Authors: Melissa J Morgan

Camp Confidential 06 - RSVP (10 page)

BOOK: Camp Confidential 06 - RSVP

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“Do you need us to chip in?” Alyssa asked, sounding anxious.

“No, it’s fine,” Natalie told her. “It’s on my mom.”

“That’s really generous of her,” Alyssa said. “You know I could
never
afford in a million years to come to a place like this.”

“Don’t even say that, Lyss,” Natalie chided her. “Someday you’re going to be a rich and famous artist.
You’ll
be the one taking us to fancy places!”

“Yeah, in my private jet,” Alyssa drawled, but Natalie could tell she was catching fire a little bit.

“Why not? My dad was dirt-poor when he was our age.” Natalie decided to skip over the fact that now he did actually own a private jet.

“Well, it’s nice to dream.” Alyssa gave Natalie’s a hand a squeeze. “And to have a friend who has faith in me.”

“Of course I do! What are friends for?” Natalie replied.

About a minute later, Jenna and Grace returned with freshly scrubbed faces.

“Oh, I am so totally exfoliated!” Grace quipped, patting her cheeks. “I look younger, right?”

“Yeah, you’re ten again!” Jenna said. The two started cracking up.

Skye returned with four mango-colored paper sacks with straw handles. Natalie opened hers to find samples of the spa’s line of products—a tiny bar of peach-colored soap, a little bottle of hand lotion, and a vial of body mist. Everyone started opening the bottles and spraying themselves with body mist.

“Mango-scented body spray! Yum!” Grace said, sniffing the air like a rabbit.

Natalie had an idea. “Skye, may I buy some more of these?” She turned to the other girls. “We can put them on our table. We need ten more for the bunk, including Marissa and Julie.”

“Cool!” said Grace.

“Is this for the big party you’re attending?” Skye asked. “Your mother mentioned it when she booked your spa time.”

“Yes,” Natalie told her.

“We’d be happy to make a gift of them, then,” Skye told her. “It was such a pleasure having all of you here.”

Soon the girls were carrying a large spa bag containing the extra gift sacks. As Natalie thanked her again, Skye replied. “We hope you’ll come again soon.”

Was it Natalie’s imagination, or did she sound relieved that they were leaving?

chapter
EIGHT

The four girls took the elevator to the street level. The doorman nodded at them as they pushed through the revolving glass door.

Outside, the day had warmed, and the snow was melting. Sunshine glistened on the high-rises. The eight-lane street before the girls was bumper-to-bumper with cars blaring their horns. The sidewalk was almost as crowded, with New Yorkers in their winter coats and caps.

Half-yelling to be heard, Natalie said, “Okay. I’ll take you to Teff. Maybe we can meet my mom there.” She handed the large sack to Alyssa so she could get her cell phone out of her purse.

“Hey, no offense, but that restaurant sounds weird,” Grace said, stopping Natalie by putting her hand on her wrist.

“Yeah, and we’re not very dressed up,” Jenna put in. “I’d feel funny eating someplace an ambassador eats wearing jeans and a sweater.”

Natalie looked to Alyssa. Her best friend moved her shoulders, as if to say,
Hey, whatever you want to do, I’m fine with it.

“Well...” Natalie was stuck.

“Did you already have a plan for lunch?” Alyssa asked her.

“Yes. I have a list of about four places,” Natalie began. She opened her purse and rummaged around for the correct pieces of black paper. “Hold on. We got out a little later than I expected, but . . . let’s see, where’s the list—”

“Hey, look!” Grace interrupted, pointing. “Hot dogs!”

Sure enough, there was a hot dog cart on the corner of their block. A short, wiry man in a black cloth jacket stood behind a large aluminum box on wheels. A colorful red-and-white-striped umbrella shielded him from the sun.

“My mouth is
so
watering,” Grace announced. “Let’s snag some hot dogs, okay, Nat?”

Jenna bounced on the balls of her toes. “Please, please, please?”

“Alyssa’s a vegetarian,” Natalie argued. Eating Hebrew Nationals from a cart was definitely not part of the plan! She had three really swanky, famous restaurants on her lunch list, plus the cool new retro place that served egg creams.

“Actually, it says on his sign that he also has tofu hot dogs. I love them,” Alyssa said.

“Oh, come on, Natalie,” Grace pleaded. “I’m so hungry, I’m about to faint. By the time we go somewhere else and sit down and order, it’ll be time to get ready for the reunion.”

Jenna nodded hard, clasping her hands and placing them beneath her chin, begging like a sad-eyed kitty cat.

“Grace has a point,” Alyssa said, taking their side.

Natalie thought of the hours she had spent on the Internet, Googling restaurant names and studying their menus. How she’d made sure they were open on Saturdays and if they required reservations.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “We’ll have hot dogs.”

She reached for the large sack filled with goody bags. Alyssa said, “It’s okay. I’ll carry it for a while.”

Natalie tried to maintain her composure as she led the way to the vendor. He had a droopy face and a dark moustache. He was wearing a New York Giants baseball cap. Natalie thought of Sarah, who often wore a Boston Red Sox cap. It hit her that she was having troubling entertaining just three of her bunkmates. Tonight she would have ten of them!

“What’ll it be, ladies?” the vendor asked pleasantly.

“Get whatever you want,” Natalie said curtly. “My mom gave me plenty of money to pay for lunch.”

“You don’t have to pay for everything all the time,” Grace said. “We’re not poor, you know.”

Natalie’s mouth dropped open. Was Grace dissing her? She couldn’t believe it!

“It’s really nice of you to offer to pay for everything,” Alyssa said. “But why don’t
we
pay for
you?
As a thank-you for being such a great hostess.”

“Yeah!” Grace cried. She turned to the man. “Give her a double extra venti hot dog with nonfat ketchup!”

“Hey, kid, these are hot dogs, not lattes,” the man shot back, grinning at Grace. “But I got a foot-long dog that’d feed all four of youse!”

“Only three of us are eating hot dogs,” Alyssa said. “I’d like a tofu dog.”

“You must be from California,” he teased her.

Alyssa smiled. “South Jersey, born and raised.”

“Well,
something
went wrong there.” He gave her a wink. “One tofu dog, coming right up. And
normal
hot dogs for everybody else?”

“Yes,” Jenna said, before Natalie could speak for herself. “And we’re paying for hers.” She pointed at Natalie. “So don’t take any money from her.”

“You’re the boss,” he told Jenna.

The man served up three steaming hot dogs on thick buns, and one tofu dog as well. Alyssa asked for sauerkraut and the others scrunched up their faces and made
yecch
sounds.

Grace stuck her finger in her mouth, pretending to barf as the man heaped the stinky, fermented cabbage on Alyssa’s equally disgusting tofu dog.

“Grace, that’s so rude,” Natalie said, cracking up.

“It’s not my best,” Grace conceded. “And no one can fake barf like Chelsea.”

They all got quiet for a moment as they held their hot dogs. Then Alyssa said, “We’ll see Chelsea soon.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment.

“Guys,” Alyssa said, as she added some spicy brown mustard to her tofu dog. “We made a promise to be nice to her.”

There was a group sigh.

“It’s gonna be cool,” Grace said. “We’ll give her the surprise and she will stop being a pain once and for all.”

“How are the dogs, girls?” the vendor prompted.

“Great!” Grace made a show of taking a big bite and chewing enthusiastically. “See, Natalie? It doesn’t have to be all fancy all the time. It’s like camp! Hot dogs bring the world closer together!”

“So does group Chelsea-stressing!” Jenna added. “It’s very . . . uniting.”

Natalie took a bite of her hot dog. It was good; she couldn’t deny that. But she was getting nervous again, and she wasn’t sure she would be able to eat very much.

It’s all going to be okay,
she told herself.

Standing across from her, Alyssa gave her a reassuring smile and quietly ate her tofu dog.

Then Grace said, “Speaking of weird behavior, what was up with Alex and Brynn? Anybody figure that out yet?”

“Not a clue,” Jenna replied. She grabbed Grace’s wrist and looked at her pink watch. “But we’ll find out soon enough.”

All of a sudden, Natalie’s hot dog tasted like sawdust.

“You are gorgeous,” Chelsea’s dad told her as she modeled her outfit for him. He was sipping chicken noodle soup in bed. He had gotten dressed in a pair of loose jeans and his light blue sweater. He looked pretty good, with some color in his cheeks.

Chelsea had chosen to wear her dark brown burnt-out top with a pair of embroidered jeans. The outfit had been a total score last spring, when he was still working and they had money for clothes.

She stuck out a leg so he could admire the brown-and-silver embroidery on the legs.

“Woo-hoo! All the boys are going to be fighting over you.”

“Oh, ick, Daddy,” Chelsea said, wrinkling her nose. At his pretend-hurt look, she rolled her eyes. “Boys.”

“Hey,
I’m
a boy,” he reminded her. “Or I was.”

“You’re totally not a boy,” she insisted. “You’re a dad.”

“Truer words were never spoken.” He laid his soup spoon over his heart. “I am a dad.” A huge grin spread across his face. “The best thing to be in the world.”

She came up and gave him a big hug. “You’re going to be okay if I go, right?”

“Didn’t your mom tell you we can’t wait for you to get out of our hair?” he chided her. “We’re going to party down!”

She gave him a playful smack on the shoulder. Then she cried, “Oh, Daddy! Did I hurt you?”

“No way, dude.” He sounded so dorky that she could help but burst out laughing. He laughed too, and cupped her cheek. “Seriously, Chelse. Your mom and I both want you to go and have super-mega fun.”

“Okay, I will.” She got up off the bed. “Super-mega-ultra fun!”

“You go, girlfriend!” He high-fived her.

Rolling her eyes at him, she left the bedroom.

Soon she and her mom joined the busy weekend traffic. As they left her dad behind in their house, Chelsea felt a mixture of nervousness and total excitement. Okay, those girls were totally immature, but she also wanted to party down with them and have super-mega-ultra fun. There was a part of her—a
big
part—that couldn’t wait to eat burgers and show off her outfit and bowl and ride a go-kart.

She thought about her bunk, picturing each girl in her mind. She had actually missed them.

I’ve grown up a lot
, she thought
. Maybe they have, too.

She really, really wanted to have a good time.

She crossed her fingers for good luck and kept them that way in her lap.