Over & Out (10 page)

“Not really,” Andie said. “Last night someone stole all of 4C's pillows and stuffed the pillowcases with rice. No one realized it until they were crawling into bed.”

Jenna resisted the urge to laugh as she pictured Brynn, Alex, Sarah, and the other 4C-ers tossing and turning on mounds of rice all night long. A smile snuck across her face before she could stop it. “That must've been quite a night,” she said.

“The girls spent half the night trying to clean the rice out of their beds,” Becky said, “and the other half searching for the pillows, which
still
haven't turned up.”

Andie turned to Jenna. “Between the prank played on Blake earlier this week, the one on Tori, and this, I don't know what to think. Did you have anything to do with this, Jenna?”

“No way,” Jenna said firmly. Why was it that everyone was blaming her for things these days? “Come on, you guys,” she tried again. “I've been supergood this summer. I've barely played any pranks. Plus, I played that rice trick on Adam's bunk two summers ago, and I
never
repeat a prank.”

Andie sighed. “We're going to give you the benefit of the doubt,” she said, “and believe you. But hopefully this type of stuff won't keep happening. And if it does, Jenna, I seriously hope you're telling the truth, and that you're not involved. Because if you are, it's going to mean trouble.”

Jenna nodded. She was at a total loss. Not only was she stuck in this awful cast for the most fun part of camp, but now everyone was turning against her. No one was saying out loud that the pranks were her fault, but she could feel them blaming her. Her own friends didn't trust her anymore, and that hurt more than anything.

Things didn't get any better during sports later that morning, either. Everyone from 4A and 4C was keeping a safe distance from Jenna. It was almost as if they were keeping a staunch lookout, waiting for her to pull another prank.

Jenna did her best to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach as the girls warmed up for their scrimmage, but she was getting more frustrated by the second. When she saw Alex and Sarah walk onto the field, Jenna figured that now was the chance to try to make everything okay again. She'd even brought Adam's photo along to give to Alex. Alex would never stay mad at her when she saw the photo Adam had taken of her.

“Hey, Alex,” Jenna waved to her and gave her a friendly smile. She reached into her sports bag to pull out the photo.

But before Jenna could explain what was in the envelope, Alex frowned and said, “Thanks for keeping us up all night, Jenna. That was really great of you. Especially after stealing my clothes, too.”

Jenna stared down at the envelope in her hands, thinking of the photo inside. She shoved it back into her bag. Fine. If Alex didn't trust her anymore, why should Jenna stick her neck out for her? Forget it. Being the go-between for Alex and Adam was weird enough as it was. She didn't owe them anything, especially after being treated like this.

“All right, you guys!” she yelled at the 4As, who were taking their places on the field. “Today's the day we kill 4C!”

By the end of the second half, they weren't killing. They were
being
killed. And Jenna had never been so furious with her friends. 4C was playing better than ever. With Alex and Sarah together on the team, they were proving unbeatable. Alex and Sarah were on fire, kicking goal after goal. And every time Alex scored, she made a big show of whooping and high-fiving. Jenna was starting to feel as if each goal was meant as a little dig at her, and she couldn't stand to see Alex gloating anymore.

“Nat!” Jenna screamed from the sidelines when Nat, who had the bad luck of playing 4A's goalie this game, missed another ball. “Are you blind? Why didn't you catch that?” She knew she was not being the most patient, or understanding, coach in the world at this moment. But this was ridiculous. She was sick of feeling as if no one on her team except for her cared about sports. And she was
really
sick of having to watch from the sidelines while everyone else played so horribly.

Nat picked herself up off the ground after dodging from the ball. “That ball was going, like, fifty miles an hour!” Nat said. “I value my life. There was no way I was sticking my face in front of that missile.”

“That's the fifth one you missed!” Jenna shouted, throwing one of her crutches onto the ground. “Get it together out there!”

Nat nodded and bit her lip, and a few seconds later, Jenna saw her wiping her eyes.

“Oh, are you crying now?” Jenna yelled. “Suck it up!”

“Jenna,” Andie said, coming up beside her. “Let's take a break for a minute and cool off, okay?”

Andie called a time-out, and Nat, Alyssa, Karen, and the other 4As dragged themselves off the field, dirty, sweaty, and frowning.

“If you keep playing like this,” Jenna told them, “you're going to be dead meat in Color War.”

“It's a hundred degrees out there,” Perry said. “This heat is unbelievable.”

Nat nodded in agreement. “Simon's meeting me after this to walk me to art, and I'm completely sweaty. He's going to be so grossed out.” She sighed. “Sorry, Jenna, but we're doing the best we can.”

“Yeah, ease up, Jen,” Alyssa said. “It's just a practice game.”

“But that's the whole problem,” Jenna said. “No one's taking this seriously.”

“Hello!” Chelsea said. “When did you become the Soccer Dictator? Get a grip.”

“You just don't get it,” Jenna said. “None of you know the first thing about playing sports.”

Jenna sank down in the grass on the sidelines as play started again. It was no use. She might as well give up trying to coach her friends. They stank at sports, and there was no way she could teach them how to play in time for Color War. In fact, she was hoping now that she wouldn't be on the same color team as any of her friends—not at the rate they were botching sports. She was miserable, wanting more than anything to be out there on the field, to have her leg miraculously healed so that she could get her game, and her smile, back. It was so hard to feel this helpless, and so disappointing to know she couldn't help her friends more. But the sadder she felt on the inside, the angrier she got on the outside. She didn't like the Jenna that was yelling at her friends, but at the same time, she couldn't stop her, either. She watched the rest of the game halfheartedly, and when 4C scored their final, winning goal, she didn't get in line to shake hands with them or tell them they'd played a good game.

She just sat there as the players put their equipment away, staring glumly at Alex and Sarah picking up the soccer balls from the field.

Alex kicked the last of the soccer balls straight into the net, then did a victory dance on the field and high-fived Sarah.

“That's the best shot I've ever made,” she said to Sarah, beaming as the two of them walked off the field toward Jenna.

“It was awesome,” Sarah said.

“Take a chill pill, Alex,” Jenna said coolly. “It wasn't that special. I could've made that shot with my eyes closed.”

Alex frowned. “You know what? I'm sick of this poor-me attitude you've got, Jenna. You're pulling pranks again to get attention, just because you're bored and you can't play sports with the rest of us anymore. But I never thought you'd lie to me about anything. You lied to me about switching my clothes around, and you're lying about the rice, too. Everyone knows it was you. And I'm proud of the way I played today. I deserve to celebrate. And I don't care whether it bothers you or not.”

“Yeah, well, I'm sure if Adam saw your ridiculous victory dance, it'd bother
him
,” Jenna said. She hated the awful words she was saying, but she couldn't stop them. “And he definitely wouldn't think you were that special, either.” Just as Alex's face crumpled into tears, Jenna turned and left, as fast as her crutches could carry her.

“Jenna, wait up!” a voice called behind her.

But Jenna didn't want to wait. She willed her crutches to move faster, until her legs were swinging so high with each step that she slid on some loose gravel, nearly toppling backward.

“Whoa,” Adam said, grabbing Jenna's shoulders to steady her. “I've never seen anyone on crutches move that fast before.”

“I'm hungry.” Jenna shrugged, not wanting to get into the real reason why she had left the soccer field in such a hurry.

“Well, hold up a minute. I was hoping to catch you at the sports field, but Alex said you'd already left. I wanted to talk to you—”

Jenna cut him off. “Before you say anything else . . . it wasn't me.”

“What wasn't?” Adam asked.

“Whatever it is you're coming to blame me for,” Jenna said.

“I'm not coming to blame you for anything
new
,” Adam said. “But I am still mad at you for the clothing switch last night.” He gave her a half-playful, half-serious slug on the arm. “What was up with that?”

Jenna put her head in her hands. “How many times do I have to say it?” she cried. “I didn't do it!”

Adam held up his hands. “Okay, okay. That look in your eyes is almost enough to scare me.” He snorted. “Almost.”

“Adam, before you force me to hurt you,” Jenna glared at him, “which I
will
do . . . what do you want?”

Adam suddenly went quiet and dug his shoe into the dirt. “I was just wondering if . . . if you gave that photo to Alex yet,” he mumbled, staring at the ground.

Jenna stalled. Now what was she supposed to say? She couldn't tell him that she was in the middle of a big fight with Alex without unleashing enough questions for the Spanish Inquisition. And there was no way she was going to give Adam's photo to Alex now, not with the way she'd been acting. After all these years of friendship, Alex didn't even know her well enough to believe she was innocent of the pranking, so why should Jenna go out of her way to do something nice for her? No way. She was tired of the two of them asking for her help and even more tired of them liking each other. The sooner Adam lost interest in Alex, the better. So instead of telling Adam that she hadn't given the picture to Alex yet, Jenna did the only other thing she could think of. She lied.

“Sure, I gave it to her yesterday,” she said. “No biggie.”

“But . . . did she say anything?” Adam asked. “Did she like it?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea. She didn't open the envelope in front of me.”

“Did you tell her it was from me?” Adam asked.

Jenna nodded, feeling guiltier by the second. “Sure, and she said she'd look at it later when she had time.”

“Oh,” Adam said, his face falling in the tiniest way that only Jenna could pick up on. “Okay.” Then he smiled, and Jenna could see him forcing it to stay on his face. “Well, I've gotta catch up with the other guys. I'll catch you later.”