Camp Forget-Me-Not (16 page)

“Oh, Nicky!” Brooke clutched the paper to her chest, plastering it to her heart. “That’s the sweetest thing to say.”

She wrapped him in another bear hug, pinning the note between their bodies as she squeezed him tight.

Over her shoulder, Nick’s gaze met mine, but I couldn’t read his expression. Triumph? Was this another way to win the weird battle we were locked in? Or was he sorry that the nice words he’d intended for me went to another girl?

I tore my eyes away from his, forcing myself to think about anything but him. The dance. The stuff I wanted to teach the Mermaids. Emily’s class. Calling my mom on Sunday to see how things were going in the Hamptons.

“Tough to respect a guy who doesn’t see what a phony she is,” Rachel pointed out behind me.

“It’s her rack,” Brittany suggested.

Beside her, Eli nodded his agreement.

Cam shrugged helplessly.

“Are you sure it’s not her talent?” I asked through clenched teeth.

Cam snorted. “Good one, babe.”

Late that night, I watched the skinny crescent moon out our cabin window and wondered how I’d ever get to sleep. Had Nick written something nice to me that got intercepted?

Or was he moving on?

I shouldn’t care, but no matter how many times I told myself that, I did. Then, just when I thought I’d finally put it out of my head and was going to fall asleep, I heard the screen door on our cabin open. Someone sneaking out. Rolling onto my side to peer out the window, I spotted bright blonde hair in the moonlight.

Brooke was out of bed and on the prowl. And I had a good idea who she was meeting.

Chapter Eight

“Ho, ho, ho!” Emily exclaimed as Rachel, Brittany, and I arrived at the dance the next night. “And I’m not talking about your outfits.” She rang her jingle bell bracelet by waving madly at us. “It’s Christmas at camp!”

“Hello? We’re
elves
, not hos!” Brittany tugged at her short skirt and rolled her eyes, nearly losing a false eyelash. “Big dif.”

Emily smiled. “Got it. Happy holiday, home girls!”

And it was. Despite my dread at seeing Nick, my spirits lifted. I gaped at the transformed mess hall as we sauntered inside, the bells we’d glued onto our wedge sandals jingling.

I returned Hannah’s wave as she and Julian stood in the center of the room beside a large, fake fir tree smothered in sprayed-on white foam, twinkle lights, homemade ornaments, and paper chains. With their matching ski hats and goggles, they looked right at home in this winter wonderland.

Along the walls, kids picked at the white Styrofoam packing peanuts glued together to resemble snow drifts. They pried loose handfuls and chucked them like snowballs, the area resembling a snow globe with white bits filtering through the air.

In a corner glowed a plastic snowman, his hat twirling in time to “Jingle Bell Rock.” I tugged at the white-lined collar of the green velvet dress I’d packed ahead of time for the dance and searched out the refreshments. A cool drink would feel good, despite the air conditioning they piped in for the occasion. Luckily, a large bowl full of eggnog sat beside a gingerbread house on a red cloth-covered table nearby.

“Ooo, let’s get our picture taken. Come on.” Brittany yanked my hand, and I grabbed hold of my slipping Santa hat as I followed her to a large, wooden sleigh that looked too old to be anything but the real deal.

“Cool.” Rachel applied peppermint-scented lip gloss and handed it to me. “The party looks awesome.”

“How long before Miss Thang will be done with her photo shoot?” Brittany nudged me, and I watched as Brooke, decked out in a super-short white nightie with a matching bow and ballerina shoes, kneeled on the sleigh seat and blew kisses into the camera.

“When the camera breaks,” Hannah spoke behind us, joining our group. She pushed up her goggles and squinted at Brooke’s struggling sidekick. “Or Nia does.”

Brittany and Rachel surprised me by laughing along with Hannah instead of ignoring her. Meanwhile, Nia scurried around Brooke, dressed in some kind of mouse outfit that could have belonged in a
Nutcracker
production. She smoothed back Brooke’s hair, coughing through the cloud of hairspray even as she applied it.

“We have got to rescue that girl,” Hannah murmured over the sound of an old-school Bing Crosby song.

Rachel’s reindeer headband dipped in agreement.

“When I give the word, it’s Operation Nia time.” Hannah pinned us with one of her authoritative looks. “Got it?”

And just like that, we were the old Divas, all of us nodding along to another Hannah command. Only this time it was for good, not evil. Better yet, I was fully accepted. In the group. Not on the outside. Not even close. For the first time since coming to camp this year, it felt like home, but better.

“So what’s the word?” Brittany twirled the tinsel extension she’d clipped in her hair.

Hannah rolled her eyes. “How about ‘rescue’?”

Brittany sighed. “I like ‘Twizzlers’ but whatev.” She cocked her head to the side as the opening beat of another tune began. “Ohmigod, I love this song!” She raced onto the dance floor when “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” blared. “Hurry!”

I gave a narrow-eyed Hannah a reassuring nod, mouthed “promise,” then followed Rachel. I did feel sorry for Nia and was all-in when Hannah gave the word for us to strike, but after Brooke’s note and her midnight sneak-out, I couldn’t stand being around her. At least Nick and his crew hadn’t arrived yet. I crossed my fingers. Maybe they wouldn’t come at all.

But a few songs later, I didn’t get my Christmas wish. The Warriors’ strode in wearing the tackiest holiday sweaters I’d ever seen and Nick’s was the worst of all. Or the funniest, given the laughs they earned. A Rudolph head with a blinking nose covered most of his chest, the rest of the pullover made out of some kind of woven silver-and-gold thread.

I tried not to meet Nick’s eye as the boys did He-Man poses in their crazy outfits by the tree, making most of the dancers stop and applaud.

“Nick!” shrieked Brooke. “Get over here! I need a picture with you!”

But the guys shrugged off their sweaters to reveal regular T-shirts and joined us instead. Eli twirled Brittany under the soft lights, body glitter making her sparkle like an ornament. Jake jumped in front of Rachel and gyrated his hips to Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas.” Meanwhile, Cameron eyed me like I was the last cookie on the platter. Not wanting to dance with him or see Nick and Brooke cuddle on the sleigh, I pushed my way to the eggnog punch.

As I passed an open doorway, a hand snaked around my waist and pulled me outside into the cooler night air.

I whirled. “Cameron, I don’t want to—oh…” I blinked up, surprised. “You.”

“Me,” Nick murmured, his light hazel eyes aglow in the faint moonlight. He twined his hand in mine and led me deeper into the shadows.

Too shocked to protest, I followed. What could he possibly have to say? What more games did he have left?

“Enough, Nick.” I jerked my hand free. “I already said I was sorry and I’m not going to be your little toy any—”

His index finger pressed against my lips, stopping my rant. “You’re not my toy.” He stepped so close that I could breathe in the masculine scent of him, feel his warmth radiating across the finger’s breadth of space between us. “I wanted to tell you that the note was for you. Not Brooke.”

Oh.

He lowered his hand, and I stood there, speechless. Why would he write me? What kind of trap was he laying this time? Whatever it was, I wouldn’t fall for it. And this clamoring heart of mine? It needed to quit jumping whenever Nick came around. Hadn’t it learned its lesson by now?

“So. Nothing to say?” Nick leaned back against the end of a picnic table and crossed his arms.

“What do you want me to say? Thanks for pretending to write to Brooke instead of me?” I finally managed.

Nick’s mouth twitched. “That’d be a start.”

“Well, too bad.” His face jerked back as if I’d slapped it. “I meant what I said. I don’t want you messing with me anymore. You made a fool out of me. Kissing me at Crystal Falls, then joking about it with Josh. I heard you!”

“You think I was making fun of you with Josh?” The disbelief in his voice was almost convincing. He dropped his head in his hands.

“Well, I heard you laughing,” I admitted, doubt unfurling in my chest.

His eyes lifted to meet mine. “And that automatically means I was laughing at you?”

Soft music filtered out of the mess hall, the rotating strobe light turning Nick’s face a flushed red then a sickly green.

“Aren’t you always making fun of me?”

“No. You’re the one who made a joke out of me.” Nick must have gotten something in his eye because he rubbed it hard and looked away. Suddenly I was on the defensive.

“And now you want revenge.”

“Yes. No. When I first got here, I—”

I whirled and stomped toward the door, but his firm hands caught my sides and pulled me against his lithe, muscular torso.

“Please don’t leave me, Kayla,” he whispered in my ear. “I would have told you the note was yours, but I didn’t want to call you out. I know how much you hate being the center of attention.”

My body relaxed, and I leaned my head against his shoulder. He was right. I couldn’t stand it when people noticed me. Well, certain people. Bullies like Brooke made a big drama of everything. But I wasn’t the painfully shy girl Nick had once known either. I didn’t mind attention from my friends. From Nick.

Then I remembered Brooke’s late-night rendezvous and I stiffened again. “What about you? Were you trying to avoid attention last night when you sneaked off with Brooke?”

Nick looked genuinely puzzled as he brushed his dark hair out of his eyes. “I didn’t sneak anywhere with Brooke.”

“Then where were you last night?”

“Asleep in my bunk.” His eyes lowered. “Dreaming of you,” he added, almost to himself.

But I still wasn’t falling for his mind games. He’d made a fool out of me in the kitchen, and I saw how he acted around Brooke. She might be the one who hit on him, but he didn’t run away either. “Scheming is more like it. If the note was for me, then what did it say?”

“That I want to—” And his lips found mine in the dark, his arms pulling me close as he swayed us both to the lilting tune pouring into the soft evening air.

He tipped my head back and buried his fingers in my hair, his mouth brushing my burning cheeks, then nibbling on my sensitive earlobe. Our bodies fit against each other perfectly, our hearts beating so hard I wasn’t sure if it was his or mine I felt. I shivered against him, wishing this were real but knowing it wasn’t.

“Nick, stop.”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t mean it.”

“Or maybe you don’t want to believe I’m sincere because then your friends would know about us.” He closed his eyes for a moment, a line appearing between his brows. “After all this time, I’m still not good enough for you.”

“I-I…” Crap. He was only partially right and not for the reasons he thought. I was afraid of getting on the wrong side of Brooke, but that wasn’t all of it. Nick was different now, and I wasn’t sure about him—of this new version of the boy I used to know. I still feared opening up and risking my heart. What if he hurt me? Rejected me? I knew what that felt like after being an afterthought in my father’s life. I couldn’t bear it if I let Nick into my heart and he did that to me, too.

Nick backed away, his eyes accusing. “I thought if I came here, showed you that I could be somebody you’d be proud of, that maybe you’d—” He turned and peered at the restless lake undulating through the tree line. After a moment, he shook his head. “But no. You’re still the same girl who left me for your friends. And even if you did want me around, how would I know it’s not because I’m popular now? A ‘Diva-approved’ guy?”

His words felt like a blow, and I clutched my gut. “How dare you.”

For a breathless minute, we glared at each other. An insect rubbed its wings in the grass beside us. A warning rattle.

“You leave camp for years,” I stormed, “and then waltz in here like you know me.” My eyes rose to the crescent moon. “Like nothing’s changed. Like I’m the same?”

“You sent me away, remember?” Nick’s voice sounded as torn and ragged as my heart. When I looked at him again, his expression was so wounded my hand rose on its own to touch his cheek.

“Kayla!” I jerked away. Hannah.

“Yeah?” I could see her peering out from the lit doorway.

“Rescue!” And with that she turned and disappeared in the crowd without a backward glance. Like she knew I’d follow.

Worst of all, Nick knew it, too.

I wavered between wanting to clear things up with Nick and needing to help my friends. Only this time, it wasn’t about me being accepted by the Divas. It was about helping Nia stand up for herself and find her voice with Brooke. I wanted to be the kind of girl who stood up against bullying, not the kind of girl who caved because it was easier. Besides, how did I know if this was just another act of Nick’s?

“Look, I’ve got to—”

“Be rescued,” Nick cut in, his words sounding bitter. “Your code words aren’t exactly a mystery.”

My hands twisted. God. Nick was getting every kind of impression of me but the right one. I’d tell him my reason for leaving, but what if he really was with Brooke? No matter how I tried, I couldn’t trust Nick enough.