Alex's Challenge (15 page)

The winners—the Blue team—got up to serve the chocolate chip cookies to all of the losers. Alex only ate one—others had three, four, or five—and no one gave Alex any trouble about it. Not even Chelsea, who had seemingly made up with Karen. They were sitting together at the end of the table, laughing and talking. Karen was doing
a lot
of talking!

Chelsea didn't seem to mind too much. She turned to Alex. “I'm glad you're feeling better, even if I do think you cheat at Scrabble.”

Alex smiled despite herself. Chelsea could always be counted on to be . . . well, Chelsea. It was almost endearing.

The mood was happy but quiet as the girls, totally exhausted but running on adrenaline, made their way back to the bunk for the last night at camp. Alex was satisfied that she had learned a lot that summer—about bullies and sports and Twinkies and friendships.

Did I learn anything about crushes?
she wondered as she saw Adam walking with Jenna, whispering to her about something. They saw her looking at them, and they started coming her way. Her heart sped up by about a hundred beats.

“So, um, Adam,” Alex said, her voice quivering from way too many nerves, “I heard you won blob tag for the Blues. Congrats!”

“Thanks. Can I talk to you?” he asked, his eyes serious and wide.

“Um, I guess. What do you want?”

“Uh, excuse me,” Jenna said, a tad overly loud. “I have to talk to . . . Natalie!” She turned her whole body away to “subtly” give Alex and Adam some privacy.

But why?
Alex wondered.

“I just, um, wanted to see if you'd be here next summer?” Adam asked her, while he bent down to tie his shoelaces. Alex could see that his hands were trembling.
Why are his hands trembling?

“I'm here every summer. They're good about catering to kids with diabetes here, kids like me,” she answered, proud to be talking about her condition in the open. She wished she had just blurted the truth out before—her summer could've been a lot easier. “I can't wait to come back here.”

“Me neither,” he said, looking at her.

“Cool, see you later!” Alex said, smiling as she took off toward her friends in 3C.
Next summer will be even better!
she thought.

chapter
ELEVEN

 

“You what?” Natalie was screaming when Alex got back into the bunk.

“I broke up with Trevor,” Alyssa said. “It's the end of the summer. Why not?”

“You're such a heartbreaker!” Natalie teased Alyssa, throwing her pillow at her best-camp-friend.

“It's about time it's that way around,” Alyssa answered, flipping her Day-Glo hair up into a high, messy ponytail. “I was so bummed when Adam told me said he just wanted to be friends.”

Alyssa looked directly at Alex, meeting her eyes. Alex froze, but luckily, Alyssa just smiled and looked away.

Adam dumped Alyssa? Why?
Alex asked herself. This certainly put a new and confusing spin on things. Alex figured she wouldn't think about it anymore. This stuff just wasn't her business.

Before Alyssa could get another word in, Natalie dove into her bed headfirst. “I can't believe the summer is over!” she whined.

“Oh, Simon, how I love thee!”
Grace teased.
“I can't go back to Manhattan without you! My dahhhlling!”

“My dahhhhhhling!”
Candace yelled, getting a laugh from the rest of the bunk.

Another pillow flew into Alyssa's face, knocking her off balance and into her sheets.

“Oh, stop it,” Alyssa said to everyone. “Natalie will see Simon in the fall.”

“Really?” Grace asked, still beaming from her performance as Wendy. She looked happier than she had all summer.

Grace had something else to be proud of, too: She'd caught up on all of the summer homework her parents had given her. She'd be heading back to school well-prepared in the fall. Her bunkmates had enjoyed helping her when she couldn't get through a book like
Call of the Wild.
Alex had really liked getting to know Grace better. Alex was going to miss her!

“I hope we get to hang out,” Natalie said. “He lives in Westport, Connecticut. That's close to New York City. We think we'll hang out in September.”

Her facial expression got all dreamy. Alex was pretty sure she wasn't ready to get
that
into a boy.

“Brynn, will you be auditioning for all the school plays?” Natalie asked, clearly trying to get the attention off her romantic possibilities.

“Um, yeah, and Grace is going to audition for parts at her school, too,” Brynn added while doing a post-drama-production sun salutation, a yoga move.

Brynn told Alex that it helped her calm down. Alex was used to Brynn's moves.

In the other corner of the room, Valerie was talking to Chelsea, and Karen was standing there, too. Alex definitely wanted to get the full story later.

When the excitement died down, and that took at least twenty minutes after all those honey cookies everyone had eaten, Valerie ran over to Alex and hugged her. She added, “You didn't forget, did you?”

“Of course not!” Alex reached around under her bed and dug into the large suitcase to find a few sacks she had hidden there. Inside the sacks were two wooden boxes. “Now is the perfect time.”

Valerie grabbed Brynn and Sarah. The three of them came over to Alex and walked just outside the bunk.

“Don't go too far, girls,” Julie yelled.

“We have to give out the bunk awards next! Alex, I think you might be getting one . . .” Marissa teased from the bathroom mirror where she was fixing her hair.

“Okay,” Alex said, trembling. “This is for you.” She handed one sack to Brynn.

“And this is for you,” Valerie said, handing the other one to Sarah.

Both girls looked puzzled. The girls tore into them. Once they realized what the gifts were, they shrieked with excitement. “This is amazing!” Brynn said as she opened and closed the box. Hers had flowers carved on it. The wood was cedar, and Brynn stuck her nose in to take a whiff and went, “Ahhh.”

“It is. But why did you do this?” Sarah said, admiring the stars and moons that were carved on her wooden box.

“There's one more, actually,” Alex said, feeling suddenly shy. She dashed back into the bunk, pulled another bag out, and rushed back outside to hand it to a very surprised Valerie.

“One for me, too?” Valerie asked, bewildered. Her box had a simple, round elephant carved on it.

“Valerie, you are awesome. Yours is a huge thank-you,” Alex said, hugging her friend. She looked at the other girls.

“Brynn and Sarah, Valerie and I made these thinking that they would help us all make up and be nice to one another again—it was a gift we wanted to give you.” Alex blushed, feeling like she was in an after-school television special. “Valerie thought of doing it. She's the generous one, not me,” Alex said, admiring Valerie's cornrows that were piled festively on top of her head. “She's also the talented one, I mean, she taught me
how
.”

Brynn wiped tears from her eyes—she really could cry on cue—and ran over to hug Alex. “This means so much to me. I'm so sorry for everything the past few weeks.”

“Stop it. That's so yesterday!” Alex yelled. “I'm just glad you like it!”

Brynn reached over and hugged Valerie, too. But she had to wait her turn. Sarah was saying something to Valerie that got Valerie all teary-eyed.

“Enough of this sappy stuff,” Alex said, wanting to party and not get sad. She would miss her camp friends
sooo
much.

“Wait, Alex,” Brynn answered. “You're the only one without one of these!”

“No, she's not,” Valerie said, smiling from cornrow to cornrow. “Here you go, girl.” Valerie handed Alex a wooden jewelry box with soccer balls carved on it.

“You are too much!” Alex said, hugging Valerie.

She did feel like these girls knew her well. She didn't have anything to hide. She was sure that this summer she had belonged at Camp Lakeview. She really wanted to cry because she was so happy. But she held back—she wanted to celebrate, not get sappy.

After the gift exchange, Alex, Valerie, Brynn, and Sarah went back inside the bunk with the rest of 3C.

“Snack time!” Jenna yelled, pulling out a small cardboard box—the last of her snack stash.

Alex's throat tightened because that was her conditioned response. Every time Jenna had snacks, Alex would have to dodge them.

But then her muscles relaxed all over. This time was different because everyone finally knew the whole truth.

“Alex, you first,” Jenna said.

Alex's throat tightened again—this time because she was surprised. Jenna knew she couldn't have any.

Alex's face scrunched up. She had hoped that awkward moments like this one were in the past. She thought it was all over!

“Just look in the box! Go on,” Jenna chided, smiling and giggling. The other girls stood back like they were all in on a joke.

Alex looked in and she saw packs of sugar-free pudding. Her face broke out into an enormous grin. She reached in and took one, along with a spoon. The other girls waited their turn.

“We want you to know we love you,” Brynn said, passing out the sugar-free treats to everyone.

Even Chelsea took one, looked up, and smiled at Alex. “We're with you this time.”

Alex just beamed, and finally, she couldn't hold back the waterworks that gushed out of her eyes. She wiped her cheeks with the insides of her arms and then she tore open the pudding. It was the very best thing she could've eaten. And that's because she was eating it with her very best friends.

She held up her plastic tub filled with smooth chocolate yumminess and yelled, “Cheers to 3C!”

Aries8:
Natalie! U there?

NatalieNYC:
JENNA!!! OMG, what's up? camp only ended saturday but I miss u so much already. how's home?

Aries8: ok. I'm at my dad's—totally boring. Just looking at stuff online with adam.

NatalieNYC:
Hi, adam.

Aries8:
He's getting food right now—I had to im u and say he got a text message from Simon last night—just saying hi and whatever and then he was like, “I am totally glad to be home—just miss my friends and obviously Natalie.”

NatalieNYC:
Aww, that's so sweet, J.

Aries8:
Totally. R u gonna keep seeing him?

NatalieNYC:
?? Don't know. CT isn't that far but… there's Kyle. He's here, in NY, and I'm kind of into him.

Aries8:
U mentioned him at camp.

NatalieNYC:
Gotta go—Hannah's here, we're going back-to-school shopping!!! Totally the best thing about fall…right? talk to u on the msg board! Bye!

Aries8: I'd luv to go shopping, if I wasn't stuck at my dad's.

NatalieNYC:
NATALIENYC is unavailable

Natalie couldn't believe how excited she was to see Hannah. It had only been a couple of months since Hannah had jetted off to Europe and Natalie had boarded the bus to Camp Lakeview, but it felt like a lifetime—and so much had happened in Nat's life that she knew a huge catching-up session was in order. So the obvious thing to do the second she got home from camp? Call Hannah, and invite her to go shopping the next day! Natalie was beyond thrilled to be back in New York City, where no one considered denim overalls and a tank top to be the height of fashion.

She'd brought tons of cute summer outfits to camp, but she never wore any of them, except to the camp-wide social events. And school was going to start on Tuesday—the day after Labor Day, she'd officially be in middle school—so she definitely needed new fall clothes.

Plus, the day before, when they'd talked on the phone, Hannah had told her about a school social being held for all incoming sixth-graders on the first Friday back—just one more reason to get a new, cute outfit.

Natalie was online, talking to Jenna, when she heard the door buzzer ring at the Upper West Side apartment she shared with her mom. She was practically out of the computer room before she remembered to say good-bye to Jenna. She ran down the hallway to the living room, super excited to see her best friend.

Hannah was standing in the cream-colored foyer, wearing a little purple miniskirt and a black top and talking to Natalie's mom, who was still in her pajamas even though it was after noon.