Taking a step back, she caught Tourista Number Two gaping at her. "Your friend is hallucinating." Lame, but it was the best Alex could do at the moment.
"Must be contagious, some airborne virus," Cam stammered defensively, "because your friends are just as delirious." It wasn't Beth who was seeing things, she thought, it was her—first the white-haired old man at the soccer match, and now a bad-tempered double in a theme park in the middle of nowhere.
Beth was astounded. Verbal attacks? Not Cam's style.
"We have to work here," Alex countered. "What's your excuse? Was it a choice between this and the nature walk?"
How'd she known that? Cam wondered.
Nature walk? Where'd that come from? Alex asked herself.
Evan and Lucinda were stunned. Okay, Alex had a bite to her, but only when provoked. And she knew better than to go at it with a paying customer. Alex needed this job.
Lucinda inserted herself between Cam and Alex, and extended her hand. "I'm Lucinda Carmelson, he's Evan Fretts, and this is Alexandra—Alex—Fielding. We live over in Crow Creek, and like Alex said, we work right here in the park. Alex's at the ticket booth," she couldn't help adding, as if that were something to be extra proud of.
To Cam's dread, Beth took a step forward and shook Lucinda's hand. "That's so cool. I'm Beth Fish, and this is Cam, Camryn Barnes. We're from—"
That was it. Cam had had enough weirdness for one week. She grabbed Beth's ropy arm and pulled her away, blurting, "We're from... not around here."
"Massachusetts," Beth said.
"Well, buh- bye ," Cam called, racing off, dragging Beth with her. Despite her best friend's startled protests, she didn't slow down until she'd found the restroom, with its hokey COWGIRLS sign, and dashed behind it.
Beth was ballistic. "What's wrong with you? You totally blew off those kids. How could you act like that?"
"Like what?" Cam said, out of breath. Hands on her hips, she took a couple of deep sucks of air. "I'm... I'm just..."How could she explain it to Beth, who was clearly more excited than alarmed that a stranger had turned up looking eerily like Cam? How could she explain that she didn't want, couldn't take, any more spooky surprises? That seeing things others didn't see, hearing voices no one else could hear and, now, bumping into this distorted mirror image, was more than she could handle right now?
"No matter what," Beth lectured, "even if you're still bummed about the game, or freaked by the creepy vibes at Saddlebrook—"
"Beth, you have no idea what happened at the game," Cam began.
"Give me a break. This is me, Cami. And that girl with the blue-streaked hair is—"
"She's who? She's what? She's nobody!" Cam exploded.
"You!" Undeterred, Beth finished her sentence. "She's you."
Cam felt like a punctured balloon, leaking adrenaline. She had no strength left to battle her best friend. Instead, she found herself fighting back tears.
Instinctively, Beth put an arm around her. "I know this is weirding you out," she said softly. "Me, too. But don't you even want to find out who she is?"
Cam shrugged and busied herself digging for a tissue in her backpack. "No," she said, blowing her nose. "I don't want to know who or what she is. I don't want to have 'mojo.' Or be different from other kids—"
"You're not," Beth gently assured her. "I mean, in lots of ways you're not."
In front of her friends, Alex forced herself to laugh. "As advertised, that was such the blast! What can we do for an encore? I vote for the buffalo chips at Chuck Wagon Charlie's. Equally vomitacious."
Usually, Alex was expert at getting her buds to change the subject. Or to do anything she wanted. Now they circled her.
"How could you let her go like that?" Evan challenged. "She's on your turf, with your face, and you let her trash-talk us and walk away? You don't got game, Alex."
"Unlike you?" Alex glared at
Learning to Kill: Stories