Read Online Just Like Me by Nancy Cavanaugh - Free Book Online

feet into our flip-flops.
    â€œDoesn’t it make you mad?” I asked.
    â€œWhat can I do about it? It doesn’t really have anything to do with me,” Gina answered. “It’s her problem, not mine. I got enough other stuff to worry about.”
    Just then, “Walking on Sunshine” blasted through the woods, letting us know free time was over.
    â€œLet’s go!” Gina said. “I’m freezing!”
    And we danced and sang, “Walking on sunshine, yeah, yeah,” as we hurried back up the hill toward the cabin.
    Dear Ms. Marcia,
    I wonder what other stuff Gina has to worry about.
    And I wonder where her mom is.
    I don’t think she’d mind if I asked her about it, but if I did ask her, she might start asking more questions about me.
    I know you might like that, Ms. Marcia, but I wouldn’t.
    Julia
    PS Wondering about Gina makes me think even more about all the things I’ve been wondering about.

13
    â€œOr what?” Gina said. “You won’t hang out with me? You won’t tell people we’re cousins? You won’t be my friend? You don’t scare me.”
    â€œ I don’t scare you, but a piece of craft gimp does?” Vanessa yelled.
    We had all just been sent back to the cabin during the obstacle course competition, because when Gina was crawling through the tube, she thought there was a snake in her hair. She went crazy—rolling around on the ground, flailing her arms, and yelling, “It’s a snake. A snake! It’s got me! It’s got me!”
    Because of that, we lost the relay—and then Vanessa went crazy.
    Avery tried to calm her down. But then Becca started yelling at Avery for getting mad at Vanessa, and finally Tori sent us all back to the cabin.
    â€œWould you guys just be quiet !” Avery yelled. “We’re already in trouble!”
    â€œYeah, we’re in trouble all right,” Vanessa said. “Because we have the worst cabin at camp!”
    â€œ That’s it, girls! ”
    It was Tori.
    â€œNo more talking. At all. And I want you in your bunks in five minutes for cabin devotions.”
    All of us started getting ready for bed, kicking off our shoes, changing into our pj’s, and brushing our teeth. In about three minutes, we were lying in our bunks waiting to hear what Tori had to say to us.
    When she came back into the cabin, she read some verse in the Bible about a house divided amongst itself falling down. We didn’t have to be Bible scholars to know that she was talking about us. I thought that if all the girls in White Oak were actually a house, we wouldn’t just fall down; we’d probably explode into a million pieces.
    While Tori lectured us about getting along, I played with the piece of yarn from my baby blanket that was tied to the zipper on my Bible case, wrapping and unwrapping it around my index finger. Avery and Becca waved their Chinese fans at their faces to stay cool. Gina scratched at her mosquito bites with a brush, while Vanessa glared at her. And Meredith looked bored while she examined the tips of her hair for split ends.
    Tori didn’t ask a lot of questions and try to make us talk like she usually did. I don’t think she wanted us to talk, but Avery spoke up anyway.
    â€œThough I see the point of this verse, I can think of a few instances in which it really would not be true.”
    â€œI bet you can,” Vanessa muttered to Meredith.
    And that’s when Tori demonstrated the expression “the last straw.” She didn’t scream. She didn’t scold. She just closed her Bible so slowly and carefully that we heard the pages flutter. She got up from the edge of Becca’s bunk where she’d been sitting and walked toward the door of the cabin.
    Before she walked out, she flipped off the lights and said, “Good night, girls,” so quietly that I wasn’t sure if I’d only imagined hearing her voice.
    The