Read Online Second Time's the Charm by Melissa J. Morgan - Free Book Online

then nature threw you a break. She kept her hands stuffed into the pocket of her sweatshirt throughout the flag raising, tuning out the morning announcements.
    On the way over to breakfast, Chelsea caught up with the girls. “Pretty lame about Jenna, right?” she asked.
    Natalie shook her head. “What are you talking about?” Between the cold, the moist morning air, the food coma, and the post-Simon-quality-time haze, she was in a world of her own.
    â€œWell, didn’t she have something planned for 4C?” Chelsea reminded them.
    â€œOh, that’s right!” Tori said. “I was so excited to see my first prank being pulled. My mom was nuts about pranks when she was a camper. I think she’ll be disappointed if I don’t have any stories for her on Visiting Day.”
    â€œTell her not to get her hopes up,” Chelsea grumbled. “Jenna’s all reformed and whatever this summer.” She managed to make the word “reformed” sound like “criminally insane” and she looked seriously annoyed.
    â€œJenna’s parents will kill her if she gets into any more trouble this summer,” Alyssa cut in. “That’s probably why she hasn’t really planned anything for 4C. And if you’re her friend, you won’t encourage her—she’ll get sent home if she gets in trouble, like she did last summer. Hey, here’s a thought: Why don’t you pick up the slack, Chelsea?”
    Chelsea rolled her eyes. “Right. ’Cause I so want to be the next Jenna Bloom.” She sighed dramatically. “I’m going to go catch up with Karen. I need her Seventeen for free swim.” She ran off toward the front of the group, where Karen and some others were clustered together with Andie. Mia was already at the mess hall, setting up for breakfast. Natalie did not envy the CITs their double-duty jobs.
    The girls filed into the mess hall and took their seats at the long benches that served in place of chairs. Natalie flicked her bleary eyes across the table. Bug juice, burned toast, semi-melted packets of butter that sweat greasy trails out of their foil wrappers. Yum. Once the group was sitting, Mia rushed out of the kitchen carrying a large plastic platter heaped with a runny yellow substance. Scrambled eggs , Natalie thought. She’d pass.
    Suddenly Natalie was snapped out of her morning daze by the sounds of loud, piercing shrieks. She practically flipped over backward on her bench. She—and just about everyone else in the room—snapped her head around to see what the cause for all of the hysteria was.
    At first, Nat could barely locate the source of the noise. Slowly, though, she honed in on the locus of the chaos.
    It was 4C’s table.
    Now, Natalie could make out words forming above the din. “Barf . . .” “Gross . . .” “We almost ate that. . . .”
    Suddenly, a loud whistle resonated, quieting the room. For a breathless beat, the echo of the whistle bounced off of the walls. No one said a word. Then, Sophie’s voice cracked through the tension. “They’re fake.”
    Natalie turned to Alyssa, who shrugged her shoulders. Fake? What’s fake?
    â€œI’m not eating them!” It was Gaby, the bratty girl who had been such a bully to Grace the summer before. “I don’t eat eggs that have been touched by insect feet!”
    â€œGaby,” Becky interrupted, trying to soothe the girl before she could get any more worked up. “They’re plastic. Look.” She took the platter of 4C’s scrambled eggs and held them out to Gaby, who was scowling furiously. She pushed a heap of yellow-and-white gunk aside to reveal a nest of rubber—but realistic-looking, at least from where Natalie stood—flies.
    â€œI don’t know how those got in there,” Sophie said, sounding puzzled and mildly fretful. “I’ll get a new platter right