Sharon said, "Just a minute, Richard. Mary Anne, do you want to say good-bye to your father? Do you want Dawn to help you back to your room?"
"No! I said good-bye. And I don"t need help. I"ll just go bravely to my room alone." I said the last sentence under my breath so that Sharon couldn"t hear me. .
Without waiting for her answer, I thumped and b.u.mped clumsily back to my room and fell into bed.
When Dawn and Sharon came to say good night, I pretended to be asleep.
But I wasn"t. It was a long, long time before I fell asleep, long after Tigger had come to claim his place on the end of the bed, long after Dawn and Sharon had gone to bed, too.
I stayed awake and felt lonely and sorry for myself.
Chapter 11.
Claudia counted the pairs of buddies and came up with ten pairs and one extra, as usual. This time it was Jamie.
"Yea, Jamie!" she exclaimed. "I get to have you for my partner. Outstanding!"
Jamie, who"d been looking a little forlorn, suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. "Oh, boy!" he said. He slipped his hand into Claudia"s and looked up with a big Jamie-special smile.
Alicia, who was standing by me, said, "Is bowling fun? I"ve never been bowling."
"Bowling"s great, great, I can hardly wait," Vanessa replied. "I"m glad that Camp BSC made Monday bowling day and included I can hardly wait," Vanessa replied. "I"m glad that Camp BSC made Monday bowling day and included me!" me!"
She skipped off with Haley to get in line under Kristy"s eagle eye. Then Kristy and Shannon and Logan and Mal and Claudia and Jessi divided up the kids among the three station wagons (the Braddocks", the Pikes", and the Ramseys") and began hustling them into the cars for the afternoon bowling excursion.
"They"re going to have lots of fun, aren"t they?" asked Alicia.
"Yes. Probably," I said. I couldn"t have gone bowling even if I"d wanted to. Not with my dumb ankle in a dumb brace.
Alicia watched as Kristy went from car to car, taking one last head count. Then Alicia said, "Mary Anne, am I going to stay here with you?"
"Sure," I said rea.s.suringly. "Of course. You can keep me company since I can"t bowl. ... I know, let"s put some extra-special touches on your camel costume."
I turned and began to crutch-hobble my way across the gra.s.s toward the activities tables.
Then I realized that Alicia wasn"t with me. I looked over my shoulder. Alicia was standing where I had left her, staring after the departing station wagons.
"Alicia? Alicia!" I called.
At last, slowly, Alicia turned and walked across the gra.s.s toward me.
In Claudia"s car, Vanessa burst into song. "Hi ho, hi ho, it"s off to bowl we go!" Soon everyone in the car had joined in. From there they moved on to "Bowl, bowl, bowl your boat," which sent them into giggles.
Then Claudia thought of "Take Me Out to the Bowl Game," and they sang a few rounds of that.
By the time their car reached the bowling alley, it seemed as if every song in the world had been sung with the word "bowl" in it.
Mr. Braddock grinned and shook his head as he helped Claudia and Mal make sure all the kids got into the bowling alley. For a little while it was chaos as the sitters and the three chaperons, Mr. Braddock, Jessi"s Aunt Cecelia, and Mrs. Pike, checked to see that everyone got the right size bowling shoes and bowling b.a.l.l.s, that everyone wore socks with their shoes, and that the kids were divided up evenly among the bowling alleys.
Kristy, of course, being the organizer of the world, had called the bowling alley in advance and reserved enough lanes at the far end of the alley away from the other bowlers to minimize the disturbance. Fortunately, it wasn"t very crowded at that time of day on a Monday anyway, although there was a group of women who were really knocking down the pins nearby.
But getting everyone to their alleys wasn"t the same as getting the bowling underway.
"I can"t pick up the ball with my fingers in the bowling ball holes," Jamie gasped, his face red.
"Just hold it in your hands. Like this, see?" Claudia cradled the ball in her hands.
"But then I can"t throw it the way everyone else is throwing it!"
"Not everyone is throwing it that way," Mal pointed out. "Claire and Andrew aren"t, are you?"
Mal and Claudia were in charge of the three youngest kids.
"I don"t know how how to hold it," said Claire. to hold it," said Claire.
Andrew shook his head to show that he didn"t either.
"Go for it, Claud," said Mal, grinning. She stepped aside and motioned toward the bowling lane.
Claudia thought, Oh, well, and went for it. Cradling the bowling ball (which was one of the lightweight ones for kids and for some reason was bright red) in both hands, she walked to the edge of the bowling alley, bent over, and set it down. Then she gave it a push.
The ball rolled slowly down the alley for a little ways, then curved off into the gutter.
Claire said, "I don"t want my bowling ball to do that!" that!"
"It might, though," Mal said, trying not to laugh. "But you"ll have to practice. Just like you practice softball."
"Oh." Claire could understand that.
Next to them, Matt, David Michael, Ricky, and Bobby were rolling the ball as hard as they could down the alley. Sometimes it actually made it to the pins, but more often it shot into the gutter. Kristy, who was a pretty good bowler, was trying to give them tips on how to hold the ball. But they were more interested in rolling it as fast as they could.
Karen, Hannie, Nancy, and Margo were taking a different approach. They were rolling the ball very, very slowly. Then they stood at the end of the alley leaning left and right and jumping up and down as if they could influence whether the ball hit anything.
All in all, everybody had their hands full.
Then Claire stomped her foot. "Stop that!" she shouted at her ball, which was just tipping into the gutter. Before anyone could move, she had marched down the bowling alley to try to grab the ball.
"No!" shouted Mal. "Claire!"
But Claire had already bent over and was making slapping motions at the heavy ball, trying to stop it, but afraid it would hurt her somehow. As Mal reached her, Claire straightened up triumphantly and put her foot down on the ball.
Logan, who"d been watching, said, "Whoa! "Whoa! If she"d been playing soccer, that would have been a If she"d been playing soccer, that would have been a great great trap." trap."
"Claire," said Mal. "You can"t cross over the line. Even if your ball goes in the gutter."
"It"s not fair," said Claire. But since she was already holding her bowling ball, she didn"t sound too unhappy.
Mal and Claudia kept a close eye on Claire and the other two after that.
Suddenly Linny shouted, "I got a strike! I got a strike!"
Everyone in the bowling alley looked at Linny.
"Good work!" called one of the women who was bowling next to the campers. She grinned and gave Linny a thumbs-up sign.
"I want a strike, too," said Claire.
"If you keep practicing, you might get one," Claudia said diplomatically. But she wasn"t hopeful.
Then Jamie jammed all his fingers into the holes of the bowling ball and tried to roll it the way the big kids were doing. Unfortunately, he forgot to take his fingers out when he shoved the ball forward.
In the next second, Jamie was sliding down the bowling lane after his ball.
"Let go!" Claudia shouted. "Jamie, let go." let go."
Feeling like a person in a slapstick comedy, she ran after Jamie, who"d slid to a stop, belly down, a few feet down the alley. Just as he stopped, he let go of his ball. It rolled slowly - crept, really - down the alley.
"Jamie, are you okay?" gasped Claudia, trying not to laugh.
Jamie didn"t move. He just lay in the lane, his eyes fixed on his snail-moving bowling ball.
Claudia glanced up.
Everyone was looking at them.
"Uh - Jamie," she said.
A huge cheer broke out. Jamie"s ball had knocked over all the pins!
What could Claudia do? She helped Jamie to his feet. Jamie clasped his hands over his head and walked proudly back to his seat. Everyone ran to congratulate him.
And Claudia and the rest of the sitters and chaperons spent what was left of the bowling trip trying to convince the other campers that Jamie"s method of scoring a strike couldn"t be used again.
Chapter 12.
"You sure you don"t want to come with us? It"s a drive-in movie and it"s a really cool, funky old place that they"ve just reopened," Dawn said.
"I know, I know. You told me. Many times," I said. I was sitting in the den with the remote control for the television in my hand, flipping through the channels.
"It"s a double feature," said Sharon. "Two good movies. Really good movies, not junk like last week."
"No, thank you," I said. "My foot hurts."
"You can just stay in the car," Dawn said. "I can get your snacks and stuff."
"No," I said flatly. Then I added reluctantly, "Thanks anyway."
"Maybe another time," said Sharon. "When you"re feeling better.... Can I get you anything before I go?"
"There"s juice in the refrigerator," I recited.
"And I can order whatever I want from the take-out places."
"Right," said Sharon after a tiny pause. "Well, see you later, Mary Anne."
" "Bye," said Dawn.
"Mmm," I said, staring at the television. Not that I was interested in what was on. But I was in the world"s meanest, foulest mood. I was in pain (well, I had been for the first couple of days), I was on crutches, and all Sharon and Dawn could think about was partying and being wild and crazy bachelor girls for the last week before my father came back. The night before they"d gone to the county fair and tried to persuade me to limp along with them.
"No," I said. "I don"t want people banging into my foot."
I almost hated Sharon and Dawn. And my father.
How would they like it if they"d had a hurt foot and had been abandoned the way I had?
An old dinosaur movie came onto the screen. The dinosaur was stomping along, flattening everything in its path.
I settled back with a sigh. That was exactly exactly how I felt. how I felt.
Meanwhile, the last week of Camp BSC was roaring to a close. The circus act rehearsals were in high gear. Everyone was very, very . excited about the big end-of-camp performance on Friday evening, "real" circus campers and regular campers both.
All the excitement meant that we were extra-careful to take the kids to the park to play every morning. It was important for them to let off some steam before they threw themselves heart and body (literally) into the circus rehearsals.
I couldn"t go to the park. It would have taken forever for me to hobble over there on my crutches. And all that crutch-walking would have made my armpits even more sore than they already were.
Besides, I had to take care of Alicia, right?
Wrong.
On Wednesday, as the twenty-one campers divided into buddies and Claire said, "I don"t have a partner," Alicia blurted out, "I"ll be your buddy."
"What?" I exclaimed, before I could stop myself.
"Great, Alicia," said Claudia casually. "Is everybody ready, then?"
Of course I knew better than to make a big deal out of Alicia"s sudden decision that it would be okay to go to the park, that she didn"t have to wait around and make herself miserable until her mother came to pick her up.