Trust Me Read online

  Mom had this thing about me trying to grow up too fast. If she had her way I’d be a kid forever.

  Slipping on my flip-flops, I looked down at my bare toenails and thought of my grandma. But I didn’t have time to do the nails justice. Besides, I’d be splashing through water on the way to the activities hut anyway. I slipped on the bright yellow rain poncho that we were required to bring to camp.

  Liz, Caryn, and Torie were all wearing theirs as well.

  “I hate these things,” Torie said, tugging on her poncho. “You know what I’m saying?”

  “Better than an umbrella,” Caryn said.

  We pranced our way over to the activities hut, trying to avoid the puddles that were growing bigger and bigger as the rain continued to fall. Of course the guys were standing on the porch beneath the overhang, laughing like they’d never seen anyone running through the rain.

  Weren’t only mature guys supposed to be selected as CITs?

  Inside the building was nice, warm, and best of all, dry. We hung our ponchos on the pegs beside the door.

  “You think we’ll do face painting?” Liz asked.

  “We’re not campers,” I said. “We’re CITs.”

  “True. So what do you think we’ll do?”

  “Climb on a table and fall off?” I asked.

  “Can you do a table, or will you freeze up again?”

  “I was kidding,” I said.

  “So what was happening with you earlier?” Liz asked. “You looked terrified.”

  Great. So much for thinking I was masking my true feelings.

  “I’m just not into jumping off high things.”

  “I didn’t know that,” she said.

  “It’s not something I really like to talk about.”

  “But I’m your best friend. Didn’t you trust me?”

  “It wasn’t a matter of trust, it was just…embarrassing. Don’t you have any secret fears?” I asked.

  “Yeah. That Trent won’t like me as much as I like him. I’m really starting to crush on him, Jess. It’s kinda scary.”

  Neither of us had ever had a boyfriend before, so all the feelings that come from liking someone and him actually liking you back were kind of strange. Or at least I figured they would be. I didn’t like anyone at the moment and certainly didn’t have anyone liking me.

  “How can he not like you enough? You’re awesome.”

  “You only think that because you’re my best friend.”

  “I think it because it’s true. Besides, remember when we took that quiz in Teen People a few months back? According to that, we’re both ready for a serious boyfriend.”

  “Yeah, but you and I always do well on quizzes. You know, I really do wish we’d do face painting. I wouldn’t mind painting a heart on Trent’s cheek.”

  “I’m sure Terrific Trent would love that.”

  “Hey, I might even be willing to paint Sean’s cheek.”

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “No, I’d put a ‘stay away from my best friend’ sign.”

  I rolled my eyes. “He can’t, though. We’re partners.”

  “And getting to be cozy partners at that. He knew how to get you to jump off that tower. He knew you a lot better than I did. Be careful, Jess. He’s going to make you like him and then he’ll betray you. You can’t trust him.”

  “I don’t trust him.”

  “Hey, partner,” Sean said.

  I wondered how much of the conversation he’d heard. But it didn’t really matter because I’d only spoken the truth, and he knew exactly how I felt anyway.

  “I think we’re going to get the afternoon away from each other,” I said.

  “No such luck,” Sean said. “At least a hundred different team-building activities can be done indoors.”

  “Why do you know so much about team building?”

  “Because I researched the activities. They’re great for keeping the brats at home under control when I have to babysit.”

  “The brats? That’s a nice way to refer to your family.”

  “Hey, you try taking care of six—”

  “We’ll be taking care of a lot more than that in another week.”

  “But we won’t be related to them.”

  “And that makes a difference?”

  “You bet. They can’t start screaming, ‘I’m gonna tell Mom.’”

  I laughed. Sean grinned. “I finally said something you like.”

  I shook my head. “It’s just that every conversation with Alex starts that way.”

  “Alex is your brother?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I bet he’s a total pain.”

  For the first time in my life I felt a need to defend my brother. He was, in fact, a pain, but it seemed a betrayal to admit it to Sean. “He’s okay.”

  “So you have a younger brother named Alex. See, it only took me two days to find that out. By the end of summer, I’ll know all your secrets.”

  “Why do you even care?” I asked.

  He seemed surprised by the question. “Because you’re my partner.”

  “Only for the week, Sean. Then we’ll never have to hang out again. I don’t hang with cheaters.”

  “What if I had a good reason for what I did?”

  I stared at him. “You did have a reason, but it wasn’t a good one. You wanted to win.”

  “Another reason.”

  “Like you wanted me to lose?”

  “Forget it.”

  Edna blew her whistle. And following her instructions, our little circle of two—Sean and me—grew to include Liz and Trent. Each group had to stand in front of an easel. It had a huge pad of paper on it because it was used for all kinds of artwork and projects.

  “This exercise is called ‘Marooned,’” Edna said. “You’re going to be stranded on a desert island. I want your team to list five items the team would have with it if you thought you might be marooned. You’ve got five minutes. Go!”

  She clicked her stopwatch. Geez, just like my hand curled in permanent cell-phone-holding position, her stopwatch seemed to be her handheld device of choice.

  “Okay, water,” Trent said and wrote it on our tablet of paper.

  “No, way,” Liz said. “We’re on an island. There’s plenty of water.”

  “Could be salt water,” Trent said.

  “But fresh water is bound to be somewhere on the island,” Sean said. “Or we could harvest rain.”

  “How would we harvest rain?” I asked.

  “We’ll have to figure that out later,” Liz said. “We only have five minutes.” She crossed out water.

  It was a little strange to see Liz taking charge. I didn’t know if she was doing it to impress Trent or if she was really getting into the whole leadership thing. Maybe it was a little of both.

  “A gun,” Trent said.

  “We can build traps with whatever the landscape has to offer,” Sean said.

  I looked at him. “You’re really into nature.”

  He grinned. “I’m into survival.”

  “The John Locke of CLS,” Trent said, referring to a character on Lost.

  “That works for me,” Sean said.

  “So what do we need?” I asked, practically hearing the seconds ticking away on Edna’s stopwatch. “Cell phone is useless. We can’t even get a signal here.”

  “A hunting knife,” Sean said.

  Sounded reasonable. I wrote it on the paper.

  “Matches,” Trent said.

  Sean nodded. “So we could have signal fires.”

  “You’re assuming we want to be found,” Liz said. “Maybe being marooned is the best thing to happen to us. No school, no parents. Totally on our own.”

  “We could use a fire for other things,” I said. “Like cooking the food we catch in traps and keeping warm.”

  “Chocolate,” Liz said suddenly, totally taking our list to a new level. “We gotta have chocolate.”

  Feeling like being silly, I wrote it down. I no lon