Camp Confidential 09 - Best (Boy)friend Ever (4 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 09 - Best (Boy)friend Ever
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Priya pulled the toast out of her pocket and jammed the whole thing in her mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was this what you wanted?” she asked sweetly, giving him a good look at the mushy bread.
“You are damaged,” Jordan told her. “And where were you last night? I had a completely repulsive mixture all planned out for your first defeat. Did you get tired of losing or what?”
“The girls in my bunk, uh, wanted to do this thing together,” Priya said. It was the first time she’d lied to Jordan. It made her feel like she’d just eaten a gallon of whatever disgusting mixture he’d had planned for her. What was the point of having a best friend if you lied to him?
“I thought I saw Sarah and David,” Jordan commented.
“Yeah, I had to be there early to . . . help with set up for the . . . thing,” Priya answered quickly, hoping she didn’t sound as phony to Jordan as she did to herself.
“You weren’t at the singdown, either,” Jordan said. “I would have heard your beautiful voice from anywhere.” Jordan always teased her about her voice. It was anti-beautiful.
“After the thing, I got a stomachache, so I got permission to go to bed early.” Geez, now a lie on top of a lie. She wanted to confess everything. Everything except for the reason for the lies. She didn’t want to go there with Jordan. She wanted to erase that moment from history. Just snip out that one moment when Jordan brought up kissing.
“Hey, I see one of the things on the list!” Jordan carefully stepped off the path. “Close you eyes,” he told Priya.
“O-kay,” she said, shutting her eyes.
Wait, is he going to kiss me
? came the sudden, unwelcome thought. Was this what a first kiss was like? She’d never thought about it. She’d never talked about it with girlfriends. She didn’t really have girlfriends like that. Did a boy just tell you to shut your eyes—and do it?
No
, Priya told herself.
That’s not what’s happening
.
He’s being all normal. You’re crazy. And when he was talking about the kissing, he wasn’t necessarily talking about kissing you. Or anybody. He was just kidding around.
But every muscle in her face tensed. Her lips tightened into a skinny line. Then she felt it . . . something soft, and smooth, and wet, and cool against her cheek. “Feels good, doesn’t it?” Jordan asked.
The cool wet thing was still pressed against her skin—so it couldn’t be his mouth, ’cause he’d be using his mouth for talking. She relaxed a tiny bit. “Yeah, sorta,” she admitted.
“Open ’em up,” Jordan ordered.
Her eyes snapped open. And she saw the snail Jordan was holding up against her face, its soft, smooth, wet, cool snail body against her skin. Priya let out a snort of laughter. “That’s one down. Let’s find the rest,” she told him. Her bones all felt as soft as the snail. That’s how relieved she was.
If Jordan had kissed her, that would have been it. Friendship over. She’d never be able to look at him again. Forget about talk to him. It would have been too . . . humiliating. And weird. And just wrong.
Jordan put the snail into his specimen bucket. Priya added a pine needle to hers. “Smooth-edged leaf,” she noted. “A pine needle counts as a leaf, right?”
“I’m pretty sure,” Jordan said.
“We should divide up the area.” Priya swung her bucket back and forth as she walked. “You take the ground to the left of the trail. I’ll take the right.”
“Cool.” Jordan started to scan the ground to the left of the trail. “You know that guy Zach from my bunk?”
“Yeah.” Priya paused. She thought she’d seen a Y-shaped branch. She crouched down. Nope. It was a short branch lying at an angle against this longer one. She stood up. “What about him?”
“He never heard that you can light your farts. Can you believe that? I mean, every other guy in the bunk knew. You know, right?”
“I’ve known since kindergarten,” Priya answered. “Where’s Zach from? Where in the United States can you grow up without knowing that fart gas is flammable?” This was the great part about having a BBFF. Girls just didn’t have conversations like this.
“Someplace in Florida. There’s no excuse for it,” Jordan said. “Hey, an acorn, that counts as someone’s food.” He grabbed it and tossed it into his bucket.
“So this guy Zach, how are his burping skills?” Priya asked. “I’m not talking advanced, like burping the alphabet. But can he at least do his name? I mean, it’s only one syllable.”
“No data on that,” Jordan answered.
“Well, you gotta get some, pronto. If he has no skills, then I’m thinking an alien has taken over his body,” Priya teased. She knew the conversation was totally moronic. But that was the best kind.
“An evil alien planning some kind of invasion?” Jordan asked.
“That’s what I’m thinking.” Priya checked out another possible Y-shaped stick. No go.
“One point if you burp the pledge of allegiance at lunch,” Jordan challenged.
Priya reluctantly shook her head. “You can’t do that kind of burping on bug juice, my friend.”
My
best
friend.
“It’s Barbeque Night, Barbeque Night,” Brynn sang to the tune of “Halloween Town” from
The Nightmare Before Christmas
. “No need to take fright. It’s Barbeque Night.” She leaped and twirled down the aisle between the beds.
Priya knew exactly why Brynn and everybody else was so excited over the BBQ. She didn’t know if the outdoor grills were easier for Pete, the cook, to use or what—but the hot dogs and hamburgers he served up at BBQs were much tastier than his indoor cooking. Tasty enough to be almost edible.
“There might be a need to take fright,” Alex said. “It’s a full moon. And one of the counselors always tells a creepy story at the campfire when there’s a full moon.” Alex had been a Lakeview camper forever. She knew the scoopage on everything. Although Priya and the campers who were back for a second or third summer knew a few things, too. Like the full moon deal.
Brynn flopped down on Sarah’s bed. “Cool. I love scary stories. Have you heard the one about—”
The door to the bunk flew open. “I now interrupt the regularly scheduled programming for an important news bulletin,” Valerie announced.
“Um, Val,
Brynn’s
the drama queen,” Grace joked. “I’m the funny one. Priya’s the tomboy. Gaby’s the—”
“The tomboy’s going to want to hear this. And I bet the rest of you are, too,” Valerie interrupted.
Gaby looked doubtful as she smoothed on a coat of strawberry pink lip gloss.
Valerie turned to Priya. “Remember what we were talking about last night at dinner? You know, what it meant when Jordan brought up kissing?”
“Didn’t we already decide that it meant he liiiikes Priya?” Gaby asked, sounding bored.
“Oh, no we didn’t,” Priya answered. “And anyway, Jordan was totally normal today. Regular old Jordan. I’m now completely positive he was just kidding around,” she told the group. “He has no interest in any girl—including me—except as a friend.”
“Don’t bet on it,” Valerie said, brown eyes shining. “At least don’t bet anything you’re not hoping to get rid of. I ran into Natalie on my way over, and she said Simon said that Jordan was asking the guys in his bunk for advice. On girls. Make that girlfriends and how to get them.”
“Wow,” Abby said.
“That’s . . . wow,” Candace said.
“But, like I said, Jordan was acting completely the way he always does,” Priya said. “He didn’t mention the K word or anything like that.” Her voice got higher with every word. She hoped no one noticed. “He talked about farts, okay? That’s the level of normal I’m talking.”
“Again with the too much information.” Abby shook her head.
“Too much,” Candace agreed.
“The only reason he went into bodily function territory was ’cause he hadn’t gotten the lowdown from his crew,” Grace offered. “The boy didn’t know any better.”
Sophie stuck her head into the bunk. “Let’s move it out, girls. You know how fast the chow moves at barbeques.”
Priya stood up and followed the other girls outside. The sky was going all pinky-purpley-orangey as the sun set, and she could already smell the smoke from the barbeque. But her stomach felt as if it was filled with grasshoppers. Live ones, not the chocolate-covered kind.
Just chill. Maybe the whole thing got garbled when it got passed from Simon to Natalie to Valerie to everyone in 4C
, Priya told herself.
Remember when you went to Shelly Barone’s stupid birthday party in the third grade and you played that stupid game telephone—instead of something fun like kickball or freeze tag? The whole point
was
that the message got all messed up as it went from person to person.
Yeah, that’s probably the deal
, Priya thought as she got in the hamburger line. Then Gaby elbowed her in the side and nodded toward the closest hot dog line. And the grasshoppers in Priya’s stomach started doing some extreme hip-hop moves.
Jordan had changed his t-shirt. Which was bizzaro enough. If Jordan had some kind of mega-spill or whatever, he’d
maybe
turn his tee inside out before dinner. Maybe. If he thought about it.
But the really bizzaro part was what he’d changed into. A whatchamacallit—polo shirt. With a collar and everything. Priya hadn’t known that Jordan even owned one. Was he wearing it to impress a girl? Was he wearing it for
her
? Because he was going to attempt to become her
boyfriend
?
“The guys in his bunk don’t exactly read
Vogue
,” Gaby commented. “The outfit’s passable. But what did they have him put in his hair—corn syrup?”
Priya raised her eyes up from the polo shirt. Jordan’s brown hair was slicked down—and weirdly shiny. She had no idea how he’d gotten it that way. The most she attempted with her own hair was—well, nothing. That’s why she liked it short. You couldn’t really do anything with it but brush it.
“Oooh. Look at loverboy,” Grace teased from her spot in front of Priya. “He’s gonna make his move tonight. Maybe not on you. But on someone.”
“No way,” Priya said. But what else was she supposed to think? Grace had to be right. This had to be girl-related. What other reason could Jordan have for creating this . . . spectacle? It couldn’t be that he thought he’d be given more burgers at the BBQ.
On autopilot, she grabbed a paper plate and held it out for a burger and some corn on the cob. She loved corn on the cob. But the melting butter on top reminded her of the gunk on Jordan’s hair, and that got the grasshoppers all excited again, and she realized there was no way she was going to be able to force any food in there with them.
Priya sat down on one end of a fallen log, next to Brynn. A whole bunch of logs were arranged in circles around the big pit they used for camp-wide campfires. She stared at her full plate. “Anybody want seconds?” she asked, holding up her plate of firsts.
“Maybe. But I’ve only taken about two bites of what I’ve got,” Alex answered from the next log over.
“Aren’t you feeling good?” Becky asked from her spot next to Alex. Her blue eyes were wide with concern.
“I’m good. Just not that hungry,” Priya said quickly.
“Everyone loses their appetite when they’re in like,” Grace joked from the other side of Brynn. Usually Priya thought Grace was funny. Usually.
“Everyone loses their appetite,” Candace agreed, straddling the log in front of Priya’s.
“I’m totally not in like,” Priya snapped.
“Well somebody is,” Brynn commented. “Somebody keeps staring over here. Somebody named Jordan.”
And it was true. Jordan was gawking at her from one of the fallen logs on the opposite side of the huge campfire. The shadows thrown on his face by the flames made him look like a stranger. That and the freaky hair. And the
polo
shirt. The thing didn’t even have a slogan on it. Priya jerked her eyes off him.
Why her? It would be bad if Jordan had started crushing on any girl. Because . . . because then everything would change. And Priya liked things exactly how they were, exactly the way they’d always been.

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