Camp Confidential 05 - TTYL (10 page)

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Authors: Melissa J Morgan

BOOK: Camp Confidential 05 - TTYL
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She looked over at Adam, who was slowly shaking his head at her. He could always tell when she had something up her sleeve. Narrowing her eyes, Jenna added, “I hope Helen is back in math today . . . we were going to work together on a project.”
Their mom stood up from the table and began clearing away the breakfast dishes. Jenna walked through the living room and into the entrance hall, where her shoes and backpack were. She knelt down to slip on her sneakers and tied the laces into double knots. As she was straightening up and sliding her backpack onto her shoulders, Adam walked into the hallway.
“Are you faking?” he accused her.
“I’m not!” Jenna replied defensively. She pushed her hair out of her eyes. “I am feeling sick.”
“That was the worst cough I’ve ever heard in my life,” Adam said. He bent down to put on his sneakers. “If this is just another prank—if you’re trying to get out of going to Dad’s so you can go to Nicole’s party—well, I don’t think it’s gonna fly. Mom wasn’t born yesterday.”
“I’m not!” Jenna exclaimed angrily. “I am feeling sick!”
The jingle of their mom’s car keys floated in from the living room. Jenna lowered her voice. “Anyway, just stay out of it, Adam,” she said. “I don’t feel well and you’re making me feel worse.”
Adam stood up and put on his backpack. “You’ll feel even worse if you have to stay home all weekend and Mom doesn’t let you go out on Saturday because you’re sick,” he pointed out. “Just wait.”
“Wait for what?” their mom said, entering the room. She shrugged her black trench coat on. “Ready?”
“Nothing, Mom,” Jenna said. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
“Me too,” Adam said. “Let’s go.”
Their mom walked out the front door, and Adam and Jenna followed. Jenna let the door slam softly as she closed it. She walked down the driveway and got into the backseat of her mom’s SUV.
Jenna didn’t talk to her brother on the ride to school, and when their mom pulled up in front of the school building, she jumped out of the car, yelling a quick good-bye and adding a small cough for good measure. Without waiting for Adam, she ran into the building.
She had a few minutes before she had to be in homeroom, so Jenna walked to the library. The night before, she’d gotten excited about Natalie’s posting on the blog. She was so happy to be part of the book club. She browsed through the library’s stacks, and finally found
The Pinballs
and checked it out at the desk. “Great book!” the librarian, a tall, slender woman with curly black hair, said.
“I’m reading it with some friends,” Jenna told her.
“That’s great!” the librarian responded. “I’m in a book club, too.”
“Really?” Jenna asked. “Is it fun?”
“Definitely,” the librarian said happily. “We get together, eat snacks, and talk about books—it’s great!” She laughed, and Jenna laughed with her.
“Well, my book club is over the Internet,” Jenna admitted. “But I’m excited for it to start. I’d better go. I’ll be late to class!”
“Enjoy the book,” the librarian told her.
Jenna stopped by her locker to drop off her bag. She planned on bringing the book to homeroom, so she could get a head start. On her way to the classroom, Nicole ran up to her.
“Hey, Jen!” Nicole said, falling into step beside Jenna.
“Hi!” Jenna replied.
“Did you talk to your mom about this weekend?” Nicole asked, stepping out of the way of some boys walking in a pack down the hall.
“No . . .” Jenna said impishly. “But . . . I did start coughing a lot!” She laughed as Nicole’s eyes lit up.
“You did? Do you think she bought it?”
“Yeah, totally. I told her some of my friends at school were sick.” They stopped outside Jenna’s homeroom. “See you at lunch?”
“Definitely! See you later!” Nicole said. “Bye!”
A strange feeling of guilt crept into Jenna’s stomach. She knew that a few faked coughs weren’t exactly lies, but they weren’t telling the truth, either. Was it worth it, just to go to a party? She hated to lie, but she also hated the idea that everyone would be hanging out without her. Maybe Adam was on to something—not with dropping it, of course, but with thinking of it as just another prank. Pranks were harmless, right? Except for that one at Lakeview that didn’t go exactly as planned. . . .
She pushed the bad feeling out of her mind and walked into homeroom just in time for roll call.
chapter
SIX
Natalie>
TUESDAY
After school, Natalie found Hannah at her locker. They hadn’t talked to each other the day before, and Nat really hoped Hannah wasn’t still upset about the school dance. “Hey, Han,” she said tentatively.
Hannah smiled and closed her locker. “Hi, Natalie.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about Friday. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble with Kyle. I was just having a bad day.”
“It’s okay,” Natalie said. “I talked to Kyle after you left. So everything is fine with me and him. I just hope everything is okay with me and you!”
“It is,” Hannah said. “Want to walk home together?”
“Of course,” Natalie said, feeling hugely relieved. “Let’s go!”
“I mean, ever since that day when we bumped into each other in the mess hall at camp, Simon and I hung out all the time,” Natalie said as she and Hannah slowly walked up Fifth Avenue. “So I don’t understand why he hasn’t called, or e-mailed, or anything!”
“Yeah, that’s weird,” Hannah said, slowing to peek into a store window displaying lots of colorful bags and shoes.
“I would call him, of course,” Natalie went on, “but I don’t want to be too pushy. And I did send him an e-mail right after we got back from camp, but I haven’t heard anything.”
The girls came to a crosswalk and waited for the light to change. “I don’t think you should worry, Nat,” Hannah said.
As the “don’t walk” signal changed, they stepped into the street. “Yeah. And now that I think about it, Jenna did tell me that her brother talked to Simon—they were in the same bunk—after we got back from camp, and he said that he misses me. Which just makes this more confusing, really, right? If he misses me, why doesn’t he call? And if he doesn’t miss me, why did he say that he did?”
“Why don’t you just call him?” Hannah asked. “Oooh, let’s get ice cream!” She stopped outside the ice cream store’s window. “They have coconut today! Our favorite!”
“Okay!” Natalie exclaimed.
They went into the shop and ordered two small cones of coconut—with chocolate sprinkles, of course—from the man standing behind the counter. While they waited for him to scoop their ice cream, Hannah said, “I didn’t even ask you how the rest of the dance went on Friday.”
Natalie looked at her. “Uh . . . I left right after you did, Hannah,” she said slowly.
“You did? Why?”
“After we had that talk, I didn’t feel like staying,” Natalie admitted. She looked down at the floor.
“Okay, girls, two coconut cones, chocolate sprinkles. That’ll be four dollars,” the old man behind the counter said. He smiled at them.
Natalie pulled a five-dollar bill out of her purse. “You can pay me back later,” she said to Hannah. She handed over the bill and got a dollar in return, which she shoved into the man’s tip jar.
“Good-bye, ladies!” he said.
They left, and the bell over the door jingled as the door swung shut.
In the street, they paused to take bites of their ice cream before continuing to walk uptown along the avenue. “So . . . why’d you leave, Nat?” Hannah said tentatively. “The dance, I mean.”
“Because my best friend left!” Natalie exclaimed.
“Right,” Hannah replied sheepishly. She licked her ice cream. “I guess it was pretty silly of me to get so upset that you were going to ditch me for a boy.”
“It was,” Natalie said, mock-sternly. “And anyway, it was two boys.”
Natalie was home that evening relaxing when her cell phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number on the caller ID.
“Hello?” Natalie said.
“Hi, Nat,” a boy’s voice said on the other end.
“Hi . . . who’s this?”
“It’s Kyle,” he said. “I’m calling from my mom’s phone since mine is out of batteries.”
“Hey, Kyle, what’s up?” Natalie said, feeling nervous and excited. A phone call from a boy! This was huge!
“Uh,” Kyle paused. “I was calling to ask if you want to go Rollerblading in the park tomorrow, but if you have plans or you don’t want to, it’s okay, and maybe I’ll just see you at school then,” he continued, not taking a breath as he rattled off his words.
Natalie laughed. “I’d love to go Rollerblading tomorrow!”
“You would?” Kyle said, surprised.
“Definitely!” Nat replied. “I love Rollerblading.”
“You do?” Kyle stammered. “Um . . . cool! So, I was thinking we could just go after school, and maybe we could get ice cream or something, and then since I live near you I would walk you home.”
“Sounds great, Kyle . . . I’ll see you at school tomorrow!” Natalie was excited already.
“Cool. Bye, Nat,” Kyle said.
“Bye!”
I can’t believe it! A date with Kyle!
she thought excitedly.
Better call Hannah to plan my outfit!
But as she picked up her cell phone to punch in Hannah’s number, she started to have second thoughts. She and Hannah had just made up that afternoon—the whole dating thing might still be a sore topic. The idea of having to keep her first date—her first date!—to herself was totally depressing, but she knew it was the right thing to do for now.
I’m still waiting from the phone call from Simon,
Natalie realized. Was it really worth it?
To: MarissaRox
From: NatalieNYC
Subject: help . . .
 
hey, marissa—
i am desperate for some advice from someone older and wiser (and cooler!), like yourself. my best friend, hannah, has been acting really weird since i got home. she keeps making snide comments about me liking two boys at once (simon, obviously, and kyle, from school).
on friday at the dance, kyle overheard hannah talking about simon. i smoothed it over, though, and told him i didn’t have any boyfriends at all. and today, kyle called and asked me to go rollerblading with him in central park tomorrow, and hannah got really mad at me and said that i was acting like she wasn’t important. then she stormed out. i don’t know what to do. can you help?

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