “Lots of people are nice to your face. But then they'll say really mean things about you behind your back.” She looked at me. “But they're wrong about you, Kayla. You're not snobby, and you're not unfriendly. And I think you're a wonderful piano player.”

I smiled and wiped the tears away. “You've never even heard me play.”

“Yes, I have. A little bit when I was walking by the lodge. And I think it's great that you're so dedicated and you practice all the time. I always liked that about you. I'm sorry you have to move. That must be really hard. You have every right to be sad about it. I know I would be.”

I couldn't believe it—Laurel-Ann who talked nonstop and never said anything worth hearing was suddenly saying all the right things.

“Maybe we should go back now,” I suggested. I knew
it was really, really late, and after all that crying, I was actually feeling tired now.

“Are you sure you're okay?”

I nodded. “I feel a little better. I just needed to cry.”

“I know,” said Laurel-Ann. “I've never understood why people think it's so terrible to cry. I think it helps to cry when you're sad.”

“It helps to talk to someone too,” I admitted.

“You can always talk to me. About anything. Anytime you're feeling sad. You can wake me up in the middle of the night if you want. I won't mind.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I'm glad you followed me out here.”

Laurel-Ann stood up and gave me a tight squeeze. “Of course! What are friends for?”

“I can't believe it,” said Natasha. “I just can't believe it.”

“It's true. Kayla saw it last night. It's at the very back of Katherine's book. A different page for each one of us. With all these mean comments written about us.” Laurel-Ann was whispering to Natasha and Ashlin, telling them about the discovery I'd made. We'd just finished rolling up all the sleeping bags and putting away the tarps, and we were getting ready to hike back to Pine Haven.

“You actually saw it?” Ashlin asked me.

I nodded. “All the pages about us were at the very back. Like they were trying to hide them. And yesterday when I was reading what they'd written at the front
of the book, it seemed like Brittany suddenly got nervous,” I told them. “She said something like, ‘Oh, don't read that. It's silly,' and then she took the book away from me.”

At first I hadn't wanted to tell everyone else about the book, but now that we were all talking about it together, it was kind of a relief. I didn't feel so singled out. And it was better to know the truth of what they really thought of us. Even if it was painful.

We glanced over at the little group that was gathered around Jerry, laughing and teasing him. They didn't seem to notice that we were watching them.

“What did it say about me?” Ashlin asked me softly.

I didn't really like having to tell them all the mean stuff I'd read, but I knew it would drive them crazy not knowing. I knew what it felt like to have people gossiping about you. “Stuff about how you look like a boy,” I said.

Ashlin tried to cover up her short haircut with her hands. “It was my mom's idea to cut all my hair off before camp! Not mine.” She frowned at all of us. “I'm not getting it cut again for the next six months.”

Then Natasha wanted to know what had been said about her, and Laurel-Ann asked me again to tell her what her page said.

Ashlin's eyes narrowed as she watched the little group hovering around Jerry. “Look at them over there. They're so two-faced.”

Natasha pushed her glasses up on her nose. “I'm just so shocked. What do they have against us? We never did anything to them.”

“It's Katherine,” Laurel-Ann insisted. “It's her book, remember? She probably wrote all the comments.”

I shook my head. “I don't think so. There was a list. Like each one of them had taken a turn and written a comment.”

“Well, I'm sure it was Katherine's idea. She started it. I've been trying to tell you guys, I know her. I know how mean she can be when she really wants to be.”

“Oh, no. I've actually seen it firsthand.” And then I told them the mushroom story. “She did that after she saw how much I liked it. And you should've seen how pleased she was with herself. I'm just glad it wasn't a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest.”

Ashlin let out a little snort. “For real! She probably would've squished it, too.”

I had a sudden flash of Katherine and me sitting on the bench together, playing “Heart and Soul.”

Okay, maybe she was nice that one time. And maybe I did feel sorry for her because of her home life. But
that didn't give her the right to go around putting dead fish in people's beds or writing a bunch of awful things in books.

“We should do something to Katherine. Something embarrassing. Let's try to think of some way to embarrass her in front of Jerry,” Laurel-Ann suggested. “We can't let her get away with this. She needs to learn that she can't go around saying mean things about people.”

“Everybody ready?” asked Rachel. She had her backpack on and was trying to get Jerry's admirers to leave him alone. “Let's move 'em out!”

Katherine was about to put on her backpack when Brittany walked over to her. “Hey, do you have my book, by any chance? I never got it back last night.”

“Oh yeah, I think I do have it,” said Katherine, and then she unzipped her backpack and took out the pink book.