Jenna's Dilemma (17 page)

Grace Matthews sighed and put down her pen. Her best friend, Emily, deserved a letter. She'd already sent three letters up to Grace at Camp Lakeview, and Grace hadn't answered even one. But it took so long to write a letter . . . and there was always so much fun stuff to do at camp. She glanced around bunk 3C at all her friends. Sure, some of them were writing letters, but lots of them were busy doing more interesting stuff. Well, except for Chelsea, who seemed to be doing nothing but staring at herself in her hand mirror. Grace liked Chelsea well enough (even though she could be bossy sometimes), but she thought that it must be pretty boring to spend all of your time looking at your own face. Grace shrugged and turned her attention to one of the other old-time campers like herself.

“Hey, Brynn,” Grace called down from her top bunk. “What on earth are you doing?”

Brynn stood in the center of the small room, her feet planted about ten inches apart on the scuffed wooden floor. She was bent over at the waist, her arms hanging down and her short dark red hair falling over her face. She'd been standing like that for at least two minutes. “It's yoga,” Brynn said, her voice muffled. She was speaking into her knees, after all. “My mom gave me an article on Visiting Day about how lots of actors do yoga to keep themselves focused.”

Grace grinned. She loved acting, and she knew Brynn did, too. In fact, it was the only real interest Brynn had. “Mind if I join you?”

Brynn shook her upside-down head. Grace jumped down from her bunk, took her place next to Brynn, and copied the strange position.

Hanging head-down wasn't so great, though. All the blood rushed to her head, making her cheeks and her neck feel hot. Her curly red hair was longer than Brynn's, and it kept getting in her eyes and covering her face. She moved to pull away a strand that had gotten caught in her mouth, but Brynn protested. “You're supposed to keep still,” she said. “Don't move, just pay attention to your breathing and to the stretch in your back muscles.”

“That's right, Grace, don't forget to breathe,” Jenna Bloom said from across the room. Jenna put on a slow, deep voice as if she were trying to hypnotize someone. “Breathe in . . . breathe out. Breathe in . . . breathe in some more,” Jenna said in her “soothing” voice.

Grace couldn't help it—she got the giggles. “How can I pay attention to my breathing when I can't breathe?” she asked. Leaning over like this made it hard to take a deep breath, and she felt herself getting a little dizzy. She stood up quickly and got a head rush. “Whoa,” she cried, stumbling backward. Luckily Marissa, bunk 3C's CIT, was there to catch her.

“I'm not sure you're mellow enough to do yoga, Grace,” Marissa joked.

Brynn stood up very slowly. “It's a shame,” she commented. “You could be such a good actress if you tried. Yoga could really help you be more centered.”

Grace decided to ignore her. Brynn's whole goal in life was to be a famous actor, and she could never understand why Grace wasn't as focused on that as she was. But to Grace, acting was just something fun to do. She loved it—she
totally
loved it—but mostly because it was easy, and she was good at it, and it gave her a chance to be someone else for a few minutes. She didn't need to be famous or anything. She just loved acting. Whenever things got tough in school, acting was her favorite way to escape from the pressure. But none of her bunkmates knew that. None of them had any idea how it was back at school. Summer camp was for fun, not stress, and that was exactly how Grace liked it.

“There's no more time for yoga now, anyway,” Marissa said. “Dinner's ready. I just came back to grab my hairband—I forgot it.” Marissa snatched a pink elastic from her cot and took off, letting the screen door bang shut behind her. She and the other CITs were responsible for serving the meals in the mess hall. If you could call them meals.

“Okay, everyone, let's go chow down,” Julie called.

“You don't have to tell me twice,” Jenna joked, heading for the door. She was so athletic that she spent lots of time eating—she needed plenty of fuel to burn out on the soccer field.

“I think it's spaghetti night,” Alex Kim said. She rolled her eyes at Brynn, her best friend. “In other words . . .”

“. . . cardboard strips in tomato soup,” Brynn finished for her. They both laughed.

Grace had to admit, the food at Camp Lakeview wasn't gourmet. In fact, it was even worse than the cafeteria food back at school. But eating every night in the noisy mess hall surrounded by all the other Lakeview campers was enough fun that the food didn't matter.

She climbed down the two rickety steps from the cabin and followed her bunkmates along the path toward the mess hall. Natalie and Alyssa walked right behind her.

“I didn't even get to dance with him,” Alyssa was saying. “It's no big deal.”

“But he obviously likes you,” Natalie replied.

Grace grinned and turned around to walk backward so she could talk to them. “Still talking about the camp social?” she asked. “It was almost a week ago!”

Alyssa shrugged, making her orange-red hair swing. She'd dyed it that color the night before the social—by accident. It was supposed to be red, but something had gone horribly wrong. Grace was secretly a little relieved not to be the most Ronald McDonald-like girl in the bunk for a change. But on Alyssa, the strange color actually looked good—sort of punk. Alyssa was so artsy that she could make anything weird seem stylish.

“Adam was totally flirting with Alyssa at the social,” Natalie said. “And I know she likes him, too. She's just being shy.”

Alyssa stuck out her tongue at Natalie. “And
you're
just trying to make us forget about you and Simon,” she teased.

Grace laughed. It was true, Natalie's relationship with Simon had been the big topic of discussion in bunk 3C for the past few weeks. Well, first it had been Natalie's famous father, and then Natalie's sort-of boyfriend, Simon. But for the past few days, things had been a little more serious in the bunk.

Grace glanced over her shoulder to check on where Jenna was. She was tromping through the trees at the head of the group, as usual. “Hey, do you guys think Jenna's doing okay?” she asked, lowering her voice.

Natalie squinted at Jenna's back. “She's been quieter than usual, I guess,” she said. “But I think that's normal.”

Alyssa nodded. “She's probably still embarrassed about the Great Animal Escape.”

Grace shuddered just thinking about it. Jenna had always been a prankster—some of the best memories Grace had from last summer were of helping Jenna prank their rival bunk, 3A. But the night before Visiting Day, Jenna had gone too far. She'd let all the animals from the nature shack out of their cages . . . and into the camp social. It had been mayhem, and Jenna had gotten in a lot of trouble.

“Adam says she'll be fine,” Alyssa said. “And he should know, he's her twin!”

“Oh, is that what
Adam
says?” Grace joked.

Natalie laughed, but Alyssa didn't even blush. She could be pretty impressive sometimes. When Grace had first met her, she'd thought Alyssa was shy because she was so quiet. But in the past month, she'd discovered that Alyssa wasn't shy—she just didn't see the need to talk unless she had something to say.

“It must be nice to have a twin,” Natalie commented. “It's like having your own built-in best friend for life.”

“Yeah, must be nice,” Grace agreed. She turned back around to walk forward, and for the first time she noticed that her whole bunk was lined up in pairs. Jenna walked along chatting with Julie, who she'd known for years because her whole family had been coming to Lakeview since forever. Then Brynn and Alex, Sarah and Valerie, Alyssa and Nat . . . even Chelsea had a buddy. She was walking with Karen, one of the most timid girls in the bunk. That was a little weird, but the other pairs were totally normal. They were all best friends.

Grace felt a pang of homesickness. Well, maybe not homesickness, exactly. More like
friend
sickness. She missed Emily. They'd been best friends since kindergarten, and Emily knew everything about Grace's life and her family and all her issues . . .

Why don't I have a best friend at camp?
she suddenly wondered.
Everyone else does.

The thought had never occurred to her before, and it was so shocking that she stopped in her tracks. How had she managed to spend a whole summer here last year without making a best friend? And she'd been here for half the summer this year without one, too.

“Whoa, Grace, did you fall asleep standing up?” Natalie laughed, pushing her gently in the back. “I almost walked right into you!”

“Oh. Sorry,” Grace mumbled. Nat and Alyssa stepped in front of her, and Grace trailed after them.

“It was nice to meet your mom,” Alyssa told Natalie. “She's more my speed than your father. No offense.”

“Don't worry. Even I can't keep up with my dad's crazy life,” Natalie replied. “But I always have fun with my mother. And she really liked your parents—she told me so.”

“Yeah, maybe over the winter we can all hang out,” Alyssa said. “Our parents can keep each other busy, and then we can get away with doing whatever we want!”

Natalie grinned and gave her a high five.

Grace sighed. If only her parents were the kind of people who she could have fun with. But they never even seemed to understand the idea of fun. Lately the only thing they did was give her lectures or “talks” or “ suggestions.” Even at Visiting Day, they hadn't wanted to talk about camp. They'd wanted to give her another lecture.

Snap out of it
, Grace ordered herself.
Mom and Dad aren't here now. So I don't have to think about it
. She was here at Lakeview, her favorite place in the world, and she was going to enjoy every minute of it. Or at least she was going to try. It would be easier if she could talk to someone about what was going on . . .

Grace quickened her pace, catching up to Natalie and Alyssa. They were still talking about Visiting Day, but Grace's mind wasn't on their conversation. She just watched the two of them, walking along close together, teasing and laughing with each other . . . they'd only known each other for a month, and yet they acted like old friends. Best friends.

I can't believe I didn't finish that letter to Emily
, Grace thought, horrified. What if her best friend really was mad at her for not writing all summer? Grace had promised and promised that this year would be different. That this summer she'd actually keep in touch. The whole time, she'd known that Emily didn't believe her. Emily assumed that she wouldn't get a single letter from Grace, and so far she was right.

Grace took a deep breath. Of course Emily wouldn't be mad. Emily understood how hard it was for Grace to write . . . it took too long and there always seemed to be something more fun going on. Emily would just shake her head and laugh, because that's what best friends did.

A burst of laughter erupted from Natalie and Alyssa in front of her, and Grace felt a little flicker of jealousy. If she had a best friend at camp, she wouldn't have to keep this all to herself. She'd be able to talk about her parents' annoying behavior at Visiting Day. She'd be able to talk about . . .

Oh, never mind
, Grace thought.
I have lots of friends here. And that's better than just one. Isn't it?