How she survived the first week of camp, she did not know. Things were off to a rough start from day one, after Kitty failed to make absolutely certain everyone knew which colors of the tanks and shorts to wear on the first day. Half the club got it wrong, probably Bree's sabatogue, and they wasted time waiting for half the team to go back to the rooms and change. Kitty thought she'd never heard the end of it from Roz and Sue.
Being captain and being small enough to be a flier got her to the top of the pyramid though, and the look on Bree's face when Kitty made her a spotter in their first routine had been priceless.
Cheerios camp was kind of like prison, when it came to food. You had twenty minutes for lunch and you ate whatever was provided, dinner always consisted of someplace where they were encouraged to order salads, and Kitty, though she was in great shape, just wanted to be home where she could raid the pantry for a snack every now and then.
The evenings were turning out to be fun, though, as Kitty had never formed a proper friendship with anyone on the team before, but now Mason and Madison were undeniably becoming good friends of hers, friends that she'd probably enjoy spending time with outside of camp, when they finally went home.
The three were together again on their one and only day off, their Sunday beach day, the day that Roz and Sue actually disappeared and left them on their own, with just the parent chaperones, as they explored Myrtle Beach.
Most of the team hit up the big ferris wheel, known as the SkyWheel, plus its surrounding attractions, including mini golf and snack bars, where they could finally order junk food in lieu of salad. Kitty tried to pace herself, so as not to completely shock her system and wind up getting sick. She let Mason talk her into giant corn dogs and splitting a huge funnel cake three ways, but she drank plenty of water, attempting some sort of balance.
When they boarded the SkyWheel, though, her thoughts turned to Artie and the big ferris wheel they'd ridden together at Pacific Park. She decided to take lots of pictures of the view from the top to show him later, even though her phone's camera couldn't do it justice. She'd just have to add this to the list of places to come back and visit with him. Plus, the SkyWheel was pretty wheel-friendly, something that she now thought about every single time she went anywhere. She'd learned, along the way, to see the world through his lens.
And speaking of seeing the world through another lens, she couldn't help but notice Bree with her big, expensive camera. Madison reminded Kitty that Bree had taken the job of team historian, which meant that it was part of her job to take pictures of the Cheerios for various memory books and slideshows.
After one full ride on the SkyWheel, both Kitty and Mason wanted to go again, whereas Madison wanted one more round of mini-golf. The twins hardly ever seemed to have different ideas, so Kitty hung back and watched them work it out. Madison did end up joining another group for the golf, as Kitty found herself back in line with Mason for one more SkyWheel ride before they had to head back to the hotel.
"Hey, Kitty," Mason said, when it was nearly their turn to get on the ride once more. "So, after you added me on Facebook the other night, I was looking through your pictures and noticed you're in glee club."
Behind them, someone snickered. Kitty turned to come face-to-face with Bree. "Looks like someone forgot to untag themselves again."
Mason frowned at Bree. "And what's wrong with glee club?" he wanted to know. "At my school in Chicago, it was a pretty big deal. We got sixth at Nationals last year. And your school got first."
"Oh, cool, did you perform in L.A.?" Kitty asked, turning her body, intentionally trying to leave the other girl out of the conversation, as Mason nodded enthusiastically.
"When will try-outs be for this year?" Mason wanted to know. "Do you think you'll be taking anyone new?"
Yes, you're a shoe-in, Kitty thought, but all she said was, "There's a really good chance that we will. Try-outs will probably be the second week of school."
"Can two people try out together?"
"I guess..." Kitty shrugged. She'd never really tried out. After her performance in Grease, despite the stupid part she'd been given, they'd just let her in, along with Ryder.
"They aren't very selective, Mason," Bree interrupted, stepping forward so that she came between them. "If you can walk and sing at the same time, you're in. Oh, wait, that's right, walking isn't even a requirement."
Kitty fixed her with a tight-lipped stare. "If you have something to say about my boyfriend," she started in. "You can just come right out and say it, right here."
"Please don't get us kicked out of line," Mason muttered, nervously eyeing the girls.
"Fine." Bree narrowed her eyes, as the pretense of being super sweet finally dropped. Poor Mason was getting his first glimpse at her true colors, sure to be the first of many. "You did your good deed for the year. Your special friend got his 'Make-a-Wish,' but now you need to end this. We need a captain."
"I'm still captain, Bree," Kitty said, her voice even and calm, though bubbling beneath the surface was all her rage. "Who I date doesn't change the fact that I beat you."
"We're next," Mason mumbled. "Can you two wait and claw each others' eyes out back at the hotel instead of right here?"
"End it with him or I end you," Bree threatened, only acknowledging Mason by doing what he said and keeping a distance.
"Here's what's gonna happen, Bree," Kitty said, as Mason stepped into the gondola. She climbed in behind him, continuing to address Bree, as he gave her a hand to help her in. "I'm gonna continue to date who I want, more Cheerios are gonna join glee club, and you're gonna sit back and watch it happen."
"Hey, Kitty?" Bree said, as both Mason and Kitty looked up at her. She held up her big, fancy camera and snapped a picture. Mason paused and dropped Kitty's hand. "Such a cute picture of you two. You know, you'd make an adorable couple. Enjoy your ride to the top!"
"Is she always this two-faced?" Mason wanted to know, as the gondola door closed behind them. He settled onto one side and Kitty sat across on the other.
"This thing with me and her started last year," Kitty said, sighing and smoothing out the yellow sundress that she realized was the same thing she'd worn when she'd been on a ferris wheel with Artie. "She thinks she's got to control everyone and everything around her."
"Must be pretty frustrating," Mason remarked. "Okay, so, tell me more about glee club..."
Having yet another week of camp was exhausting, so much so that, on the evening before their flight back home, Kitty fell asleep early in the hotel room, despite the fact that girls kept coming in and out to talk to Madison, who was becoming pretty popular among the rest of the Cheerios, at least the ones who weren't among Bree's select group of followers.
When Kitty awoke to find Madison with two others, watching a movie in their room, she was alarmed to see that her phone was missing. She distinctly remembered putting it on the bedside table. When she asked Madison to call her, however, it started ringing in Kitty's purse. Kitty chalked the misplaced phone up to her exhaustion, got up to shower, and crawled back into bed just as the last visitor was leaving her hotel room. It was still early, but Kitty didn't move until the next morning, when it was finally time to leave camp.
She'd tried to call Artie before boarding but he didn't answer. Kitty couldn't help but be the type of person who preferred to call all her loved ones before a flight. It was kind of morbid, but she always wanted to have that one last good conversation, just in case it was the last. When she couldn't reach Artie, she settled on a quick chat with her dad and brothers, then it was time to board the plane.
She was sitting next to Mason again, but neither was feeling very chatty. Mason asked if she had anything to read, so she loaned him Flowers in the Attic. As for Kitty, she was still catching up from a week of too much responsibility and not enough rest. She closed her eyes and thought about the first time Artie asked her out...
"Okay, we're moving slower than Jonah Hill trying to get out of the bathtub," Kitty had said, her usual wit sharp, despite her embarrassment, as Artie pushed them both through the hall. "And everyone is staring."
"Yeah, at our hotness." Artie was seemingly unbothered by the Cheerios that stopped in their tracks to snicker at them and the looks from other random students as they passed. He looked straight ahead, as Kitty continued to glance all around.
"You know, I never thanked you for making me come clean with my mom," Artie went on. "I'm going to the Brooklyn Film Academy because of you. And, to thank you, I want to take you to Breadstix. Besides, we both know that the raw, animal attraction between us is undeniable."
Leave it to Artie to disguise his first attempt at formally asking her out as a way to thank her for meddling in his affairs. They'd been flirting like crazy all that week, with occassional "chariot rides" and their usual banter. She'd been giving him all kinds of signals but he still seemed unsure. He couldn't even flirt without trying to make it sound like he was kidding.
She'd giggled. "Did you really just say that?" He was such a nerd, but the more he talked, the more it worked. "No wonder Tina broke up with you. And Brittany and Sugar and the girl in the wheelchair with the disturbingly massive boobs. And PS, I hate Breadstix."
Hate was a strong word, but everyone went there on dates and overpaid for mediocre fettuccine alfredo. If Artie really wanted to impress her, he could do better.
"Okay, well, there's a carnival in town," he'd tried again, looking hopeful. "That could be fun."
"Yeah, if you want to trust your life to the toothless carnies that operate the rides."
"Okay," he said, promptly depositing her into the hallway, as he finally ran out of patience for her games. "So, is that a yes or a no?"
Kitty wasn't quite done playing hard to get. "We'll make it a glee club thing," she'd told him. "See you tonight."
She tried to forget what happened at the carnival, because she was still embarrassed when she thought about how she'd untagged all those Instagram photos. She'd vowed never to let Bree or anyone else try to tell her that she ought to be ashamed of dating Artie ever again.
Kitty drifted off to sleep with her memories keeping her company once more. She awoke yet again, right before landing, and Mason complimented her on being able to sleep through yet another long flight.
She couldn't get off that plane and out of that terminal quickly enough. There wasn't much vacation time left, and Kitty was eager to get home and spend what was left of it with Artie, before getting ready to send him off to school. She started texting him as soon as she was able to use her phone again, but weirdly, he wasn't answering her.
Hunter was picking her up at the airport and, to her great surprise, Tina had tagged along. Kitty met his car out front, dragging her duffel bag along behind her. Mason and Madison headed out behind her, also meeting their ride in the same spot.
"Well done, captain," Mason said, reaching towards Kitty for a hug, as Madison joined in. "We survived Cheerios boot camp. I guess we'll see you in a few weeks."
"Thanks for making us both feel so welcome," Madison added. "Well, see ya later."
"'Bye, guys," Kitty said, as Hunter got out to take her bag and load it in the trunk for her. He was giving her a weird look, though, and she caught him, and tilted her head to the side. "What?"
Hunter didn't answer. He just shook his head and got back in the driver's seat. Tina, however, whirled around in the front passenger seat and shot Kitty a look of utmost disgust as she climbed into the back. Kitty raised her eyebrows, trying to work out what she had done to earn such a cool reception from them both.
"What?" Kitty asked, a little more emphatically this time. "Why are you both looking at me like that?"
"I really thought you'd changed, Kitty," Tina said, as Hunter dropped his eyes, clearly not intending to rush to Kitty's defense.
"Okay, I have no idea what—"
"That guy," Tina said, as though it should be obvious. She exhaled loudly when Kitty was still at a loss. "Mason? You posted about twenty pictures of you and him on your Instagram."
"I did what?" Kitty frantically fished her phone out of her bag now. Sure enough, when she opened Instagram, there were exactly that many pictures of she and Mason, all over her feed. Every picture was a candid, taken by someone else, at a distance. Kitty was certain that, if Madison had been in any of these, she'd been cropped out, to make it appear that Mason and Kitty hung out alone all the time. And there were even pictures of them getting onto the SkyWheel, where they really had been alone together, but only because Madison had left to do something else.
"I didn't post these," Kitty said, her eyes pleading with Tina, begging the other girl to believe her. "Someone took my phone and posted these. It... it had to be Bree. She must have gotten a hold of my phone when I was asleep."
Bree had gone to a lot of trouble to make it look like she and Mason were together. End it with him or I end you. Well, it was a weak, half-assed attempt, Kitty thought, smugly. This was all too easily straightened out, once she deleted the pictures and explained the whole thing to Artie.
Instead of texting him, she dialed his number to call him. It went straight to his voicemail, a playback of the chorus of Proud Mary. Kitty lowered her phone and looked up at Hunter and Kitty, who were still turned around in their seats, staring at her.
"I think he turned off his phone," Kitty said, her voice low. Artie must have been really hurt when he saw that. She locked eyes with Tina, then glanced at Hunter. "Take me to his house."