Acting Out (8 page)

Maybe I should tell him I needed to make a phone call. I had a poor sick grandma in the hospital who might not make it through the night. Couldn't he help me find a phone somewhere?

“I have this old copy of
Tips and Tricks.
It has a strategy guide that helped me get through all the levels of that game,” said Lance.

“Really? I would
love
to see those. Do you remember any of them?” I asked. How exactly does one get from the subject of aliens conquering Earth to a poor sick grandma?
My poor grandma used to love watching me use my disintegrator ray to reduce my enemies to dust. But she's really sick now, and . . .

“Well, it's in my cabin. I brought a stack of
Tips and Tricks
with me in case—”

“It's in your cabin?” I said. “Can I see it? Please, oh please? I've been stuck on level eighteen forever. I've gotta see that guide!” Okay, now this just might work. I felt a little braver now. I reminded myself that JD didn't get nervous when it came to getting into trouble.

“Uh, I don't think we're supposed to—”

“Oh Lance, don't tell me you're one of those nerdy guys who's always worried about following all the rules. I know you're not like
that.”
I was down the steps before he could get another word out. “Which way is your cabin? We can be there and back in ten minutes. Nobody will ever know we're gone.”

I walked fast, going in the opposite direction of where all the counselors were at the other end of the porch. It was pretty dark now, and I hoped we wouldn't get all the way to Lance's cabin before
somebody
saw us. It would be okay to get into a little trouble, but I didn't want to cause a huge uproar. Lance trotted to catch up with me.

“No, really. I think we should—”

“Is this the way?” I pointed down a dirt path that looked like it might lead to some cabins.

“No, that goes to the Mites cabins. I'm a Newt. Our cabins are that way, but—”

“This way? I'm so glad you brought those magazines with you. Looking at strategy guides will be so much better than being stuck at this dance.” I couldn't really see his face in the dark, but he was at least keeping up with me now. The grass was all dewy and wet, and the crickets were singing like crazy.

“Uh, JD—I'm not sure we can—”

“C'mon. Don't be so nervous!” My gosh, were all boys this shy? If they got this stressed over showing a girl their strategy guides, how did they ever get up the nerve to kiss someone?

“Hey! Where are you guys going?”

Finally! We turned around, and the beam of a flashlight bounced across our faces. All I could see were two dark forms standing there, shining a light in our eyes.

Perfect. The Porch Patrol really was on duty after all.

I recognized them when they got a little closer: Madison Abernathy and Lydia Duncan. They were still dressed in camouflage.

“What are you two doing?” asked Madison. She was really pretty, with long dark hair. She had a few leafy twigs sticking out all over the place.

“Uh, we . . . uh,” stuttered Lance. His mouth hung open, and the light reflected off the lenses of his glasses. Now I felt bad for getting him into trouble.

“We were just going for a walk,” I said. “Lance was showing me the Camp Crockett sights.” I gave them both a big smile. No way could I tell them we were on our way to his cabin.

“No, you're not,” said Lydia. “You guys know you're not supposed to leave the dining hall. Get back to the dance.”

“Are we in big trouble? Please don't tell Eda,” I begged. Actually, I didn't care if she told Eda or not. The more people who knew about it, the better.

“Just get going.” Madison shone her flashlight at us one more time, so I couldn't see their expressions. Did they think it was funny they'd caught us? Or were they mad? Their voices had been all stern-sounding. When we walked past them, I wanted to grab Lance's hand so it would look like we were up to
something,
but I didn't want to make the poor guy faint.

“Uh,” said Lance. He was still speechless.

“Hey, it's okay. They won't do anything to us,” I whispered to him. Madison and Lydia walked behind us, like they didn't trust us to find the dining hall on our own.

When we got back to the porch, it seemed like there were about twenty or thirty people watching us as we walked up. I bumped against Lance a couple of times to make it look like we were a real couple who'd been caught making out in the dark. He scooted over each time I did it, though, so I stopped.

Maybe I should've smeared my lip gloss before everybody saw us. Why didn't I think of that before? Chloe Carlson would've thought of that. Wait a second, Chloe Carlson wouldn't need to smear her own lip gloss; the boy she was with would've done it for her. But so what? Chloe wasn't the one who got caught this time.
I
was. And things couldn't have been more perfect. It was exactly like I thought it would be.

“Lance! You da man!” a boy yelled from the porch. Somebody whistled as we walked up the steps. I had a little smile on my face as everyone watched us. Lance stared at his shoelaces the whole time.

When we walked into the dining hall, a Camp Crockett counselor gave us a long, intense look; then he walked toward us. I was afraid he was Lance's counselor, and now he was going to yell at us for leaving the dining hall. But for some reason, he was looking right at me. He didn't even notice Lance was there.

“Hey, don't I know you?” he asked.

The second he said that, I recognized him. Brandon Matheson, a guy who used to play football at Central. A teammate of Justin's!

What was
he
doing here? I did not want to be recognized by anyone from home! Especially not in front of Lance. If Lance hadn't been with me, I would've taken off running in the opposite direction.

Brandon pointed at me. “I got it! You're a Duckworth, aren't you? Yeah! I remember you from all the practices!”

“Oh, hi,” I said.
Now, bye. See ya later. Adios, amigo.
“You're Brandon, right?” I asked him through my clenched smile. His hair was longer than it used to be, and he looked a little older.

“Yeah, that's right. So you're going to Pine Haven, huh?” asked Brandon.

“Uh, yeah.” My head bounced up and down like a bobblehead. Maybe we could keep the topic of conversation on camp instead of football. “You're a counselor, I guess. That must be fun. What's your activity?” Lance looked back and forth between me and Brandon. So far he hadn't missed a word of this conversation.

“I'm on the hiking staff. Hey—how's Justin doing?”

“He's doing great! I'll tell him I saw you. Wow! He'll really be surprised. This is Lance, by the way. Brandon's from my hometown.” Maybe now we could say our good-byes and walk away. I held my breath and hoped that Brandon wouldn't say anything else about Justin and football in front of Lance.

“Hey, dude. What's up?” Brandon said without even looking at Lance. He was completely focused on me, unfortunately. “Well, I heard what happened. What a shame. I couldn't believe it.” He said it in a sorry-your-dog-died kind of voice.

So he
had
heard about what happened. I was hoping that maybe if he was away at college, he didn't know all the gory details. No such luck.

“Yeah. Well, things are okay,” I said, my head bobbing up and down like crazy. “So you're in college now?”

“Yeah, I just finished my first year at Auburn. I'm playing lacrosse now.”

“Really? Cool. Lacrosse is a great sport.”
In fact, let's talk about lacrosse from now on, and not speak of football ever again.

“Yeah. I didn't get a football scholarship. I considered trying out as a walk-on, but I'm an engineering major, and I really needed time for my studies. With lacrosse, I can play a sport without it taking up all my time.”

I nodded. Obviously, Brandon had been bitten by the chatty bug seconds before he'd run into us.

“Hey, listen. Tell your brother I said hi. Hope everything works out for him. I was real sorry to hear what happened. It hurt the whole team.”

“Okay, thanks. I will. Bye, Brandon!” I took two steps back, hoping he wouldn't say anything else before I could finally get away.

But he was done. He walked off.

Oh my God!
My heart hammered in my chest. My face felt flaming hot. All I wanted to do was get as far away from Brandon Matheson as I possibly could. I pushed through the crowd of people, not even caring at this point if Lance was still following me or not.

How was it possible that I'd been recognized when I was two hundred miles from home? And that the person who recognized me not only knew Justin, but used to play football with him? What were the odds? Brandon Matheson, of all people! And when did he turn into such a yakker?

“Uh, JD?”

I spun around to see Lance trailing along behind me. “What?” I snapped at him.

Lance drew back like I'd spit in his eye. “What was that all about?”

“Oh, Brandon. He knows my brother. Used to play football with him. Are you as thirsty as I am?” I took off toward the refreshment table at a mad run. Lance tried to keep up with me.

“What was all that stuff about ‘I heard what happened'?” asked Lance. Boy, he'd certainly gotten curious all of a sudden.

I stopped at the refreshment table, grabbed a cup of red bug juice, and gulped it down. “Oh, that. Justin got injured. Pulled his quadriceps. He might not be able to play next season.”

“Oh.” Lance took a drink of bug juice and looked around. “I wonder where Mike and David are.”

I let out a sigh and concentrated on getting my pulse down from rapid to normal. My hand holding the paper cup was shaking, so I crumpled it up and tossed it into the trash can.

It wasn't a total lie. Justin had pulled his quadriceps once during his sophomore year, and he missed the last two games of the season. I was so relieved Brandon hadn't blabbed too much about what had happened. Lance didn't need to hear that. No one needed to hear that.

“Is it true?”

I spun around to see Katherine beside me. “I heard you and some guy got caught by the Porch Patrol.” She gave Lance a quick look and then sneered at me.

“Yeah. So?” I did not feel like dealing with Katherine right now.

“So what you were doing?” she asked.

“Katherine, if you want the latest news, check the headlines every day.” I stomped off through the crowd of dancers. Lance ran up behind me.

“Sorry about that. I didn't know we'd get in trouble,” he said.

I slowed down as we weaved in and out of the people on the dance floor. “It's okay. I don't mind,” I told him over my shoulder. Poor guy. He'd put up with a lot tonight. “Anyway, it was my idea to leave the dining hall in the first place, remember?”

We moved over to the edge of the dance floor and sat in some chairs along the wall. “Thanks for hanging out with me tonight. I had a great time,” I told him. “Too bad we couldn't have played a few levels of Destroy All Humans.”

“Yeah.” Lance nodded. He sat with his feet sticking way out, and a couple of people stumbled over them as they walked by. He was tall and goofy, but I still liked the guy. He really was a good sport. “I've never met a girl who knows so much about video games. I didn't even want to come to this dance, but it turned out pretty okay.”

By now everyone was slow dancing, and we sat there and watched them. Now I was wishing I hadn't made all those comments about not liking to dance. Lance would be okay to slow dance with. He had beautiful gray eyes and he was fun to hang out with, and he'd followed me all over the place tonight.

Maybe at the next dance. Hey, if I could convince him to leave the dining hall, it couldn't be that hard to figure out how to get him out on the dance floor.

When the dance ended, everyone crowded through the doors to go outside.

“Sorry I got us in trouble,” I told Lance. “Maybe I'll see you at the next dance?”

“Sure. See ya later!” He'd found David and Mike, and they were dragging him away, asking a bunch of questions. I wondered if he would tell them what we were really doing. Probably. He didn't seem to have a clue what the Porch Patrol was really there for.

When I walked up to the truck that would take us all back to camp, everyone swarmed around me.

“So you really got caught?” asked Mei. “Was it the guy with the glasses?”

“What were you doing?” Lauren asked.

“JD, you
have
to tell us what happened!” said Courtney.

I plastered a huge grin on my face and said, “I don't kiss and tell!” Then I refused to say another word, even though they kept pumping me for more info.

It would've been a perfect night if it hadn't been for Brandon Matheson. It was bad enough that Lance had witnessed that little meeting. What if one of my friends had been with me when I ran into him? Or Michelle? Almost every day Michelle asked me more questions about Justin and Adam. I wished she'd never even seen those pictures of them playing football. There was no way I could tell her I didn't want to talk about my own brothers.