Camp Forget-Me-Not (28 page)

“You know I’d take you in my suitcase if I could.” I would still love to have a friend with me, even if I’d been giving myself nightly talks about how I’d be fine on my own.

“Yeah, I know.” Alex draped an arm around me and squeezed me in a quick hug. “But you’re going to be so fabulous I’d only get in the way. I want pictures of your first makeup job over there.”

I knew that was going to be a while, even if I was lucky enough to intern at a magazine, but I loved that she said it.

“Only if I can have a photo of you on stage in the Big Apple.” Alex was going to finish high school at a performing arts school where she could take classes around auditions.

“Duh!” She let go of me and flicked her finger in a pile of glitter so I got a little silver coating on my arm. “I’m sending
that
photo to everyone in my address book.”

“Good plan.” I couldn’t help but be inspired. Alex was such a go-getter.

Wandering over to the front windows that looked out onto the lacrosse field, I saw Nia outside. With Brooke.

Not wanting to be nosy but seized by the need to make sure things were cool between those two, I signaled to Alex that I was stepping out front for a second. The kids were all working well together so I didn’t feel guilty.

“Hey, Kayla!” Nia called as soon as I stepped out into the sunlight. She charged over to me and flung an arm around my waist. “Guess what?”

I looked from her to Brooke, wondering if she was responsible for the smile on Nia’s face.

“I can’t imagine.” Really, I had no flipping clue. Brooke had seemed grateful I’d helped her on her video shoot a few days ago, but she’d been super-quiet ever since. She definitely hadn’t been any nicer. She just kept to herself.

Even now, Brooke texted on a phone and didn’t look my way.

A phone?

“It’s okay she has it,” Nia told me, pulling me toward her former idol—now friend? “Her Uncle Larry—I mean, Mr. Woodrow—said she could have it to talk to her agent.”

“Gollum is her uncle?” I nearly fell over. “Seriously?”

Yet I remembered something being kind of “off” between them that first time I’d seen them together. Their interaction had been so odd.

“Don’t tell!” Nia frowned. “Her mom said she didn’t want anyone to think Brooke got special privileges.”

“Er…right.” I tried not to roll my eyes. “I’m sure no one would ever think that.”

“But guess what Brooke said?” Nia leaned up against a tree near Brooke, who finally looked up and gave me a half-smile.

“What?” I couldn’t help but stare at the worried frown on Brooke’s face. Between the purple ends of her hair growing out and her nail polish all chipped, she looked like she hadn’t given much care to her appearance. For some girls, that wouldn’t be a big deal. For Brooke, who used to spray tan before hitting the beach and then hide under the shade of a towel that Nia held, it was a huge deal.

“She’s going to let me be in her video!” Nia squealed. “Do you believe it? Will you do my hair and makeup? Brooke said you’re the best.”

Hadn’t Brooke told her that we’d already shot the video almost a week ago?

“Gollum had the idea,” Brooke blurted, setting down her phone.

“I already let the secret slip,” Nia admitted.

Brooke sighed but didn’t look quite as mean or as impatient as I’d seen her with Nia in the past. “Okay then, Uncle Larry said I should do some stills of Nia. The production people will splice them in.”

“That’s really cool.” I still couldn’t believe Gollum was related to Brooke. No wonder he beamed when she walked by. He wasn’t enamored so much as…proud.

“But can you make her hair look like mine did for the shoot?” Brooke checked her chiming phone again and then tucked it into a little floral bag. “I never really thanked you for how much you helped that day. You know, not just the makeup but like…making it fun.”

The words sounded like they stuck in her throat a little, but I didn’t care. I had the feeling she hadn’t thanked many people before. It was cool to be on the shortlist.

“You’re welcome. I can do Nia’s hair as soon as I finish up some CIT stuff inside.” I pointed to the arts and crafts building.

“Kayla?” Brooke’s hand gripped my arm, and for a second, I flinched, remembering the claws she’d gouged me with. “I should have never called you wallpaper.”

I smiled, accepted the apology gracefully, but inside I was thinking it was just as well Brooke had been so mean. Seeing myself through her eyes had been one of the reasons I’d wanted to change.

The bigger reason was long gone. I missed him so much it hurt. I’d lain awake every night since he left thinking about what I could have done differently. What I could have said that night when he’d been upset after the camp baseball game.

Since Nick wasn’t coming back, I’d never have the chance to say the right things. To let him know how much I cared or how much I wished him well.

Unless…I wrote him one last note.

“Okay, what is the fascination with the postcard table?” Brittany huffed and shuffled her feet next to me while I finished a letter to Nick that night. “It’s the End of Summer Bash, Kayla. Not the End of Summer Writing Festival. Not the End of Summer Bore-Me-’TilI’m-Dead Night.”

I waved my postcard with two fingers, airing it out. “I’m waiting for the paint to dry.”

I wasn’t an artist, but I’d decorated it. If a girl only had one last chance to express herself to the hottest guy she’d ever known, could it hurt to use a little bling? Plus, drawing flowers around the border helped distract me from the fact that I’d never see him again. My eyes burned every time I thought about it.

“Newsflash. This is my last night at Camp Juniper Point. Ever.” She held up her phone, a privilege for the party. “I’m taking enough pictures to keep Instagram busy for the next month, and you
will
be in all of them.”

I looked at her gorgeous, wide blue eyes and her perfect pout and adored her so much. It didn’t matter that she’d once told me to ditch Nick and now she thought he was hot. We’d all been clueless at one time or another. Like I said to Nick before he left—I was fourteen years old when I’d shredded our friendship so he’d follow his dreams. What the hell had I known?

I wasn’t going to hold things against my girlfriends for what they’d done in the past. They loved me. They accepted me for
me
, even when I didn’t go with the flow. Even when I rocked the boat and kept Brittany waiting so I could write a note I didn’t even know where to send.

“Okay.” I said finally, tucking my postcard into a super-secret spot just around the corner in the darkened kitchen. I dropped it behind an industrial-sized mixer, where I could go back for it later. If nothing else, I could mail it to his home address. “Where to?”

We spent the next hour posing at every single display at the bash. We played on the pretend ropes course that the Wander Inn guys had made and spotted Seth Reines there. He couldn’t take his eyes off his sortof-secret girlfriend, Trinity, but he goofed around with Julian and the other Wander Inn guys, too.

The Munchies performed snippets from the interpretive dance piece they did last year with the girls in my cabin. They’d saved their tree costumes and played the music we’d used for that talent show, plus used the younger campers’ pine cone projects as a way to remind us to respect the forest. I had fun posing with Jackie and Piper, and we recreated our bird dance with them, even though we were wearing tank tops and cut-offs.

The younger kids had a lot of cute booths, too.

The Pirates had a color wars court where you could wear arm bands and shoot Nerf guns at your friends. Brittany shot me so many times I got a Nerf dart stuck between my eyes, and we laughed until we almost peed ourselves.

When we got to the Mermaids’ display with the recreation of Crystal Falls though, my heart stopped. I got tears in my eyes.

It looked better than real, with an arch of ivy draped all around the log that had always been “our spot”—mine and Nick’s. There was even a soundtrack running so that you could hear rushing water and birds chirping. My life had changed forever sitting on that log next to Nick and not necessarily for the better.

“You okay?” Britt asked me as she played with a purple silk butterfly that she’d found on a tree.

“Remember that year I stopped being friends with Nick so I could be a Diva?” I blinked my eyes hard.

She flew the butterfly over to land on my shoulder, the wooden clothespin underside of it resting on my skin. “Kind of. I just remembered the first time I saw you and how much I wanted you in our cabin.”

I shook my head. “That wasn’t the first time you saw me, Britt. I went to camp for years before you noticed me. That was just the first year I was thin.”

She bit her lip for a long moment, her hand and the butterfly still on my shoulder while some of the younger campers chased each other with bug nets around us.

“My mom says the human eye is drawn to beauty,” said Brittany. “I might have noticed you because you changed, but that’s not why I’m your friend. I’m your friend because you’re sweet and funny and have the biggest heart of anyone I know.”

“Yeah?” I needed the love I guess. I felt better even if I was still missing Nick.

“Totally.” She dragged me over to the fake log over the fake Crystal Falls. “And the cool thing about your job, if you keep on doing makeup, is that you’re going to make the world a little more beautiful every day. One face at a time.”

She floated the butterfly down to the neckline of my tank top and used the clothespin to attach it to my strap. My heart was in my throat and I couldn’t speak if I wanted to. But it was the last night of camp, the last night of an era, and I was an emotional mess.

“You know, we didn’t call ourselves the Divas’ Den because we were fabulous,” Brittany reminded me as she handed Kennedi her phone to take our picture. “We just
wanted
to be.”

“Really?” I tried to picture ten-year-old Brittany making up the name with Hannah back when they were even younger than Kennedi. “You didn’t want to be the Dweebs’ Den or Dorks’ Den?”

“Hannah told me once I should be in the Ditzes’ Den.” Brittany put her arm around me, her temple pressed to mine as we posed while Kennedi messed with the camera settings and got the flash working.

“It really doesn’t have the same ring to it,” I said between the clenched teeth of my camera-smile.

“I think someone’s taken my seat.”

The familiar male voice behind me made me jump.

“Nick!” Brittany said it before me, leaping to her feet while Kennedi squealed and ran to him. “You’re back!”

“Shhh.” He pressed a finger to his lips. “Got to keep it quiet until I talk to Kay. Can I steal her for a second?”

Too shocked to move, I just stared.

“Um, Kayla?” Brittany cleared her throat and motioned me over.

Kennedi marched over to me, grabbed my hand, and dragged me toward him. “Now’s your chance.” She didn’t even whisper. She glared at me and pinched me in the side. “Don’t blow it.”

I just nodded vaguely, stunned to see Nick Desanti in a dark corner of the mess hall after his five-day absence. He had a canvas backpack draped over one shoulder, the strap cinching his white T-shirt tight to his chest. His dark jeans and gray suede sneakers made me realize he’d been travelling. Those weren’t camp clothes.

“Hi,” I said finally, my heart beating a zillion times in a minute. “I thought you were gone for good.”

My words chirped in a weird pitch because I was a total wreck inside. Nick reached for my hand and squeezed it.

“I’m sorry about that. Can you come outside for a second?”

I thought about it, hoping my ears weren’t deceiving me since my heartbeat so loud that the thump-thump was almost all I heard.

“Just go!” Kennedi urged him, giving Nick a gentle shove in the back while Brittany kept jerking her head toward the door like she was having convulsions.

What was the matter with me? All my life I’d been a follower. Why couldn’t I follow now when I really wanted to do exactly what they said?

Shaking off the fog of surprise, I hurried toward the side door he must have come through. It led toward the kitchen.

“Maybe we should just talk here?” Nick turned to face me.

We could only see each other because of the light pouring in from the End of Summer Bash under the crack of a pass-through window. A few yards away, the big walk-in refrigerator reminded me of the night we played Seven Minutes in Heaven.

“I wrote you a note,” I blurted, wanting to do this right. “I’ve been thinking about what I’d say to you if I had another chance, and I wrote it on a postcard I was going to try and send you.”

“Kayla.” He shrugged out of his backpack and drew me deeper into the kitchen, closer to the big refrigeration unit until the noise from the mess hall dulled to a background hum. “You’ve been making total sense for weeks, and I haven’t been listening. I owe you an apology for so many things, and I was scared all day I wouldn’t make it back to camp in time to see you.”

“Where have you been?” Frustration leaked into my voice. As glad as I was to see him, I wanted to understand why he left. “Why did you just leave without saying anything?”