Friends ForNever by Katy Grant Page A

Whitney’s chin was quivering. Sarah opened her mouth to say something but then closed it. She looked like she’d been struck by lightning.
    Whitney let out a long, shuddering sigh. “So that’s my plan.”
    There was the longest, most humongous silence I’d ever heard in my life. It pressed on us like it weighed five thousand pounds. It felt like a black, hairy, suffocating nightmare.
    Somebody say something! I psychically shouted at Sarah and Nicole. But apparently they couldn’t hear me.
    We walked into the dining hall and took our seats around Cabin 3’s table. Whitney calmly put her napkin in her lap without looking at any of us.
    Libby poured bug juice into plastic cups and passed them around the table. “Why is everyone so quiet?”
    Everyone else started talking, but Sarah, Nicole, and I kept our mouths shut. Too bad we’d learned that lesson a little too late.

When we walked into Camp Crockett’s dining hall, I looked around for Blake. I saw him in the crowd of boys and motioned for him to come to me, but he looked away, pretending not to see me. So I marched across the big empty space between all the Crockett boys and the Pine Haven girls. He tried to duck out of my way, but I grabbed his shirttail.
    â€œCome over here and say hi to me, you little creep.”
    â€œWhoever you are, you’re not my type.” He wriggled away from me, and all the boys around him started laughing.
    â€œBlake, I’m warning you. Mom told me to check up on you.”
    â€œIs that your sister? I thought she was just some weird girl,” said the boy next to Blake.
    â€œYeah, that’s my sister. And she is a weird girl.” Blake walked up and stood inches away from me with a really defiant look on his face. His hair looked like he hadn’t shampooed it in three days, but he had a clean shirt on at least.
    â€œHow’s it going? Are you having a good time? Have you made some friends?”
    Blake crossed his arms and tried to stare me down. “Good. Yep. And yep.”
    â€œOkay, fine. Just thought I’d say hello.” I walked away, but I could tell by the look on his face that he enjoyed this attention and didn’t really want me to go. I’d come back and talk to him later when he wasn’t being so obnoxious.
    I found Sarah and Nicole in the clump of Pine Haven girls still huddled near the screen doors. I waved my hand in front of Sarah’s face because she was staring, unblinking, at a spot on the floor.
    â€œI should be boiled in hot oil. Thrown into shark-infested waters. Drawn and quartered.” She looked up at Nicole and me with a hopeless expression. “What is drawn and quartered, anyway? I hope it’s incredibly painful.”
    â€œI’m pretty sure it is. Where’s Whitney?” I asked.
    Sarah nodded toward the dance floor, and I saw that Whitney was already out there with a boy. “Can you believe how well she dances, considering she has a knife stuck in her back?” asked Sarah.
    â€œExcuse me, but not one person has brought up the fact that Whitney was obviously eavesdropping on us,” said Nicole. “She’s not totally innocent in this whole thing.”
    â€œThe only thing she’s guilty of is wanting everyone in the cabin to get along and to love camp as much as she does,” moaned Sarah.
    It made me cringe to think of Whitney just outside the cabin door, listening to everything we said. Had she accidentally overheard us? Or did she stick around, waiting to see if we were going to talk about her after she left? Not that it mattered. What we did was brutal.
    Sarah’s eyes followed Whitney and her guy. “I can’t believe I said those things. I crushed her spirit. Like a grape.” Sarah stomped on the floor suddenly, apparently squishing the grape.
    â€œHonestly, she doesn’t look that crushed to me,” said Nicole. “She’ll be