CHAPTER 1 HELGA

This is the 3rd in the Grey Days series: Grey Days, Chunko's, and now Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover.

Oh man. Cheerleading camp. Why? Why did Olga have to sign me up for this? At least there was one good thing, Lila died. She committed suicide, which I thought was my fault at first, but then my shrink helped me know that it wasn't my fault. Go figure. So, Arnold, Gerald, and Phoebe went to camp Nasusmot, which I would have gone to as well, if this hadn't happened. They think I went to another normal camp, but actually I was less than 10 miles away from them. How's that for chance?

So anyway, I just got off the bus and picked up my luggage. I noticed that the people here a severe gender disparity, and that everyone was dressed in the same kind of clothes. I stuck out like a sore thumb with my baggy jeans and Led Zeppelin shirt. Oh well, not like this hasn't ever happened before. Only four weeks. That's right, only one month and I get to go home and continue being a lethargic couch potato watching wrestling and football all day. Only one month. . .

A girl and her "pack" interrupted my daydream. She stopped, put her hand on her hip and looked me over with a smirk.

"Hey, nice clothes." Her peanut gallery mechanically laughed, right on cue.

"Yeah, I think so too," I replied. "I really like your top as well. I think it would look even better with," I picked up some mud from the ground and smothered it all over her shirt, "mud. Didn't you hear? Brown is in. Especially the lumpy kind." I tried to hold in my amusement as I turned around to go to my cabin, but I didn't walk three steps until my smile cracked and became a roar of laughter.

"You laugh now, but wait until I tell a consoler!' She cried, mud still dripping on her UGG boots. Serves her right for wearing boots in the summer. Really for wearing UGG boots at all.

"Wuss," was all I said to her. I didn't really care if she told on me; if I was lucky they might kick me out of camp. While I walked away, I could hear the last of her friend's conversation.

"It's alright, Erica. She is gonna get it when you-know-who comes."

Since I knew they weren't talking about Harry Potter, I decided you- know-who couldn't be that bad. I trudged up to my cabin, with my luck the farthest one from main camp.

'Lone Pine' was the name of our cabin, and fitting considering it was in the middle of nowhere. I creaked opened the old screen door to see what will be my new home for the next month.

It wasn't very homey, I can tell you that, but it sure beats Big Bob's tirades and Merriam's worried, helpless mother routine. Just your regular, old-fashioned Lincoln log cabin. The wire-framed bunk beds completed the look.

I set my stuff in a top bunk , and started to make a letter to Arnold. I got out some paper, and sharpened a new pencil. I couldn't put what I really thought, or Arnold would know that I wasn't at a normal camp. He would know I was at a cheerleading camp. I chewed my eraser in hopes of getting a good lie. The letter ended up like this:

Dear Arnold,

I can't really tell you what camp is like, since I just got here, but I already feel like it's better than home. The cabin is nice and almost roomy, but I haven't made any friends yet. I think because of the events earlier I need to sharpen up on my people skills. Tell Sid and Phoebe I said hi, and that I'll be sending Sid a letter soon. Anyway, I just felt like writing to you, but there isn't anything left to write, so I guess that's it. Hope to see you soon, HELGA

I put the letter in an envelope, sealed it, and licked on a stamp. I would send it when I found out how. I was about to write a letter to Phoebe with basically the same story when I was interrupted by a booming voice.

"FUCK! DAMN ROCK!"

I casually walked outside to find a girl nursing a very bloody knee.

"Man, that looks awesome. It's gonna leave a sweet scar." I told the girl. I expected her to cry. Turned out she was more worried about me than her knee.

"You must have had some sad, deranged childhood." She then looked at me, puzzled. "Aren't you gunna turn me in for swearing?"

"Nah. You should have heard my act when I found out I was going to this dump." I said. "Here we are, chattin' away and I don't even know your name. Mine's Helga," I stuck out my hand.

The girl looked me over for a couple seconds, then smiled and shook my hand. "I'm Kyra. Hey, you haven't been here before, have you?"

"Nope, and I hope I never come here ever again. My stupid parental units made me come. They think I'm 'un-cooranated' and 'antisocial'."

"I hear you," she stood up and brushed off her knees. "I have to do it, too. Parents signed me up for soccer gym last summer, you know, the exercise thing and all, but it was all filled up. So they signed me up for cheerleading. I kept on saying how much I liked it so they wouldn't worry, but they took it too seriously. This was my 'Christmas present'. Lemme just tell you something, if I ever get my hands on that Santa. . ." She made a motion with her hands as if to strangle something. "Anyway, there isn't anybody here to hold a decent conversation with."

"Oh yeah," I replied solemnly with pity. "At least I get to write to someone. It must drive you insane not to have anyone to talk to."

"I said that there was nobody to hold a decent conversation with, not that I was lonely," she looked at my confused face, "C'mon. I'll show you." She looked in both directions, then led me though a winding path in the woods. The path was covered in cedar woodchips about a foot or two across. It was really quite nice, like those nature walks you take on field trips. We then went away from the path and stopped in front of a girl sitting next to a tree, in front of a meadow.

"Hey Christina," Kyra said.

"Whoa, Kyra! You sooooo scared me. I was just playing with the squirrel in the tree, but he will just not let me catch him. Squirrely," She turned her attention to a squirrel perched high in a tree to her left. "Why do you run away? How am I supposed to pet make you. Haha, I mean make you my pet." With that she spun around twice, and then passed out on the grass.

"She's drunk," I said plainly.

"Naw, Helga. She's just having fun dancing around the tree with all the little woodland creatures," Kyra said sardonically. "To be fair, she isn't usually drunk. She usually gets high, but the counselors must have been outta weed. She goes to the consoler's cabin and searches through their stuff to find things."

"Don't the consolers report it missing?" I asked.

"Hah. Yeah, a consoler is just gunna tell the director of the camp that, 'uh-huh, a kid stole my weed man!' Fat chance."

We then came back out of the woods by the cafeteria for lunch. I was just about to turn the corner for the front of the building when Kyra pulled me back and put her finger over her lips for quiet. I soon heard two girls chattering on the other side of the building.

"So, Amy, did ya hear? That stupid bratty girl is back. I was hoping she wouldn't sign up this year."

"Yeah," the girl named Amy said, "sucks to be us. Her and her little 'group' will probably get all the good guys for the dance again."

"Uh-huh. They're bitches. But, did you hear that she's been talking about this one certain guy 24/7. Ardo or Argett or something."

"Well, I'm hungry. Let's go, Emily."

With that I heard the doors open and shut.

"Who were they?" I asked Kyra.

"Emily and Amy. They know everything that goes on at camp, but don't really care where they discuss. Never tell those girls secrets that you want to keep secret." Kyra answered.

"Who was that one girl they were talking about?"

"Geez, you ask a hell of a lot of questions. The girl's name is Leah or Lelah. Whatever, I'm hungry. Let's eat."