Acting Out (7 page)

We looked through her clothes until we'd picked out a pair of chocolate-colored cargos and a tan tank. I rolled the pants legs up so they didn't look too short. “Then layer this on the top.” She handed me a short-sleeved shirt with a tiny flower print. “Leave this shirt unbuttoned. What do you think, everyone?” She spun me around for inspection.

“You look great, JD!” said Amber.

“Here, wear these earrings,” Lauren offered, bringing me a pair of little gold hoops. “And I've got a necklace for you too.” She squinted while she put her earrings in for me.

“When you're done with her, bring her to me so I can do her hair and makeup,” said Courtney, putting on lip gloss in front of the mirror.

“Oh, thank God I've got an entire pit crew to dress me! I could never do this on my own!” They all laughed, but it was true.

While Courtney styled my hair and did my makeup, everyone else stood around and watched. When she was finished, she wouldn't let me look in the little mirror. “Let's go to Solitary, where you can really get a good look.”

We all trooped down Middler Line to the bathrooms. Courtney grabbed my arm as we went through the doorway. “Close your eyes.” She led me over to the full-length mirror next to the row of sinks and stopped. “Okay, open.”

I opened my eyes and looked in the mirror at someone who looked like a really good version of me. “Wow!” I said. Lauren, Amber, and Mei stood behind me, grinning. “Thanks, guys! I couldn't have done it without you. And I seriously mean that.”

Solitary was packed with other girls using the sinks and pushing for a turn in front of the mirror, so we left for the dining hall, since it was time for dinner anyway.

“Garlic bread, anyone?” asked Michelle with a grin, passing the plate around our table. I took two pieces, but Courtney frowned at me.

“You think that's a good idea right before a dance?” she asked.

“What? Too many carbs?” I wondered.

“No, goofy. Garlic. If you want to gargle half a bottle of mouthwash, go ahead.”

In the middle of dinner the CATs (Counselor Assistants in Training) came in clapping and singing. I loved the CATs; it was their job to make sure all the campers were having a good time. They were sixteen, so they were kind of in between campers and counselors. When they announced that we were going to Camp Crockett for a dance, the whole dining hall went crazy.

“But be careful!” the CATs yelled. “If those Crockett boys want you to sneak away to the bushes for a make-out session, we'll be watching to make sure that nobody leaves the dining hall porch!” Then they sang this crazy song, holding flashlights and shining them all over everyone.

Porch Patrol! Porch Patrol!

Start yellin' for that good ole Porch Patrol!

If he tries to make first base, you had better slap his face,

And start yellin' for that good ole Porch Patrol!

When they'd finished singing and sat down at their table in the middle of the dining hall, Lauren asked, “Are they really going to the dance dressed like that?” They were all wearing camouflage T-shirts and pants, and they had leaves and little tree branches stuck in their hair and taped to their clothes.

“They sure are,” said Alex. “So don't let them catch you.”

“You mean they'll be watching us? Has anyone ever gotten caught?” I asked.

“Of course not,” said Katherine. “They sing that same stupid song every year. Who would want to be seen with any of those Crockett creeps?”

“The point is, while you're at Camp Crockett you're not to leave their dining hall. And if anyone does try to leave, the Porch Patrol will stop you. So I expect you all to act like young ladies this evening!” warned Michelle.

So nobody had ever been caught by the Porch Patrol. Wouldn't
that
be a great way to make a name for myself? Maybe no one had ever been caught because no one had ever tried to sneak away.

But wasn't there a first time for everything?

When we walked into Camp Crockett's dining hall, I saw Natasha hanging out with her new bff, Ashlin. I ran over and gave her a hug like I always did whenever I saw her. It was sort of sad that Natasha and I had different sets of friends now.

Lauren, Mei, Courtney, and I were all standing together. All the boys were across from us, and so far no one was dancing, even though the music was playing.

I decided I needed to work fast. I couldn't stand around waiting for some guy to find me. I had to go to him. Most girls were hoping to dance with some cute guys and maybe even meet someone they really liked. That didn't matter to me. I just needed to make it look like I'd found a guy who liked me.

I looked at the crowd of boys. There sure were a lot of shrimpy guys who went to this camp. I wanted to find someone who wasn't a foot shorter than I was, and judging by the looks of this crowd, that wasn't going to be easy.

The guys stood around talking to each other. Every now and then one of them would look over in our direction, like they were checking to see if we were still there.

“See anyone you like?” asked Courtney.

“Maybe. How about you?” I said.

“Yeah. See the guy in the green Hurley shirt? He keeps looking over here.”

“Hey, you in the green shirt. Come over and dance with my friend,” I said, kind of loud, but not loud enough for him to actually hear me.

“JD, stop!” hissed Courtney. “Try not to embarrass all of us, please!”

“Oh, don't worry. I won't embarrass anyone but myself. Why don't you all just watch and see how it's done?”

I walked straight over to where three guys were standing. Two of them were close to my height. When they saw me coming toward them, they all got panicked looks on their faces, like they didn't know what I was going to do to them. Most girls didn't realize that boys were scared of us half the time.

“Hey, guys. Wassup?”

“Hi,” one of them answered. The other two just stood there.

“My friends dared me to come talk to you guys. They didn't think I'd do it, so help me out here, okay?”

“Sure,” said the talker of the group.

“I'm JD, by the way.”

“Oh. I'm Lance.” He was around my height, and he wore glasses and had a really severe case of bed head.

“I'm David,” said the other tall guy. He had braces and a buzz cut, and his face was beefy and round.

“I'm Michael,” said the short guy. He wasn't really that short, just not as tall as the rest of us.

“What's JD short for?” asked Lance.

“Jamaica Daytona,” I said, looking at him with a straight face.

“What a weird name. No wonder you go by your initials,” Michael said.

“Well, my parents love the beach. Good thing they're not into mountains or I might've been named Everest Rushmore.” It was a lot of fun telling crazy stories to people. Amazingly, they always believed me, or at least they hardly ever questioned me.

The guys looked at me like they didn't know what to do next. I glanced over to where my friends were, and they were all watching me. When Courtney saw me, she raised her eyebrows. I had to make this look good. Time to bring up the one subject that every boy in the world was interested in.

“Wow. This dance pretty much sucks, doesn't it?” I asked them.

“Yeah,” they all said at the same time.

“You know what would make this a really good dance? If we had a room with a long row of TVs and about five or six different game systems,” I said.

“Oh, sweet!” groaned Lance, like he could picture a setup like that.

Michael and David nodded. “That would be awesome.”

“So which systems do you guys have?” I asked.

Then all three of them were talking at the same time. Wii, PS2 and 3, DS, PSP, Xbox 360—they rattled them all off. I stood in the middle and let them talk. I glanced across the dining hall and saw Mei's jaw drop.

“Yeah, have you ever played Twilight Princess on Wii?” I asked Lance. He was the one I liked best. Behind his glasses, I noticed he had beautiful gray eyes, and when he smiled, he had a dimple in the side of his cheek.

“Oh! I don't have it, but my friend Gabe does. It's pretty tight.”

“I've got it for GameCube,” said Michael. “My favorite part is when you're battling the monkeys.”

“On Madden, do you guys ever set a player's weight as high as it'll go and his speed at zero so he can barely move?” I asked.

Lance let out a loud cackle. “I love doing that! One time I made this one player really weak. He tried to catch a pass, but he fell over and couldn't get up!”

The four of us spent at least ten minutes talking about all our favorite games and what levels we'd gotten to on all of them. Then I said, “Hang on a second, guys. I need to talk to my friends, but I'll be right back.”

I walked across the dining hall to my crew. “Wipe that smirk off your face!” said Lauren when I walked up to her.

Mei grabbed me by both arms. “How? How? Just tell us how you did that!”

“What were you guys talking about, JD?” asked Courtney. “You sure had their attention.”

I shrugged. “Nothing, really. Just guy stuff. Look, I gotta go. My boys are waiting for me. Do any of you want to dance with one of them?”

“I'll take the cute one,” Courtney said.

“The one with the dark hair? That's Michael. I'll see what I can do.” It didn't surprise me that Courtney would pick Michael. He was the cutest of the three, but I still preferred Lance's gray eyes. Plus he was taller than Michael.

Then I walked back over to the guys. “Look, guys, I know it would be a lot more fun to stand around and talk about video games all night, but my friends are bored. So why don't you come over and meet them? You don't have to dance or anything.”

I walked off like I assumed they would follow me, and they did. I'd never been the one who's always telling other people what to do, but the weird thing was, it worked. At least most of the time. It seemed like most people spent a lot of time waiting for someone to tell them what to do. I figured I might as well be the one who did the telling.

While my friends were introducing themselves to the guys, I decided it was time to put my plan in action. I leaned over to Lance and said, “I don't like to dance, do you?”

“No, I suck at it,” he answered. He had really long legs, and he moved like he wasn't used to walking on them yet.

“Hey, want to go out on the porch? It's pretty stuffy in here.”

Lance shrugged. “Okay, sure.”

He followed me outside to the porch, where a bunch of people were hanging out and talking. Some people were sitting on the rails and others were just standing around. It was almost dark. Crickets were chirping, and a few moths fluttered around the porch lights.

“So, do you know any good cheat codes for the Sims?” I asked.

“Yeah, freeall, fisheye, midas. You enter them by holding L1, L2, R1, R2.”

While Lance chattered away about the Sims, I glanced around. Besides a bunch of campers, a few Crockett and Pine Haven counselors were out here too, but I didn't see any of the CATs. Did that mean they weren't really on Porch Patrol? Had the whole thing been a joke? If we walked away from the dining hall right now, would anybody notice us?

“It's a pretty nice night out, isn't it?” I said. “Feel like taking a walk? I've never been to Camp Crockett before. You could show me around.”

My heart started pounding a little when I said that. Getting caught
sounded
like a great idea when I'd first thought of it, but now that it was time to actually go through with it, I wasn't so sure.

Lance scratched his ear. “Uh, I don't think we can leave. The counselors told us to stay around the dining hall for the whole dance.” His feet kicked against the porch rails.

“Really? That's weird. I wonder why they'd even care. Have you ever played Destroy All Humans?” I asked. Think, think, think. What excuse could I make for us to leave the dining hall?

Lance went off on what a great game that was. I noticed there were steps at either end of the porch. The ones we were closest to were by the parking area, and there were lights shining on all the Pine Haven vans and trucks we'd come over in. At the far end of the porch, though, there weren't any lights. And there weren't very many people hanging out there either. If we did try to leave, that should definitely be our exit.

“It's sure crowded out here. Let's move down there where there aren't as many people.” I headed for the far end of the porch and Lance followed, telling me about the time he leveled out all of Rockwell's buildings. So far we hadn't broken any rules, but my heart wouldn't stop pounding. It was easy for me to talk about what a rule breaker I was to everyone. Now it was time to really prove it. But how could I convince Lance to go along with me?