Over & Out (7 page)

“Sorry,” Jenna said. “I'm just roasting. It must be a hundred degrees out today.” She looked longingly out at the lake. Just yesterday she'd been doing cannonballs off the pier, relishing in the cool water. But today she was stuck baking in the heat, watching everyone else swim. “I bet that water feels amazing.”

“I wouldn't touch that water with a ten-foot pole, even with this heat wave,” Nat said, glancing up from her mini-spa kit. She never went in the water during free swim—the lake algae creeped her out too much.

But Tori's hair was still wet from the last dip she'd taken into the lake. “The water's not that great,” Tori said, but she looked guilty as soon as the words left her mouth.

“It's okay,” Jenna said. “You don't have to lie about it. You should go get in again. I'm fine, really.”

“And leave without finishing your pedicure?” Tori balked. “That would be a violation of at least three big rules of pampering.” She had willingly given up some of her swim time to give Jenna a manicure and pedicure with Nat.

“Now,” Nat said, holding up three bottles of nail polish. “What'll it be? Pink Pout, Fab Fuchsia, or Sahara Sunshine?”

“Since I feel like I'm in a desert already,” Jenna said, “let's go with Sahara Sunshine.”

As Nat brushed on the first coat of polish, Jenna gazed out at the water. She could see Alex poised on the diving platform, while Sarah, Brynn, Valerie, Chelsea, and Karen all watched, spellbound. Alex shot into the air in an impressive backward somersault, and as she hit the water, everyone burst into loud applause. Even Nat and Tori put the spa session on hold for a minute to clap.

“That was incredible!” Sarah yelled in the water, sending a splash Alex's direction. “When did you learn how to do that?”

Alex shrugged. “I've never done it before,” she said. “I just wanted to give it a try.”

“No way!” Karen said with admiration.

Alex just grinned, and then she waved toward Jenna. “Hey, Jenna. Did you see that?”

Jenna forced herself to smile and nod. “Show-off!” she called out playfully, but then she realized that she felt there was a small grain of truth hidden in those words. Alex was looking every bit Miss Star Athlete, but she hadn't gotten out of the water once to come talk to Jenna and see how she was feeling. Even though Jenna knew that Alex had as much right to have fun as everybody else, she'd sort of expected her to be the one to give up swimming to hang out with her. It probably wasn't fair of her to get mad at Alex for not being able to read her mind. But still, they'd been friends for so long. Shouldn't Alex at least offer to sit with her for a while?

“Done!” Tori said proudly, holding out Jenna's hands for inspection. Jenna wiggled her toes, too, and Nat nodded in approval.

“A mani and pedi worthy of the best Manhattan salons,” Nat said.

Jenna admired her sand-colored fingernails and toes, then asked Tori to reach into her beach bag for her. “You're looking for chocolate,” Jenna said, and when Tori pulled out two candy bars, Jenna nodded to her friends. “I can tip you with a Twix or a Snickers. Your choice.”

Nat and Tori each took one, and then Tori pulled a pack of Twizzlers and Jenna's book from the bag for her. “Now,” Jenna said, her tone all business, “if you ladies will excuse me, I have some serious reading to catch up on. And Tori, if you're not in that water in ten seconds, I'll throw you in myself.”

Tori laughed. “I'd like to see that happen,” she said, patting Jenna's cast.

“Go!” Jenna ordered, pointing to the water, and she could see Tori caving.

“All right, all right,” Tori said. “But I'll be back to give you an intensive moisturizing hand treatment in fifteen.”

Nat wiped her brow and stood up. “I think I'm going to sit on the pier to dip my feet in. Just to cool off.”

“Tell me about it,” said Jenna. “Enjoy the water, and don't worry, the lake's really not that toxic. You'll be fine.”

Nat nodded. “But if anything, and I mean
anything
, slimy so much as touches my feet, I'm calling it quits.”

Jenna looked on as Nat and Tori ran to the water, laughing all the way. Jenna sighed and buried her nose in her book. She didn't want to keep her friends from having fun, so she'd just suck it up and entertain herself for a while. She was reading
Little Women,
and at the moment she was feeling a special bond with the character Beth, the sickly sister who had to watch from her bed while everyone else roughhoused. Here she was, watching the summer slip away from the sidelines, too.
Poor Beth,
she thought
. Poor me
.

That afternoon, when she should've been at her sports elective, Jenna slowly hobbled to ceramics instead. To make things worse, she had to pass the soccer field along the way. There were Alex and Sarah, the two best athletes in 4C, shooting practice balls into the goal like pros.

“Hi, Jenna!” Alex shouted, giving her wave. “We'll miss you out here today.”

“I'll miss being out there!” Jenna called back. “Score one for me, okay?” She smiled. “Hey! Do you want to walk with me back to the bunks after I'm done at ceramics? Matt just sent me a new bumper sticker I want to show you.”

Alex got a funny look on her face, then jogged over to Jenna. “I totally want to see the bumper sticker, but Sarah and I got special permission to stay on the field for an extra fifteen minutes for a longer practice. Adam said he might come by to take some more pictures for the newspaper.” She dropped her eyes shyly to the ground. “So I'll be late for siesta. But maybe after dinner tonight, okay?”

“Sure,” Jenna said, her smile drooping at the corners. “See you later.”

The rest of the way to the ceramics shack, Jenna kept thinking about Alex . . . and Adam. She couldn't believe that Adam wanted to spend even more time with Alex. And that Alex seemed to want him, too. That was the toughest part for Jenna. Alex had always been as anticrush as Jenna was. But starting last summer and now even more this summer, that had all changed in a very weird way. And Jenna didn't like it. Not one bit.

When she finally hobbled into the crafts room ten minutes late, Farrah, the counselor who taught the class, pointed to an empty chair. Jenna's eyes widened when she saw it, because sitting at her table was none other than Blake Wetherly, Dr. Steve's nephew. Blake liked ceramics? No way. It just wasn't possible. And it
certainly
wasn't possible that she would be able to endure sitting next to him every day.

Jenna sighed, took a deep breath, and made her way to the table. She thought about being nice and starting fresh with Blake, but when she opened her mouth to say hello, Blake beat her to the punch with, “So, I guess they thought you'd be better at Play-Doh than soccer, huh?” He snorted. “Well, at least if you're a klutz in here, you won't break anything, except maybe a ceramic mug.”

Jenna's skin turned prickly hot with anger. “For your information, I'm
not
a klutz. It was a groundhog hole. I tripped. It could've happened to anyone.” She stared him down. “And I didn't expect to see
you
here. Aren't you afraid of messing up your clothes?”

“Believe me, this wasn't my choice,” he said. “This was the only elective they had room for me in, except for boating. And I'm taking that in the mornings.” He looked around the room. “This is about as exciting as spending an afternoon with Martha Stewart. And I should know, because my parents are friends with her.”

Jenna bit her lip to keep from completely losing it, and thankfully, Farrah started giving instructions. Jenna simmered down, but not enough. As soon as Farrah was done talking, Jenna picked up her ball of clay from the table and began pounding it. It gave her great satisfaction to imagine that she was really pounding Blake's stuck-up nose instead. She didn't know how long she pounded until she started feeling better.

“If you're trying to kill it,” Blake said, smirking, “I think you succeeded about ten minutes ago.”

Jenna blushed, but just pounded harder. “Well, I don't know what
you're
trying to make, but it looks like it could use some CPR, too.”

“I don't care what it looks like,” Blake said. “This class is totally lame anyway. The whole camp is.”

“So why are you here then?” Jenna said.

Blake shrugged. “My parents made me come. They think hanging out here will make me ‘well-rounded.' ” He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. This place is a dump. I'd rather be home with my iPod, chillin' by our pool.”

Jenna shrugged. “Camp is really awesome. You should give it a try. If I were you, I'd be doing every activity I had the chance to. Trust me, it's better than being stuck with crutches. Especially with Color War starting next week.”

“Color War sounds stupid, too. Who cares about the Purple and Pink teams?”

“Red and Blue teams,” Jenna corrected, fuming.

“Whatever.” Blake shrugged. “We'll see if I can spice things up around here, before we all die of boredom.”

Before Jenna got a chance to ask what he meant, Farrah came over to check on their progress, and Jenna had to focus on molding, instead of pounding, her clay into something resembling art. Or a coffee mug, at least.

“You should've heard him,” Jenna vented about Blake as soon as everyone was together in the bunk that night. “Dissing camp like he was way too good for it. I can't believe Dr. Steve puts up with that.”

“Maybe he doesn't know how bad it is,” Karen offered.

Mia looked up from the horoscopes she was reading in
Cosmo Girl
. “Actually, you guys should try to be nice to Blake,” she said. “Dr. Steve told Kenny that Blake's parents don't pay much attention to him. They're always going to parties and traveling, and Blake doesn't have too many friends his own age, except for ones that are probably even bigger snobs than he is. That's why Dr. Steve wanted him to come to camp for a couple weeks this summer. Maybe Blake just doesn't know how to act around you guys yet.”

“Oh, he knows how to act,” Jenna said. “Like a
jerk
.”

“Special delivery!” a voice called from outside, and Andie walked in, balancing two huge packages in her hands. She laid the boxes down on Jenna's bed. “They came in the mail today.”

Jenna checked the labels. “One's from my mom and one's from my dad.” She ripped them open to find mounds and mounds of candy, cookies, Rice Krispies treats, and a tub of gummy bears . . . yum. Both boxes were filled to the brim with sweets.

“Yes!” Jenna shouted gleefully. “Everybody . . . the candy's on me!” She grabbed a handful of candy bars and started passing them out.

“You keep eating all that junk, Jenna,” Chelsea said, “and you'll gain so much weight you won't be able to play soccer even after your leg gets better.”

“If you think it's junk,” Jenna said. “I guess you don't want any, right?”

Chelsea froze, staring down at the Snickers bar in her hand. “Maybe ‘junk' was the wrong word choice.”

“You think?” Alyssa said, and everyone cracked up.

“There's enough candy here to stop world hunger,” Anna said, splitting a huge Hershey's bar with Perry and Lauren.

“I guess I can't complain about my parents breaking up anymore, because now I get double of everything!” Jenna grinned. “I have to admit, this is one benefit of having a broken leg.” She thought about checking with Andie to see if she could ask Alex to come over to share the wealth, but then she remembered that Alex had promised to come see
her
tonight, and she'd never shown up after dinner. No, she wouldn't go looking for Alex. If Alex wanted to hang out with her, she knew where to find her.