Holly's Heart Collection Two (49 page)

After supper, all the campers hiked the half mile into Ouray. We ignored the boys the whole time, but they kept bugging us anyway. Stan untied Andie’s shoelaces while she read a brochure, but she kept her nose up and completely ignored him. Jared bumped into Shauna “accidentally” when we stopped for ice cream, knocking the ice cream out of her cone. She simply picked it up, tossed it in the trash can, and went inside to order another. By the time we headed down the street to the San Juan Jeep Company, the guys were totally mystified.

Mr. Boyce and the counselors were collecting some brochures. And after they conferred together, Rhonna told us we were scheduled to go on the wildest jeep trip of all—the Black Bear—next Wednesday, the last full day of camp!

Before heading back, we were allowed to split up for one hour. Several groups of guys headed for the Buckskin Trading Co., a store specializing in history books and mining. Danny and several other studious types made a beeline for a bookstore called Food for Thought. Jared and Stan followed us girls around, taunting us about being in public without our “faces” on. After a full thirty minutes of no response, they got bored and left. At last.

We wandered from one specialty shop to another. Then I saw it. Dozens of brightly colored shirts filled the window, and wild neon lights spelled out “The You-Name-It T-Shirt Shop.”

“Come on, girls,” I called, gesturing toward the store.

“What’s up?” Shauna asked.

“I don’t wear T-shirts,” Kayla sniffed.

But I dragged them over to the shop anyway. A brainstorm was brewing.

“Here’s my idea,” I said once all the sisters were gathered around me. “How about if we get matching pink T-shirts with the letters SOS on the front!”

“And let’s put a picture of a guy on the back, X’d out,” Andie joked.

We all laughed. But—“Too obvious,” I said. “This way, with only the letters on the front, the guys’ll never know about our secret society. Besides, it will drive them crazy trying to figure it out.”

“As if they aren’t going crazy already,” Shauna observed.

We laughed, rejoicing over our successful strategy.

“Which shade of pink?” Kayla asked. “Fuchsia goes best with my skin tone.” Surprisingly, she seemed excited about the idea, even though the shirts were on the cheap side. At least, compared to the kind of money both Kayla and Paula usually spent on clothes.

“How about this one?” Shauna pulled a pink shirt from the stacks on the shelf and held it up.

“Fresh,” Paula approved.

Then I noticed Amy-Liz hanging back from the rest of us. She caught my eye, then said bravely, “Sorry, girls, you go ahead, but I can’t get a shirt.”

“Why not?” Andie said without thinking. Then she remembered and blushed. We all looked at each other, embarrassed.

“I have some extra cash,” Paula volunteered, opening her tiny shoulder purse.

Amy-Liz freaked out. “If I can’t afford it, that’s my problem.”

“But you’re in the society,” Shauna argued. “You
have
to have a matching shirt.”

“It’s okay, really,” Amy-Liz insisted. But it wasn’t okay, and I could see this whole thing escalating. Whew, it was a good thing she didn’t know how the church had gotten the money for her camp scholarship!

“We’ll just forget the whole idea,” I said.

“Look,” Amy-Liz said, sitting down. “I’m not going to spoil everyone’s fun. Go ahead, get the shirts. I insist.”

Kayla’s eyes sparkled. “Listen, Amy,” she began. “What if I loan the money to you?”

Amy-Liz stared at the floor.

I held my breath.

“You can pay me back later,” Kayla said. Wisely, she waited before digging into her wallet.

It was fabulous—Amy-Liz agreed.

Chattering excitedly, we headed to the counter to place our order. Fuchsia pink shirts with white letters. SOS.

“Hey, let’s wear them now,” Amy-Liz suggested. So we used the dressing room to change into our shirts, stuffing our old shirts into the plastic bags they’d given us.

The hike back to camp was a blast. Everyone, even the other girls from our church, asked us what SOS meant. But it was the guys who bugged us the most. When we didn’t give them answers, Jared came up with his own solution. “SOS. Yeah, these girls need help, all right,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear.

My sisters and I laughed right along with those foolish boys. If only they knew!

NO GUYS PACT

Chapter 17

Back at camp, we undressed for bed, recounting the T-shirt episode, careful not to divulge anything to Rhonna, who was definitely listening. She knew something was up, but she was being awfully cool about not prying.

Shauna volunteered to sleep on the floor. “If it’s okay with you,” she said, “I’ll trade permanently.”

I was surprised. “How come?”

She looked sheepish. “Well, if you want to know the truth, I’m not comfortable up there.” She pointed to the bunk above Joy’s bed. “I’m afraid I’ll fall off the bunk and hit my head—get a concussion or something.”

No one laughed. We could see she wasn’t kidding.

“Sure, I’ll trade,” I said. “But what about Joy? You two are best friends.” I glanced at Andie, who was already snuggling down for the night. “Maybe Andie and Joy could trade, too,” I suggested—which they did after a quick change of sheets and blankets.

So, Joy slept in the lower bunk beside Shauna, who crawled into the sleeping bag on the floor, and that was that. Well, almost. None of us really settled down until Rhonna started devotions.

She began by reading the Golden Rule. “ ‘In everything,’ ”—she emphasized
everything
—“ ‘do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.’ ”

I felt strange. Guilty, I guess. We sure weren’t treating the guys the way Jesus had commanded us to.
But they treated us pretty lousy in the first place,
I thought, justifying our actions in my mind.

Rhonna continued. “All of us are unique in God’s eyes. We’re made in His image. Just because certain people are different doesn’t mean we should decide that they’re inferior.”

I wondered how much Rhonna had been listening to our conversations.

Andie blurted, “But what do you do when guys act like…” She stopped, looking at me. I could tell she was struggling with how much to share.

Rhonna finished Andie’s sentence. “When
certain
guys act like jerks?” She smiled knowingly. “
All
guys aren’t jerks, Andie, if that’s what you mean.”

It was exactly what Andie meant.

“Certain guys, is right.” Andie groaned.

Rhonna grinned. “Let me tell you a story—a true story—about when I was your age.”

You could almost hear a collective sigh. An interested sigh, that is. We leaned back on our pillows, our hands supporting our heads as we listened to Rhonna tell about her past.

“There was a boy,” she began. “A very
fine
boy.”

We giggled. Rhonna was so cool.

“His name was Mel, and he was far and away the best-looking guy in the youth group.” She stopped, like she was thinking ahead to the good part. “Only thing, Mel was biased in a big way. Prejudiced against slanted-eyed girls like me. He even had a nickname for me. Honestly, I’ve forgotten it now. Maybe I blocked it out of my memory because it was so painful.”

I was beginning to feel sorry for Rhonna.

She continued, “One night after church, I tried to introduce myself, to let him know I actually had a name. He turned away from me and started talking to some other girl…like I barely existed. Well, later my older sister found out through the grapevine that he refused to have anything to do with Asians.”

“Why?” Amy-Liz asked, wide-eyed.

Rhonna shrugged. “Some people can’t accept others who look different from them. It’s sad but true. But just because Mel was a jerk didn’t mean that
all
the guys in my youth group were in the same category.”

Andie smiled. “So you’re saying that just because certain guys bug us doesn’t mean we should shut ’em all out?”

Yeah, Andie,
I thought. My mind was on Todd. Again.

Rhonna nodded. “Some boys take a longer time to grow up, I guess you could say. But by ignoring the obnoxious ones—which you all did very well”—she grinned knowingly—“you are showing them you can’t be hurt by their antics.”

“So,” I piped up, “you think we did the right thing?”

There was a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. “Just don’t turn it into some organized society or something. In other words, don’t carry things too far.”

I gasped. It sounded like she knew about SOS!

I glanced around at my sisters. For once, we were really earning our name. The sisters were solemn—and silent.

The next morning at breakfast, I noticed several Buena Vista girls casting snooty glances from the next table. A short redhead was one of them.

I decided to ignore them—something I was getting better and better at all the time.

Most of the guys had cleared out when Miss Carrot Top strutted up to our table. It seemed she had planned her strategy well, since she waited for Rhonna to excuse herself before showing up.

“You don’t know me.” She smiled, a mixture of braces and lip gloss. “I’m Laina Springer, Cabin E.”

I forced a smile, trying to be cordial.

Laina leaned down, whispering, “The guys from your church are scheming something lowdown and dirty.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“I…uh, we heard it’s something about getting someone’s attention.” Springer’s braces twinkled momentarily.

“Who said?” I asked.

She fidgeted, looking around at her friends still sitting at the table behind ours. “Well, according to Billy Hill,”—and with the mention of his name her face burst into a wide grin—“your church guys are ticked off. So they’ve got some big surprise planned.”

Andie shot up out of her seat. “What sorta surprise?”

“Beats me,” Laina said, turning to leave. “Just thought you’d wanna know.”

Yeah, right! I wasn’t going to let
her
scare me.

“Listen, Laina.” I reached out to touch her arm. “We really appreciate the tip. Thanks a lot.” I forced the biggest, most sincere smile I could conjure up. “Oh, and if you happen to hear anything else, could you let us know?”

Her shiny lips twisted over her braces into a weird little pained expression. “Sure,” she peeped out and returned to her table.

What was the guys’ motive in giving us this advance warning? Maybe they planned to get us all freaked out, on the edge of our seats, anticipating something drastic. And then absolutely nothing would happen.

I pondered these thoughts for a moment. Then quickly, before Rhonna returned, I shared my theory with the rest of the SOS.

Andie frowned. “Surely the guys aren’t
that
stupid. I mean, just look at the trouble they could get into just from taking our sports bags and stuff.”

Paula eyeballed Laina Springer and the girls at the other table. “I can’t believe Billy would tell her anything.”

“Well,
I
can,” Amy-Liz interrupted.

And so could I.

Kayla looked a little foggy, like she wasn’t so sure about any of this.

Amy-Liz set down her lemonade glass. “You know, Holly might be on to something. Maybe we oughta keep watch.”

“I’m still trying to figure out what makes guys tick,” Andie said.

Paula flipped her hair. “If Holly’s right, this would be one way for the guys to ruin our week without doing a single thing.”

Kayla nodded, like the light had finally dawned. “Sounds feasible.

I grinned. “It’s the coward’s way to get us guarding our cabin door.”

Shauna sat up. “To tell the truth, I think Jared’s still mad because Holly told him she wouldn’t be his girlfriend anymore.”

“Well, we can’t let it spoil our camp experience,” Kayla commented.

“Kayla’s right,” I said, grateful to see Laina and friends get up and carry their trays off to the kitchen. Followed by her string of straight-faced girl friends, the spunky redhead looked like a contemporary Pied Piper. I couldn’t imagine Billy spending time with the likes of her. But Billy Hill was the epitome of an unpredictable male, as were his cohorts.