Lake Rescue (9 page)

Maeve had to admit, doing anything with Avery was fun. She had so much enthusiasm.

The BSG marched up in their line to get the prize. Applause and cheering filled the lunchroom.

“No more school.” “Escape this place.” “No homework.”

“Did we win because of the costumes or the signs?” Katani whispered.

“Doesn’t matter. We had fun. Remember the BSG oath. One of our most important rules is to have as much fun as we can.” As Minister of Fun, Romance, and Entertainment, Maeve took her position
really
seriously.

Charlotte had to admit that she had never had so much fun at any of her other schools as she was having at Abigail Adams Junior High. Of course, she had worked really hard too. Mrs. Fields made sure that the Abigail Adams school was one of the top achieving in Massachusetts. That’s probably why she let kids have fun. She didn’t want the students getting too stressed out, figured Charlotte. And now, they had something out of the ordinary to look forward to…for better or worse. Four days in the New Hampshire woods. Charlotte couldn’t wait.

“Let’s take our new pajamas to camp,” Charlotte suggested.

“Why not? Like I said, they’re warm.” Isabel agreed.

“Let’s leave the signs behind. But I predict that in one day, we might want to escape,” Maeve said.

“I’ll hitchhike home with you,” Katani and Isabel said at the same time.

“Are we the only two looking forward to Lake Rescue, Avery?” Charlotte asked, taking her lunch tray to turn in.

“Looks that way, Char. But just wait. I predict nothing but total fun on this next adventure. Once we all get there it will be Beacon Street Girls rule!” Avery slapped hands with Charlotte and the other three joined in, not even knowing why. Avery and Charlotte were sure that the next week would go down in BSG history—their excitement was contagious.

O
h, seven a.m. is too early for anything, especially to be ready to get on a bus and drive forever.” Maeve groaned and dragged her stuff toward the bus.

Avery turned a cartwheel in the school driveway. “We had to leave early,” she said from her upside-down position, “so we don’t miss any lake time,” she added breathlessly.

“I looked on the map,” Charlotte said. “It’s practically next door. And Dad and I looked at the star charts. We think the stars will be almost the same as in Boston.”

“Are we there yet?” Maeve pushed a suitcase and two backpacks into the back of the bus.

“Hey, girl, you cheated.” Katani put her hands on her hips. “You can only bring one small suitcase, and one backpack or overnight case.”

“Whoever made that rule should have come and helped me pack.” Maeve yawned.

“We’re only going to be there for four days.” Avery had given up on the cartwheels and was now dribbling a
basketball around the driveway. It was like she couldn’t sit still for one minute; she was so excited.

“That’s what I mean. We’re going to be there four days.” Maeve climbed onto the bus and looked for a window seat.

“We’re uneven.” Avery followed Maeve onto the bus, spinning the basketball on one finger. The bus driver said that she had to leave it at the front of the bus for safety. Disappointed, Avery looked around for empty seats. “Someone has to sit by themselves.”

“No way.” Nick Montoya walked up.

Charlotte took the window seat behind Katani and Maeve, and Nick slid in beside her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Chelsea Briggs in the back fooling with a camera. Charlotte had noticed Chelsea taking photographs earlier.

“Hey, where’s Riley?” Maeve wondered out loud. “He was supposed to bring me a mix CD to listen to on the bus.”

Mrs. Fields poked her head in through the front door as she answered Maeve’s question.

“Unfortunately, Riley Lee is sick…with a bad cold and fever. His mother called me this morning. So, I am afraid Riley won’t be able to join us at Lake Rescue.”

“Oh,” was all Maeve said. But she was surprised at how disappointed she felt. She and Riley had become friends when they worked together on a song for the last school dance, and Maeve had to admit he was pretty cute…in that rock star grunge sort of way.

“Too bad,” Dillon piped in sarcastically, clearly jealous at the dispirited look on Maeve’s face. Dillon still had a crush on Maeve and didn’t quite know what to do about it. There
was just something about the lively redhead that made his heart skip a beat.

Mrs. Fields wasn’t going, of course, but she would never miss the send-off. She asked everyone to get settled so that she could make a few announcements.

She pointed to Chelsea in the back of the bus. “Chelsea Briggs is our official photographer for the trip. If any of you sees something worth a photograph, I’m sure Chelsea would be open to your suggestions.”

Immediately some kids struck poses for Chelsea.

“Of course, anyone hogging the camera will be discovered when they’re put on the computer screen.” After twenty years of being a junior high principal, Katani’s grandmother had seen every junior high trick in the book. “Just go about your business. I have instructed Chelsea to try and make sure that she captures candids of everyone.”

“Smile, you’re on candid camera.” Avery held her chocolate-covered breakfast bar as if it were a camera and she was clicking off photos. She aimed it right at Charlotte and Nick. Secretly, Charlotte wished it were a camera.

“Save your energy for the ropes course,” Billy Trentini said to Avery after Mrs. Fields left to talk to the other bus.

“I’ll bet you I can do it faster than you any day of the week,” Avery challenged.

“What do I win?” Billy asked. “How about your dessert every night we’re on the trip?”

Avery hesitated. But just for a moment. “Done. I’d love two desserts every night.” She bounced a high five off Billy’s outstretched hand.

“Billy is going to hate going without dessert,” Charlotte
whispered to Nick. They both laughed. Billy Trentini was famous for his lunches…a couple of sandwiches, soup, and his all-time favorite cookies—chocolate-chip oatmeal raisin. Though no one could ever figure out where it all went on Skinny Billy.

Charlotte felt a little funny sitting beside Nick for the entire trip, but on the other hand, she liked being there too. Nick was really nice and he liked adventures. They talked about Lake Rescue and what might happen, until Maeve began to sing an old kindergarten song. Only being Maeve, she’d added a catchy reggae beat.

“The people on the bus go round and round, yeah, round and round, yeah, up and down. The people on the bus go round and round, all about the town.” Nick began to sing, too. Charlotte didn’t have much of a singing voice, but she joined in anyway and soon everybody on the bus followed. She thought that they all could have been in Jamaica cruising along the beach.

Charlotte remembered loving this song. She searched for a memory of her mother singing it to her. Sometimes she didn’t know when memories and imagination got blurred. Whether something she wished to remember so badly had actually happened, or whether she had wished it into seeming real. She was sure that she remembered her mother reading to her all the time. She must have sung to her, too. Charlotte had learned the bus song somewhere.

“A penny?” Nick said, and Charlotte realized the singing had stopped.

“What?”

“Penny for your thoughts. My grandmother used to say that to me, and I wouldn’t tell her what I was thinking about until she actually
gave
me a penny,” he grinned.

“Oh, I was just thinking about my mother.”

“Must be hard. I can’t imagine my mother not being in the bakery every day, cooking up a storm.”

“What’s your favorite…in the bakery?” asked Charlotte.

“I can’t resist my mother’s butterscotch cookies. Package them with a latte and I am one happy customer.” Nick sighed with satisfaction.

“Your parents let you drink coffee?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of a Latin thing.”

Nick couldn’t help but be a nice guy coming from his family. Every time you went into Montoya’s you got a real friendly hello from his mom and dad, or his sister Fabiana.

Charlotte hoped that somewhere her mother was proud of her, knew that she was okay, and that her daughter had great friends, lived in a cool yellow Victorian house with a funny little dog, and had been on adventures all over the world with her father. Charlotte thought it would be so wonderful if her mother knew all of that.

Even with a pit stop they were scheduled to arrive at Lake Rescue way before noon. Looking at the map with her father, Charlotte realized that where they were going in New Hampshire was just a couple hours’ drive from Boston. Perhaps she and her father would have more time to explore next summer, especially if he didn’t teach summer school.

With everyone quiet and half awake, Avery entertained those close to her, not with the ghost story her brother had
told her about the camp, but with another she’d made up that she liked better.

“Years ago, when the camp had just opened, a young girl disappeared while on a cross-country hike. Although her friends and all the camp counselors looked and looked, Marie Darling was never found. The popular theory was that she wandered away from the other hikers and drowned in one of the many lakes there. Searchers dragged the lakes, looking for her body, but they never found one clue: a shoe, a piece of clothing, nothing.”

Avery paused for effect. She knew how to tell a story.

“Now, at certain times of the day, early morning, late at night, and especially on foggy or rainy days, she walks the camp, searching for her friends. Many have heard her cry, many have continued to look for her, but still no clues. Just her soft sobbing or occasionally a scream echoes through the woods.”

Everyone fell silent, but then Maeve giggled. “Good story, Avery. I hope we hear her.”

“I’d just as soon not.” Isabel yawned. She had dozed off until Avery started talking.

They turned onto a narrow road where an old wooden sign, needing paint, read. Woods closed in around them, even brushing the sides of the bus at times. The bus bumped and bounced on the old dirt road. One huge pothole sent Avery flying to the ceiling. “Woo, hoo,” she yelled as everyone on the bus cheered.

“What do you want to bet this isn’t a five-star campground?” Katani said. “If I hadn’t seen the sign, I’d say we were lost.”

Charlotte quickly grabbed Maeve’s arm. “Maeve, he can see you pointing at him,” she whispered back, blushing.

“My name is Jody,” the woman announced. “I’m the head counselor at Lake Rescue. And this is Nash, Kim, John, Mia, and Terry, your other counselors. We will be leading your hikes and teaching you about the wildlife at the camp. Oh, and I’m also one of the two cooks—a very important position.”

“Who is the other cook?” somebody shouted out.

“One of you campers,” came the snappy answer.

Jody continued on as if the interruption had been a pesky mosquito needing to be brushed away. “As you will find out, everyone pitches in here. Everyone works.” She paused to let that word sink in.

“I don’t do windows,” a voice from the back of the crowd spoke up.

Jody grinned. “None of us does windows very often, but if you want to eat, you’ll get your chores for the day done on time.

“If I had to say what was the foremost philosophy for Lake Rescue, it would be learning to get along together. We work together. We play together. We learn together.”

“Do we dance together?” Another unidentified male voice blurted out.

Without missing a beat, Jody continued.

“Only if you are good. Want to come up and audition?”

A few snickers and then silence from the peanut gallery. Jody was tough; nothing fazed her. And she was quick-witted. Katani liked that in a camp leader.

But, Jody sounded more like a Marine drill sergeant the
longer she talked. Even her stance imitated that of someone addressing new recruits. “Any questions?”

“Can we choose bunk mates?” Betsy asked the question that Charlotte would have expected from Joline or Anna.

“In a word, no. At Lake Rescue we like you to get to know new people…learn to accept other people…other perspectives different from your own. You may end up with a group of people who are almost total strangers to you at school. But, you may be surprised. You might even go home with new friends.”

The BSG looked at each other. No way. No matter who they had to pair off with here at camp, they would go home the same best friends they had been since school started. Well, almost since school started. Charlotte liked meeting new people, and she had met so many interesting ones in her travels. But there was something special to her about being a Beacon Street Girl. Would new friends change their special relationship? She hoped not. She saw Isabel smile over at her and she felt better. Isabel had joined the BSG after Charlotte, and the group had survived.

“You will be engaging in activities that will help you build bonds with new people. You’ll be learning to challenge yourself, help others with their own challenges. All of you will have brought some level of skills with you, but you will leave with many more. I think you’ll be impressed with what you can do when you try and when other people support your efforts.

“We’ll be outside most of the time. We hope you nature-deprived city kids will also leave with a new respect for your environment. If you have always lived in a city, you will be
surprised at our rich and fascinating outdoor world—how many creatures live here, how to get along with and live side by side with them.”

“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my…” Dillon had sneaked up behind Maeve and whispered the warning. She giggled and shoved him away.

“Now, the first thing we have to do is assign you to teams. Please line up. With this many people, maybe two or three lines. We’ll help you divide up.”

Everyone lined up, and Jody and the other counselors made them count off.

One, two, three, four. When people caught on and started moving around, they were caught and put back to where they first stood.

“Number ones are the blue team.” Jody separated them out. Charlotte, Isabel, Joline, Betsy, Sammy, and Nick were all number ones. “You will be working with John.” Jody grabbed Anna as she tried to trade with Sammy, who was perfectly willing to get off a mostly all-girls team. “No trading. I’m almost ready to hand out demerits, which translates to extra kitchen duty. What are your names? Josh and Pete—you are blue teamers.”