Vivian had already begun to come up with the first steps of her plan by the time they reached the old, beat-up camp, which was stuck at the end of a long and dusty dirt road and looked like a home for delinquents, not a place people would send children they actually hoped to see come back healthy and happy at the end of the summer.
Well, at least she had a vague idea of how she could make this all work out in her favor, if she wasn’t going to “have fun” or “make friends” like her parents had oh-so-helpfully instructed her to do before she left.
Instead, she decided it was her turn to be in control. Vivian knew in her heart she was more capable than any of those stupid people at school believed.
She tried her first little ploy on a group of girls who had gotten off another bus, probably from Connecticut or New Jersey or someplace like that. Two of the girls looked admiringly at her outfit as she approached, so they seemed like the perfect test. And they were—that one girl was bragging so much about the fancy cupcakes she’d brought from home it seemed only right to make her give some of them up. To Vivian, naturally.
This might work out just fine, Vivian thought as she walked past an odd-looking boy wearing a perfectly ironed button-down shirt and impossibly tidy khaki shorts. He looked more like someone who worked in a bank than a camper.
She pushed down deep inside the vague feeling of guilt at how easy it was to get those cupcakes away from that girl. It was just a game, anyway. A little lark.
Because nobody here wanted to be her friend. She knew that. So she wasn’t going to feel bad about taking advantage of them. She’d learned that the hard way, last year at school. It was a tough world—you either eat or you get eaten. Or, at least, your cupcakes do.
The strange boy looked away from her, like he’d been eavesdropping on her conversation. But she didn’t really care. Wasn’t that her new mantra? She didn’t care about any of them. So instead she gave him a sly wink as she walked past and wondered what she could get a boy like that to do for her. He seemed like the sort of kid who might be an easy target.
“Hey,” the boy said. She ignored him and sped up, heading toward the main building, where they were supposed to meet their counselors. But, annoyingly, he kept pace behind her. “Hey,” he said again.
She turned around and tossed her hair. “What do you want?”
“It’s just that—it’s just that, we’re not supposed to have food from home once we get off the bus. Especially not in the cabins,” he said, stepping closer. His hair was cut supershort, like a Marine recruit, and he had one of those wide, nervous smiles. “Care packages are supposed to be kept in the mess hall. Because of bugs and stuff. I read about it in the handbook.”
“Like I care,” she said. She took another big bite of cupcake.
“Well, okay, but that other girl who gave it to you is gonna get in trouble if they find out what she has, and if she gets in trouble, then you’re going to get in trouble. They are really, really strict here. You don’t want to put a toe out of line, trust me. I heard the camp director is the meanest in the entire state of Vermont.”
Vivian frowned at him. “Maybe you worry about stuff like that, but I don’t.”
“Well, you should,” he said. He paused, and then added, “Especially if your plan is to scam girls out of their snacks.”
Vivian stared at him for a minute, surprised. How did he know she’d been lying?
“I’m Archie,” he said, sticking out his hand. She ignored it and kept chewing. “And I’m just trying to give you a heads-up! This isn’t that sort of camp where you can get away with anything. You really have to follow the rules. I heard people get sent home for a lot less than a couple of cupcakes! Shady Brook isn’t like Camp Hiawatha across the lake, or Northern Star in New Hampshire—you can get away with all sorts of craziness at those places. But not here.” He glanced around, like armed riot police would descend any second for even just discussing the possibility of breaking camp rules. “I’m actually a little scared. My parents said it cost a lot of money to go here. I don’t know what they’ll do to me if I get kicked out!”
Vivian frowned again, but this time at the ground, not at the strange boy. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem like the kind of person who would lie, not about something like this. Were there really that many rules and regulations here at Shady Brook? Maybe this camp wasn’t going to be the free-for-all she’d expected.
Her parents had said the whole point of going to camp was that she needed more supervision. Maybe they’d picked Shady Brook for exactly that reason, and this kid was right about the rules. The same six weeks still stretched out ahead of her, but now they were filled with boring Goody Two-shoes kids who always colored inside the lines in art class and never, ever stayed up past lights out. Like some sort of nerd jail.
I have to get out of here, she thought. But she knew getting in trouble and getting kicked out wouldn’t help; her parents would just find another place to send her, and the next place would probably be worse. They’d been clear that she needed to be watched, after all.
She sighed and gave the boy a half smile. He had dropped his hand but still looked at her expectantly. “Well, thanks for the info, I guess,” she said, and began to walk away.
As she left the boy smiled back at her. But there was something distinctly odd about his smile. He seemed almost . . . pleased with himself. It was the way Margot smiled when they had pulled off another stunt at school, before Margot had gotten expelled and Vivian had gotten a three-day suspension. Before she’d figured out that she’d been played all along by someone she thought was her friend. It wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on. She’d learned her lesson the hard way, and being at some dumb camp wasn’t going to change her mind.
But of course, a guy like this wasn’t doing anything other than trying to be a Good Citizen, and telling her she needed to follow the rules or Face the Consequences. What could he possibly be pleased about, except helping a fellow camper get with the program? She shook the thought out of her head and gave him a half-hearted wave. “See you around.”