Very Private List for Camp Success (7 page)

‘Well,’ said Rita, ‘let’s all think about this.’

Penelope noticed that Bob and Tilly were both looking down, as though they didn’t want to be there.

‘Who is older, you or me?’ Rita demanded.

Rita was the oldest girl in the whole class. Everyone knew that.

‘You are,’ Penelope said. ‘But that’s not –’

‘And who is taller, you or me?’ Rita interrupted rudely.

Penelope glowered. Just recently, they’d had to line up in order of size for the school photo. As the shortest girl in their class, Penelope was put in the centre of the front row (just like every other year).

Honestly, Penelope had no idea why she had ever thought that she and Rita could get along. Rita hadn’t just been mean since birth. She had probably been mean when she was in her mother’s tummy, or even
before
that.

If there was a competition for meanest girl, Rita would win it hands-down.

Penelope realised her hands were on her hips. She wasn’t sure when she’d put them there. Her palms felt sweaty. Her temples throbbed and her cheeks felt hot. Really hot.

‘YOU MIGHT BE OLDER. AND YOU MIGHT BE TALLER,’
she yelled.
‘BUT YOU’RE NOT THE ONE WHO HAS HER BOOKS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER IN HER LOCKER. YOU’RE NOT THE ONE WHO HAS A REPUTATION FOR BEING ORGANISED AT ALL TIMES. YOU ONLY HAVE A REPUTATION FOR BEING MEAN AT ALL TIMES. YOU WOULD BE THE WORST LEADER IN HISTORY.’

‘Oh my god,’ Rita said, ‘how embarrassing. You’re such a baby, Penelope Kingston. You need to Calm. Right. Down. Seriously! You look like a freak, your face is so red. Look, you’ve even got veins popping out of your temples. Gross.’

Even though there were tears pricking at her eyes, Penelope did not cry. But she had already done the very worst thing. She had broken rule number one – her most important rule.

Penelope gulped. She pressed her fingers to her temples, trying to flatten out the veins, and reminded herself to breathe.

Looking around, she could see that Bob had moved over to stand near the door. Tilly was right next to her. This seemed unsupportive of a very best friend, even if the bell
was
ringing for the next activity.

Even though it was painful to talk, Penelope forced herself to calm down. It was absolutely essential to get both of their votes. She took a deep breath and squeezed out the words. ‘Bob and Tilly, who do you think should be hut leader?’

Bob and Tilly stepped further away to talk privately.

As they waited for a response, Penelope and Rita stared at each other. Penelope tried to look directly into Rita’s eyes, but they were very intense, so after a while she switched to her mouth. Then her ears.

Finally, Bob and Tilly came back.

‘We think we probably don’t need a leader at all,’ Bob began.

‘But if you guys are so keen on having one …’ Tilly continued.

‘… Then maybe it should be both of you,’ Bob finished.

Then, without waiting for a response, they turned and ran out of the hut.

Penelope was very rarely late for anything, but this time she ignored the bell and stayed in the hut all by herself. Outbursts were exhausting, and this had been quite a big one. She just wanted to curl up in her bunk bed and make it all go away.

She wasn’t even sure which part she was
most
upset about. But Bob being so unsupportive was definitely one part. If Penelope had one wish right then, she would wish for Bob to come back and apologise to her. Unfortunately (and Penelope tried it, just in case) her wish didn’t work.

Of course, the other thing that was truly upsetting was that she had already (on the very first day!) broken her number one rule. Penelope reached over to her bag and pulled the list out of its secret pocket. She would have to make some changes. But she was sure she would feel better when she was done.

Penelope hunted through the drawers at the bottom of the wardrobe in the corner. One drawer was empty, but in the other one, Penelope found blank paper, blutack, sticky tape and three sharpened pencils. Even though the pencil didn’t match the pen she’d used to write her list, Penelope was able to make the alteration quite neatly.

Just as she was finishing, Ramone poked his head around the door. ‘There you are, Penelope,’ he said. ‘They’re waiting for you at bike ed. Come along with me.’

Penelope quickly put her list in the drawer so that Ramone wouldn’t see it, then closed the drawer and followed him.

Penelope steered her bike through the crossover in the figure eight that was painted on the basketball court. After only a slight wobble, she was off again.

It was her third time riding around the course. Each time, she had found it a little bit easier. Each time, she felt more confident.

She had passed Rita twice as they made their way around the course. Penelope had been concentrating very hard on trying to make up for being six minutes late by doing everything right. But Rita had a great big smile plastered on her face. Penelope wondered if the smile was pretend.
She
certainly didn’t feel like smiling.

‘Great stuff,’ the bike ed teacher called out. ‘Now we’re going to try riding two abreast, straight up to the line and back again. Steer the bike with your outside hand, and hang on to your partner’s hand on the inside. Then we’ll come back the other way.’

Penelope looked to her right. Her partner was Bob.

Bob’s bike helmet covered all of her very short hair.

Penelope felt a surge of disappointment. She couldn’t believe that Bob hadn’t stuck up for her. That disappointment brought a wave of loneliness.

It was a type of loneliness Penelope had experienced many times before.
But that was before she had a very best friend.

‘Are you OK, Pen?’ Bob whispered, as she took Penelope’s hand. ‘Let’s talk after this. Just the two of us?’

Penelope nodded. She was relieved that Bob wanted to talk. Perhaps her friend
was
going to apologise? Even if it was a little bit late, Penelope would definitely accept Bob’s apology as graciously as she could.

It felt like an excellent (and timely) reminder about how to steer a (very) best friendship.

Penelope and Bob were sitting on a bench seat in the laundry block. They’d chosen it for privacy. All around them spun dryers filled with linen, filling the air with a low, warm hum.

Penelope waited for Bob to speak. In fact, she waited quite a while. In the end she decided to start.

‘I forgive you,’ Penelope said.

Bob looked at her and shook her head. ‘Geez, Pen,’ was all she said.

Penelope frowned. Perhaps she needed to explain more. ‘Obviously, since you’re my very best friend, I expected you to stick up for me when Rita was being so mean. And I expected you to vote for me to be hut leader.’

‘Pen, you
know
Rita can be mean. But what you said, and how you said it …’ Bob made a motion with her hands. It looked like a rocket taking off into the sky. ‘You actually told her that everyone thinks she’s mean. And that she would be the worst leader in history. That was pretty mean too, when you think about it.’

Sometimes, Penelope could not remember everything she had said during an outburst. Being reminded that she’d said Rita would be the worst leader in history gave her a bit of a headache. And the fact that Bob thought Penelope had been mean was upsetting. She rubbed her forehead.

‘I tried not to react, Bob. I really did.’

‘Rita will always try to make you go crazy, Pen. You can’t let her drive you nutso.’

Penelope did not like the use of the word ‘nutso’. Still, Bob had a point.

‘You know, Tilly and I couldn’t care less whether you’re the leader or if Rita’s the leader or if there’s no leader at all,’ Bob continued. ‘Look, we don’t even really care if we win the competition
.
Not if it’s going to make everyone all grumpy and sad. What we
do
care about is having fun at camp.’

Penelope scratched her head. It was very difficult to believe that Bob and Tilly didn’t care about winning the best hut competition. She actually understood Rita’s point of view better – Rita obviously cared about the competition as much as Penelope did. But one thing Penelope loved about Bob was that she never
pretended
to feel something she didn’t actually feel.