Camp Forget-Me-Not (9 page)

After splashing my flushed face and neck, I flopped down on a raised, oval-shaped rock and pulled Nick’s creased blue note out of my shorts pocket. My eyes lingered for the bajillionth time on “Yours, Nick,” the same lightness overtaking me at words that could mean so little or so much.

I didn’t know how he felt, so I hadn’t written back. Besides, even if I wanted to start something with Nick… obviously, I couldn’t. Brooke was mean enough to Hannah. If she thought for a second that I was trying to steal her man? Hell hath no fury like a YouTube sensation scorned. Or something like that.

A stuttering whistle broke the quiet as a kingfisher glided to the shoreline. It cocked its blue-feathered head at me before scuttling along the beach, searching out breakfast. It dismissed me as easily as humans did.

In fact, I was pretty sure I saw one of the Munchies’ Manor girls on the beach when I’d first arrived this morning, but she’d been so intent on meeting a boy, she hadn’t even noticed me. Who knew Trinity—the astrology-obsessed artist with a notorious crush on an older boy—would land the crush of her dreams? I was ninety-nine percent sure she met the camp owners’ grandson, Seth Reines, in the woods just before sunrise. Last summer, Seth had been all eyes for Lauren Carlson, a Munchies’ Manor girl who fell for her school boyfriend instead. Now Seth looked plenty happy with Trinity.

Anyway, they never saw me. I’d read a book once about a girl who called herself wallpaper. I knew exactly what she meant. I was the backdrop to everyone else’s lives, their peripheral vision.

“Kayla, is that you?” called a familiar voice. I sat up and peered in the strengthening sunlight at two jogging figures.

“Alex? Emily?”

Two straight cartwheels sent the Munchies’ Manor counselor, Emily, to a tumbling stop at my feet. One of the cabin’s campers, Alex, slowed and brushed back her damp, auburn-streaked hair. She took the water bottle Emily pulled from her hip pack and chugged before giving me a nod and smile.

“What’s up, home girl?” Emily handed me a squashed granola bar. “Hungry?”

“No, thanks.” I passed it back, stood, and brushed the sand from my shorts. “I’m going to breakfast soon. Victoria might be looking for me.”

Emily’s gums flashed, her bark of laughter sending the kingfisher flying. “Victoria? Puh-lease.” She sat and pulled me down beside her. Alex squished in on my right side.

O-kay. So much for being wallpaper. I was currently the main attraction. Since we barely fit on the rock, I was doubly glad I’d turned down last night’s dessert. Being regular-sized meant less people noticed you—a plan that usually worked, until now.

“So what are you doing out here? Didn’t think the Divas got up this early.” The way Alex said it, with the corners of her mouth curled up, her green eyes twinkling, made it sound less mean. In fact, this was the happiest I’d seen her since her boyfriend left camp last week.

“We don’t do everything together.” Or at least, I wished we didn’t. It was one of the reasons I’d snuck out this morning.

“You don’t tell each other everything either, I bet,” murmured Emily, her eyes scanning over a blue paper scrap. My note! I must have handed it to her with the granola bar.

“I need that back.” I grabbed the paper and stuffed it in my pocket. “And please don’t say anything, Emily.”

“Say anything about what?” Alex’s smile faded, and concern pinched a line between her wide-spaced eyes.

“That Kayla and Nick are writing notes.”

“What?!” Alex jumped off the rock and grabbed my clammy hands. “That’s awesome. Are you two friends again? I hated seeing how upset he was that year when you were so—”

“Ancient history, Alex,” Emily interrupted. “Remember our seminar…let your future guide your present, not your past.”

Emily was leading a personal growth and development workshop this summer. She’d also come up with this cool idea for all of us to wear Secret Camp Angel bracelets that had one camper’s name written on a piece of paper tucked inside the lanyard. I was Brittany’s secret angel, and I was supposed to give her gifts and do nice things for her. I had no idea who my angel was, but I’d gotten a cute Santa hat from them, which was going to be great for the Christmas-themed dance later this summer.

“Oh. Right.” Alex looked thoughtful, then popped in a piece of gum after offering me a slice. “I think about that whenever I miss Javier too much. Now that you and Nick are back together, at least you guys will have a fun summer.”

I couldn’t stop a short, bitter laugh from escaping or the wet gathering at the corners of my eyes. Small hands gripped mine.

Alex sat back down. “Kayla, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing.” Emily squeezed my knee. “You can tell us.”

“Yeah. It’s not like we’re friends with the Divas.” Alex coughed. “I mean, you’re the only one we talk to over there. So we’re neutral.”

“Like Sweden. Look, I’m even wearing clogs.” Emily slid her heels out of her sneakers and lifted her feet.

“It’s Switzerland, Em. Jeez.”

“Right. Like there’s a difference? Anywho, can we focus on Kayla here?”

“Can we not and say we did?” I burst out.

Alex’s giggle made me clap a hand over my mouth. Had I actually said that out loud? She gave me a little shove.

“Spill it, girl, or we’ll have to go straight to Nick.” I must have paled because she gripped my hands tighter. “Kidding. But seriously, what’s up?”

Something in their sincere, caring expressions made my resistance crumble. Or maybe I just really needed to talk. I missed my mom. Missed home. And I still missed Nick. I needed friends. Ones I could trust.

“Nick acts like he doesn’t know I exist half the time and the other times, he and Brooke are all over each other.” My voice ended on a hiccupping sob, each word a painful piece of me that I’d kept inside too long.

Emily rubbed my back. “Boys suck. He won’t forgive you at all? Maybe in the past you used to be a—”

“—little misguided,” Alex cut her off with a warning look. “But he needs to get over it. Shame on him if he won’t accept your apology.”

I looked down at my toes shifting through the sand. Oh crap.

“You did apologize. Right, Kayla?” Alex pushed aside the hair hiding my face.

“Of course she did, Alex. Do you think she’s an idiot?”

Suddenly, I couldn’t take their questions. I flung myself off the rock, backed up a few paces, and stood, trembling, lava-hot anger running through me.

“Yes. I’m an idiot! Okay? But he’s been a jerk, too. How am I supposed to tell him the truth when he makes me feel like it wouldn’t matter anyway?”

“Does it matter to you?”

Emily’s quiet question was magic. It made my anger disappear. A deep sadness rose in its place, and my eyes overflowed. In the distance, the wake-up bell blared.

Still, they must have heard me when I choked out, “Yes.”

Their arms circled me.

“Then we need a plan.” Alex’s voice turned fierce, and when I looked at her, the lost expression she’d had since Javier left had vanished.

“Let’s meet tomorrow morning and talk more.” Emily peered through the trees at the sounds of cabin doors opening and closing and children’s voices calling to one another. “We’ll recon at o-six-hundred hours tomorrow and strategize how to take down this Björk girl.”

Alex snorted. “It’s Brooke, not Björk. Isn’t she a Swedish singer? My mom was into her.”

Emily’s nose lifted. “Icelandic, actually. You really should know your geography.”

I couldn’t help but smile. What a pair.

“Seriously, guys. You don’t need to get involved.”

“Oh, we’re in it now. See you tomorrow, Kayla. And don’t forget to sign up for the Counselor-in-Training program. It’ll be fun to whip the new campers into shape.” Alex gave me a final squeeze, then pulled back. “I thought the rest of this summer was going to suck, but I love a little extra drama!”

“Shhhhhhhhhh,” someone hissed later that night. A chorus of giggles quieted. “Gollum will hear and we won’t get in the CIT program.”

“Puh-lease. Like that’s even a question. Besides, I asked him to write me some song lyrics when I stopped by his office to swipe his kitchen key,” spoke another voice in the dark, the nasal tone unmistakably Brooke’s.

White glow-in-the-dark fangs flashed beside me. Brittany. “Are you really letting him write your next song?”

A shadowy form, Brooke’s, bumped into Brittany as we felt our way through the moonless night toward the mess hall.

“You’re joking, right?”

“Could be interesting,” Cameron whispered behind us. “Wonder what he’d write about.” His hand steadied me when my feet sank into a needle-covered ground depression.

“His Precioussssssssss,” hissed Eli, stepping ahead of us and halting our midnight raid. “I looooooooove you, my Preciousssssss. You are so shinnnnnnnnny. Your voice so truuuuuuuue. When I put my lips on yoooooooouuuuuuu…”

Our laughter drowned out whatever he was about to sing next. I glanced at Gollum’s cabin light winking through the trees and imagined him crouched over his desk, humming away, writing lyrics that would keep him too busy to notice our midnight kitchen raid. Since Rob had gone out again—things were looking serious with his latest girlfriend—and Victoria was asleep by nine, we’d had no problem in coordinating our stealth attack on Juniper Point’s fudge pop supply.

“Here it is,” called Nick’s deep voice somewhere ahead. His flashlight blared on and passed over us before lingering on me with blinding intensity. “Everyone’s accounted for.” He clicked off the light and unlocked the door.

“Thanks, Nick.” Brooke must have paused to kiss him because I bumped into her and stumbled off-balance. Nick’s hands gripped my waist and I tensed.

“It’s me!” I hissed in his ear, giving him a shove.

He let me go and said, loudly, “Careful.”

“Yeah.” Brooke’s glow-in-the-dark, fluorescent pink nails tapped against her hips. “Can’t have a klutz in my video. Right, Nick?”

“Kayla isn’t Brooke White video material,” he muttered and let the door close behind us after everyone found their way inside the dark space. “She’s too good for it,” I thought I heard him mumble to himself, his voice pitched too low for me to hear well.

I flinched at Brooke’s giggle. She certainly hadn’t heard his second comment, so maybe I had imagined it.

“Oh, Nicky, take that back.” She swatted his arm.

“Yeah, Nick. That’s my girl you’re putting down.” Cameron spoke up beside me. I opened my mouth to deny I was “his girl,” but Nick interrupted.

“It was a fact. Not a putdown.”

His words stung, as did the reminder that I would never fit in. Anywhere. Especially in Nick’s new world.

Something tall and silver gleamed across the room.

“YES! I call the first fudge pop!” Rachel raced ahead. We heard a loud thump followed by the clatter of pans against the floor punctuated by an “ouch!”

“That’s what you get for being greedy,” giggled Brittany.

“Well, if someone would put a light on in here.” Rachel grumped. She stood in front of the walk-in freezer, one hand on the handle, the other rubbing her knee.

“Can’t risk it, but take this.” Nick passed her the flashlight, and we all watched in wonder as the gates to unlimited fudge pops were opened and illuminated.

“There they are!” Cameron grabbed a labeled box off the shelf. I shivered and backed out of the cold space, a hard chest and a firm hand around my waist stopping me.

“You don’t like small spaces.” His husky whisper and touch made me shiver. Guys who hated you didn’t touch you like that.

“You remembered.” I kept a careful eye on the group, especially Brooke, as they crowded around the box while Nick and I stayed in the shadows. She’d nearly scratched my face off in a play fight. What would she do in a real one over a guy she liked? Yet I couldn’t move away from Nick, especially when his subtle cologne made every breath about him.

His lips moved against my ear. “I remember everything.”

For a moment, his head rested against mine before he stepped around me and joined the group. I pressed a hand to my twisting stomach, my whirling emotions making my head spin.

“Kayla, where are you going?” Brittany called, halting my rush outside. Her fangs were now smeared with chocolate, but her white-blonde hair was a dead giveaway in the low light. Something cold was pushed in my hand. “You can’t leave. There’s like a hundred pops in there. Plus Brooke’s got an idea for a game.”

Brittany pulled my arms until I gave in and followed everyone to an open prep space by the ovens. We knelt on the cool tile, forming a rough circle, Brooke, of course in the middle.

She clapped her hands softly. “Okay. So I have this super-cute idea for my video and I want to try it out. It’s called ‘Spin the Flashlight’. We blindfold someone and put him, I mean them, in the walk-in with the light turned off.”

Cameron pointed his pop at Brooke. “We’ll freeze.”

Brooke tapped her wedge sandals. “Duh. Not the freezer. The walk-in refrigerator. On a hot summer night like this, I think we’d all like seven minutes in that heaven.”

Ugh. Were we really playing a middle school game? I’d love to get out of this humidity, too, but not at the risk of more boy-drama.