Spells & Sleeping Bags #3 (19 page)

I roll one around my wrist. “I made it here. You can make one too.”

“Can I make it now?”

“I think A&C is open,” I say.

“I thought we were going to the tennis courts,” Miri whines.

“Let's just get her some lanterns first,” Jennifer says.

“Lanyards,” I say. “Look, why don't Mom and Lex go with Miri to the tennis courts, and I'll take you guys to A&C and we'll meet them there when we're done?”

We find Mom and Lex making out on the porch steps.

“Yuck!” screams Prissy.

I'm too mortified to talk. There are parents roaming around all over this place. Children, too. Little children, who will be scarred for life.

Mom and Lex pull away from each other and at least have the decency to look embarrassed.

“Forget it,” Miri says, scowling. “I don't want to be alone with these two. Let's all go to A&C first.”

After our stop at the A&C, Stef announces snack time over the loudspeaker (“What did she say?” Prissy screams at the top of her lungs. “What's a
thnack
?”), so we go to the picnic tables and pile Danishes and cantaloupe on our paper plates. I introduce my mom and dad to all the other kids. And then the kids introduce my parents to their parents. I feel my face flush when I introduce them to Raf's parents, because the last time I saw his parents, I was on a date with Will.

Then we get Prissy's stuff from my dad's car and set her up. Then we check out the lake, and my dad decides he wants to go rowboating, and then all of us—oh yes, the whole clan—get fitted for life jackets by Harris (Jennifer, my mom, and Prissy giggle and bat their lashes), and we pile onto the lake.

Can you say
awkward
? I can't help counting the minutes until it's time for all the parents to go home.

When we get back to shore, the head staff is handing out Popsicles. Stef returns to the loudspeaker and announces, “Vithiting Day will be over in ten minuteth. Would all parenth thay their good-byeth and thtart making their way to Upper Field?”

When our parents drive off—separately, of course—and Prissy is clinging to my hand, blinking away tears, I realize that Miri never showed them the tennis courts. “Why didn't you remind us?” I ask. I realize that I forgot about something else, too—I meant to ask my mom if she's been sending her letters to Miri to the right bunk. Oops.

“Because no one cared,” she answers.

“That's not true.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“What's gotten into you lately?”

“What's gotten into
you
?”

Prissy tugs me toward the A&C. “Can I get more lanyard?”

“Let's go find Tilly,” I tell her.

“I'm going back to my bunk,” Miri says.

After depositing Prissy with Tilly, I stop by Miri's bunk to try to talk to her again.

“She's not here,” says one of her bunkmates, a scrawny girl in full headgear paraphernalia. This is one of the girls who's picking on Miri? Please.

“Do you know where she is?”

She shrugs.

I check the tennis courts but don't find her there, either.

I finally see Miri at dinner, but she's uncommunicative. Prissy, on the other hand, won't stop talking.

“I got more lanyard, and Tilly showed me how to do butterfly but I'm not so good at it, so I braided them instead and then I got to help make the other girls' beds, and their names are Mandy and Candy and Dahlia and Caprice, and they're all coming for two weeks just like me, except Mandy and Candy and Dahlia are seven and Caprice is six like me—”

“That's great, Prissy, but I have to get back to my table, 'kay?”

She's still talking as I make my way across the mess hall. “You looked like you wanted to kill your family today,” Poodles says to me.

“I did. It was so uncomfortable. It was the first time my mom, her boyfriend, my dad, and his wife were all together. It was awful. So embarrassing. Carly, pass the spaghetti?”

Liana, who's sitting next to Carly, grabs the pasta and serves herself. “Rachel, tell us. Why was it so awful?”

“What do you mean? It just was. When your parents are divorced, you don't want them in the same room.”

“Seems immature to me. If they don't care, why should you?”

“Because I do.” Why's it her business, anyway?

“Where was your family?” Carly asks Liana.

“They're way too busy to come here,” she huffs. “They're yachting in France. With some Greek prince.”

Morgan's eyes widen into saucers. “Really? A prince?”

“That is so cool,” Deb says. “Have you met the prince?”

“Of course I have,” Liana says with extra haughtiness.

I don't buy any of this. “Oh, come on.”

“Don't believe me if you don't want to. Unlike you, I don't care about what other people think.”

I'm about to tell her where to get off when Deb yells, “Freeze!” at the top of her lungs.

My nose is tickling. I think I'm going to—

No! “Achoo!”

“You stack, Rachel,” Deb says.

That sneeze came out of nowhere. I hope I'm not getting sick.

“Whoops,” Liana says as she dribbles tomato sauce across the table. “Hope you don't get all dirty when you clean up. Sorry about that, Rache.”

No, she's not.

The only thing around here making me sick is her.

Evening activity is charades in the rec hall. Unfortunately, it's interrupted by Tilly, who finds me and asks me to go with her. “Prissy wants you. She's seriously homesick.”

“Sure,” I say, grabbing my sweatshirt. “See you later?” I ask Raf.

“Okay.”

Miri, who's sitting two rows up, turns around. “Where are you going?”

“To check on Prissy. She's homesick.”

“Do you want me to come?”

“Who are you?” Tilly asks.

“I'm her sister.”

“I thought Rachel was her sister.”

“She has two sisters.”

“Oh,” says the counselor. “No, you can stay. She just asked for Rachel.”

Miri's face clouds.

“Why don't we both go?” I say.

“Never mind, I don't want to go,” Miri says, and whips her head back around.

“Miri, come on,” I say, but she ignores me.

Why is my entire family so crazy?

I follow Tilly all the way across camp to bunk one, wave hello to the on-duty counselor on the porch, and enter Prissy's cabin.

“Hey, kiddo,” I say.

She jumps off her bed and throws her arms around me.

“There are ghosts under the beds,” she wails. “Stay with me?”

“Of course.”

She wraps her arms more tightly around my waist.

Two seconds of silence and then: “I want to go hooooooooooooooooooome.”

“Prissy, you're only here for two weeks.”

“I don't like it. The water is cold. I want warm water. And I want my bath!”

“No baths at camp, Priss.”

“I want one.”

“Come on, Prissy, let's get into your bed and I'll tell you a story.”

“I don't want a story.”

“Well, what do you want?”

“Lanyard?”

“Fine, we'll do lanyard.”

I spend the next twenty minutes making a bracelet for her. It's already nine-thirty, which is way, way past her bedtime. Evening activity should be ending. If I leave now, I'll still have time to spend with Raf.

“Sleep with me?”

“I have to sleep in my own bunk, Priss.”

“Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?”

“I can't, Prissy.”

She starts to blubber again.

“I'll stay until you fall asleep, okay?”

She immediately stops crying. “Okay.”

It takes her hours to fall asleep. Okay, fine, more like forty minutes, but it feels like hours.

I slowly extract myself from Prissy's iron grip and tiptoe across the cabin. I carefully open the door, trying hard not to let it creak, and say good-bye to the on-duty counselor. Then I cross Lower Field, passing the mess hall and the beach. I notice with hope that some older campers are still milling around. Maybe I'll see Raf. But no Raf. Maybe he'll be waiting for me on my porch.

I hurry along the road, wanting to get there as fast as possible, so that we can make use of the last few minutes before curfew. I turn left, toward the hill that leads to my bunk.

Someone is standing on the steps. It's a guy! It must be Raf.

Nah, it can't be Raf. The guy is leaning in to kiss someone.

They're kissing! Anthony and Deb, maybe? Hello, gossip!

It doesn't look like Anthony and Deb.

I take a few steps closer. My heart turns to ice.

It can't be.

It can't be, but it is. It's Raf.

And he's kissing Liana.

14
THE BOYFRIEND-STEALER

I can't move. My shoes are stuck to the gravel. Or perhaps my feet are too heavy because my heart has sunk to the bottom of my toes. I can't do anything but watch.

They're kissing. My quasi boyfriend is kissing another girl. Not peck-peck, nice-to-see-you-dear kissing but real, heavy-duty frenching. Their heads are rolling from side to side and I want to yell at them to stop, but no words come out.

I think I'm going to be sick.

Eventually, Liana pulls away. She turns to face me and smiles.

Raf's eyes pop wide open. “Rachel, hi!” he says. Either he's not as bright as I thought he was, or he thinks I'm blind, because the next thing I know, he's asking, “What's wrong?”

At first I'm speechless. Finally, words flow from my mouth. “You just swallowed Liana's tongue.”

“Hi, Rachel,” Liana purrs. “Raf, you should probably go back to your bunk now.”

“I–I don't understand,” Raf stammers.

The raw will is brewing inside me. My legs and toes and arms and fingers are trembling. I want to do something terrible. Something awful. I want to yank Raf and Liana up and hurl them into the lake. I want to drop them headfirst onto the tennis courts. I want to turn Raf into a six-legged toad and Liana into a turkey—just before Thanksgiving.

Raf chose Liana over me.

Raf never really liked me.

But I was his swimming buddy, wasn't I?

I feel like I've swallowed a fifty-pound beach ball. Yeah, I was his buddy, all right. I was his . . . friend.

The towels on the railings of the porch start to quiver. I take a deep breath. I'm not going to let my magic get out of control. I need to calm down before I accidentally blow up the camp. Think megels, I order myself. Harness that energy! Concentrate!

The towels lie still. I back away from the porch.

If there's ever been a time when I needed Miri, it's now. Not because she's a witch. Because she's my sister.

I run across camp, past the gawking campers, up the stairs to her bunk, and over to her bed. She's already in it, under her covers, reading her spell book. I climb up her ladder and slither under the sheet beside her. “Mir, I have to talk to you.”

“What are you doing here?” she asks.

The other girls perk up in their beds.

“Somewhere private,” I whisper.

She pulls out a small bag filled with a green and black concoction, sprinkles some of it into the air, and whispers:

“As the day is short and the night is long,

Your sense of sound will now be gone.”

“What was that?”

“A new spell I learned. They won't hear you for the rest of the night. They won't hear
anything
for the rest of the night.”

That sounds kind of mean. “When did you learn that?”

“I do have a life beyond you, you know.”

So she keeps telling me. “Mir, something awful happened.”

“What?”

“When I left Prissy's, I went back to my bunk and saw Raf and Liana kissing!”

Her mouth drops open. “No way.”

“Way. I swear, I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Honestly, Rachel, I don't think Liana would do that. She's not interested in Raf.”

I narrow my eyes. “How would you know?”

“I know. Liana and I are friends.”

“Liana isn't your friend, Miri. She's a horrible person.”

Miri hugs her pillow to her chest. “She is not! I will not let you bad-mouth her like that.”

My mouth is drier than a beach full of sand. “You can't be friends with someone who tried to steal my boyfriend!”

“Raf isn't your boyfriend.”

Tears spring to my eyes. “He kind of is.”

“It's not all about you, Rachel.”

I feel like I've been slapped. “What are you talking about?”

“You can't have everything,” she snaps.“

I
don't
have everything.”

She flips her hair, like she's Liana. “You act like you think you deserve everything. Like you're owed.”

“What has gotten into you?”

“You know what? I don't want to talk to you anymore.”

“But I want to talk to you,” I plead. I don't understand why she's being so mean to me.

“You don't get to make all the decisions, and I don't want to listen.” She dips her hand back into her bag, sprinkles the green and black powder again, and chants:

“As the day is short and the night is long,

My sense of sound will now be gone.”

“Are you kidding me?” I scream.

She turns her back on me. “Sorry, can't hear you.”

My hands are shaking with anger. I storm out of her bunk, slamming the door with a bang—not that anyone can hear it.

I walk aimlessly around camp for the next few hours. When I finally return to my bunk, Deb is waiting on the porch.

“Where have you been?” she asks, glaring at me.

“Around,” I say. I don't feel like dealing with her now. My head is pounding and I just want to go to sleep. Maybe I'll wake up and this whole mess will have been a dream.

“I don't know who you think you are,” Deb says. “You can't just wander around by yourself for over three hours.”

“I'm sorry,” I say listlessly.

“Sorry isn't good enough,” Deb says. “You're zapped.”

Yes, I am. Miri just zapped me in the heart.

“For a week,” Deb adds.

I open the door and stagger into fourteen. All the girls are already in bed, including Liana. She's the only one awake.

“Everything all right, Rachel?” she asks.

“Shut up, Liana.”

I don't even bother getting washed. I climb up my ladder and try to sleep, but I keep hearing Liana's voice in my head:
Everything all right, Rachel?
What a phony.

“My sense of Liana now be gone,” I whisper to the darkness.

If only she were a mosquito and I could poof her into oblivion.

Raf approaches me at flagpole. “Can we talk?”

I ignore him.

“Please, Rache, I don't understand why you're ignoring me.”

You've got to be kidding. I can't believe I was so wrong about him for so long. I've liked him since
September.
That's eleven months! What a waste of time. What a waste of energy.

What a jerk-off.

I tell Poodles the story as we walk to the mess hall.

“I can't believe it,” she says, shaking her head. “I'm going to kill her. And him. How could he do that to you? We'll boycott her. No worries. I'll tell Carly and Morgan the plan.” She puts her arm around me and squeezes me tightly. “He's not good enough for you.”

She's the best. “Hey, Poodles, what exactly does
zapping
entail?”

“Ouch, when did that happen?”

“Last night.”

“It means you can't leave the bunk for free play and you have to go straight back to the bunk after evening activity.”

“Deb zapped me for a week.”

“No way! That was harsh. I wonder what's up with her. She's never zapped anyone for that long. Last year I got zapped for one night, but that's it.”

Whatever. It's not like I have anyone outside my bunk to hang out with.

“Rachel,” Deb says, hands on her hips, “isn't it your job to do the porch today?”

It's cleanup, and I'm in bed, trying to sleep off my pain and avoid Liana simultaneously. “It might be.”

“I'd appreciate it if you did it,” she says. “It's a mess; there are towels all over the place.”

“She's right,” Liana coos while sweeping next to our bed. “It's embarrassing. I can't ask boys over here if it's going to look like that.”

Boys? She's cheating on my Raf already? Omigod. How can she be so horrible?

“I agree,” Morgan says. “It's not right.”

I can't believe that Morgan is being nasty to me when my heart is broken. I climb down the ladder and head to the porch. At least out there I won't have to listen to her.

Or face Liana.

We have pottery with bunk fifteen after cleanup. I use the period to enjoy pounding the clay between my hands, trying to look threatening. The others are making bowls.

Poodles, a troubled expression on her face, pulls me to the sink. “Bad news,” she says, turning on the water so that no one can hear us.

“What is it?”

“Liana is claiming that the kiss never happened. That you made it up to turn us against her.”

“What?”

“She says you've had it in for her from day one.”

I storm right over to Liana, Poodles following close behind. “You are such a liar,” I say. “I
saw
you.”

Liana shakes her head, all innocent-eyed. “I don't know why you hate me so much, Rachel. I've never done anything to you.”

“Yes, you did! You stole my boyfriend!” I scan the room for a piece of hardened clay I can throw at her.

She shakes her glossy hair from side to side. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Really,” says Poodles icily. Then she turns to me. “Why don't we just ask Raf? I'm sure
he
knows what you're talking about. We'll get him to admit the truth.”

Oh God. I can't think of anything more embarrassing. What does she intend to do, march right up to him and say, “So, Raf, I hear you've been cheating on Rachel, who's so crazy about you that she can't see straight and is now devastated for life”? I know that Poodles means well, but . . . “Um, I don't think that's such a good idea, Poodles.”

Liana smirks. “Go ahead, ask him. He'll back me up.”

Big talker. She knows I'd rather be boiled in oil than go through the humiliation of confronting Raf. She's bluffing.

Isn't she?

Of course she is. I mean, why would he deny it? It wasn't like he was trying to hide what he was doing. He was making out on the front porch in broad daylight. Broad moonlight, that is, but still.

The smell of clay starts to make me sick—or maybe it's the state of my life. “I think I need some air,” I say, and head out of the pottery room.

Poodles follows me outside. “I don't know why everyone loves Liana so much.”

Laughter erupts from the pottery room. “Liana, you are so right!” Morgan squeals.