Where We Used to Roam by Jenn Bishop (best novels to read in english .TXT) 📗

“We made it!” Kennedy danced in her seat. Lucy looked relieved too.

But me? I was craning my neck, trying to see up to the front of the bus. And then suddenly Becca’s head popped up. She grinned at me, and somehow I smiled back, but for the whole ride to Cape Cod I could barely focus.

What if she did something to embarrass me? In front of Kennedy and Lucy or, worse, in front of Haven Mulligan.

By the time we arrived at Camp McSweeney, my stomach was growling. Dinner still wasn’t for another half hour, so the chaperones led us to our cabins to get settled.

“I call top bunk!” Kennedy yelled.

Our chaperone, Grace Collins’s mom, chimed in. “Actually, Kennedy—”

Kennedy flung open the cabin door and frowned. It turned out there weren’t bunks at all—more like army cots arranged in rows. And it smelled in there. Like some animal had died over the winter.

Mrs. Collins cracked a few windows to air the place out while we claimed our cots. Becca must’ve stopped to use the bathroom or something, because by the time she got to the cabin, there was only one cot left, in the back corner across from where Mrs. Collins would sleep.

“It all happened so fast,” I said to Becca. It was a stupid excuse, but what I hated was that I even felt guilty in the first place.

But she just shrugged. “I don’t mind,” she said, and it seemed like she really meant it. “The cabins are just for sleeping, anyway.”

Behind her, Grace Collins giggled. “Clearly, someone’s never been to a sleepaway camp before.”

She and Haven whispered back and forth, occasionally eyeing Becca, and I thought about what Austin said. What everyone else in our grade knew. But maybe not? Maybe Becca hadn’t picked up on it at all. That Camp McSweeney was totally about us sixth graders trying to pretend we were older. Sneaking out, getting into trouble, first kisses.

And just thinking that made me sad. Sad for Becca, and maybe even a little sad for me. Because now that we were in the same cabin, I knew I’d have to look out for her.

Later that night Mrs. Collins was called away with an “emergency” not long after we’d changed into our pajamas and gotten into our sleeping bags for lights-out. Some kid in another cabin had fallen off a huge rock, and since Mrs. Collins was an ER nurse, she was asked to help. She left Grace in charge until she returned, and Grace was taking full advantage of the situation.

Grace piped up over our chatter. “Guys? Guys. I have an idea. We played this game at camp last summer all the time and it’s so fun. Want to play?”

Over in her cot at the far end, Becca was already deep in a book. She barely looked up. Every other girl in the cabin, however, was game.

“What’s it called?” Kennedy asked.

“Never Have I Ever,” Grace said before explaining how it worked. We’d go around in a circle, and when it was your turn, you were supposed to say something you’d never done. But then anyone who actually had done that thing had to raise her hand. Basically, it was like truth or dare, minus the dare.

“I’ll start,” Grace said. She sat cross-legged on her sleeping bag. Now that we’d already washed up, I noticed a cluster of tiny pimples on her forehead that she must have usually covered up with makeup. It made me feel better to see a glimpse of the real Grace Collins. To know even she wasn’t as perfect as she tried to be in school. “Never have I ever… kissed a boy. Yet.” Her eyes darted around at all of us. “Oh, come on! I know someone here has.” She stared down Haven until she meekly raised her hand.

Across from me, Tilly Weathers’s face was going redder by the second, and she raised her hand too. Girls whispered back and forth.

“Okay,” Grace said. “So, let’s keep going clockwise. That means… Olivia, you’re up next.”

Olivia tapped on her chin.

“This year, Olivia!”

Gosh, Grace Collins was bossy. Glad I didn’t have to hang out with her every day.

“Okay, okay. Just give me a sec, all right? Never have I ever… left the country?”

Three hands shot up, including Becca’s. I guessed not every “Never have I ever” had to be super personal or juicy. That was a relief.

As girls took turns confessing things about themselves they probably wouldn’t if not for bossy Grace Collins, I was stuck trying to figure out what to say when my turn came around. The truth was, I didn’t have something secretly cool to confess. And sure, I could say something I wished was true, like I’d met Beyoncé. But what I wanted was for the perfect, clever, funniest thing to be zapped down into my brain, and so far that wasn’t happening.

“Kennnnnedy.” Grace’s voice was all singsongy. How long was her mom going to be gone, anyway?

Kennedy’s eyes went large, and for a second I thought Grace had caught her off guard. The Kennedy I knew never got nervous. She chewed on the inside of her cheek. “Wait, I got one. Never do I ever… still sleep with my baby blanket.”

For a moment I couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t have said that. Kennedy would never say that. Not here. Not to someone like Grace Collins. Not with Haven Mulligan in the room.

But as Grace lifted her hand over her mouth to stifle a giggle, I knew it had happened. “Who would do that?” Her mouth opened wider, the light catching her braces. “We’re in sixth grade. Come on.”

I knew better than to look at Becca, but somehow I couldn’t stop myself from glancing down the row of cots. Tears formed in Becca’s eyes, magnified by her glasses.

I sucked a deep breath in through my nose. No one’s looking at Becca besides you, Emma. Just stay calm and pretend you don’t see. You can chew out Kennedy later.

Haven reached