Camp Forget-Me-Not (12 page)

“NIA!” Brooke screeched and her fan club scurried over, makeup bag in hand. “I need more blush. And where is my bowl of pink M&Ms?”

“Still working on that, Miss White.” Nia dabbed at Brooke’s cheeks while Nick looked on. He leaned against the piano, his lanky form drawing every female eye, including mine. He shook back his dark bangs, the move giving everyone a view of the angular, handsome face that papered billboards in Times Square.

Gollum shoved his video camera at Julian, whispered something, then hustled to the door. “I’ll get them, Miss White,” he called. “Emily, you’re in charge.”

Brooke ignored our camp director and knocked Nia’s hand away. “How am I supposed to work in these conditions?” she stormed. “You’re all useless!”

“Could you say that again for the benefit of our ‘making-of’ video,” drawled Julian, aiming Gollum’s camera in her direction. “I’m sure your fans will want to know the real Brooke White.”

Hannah’s laugh rang out, happy and sharp. “Exactly. Why should we be the only ones with that
privilege
?” I covered my mouth and held in a giggle. She really was funny. If only I dared friend this new Hannah.

Brooke blocked the camera with her hand and hissed, “Turn it off now, Julian.”

“Mr. Woodrow said to keep it rolling while he was gone.”

“Fine,” huffed Brooke. “Then record this. Nia, hit it.” Nia hooked an iPod to a small speaker and Brooke’s latest song, “Seven Minutes in Heaven” filled the room, the thumping beat drowning out the barely there lyrics. Brooke sat down at the piano and pantomimed hitting the keys, her mouth perfectly lip syncing the words. At one point she stood, took Nick’s hand, and pulled him close, kissing him long and deep.

I tried not to squirm as they did take after take of that shot, jealousy surging through me. I hated seeing Nick kiss another girl. And it didn’t help that every time they stopped, Brooke sent me a victorious smirk, followed by an almost apologetic stare from Nick. At one point, our eyes clung so long that Brooke grabbed Nick by the jaw and forced his face her way. “Hey. We could be here all night if you don’t put some real effort into this.”

I turned away when he raised an eyebrow at me. If he wanted my opinion or approval, I had no clue why. From the look of it, he wasn’t kissing her the way he’d kissed me. His hands stayed at his sides and his lips left hers the moment Julian yelled, “Cut.”

I wondered if the camera made him nervous, which seemed unlikely since he posed for it all the time, or self-conscious in front of everyone else. He used to be shy like me. Maybe some things about Nick had stayed the same.

“Last take.” Nick dipped Brooke low while the dancers whirled and grooved around them. I looked away, unable to bear seeing him with her anymore. Gollum caught me before I slipped outside.

“Now where are you going young lady? Miss White needs everyone’s help. Here at Juniper Point, we all pitch in. Although I still couldn’t find those pink M&Ms.”

I sighed. Yeah. I’m sure my contribution to the video was as important as the candy.

Nick straightened. “That’s a wrap.” He stalked away, leaving Brooke clutching the piano, her eyes unfocused.

“Wait, Nick,” she called when he reached the door, and me. “I still need you for the rest of the ‘Seven Minutes in Heaven’ part of the shoot. And we didn’t get a real kiss.”

Nick just stared at her.

Brooke cleared her throat. “But we can take a break and let another couple kiss.” Her eyes darted from me to Nick. “How about Cameron and Kayla?”

“I’m in!” Cameron fist-pumped the air, then raced around Nick to my side. “When do we start?”

I opened my mouth to protest, but Cameron’s lips mashed against mine, sucking the air out of me. I clutched his shoulders, lightheaded. “Can’t breathe,” I wanted to say, but his mouth blocked the way. Hoots, hollers, and stamping feet shook the building, and finally Cameron pulled back with a triumphant grin he aimed Nick’s way. As for me, one look at Nick’s thunderous expression had me heading out the door. Whatever he wanted to say, I didn’t want to hear.

“We need more takes,” protested Gollum. He cleared his throat and hoisted the camera to his shoulder. “Not that I approve of all this kissing, but because it’s for the video, then I suppose this one time.”

“Can’t Brittany and Eli do it?” I asked Brooke, who now snuggled against Nick and stroked the side of his tense face.

“They’re after you and Cam, duh. And get some makeup on.” Brooke gestured to Nia, who scurried over, lipstick in hand.

“What’s the matter, babe?” Cameron laced his fingers in mine and led me to the hair and makeup station. Nia trailed behind us. “You’re my girlfriend, so it’s cool.”

A slammed door made me glance up. Nick was gone.

“What’s his deal?” Rachel brushed my hair smooth, her tugs nearly snapping my neck and causing Nia to smear lipstick on my teeth. “He looked really jealous of you and Cameron.”

Before I could process what she’d said, Brooke joined us, gloating. “He’s so totally into me that he went back to my cabin to find my pink M&Ms.” Her nose wrinkled as she looked me up and down. “Don’t you have anything cuter than a blue tank and khaki shorts?”

I checked out my outfit. I was not a flashy girl, but my clothes were fine.

“Kayla looks super cute in anything.” Brittany bounced up, pulling her ponytail tighter. “We all know she’s the prettiest in the cabin. Sorry, Brooke.”

What? Brittany was ten times prettier than me, but that wasn’t what surprised me so much as her taking Brooke down a notch. Had she done that on purpose? Sometimes Britt hid behind that ditzy girl reputation.

Brooke’s face flushed beneath her makeup. “That’s your opinion. Plus
I
have talent. What’s Kayla got?”

My stomach clenched even as Brittany bragged about my talents at Ping-Pong.

But then, Hannah and Julian leaned into the conversation.

“Check this out.” Julian showed us the small video screen on the back of the camera and hit the play button. Cameron and I appeared, making out like it was the last kiss before the apocalypse. I peered at the image, my gaze drawn to a scowling Nick pacing in the background.

“Kayla is very photogenic,” proclaimed Hannah, her voice firm and full of authority. “She should be a model.”

I laughed at the crazy idea, but no one joined me. Instead the group crowded closer to the camera as Julian hit replay. Their heads swiveled from the screen to me and then back again. I clasped my damp palms and wished I could conjure a hole in the floor.

“Whoa. She could be in movies.”

“Hot.” This from Cameron.

“Supa-star.” Emily fluttered her fingers over my head like a jazz-hands version of voodoo.

“You have to have talent for that,” Brooke huffed and punched off the video. “More than just looking good.”

Seeing myself on film felt strange; what I saw did not match up with my image of myself. In my mind, I was always battling those last few pounds that had plagued me in junior high. But I didn’t see chipmunk cheeks and curvy thighs on the video camera. Still, I wasn’t comfortable in the spotlight, even if I didn’t look like a train wreck.

“Folks, we’re wasting time here. Can we get a real shot of Cameron and Kayla kissing?” Gollum pointed from the couch to us. “Over there.”

“Actually,” Brooke cut in. “I’ve decided that shot doesn’t work for me creatively. I’m putting Eli and Brittany there instead and Rafe and Siobhan by the ficus tree.”

The couple emerged from behind the tall plant, red-faced, Siobhan pulling a penguin hat over her mussed hair.

Relief washed over me as the spotlight moved away from me. I didn’t want to kiss Cameron or be in a Brooke White video, and now I was off the hook. I joined Alex by the back window and hip-bumped with her along to Brooke’s new tune. Maybe hearing it for the thousandth time today had us brainwashed.

“Did you ask Nick to switch partners for the CIT program?” I asked, twirling a little as we changed places. Dancing was fun, especially when no one was watching. But then I looked up and caught sight of Nick. His broad shoulders filled the doorway, a bag of pink candy in hand, his eyes searching, then stopping on me. I used to know what he thought before he said it. Now his face gave nothing away.

Alex whipped her hair back and forth, arms overhead. “He won’t change partners. Weird, considering he supposedly hates you.”

I turned my back on Nick and faced Alex. “So I’m stuck with him?”

“Do you really think he doesn’t like you?” Alex stopped dancing and brushed her damp hair off her forehead. “Because he’s, like, always looking at you.”

“He’s trying to intimidate me.”

Alex shrugged and started dancing again. “There’s only one way to find out.”

“How?”

“Spend the rest of summer as his CIT partner.”

I groaned, imagining him as my partner in every way but the one that counted. “I’ll drop out.”

Alex put her arms around me and slow danced me into a corner, then stopped. “Tell me the truth. You don’t want to try at all? See if you guys could get back together? He may not like you now, but that doesn’t mean he won’t change his mind when he spends more time with you.”

“How about a Cam sandwich?” Cameron wriggled his way between us.

Alex pushed him away. “Sorry. This dance is mine.”

“Not trying to make me jealous are you?” he joked, but I wasn’t laughing.

I glared. “First of all, I’m not your girlfriend, so stop acting like I am. And secondly, don’t kiss me again unless I ask you to.”

Cameron threw up his hands and backed away. “Didn’t know this was PMS central.”

Alex and I stared at him, open-mouthed.

“Oh, no, he didn’t,” spoke up Emily beside us. “I’m over men using that as an excuse for our assertive behavior…and binge-eating.” She held out a bag of popcorn. “Want some?”

“No thanks, Em. I’m done with the boy-drama for today. Thanks for trying to help me, but I think I’m going to pass on the program.”

Alex and Emily frowned, their expressions perfect mirrors of one another. I had to give them props, though—they didn’t try to change my mind.

I waved at them over my shoulder and pushed my way past Cameron, through the throng, and out the door.

My flashlight blinked on and startled Nick who’d been standing on the lower step, his head tipped back, eyes on the stars.

“Leaving already? It looked like you were having a good time in there.”

“What do you care?” I spit my words out. They tasted as bitter as I felt. What was it about Nick that made it impossible to bury my emotions where they belonged?

“Oh, I care. Though I wish to hell I didn’t.”

I stepped back and gripped the wooden rail. “I think you should get over yourself, Nick. You’ve got Brooke, so stop making my life miserable with your games.”

Nick looked like I’d slapped him. “Is that what I’m doing? Making
your
life miserable?”

I almost laughed at his innocent act. No way was I going to give him the satisfaction he wanted. “You don’t even have to do anything. Just you being here is making my life hell.”

“Guess some things haven’t changed in three years,” he muttered, having the nerve to look as though I hurt him.

I sprinted down the steps and made it to my cabin a couple minutes later, my mind replaying the look on Nick’s face. He had no right to act wounded. If he could dish it out, then he should be able to take it.

I jogged up my porch steps, then froze when a moon ray caught the flutter of a piece of paper tacked to our lower railing.

Nick.

The note tore as I snatched it loose. My flashlight illuminated the single line of text.

Seven minutes in heaven wasn’t enough.—Nick

I crumbled the paper and stopped myself before throwing it into the dark. Someone might find it. I shoved it in my shorts pocket, then flung myself inside and onto my bunk.

Was he rubbing my nose in the fact he’d spent most of tonight making out during Brooke’s “Seven Minutes in Heaven” video? Heaven. Hah.

I grabbed a note sheet, scrawled a reply, then sprinted to his deserted cabin. They must still be at the shoot. I could just imagine Nick kissing Brooke again, and the thought made me ram the thumbtack hard enough that it slipped and stabbed my finger instead of the paper. I sucked the blood beading on my pinky, then secured the note that said:

It’s not heaven to me. – Kayla

Like I’d told him, he’d turned my summer into hell.

But that kiss in the refrigerator, a voice whispered, remember how happy you were? I pushed the unwelcome thought aside and trudged home. Should I let him dictate the rest of my summer? Keep me from doing my CIT training and returning as a counselor? It didn’t seem fair. I might be miserable working with him, but I’d ignore him. Do it for myself. That’s what counted, no matter how unhappy I felt.

Inside my cabin, I changed, got under the covers, and turned over, thumping my pillow.

Happiness had an expiration date. Especially with Nick.

Chapter Six

“Kennedi?” I repeated the next morning and looked up from my clipboard. I surveyed the middler campers in my charge for today’s hike and came up short by one. How had the group of eight assembled in front of their cabin, Mermaids’ Landing, become seven? The pen slipped in my damp palm and fell, panic shivering along my spine despite the humid morning. It was my first day as a counselor-in-training, and I’d already managed to lose a child. Had she slipped away when my co-leader, the Mermaids’ regular counselor, Amanda, left to get the group’s bag lunches?

A thin girl with waist-length black hair picked up the pen and pointed toward a group of approaching boys. “She’s over there.”

“Thanks, Soraya,” I choked out, relief warring with alarm as I caught sight of Nick leading a small group our way, a young girl dressed in head-to-toe pink jogging by his side. Kennedi, I supposed.

“Missing someone?” Nick’s gaze sparkled when he reached me, his mouth in a smirk.

“Not anymore,” I bit out, trying not to look into Nick’s eyes; it made me feel faint. “Kennedi, don’t leave this group without permission again, okay?”

The girl continued to stare up at Nick, her mouth open.