Sleepaway Girls (3 page)

“Cole!” Court squealed, hugging him fiercely. “I feel like I haven’t seen you yet. How was your year?”

“How was your year?” was a sentence I’d heard about a billion times already. I’d quickly learned that Pines lifers (as so many counselors call themselves) break their year into two categories: time at camp and time away from camp. Time away from camp seemed to be spent pining for camp, having reunions, or talking to other campers on the Pines MySpace page.

“Great,” Cole said before hugging Grace and Em as well. “How are you guys doing? Who do you have your sights set on this year, Court?”

The rest of us laughed and Court looked at me mysteriously. She pointed to the two of us. “What are you two doing together?” she asked in a way that made me blush.

“We bumped into each other on the way to breakfast,” Cole said smoothly and that seemed to satisfy Court. For the moment.

“So you guys heard the news then,” Grace said breathlessly. “CIT assignments are going up this morning, not this afternoon.”

Cole and I looked at each other. “Uh, yeah,” we both said, but it was obvious to me that neither of us knew this.

“I have to get Colleen!” Grace said. “If not Colleen, then definitely Briel. Or Dana. Dana’s not bad either, I guess. Hitch wouldn’t DARE give me Melanie. I mean, Melanie doesn’t even know what a soccer ball
looks
like. She’s always like, ‘Let’s make a lanyard!’ Hitch CANNOT give me Melanie.”

Em giggled. “Can you tell she’s a little worked up about this?”

“I’m not the only one,” Grace said indignantly. “Ashley and Gabby sprang out of bed at eight and headed up here to wait for the posting. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were at the mess hall right now.” Grace rolled her eyes. “As if Ashley has a single worry about her assignment. She’s obviously with Alexis.”

Court shook her head. “It’s so unfair. Alexis is probably the coolest counselor here. Ashley isn’t worthy. Even if she
is
family.”

“I take it you two still aren’t getting along,” Cole pointed out.

“What’s there to like? Besides, Ashley isn’t talking to Grace or Em either,” Court said stubbornly. “And you can tell she doesn’t like Sam.”

“Court!” Em admonished and I laughed.

“Well, it’s true,” Court told everyone. “Anyone who competes with her star status is done for.”

“Enough catching up,” Grace said, tugging on Em’s and Court’s arms. “We have to get to the mess hall.” The four of us started walking again with Grace leading the way.

“Is getting the right counselor that big a deal?” I asked as we headed toward the mess hall. Grace stopped and stared at me. “I mean, how bad could it be? CITs are nothing more than glorified campers, right? We help out a few sessions a day, and have rotating kitchen duty, but the rest of the time we have the same camp privileges as everyone else. Who cares if we don’t love our senior counselor?”

“You don’t want to get the wrong counselor, Sam,” Grace said darkly. “Get a lousy counselor and your summer as a CIT could be hell. The right counselor will not only train you for next year, she can change your whole social status. The other counselors will respect you, you’ll have a great recommendation for next year, and you’ll get more free time.”

“I know a girl whose sister got a lousy senior counselor her CIT year and spent the summer running a cabin of screaming kids while her leader was off with her boyfriend,” Em added, her eyes wide. “Those kids almost got her expelled from camp after they set fire to one of the bunk beds when she went to take a shower.”

Gulp. “I guess the right match is important,” I said nervously. Who would I get? Sophia seemed a little high-maintenance. Dana wasn’t that bad. Neither was Melanie, in my book. But sports weren’t my strong suit.

“Guys, stop freaking Sam out,” Cole told them. He looked at me. “I’m sure you’ll like who you get. I know for a fact the senior counselors had a say in who their charges were so whoever picked you has to already like you.” My shoulders relaxed a little.

“How do you know about the senior counselors having a say?” Grace demanded.

“I have my sources,” Cole said with a twinkle in his eyes.

“He says that a lot,” I observed.

Grace took a deep breath and I looked up. The mess hall was right in front of us. “Here we go,” she said as she climbed the creaky wood stairs two at a time and hurried onto the wrap-around porch.

Now I knew why the campgrounds were deserted. Every CIT on campus was already here crowding around a large scroll of paper. It was like the tryouts for the school play. People were screaming and hugging, and the sound was deafening. Suddenly the crowd parted quietly and Ashley and Gabby pushed their way through. Ashley’s expression was like steel and she strode purposefully toward the administrative buildings. When she saw Court, Cole, Em, and me staring at her, her whole look changed.

“Hi, Cole,” she said, batting her eyes. “Hi, girls!” she added a little too cheerfully to be believed. “Exciting day, isn’t it? Gabs and I are thrilled with our match-ups.”

“We are?” Gab asked, and I saw Ashley stomp on her foot.

“Where are you guys off to? Aren’t you having breakfast?” Court asked curiously.

Ashley looked taken aback for a moment. Gabby opened her mouth, but Ashley nudged her. “Of course. I’ll catch you girls inside. I just needed some, um, air.”

The rest of us looked at each other, and headed over to the list. The crowd had dispersed a bit and I noticed Grace was already scanning the names. Cole hung back to talk to another CIT named Dylan, who with his dark hair and tall physique, not to mention the Superman tee, sort of resembled a less dorky Clark Kent. Or from the look on Em’s face, Superman himself.

“Oh my God!” I heard Court exclaim. Grace and Em collectively gasped. “Sam, you have to get up here.” Their faces were anxious and they quickly made room for me.

How bad of a match could I have gotten? I put my finger on the list and scrolled through it. Grace got Colleen, just like she wanted, Gabby was with Melanie, Em got Briel, and Court got Dana. And I got… no. No way. It couldn’t be.

“I got Alexis?” I said out loud. I checked the list again. How did that happen? But there it was in ink: Samantha Montgomery and Alexis Hitchens, peeps, ages six to eight, bunk 5A.

Yep, I had read it right. And then just to be sure, I looked up Ashley. She was with Morgan.

“This is priceless,” Court laughed. “No wonder Ashley is acting freaky. Morgan is strictly by the book. There is no way Ashley is getting out of kitchen duty! You are so lucky, Sam. Usually the most promising CIT gets Alexis since she’s Hitch’s number two. That is so not Ashley, even if she’s been bragging that it would be her for years.”

“I adore Colleen, but you are in a great position,” Grace told me. “They must really like you here. Already.”

My stomach was fluttering wildly and I grabbed it instinctively, willing it to stop moving. “This is a disaster,” I said. “Ashley must be furious.” She already disliked me, between the attention I was getting for Dial and Dash and the fact that her sister picked me to be her partner on the nature hike. As much as I didn’t think Ashley and I would ever be friends, I didn’t want to be her enemy either.

Em patted my back sympathetically. “She can make a person’s life pretty miserable.”

“Who cares? She hasn’t left me alone for years,” Court says cheerfully. “Consider it an honor that you’re her enemy. She only hates people she’s really jealous of.”

“Hey.” Cole walked over with Dylan. “Do you two know each other?” he asked me.

Dylan shook my hand, but his eyes were on Em. “Not formally. Hey, Em,” he said.

“Congrats on scoring Alexis,” Cole said to me. “She’s really cool.”

“Thanks,” I said distractedly.

“Are you okay?” Cole asked.

“She’s afraid Ashley’s going to flip out that Sam got her sister over her,” Grace explained. The color in her face had returned now that she knew her assignment and it was the one she wanted.

“She’s harmless,” Cole told me, but I heard Em cough. “I don’t know why girls get so worked up about her.”

“Who’d you guys get?” Em asked the guys even though she was staring right at Dylan.

“Thomas,” Dylan said with a shrug. “He’s decent.”

Cole glanced at me. “I got Hunter,” he said and I looked down at my flip-flops.

Court squealed. “You’re so lucky.”

“Yeah, sure,” Cole laughed. “I’m the one who is going to be picking up the slack with his peeps while he’s off flirting with counselors. You and Alexis have peeps too, don’t you, Sam?” he asked me. “I guess that means we’ll be teaming up to do some activities together.” That sounded fun, doing group things with Cole. He was growing on me.

“I’m glad my marshmallows can go to the bathroom on their own,” Court said with a shudder. “Who wants to deal with that?” Dylan had marshmallows too, while Em and Grace had pez.

Everyone’s excitement over assignments and camper details helped me forget about Ashley. My friends were right — it wasn’t my fault that I had been assigned to Alexis. Ashley had to know that. Right? I shuddered.

Suddenly my ears were ringing. Everyone was still talking so they didn’t see me turn around. Just a few feet away were Ashley and Gabby, deep in conversation. Neither of them looked happy, but Ashley looked downright furious. Her skinny arms were waving wildly and her face was red. It didn’t take a genius to know she was probably talking about me.

Gabby saw me looking and nudged her best friend, who spun around. Ashley didn’t even try to hide her expression. Her eyes like slits, she stared at me coldly and then looked away.

“You okay, Sam?” Em asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder. I jumped.

“Yeah,” I said with a small smile. “I’m fine.”

I hoped.

9

I’d been this close to Cole dozens of times, but this time it felt different. The two of us were on kitchen duty that morning and even though we had to show up at 7:30 AM, Cole looked amazing, and I noticed it right away. His hair smelled like mint, and he was wearing yellow nylon shorts and a navy tee that looked great against his summer tan. I couldn’t stop staring at him.

Truthfully, I hadn’t been able to stop staring or thinking about Cole since the Fourth of July. I didn’t know how I hadn’t seen it before. I always thought Cole was cute, but suddenly I noticed how charming he was, how witty, and how amazing he was with his bunk, which made him all the more appealing. Em said I needed to get Hunter out of my head to realize all this, and that’s what had happened. The downside to this revelation was that our comfortable banter had become awkward — on my end. Because now, it wasn’t just conversation, it was me, talking to the boy I realized I liked. And I sort of felt guilty about it because I hadn’t noticed I liked him till I realized I didn’t like Hunter.

“Are you okay over there?” Cole asked me with a wry smile.

I was so freaked out when I saw Cole this morning that I set up my pancake batter post on the other end of the kitchen where my view of Cole was partially blocked. That way Cole couldn’t catch me staring. “Um-hum,” I mumbled.

Not knowing Cole was on duty with me, I had shown up in my pajama pants, like my bunk and I always did for breakfast. MY PAJAMA PANTS! My pink heart patterned pajama bottoms and a red tank top. If I wasn’t embarrassed before, I really was now.

“Earth to Sam! Come in, Sam!” Beaver, our head chef, was waving his hands in front of my face and motioning wildly. “You’ve been stirring that batter for ten minutes. Don’t tell me it’s still lumpy.”

I handed over the bowl and smiled sheepishly. “I guess I lost track of time.”

Beaver looked at me skeptically, took the bowl, and handed me a new one filled with pancake batter powder. “Let’s try to keep this for less than two minutes so that everyone can have pancakes this morning, okay? The natives are getting restless out there.” Beaver was kind of scary in that I-ride-a-Harley-and-could-whip-your-butt-in-a-fight kind of way. But when kitchen duty was done, he seemed sane. (At our cookout the other night, he even did some karaoke.) This being the start of breakfast duty, Beaver was in crazy mode.

“No problem,” I told him sweetly.

Cole came over to my table and I stood up straighter. “Let me help you,” he said. “I finished my job already.” Cole took the bowl from my hands, added some water, and began whisking like a maniac. All without looking at the directions on the batter box.

“How do you know how much goes in there?” I wanted to know.

Cole shrugged. “I make these all the time at home. I like to bake.” He blushed.

A boy who liked to bake? Could Cole get any better?

Cole’s face was deep in concentration, but then for some reason, he looked up and gave me this smile that, if I were pancake batter, would have made me ooze all over the floor.

“Sam!”

Uh-oh. That was Beaver again.

“Yes?” I said.

“If you’ve got someone else doing your battering, then maybe you could get some more OJ out to the tables. A few have already run out.” He pointed to the pitchers nearby.

“OJ, sure,” I repeated. I mouthed “sorry” to Cole, grabbed two big pitchers, and used my butt to push open the kitchen door. The smell of syrup wafted into my nose immediately. The clanking of forks and plates scraping made me want to cover my ears.

The difference in the noise level between the kitchen and the mess hall, even at 8 AM, was deafening. The place was packed and kids were either running around to different tables, or singing (they did a lot of singing in this place) while they waited for Hitch to do the morning announcements (which would lead to more singing of the “announcements” song). Once Hitch entered the room, the place quieted down while everyone ate, and then everyone got rowdy again when it was time for mail call.

I dreaded mail call.

Not because I didn’t get mail. Mom sent two more care packages, one with these amazing tank tops she got me in Paris — she was in Europe with work at the moment — and Grandma sent this sweet care package with all these cookies and chocolate — that Ashley saw and tattled on me for having, but only after Gabby had already stolen some — but I STILL hadn’t gotten anything from any of my friends, or Mal for that matter. It was really starting to bother me. I had sent Mal two videos and the rest of my friends postcards (that was all they were getting, I had finally decided). But I had gotten nothing in return. I was
thisclose
to asking Court to borrow her secret phone so I could call Mal just to make sure she was still breathing.

Thump.
I put down the first pitcher of OJ at a table full of rowdy boys. I was about to put the next pitcher down at a table of peeps, when I heard my own bunk whining and yelling my name. The benefit of being a CIT instead of a full-fledged counselor was that you still got to eat most meals with your own bunk rather than your charges.

“Thirsty! I’m dying of thirst!” Courtney motioned to her throat and pretended to be choking.

I brought the pitcher over and placed it by Court, Grace, and Em.

Gabby moaned. “No fair! I want it first.”

“Ew,” Ashley said. “Sam brought us one with pulp. I would never drink pulp,” she complained. “Bring me another pitcher.” Ashley had on cool pajamas. Hers were these cute boy shorts and one of those fitted logo tees that said “Everything in Miami is Hotter.” Why didn’t I have pajamas like those to wear for kitchen duty?

“Ash,” Meg warned, “this is the OJ we have today. If you don’t like it, drink milk.”

“NW,” groaned Gabby. “I’d rather drink H2O. It’s better for you, anyway.”

I gave Meg an appreciative glance, then crouched down next to my friends. They leaned in closely.

“I’m on kitchen duty with Cole,” I told them quietly. Em squealed.

“It’s a sign!” she said dreamily. “You have to tell him you made a mistake and you don’t like Hunter, you like him.”

“That will look good, Em,” Grace said sarcastically. “Cole, I know I never actually admitted I liked Hunter, but I’ve decided I don’t like him now, I like you!”

Em and Court glared at her, but I groaned. “Grace is right. There is no way to tell Cole without it sounding bad.”

Em cleared her throat. “Maybe it’s time we had a
longer
conversation about this,” she said empathically. “One with the sleepaway girls.”

“Huh?” At first, that statement didn’t make sense to me. Then I realized what Em was talking about. We needed to have a sleepaway girl taping to discuss my Cole problem. It would be our first one.

“It’s definitely time,” Grace said excitedly.

“I smell a midnight sneak-out,” Court whispered. “We could do it Wednesday night when the counselors have their weekly meeting.”

“I don’t know,” I said nervously. “What if we get caught?”

“We do it every year,” Grace told me. And if Grace was that calm, then maybe it was not as big a deal as I thought it was.

My stomach growled and Em laughed. “That hungry, huh?”

I nodded. “I’m starving and it all looks good today.” I was dying for some pancakes.

Court pushed over a plate piled high with eggs, bacon, pancakes, and fruit. “We saved you a little of everything.” She looked guilty. “But I’m having a hard time resisting the pancakes. They’re calling my name and they’re the last ones.”

“You can have them if you want,” I said without thinking.

“Sam, you haven’t had any yet!” Grace pointed out. “Court’s already had three.”

“But I’m still hungry,” Court whined.

“Take mine,” I insisted. “There’s plenty of other stuff I can eat.”

“Here she goes again,” Grace muttered.

“What?” I asked.

Ashley interrupted our conversation loudly. “Meg, isn’t Sam supposed to be on kitchen duty, not talking to people?”

She smiled nastily at me and I gave her a dirty look. As much as I wanted to do otherwise, I was still choosing the non-confrontational route when it came to Ashley. I let her have her digs, but I never came back at her. I was terrible at arguments and my skills hadn’t improved much at camp.

“She’s right, Sam,” Meg said. “You should finish up in the kitchen and we’ll save you some breakfast.”

“Not,” I heard Gabby say.

Finish up in the kitchen? Oh God. Work! I left Cole in there with the batter and I still had all that OJ to bring to the tables. “I’ve got to go,” I told the girls.

“Wednesday,” Court mouthed to me as I backed away toward the kitchen and plowed right into Hunter.

“Cute PJs, champ,” he said with a wink.

I walked quickly past him with my head down and rushed into the kitchen to collect more OJ, but it was all gone. Gulp.

“Hey,” Cole said, coming up behind me. “I finished the batter — and told Beaver you did it. And I hope you don’t mind, but you still had a lot of OJ to deliver, so I took all of it out for you. You just have one pitcher for your peeps left.”

I was so grateful, I threw my arms around Cole’s neck. “Thank you!” I gushed. Then I realized what I was doing. My arms were around Cole’s neck. His neck that smelled deliciously like soap. I could have breathed in that aroma all day. I felt Cole’s hands tighten around my waist and I tensed up. Normally, I wouldn’t think twice about hugging Cole, but that was B.C. Before I liked Cole. Now… what was I doing? Cole wasn’t just my friend anymore, he was the guy I liked, and I was
thisclose
to him. I backed away and I could see Cole was blushing.

“Good thing Hunter didn’t see that,” Cole said, not looking me in the eye.

“I don’t like Hunter,” I said quickly and firmly and Cole looked up at me curiously. “I told you already. You were right about him.”

“Nice to hear you’re thinking clearly,” he said and sort of smiled. My heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest and my mouth felt unusually dry. “So I was going to ask you, does this mean…”

“Lovebirds,” Beaver interrupted, yelling from the edge of the stove, where he was flipping more pancakes. I jumped, hitting my knee on the wood table next to me. Ouch.

“Yeah, I mean you two,” Beaver said. “You’re off-duty. You can join your bunks.”

Nooooooo! What was Cole about to say to me? But it was too late. Cole and I looked at each other awkwardly. Then we looked around. The other CITs and counselors were already at their tables. We kind of mumbled good-bye to each other and then turned toward the door, knocking into each other. I remembered I still had to bring Alexis’s bunk their OJ so I grabbed the pitcher on the way out.

“Sam, there you are,” Alexis said when I got to the table. Our peeps could be kind of wild, but Alexis always looked calm. “I was beginning to think you forgot about us.”

“Sorry, Alexis,” I apologized.

“It’s okay,” Alexis told me and nudged me in the side. “I always moved slower during kitchen duty too. I hated it.”

My eyes widened. Alexis hated something about camp? I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to hear about this one. “Really?” But before I could ask Alexis our whole table started to shake. The jelly jar started bouncing toward me, the pancakes were popping off the plates and the syrup was sloshing over the table.

“EARTHQUAKE!” A few of the peeps screamed at the top of their lungs. They were holding the edges of the table and shaking it for all it was worth. I tried to steady my side, but I was no match for eight little girls.

“What are you doing?” I asked, alarmed, when they finally stopped shaking the table and burst out laughing. Alexis was laughing too. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“It’s called earthquake,” Mackenzie said proudly. “We saw the pez do it.”

“Classic camp mess hall game,” Alexis told me in confidence. “I was a master at it. I could shake the whole table by myself and never knock over a single glass.”

“Good morning, Whispering Pines!” Hitch broke through the sound barrier and made the girls’ earthquake seem tame. “How is everyone doing?”

“I still don’t think I’ll ever get used to your dad using the megaphone before 9 AM,” I told Alexis. She laughed.