Acting Out (19 page)

Camp Days! Camp Days! We frolic and skip in the dew!

Mosquitoes and gnats have attacked me.

A spider laid eggs in my bed.

I think there's a bear up in that tree.

The frog in my trunk might be dead.

Camp Days! Camp Days! We frolic and skip in the dew, the dew!

Camp Days! Camp Days! We frolic and skip in the dew!

Pine Haven, we're trapped here all summer.

I want to take showers alone.

This camp life is really a bummer.

Oh, Eda! We want to go home!

The wild moves that Lauren had taught everyone now looked really funny with me singing this ridiculous song. Nobody could be offended by the dancing now.

I realized that the group was only partway through their dance, so I started again at the beginning, pumping the accordion dog like crazy. When I got to the line about tadpoles in my swimsuit, I wriggled and jumped around. The whole dining hall was going wild. I'd never had such a big response.

When I got to the last verse, the dancers had stopped, and they stepped forward on either side of me. We all sang the last lines,
“Oh, Eda! We want to go home!”
together.

By that time, people weren't just applauding; they were stomping their feet and cheering. We took our bows and then ran back through the swinging door.

Amber was waiting for us on the other side. “That was awesome! It was amazing! It looked like you'd rehearsed it for weeks!”

We all slumped over on the stainless steel sinks and countertops around the kitchen. I couldn't believe we'd done it. It was over, and it'd been huge.

Lauren wiped beads of sweat off her forehead. “Good job, everyone.” Then she looked at me and burst out laughing. “The crowd loved it! We're Dancing Fools!”

“Mei Delaney, JD Duckworth, Claudia Ogilvie, Shelby Parsons, and Courtney Prosser.” Alex read off our names, and everyone clapped politely as we went up to get our certificates.

She shook hands with each of us as she handed out the pieces of paper—one was a Red Cross certificate that said we'd passed the Guard Start class, and the other was a Pine Haven certificate that read, “In Recognition of Special Accomplishments in Swimming.”

We were about to sit down when Alex stopped us. “I'd also like to recognize Lauren Haigler for her accomplishments in swimming this summer. Lauren completed thirty service hours, and she was a great help and inspiration in our swimming program.”

Alex motioned Lauren to come up and join us. I could see that half-annoyed, half-embarrassed look Lauren always got whenever people complimented her, but she came up beside us, shook hands with Alex, and accepted the Pine Haven certificate.

We all sat down and took our places while the awards assembly went on. Since tomorrow was the last day, we were having a special Friday assembly on the hill.

I sat by my friends and clapped for other people as they received different certificates. Meredith got one for canoeing, and Isabel got one from Libby Sheppard for learning how to swim this summer. Some people got awards for tennis, and some got them for hiking and rappelling. I felt a little bummed that I'd never gotten around to doing all the activities I'd wanted to this summer.

But I was glad I'd finished the Guard Start class. Not only finished, I was the best swimmer in the class—Alex had said so herself. That was a great feeling—knowing that I was really, really good at something. My family would be so proud of me. I still hadn't decided if I ever wanted to be a lifeguard, but finishing the class made me feel like I'd accomplished something all on my own that had nothing to do with being JD.

When the counselors finished giving out certificates for activities, Eda had a few awards of her own. She announced the winners for the talent show, and the Dancing Fools all had to go up and receive certificates for getting second place.

When they had announced the winners last night at the end of the talent show, we had all screamed our lungs out. We'd been happy just to get through it; it had never even occurred to us that we might come close to winning.

Everyone cheered and hooted as Eda handed us our certificates. When the applause died down, I said, “The Dancing Fools want to thank Amber Cummings for writing such great lyrics! Amber, come up here!”

Amber was sitting in the grass beside Michelle and Alex, and she covered her face with her hands when I mentioned her name. But Michelle nudged her, and Amber came up and joined us. “We never could've done it without Amber!” I yelled over the applause. And that was true. She'd come through for all of us.

We all sat down again and listened as other awards were given out. It'd been so much fun working on the song with Amber. I couldn't believe what a great idea she'd come up with. Basically, she'd written all the lyrics during rest hour yesterday, which amazed me. I only added a few things: the part about freezing in the lake and getting tadpoles stuck in your swimsuit. And Amber had written the last line as “Oh, Mommy, we want to come home!” but I thought about Shelby and the way she'd felt when I'd made that stupid mommy joke. So I'd suggested changing the line to “Oh, Eda! We want to go home!” and Amber had agreed to it.

Now people were saying that from now on, everyone at camp would sing our version of “Camp Days” instead of the sappy original. We all thought that was pretty cool. And everyone had raved about how good the dancers were, and how funny it was to mix those moves with that goofy song.

“Now we'll go ahead with regularly scheduled activities today. Then tonight we will have the final Circle Fire,” announced Eda.

Meredith stopped us as the crowd stood up and started walking away. “Hey, guys, it really was a great act. But why'd you keep the chorus the same as the original?”

“Are you kidding me? How could we improve on frolicking and skipping in the dew?” I asked.

Then Michelle walked up. “I am so proud of all my campers! You guys did a great job.” Then she grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?” I asked.

“For taking care of things. For making sure that your act was appropriate.” She smiled at me. Courtney and everyone else wandered away while Michelle and I talked.

“Believe me—it all came together at the last minute,” I told her.

“Well, however it happened, I'm glad it worked out. I can't believe camp is over tomorrow!” Michelle groaned.

“I know,” I agreed. “I don't want to leave. I wish I could stay here forever. I love this place.”

“Oh, come on. Camp is great, and we're all going to be sad saying good-bye, but look at the bright side. You'll be so happy to see your family tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I will be,” I said. Then I looked at her. “But my family's a mess.” If there was anyone I could tell this secret to, it was Michelle.

Her eyebrows went up, and she waited for me to go on. I'd never talked about this to anyone.

“We're having a lot of problems now. I'm glad I've been away all summer. In some ways I don't want to go home.” I looked at her. “Do you think that's terrible?”

“No, of course not,” said Michelle. A little line appeared between her eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Yeah, I think so. But not here.” A lot of people were still wandering around after the assembly.

Michelle nodded. “Let's go someplace private.”

So we went to Middler Lodge and sat out on the porch. The view was beautiful from up here, with the blue mountains off in the distance. And today was a sunny day.

Michelle kept quiet and waited for me to talk. I was glad we were sitting on a wooden bench looking out at the view. That way I didn't have to look at her.

“Well, you know all about my brothers and how they're big football heroes?” I asked. Michelle nodded. “That's how it used to be. But it's not that way anymore. Not since this spring.”

Michelle looked concerned. “Did one of them get injured?”

“No,” I said. Injuries they could recover from. “No. It was Justin. He got caught using steroids.”

“Oh,” said Michelle very quietly.

“Yeah. And guess who turned him in.”

“The coach?” she asked.

“No. Adam told on him. He went to the coaches and told them first, before he even told my parents about it. It was a huge scandal. Everybody in the school knew about it. It was in the newspaper. We live in kind of a small town, and during the fall everything revolves around Friday night football. The whole town was talking about the Duckworth brothers and what happened at Central High.”

Michelle blew a long breath out. “I can imagine. It must have been terrible.”

“It was. Everybody took sides. Some people said the coaches knew about it but looked the other way. A lot of people were mad at Adam for telling on Justin. Adam said he did it because he was afraid Justin might have bad side effects from the drugs. But then Justin said Adam only narced on him because he was jealous. You know, Justin's older and stronger and bigger. I think maybe Adam was a little jealous.”

“Well, for whatever reason he did it, Adam did the right thing,” said Michelle, glancing at me. “Steroids can cause so many health problems. It was dangerous for Justin to be on them. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I do. But it's messed up our whole family. People have broken windows in our house—they drive by at night and throw rocks. And one time when I was walking home from school, a reporter jumped out from behind a bush and asked me if I knew my brother was ‘on the juice.' ” I tried to tell that part without crying.

Michelle put her arm around me and patted my shoulder. Now I really felt like crying. “So that's why I'm not looking forward to going home. Sure, I love them and miss them. But I don't want to go home to all that. My parents sent me to camp so I could get away from everything.”

I felt like I'd just run a mile. I was so exhausted and relieved. I took long, deep breaths. I actually did feel better, now that I'd finally told someone my big secret.

“Well, it can't be easy,” Michelle said. I could tell she was trying to think of the right words. “Things will get better over time. How's your brother doing now?”

I shrugged. “It's hard to say. He hasn't written me all summer. He's been pretty withdrawn from our whole family. I think he's depressed. We're not sure if he'll be allowed to play football next year. But that's all he cares about. If he's not a football player, he doesn't know”—I stopped talking because I realized Justin and I had something in common—“he doesn't know who is.”

For most of his life Justin had been a football player. He'd played since he was a little boy, starting out in Pop Warner. It was like Lauren having “Dancer” on her shorts. Justin wore his jersey and that was who he was. But now what?

“It's a tough lesson for him,” Michelle admitted. “Hopefully, he'll be able to move on and get his life back on track.”

I nodded. Then I started crying. I felt guilty for saying I didn't want to go home. What would my family think if they heard that? But I dreaded having to go back and face everything. There was nothing I could do, though. I couldn't stay at camp forever.

Michelle kept quiet and patted me on the shoulder till I calmed down. My nose was runny, but I didn't have anything to blow it on. Michelle stuck out her arm and offered me her sleeve, which made me start laughing. “Go ahead! I can always wash this shirt later!” she said cheerfully.

“I am not going to blow my runny nose on your shirt!” Now I couldn't stop laughing.

“Want me to pull some leaves off the trees, then?” she asked, looking up at some tree branches just a few feet away from the porch.

“NO! I'll just sniffle.” I took a deep breath. I really did feel better. “Thanks, Michelle.”

She looked at me and smiled a little. “Are you sure you're okay now?”

“Yeah. I really am.” We got up and left the porch. I went to Solitary and washed my face before anyone could see me.

Everyone was waiting for me in the cabin. “Where'd you go?” asked Courtney.

“I was talking to Michelle about something,” I told her. Nobody said anything about my face, so I figured all the crying signs were gone.

“So what activity should we go to this morning?” Lauren asked. “Since nobody has to go to the lake and swim laps.”

“How about tennis?” I suggested. They all thought that was a weird choice, since we'd barely played all summer, but they agreed to go with me.

The four of us walked out of the cabin swinging our tennis rackets. “Would you guys have liked me if I wasn't always cracking jokes and getting into trouble?” I asked suddenly.

“Of course,” said Mei. “But it's hard to imagine you not doing those things.”