Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita Read Free Book Online

parentless for the day — like Ashley (since Hitch and Alexis were busy running visitors’ day) and Gabby (whose parents weren’t flying in from California for what they called a “four-hour H and G” — hi and goodbye. Now I knew where Gabby got her weird abbreviations from). Court’s ’rents were stopping for a few hours before they caught a flight to Miami.
    “I knew my mom probably wasn’t going to be able to make it so I’m okay,” I explained to Hitch.
    He nodded. “I know she really wanted to come see you.”
    This was awkward. Me talking to my mom’s potential boyfriend who happened to be my camp director. Weird! I had to get out of here. “I should get changed,” I said, pointing to my pants.
    Hitch blushed. “Absolutely, talk to you later,” he said.
    I ran all the way back to the cabin to save time and when I arrived, my PJs were dry, but pretty sticky. (It was THAT hot out.) I fumbled through my trunk for my backpack and unzipped it to get to my camera. I was moving so quickly I practically dropped the tape as I tried to jam it in the recorder. I pressed play and waited anxiously. The first thing I saw was Mal.
    She was sitting in her backyard on a lounge chair, wearing her big faux Chanel sunglasses and she was wearing the Donna Karan black bikini we found at TJ Maxx back in April that would have made me look huge, but looked perfect on her. Her long, dark brown hair was soft and sort of curly at the ends, and her tan had deepened to a bronze. She waved to the camera.
    “HI, SAMMIE! I MISSSSSSS YOU!” She yelled. “CP just isn’t the same without you. I ran into Mrs. Gisondi in Waldbaum’s and she says hi. So does Mrs. Macario. I told them we didn’t like English class as much this year without them. Piper, Bridget, and Ivy send their love and said thanks for the postcards.”
    I breathed a sigh of relief. I guess the others had forgotten I even said I’d send them tapes. Which made me stop and think — was it
them
who suggested I send them videos or was it me being
me,
agreeing to do too much without thinking things through?
    “I’m dying of boredom around here,” Mal continued. “If it wasn’t for Mark and the Mineola Pool I would be completely lonely…” Mal told me about our friend Piper’s new boyfriend, and a funny story about our friend Audrey’s summer job. She talked about her annoying little brother and how her parents gave her a later curfew for the summer. I was feeling homesick until she said something that made me flinch.
    “So like I was saying, it’s really boring here so thank God for your tapes,” Mal said and then made a nervous face I recognized. It was the one she used anytime she had screwed up. “It’s just that… um… don’t be mad, but I’m not sure… it’s just… I don’t think I’m going to have time to make another one. I want to! It’s just, well, I’m so busy with Mark that I don’t have a moment to myself.”
    Wait. Didn’t she just finish saying she was bored? How could she not have time to make any more tapes? It got worse.
    “I even had to have Mark tape this video for me,” Mal confessed, anxiously. “Mark, put the camera down and come say hi to Sam,” she instructed her off-camera boyfriend.
    What? Allowing boys or anyone else to watch or view our transmissions was strictly prohibited in our video code.
    The camera view shook for a moment and I heard Mark place it on what must be the patio table. He walked around the camera and sat at the edge of Mal’s lounge chair. He looked the same. Tall, rail thin, with almost shoulder-length thick brown hair and a tattoo of a pirate on his right arm that he always showed off proudly. He was one of the few guys at our school who actually had one. Mark seemed to think it made him a bad-ass. He swung Mal up and she squealed as she jumped on his lap. I rolled my eyes. I hated how gushy Mal was when she was with Mark.
    “Hey, Samantha,” Mark said. He’s probably the only person my