Camp Confidential 03 - Grace's Twist by Melissa J. Morgan Page B

father said.
    “Good night, honey. We’re proud of you,” her mother added.
    When Grace hung up the phone, she did a little jig all the way to the door of the office. She grinned at Kathleen.
    “Looks like you passed,” Kathleen said.
    “Yup!” Grace ran to the office door and threw it open. Eleven expectant faces gazed back at her. Her bunkmates had all come to wait for the results. They are the best friends in the entire world, she thought, touched.
    “Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Natalie said. “How did you do?”
    “WetWorld, here we come!” Grace yelled.

chapter TEN

    “What’s up, Gracie?” Gaby dropped down on the black box next to Grace at the start of drama class the next day.
    Grace couldn’t believe her ears. Gaby sounded completely friendly and normal. As if nothing had happened between them. As if they’d never had a disagreement in their lives.
    “Did you see Tyler and Stephanie at breakfast this morning?” Gaby asked. “They were actually holding hands.”
    Grace shook her head. How could Gaby just pretend that things were okay between them? Did she expect Grace to forget her bad behavior? Still, Grace couldn’t exactly be rude to her, not when Gaby was acting all nice like this.
    “Um . . . I really have to cram,” Grace said. “I didn’t think my parents would let me audition, so I haven’t even bothered to learn the scene.” She turned back to her copy of The Sound of Music .
    “No kidding,” Gaby said. “I am your partner. I know we haven’t been practicing.” She sounded annoyed. But what did she have to be annoyed about? Gaby still hadn’t apologized for lying about her free-swim punishment, and here she was acting as if Grace was the difficult one.
    “I’m sorry,” Grace said, not entirely meaning it. “We could have been rehearsing an audition scene for you. You never mentioned it, so I just figured you weren’t planning to try out for the play.”
    “It’s more fun to have half an hour to play around during drama,” Gaby said. “Who wants to spend time practicing?”
    “Um, I do,” Grace told her. “It’s really important to me to get a part in the play this year.” Gaby rolled her eyes, but Grace ignored her. “I’m going to do the scene from The Sound of Music like we talked about.”
    Gaby played around with the laces on her sneakers. She didn’t seem to want to help, but Grace knew she had no choice. The first half hour of drama was for practicing. Bethany was cool about people sitting and talking quietly with their partners—she knew not everyone wanted to audition. But they weren’t allowed to just goof around or wander away from their partners. So if she wanted to rehearse, Gaby was going to have to sit there and listen.
    “It’s the scene where she’s teaching the kids to sing,” Grace said, pulling the typed pages out of her notebook. She hadn’t even looked at them since the second day of drama. She’d been too bummed about the fact that her folks wouldn’t let her try out. But she had the movie The Sound of Music on DVD, so she knew the scene pretty well already. “You read the kids’ lines. There aren’t many.” She handed over the pages.
    Gaby heaved a huge sigh, as if Grace was asking her to climb a mountain or something.
    By the time she’d said two lines, Gaby was yawning. And when it was Gaby’s turn to speak, she was busy putting a little braid in her hair and missed her cue.
    “You’re supposed to be helping me,” Grace said, frustrated. “You’re the one who wanted to be partners.”
    “That’s because I thought you would be fun,” Gaby said. “I didn’t know you actually wanted to try out for the stupid play.”
    Grace noticed Devon and Simon glancing over in her direction. “Shh,” she told Gaby. “Other people are trying to rehearse.”
    “So?” Gaby’s voice was as loud as ever.
    “Why did you sign up for drama if you think the play is stupid?” Grace asked.
    “Who said I signed up for