Politically Incorrect (4 page)

“Okay,” he murmured, his eyes cast down at the ground.

“See ya,” Sloan mumbled, trying hard not to cry as she made her way back to her friends.

The next day, Sloan and the rest of Camp Walla Walla gathered together for a picnic lunch at the main promenade, where Dr. Steve was going to announce the Green Festival committee chairperson. Sloan solemnly pushed her free-range chicken salad around on her recycled paper plate and prepared herself for the worst. Even though in the end she was so confident in her writing that she’d turned in her essay without making any changes to it, she couldn’t get Miles’s “not so exciting” comment out of her head.

“Are you feeling sick or something?” Chelsea asked. “You haven’t touched any of your food.”

“I guess I’m just not hungry,” Sloan mumbled.

“Aha,” Brynn said with a mischievous smirk. “Then the prognosis is lovesickness.”

Sloan was not amused. Teasing from her friends was not what she needed right now. “Stop it, guys. I’m not in the mood.”

“But are you in the mood for loooove?” Jenna cooed.

“I mean it, Jenna,” Sloan said sharply.

“Don’t get mad, Sloan,” Priya said. “We just couldn’t help but notice you and that new guy chatting it up yesterday by the lake. You guys looked rather cozy.”

“Oh. Him,” Sloan said flatly.

“What’s his story, Sloan? We’re dying to know,” Joanna said after taking a sip of organic root beer.

But before Sloan could tell her friends about her awkward encounter with Miles, Dr. Steve appeared at the corner of the promenade with a bullhorn and commanded everyone’s attention with a booming voice.

“Good afternoon, campers! I hope you are enjoying the delicious picnic lunch and the neat aluminum water bottles that we’ll be using all summer.”

“Could Dr. Steve be any louder?” Chelsea asked, plugging her ears.

“I think everyone in the state can hear him!” Sarah added.

“Well, I won’t keep you all in suspense any longer,” Dr. Steve continued. “The winner of the ‘What Going Green Means to Me’ essay contest has been decided, and before I announce who that is, I just want to thank all the campers who entered for all their hard work and enthusiasm.”

Sloan felt a wave of nervousness ripple through her body. This was the moment she had been waiting for. She almost couldn’t bear to listen.

“Congratulations to Natalie Goode! You are the Green Festival committee chairperson!”

Sloan slumped forward when she heard the news, but tried not to look too disappointed for her friend’s sake. Natalie, on the other hand, shrieked as though she’d just won the lottery.

“Way to go, Nat!” Sarah cheered and hugged Natalie.

“Thank you so much,” Natalie gushed. “I’m so psyched!”

“Me too,” Chelsea said, smiling.

Sloan knew she should congratulate Natalie, but she was having such a hard time keeping her emotions in check. In fact, her throat suddenly felt raw and she doubted that she could say anything at all.

“I’m so proud of you, Natalie,” Dr. Steve said as he popped up at their table.

Natalie was glowing with happiness. “Thanks, Dr. Steve. I’m really excited about helping you and Jasmine plan the Green Festival. I already have a bunch of ideas written down.”

“Great, I can’t wait to hear them,” Dr. Steve replied, smiling. Then he turned to Sloan and put his hand on her shoulder. “Sloan, I can see that you’re disappointed.”

Sloan gulped.
Is it that obvious?

“I just want you to know that your essay was good. You just didn’t seem all that passionate.”

Sloan swallowed hard. Maybe Miles had been right about her essay. And sure, her feelings had been hurt, but why hadn’t she taken his opinion seriously? Perhaps she could have rewritten it and won. Maybe her reaction to his comment
was
a little overdramatic. Maybe she just hadn’t given Miles enough of a chance.

“Natalie, meet me and Jasmine in my office tomorrow at nine AM so we can start getting organized,” Dr. Steve said. “The president’s daughter arrives tomorrow afternoon. There’s a lot to be done!”

“You bet,” Natalie replied enthusiastically.

Once Dr. Steve wandered off, Sloan managed to choke back her heartbreak long enough to approach Natalie. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that being a sore loser didn’t do anyone any good.

“Nice job, Natalie,” Sloan said, her voice trembling a little. “I’m sure you’re going to be an amazing chairperson.”

“Thanks, Sloan. I really hope you’ll volunteer to be in the group. It’s going to be so much fun, I promise,” Natalie said brightly.

Sloan half smiled. “Of course I will.”

“Cool! Now let’s get ready for Tricia!” Natalie said, throwing her arms in the air.

Sloan let out a heavy sigh and wondered if she could be any more jealous of Natalie than she was right now.

On Thursday morning, Natalie was actually whistling in the shower. That’s how overjoyed she was about winning the essay contest. In just a short while, she was going to be meeting with Dr. Steve and coordinating all these incredible plans for the festival. As Natalie lathered her hair with shampoo, she imagined her future college interview. She would wear her cutest preppy outfit, of course, and the admissions director would be incredibly impressed with the activities portion of her application. Now she had something besides the notoriety of her father’s name to make her record stand out from the crowd.

Natalie was just rinsing the shampoo out of her hair when she heard a loud beep. Next thing she knew, the water in her shower stall suddenly stopped running.

“Hey! What happened?” Natalie cried out to no one in particular.

“Looks like Dr. Steve is taking this water conservation thing really seriously, because the showers have built-in timers,” a voice replied from outside Natalie’s shower stall. “Apparently nobody could abide by the three-minute rule!”

Natalie wiped some suds off her forehead. “Chelsea? Is that you?”

“The one and only!” she chirped.

“Is there any way to reset the timer? I still have to rinse my hair.”

“I don’t think so,” Chelsea replied. “Hold on, let me fill up a cup with some water from the sink.”

“Thanks, Chelse. I owe you one!” Natalie said, relieved.

Actually, when Natalie thought about it, she owed Chelsea a lot these days. Natalie had wanted to thank Chelsea in private for writing her essay, but hadn’t gotten the chance to. Maybe now was a good opportunity.

A knock on the shower stall jarred Natalie out of her thoughts.

“Here you go,” Chelsea said, sliding a cup filled with water underneath the stall door.

“You rock, Chelse!” Natalie said. “Hey, is there anyone else in here?”

“Yeah, Joanna just walked in,” Chelsea said in a soft voice.

Natalie would have to tell Chelsea how much she appreciated her help some other time. Even though she didn’t feel like teaming up with Chelsea to write the essay was wrong, Natalie wasn’t exactly comfortable with that information being common knowledge. Sure, the story about her dad and the zoo was completely true, but Chelsea had put it into her own words, and Natalie knew that wasn’t the same as writing it herself.

“Okay. Well, I’ll talk to you later.”

“All right. See ya,” Chelsea said, clicking the bathroom door shut behind her on the way out.

Natalie poured the water over her head and dried off with her big, fluffy towel in a flash. She dressed in record time and sprinted across the campgrounds. She was practically out of breath when she arrived at Dr. Steve’s office.

The door was open a crack, so Natalie popped her head in. However, much to her surprise, Sloan was sitting in one of the chairs opposite Dr. Steve’s desk.

What is she doing here?
Natalie thought.

“Hey, Natalie. Glad you could make it. Why don’t you have a seat?” Dr. Steve gestured to the chair next to Sloan.

“Um . . . okay,” Natalie said warily. What was going on here? Weren’t she and Dr. Steve supposed to be meeting about the Green Festival?

“I asked Sloan to join us for a reason, Natalie,” Dr. Steve began. “You see, I spoke with Jasmine and some of the other counselors last night and everyone feels that, while you would make an excellent chairperson for the committee, there’s a different task for which you are more uniquely suited.”

Natalie squinted at Dr. Steve, completely confused. What could be more important than being chairperson of the festival committee? “I don’t understand, Dr. Steve.”

“Since Tricia will be unfamiliar with the camp and what we do here, we felt that she might need someone to show her around for the first couple of days,” he explained.

Natalie couldn’t stop her eyelids from twitching. “ME?!”

“Of course! We think you’d be able to relate to each other very well, especially since you know how uncomfortable it can be to have all eyes on you because you have a famous father,” Dr. Steve replied.

Natalie raised her eyebrows in acknowledgement. She had never thought of that before.

“Listen, the choice is yours. If you want to stay on board as chairperson, that’s fine. But if you’re okay with being Tricia’s go-to person, Sloan is ready and excited to step in as head of the committee,” Dr. Steve said, nodding in Sloan’s direction.

Natalie glanced at Sloan, who seemed as though she were hoping Natalie would say yes to Dr. Steve’s proposal. Although Natalie wanted to deny it, Sloan was just as eager to be group chairperson as Natalie, and she knew Sloan would do a great job.

The only thing was, Natalie had wanted this position to bolster her college apps. Showing the president’s daughter around probably wouldn’t serve that purpose. And if Natalie tried to cash in on her experience as Tricia’s guide somewhere down the road, wouldn’t that be kind of hypocritical? After all, Natalie constantly worried that people only liked her for her famous father.

But Natalie couldn’t ignore what Dr. Steve had said. He was right about her being in the same position as Tricia. It wasn’t too long ago that Natalie had been hoping no one at camp would find out about her movie star father. If she’d had someone like Tricia around back then, maybe Natalie would have felt more at ease about making new friends and being herself. That’s what camp was all about—friendship, not prepping for college.

That settled it. Giving up her chairperson spot was obviously Natalie’s patriotic duty. Besides, Sloan looked so devastated yesterday when she found out she didn’t win the essay contest. This would really perk her friend up.

“Okay, Dr. Steve. I’ll help out with Tricia,” Natalie said with a chipper smile.

“That’s great, Natalie. I really appreciate your flexibility,” Dr. Steve replied.

“I promise to take good care of the committee, Nat,” Sloan said as a wide grin spread across her face.

A twinge of jealousy tweaked at Natalie’s heart, but she did her best to ignore it. “I know you’ll do an awesome job, Sloan.”

“Wonderful, girls. Well, I’m heading out to meet Tricia and her security people at the train station at one o’clock. Would you like to join me, Natalie?” Dr. Steve asked.

Whatever smidge of jealousy Natalie had felt evaporated in an instant. She was going to meet the president’s daughter! That was a pretty decent trade-off.

“I’d love to go!” Natalie said, hoping Tricia would be exactly how she’d imagined.

A few hours later, Natalie stood next to Dr. Steve and watched as Tricia disembarked the train, carrying a designer tote bag in one hand and an animal carrier in the other. She was surrounded by three gigantic men in dark navy suits and aviator sunglasses holding push-to-talk phones in their hands.

Although these guys were definitely intimidating, Natalie couldn’t take her eyes off of Tricia. She looked even better in person than she did on TV! Her long, chestnut hair was shinier and bouncier; her clothes were trendier; even her teeth were whiter. Natalie looked down at herself and suppressed a groan. What had possessed her to wear sandals and shorts?! Sure it was hot and humid outside, but now was the time to be fashionable, not comfortable!