Friends Forever? (8 page)

B
efore lunch Zee finally had a chance to do what she'd wanted to do all morning—write in her diary.

Ally sat down at the lunch table between Zee and Jasper. “I was just talking to Molly Templeton,” she said. “Cabin seven is nearly done with the scavenger hunt list.”

“Really?” Kathi sounded surprised. “But we've been working so hard! We
have
to win.”

Chloe and Zee looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

“Oh yeah, Kathi, we've
all
been working
really hard
,” Ally told her. “I guess
everyone
just needs to work a little harder if we want to win.”

Kathi looked farther down the table where Marcus,
Conrad, and Landon were sitting. “Hear that, guys? You need to make more of an effort or we're all going to lose,” she chastised them.

Conrad saluted Kathi and said, “Aye, aye, Captain!” while the other three cracked up laughing.

Kathi turned back to the girls. “Boys. So mature.”

“Jasper's mature,” Ally defended him. “Aren't you, Jasper?”

Jasper looked down and pushed his ground beef hash around on his plate with a fork. “Uh…maybe…I don't know.”

“Oh, come on,” Ally said, giving him a little nudge. “You know you are.”

“You know you are,” Marcus mimicked in a high voice. Once again, the boys started laughing.

“You guys are just jealous,” Ally said.

“Of…?” Conrad said.

“Of Jasper,” she told him.

“If he's so mature, how come he wears Superman pajamas?” Conrad asked.

Now Jasper looked up. “I don't. I really don't. I wear perfectly respectable flannels.”

“Actually, Jasper really does wear flannel,” Conrad announced, turning to Jasper. “I was just busting on the girls.”

“I think you're embarrassing Jasper,” Zee whispered to Ally.

“No, I'm not,” Ally said. “Jasper knows I was complimenting him. He doesn't care what the other boys think.”

Zee sighed and looked at Jasper. He actually did look fine. So why did Ally's flirty behavior make Zee so uncomfortable?

 

 

After lunch, all of the seventh graders met in the main lodge so Mr. P could tell them about the next camp challenge. “We're going to have a cabin decorating contest,” he announced.

“Cool beans!” Zee enthused. “I love coming up with decorating ideas. I could spend hours watching home-decorating shows.”

“Cabin one can totally win this,” Chloe said, turning to Zee.

“I didn't know you were into house decorating, too,” Ally said to Chloe.

“This contest is so perfect for Chloe,” Zee said. “Her bedroom is amazing. It's an Italian kind of theme, and she even made a really cool mosaic mirror frame out of ceramic pitcher pieces.”

Ally half-shrugged. “It's too bad you haven't gotten to see my room in Paris yet,” she said. “It's really awesome.”

“Oh yeah,” Zee said quickly. “I'm sure—just like your room in Brookdale was.”

“Zee and I used to redo our bedrooms about once a month,” Ally said. “Remember, Zee?”

Zee laughed. “Except for that one summer when we did it once a week.”

Mr. P whistled, interrupting the girls' conversation. “The theme is My World,” he continued. “You'll have until dinnertime to transform your cabin.”

“What do we use—sticks and moss?” Marcus asked.

“Supplies are in the art cabin,” Mr. P explained. “After dinner, everyone will tour the student cabins and vote.”

Kathi's hand shot up. “That's not fair,” she said. “The cabins with the most people will get the most votes.”

Mr. P nodded. “Good point. No one can vote for their own cabin.” Then he clapped his hands together. “Okay, everyone. Get to work.”

“Let's go,” Chloe said to the cabin-one girls. “We don't have much time.” They hurried out of the lodge to the art cabin.

“Man!” Zee said as she scanned the shelves and tables covered with papers, paints, felt, and other craft supplies.

Other seventh graders crowded in behind them.

“This is just like on
Project Runway
when everyone has to dig through car parts or tear through the grocery store in five minutes,” Chloe said. “Who can think that quickly?”

“Yeah, we should pick a theme—fast—so we get the right stuff,” Zee suggested.

“You know what would be incredible?” Ally asked. “A Parisian theme. Each corner of the cabin could be an
important landmark, and in the center we could re-create the Eiffel Tower.”

“That's great!” Chloe began. “But since we're in the woods and the whole trip is about the environment, I think we should do a nature theme. We could create a jungle—with animals from the rain forest.”

“No way! It's too obvious,” Ally snapped. “We're practically
in
the jungle. Duh.”

Chloe looked hurt. And Zee was shocked. Ally had never had a problem expressing her opinion, but she was always nice about it. What was going on?

“Um…can I talk to you outside for a second, Ally?” Zee said.

“Why?” Ally asked.

“Uh…there's just something I want to show you.” Zee grabbed Ally's arm and led her out the door.

As soon as they got outside, Ally turned to Zee. “Which decorating idea do you think is best—mine or Chloe's?” she asked.

“I was hoping I wouldn't have to choose.”

“Why? Because Chloe's feelings get hurt so easily?”

“Actually, Chloe's usually really tough,” Zee explained. “She just really loves animals.”

“Well, I love Paris. That
is
where I live.”

 

 

Zee scrunched her nose. “Yeah. That's kind of the problem,” Zee said slowly.

“What is?” Ally asked suspiciously.

“This is a Brookdale Academy field trip.”

Ally's face dropped. “And I'm not a student anymore.”

“Right,” Zee said, then quickly added, “I mean, it's so great that you got to come, but it seems like if it's between you and Chloe, it might be better for us to do Chloe's idea—since she goes to the school.” As soon as the words jumped out of Zee's mouth, she realized how bad they might have sounded to Ally—like Zee was saying Ally didn't belong. But Ally understood that Zee would never mean that, right?

As Ally stared at Zee, Zee couldn't read the expression on her face, so she decided to check. “You understand, right?” Zee said. Her heart pounded as she waited, until Ally finally said, “Okay,” then turned to go back into the cabin.

Okay?
Zee thought, not exactly sure what that meant. She followed Ally back inside.

“I've been thinking about it,” Ally announced to the other girls. “Chloe is right. We should do the rain forest theme.”

Ally turned and grinned at Zee, but it wasn't a real grin. It was a
there!-are-you-happy?
grin.

Zee wasn't. Ally stood silent as the other girls designed, planned, and picked out supplies.

Zee brought over two large sheets of green and yellow poster board. “What do you think, Ally?” Zee asked.

“It's all fine,” Ally said.

But Zee could tell nothing was fine.

Back at cabin one, each girl volunteered for a job. Chloe said she would work on the animals. Missy wanted to make the trees. Zee said she'd craft the mosses and ferns on the floor of the rain forest. Kathi and Jen must have been scared to hear that their science class might lose the scavenger hunt because even they volunteered to make the vines that would climb up the trees.

“What do you want to do?” Chloe asked Ally.

“You might as well just tell me what you want me to do,” Ally said.

“Why?” Chloe asked, sounding a bit aggravated.

“It seems like that's what you want to do.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Chloe said. “All I did was come up with a cabin decorating theme.”

“So did I,” Ally said.

“Yeah, well…we're doing mine,” Chloe reminded her.

As the girls got louder and Zee started to panic, Missy
spoke up. “Ally, do you want to help me make the trees over here? I need some ideas.”

“Sure,” Ally said, cheering up. She didn't even look at Chloe as she moved to where Missy was sitting. “Maybe we could cut the trunks out of paper, then glue leaves and sticks to them to make them look real.”

Missy's dark eyes grew wide with excitement. “I
love
that idea. Let's go collect stuff outside.”

Zee breathed a silent sigh of relief. “Cool beans! That's a great idea,” she said to Ally as the girls got up to leave.

Ally looked at Zee. “Thanks,” she said, but Zee thought it sounded a little sarcastic.

As Missy and Zee stepped outside, a twinge of jealousy pinched Zee. Missy had just met Ally, and they were getting along really well. But now after ten years of being friends, something was weird between Ally and Zee.