Pranked (18 page)

When Reb saw me coming, she stopped in mid-serve.

“Come here. I've got something to show you.” Then I walked off. I didn't look back. I just assumed she'd follow me.

“Ah, excuse me?” I heard Tis say.

“Sorry. Go ahead. Help Santana and Jessica,” Reb yelled back at her.

I smiled. Reb was following me.

I walked over to the hill by the tennis courts overlooking the lake and sat down in the grass. Jennifer sat down beside me. Reb walked up to us, holding her racket. She stopped right in front of me.

She didn't look mad. She
did
look interested. But she didn't say a word.

“Look what I found.” I held my hand out and opened it up.

Reb looked surprised. She stepped forward like she wanted to touch it, but then she stopped.

“Go ahead,” I said. I held it out to her and she took it from me. She held it up between her fingers.

“We just found it. Five minutes ago.”

“
You
found it,” Jennifer corrected.

“Where?” Reb sounded curious. Very gently she handed the bracelet back to me.

“Folded up in Melissa's towel. The one we took . . . the one I took from the shower that day.”

“Huh.” Reb made a little surprised noise.

“Kelly is psychic. Reb, it was the freakiest thing. You should've been there. We were in the cabin—”

“I'm not psychic.”

Reb's mouth twitched a little. Was that a smile? “You did find it, though.”

“Yeah. And I'm really glad. But I also feel totally guilty.”

“What for?” she asked. She was still standing there in front of Jennifer and me, holding her racket. I wished she'd sit down with us. I wanted to pat the grass next to me to make her sit down, but I didn't. The sun was behind her back, and her face was a shadow.

“Well, we kept telling her we didn't take it. But in a way we did. At least I did. If I hadn't stolen her towel, she never would've lost it. It was all my fault.”

Reb gazed at the lake off in the distance. Was she still going to give me the silent treatment? Tell me to leave her alone? None of us said anything. Finally, Reb cleared her throat. “You mean—if I hadn't made you take her towel, she never would've lost it. So I guess it was all my fault.”

“I'm not blaming you.”

She glanced at me, then looked back at the lake. She was swatting her leg with her racket. “I know you're not.”

There was another long pause. I didn't know what to say, and Jennifer didn't seem to either. Reb was so quiet. She didn't seem mad, though. She seemed to be in some kind of trance.

“I guess we should give it back to her,” I said finally.

Reb nodded, but she kept looking at the lake.

“Will you guys come with me?” I asked softly.

“I'll pass,” said Reb, still staring at the lake. I felt so disappointed—I'd hoped that maybe this would fix things somehow. But I guess I was wrong.

I looked at Jennifer. “How about you?”

Jennifer sighed. “I hope you don't mind, but . . . I think you should do it. You're the one who found it. And you're better friends with her.”

“I was never really friends with her.”

Jennifer put her head down on her knees. “Well, you were nicer to her than we were.”

That wasn't saying much.
I never expected the Evil Twins to be nice, but I thought you were
. Maybe now I really could be the nice one.

I stood up and brushed the grass off the back of my shorts. I had to go find Melissa.

Riflery was her favorite activity, so I checked there first. And Melissa was there. This was my lucky day. There were about five or six girls lying on the mattresses on the platform, propped up on their elbows to shoot. But Melissa was sitting up. I watched them for a few minutes. Jamie, the riflery counselor, asked me if I wanted to shoot some targets, but I told her I was waiting for someone.

When the shooters were done, they all laid down their rifles and went to get their targets. Melissa was walking back, looking at her target, when I went up to her.

“How'd you do?”

“Oh, uh, pretty good.” Melissa looked up at me, all surprised.

I glanced at the target. She'd hit three bull's-eyes and two bullets in the nine-point ring. That was forty-eight points out of fifty. “Wow! That's incredible! How come you sit up, though?”

“Oh. I passed that progression, so now I sit. The next position is standing.”

“That's really good.” It was so good, I couldn't believe it. I was really impressed.

“Aren't you going to shoot?” Melissa asked.

“Um, no. Actually, I came to see you. Look what I found.” I reached in my shorts pocket and carefully took out her bracelet.

Melissa clutched her chest and gasped.
“My bracelet!”
Then she reached out for it. Her hands were shaking. “You
found
it! Oh, I can't believe it! I never thought I'd see it again! I've been hoping and praying. . . . Thank you! Thank you!”

“Well . . . don't thank me. It was my fault.”

Melissa was trying to put it on her wrist, but it was kind of awkward because it's a one-handed motion, so I helped her with it. She looked at me, all curious. “What do you mean?”

“Um. Well. Remember that day we took your towel? I was the one who grabbed it. And that's where I found it. Inside your towel.”

“Inside my towel?” Obviously Melissa wasn't really following me, but she looked like she didn't really care. She was so happy.

“Yeah. When I found it, it was actually stuck to the towel. The clasp was caught on it. I guess when I took your towel, the bracelet must've been lying on it. It got stuck to the towel. And then I put the towel back on your shelf. With the bracelet stuck to it.”

Melissa nodded, like she was remembering. “Yeah. It
was
around that time when I lost it. I remember I was so mad about my towel and robe being taken, and then I couldn't find my bracelet, and I thought, ‘What a terrible day!' ”

“I didn't see the bracelet, Melissa. I swear I didn't. It was an accident. I really didn't mean to hide it from you. If I'd known where it was, I would've given it back to you sooner. I'm really sorry.”

Melissa was smiling. She obviously didn't care. She had her bracelet back and that was all that mattered.

“The funny thing is—it was with your stuff all along. You'd have found it eventually. At least when you got home and unpacked your trunk.”

“Oh! I still can't believe it! I am
so
happy! It would have killed me if I'd lost it forever. It's so important to me.”

“I know. I'm really sorry.”

“Oh, it's back now! That's all I care about. Thanks, Kelly! Thank you so much.”

“You're welcome.”

She didn't hate me. I was a little surprised. She had every right to. I walked away, relieved that at least the missing bracelet was found. But I still felt bad. Melissa had put up with a lot. If all that stuff had happened to me, what would I have done?

I wasn't sure. I was glad I didn't have to find out.

“Boo!” Reb stepped out from behind a tree right in front of me, and I jumped. We were in the little patch of woods near the riflery range. She must have followed me, or maybe she was waiting for me. She was still carrying her tennis racket, and Jennifer was nowhere in sight.

We stood there looking at each other for a second.

“Did you give it back to her?”

“Yeah.”

Reb nodded. “Did she blame you? You know, for the whole towel thing?”

“No, not at all. She was just so glad to get it back.”

“I knew she would be.”

We walked up the wooded path together. Neither one of us said anything. I wondered if I should say something. Reb didn't seem like she was mad anymore. It was like the ice had thawed and she'd become unfrozen. She was just Reb again.

“You're a good person.”

I stopped walking and looked at her. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Reb kind of smiled and didn't stop to wait for me. “It's not an insult. It's a compliment.” She was walking ahead of me.

“Oh.” I started walking again. “Thanks.”

“I'm not.” Long, long pause. “A good person, I mean.”

I didn't know what to say to that. We were just walking along, not really looking at each other. “Sure you are.”

“Not always.”

“Well, nobody's a good person all the time,” I said.

“True.” Silence.

“It was just jokes. Just practical jokes. You know. Camp stuff. For fun. I mean, look at her. She's such a wimp. If you can't take a little heat at summer camp, you'll wilt in the real world.”

I didn't say anything. Maybe I nodded a little.

“There's something about her that annoys me. She's just so . . .
nerdy
. She's so quiet, it's like she's afraid of her own shadow.”

“She's good at riflery, though. She just shot a forty-eight.”

Reb shrugged. “Whatever. I guess everyone's good at
something
. Anyway, I thought I was doing her a favor. Toughening her up a little.”

“I doubt she's any tougher now than when camp started,” I said.

“Maybe not. I guess I didn't really do her any favors, huh?”

Then she didn't say anything for a long time. She walked along, swinging her racket.

Then all of a sudden, really abruptly, she said, “Are we friends again?”

“I hope so. I want to be.”

“Are you still mad at me?” she asked. She was walking ahead of me, whacking away the branches on the path in front of us like she was clearing it with a machete or something. I felt like we were in a jungle.

“Reb, I was never mad at you. Are you still mad at me?”

She kept swinging her racket. Left, right, left, right. “Are you sure you don't hate me? Think you'll ever forgive me? Think you could lower yourself to be friends with me again?” she asked over her shoulder.

“I forgive you.” Whack, whack, whack. “Do you forgive
me
?” I yelled at her. She was way up ahead of me now, far up the path. Walking faster and faster.

“Do you hate me?” she asked. It seemed like she was asking the trees.

“No.”

“Do you like me again?”

“Yes,” I answered. I almost said,
I never stopped liking you
, but I didn't. That's not how she wanted me to play the game.

“Can you lower yourself to be friends with me?” she asked the woods around us.

“Yeah, I can,” I said out loud, to the trees. “I'll just have to lower myself.”

“I'll never take it off again. They'll bury me in it,” Reb said solemnly, slipping the pink wristband over her hand.

“Oh, shut up! Stop making fun of me. I'm just so happy we're all triplets again,” said Jennifer.

I was too. Good thing I didn't throw my wristband away in the woods, because now we were having a “banding ceremony,” as Jennifer called it.

“And now for the wall signing.” Jennifer pulled the cap off her Sharpie and handed it to Reb. Reb looked at the marker. “Am I supposed to say some sort of incantation first?”

Jennifer smacked her arm. “Shut up and sign.”

Reb sucked on her lips to keep from smiling. “At least you're not making me do it in blood.” She wrote her name on a bare spot on the wall, then handed me the marker. I signed my name under hers; then Jennifer signed her name and wrote “Terrible Triplets” across the top. Next summer we could all come back to Cabin 1 and see where we'd signed our names.

“Good,” said Jennifer. “Okay, now we can get ready for the Circle Fire.” She went to her shelf and got a can of bug repellent. Pretty soon the whole cabin was engulfed in a stinky fog.

“Let me warn you guys in advance. I'm going to cry my eyes out. I do every year,” said Jennifer.