My Extra Best Friend (6 page)

Elizabeth weaves through the crowd until she’s right next to me and Stacey. “Hi!” she says, all breathless and cheery. “Where’d you go?”

I pretend I can’t hear her over the singing.

“Um…” Stacey says, when she realizes I’m not going to answer. “We took a detour.”

“It’s so bizarre to see everyone again,” Elizabeth prattles on, like I’m interested in what she has to say. “I can’t believe Brooke brought a
crown
! Wait…yes I can.” She giggles. “You missed her
modeling it for me. And Jenna? She’s making a
seating chart
for supper. Too funny! Some things never change.”

Elizabeth links arms with me. “Who cares, though, right? I’m sitting by you no matter what. I’ve got gobs of stuff to tell you!”

I snatch my arm away. “
I
care,” I say. “And things
have
changed. Jenna’s my friend now. I’ll sit where she wants me to sit, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be by
you
.”

Stacey mouths a silent
Wow
.

So does Elizabeth.

The song ends.

The dining hall doors open.

Everyone starts crowding in.

I grab Stacey’s hand and we get swept along.

When I glance back, Elizabeth Evans is a million miles away.

Good.

After supper, Alex takes us for a walk around the main path at camp. It connects everything—girls’ cabins, dining hall, garden, beach, campfire ring, crafts cottage, boys’ cabins, ball field. The path must look like a big circle to the birds flying over us, with the lake hugging it on one side and the woods hugging it on the other. Alex points toward the woods as we approach them. “We’ll go on a campout Thursday night!”

Meeka gulps, peering through the trees. “But the boys say a monster lives out there.”

Alex does a half smile and takes Meeka’s hand. “Don’t worry about that old monster,” she says reassuringly. “He’s no match for a bunch of Chickadees…right?”

“Right!” Randi says. “And if worst comes to
worst, we’ll dip Brooke in chocolate sauce and use her as a human sacrifice.”

“Ha-ha,” Brooke says. “Very funny.”

“Some people say there are ghosts at the Grand Canyon,” Elizabeth puts in. “But my family camped there anyway. It’s in Arizona, which is right next to New Mexico, where I lived.”

Jenna grunts. “Thank you for the geography lesson, but you’re not in New Mexico anymore.”

“And we’re not your family,” I add.

Jenna grins.

Stacey shoots me a look. Then she gives Elizabeth a smile. “Sure we are, Liz,” she says. “We’re a family of chickadees!”

“Birds live in flocks, not families,” Jenna points out.

“We
are
a family,” Alex cuts in. “Just a different kind.” She stops suddenly and looks into the woods.

“What is it?” Meeka asks nervously. “Do you see the monster?”

“No,” Alex replies. “I just thought of something I want to show you.”

Jenna looks over the checklist on her clipboard. “But we’ve seen everything.”

“Not quite,” Alex replies. “There’s something new. Pete built it.” She steps off the path and into the woods, motioning for us to follow her.

“I
hate
new things,” Jenna grumbles as we trample through brush and weave between the trees. “Why can’t things stay the same?”

“Most things don’t,” Elizabeth says, pausing to hold a branch aside as me and Jenna pass through. “Trust me.”

Jenna glares at her. “I wasn’t talking to you, Liz
butt
. I was talking to Ida.”

Elizabeth lets the branch whip back into place, just missing Jenna. “Maybe you’re right,” she says crisply. “I know
one
thing hasn’t changed.”

Jenna stops and squints at her. “What?”

Elizabeth clomps ahead in her cowboy boots. “You’re still calling me names.”

Jenna shakes her head as we watch her go. “She’s loonier than a loon. Look at her. Red boots. Plaid shorts. Goofy glasses. This is
nature
camp, not
clown
camp.”

“Just ignore her,” I say, taking Jenna’s hand. “Then she’ll leave us alone.”

A minute later, we enter a small clearing in
the woods. A wooden platform stands at the center of it. Almost as tall as me, and a little bit wider.

“What’s this supposed to be?” Brooke asks, climbing onto the platform and doing an awkward twirl. “A stage for squirrels?”

“It’s not a stage,” Alex says. “It’s a trust fall platform.”

Jenna puffs. “What’s it good for?”

“For building trust,” Alex replies. “The person standing on the platform falls off. Everyone catches her.”

“She just…falls?” I ask.

Alex nods. “Stiff and straight, like a domino.”

“Cool,” Randi says.

“
Not
cool.” Brooke hops down. “I’d get broken to bits.”

“Not if you trust us to catch you,” Alex replies.

Brooke crosses her arms. “What if you
don’t
?”

Alex smiles. “What if we
do
?”

Brooke snorts and turns away. “D-U-M
dumb.
”

Alex looks around our group. “Who wants to give it a try?”

Everyone gets busy studying their toenail
polish. Except Elizabeth. She’s studying
me
. I pretend not to study her back.

“We didn’t have to do this last year,” Jenna grumbles again.

“You don’t have to do it this year either,” Alex says. “Only if you want to.”

Randi steps forward. “I’ll do it,” she says.

Brooke’s eyes go wide. “Are you crazy?”

Randi scrambles onto the platform. “Crazy or not, here I come. Catch me, okay?”

I gulp. Randi’s the biggest girl in our class. None of us have ever caught her before. Not even in tag.

Alex lines us up in two rows under the platform, facing each other.

Shoulder to shoulder.

Arms out.

Elbows bent.

Palms up.

Brooke snickers, looking up and down our row of twig-thin arms. “She is so dead.”

We all fidget and nod.

“Randi trusts you,” Alex says firmly. “Now you need to trust each other.”

She looks up at Randi. “Stiff and straight,” she reminds her.

Randi nods. “Like a domino.”

Then she turns around.

Straightens her back.

Locks her knees.

Crosses her arms.

“Falling!” she shouts.

“Fall away!” Alex replies.

Randi tips back on her heels.

Whoosh!

A moment later, she’s lying in our arms.

“Hi, guys!” she says, smiling up at us. “Thought I’d drop in!”

“Ohmy
gosh
!” Brooke says. “We did it!”

“I knew you could,” Alex says.

“Fun!” Stacey cries. “Me next!”

She climbs onto the platform.

A moment later, Stacey falls into our arms too.

“Hey, we’re getting good at this,” Jolene says.

“I wish I would have brought my camera,” Meeka puts in.

“Anyone else?” Alex asks as we set Stacey on her feet.

“I hope not,” Brooke says, rubbing her arms. “I’ll probably have bruises tomorrow. Nat and Emillie will think I’m a sports freak.”

Elizabeth starts to raise her hand.

Jenna steps in, blocking her. “I’ll go.” She kicks her clipboard aside and climbs onto the platform. “But after this, we’ll need a schedule. It can’t be alphabetical since Randi fell first.” She pauses, thinking. “But she
is
tallest. Then Stacey. Then me. The falling schedule will be according to height.”

“Then consider me invisible,” Brooke says, “because I’m not falling off that thing.”

Jenna turns around and straightens her back. “If you’re on my schedule, Brooke, you’re falling.”

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Jenna pushes a button on her watch. “Quick!” she says. “Catch me. It’s time for campfire.”

Just like that, Jenna falls. We scramble to catch her.

“Are you going to fall?” Elizabeth asks me as Jenna grabs her clipboard and hurries to lead the way back to Chickadee.

I shrug, and head after the others.

But Elizabeth takes my arm, stopping me. “I will if you will.” She makes her eyes go all serious behind her glasses.

I make my eyes go all serious too. Because I’ve heard her make that promise lots of times before.

When we were finally tall enough to ride the big roller coaster at the fair.

When we discovered her sister’s diary.

When we wondered what Champ’s dog biscuits tasted like.

But, most of all, she made that promise when she asked me to be her best friend forever. Right before she moved away and wrote to me exactly zero times.

I wiggle my arm free and walk away.

I brush the marshmallows out of my teeth after campfire, change into my pajamas, and join the other girls in Alex’s room. She’s showing Stacey and Brooke some of the jewelry she’s made.

Randi and Jolene are sitting on Alex’s bed, posing with her stuffed animals while Meeka takes pictures.

Jenna is sitting on the floor, using some of
Alex’s markers to draw a border around the trust fall schedule on her clipboard.

“Do you have any paper with lines?” Elizabeth asks, looking over Jenna’s shoulder at her clipboard.

Jenna looks up. “Yes,” she replies.

“Can I borrow some?”

Jenna looks down. “No. I only brought enough for me.”

“I have paper,” Alex says, glancing over from her desk. “Lined…blank…whatever!” She opens a drawer. “Help yourself.”

“Thanks,” Elizabeth replies, taking a few sheets of notepaper back to her bunk.

“Ida’s desk is stuffed with paper too,” Stacey says, holding a beaded hoop up to her earlobe and looking at herself in Alex’s mirror. “She’s a great artist. You should see her sketchbook!”

All the girls nod.

I do a shy smile.

“Cool!” Alex says to me. “I lead crafts every day. We draw and paint and make stuff out of beads and glitter. You should come!”

I give her a smile.

Brooke gasps, dropping one of the necklaces she’s trying on. “Did you say
glitter
? I’m the
queen
of glitter!”

“The more the merrier!” Alex replies.

Brooke squeals. “I’ll bring Nat and Emillie!”

I sigh.

Alex starts putting her jewelry away. “Time for bed, girls. Get snuggled in. I’ll read you a story before lights-out.”

Brooke sniffs, putting the necklaces back in a box. “We’re too old for bedtime stories.”

Alex picks up a flashlight and a book. “You’re never too old,” she replies.

“Make it spooky!” Randi says, hopping up from Alex’s bed.

“Not
too
spooky,” Meeka adds, clicking off her camera and following the others to their bunks.

“I’d love to see your sketchbook sometime, Ida,” Alex says, dimming the lights.

“Maybe,” I reply, and hurry to my bunk too while she gets ready to read.

I unzip my sleeping bag, squish George to one side, and climb in. But something pokes me in the back.

I roll over and turn on my flashlight.

A rock is lying there.

Red with white swirls.

“It’s the agate me and Jenna found,” I whisper to George. “But how did it—”

Then I see a crumpled note next to the agate. I pick it up and read the words to George.

“Who are you talking to?” Jenna pokes her head over the edge of her bunk.

I hide the note with George. And hold the rock up for Jenna to see. “It’s the agate we found,” I whisper.

Jenna glances over at Elizabeth’s bunk. I glance too. Elizabeth’s tucked inside her sleeping bag, staring at the empty bunk above her, listening to Alex read about some girl who lives with wolves.

“Keep it,” Jenna tells me. “Agates are rare.” Then she rolls away again.

Jenna’s right. Agates don’t show up very often. But I don’t want some rare rock around to remind me of Elizabeth either.

I slip out of bed and tiptoe to the wastebasket that’s by Elizabeth’s bunk.

First, I toss the note.

Then, I drop the rock.

Plunk!

I crawl back into bed.

Elizabeth rolls away.

Monday morning, I wake up to the sound of my dad’s coffee grinder rattling downstairs in the kitchen.

But when I open my eyes, I see Jenna’s bunk above me and remember I’m a long way from home.

I hear the sound again.

Ratta-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Rolling over, I lift the curtain that covers the open window between my bunk and Elizabeth’s. Sunshine peeks through the trees. A woodpecker is tapping on one of them.

“What’s for breakfast?” I mumble to him sleepily. “Bark juice and scrambled beetles?”

He cocks his bright red head. Then starts tapping again.

I look around the room. Seven sleeping lumps.
Scattered sweatshirts and jeans. A jumble of flip-flops and swimsuits on the floor. I crane my neck and see that Alex’s bed is empty. She must have gone for her run. She told us she goes every morning.

I lie back on my pillow, pat the George-shaped lump that’s burrowed next to me, and look over at Elizabeth’s sleeping face and messy hair.

Without her glasses, she looks like the Elizabeth I used to know. The one I could talk to without any words. Not in a magic way, like me and George can. Just in the way friends do when they send messages to each other with their eyes. Stacey is good at it. Jenna too, sometimes.

But you can’t send eye messages between Purdee, Wisconsin, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. No one can see that far. Not even hawks.

Elizabeth shifts in her sleep. Her sleeping bag slips partway off the mattress. One of her arms slips too. The faded blue friendship bracelet I made for her last year dangles from it. So does the wristband Alex gave her for swimming. Tadpole pink, just like mine. When Randi asked Elizabeth how come she doesn’t want to swim to
the raft, Elizabeth just said, “There’s more to do by the shore.”

Like what? Dodge snapping turtles?