Pranked (17 page)

I lay there in the dark, listening to all the night sounds. Frogs were croaking like crazy. All the little tadpoles that were in the lake when camp first started had grown tiny arms and legs a couple of weeks ago, and then they'd lost their tails, and pretty soon they were just little frogs. Frogs make a lot of noise at night.

I was glad it was dark. Nobody could see me. Everyone else was quiet too. I could hear Jennifer rolling around above me. Usually we all whisper a little after lights out, but lately we'd stopped doing that.

I heard Reb sniff in the cot next to me. Was she crying? Doubtful. She probably just had a stuffy nose.

I didn't stay out in the woods, obviously. I didn't even stay there till lunch. I got hungry. Plus, after a while it got kind of boring and I started feeling all itchy, like I was getting chigger or mosquito bites. At lunch everyone acted like things were completely normal. None of them realized how close they'd come to having some major drama over a missing camper.

I let out a sigh, then wished I hadn't. Had Reb heard it? One reason this was so hard to deal with was the fact that we live with each other. It's not like back home. At home, if you have a fight with a friend, you can avoid each other for a while. But at camp everyone eats together, dresses together, sleeps together. There's no avoiding each other.

That's why we all got to be such good friends so fast. It really is like sisters. It's just all so
intense
.

I heard Melissa sit up. I could see her profile in the dark. Then she plopped back down again. Was she asleep? I did feel bad for her. Every free minute she had, she looked for her bracelet. She'd taken everything out of her trunk and searched through it dozens of times.

At lunch we sang this song,

Five more days of vacation, back to civilization,

Back to father and mother, back to sister and brother,

Back to sweetheart and lo-uh-ver!

I don't want to go home!

“Five more days!” Molly had groaned. “I can't believe camp will be over in five more days. I'm so depressed, I can't think about it!”

“I know,” Melissa said with a sigh. I looked at her, and she must have seen me. “I have five more days to find my bracelet. Then it's lost forever.”

Reb had eaten her grilled cheese sandwich like she hadn't heard any of it. That stupid bracelet. None of this would've happened if it weren't for Melissa's missing bracelet. Okay—maybe she was sort of justified for suspecting us. She'd probably always blame us. She'd probably go home and tell her mom that these girls picked on her all the time and stole her grandmother's bracelet. She'd never accept the fact that she'd lost it. She said she never took it off, but obviously she did. Maybe it just fell off. Maybe the catch on it broke. Once the setting fell out of my mom's wedding ring. Just one day it was there, and then the next day it was gone. She never found that, either. Boy, did that cause a lot of drama.

How could I ever get Melissa to believe me? Whatever. Let her go on thinking we did it. I didn't even care anymore.

When I woke up, it took a few seconds for the dream to come back to me. Reb, Jennifer, and I were all talking. Reb had something in her hand. I knew it was Melissa's bracelet, even though I never saw it. Reb was smiling.

“Okay, who wants to do it?” she asked.

“I will,” I said. The one thing I remember about that part was how happy Reb was and how glad I was to be her friend.

Then I was kneeling in front of my trunk, and I was afraid Melissa would come in and catch me so I was moving really fast. I was really nervous and excited. I opened my trunk, and there was this little secret compartment in the side of it. It was like my wooden jewelry box at home, the way the lid opened up. But in the dream, it was actually built right into the inside of my trunk. I put the bracelet in there, then closed it up. I was so glad it was hidden. There was no way anyone could tell a secret compartment was there.

Then Reb and I were together. “Good job!” She was so happy with me.

“She'll never find it,” I told her.

Omigosh! What a freaky dream!

I looked around. The light was gray. I could barely see. But it wasn't dark any more. It was just starting to get light outside. Everyone was still sound asleep.

I tried to go back to sleep too, but I never did. I lay in bed, rolling around. When the rising bell rang and I was getting dressed, I actually looked around inside my trunk for a secret compartment.

There wasn't one.

After breakfast Reb took off to tennis by herself. Jennifer and I went to the climbing tower. Poor Jennifer. She'd tried talking to Reb too. “I hate that we're not triplets any more!” she kept saying. She was the only one who still wore the wristband. But all her attempts to play peacekeeper failed. Reb just didn't want to talk to anyone.

I felt so depressed at the climbing tower. It reminded me of that first afternoon when we all hung out together.

Everything was different this week anyway. Camp was winding down. Lots of people were gone on honor trips as a reward for working really hard at one activity, and the counselors didn't care anymore whether we just goofed off.

“I know Reb feels really bad that you guys aren't friends anymore.”

I looked down at Jennifer, who was a few feet under me. “Did she say that?”

“Well, no. But I can tell she's thinking that. I think she's depressed.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “She's not depressed. She just hates me.”

“Oh yeah? Then why won't she talk to me, either? She doesn't hate
me
. I'm telling you—she's miserable, but she just doesn't know how to fix things.”

“I don't believe that for a minute. We've both tried talking to her. If she wanted to fix things, she should've just talked back.”

“This may sound weird, but I think not talking to anyone is her way of punishing herself.”

“I doubt that.” All I knew was that camp was almost over. And if things didn't get better soon, they'd never be resolved.

Jennifer and I didn't go all the way to the top. We slid down our safety ropes and unstrapped our harnesses.

“I had the weirdest dream last night.” That dream had been haunting me all morning. I couldn't get it out of my head. I hate dreams like that, that you can't forget about. That you can still
feel
, late in the day, long after you've woken up.

I told Jennifer my dream, and I even admitted to her that I'd looked for the secret compartment. She laughed at that part. The one thing about the dream that I really still felt was what good friends Reb and I were, and how happy we both were.

“Maybe it means I should look in my trunk,” I said. “I mean, what if it is in there? By accident? What if it fell in there or something and I never even knew it?”

Jennifer looked skeptical. “Maybe.”

“Maybe I should go back to the cabin and take all my stuff out. . . .” I stopped dead still, absolutely frozen.

Jennifer stopped and looked at me. “What?”

I could barely breathe, I was so excited.

“
What?
What's wrong?”

I still couldn't speak. It hit me. Just like a bolt of lightning.

“Kelly! What is wrong?”

“Jennifer.” I grabbed her by the shoulders. “I think I know where to look for it.”

In a flash we were back in the cabin. Nobody else was there. The whole way back Jennifer kept begging, “Will you tell me?” But I wouldn't. I was afraid to say it. Afraid I'd jinx it.

“Okay, where? Where?” she asked, now that we were back. I had a few places that I wanted to look. First in the cabin, and if not there, then one other place.

I walked over to where raincoats and a few other clothes were hanging on the metal rod over the beds. Hanging up with all the other stuff was one item I wanted to check. Melissa's white bathrobe.

“Oh!” Jennifer exclaimed, as I pulled the robe off the wire hanger. I dug inside one pocket. Nothing. I was almost afraid to reach inside the other. I put my hand inside and felt around.

Nothing.

I looked inside both pockets. Nothing. I shook the bathrobe. Nothing.

I felt this incredible sinking feeling. Jennifer stood there with her arms crossed. “Well, it was a good idea.”

I looked around at Melissa's shelves. “There's a few more places,” I said. On the wooden shelf by Melissa's bed was a stack of baby blue bath towels. When Jennifer saw where I was heading, she actually sucked in her breath.

I picked up the first towel and carefully unfolded it. Nothing! There were four more. With each one I unfolded, I felt more and more disappointed. If it wasn't here, there was still one other place to look. Around the shower stalls. I picked up the last towel and unfolded it and was just about to put it back down when I saw something.

A glint.

I turned the towel over. There, on the other side of it, was a bracelet.

“Kelly! Omigod! There it is! You found it!”

I held up the towel. The clasp of the bracelet was caught in a loop of the terry cloth. I looked at Jennifer. Neither one of us could believe it. Very carefully I unhooked it from the towel and held out the bracelet in my hand for Jennifer to see.

Her mouth was still hanging open, this dopey grin on her face.

“You found it! I can't believe it! You actually found it!”

I closed my hand tight around the little chain of gold and smiled back at her.

“Yeah. I found it.”

“That is the weirdest thing that I have ever seen in my entire life.” Jennifer's eyes were locked on mine. She rubbed her hands across her arms and shivered. “It's like you're psychic! Are you psychic?”

I shook my head. I was still holding my closed fist up in the air. “I never was before.”

“How did you do that? How did you know where to look?”

“I didn't. I just . . . all of a sudden . . . I don't know. Something reminded me of when we took her towel.”

We both looked at Melissa's towels, all rumpled up now. It'd been stuck inside the towel at the bottom of the stack. I thought about how she probably did the same thing I did—used the same couple of towels all the time, and then when they came back clean from the laundry, she'd fold them and put them at the top of the stack. The ones at the bottom might not ever get used.

“If I didn't find it there, I was going to check the showers next. It was just luck. Just pure luck.”

Jennifer shook her head in amazement. “I still can't believe it. Wait till you tell her. She'll be so happy.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But first . . . first, let's tell Reb about it.”

•  •  •

We found Reb at the tennis courts. She was smashing serves across the net to Tis, like a shot out of a cannon. Her face was total concentration, and she didn't even see us at first. Jennifer stayed by the edge of the court, but I walked right across it, with complete disregard for proper etiquette.