Rumors (8 page)

Shelby's friend Claudia appeared first. They were in a swimming class together that was supposed to train them to be lifeguards.

Then Chris and Devon came in to use Devon's hair straightener, and a few minutes later Brittany, the girl I'd met on the hike the other day, showed up.

It was getting noisy in here with the sounds of the hair dryers, but I'd promised myself I'd try to squeeze in an hour a day. I kept working on Mozart. He had thought of this piece as being for beginners, and in some ways it was, with lots of rippling scales up and down played at an allegro tempo. But Ms. Lerman had warned me not to be fooled by the fact that it was called Sonata facile, which meant easy.

“Wow, you're good,” said Chris, running a brush through her dark, wavy hair.

“Thanks. It's horribly out of tune, though,” I told her.

“Oh, Kayla, did you hear about the hiking trip next week?” Brittany asked me. “It's an overnight. Doesn't that sound cool? We take backpacks and sleeping bags and spend the night outside. Rachel's my counselor. She was telling Erin and me about it.”

“Really?” I asked. “That sounds fun.” My family had never camped out before. Since we'd always lived in cities, we weren't really outdoorsy types. Whenever I saw people camping out on TV, I always wanted to try it.

“Yeah, Erin and I are definitely going. You should too. We'll cook out over a campfire and tell ghost stories and everything!”

“I'll think about it. Thanks for telling me,” I told Brittany. Chris and Devon went back to the cabin to get dressed. Shelby asked me to wait for her while she dried her hair.

“Are you sure you're not mad?” I asked Shelby as we walked back to the cabin together. “I'm really sorry about what happened.”

Shelby shook her head. “No, I don't blame you. It's Boo. I'm going to get her back. Bubonic Boo. Want to help me?”

I shrugged. “I don't know. I'd be happy if she'd learn to keep her mouth shut.”

We changed clothes for the dance, and then it was time for dinner. On the way to the dining hall, I was able to pull Samantha away from her friends for five minutes so I could say hi to her.

“Did you have a good day today?” I asked.

“Yes, but we don't get to go to the dance tonight. It's only for the Middlers and Seniors. Not the Juniors.” She frowned at me with her arms crossed.

“Yeah, how is that fair?” said little redheaded Gracie, standing beside her.

“Sorry, I don't make the rules,” I told them. I did feel bad for Samantha and her friend. But who cared about the dance?

All day I'd been happy thinking about one thing. One whole week was already over. Only three more to go.

You'd think these girls had not seen boys for a year instead of a week. People were dressed up, wearing makeup and jewelry, and they were all so excited. The older girls, the Seniors, were staying at Pine Haven, and the boys their age were coming to them. But the Middlers were shuttled over to Camp Crockett to have our dance inside their dining hall.

When we first got there, the boys barely even noticed that we'd arrived. But already the music was playing, and all the girls were waiting around, whispering and talking together.

Shelby and I were standing together when Laurel-Ann walked up. Tonight she didn't have her hair in braids. Instead she was wearing it down, with a
headband that matched the yellow Abercrombie shirt I'd loaned her.

“Is it okay if I hang out with y'all tonight?” she asked us. “It's sort of embarrassing to wait for a boy to ask you to dance. You're all by yourself, and the boys are probably thinking, ‘What's wrong with her, anyway? Doesn't she have any friends? I don't want to dance with some loser.'”

“We don't have to wait for boys to ask us to dance. We can dance anytime we feel like it,” Shelby told her. “The point is to have fun.” She looked at me. “Kayla, I can tell you like to dance. Let's go. Why stand here waiting?”

“How can you tell I like to dance?” I asked.

Shelby laughed. “Because you're bouncing to the beat. Come on! Laurel-Ann, you too. I dare you!”

Shelby moved out among the dancers. “I love this song! How can anyone stand still when they hear it?”

I was so relieved that Shelby hadn't stayed mad at me. And it was nice to see her having a good time. She needed to have fun whenever she could. So I smiled at Laurel-Ann. “Let's go. It is a dance, you know.” I weaved through the people who were just standing around, being boring.

“Woo-hoo!” Shelby shouted at me. “Can you play music like this on the piano?”

“Yes!” I said with a laugh. “This is easier to play than Mozart!”

There were lots of boys still lined up on one side of the dining hall, and across from them on the opposite side, all the Pine Haven girls were huddled together. About thirty or forty people were dancing in the middle. The counselors were just watching us all and laughing. They seemed to find us really entertaining.

Laurel-Ann was swaying a little back and forth to the music, but she kept looking all around the big dining hall. “Are you sure we don't look stupid?” she asked.

That made Shelby laugh, because Laurel-Ann did look kind of silly. “You're supposed to dance like you don't care how you look,” she told her. “Wow, look at Lauren. Do you see her? The girl with the really blond hair? She's in my swimming class, and she's such a good dancer. I wish I could dance that well.”

“You're a good dancer too,” I said. For once, it was kind of fun to have friends to hang out with.

“I think people are laughing at us,” said Laurel-Ann. She kept looking over her shoulder every five minutes.

“Laurel-Ann, believe me! Nobody's laughing at us,” Shelby insisted.

“Are you thirsty? I'll get us some punch. Don't move
too far away or I won't be able to find you again,” said Laurel-Ann, walking off through the crowd.

Shelby laughed. “She's such a goof! Have you ever heard anybody talk as much as she does?”

I shook my head. “I know! But she's still pretty nice.”

A few minutes later, Laurel-Ann appeared, holding a paper cup in each hand. “Here, I got you some drinks. But you have to come with me. I've got to talk to you about something really, really important.”

So Shelby and I followed her through the crowd to the edge of the dance floor. Shelby gulped down her drink while I took a couple of sips. It was the fruit punch drink they called “bug juice.” Camp definitely had its own vocabulary for everything.

“What's wrong?” I asked.

Laurel-Ann shook her head. “This isn't a good place to talk. Let's go out on the porch.”

She kept glancing around as if she was some kind of spy on a mission. So we all went out on the porch so she could tell us what was going on.

The porch was pretty crowded with people too. Lots of counselors from both camps were hanging out here and talking. But at least there wasn't music playing, so it was a little easier to hear each other.

“Okay, this is better,” said Laurel-Ann, talking in a
low voice. “You'll never guess what happened when I went to get the drinks.”

“You bumped into a boy, and when your eyes met, he said, ‘Where have you been all my life?'” Shelby guessed. She was fidgeting, and I could tell she just wanted to get back inside.

“I wish! That didn't happen. I was at the table where all the refreshments are, and this girl came up to me and said, ‘You and your friends think you look so cool, but you don't. It's so embarrassing that no boys will dance with you.'” Laurel-Ann paused and waited for this news to sink in. “Can you believe she said that?”

Shelby made a face. “Who cares? Who cares what other people say?” she said, but I could tell by the way she was frowning that it sort of bothered her.

It bothered me, too. Was that all girls did around here—talk about each other? I was getting really sick of this. I pictured every girl in camp with a big piece of duct tape across her mouth to solve this problem.

“Which girl? Point her out to us.” I wondered if it was one of the girls at the lake that day, asking for my autograph.

Laurel-Ann sucked in her breath. “Why? What are you going to do to her?”

“We'll shove this paper cup in her mouth like this,”
said Shelby. She opened her mouth wide and sucked on the rim of her empty cup. Then she looked back and forth at Laurel-Ann and me. The paper cup was sticking out of her mouth like a giant white plug.

I couldn't keep from laughing over that, but Laurel-Ann looked worried. “You're not really going to do that, are you?”

“Well, probably not,” I told her. “I can't believe how bad these Pine Haven girls are with talking about each other behind their backs.”

Shelby pulled the cup out of her mouth. “I know! I'm surprised it wasn't Bubonic Boo who was talking about us, right, Kayla?”

“Bubonic Boo?” asked Laurel-Ann. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“That's Boo's new nickname, because she's spreading rumors around as fast as the plague,” Shelby explained. “Lots of people have been her victims lately. But it's okay. We're plotting some way to get back at her.”

Laurel-Ann gasped out loud. “Really? What are you going to do to her?”

Shelby chewed on the rim of her cup and looked thoughtful. “We don't know yet. But we're going to do something to her. You want in on it?”

Laurel-Ann's eyes grew three sizes, and she nodded
her head furiously. “Yes. Boo can't stand me. She's always saying mean things to me.”

“Let's talk about this later,” I suggested. “There are too many people around. I think we should go back inside.”

“Okay,” agreed Shelby. “And if we look silly dancing by ourselves, I'll just ask a boy to dance.” She gave me a quick look. “I'll do it if you do.”

“Maybe,” I said.

“I don't think I'm going to dance for a while,” said Laurel-Ann. “You two can go without me.”

“Oh, come on,” Shelby said. “Don't let other people stop you from having fun.”

Just then a girl walked up to the three of us. “Hey, Rainbow Trout! I hear the fish are biting!” Laurel-Ann's face turned flaming red, and the girl let out an annoying laugh when she saw that. “What's the matter, Rainbow Trout? Did I embarrass you?”

She had long, stringy hair that she obviously hadn't even bothered to brush. It was tucked behind her ears, which made them look bigger than they probably were. And she was dressed in old, faded jeans and a baggy T-shirt. I'd seen her around camp all week, but I didn't know her name.

Laurel-Ann didn't answer her. “Let's get out of here,
okay?” she said to Shelby and me, and her voice sounded almost panicked. We followed her through the crowd of dancers.

“See ya later, Rainbow Trout!” the girl yelled after us.

“Who was that?” Shelby asked when we were far enough away.

Laurel-Ann's face was now just a bright shade of pink, but she still looked upset. “She's not somebody you want to know. Her name's Katherine Sperling. She was in my cabin last year.” Laurel-Ann glanced nervously over her shoulder, as if she were afraid that Katherine was about to sneak up behind her.

“Is she the one who was talking about us?” asked Shelby. Her eyes scanned the crowd, keeping a lookout for Katherine.

Laurel-Ann stared at her for a second. At first I thought she wasn't going to answer, but then she said, “Yes! She's the one! What are you going to do to her?”

“We won't do anything to her,” I told Laurel-Ann. “We just wanted to know who was making fun of us.”

“Hey, what did she mean—Rainbow Trout? What was that all about?” Shelby asked.

Laurel-Ann shook her head. “Nothing.” Then she clamped her mouth shut.

Shelby and I exchanged surprised looks. It wasn't
easy to shut Laurel-Ann's mouth, but that question had really done it.

“Oh, come on!” said Shelby with a laugh. “Why are you acting like that? There must be some kind of interesting story. You have to tell us.”

“Never mind. It's nothing!” Laurel-Ann insisted. She refused to even look at us.

“You can tell us,” Shelby assured her. “We promise we won't tell anyone else, right, Kayla?”

I shrugged. “If Laurel-Ann doesn't want to talk about it, we shouldn't force her.”

Laurel-Ann let out a sigh. “Good! Because I don't want to talk about it!”

I had to admit, I was dying of curiosity. Rainbow Trout? That had to mean something. And even though I'd like to think that Shelby and I could keep Laurel-Ann's secret if she told us, I wasn't so sure. Secrets did have a way of slipping out.

And once they were out, you could never seem to get them back again.