Just Like Me (4 page)

“Look, Meredith and I want to win this thing,” Vanessa said, trying to huddle up our team as if she was the captain. “And I don't just mean this game tonight. We want to win the whole thing, so you guys better play your butts off.”

All of us had made our way up the hill from the mess hall to the other side of camp. Campers stood in groups with their cabinmates, waiting for instructions at one end of the big, grassy field. The evening air was filled with bug spray and nervous excitement.

“Why do you guys even care?” Gina asked. “I thought you said those first-place ‘Be the Missing Peace' T-shirts were stupid.”

Vanessa shook her head and looked at Gina as if she had just said the most idiotic thing in the world.

“It's not about the T-shirts!” she yelled. “We want to
win
, birdbrain! It's called competition!”

I saw a few girls from other cabins looking at Vanessa. They were probably thanking their lucky stars that they weren't in a cabin with someone like her.

Vanessa's exasperation with Gina made my hands sweat. We hadn't even started the first game, and she was already yelling. I wiped my hands on my jeans and took a deep breath.

Tori was standing across the field from us with a few other counselors, but she kept her eye on us while she talked. Even though she wasn't close enough to hear us, I could tell she knew we were
not
having a peaceful conversation.

“All right, campers!” Donnie Domino yelled into the bullhorn. “It's time for the Two-Legged Blindman's Bluff Paper-Cup Bucket Brigade.”

I wondered what in the world
that
was. But after Donnie explained the rules, I wasn't so sure I
wanted
to know because it didn't sound easy. The only good thing was that it didn't require a lot of skill. I hoped my lack of athleticism wouldn't be too noticeable.

Donnie turned the bullhorn toward the mess hall and yelled, “Music, please!” and the song “Car Wash” came blasting through the trees. Donnie danced around, waving his arms as if he were working in a real car wash while he sang into the bullhorn, “Working at the car wash, yeah!”

Most of the campers started dancing and singing along.

Gina really got into it and yelled, “I love this song!”

I wasn't sure what the song had to do with the game, other than that both the song and game involved water. I realized already that Donnie loved his music so much that he looked for any excuse to blast it.

But Vanessa couldn't be bothered with singing and dancing. Actually neither could Becca because the two of them were arguing about who should do what in the game.

After a few minutes of arguing that turned into yelling, Avery finally said, “Just let Vanessa tell us what to do, Becca. Otherwise we're going to get in trouble for fighting and lose the game before we even start.”

“I am
not
letting her boss me around all week,” Becca said to Avery, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Avery put her arm around Becca, trying to calm her down.

And Vanessa proceeded to continue her bossing, getting all of us into the places she thought were best.

Here's how it ended up: Vanessa and Meredith stood back to back with their ankles tied together, and Becca and I stood back to back with
our
ankles tied together. Each of us held a paper cup and stood at one end of the field next to a big metal tub of water.

Gina and Avery each held a plastic megaphone and stood at the other end of the field right next to an empty plastic bucket.

When the “Car Wash” song ended, Donnie blew the bullhorn, and the game began.

Gina and Avery yelled instructions into their megaphones, directing the four of us to scoop up cups of water, cross the field with them, and dump the water into our team's plastic bucket.

Two things made the game super difficult for everyone. First, the four people carrying the paper cups with water were not only tied to their partners by the ankles, but they were also blindfolded. Second, two people from each of the ten cabins yelled instructions to the campers crossing the field, which meant twenty girls yelled instructions all at the same time.

“Go straight,” Gina yelled. “Straight! No, left a little. I mean, right.”

“Are you watching where we're going?” Vanessa screamed at Gina. “Tell us which way to
go!
”

Thankfully Avery was a lot more encouraging as she yelled instructions to Becca and me. “Keep going! Doing well! Stay
together
!”

Because I was blindfolded, I couldn't see what was going on, but I could hear that when Vanessa and Meredith got off course, Gina just laughed about it, which only made Vanessa get madder and madder and yell even louder and louder.

“Ouch!” Vanessa screamed.

“She ran us right into a tree,” Meredith said.

And Gina laughed even harder.

“Do
you
have a blindfold on?” Vanessa screamed.

I wasn't sure, but Gina seemed to be telling Vanessa and Meredith to go the wrong way on purpose, because the more Vanessa yelled, the harder Gina laughed.

Becca and I had problems of our own. At first I walked forward and Becca walked backward, but that didn't work because Becca walked too fast, pushing me so hard that I kept falling. That meant she fell on top of me, which meant we both spilled our water.

Then we tried to sidestep and go down the field sideways. But we had the same problem. Becca was much faster than I was, so she dragged me along. I tripped trying to keep up with her, which made
her
trip, which made both of us fall and spill our water.

At first, Becca got mad at me. “Julia, c'mon!” she yelled. “You gotta
move!
”

But after a while, we fell so much that all we could do was laugh. And the harder we laughed, the more impossible it became to get back up and actually make it across the field with even a drop of water in our cups.

I was thankful that Vanessa couldn't see us. If she knew how much we were falling and how much we were laughing—and especially how much water we were spilling—she would've been yelling her head off at us.

By the time Donnie blew the bullhorn signaling the end of the game, Becca and I had spilled so much water that our gym shoes and jeans were soaked. And when I peeled off my blindfold, I didn't even have to look in our team's bucket to know we probably hadn't won.

Vanessa ran right over to our bucket, and when she saw the half-inch of water in it, she threw her blindfold on the grass.

“This team
stinks!
” she said.

And before Meredith could even agree with Vanessa, Donnie, who was standing behind us, said, “White Oak, that's a loss of five points for poor sportsmanship.”

“Where did
he
come from?” Gina whispered to me.

And then Donnie walked away so that he could measure and record the amount of water in the other teams' buckets to see which team had won.

“Good one, Vanessa,” Becca said. “Now thanks to you, we have negative points.”

“Yeah, like any of this is
my
fault,” Vanessa muttered.

“All right, White Oak,” Tori said cheerfully, ignoring the fact that her “bad girl” cabin had just gotten in trouble with the camp director on the first day of camp. “Let's head down to the fire pit for the bonfire. Maybe some s'mores will sweeten you girls up.”

As we followed Tori down the path, Gina whispered to me, “It's going to take a lot more than chocolate and marshmallows to make Vanessa sweet.”

• • •

At the fire pit, which was back in the woods behind the mess hall, we roasted marshmallow after marshmallow, squishing each one between graham crackers and chocolate squares. I took huge bites of the sugary, chocolaty, marshmallowy goodness until my stomach couldn't hold one more drop of melted marshmallow. It tasted like the best food I'd ever eaten. I was almost glad we'd had that awful clove-seasoned ham for dinner because if dinner had been edible, I would have eaten more of it and not had as much room for all those s'mores.

“That game was a disaster!” Becca said to me while licking chocolate off her fingers. “I don't think we could have fallen more times if we tried.”

“I don't think so either,” I said, rubbing my still damp jeans and hoping the fire would dry them out a little.

“The best was when Julia was walking forward,” Avery said laughing, “and Becca was walking backward. You practically flattened Julia like a pancake when you fell on her that one time.”

“I couldn't help it!” Becca said. “She was going too slow.”

“You were going way too fast!” I said. “And your entire cup of water landed right on my shoe that time.”

I looked down at my soaking-wet green-and-white-striped gym shoe, thinking I should take it off, put it on the end of one of the marshmallow sticks, and hold it over the fire to dry it.

“Yeah, well, it seemed like you were spilling water on me on purpose,” Becca said, punching me in the arm with her sticky fist.

“I was not!” I said, rubbing my arm.

Just then Gina burst out laughing, and Avery, Becca, and I stopped and stared at her, wondering what she was laughing so hard about.

Finally Gina caught her breath. Pointing at Vanessa and Meredith, who sat on a log bench off to the side of the bonfire, she said, “Nothing was funnier than when those two numbskulls ran into that tree. I only wish I'd had my phone to record that graceful moment on video.”

So far Vanessa and Meredith hadn't found anything funny about our recent loss, and when they heard Gina laughing about their collision with the tree, they glared at her. But Avery, Becca, Gina, and I had so much sugar pumping through our veins that we didn't really care that Vanessa was mad, and we all laughed even harder.

The girls from the other cabins relived all their mishaps too, filling the smoky night air with excited chatter and contagious laughter.

“All right, ladies,” Donnie announced. “Let's all find a seat around the fire.”

Avery, Becca, Gina, and I headed to a bench on the opposite side of the circle from Vanessa and Meredith. Tori noticed and probably wished she'd been assigned to Red Maple or Silver Birch or any of the other cabins where all the girls were sitting together and getting along as if they were already the best of friends.

I sat down on the end of the bench next to Gina and looked up at the dark sky spotted with stars. The heat from the fire made my face hot, and the coolness from the woods surrounding us pressed against my backside. I shivered a little, wishing my jeans weren't still so wet. I stared into the fire. My eyes felt heavy. Had it only been that morning that we'd been in the church parking lot, waiting for the camp bus?

“Now we're really going to have some fun,” Donnie said. “'Cause it's time to sing!”

From the other end of the bench, Avery leaned over Becca's lap toward Gina and me and said, “You guys are gonna love this!”

And she was right! For the next forty-five minutes, Donnie taught us new lyrics to songs we'd all heard on the oldies radio station.

The songs were super corny but really funny, and when Donnie moonwalked while holding his open Bible and sang, “Read it. Just read it…” to the tune of Michael Jackson's song “Beat It,” we all laughed like crazy. But we laughed even harder when he moonwalked a few steps too far, ran into a log bench, and practically did a backward somersault. His Bible went one way, and he went another.

By the time we walked back to the cabin, I didn't know if my stomach hurt more from laughing so hard or from eating too many s'mores.

Dear Ms. Marcia,

I know what you're probably thinking. It's only the first night at camp and already I'm laughing and having a good time with Avery and Becca, but don't get too excited. It doesn't really mean anything. It doesn't mean we're “bonding,” and it doesn't mean that I'm having such a great time that tomorrow I'm going to have this big, deep conversation about our connection as Chinese sisters. It just means I'm doing what my mom always tells me to do: “Make the most of a bad situation, and try to have fun anyway.”

Julia

PS I doubt that I would be having this much fun at Summer Palace Chinese Culture Camp, so I think Camp Little Big Woods was the better choice.

PPS The only bad part of the bonfire was that Avery brought along a Chinese fan and waved it in her face the whole time we sang. It kept the bugs away, but it bugged me more than my itchy mosquito bites.

“Vanessa!” Becca wailed. “Get! Out! Of the shower!”

“I'll get out when I feel like it!”

We were trying to get ready for morning flag raising, but it sounded like everyone had gotten up on the wrong side of their bunk.

“Gina, you're such a klutz!” Meredith said. “Do you know how expensive that powder is? Now it's almost gone!”

“I can't help that someone spilled lotion on the floor,” Gina said, trying to wipe the lotion and powder off the seat of her jean shorts as she stood up next to the bathroom sink.

“Just because there's lotion on the floor doesn't mean you have to try to slide through it,” Meredith said.

“I wanted to see how far I could go,” Gina answered. “How did I know it would end in a rumper bumper?”

“What's a rumper bumper?” Meredith asked Gina.

“You know…” Gina said. “A fender bender is a minor car accident. A rumper bumper is a minor people accident.”

“You're even weirder than Vanessa said you were,” Meredith said with a sigh.

Gina smiled, threw her shoulders back, and walked out of the bathroom, as if being called weird was her goal all along.

“Julia,” Avery said, trying to make her top bunk while she knelt on it, “you, Becca, and I are going to have to find time today to talk about some of that Ms. Marcia stuff.”

I pretended to concentrate on straightening my cubby and didn't answer her. I didn't have any intention of finding time to do that.

“And I don't know if you saw it yet,” Avery continued, “but Ms. Marcia wants us to write a letter to our moms about a bunch of stuff.” She jumped down from her bunk. “I was thinking the three of us should mail the letters on the same day. That way our moms will get them at the same time.”

I had seen Ms. Marcia's instructions for the
mom letter
, but I was thinking that would be one of the things I'd skip.

Thankfully Tori saved me from having to explain myself to Avery.

“Flag raising in five, girls!” Tori yelled from inside her counselor room. “Hustle it up!”

“Five minutes?” Vanessa said, coming out of the bathroom with her wet hair in a towel.

“Well, if you wouldn't have taken a twenty-minute shower!” Becca yelled. “Now I don't even have time to take one, thanks to you!”

“Just hurry up, everyone,” Avery said, running a brush through her hair.

About fifteen minutes later, Sarge Marge from the mess hall and all the campers attending Camp Little Big Woods,
except
Vanessa and Meredith, lined up at the flagpole.

Avery stood next to me waving her Chinese fan in front of her face. She had offered me a fan back at the cabin, but I didn't want to stand around camp waving a Chinese fan no matter how hot it was.

Becca stood on the other side of Avery. Gina was on the other side of me, and Tori stood next to her. Once Vanessa and Meredith finally came strolling down the hill and got in line, Gina threw her shoulders back and saluted Sarge Marge as if we were in the army.

Sarge Marge, who was dressed in camouflage shorts and an army-green T-shirt, saluted Gina back, and then Gina said in a deep voice, “Sorry, ma'am. White Oak is missing our peace this morning!”

Avery, Becca, and I laughed, and I even saw Tori smile.

But Vanessa muttered, “Oh brother.”

Thankfully Vanessa didn't say it loud enough for anyone else to hear, or we may have lost more points. She and Meredith being late had already cost us two. If we kept this up, we were going to have to win every competition from now on just to dig ourselves out of the deep hole we were burying ourselves in.

Once the flag waved at the top of the flagpole, the song “We Are Family” played as we all headed inside the mess hall for breakfast.

After our chocolate-chip pancakes and pork sausage, which, as Avery predicted, were supergood compared to last night's dinner, Donnie blasted the sound system, put on a blond wig, danced around with a briefcase, and lip-synched the song “9 to 5,” while all of us laughed. Thankfully he didn't trip over anything this time.

Then he began to announce the morning activities for each cabin.

“Your job today, campers, is to have
fun
! And here's what's on the agenda for everyone! Red Maple, you're off to the north woods for a survival activity.”

Chairs scraped on the mess hall floor as the girls in Red Maple stood up to head outside.

“Silver Birch, you'll be canoeing this morning,” Donnie continued.

“Awesome!” “Cool!” some of the Silver Birch girls said as they hurried out the door with their cabinmates.

“White Oak, you're headed to the arts-and-crafts room,” Donnie said.

“That figures,” Vanessa muttered, loud enough for Tori to hear her. I wondered if we'd lose our next point. But Tori must've been in a good mood. Maybe from the chocolate-chip pancakes. Or maybe from Gina's goofy salute earlier. Thankfully, she only raised an eyebrow to Vanessa but didn't take away any points.

“Lame-o,” Meredith whispered to Vanessa, agreeing with her. But by that time, Tori had left the table and was talking to Sarge Marge in the doorway of the dish room.

I didn't care what Vanessa and Meredith thought. The arts-and-crafts room would be great! It wouldn't be my park district class with Madison, but it would be much better than another team competition where Vanessa screamed at everyone. That had to be a good thing.

Do people ever treat you differently because you're Asian?

Dear Ms. Marcia,

Most of the time, like when I'm with my best friend, Madison, I don't even think about being from China, so being Chinese is no big deal.

But when I'm with Avery and Becca, I have a hard time forgetting that we're Chinese because sometimes people
do
treat us differently—like this morning when we were standing by the dish room after clearing our breakfast trays. A girl from another cabin asked, “Do you guys usually eat Chinese food for breakfast?”

That question is about as dumb as asking an Italian person if they eat spaghetti for breakfast.

The thing is, she probably wouldn't have asked us that if Avery and Becca hadn't been standing there waving Chinese fans in their faces. (And yeah, Becca has a fan now too because Avery brought an extra one with her this morning in the side pocket of her cargo shorts.)

Being with Avery and Becca means people pay more attention to the fact that we're Asian, and when people pay attention to it, they sometimes treat us as if being Asian means we're different.

Julia

PS There was also the time in third grade when we were studying the Pilgrims, and Brandon Stalwert asked, “Were there any Chinese people on the Mayflower?” And even though Brandon moved away at the end of that school year and most kids probably forgot all about him, I'll always remember his question. That's why this year during our heritage project, when Samantha Collins kept bragging about her mom's relatives being linked to some of the first Pilgrims, I thought about how my third-grade teacher had answered Brandon's question. “Of course there were no Asians on the Mayflower. The ship came from England.”

People like Brandon and Samantha were the reason I had decided that besides my Asian heritage, I would borrow Mom and Dad's Irish and Italian heritage too.