Pranked (14 page)

Reb laughed and held up her hands. “Okay—we won't lay our grimy hands on it, but hold it still so we can read it.”

So I held the letter for them while they read it. When they'd finished, Jennifer sighed. “Should I write Curtis? Just to let him know I haven't forgotten him?”

“Sure, if you want to,” I said, but I never would've had the nerve to write Ethan if he hadn't written me first. “But what should I do now? Should I write him back?” I had to play things just right. I didn't want to screw this up.

“Yeah, definitely,” said Reb. “Just to let him know you got it. But keep it casual, like he did. Like, ‘Yeah, the next dance is coming up. Guess I'll see you there.' Casual.”

Jennifer nodded. “Reb's right. You should write him, but don't make a big deal out of it.”

I nodded and sighed. It was a
huge
relief having friends advise me on the next move. I was so glad I had Reb and Jennifer.

Reb grinned at me, hooking her arm around my shoulder. “That's cool he wrote you. It's definitely a sign he likes you.”

I tried not to smile as I carefully folded the letter and put it back in its envelope. “You guys will help me figure out what to say?”

“Absolutely.”

All during rest hour, I lay on my bunk and scribbled out different drafts of letters to Ethan. I figured Jennifer was working on a letter on the top bunk to her Camp Crockett guy too, because I could actually hear her pen scratching on paper. Melissa was on her cot, her back to the rest of us. She seemed to be napping, but maybe she was faking it so she didn't have to look at us.

Reb was lying flat on her back, staring up at the rafters. That was weird. She wasn't preparing herself for Harvard or Yale, like usual. Since yesterday, Reb had become totally obsessed with how to get back at Melissa. Things had gotten even more tense. Yesterday Melissa had told Rachel about her missing bracelet, and Rachel gave the three of us the third degree. Reb was furious.

“Give me a lie detector test! Get me a stack of Bibles to swear on!” she'd yelled. I wasn't sure if Rachel believed us or not. She'd made us all search the cabin—under the bunks, in the corners, behind all our trunks. But of course we didn't find the bracelet.

All of a sudden Reb sat up with a big grin on her face and got a pad of paper out of her trunk. Was she going to help me write my letter? Or work algebra problems?

“What're you doing?” I whispered, but Rachel shushed me.

Reb had this excited look on her face. “I've got it!” she whispered back. Another shush from Rachel. If we said anything else, she'd keep us ten extra minutes after rest hour. She was a regular slave driver at times.

When the bell rang, Melissa sat up, put her shoes on, and left. She'd definitely been faking. I knew she was still really upset about her bracelet. But what could we do? We hadn't done anything.

Jennifer and I waited for Reb, but she still sat cross-legged on her cot, writing away.

“Okay, ladies. Out the door. You'll be late for afternoon activities,” said Rachel.

“I gotta finish this letter to my mommy. I'm telling her what an inspiration and role model you are, and obviously that takes a long time,” Reb answered, not looking up from her paper.

“Move it. Out the door. Rest hour's over.” Rachel was afraid that if she left us in the cabin, we'd cut activities and wind up cabin-sitting.

“All done!” Reb announced happily. She folded up the paper and stuffed it into her shorts pocket.

We walked down Middler Line in the crowd of girls, but Reb said she needed to stop in Solitary. When she came out, she looked around and said, “Let's go back and get our tennis rackets. We forgot them.”

But obviously we weren't going back for our rackets. By now the cabin was empty. Reb plopped down on her cot and looked up at Jennifer and me with that same huge grin on her face.

“Kelly's love letter got me thinking. I know what we're going to do to Melissa.”

Reb pulled the folded papers out of her pocket and looked up to make sure she had our attention. Then she cleared her throat and started reading:

Dear Dustin,

I bet you're surprised to get a letter from me. I can't believe I'd ever be brave enough to write to a guy, but here goes. You may have gotten the idea that I didn't like you. Well, you're wrong. With the next dance coming up, you're all I've been thinking about. Although I'm practically dying of embarrassment telling you all this, I really like you. But when we were slow dancing, I was so nervous I could barely talk to you.

I know I walked away and left you standing there, and I feel so stupid. But that was my first slow dance, and I was a little nervous about it. I'm hoping to see you Saturday, and maybe we can dance again. And this time, during a slow dance, I promise I won't walk away. Maybe we can go out on the porch. The counselors here always joke about being on Porch Patrol, but they can't watch us every second. I've never kissed a boy, but I'm hoping that will change. Soon.

See you Saturday.

Love,

Melissa Bledsoe

Jennifer shook her head in amazement. “Are you really going to mail that?”

“Of course! Isn't this the
perfect
revenge? I knew I'd come up with something. I just didn't know it would be this good.”

Jennifer looked in the mirror and said to her reflection, “I would die if somebody sent a letter like that to a boy from me. I don't know which is worse—sending it to a boy you like or to one you can't stand.”

“Melissa would never write a letter like that,” I pointed out. Reb couldn't seriously be thinking about sending it. This was way too much.

“I know that. But how does Dustin know that?”

“What do you think he'll do when he gets the letter?” wondered Jennifer.

“At the dance he'll be all over her. He'll make her night miserable!”

“I don't know, Reb. It's almost too much. Haven't we done enough to her already?” I asked.

“Too much?
Too much?
I'll tell you what was too much. Going through our trunks was too much. Calling us thieves and liars right to our faces was too much. Telling Rachel we had something to do with her missing bracelet was too much. You think this is too much? Hey, the way I see it, I'm letting her off easy.”

I was actually kind of scared of Reb at that moment. Her face was all red and flushed. She looked mad at
me
. I kept quiet.

Reb looked at me steadily. “We're together on this, aren't we? We're triplets, right?” She held up her wristband to remind me. She usually thought the whole wristband thing was stupid, but now of course it was all for one, and one for all.

What could I say to that? The one thing I'd learned was how hard it was to say no to Reb.

“We'll always be triplets,” said Jennifer, holding out her arm to show her wristband. I nodded and held out mine, too. But I felt like a traitor. The weird thing was, I felt like a traitor to everyone—Reb, Jennifer, and Melissa. But who was I betraying? I couldn't betray everyone at the same time. So who was it?

Reb seemed satisfied. She looked around. “Remember that personalized paper we saw when we were short-sheeting her? Let's use some of that.” She found the stack of paper on the shelf by Melissa's bed. It had a border of little purple flowers around it, and across the top in type like cursive handwriting it said, “From Melissa.”

“Perfect! Absolutely perfect!” Reb took a couple of sheets off the stack. “She probably won't miss these,” she added with a grin. Then she sat cross-legged on her cot while she copied the letter onto Melissa's stationery. It was so believable this way, with Melissa's name on it. But then, that's the way Reb wanted it.

When she was done, she looked up at us. “Okay, if we mail it tomorrow, Dustin should get it Friday. He won't have time to write her back, but he'll have plenty of time to think about her before the dance on Saturday.” She nodded her head, all satisfied that this was going to work great. “This is going to be the best revenge ever!”

“Does my hair look okay?” Jennifer asked again. It was the fifth time at least.

“No, it looks terrible. You really oughta go to the bathroom and fix it,” I snapped.

Jennifer winced. “Jeez, what's with you?”

“Look, I'm sorry. I've told you it looks fine. Would you please stop asking?”

It wasn't her fault. We were all waiting in the dining hall for the Crockett boys to walk in. I was a nervous wreck. Reb, on the other hand, was absolutely cool and calm. She'd set her trap. Now all she had to do was sit back and watch.

But I didn't want to watch. I didn't want any part of it.

All day yesterday, I'd wanted to tell Melissa about the letter. But the day was all weird because of the Fourth of July. We didn't have any regular activities. We had a capture-the-flag game in the morning and a counselor hunt in the afternoon. Then everybody went skinny-dipping, and for dinner we ate hot dogs and ice cream outside on the hill and watched fireworks over the lake.

It should've been fun, but I kept walking up behind Melissa and then not doing anything. It was horrible. It was like needing to sneeze, but not being able to. I wanted to tell her. I just couldn't get it out. I'd be standing right by her, and I'd think,
Hey, Melissa
. But nothing ever came out. Plus Reb and Jennifer were always close by.

Anyway, maybe it was better
not
to tell her. Maybe nothing would happen. Maybe Dustin wouldn't do anything. Maybe Melissa would never even find out. If nothing happened, then it would be better if she never even knew the letter existed.

When the boys walked in, everybody got all excited. Right away I saw Ethan in the crowd. Should I walk up to him? Or wait for him to see me? Luckily he saw me and kind of waved. But then he just stood there talking to some guys.

Okay, what was up? Did I sound stupid in my letter? Was he leading me on? What should I do? But then he walked toward me. Whew. I'd die if he ignored me.

“Hi, how ya doing?” he said. He was wearing an oversize striped polo and cargo shorts with big pockets. His hair looked even blonder than before.

“Good. I got your letter,” I said, which was like the stupidest thing in the world to say, because I'd written him back. Obviously he already knew I'd gotten his letter.

“Yeah, I got yours, too.”

“Cool. I wasn't sure if it would get there in time.” Why was everything out of my mouth sounding absolutely ridiculous? I hadn't been this nervous at the first dance.

“Yeah, it did—yesterday. Thanks for writing back.”

Then we didn't say anything for a few awkward, long moments, since we'd completely used up that topic of conversation.

“Oh, hey! Guess who else got a letter—Dustin! Melissa wrote
him
a letter!”

I cringed. Was this stupid letter going to ruin my evening with Ethan? “Oh. He told you about it?”

“Told us about it? He made us all read it about a hundred times. He wouldn't shut up about this Pine Haven babe who's in love with him. Nobody could believe it.”

“Really?” I paused for a second. Should I tell him? He'd find out eventually. “Can you keep a secret?” I asked. It gave me an excuse to lean close to him. He smelled like Axe, and from now on, whenever I smelled that, I would always think of Ethan Hurley. “The letter's a fake. We wrote it.”

“
You
wrote it!” he yelled.

“Shhh!” I grabbed his arm. I loved having an excuse to grab his arm. “Keep it down! Reb wrote it. It was her idea.” Might as well give credit where credit was due.

“But the sheet of paper said ‘Melissa' and everything.”

“Yeah. We lifted some of her personalized stationery to make it look legitimate.”

“Wow! You guys are too evil!” Ethan marveled. “It did seem unbelievable that a girl would be so crazy about Dustin.” He looked at me and nodded admiringly.

“Here you are! Do you want to miss
everything
?” Reb almost knocked us over when she ran up to us. “Dustin's going to move in on Melissa any second now!”

“But Reb, this is
your
project. I'm not going to spend the whole evening following Melissa and Dustin around. Why don't you get Jennifer?”

“Jennifer won't let what's-his-face out of her sight. It's me and you on this.”

“Hey, and me!” said Ethan. “Kelly told me about it. That's amazing! And Dustin fell for it. We all did. The whole cabin really thought Melissa wrote him.”

Reb's eyes lit up. “You mean he told all his friends about it? Perfect! Things are going even better than I planned! Look—there's Melissa.”

She was standing by some other girls, and Dustin was a few feet away. He'd obviously seen her, and now it looked like he was working up the nerve to go up to her. Finally he walked up, put his arm around her back, and tapped her on the far shoulder. She actually turned to the other side to see who it was, then looked around to see him standing next to her.