Camp Confidential 01 - Natalie's Secret (10 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 01 - Natalie's Secret
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Suddenly, someone stomped on her foot. She almost cried out, but the offender clapped a hand over her mouth, muffling the sound. She turned to find Alyssa smiling at her. “Sorry!” she whispered. “I tripped.”
“That’s what you get for wearing flip-flops,” Natalie said. She had tried to convince her friend to wear trail shoes, but Alyssa wasn’t having it. “My feet need to breathe,” she had protested.
“You win,” Alyssa admitted.
“Then why am I the one with the squashed toe, Ms. Breathy-foot?” Natalie kidded.
“Girls!” Alex said in the loudest whisper she could manage. “We’re almost there. Keep it down!”
“She is so out of control,” Alyssa mumbled. Natalie almost broke into a giggle, but Alyssa reached out and covered her mouth again.
“Good thing we know how to identify poison oak, right?” Valerie said, catching up to Natalie and Alyssa. “And you thought nature was pointless.”
“Not like I could even see it if I were standing right in a poison-oak patch! It’s pitch-black out here!” Natalie pointed out.
“Girls!” Jenna said, sounding like Julie. “We’re going in. Now, you all have your assignments. Alyssa and Nat, you’re going in first. You’re going to take the toilet paper out of the bathroom. Then you’ll pass it off to Grace and Valerie, who will tp the bunk beds. Meanwhile, Sarah and Brynn will put shaving cream on the toilet seats. Jessie, Alex, and Candace are in charge of rounding up the garbage cans and lining them up outside the front door. That way, they’ll topple when the boys try to leave in the morning. Chelsea and Karen are going to hide the shower curtains.”
“What will you do?” Natalie asked.
“Oh, I’ve got special plans of my own for Adam,” Jenna said mysteriously.
“Poor Adam,” Grace said, sympathetically.
“How about a huddle before we go in?” Alex suggested.
Jenna glared at Alex, but the girls were already grouping together. In the dark, they leaned in to one another and placed all of their hands on top of one another’s in the center of the huddle. “Go, 3C!” they whisper-shouted.
Natalie crept up to the front door with Alyssa at her heels. “This may be a dumb idea,” Natalie mumbled, suddenly having second thoughts. “But here goes nothing,” she said quietly, and pulled the door open.
Instantly, all the girls were engulfed. Natalie was pelted squarely in the stomach with a stream of water, while at the same time covered from head to toe in shaving cream.
“Oh, what the—” Natalie shouted, only to be rewarded by a blast of water into her mouth. She sputtered to herself as the sounds of male war cries filled the room.
Before Natalie could make sense of the scene, her bunkmates had rushed in, screeching with their own war whoops. Jenna whipped a mini water pistol from the waistband of her capri pants and fired from the hip. Karen freaked out, bolted for the bathroom, and locked herself in a stall. Chelsea ran up and down the bunk weaving toilet paper from bed to bed.
Jenna, though, stood stock-still, assessing the scene. Finally, she put her fingers to her lips and whistled.
The bunk was silent.
“Adam,”
she said, her voice dangerously low.
From the far corner of the bunk, the girls heard chuckling. “Gotcha, sis!” A head full of light brown curls emerged, followed by a male-looking version of Jenna in hospital scrubs and a concert T-shirt.
“How did you know?” Jenna demanded.
“Give me a break, Jenna. I’m on to you. I’m
always
on to you,” he said. “I mean, did you think I didn’t know what you did with the bug juice the other day?” he continued.
Jenna pursed her lips, planted her hands on her hips, and waited for him to go on.
“And by the way, you plan a raid just about this time
every
summer, J. So this wasn’t exactly the hugest shock.”
“Well, how did you know it would be tonight?” Jenna asked.
“It makes perfect sense. The counselors are all at that big meeting.”
“What big meeting?” Natalie interrupted, suddenly worried. “Julie said they were meeting the other counselors. You know, at the rock. You said they always go to the rock!” she said, turning to face Jenna. But then she remembered.
When we walked past the rock, there was no one around.
Adam nodded. “Most nights, they do. And you would never have been able to get past them.”
“Hey!” Alex protested.
Adam ignored her. “But tonight, they had a meeting with Dr. Steve.”
“Dr. Steve? As in, director of the camp Dr. Steve?” Sarah asked, a tinge of dread creeping into her voice.
Natalie understood why she sounded that way. Dr. Steve was very friendly—he made it a point to visit all the activities during the day, and to talk to all the campers—but he was not a pushover. And she didn’t think he’d be the kind to look the other way if he found out some campers had gone on a raid while their counselors were out.
“Well, no big deal, right?” came a voice from the corner.
Natalie whirled around to see Simon standing near the front door. He was wearing cut-off sweat pants and a T-shirt with Bart Simpson across the front.
He likes
The Simpsons
?
I
like
The Simpsons
,
Natalie thought.
We’re perfect for each other!
She realized she was spacing and forced herself to concentrate on what he was saying.
“All they have to do is get back before the meeting’s over, and Dr. Steve will never know,” he pointed out.
“Right,” Natalie said. “That makes sense. But it means we have to get going, like, now. If the counselors come back, that means the meeting’s over.”
“Duh,” Chelsea chimed in. Natalie instantly felt stupid for suggesting something so obvious.
“Well, she’s right,” Simon countered.
Natalie couldn’t believe it. Was Simon
defending
her? “Are you guys okay to clean up by yourselves?” she asked. She felt bad just leaving with everything such a mess.
Adam laughed. “No worries. It’s too bad, though—usually raids turn into parties. We would have shared some of our junk-food stash with you.”
“Next time,” Natalie said, smiling.
“Uh, you guys, there may be a little problem with the plan,” Alex said, breaking into the moment.
“Such as?” Jenna asked nervously.
“Such as, where’s Alyssa? Nat, wasn’t she supposed to come in first with you?”
Natalie glanced around the bunk nervously. Where
was
Alyssa, anyway? “Oh, no,” she groaned. “I told her not to wear flip-flops! What if she slipped outside or something?”
In a flash, Natalie and Alex dashed outside, where they immediately found Alyssa kneeled on the porch and clutching her shin.
“I’m the biggest klutz in the world,” Alyssa said sheepishly. “Look.” She extended her leg. “I
really
shouldn’t have worn flip-flops, Nat.”
Natalie gasped. “I won’t even say ‘I told you so,’” she promised. Alyssa had mangled her leg really badly. It was raw and oozing, and the ankle was looking a little bit puffy, as well. Alex and Natalie quickly helped her back into the bunk so that the group could assess the situation together.
“Oh, jeez. We need to take you to the infirmary and get that cleaned out,” Natalie said. “What if you sprained your ankle?”
“The infirmary’s closed,” Grace said. “Plan B?”
Natalie’s stomach turned over. “Uh, I think the only real plan B is to go find the counselors.” The thought was not appealing.
Jenna’s face went white. “We can’t! Julie will
kill
me!”
“Jenna, look at her leg!” Natalie pressed. “What would you rather we do?”
“I have some Band-Aids in the bunk,” Jenna offered.
“Jen, I’m sorry, but look at that. It’s, like, dripping, and not even ankle-shaped. I don’t think your Band-Aids are going to do the trick. Can you even walk on that, Alyssa?”
Alyssa leaned into her leg tentatively. “It’s sore,” she admitted.
Simon stepped forward. “Why don’t you let Nat and me walk you to find the counselors?” he suggested. “I mean, it was her idea, but you know, if you can’t walk or whatever, I could carry you better than she could.”
Natalie didn’t know if Alyssa really needed two personal escorts, but she wasn’t about to argue. Besides, how sweet was it of Simon to offer? “Sounds like a plan,” she said, crossing over to where Alyssa stood.
“That’s ridiculous,” Chelsea cut in. “Simon, I can go with you.”
Natalie seethed. How low could Chelsea stoop?
“It’s okay, Chelsea. It looks like Nat’s got this covered,” Simon insisted.
It was all Natalie could do not to stick out her tongue and do a little victory dance in Chelsea’s face.
Be the bigger person,
she reminded herself.
“Whatever,” Chelsea snapped.
Natalie decided to take charge. After all, Simon seemed to think that she knew what she was talking about. “Okay, um, Alyssa, why don’t you put one arm across my shoulder and one arm across Simon’s?”
Alyssa maneuvered forward and awkwardly draped one arm over each of them. The three of them hopped toward the front door like losers in a strange three-legged relay, when suddenly the door opened, and the overhead lights flew on. The room was blindingly bright.
“It’s the mother ship!” Grace shrieked.
“Shh!” Natalie said. “
So
not the time for jokes.”
“
What
is going on here?!”
It was Nate, the counselor for 3F. He didn’t look very pleased.
And standing beside him was Julie.
chapter NINE
“I can’t believe Julie let you off with just a warning!” Grace said, reaching over Natalie to grab the pitcher of milk that stood in the middle of the breakfast table.
“I know, she was really cool about it,” Jenna agreed. “But she was
not
pleased. She made it clear that this was my last get-out-of-jail-free.” She shook her head, causing her sandy ponytail to bob up and down. “I’m just relieved that Dr. Steve didn’t find out. If he had, I don’t think Julie would have been so understanding.”
“What did you even tell Nurse Helen, anyway, Alyssa?” Grace asked.
In the end, Julie had gone with Natalie and Alyssa to the nurse. They had explained that Alyssa had been “outside” and had tripped, and Nurse Helen had been good enough to leave it at that. She took a look at Alyssa’s ankle and declared it not sprained, cleaned it out, wrapped it in an Ace bandage, and sent the girls on their way. Today, Alyssa was still limping slightly, but was basically okay.
Just then, Simon walked to their table with a group of his friends.
“Hey!” Natalie called out, getting Simon’s attention. “Thanks for offering to help me take her. That was cool of you.”
“Oh, no problem. But you were awesome,” Simon said.
“Huh? What do you mean?” Natalie asked, surprised.
“Well, just the way that you took charge,” Simon explained. “You knew that the only answer was to go to the infirmary, even if it meant getting in trouble, and you were willing to go and accept the consequences. Not everyone would have done that.”
“Well, I mean, when your friend is practically an amputee,” Natalie joked, shrugging off the compliment.
“Come on, Nat. You would have done that no matter who was hurt,” Simon insisted. Natalie couldn’t decide which was more exciting—hearing Simon say such nice things about her—or the fact that he was calling her “Nat.” She liked hearing him use her nickname, like they were old friends.
“Excuse me, Simon,” Chelsea cut in. “But I believe the boys’ table is over there.” She pointed to the other side of the mess hall.
Natalie rolled her eyes as Simon walked off.
“I’m sure he’ll talk to you at the campout,” Alyssa whispered.
“The campout? That’s hardly going to be my finest hour!” Natalie groaned. She flung her head down onto the table in mock despair.
“You do realize you’re getting cornflakes in your hair,” Grace said dryly.
When breakfast was over, the girls slowly filed out of the mess hall. It was gray and overcast as the girls stepped outside.
“What do you think’s going on over
there
?” Brynn asked suddenly, stopping short.
Natalie glanced over to where Brynn was pointing, just a few paces in front of the mess hall. Sure enough, an enormous stretch limo idled on the dirt path, and in front of it stood a small entourage of rock-star types—a super-skinny blonde; a tall, beefy man in black; and a small, nervous, wiry type. From where she stood, Natalie couldn’t quite make out who the would-be celebrities were, especially since they were completely mobbed by campers. But she had some idea.
“Oh my God!” she heard one girl from an older division yell. “I LOVE you!”

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