Rumors Read Online Free Page B

her.
    â€œYeah, that’s right,” Boo called out, really loudly. “It’s a little-known fact that all people from Tennessee have X-ray vision. Right, Kayla?” And then I could hear her laughing.
    I crawled into my bed. I was pretty sure it was my bed. Luckily, no one else was in it, so I decided it must be mine.
    I rubbed my bruised shins and pulled the covers up around me.
    What a horrible first day.
    It could’ve been worse, though. I could’ve failed the swim test this afternoon like one girl did. She had to be rescued by a counselor. Or right in the middle of the states game, I could’ve jumped out that window.But I probably would’ve ended up with a broken ankle or something. And then the counselors would’ve had to carry me away on a stretcher while all the other girls stood around talking about how I couldn’t swim, I’d never make it as a stuntwoman, and I didn’t even know what state I was from.
    Now that the lights were out and everyone was quiet, I heard something. Lots and lots of sounds coming from outside. It sort of sounded like a jungle out there. I lay in bed, trying to figure out what kinds of wild creatures were making all those noises.
    Crickets, definitely. But there were some other loud sounds.
Burap, burap, burap, burap
. What on earth was that? And why wasn’t everyone else sitting up and commenting about how noisy it was outside? After about five minutes of listening, I figured out that maybe it was frogs making that sound. The next thing I noticed was cows mooing. Was I ever going to fall asleep?
    It seemed like half an hour passed with me just lying there, listening to all the crazy noises. About that time, I heard another sound I could easily identify.
    The sound of somebody crying.
    And I could tell where it was coming from: Shelby’s bunk right above me.
    I guess I wasn’t the only one who had a bad day.

Monday, June 16
    â€œHi! You’re Kayla Tucker, right?” asked Eda Thompson, the camp director, when I came through the screen door.
    â€œYes. I’m supposed to get a phone call today from my parents,” I reminded her.
    â€œThat’s fine, Kayla. You can have a seat there,” she said, pointing to a chair by the wall. She went into another room, and I sat down to wait.
    This was the first time I’d been inside the camp office. It had the same form of air-conditioning that every other building in camp had—window screens—but there was also a ceiling fan whirring overhead.
In front of me was a desk, and a clock was ticking on the wall.
    We’d just finished lunch, and I’d discovered my new favorite thing about Pine Haven: We got to check our mailboxes after lunch every day. There were rows of little cubbyholes on the dining hall porch, each with a name taped above it. And today, in my box, I’d had an amazing surprise. There were postcards inside it. Nine postcards! My friends had all written me already.
    I sat in the chair and looked through all the pictures. There was one with the Hollywood sign, another from Universal Studios, one with a California beach scene, a couple with pictures of old movie stars. I loved all the variety, and I wondered if my friends had made a point of each buying different cards to send me.
    My school orchestra was in Los Angeles right now on a trip. A fantastic trip that I would’ve been on too. If we weren’t moving.
    I couldn’t believe they’d all written me—Danielle had to be behind this. She was my best friend, and she was very good at organizing things. She’d even gotten Brian to write me a postcard. He was sort of my boyfriend.
    Just then the phone rang, and I jumped a little. Eda came out of the room she was in to answer it. “I wonderwho that could be?” she asked me with a wink. “Camp Pine Haven for Girls. This is Eda,” she said into the receiver.
    I stood up, shuffling all my postcards together in a