Chapter 3

July 8th, 1997

Jamie, Annie, Ashley, Hannah, Missy, and Beth were sitting around a table in the mess hall during breakfast.

"Annie, I can't believe you did that," Missy said. "It's probably the best prank yet."

"Don't tell anyone it was me," Annie said. "If you do, you'll regret it. I know where you sleep."

"I won't tell anyone, I pinky swear," Missy said. Missy held her pinky out to Annie.

Annie grabbed Missy's pinky with hers. "That goes for the rest of you too, no one likes a snitch."

"Isn't your mom going to be mad?" Jamie asked. Jamie cut her pancakes with her fork.

"She told me not to get into any fights. She didn't say anything about a few little pranks. Besides you're keeping your mouth shut anyway."

Brett and Katie were walking towards the mess hall.

"And last year she snuck into my cabin and painted everybody's fingernails with hot pink nail polish, while we were sleeping. The worst thing about it was that it glowed in the dark."

"How long did you have to walk around like that?" Katie asked.

"My nails were painted until I got home. The good thing was it was the last week of camp. It was really embarrassing having to ask my mom how to use nail polish remover."

"So, you went a whole week with pink nails?" Katie asked.

"Yeah, this year the boys and I want to get a little revenge." Brett opened the door to the mess hall and let Katie go in first.

"How are you going to get revenge?" Katie saw Annie and her friends sitting at the table in the corner of the mess hall.

"I'm glad you asked, because we're going to need your help."

"What can I do?"

"Come sit with me and I'll explain."

Leah, Jessica, and Hayley were sitting at a table eating breakfast. They looked over at Katie and Brett's table.

"Looks like Katie and Brett are getting pretty close," Jessica said. Jessica observed Katie and Brett whispering to each other.

"I think they are cute." Leah said. Leah took a sip of her orange juice.

"Where do you think they were this morning? They missed the lineup."

"I don't know. I just want to know why the bathrooms were switched around. My kids almost didn't make it to the bathroom this morning." Hayley said. Hayley poured syrup on her pancakes.

"I don't know, but I bet it had something to do with Annie. Did you notice the flagpole this morning?" Jessica asked.

"Ooh, I bet Annie did something to Katie. I heard Brett talking earlier about getting revenge on Annie for what she did to his cabin last year," Leah said.

"There's an awful lot of whispering going on over there," Hayley said. "I bet our little rookie is in on Brett's revenge plans."

Jo, Natalie, and Tootie were having breakfast at the house before they left town. Natalie was leaving in a few hours to start her nationwide book tour. Tootie was leaving for the city to shoot her TV pilot, but she would be back in a few days. Jo and Rick were going on vacation for a few weeks. Mrs. Garrett had made waffles and eggs for everyone.

"Hey Mrs. Garrett, you never told us the story of why you came home without Bruce. I mean we know some of it, but not the whole story," Tootie said.

"Tootie, she doesn't like to talk about it?" Jo said.

"Blair's not in the room, I want to hear the story," Tootie said.

Blair came down the kitchen stairs, her eyes were red and puffy and she had bags under her eyes. Her hair was a mess and she was still wearing her silk pajamas. She didn't look the part of the perfect, flawless beauty that the others were used too. They had all seen what Blair looked like when she woke up in the morning, but it was never like this.

"Looks like Princess Blair fell off the wrong side of the bed this morning," Jo said.

Blair grabbed a cup of coffee and glared at Jo.

"I heard what you guys were talking about. Mrs. Garrett, you can tell them, it's alright."

"Are you sure, Sweetheart?" Mrs. Garrett said.

Blair nodded and sat down at the table. She put a waffle on her plate and drowned it in syrup.

"Well, alright." Mrs. Garrett refilled her coffee cup and sat at the table.

"Bruce and I had just finished our commitment to the Peace Corps, but we had decided to stay in Africa and help raise funds for a new hospital. I remember it was late January and I was on the phone with Blair and she was so excited about the upcoming birth of her twins."

January 29th, 1989

"I'm so excited, Tad and I finished the nursery and it's so cute."

"I'm so happy for you, Darling. Now when are they due?"

"My due date is March 8th, but you know twins usually come early."

"I can't wait to see pictures."

"I'll make sure I send pictures, after they are born. Maybe I'll make you a scrapbook."

"OK Sweetheart, I have to go now, you call me when they are born and tell me all about them."

"Oh I will. Bye Mrs. Garrett."

A week later - February 5th, 1989

Mrs. Garrett answered the phone. There was a male voice on the other end and he was sobbing. Mrs. Garrett was confused.

"Who am I speaking to?"

The man on the other end tried to pull himself together to speak.

"I'm sorry to bother you. It's Tad Warner, Blair's husband."

"Tad, what happened? What's wrong?"

"I didn't know who else to call."

"Honey, what's the matter?"

All Mrs. Garrett heard was sobbing on the other end.

"Tad, did something happen to Blair or the babies?"

"Blair went into labor a few days ago and one of the babies…" Tad choked. "She didn't make it."

Mrs. Garrett sat down.

"Oh Tad, I'm so sorry. What happened?"

"The baby wasn't breathing. They took her out of the room. Then the doctor told us she died. Blair is distraught, she won't talk to me. She just stays in bed all day. I don't know what to do."

"Where are her parents?"

"They were here after the babies came, but her father left for Tokyo and her mother left for Paris this morning."

"What? I don't believe this, well actually I do. Blair's parents have never really been very good parents."

"I just need some advice on how to help her. She won't touch our other baby. I don't know what to do."

"Listen Tad, I'm going to talk to Bruce and I'm going to come and help you."

"No, you don't have to do that."

"Tad, I want to. She needs a mother to take care of her."

A few minutes later, Mrs. Garret hung up the phone and went looking for Bruce.

Mrs. Garrett found Bruce working outside.

"Bruce, I need to talk to you."

"What is it, Dear?"

"Blair needs me. One of the babies didn't survive."

"That's terrible, Edna. I understand if you want to go back to the states, but I promised them I'd stick around and help raise money for the new hospital."

"I know the hospital project is important to you."

"And I know that your girls are important to you, so you go take care of Blair."

A couple days later Mrs. Garrett and Bruce said their "goodbyes"," I love you", and "see you later," but neither knew how much later it would be before they saw each other again.

"That's such a sad story, Mrs. Garrett." Tootie said. Tootie wiped her eyes. "At least my parents were around when Jeff and I almost lost Tisha."

"You almost lost Tisha?" Jo asked. "You never told us that?"

"You guys weren't around back then. I was in London at the time, Natalie was living in Soho, Jo had moved to Los Angeles, and Blair had just bought Eastland."

"Wait a minute, you never told us you were pregnant before you got married," Natalie said. "I'm your best friend and you didn't tell me."

"I'm sorry, Nat. I guess I was just embarrassed. After you told us you and Snake had done it, Jeff and I felt that we could do it too. I mean we were already engaged, so we just did it. Then a few weeks later I found out I was pregnant. That's why we moved the wedding up, and you would've figured it out if you had done the math."

"I'm sorry, Tootie." Natalie hugged her. "So what happened? How did you almost lose Tisha?"

"She was born three months premature, but that's a story for another time." Tootie said. "I have to get going to the city."

Later Jamie, Annie and their cabin mates were horseback riding. Annie and Jamie were riding side by side.

"Annie, did Kelsey break her arm?" Jamie asked.

"No, she was faking, remember?" Annie was riding a black horse named Midnight.

"No, I mean here at camp?"

"I don't think so, why?"

"Well, I thought I saw her this morning with a broken arm. I called her name, but she didn't turn around or look." Jamie pulled the reigns to the right, so that Patches, the black and white horse she was riding would walk around a log on the trail.

"That's weird. We'll have to find her during lunch."

"We'll have to find Tisha too," Jamie said. "I haven't seen her in a while."

"Yeah, I haven't seen her since the campfire on the first night. I hope she didn't chicken out and go home."

Annie and Jamie heard the girls behind them making noises as if they were disgusted.

Jamie turned around, "what's the matter?"

"Annie's horse is pooping!"

A few hours later, Blair was in the living room alone. Jo, Natalie, and Tootie had all left town to do their own things. Amanda was taking a nap upstairs and Mrs. Garrett was in the kitchen.

Blair sat on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. She opened a drawer in the coffee table and pulled out her old coloring book that Natalie had made Annie get for her years ago.

Blair leafed through the pages and saw various pictures. The beginning ones were scribbled on. The pictures in the middle were poor attempts to stay in the lines. The last ones were better attempts, but none of them were perfect. It was like looking at a preschooler's progress, but every page had been colored by her when she was over the age of twenty-nine.

Blair flipped to the last page and found that it hadn't been colored yet and that it was the only page that was left to color. She went back in the drawer and took out a box of crayons.

The last picture in her book was a rainbow. Blair pulled out the appropriate colors and started coloring, being very careful to stay in the lines.

While Blair was working on her coloring page, Mrs. Garrett came in and set a plate down next to her.

"Sweetheart, I noticed you skipped lunch today. I thought you might be hungry, so I made you a sandwich."

Blair glanced over at the sandwich. It was a turkey club and was cut into the shape of a heart.

"I cut the crust off for you. I know you don't like it."

"Thanks, Mrs. Garrett."

Blair finished her coloring page and gave Mrs. Garrett the book.

"I finished my book."

Mrs. Garrett flipped through the book and saw Blair's progress. The last page was perfect.

"Have I ever told you how proud I am of you?"

Blair blushed and bit into her sandwich.

"I really am very proud of you. You beat the odds when the doctors were skeptical."

Blair got up off the floor and sat next to Mrs. Garrett on the couch.

"Did you really think I was going to let myself depend on you guys for everything, for the rest of my life?"

"Never, I knew you would get back on your feet."

"I never wanted to be a burden to you." Blair looked down at her lap with tears in her eyes.

Mrs. Garrett grabbed Blair's face and tilted her head up and looked her in the eye.

"You were never a burden, you're my girl, one of my daughters I thought I would never have."

Mrs. Garrett hugged Blair, who was crying by now.

"I'm sorry you had to leave Bruce behind in Africa."

"Don't be, I never blamed you for that. It's ok, he's coming home now."

Blair let go of Mrs. Garrett's embrace. Mrs. Garrett took a look at Blair's tired eyes.

"Honey, you should go take your nap soon."

"I think I'm going to skip it today."

"Sweetheart, you can't stay awake forever. You haven't been sleeping very well lately. How long have the nightmares been going on?"

"I've been having them for a few weeks."

"What are they about?"

"I'm on the plane, usually I wake up before it gets intense, but this time I got to the part where the plane starts falling. It's really terrifying."

Mrs. Garrett pulled Blair into her arms and let her cry.

"Honey, I'm so sorry I ever encouraged you and Tad to take that trip. This is my fault."

Blair pulled away and made eye contact with Mrs. Garrett.

"No, no, no I don't blame you. There was no way you could've known that the plane would crash. We're fine now and we're all together."

"Sweetheart, you're not fine. I think you need to talk to someone about these nightmares. I'm worried about you."

"Talk to someone? You mean like a therapist?"

Mrs. Garrett nodded.

"I have you to talk to. You've always helped me with my problems."

"Honey, I think this one is out of my league. I think you need to talk to a professional who is trained to deal with this."

"You're right. I'll find a therapist to talk to. I promise."

At lunch, Annie and Jamie found Kelsey.

"See, no broken arm. You must have been dreaming," Annie told Jamie.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kelsey asked.

"Jamie thinks you broke your arm, and I told her you were just faking."

Kelsey glared at Annie, "I was not faking, my arm really hurt. It was really bad."

"Whatever," Annie said. Annie bit into her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"I'm really glad you didn't break your arm, I was worried I wouldn't be able to push you in the lake," Jamie said.

"Stop it, Jamie! I'm not going in the lake."

"You scared of the leeches?" Jamie asked. Jamie started teasing Kelsey. "They grab onto your skin and suck your blood."

Kelsey screamed and covered her ears with her hands. "Stop it, that's gross!"

"Alright you two, enough," Annie said. "Kelsey, have you seen Tisha anywhere?"

"She's coming over here right now," Kelsey said.

Tisha ran over to the table and sat down. Tisha tried to catch her breath, before she spoke.

"I have to tell you guys something. At first I didn't think anything of it, but there's this girl in my cabin who looks just like Kelsey." Tisha poured herself some juice.

"Me?" Kelsey asked.

"Yes, you," Tisha said. "Her name is Elsie Philips."

"Does she have a broken arm?" Jamie asked.

"Yes, she told me she broke it on the fourth of July."

"See Annie, I wasn't dreaming. I must have seen this other girl," Jamie said.

"Kelsey, she looks exactly like you, except her hair is quite a bit shorter," Tisha said. "She could be your twin."