Maddie's Camp Crush (2 page)

A young woman in her twenties came out of the bunk. Her camp T-shirt read
COUNSELOR
across the front and back, and her black hair was braided into
dozens of thin, tight braids and then wrapped into a ponytail.

“I'm Tara,” she said, smiling at Maddie, and then she extended a hand to Mrs. Jacobs. “I'll be Maddie's counselor this summer.”

“Nice to meet you,” Maddie's mom said. “Um, do you think you could please help me get Maddie's duffel out of the car?”

“No problem,” Tara said with a grin, and she headed to the car as Liza pulled Maddie inside the cabin.

The room erupted into happy shrieks as Maddie's friends Libby and Emily ran up to her.

“Oh my gosh, Maddie, I love your haircut!” Libby shrieked.

Maddie's brown hair had always hung halfway down her back, but getting the tangles out was always a chore. After Dad had . . . well, she decided on a change. Her hair wasn't short, exactly, it was more medium length, but she liked the way it swung against her shoulders now.

“Yours too,” Maddie said. Libby always had her thick, glossy black hair styled in some new way. This year was a straight bob with really cute bangs.

“Thanks,” Libby replied. “I don't know how long it's
going to last, though. The bangs get in the way when I play tennis.”

“You should just cut all your hair off then,” chimed in Emily. “And dye it bright yellow, like a tennis ball.”

“Gross!” Libby squealed, and Emily's green eyes looked slightly hurt behind her glasses.

“I was serious,” Emily said. “That would be cool!”

“Coming through!”

Tara and Mrs. Jacobs came through the door, each carrying one side of Maddie's enormous duffel bag.

“Over here, Mrs. J,” Liza said, motioning to the second bed from the door. The main room of the cabin was sparse, with three bunk beds jutting out from opposite walls, and a small dresser next to each one. Along the back wall there were shelves where each girl could keep her clothes.

Liza leaned over to Maddie and whispered to her, “Tara let me save a bed for you. She's pretty cool.”

Grateful, Maddie went to open her bag but her mom held up a hand.

“I'll unpack,” she said. “You spend some time with your friends.”

Maddie didn't argue. Mom always loved to fold her
underwear into tiny, neat squares. Maddie always thought it somehow helped her deal with the idea of saying goodbye for a whole summer. Like if Maddie's shelves were neat, everything would turn out fine.

Maddie turned back to her friends to see Emily standing next to a girl Maddie hadn't seen before.

“Maddie, this is Samantha,” Emily announced.

“Nice to meet you,” Samantha said shyly.

“Is this your first time at camp?” Maddie asked.

Samantha nodded. “Yeah, it's a little weird.”

“Only Emily is a little weird,” Liza told her. “The rest of us are fine.”

“What can I say? It's true,” Emily said, and everyone laughed.

It felt so good to Maddie to be talking and joking around—better than she'd felt in a really long time. She was surrounded by friends and it felt good to be away from home, where it seemed like a gray cloud had hung over everything since her dad died. At home, people still talked in soft voices and always asked her, “Is everything okay?” with sad eyes. Here, in camp, things finally felt normal again.

The girls were talking a mile a minute, and all at once.
Liza told her about the new pool at camp. Libby complained about the mandatory swim instruction that had been worked into the daily camp schedule. Emily was kind of mad that the boys got the girls' old camp.

As they talked, a girl with long, light-brown hair and blue eyes breezed into the cabin, trailed by a man carrying five bags of luggage.

“So, they said I could pick my own bed,” the girl announced when she came in, and then she just kind of stood there, like she was waiting for something.

“Well, we all got here first, so that's the only one left,” Liza said, pointing to the third bed on the right wall. “I'm Liza, and this is Libby and Emily and Maddie and Samantha.”

The girl didn't introduce herself. “Oh,” she said, not moving. “I think there's been some mistake. I was supposed to be able to pick my own bed. Dad?”

Her father shrugged helplessly, but just then Tara walked up and gave the girl a big smile. “You must be Amelia,” she said, and then nodded to Amelia's father. “Follow me, and I'll make sure you settle in just fine.”

Maddie and her friends exchanged glances. Every year, there always seemed to be one difficult camper. Was Amelia going to be the one?

“Oh, I almost forgot!” Libby said. “I have the best news. I'm going to be staying for the whole summer this year, and so is Emily.”

“Really? No way!” Maddie squealed happily, hugging both of them. Every year, camp lasted for two three-week sessions from July to August. And every year, all of Maddie's friends had to leave after the first three weeks, leaving Maddie alone with the new campers.

When the girls stopped celebrating, Maddie noticed that Liza looked a little bit sad.

“I wish you could stay too,” Maddie told her.

“Me too,” Liza said glumly. “But you know how it is. I have to go on that family vacation to see my boring cousins in California every year.”

Maddie nodded sympathetically. “It stinks, I know.”

Then Maddie noticed that her mom had pulled Tara into a corner and was intently whispering to her. Tara had a look of concern on her face.

Oh great,
Maddie thought.
She's probably telling her how Dad died, and now Tara and everyone else around here is going to be whispering and giving me the sad look.

Then Maddie's mom saw her watching them and broke away from Tara.

“Okay, Madeline,” her mom said. “Time for me to get out of here.”

Maddie was surprised to feel a well of sadness rise up inside her. Sure, she had cried when she was a kid, but the last few years the first day of camp had been easy because she knew she was going to have so much fun.

Maddie followed her mom outside. “What if you get lost again?” Maddie asked, suddenly worried. “And what will you do in the house all by yourself for six weeks? Six weeks!” Suddenly it felt like an eternity.

Maddie's mom stopped and looked at Maddie. “I will be just fine, Mads,” she said, using her dad's pet name for his daughter. “Now before I go, this is for you.”

She reached into her purse and handed her a folded-up note. “It's from Dad,” she said, and Maddie started to get choked up. “I was going to hide it for you, but, well, I wasn't sure where he hid them. He didn't tell me that part, and then I worried that you might not find it at all, so . . . ”

Maddie stared at the note and then looked up at her mom quizzically. Dad had died months ago. So where had the note come from?

“Dad and I talked about what your plans would be this summer,” Mrs. Jacobs explained. “He wanted . . . ”

She had to stop and take a breath. “No matter what happened, Dad wanted you to go to camp this year,” she went on. “He knew how much you loved it and he wanted you to see your friends and have a ball like you always do. So he wrote you a note, just like he always did.”

Maddie felt the tears flow now; she couldn't stop them.

“Oh, Maddie, no!” her mom said, hugging her. “This is a happy thing. Dad would want you to be happy, and I do too. Do you want to put the note away for a while or should we read it together?”

Maddie gulped. Part of her wanted to share the note with her mom, to talk and cry some more. Another part of her wanted to keep the letter between just her and her dad.

“I'm okay, Mom,” she replied, slipping the note into the pocket of her shorts. “I usually read them before I go to bed.”

Her mom looked worried, but she nodded. “Then that's what you should do,” she said. She cupped Maddie's face in her hands and smiled at her. “Now it's time I left you with your friends. Give me a hug and promise me you'll have fun, okay?”

Maddie managed a smile and gave her mom a big bear
hug, and her mom gave her a kiss on the top of her head.

“I'll miss you, Madeline, but I want you to have a great summer, okay?”

Maddie nodded, and her mom kissed her one more time before getting into the car. Maddie waved as her mom drove away—down the road that led to the boys' camp instead of the road that led her out. She tried to signal her mom to stop, but Mrs. Jacobs didn't notice.

Oh well,
Maddie thought.
She'll figure it out. We both will.

THE GIRLS WERE FINISHING UNPACKING AND
catching up when Tara came into the cabin, a ball of happy energy.

“Hello, Hannahs!” she said, calling the girls by the name of their bunk. “Lunch is in ten minutes, but before we go I want to go over some bunk rules. Rule number one—”

“Have fun!” Liza yelled out, and then burst into a fit of giggles.

Tara grinned. “I was just about to say that. But seriously, we do have some rules around here. Number one, which I'm sure you all know, is no cell phones or electronic devices while you're at camp.”

“What?” Amelia wailed. “You have got to be kidding!”

“That rule is clearly spelled out in the camp brochure,” Tara said, looking Amelia squarely in the eye. “But if you brought any devices with you, we can keep
them in the safe in the main office for you.”

“What? No,” Amelia said quickly.

“Good,” Tara said, and then looked down at the clipboard she was carrying. “Everyone cleans up their own mess in the bunk, and we all help clean up the mess hall after meals. Lights out means lights out—no messing around. And if you have a problem with another camper, bring it to a counselor. We're here to help.”

Libby raised her hand. “What about possums? Did you guys check for possums this year?”

Tara got a look of recognition on her face. “Oh, so you're the possum girl. Um, I'm not sure about that. I'll get back to you.”

Amelia looked worried. “What about possums?”

“Don't worry, Libby will tell you all about it at lunch,” Maddie promised her.

They headed to the mess hall, the largest building in the whole camp—a long, one-story rectangle covered with weathered wood shingles. Inside, campers were taking their seats at the round wood tables. A metal counter stretched along one side of the building, and Maddie smiled and waved at Mrs. Hancock, the camp cook. The plump, curly-haired woman smiled and waved back. “Hi, Maddie!” she called.

The six Hannahs sat down at one of the tables, and Amelia started to look around at the other campers.

“So, we have to all sit together when we eat?” she asked.

“Bunks always sit together,” Maddie explained.

Liza nodded across the room, where the boys were starting to file in. “Yeah, and they separate the girls and boys across the room. No fun.”

Maddie slyly glanced over to the boys' side, hoping to see the cute British boy. He was easy to spot because he was so tall, and she saw him laughing at something Jared was saying. Maddie quickly looked away. For a second she thought about pointing him out to her friends, but she felt a little silly.

Maybe later I'll tell Liza,
she thought, grateful that their beds were right next to each other. Even though the rule was no talking after lights out, Maddie and Liza had held some of their most memorable conversations at night, whispered in the darkness.

Tara appeared at their table with a cheerful smile. “Okay, girls, time to line up for lunch!”

The girls joined the other campers on line to get lunch. Steam trays held hamburgers, veggie burgers, and fries. Next to the hot line was a salad bar loaded
with lettuce and all kinds of vegetables. Next to that was the drink station. Samantha put a cup under the nozzle of one of the big jugs that were lined up, pulled the lever back, and watched a stream of neon orange liquid flow out.

She made a face. “What is this?”

“Bug juice,” Maddie explained. “At least, that's what campers call it. It comes in three different flavors: sweet, sweeter, and sweetest. But you're probably better off with water.”

Samantha cautiously took a sip. “I don't know. It's not so bad.”

Amelia grimaced. “It looks disgusting.”

The girls got drinks and then headed back to their table.

“Veggie burger number one,” Emily announced, setting down her tray.

“What do you mean?” Samantha asked.

“It's the most popular vegetarian option at camp,” Emily explained. “That and spaghetti. Last year I think I ate fifty veggie burgers, so this year I want to keep count.”

“Why don't you just eat salad?” Libby asked, holding up a forkful of lettuce. “I love salad.”

“Salad is okay, but it doesn't fill me up,” Emily said with a sigh. “Plus, it gets boring.”

“Everything here looks boring,” Amelia complained.

“I know it might look that way now, but it's really fun,” Maddie assured her. “After we eat, they'll show us the activity schedule. You'll see.”

“Well,” said Libby, peering around. “Has anyone checked out the boys yet?”

The girls all started craning their necks to see the boys at the other tables.

“Don't be so obvious!” hissed Libby, starting to giggle.

All the girls turned back around.

“Well some of them have grown a lot,” said Emily.

“Some of them are kind of cute,” said Samantha.

Amelia suddenly seemed very interested. “Which ones are our age?” she said.

Libby rolled her eyes. “The ones at the table behind us.”

“Oh,” said Amelia, sighing. “Them.”

“The tall one is cute,” said Samantha.