Disclaimer: You guys know the drill.
On Wednesday, Coach Phillips announced that they would be having a tournament the last day of camp. They would split up into teams of five, and everyone was allowed to pick their own teams. So it went without saying that Josh, Cam, Kemp, Plovert, and Kristen had teamed up together. (Derrick couldn't be on a team because he would have to play goalie throughout the entire tournament, with Coach Phillips as the other goalie.)
By some miracle Kristen had been able to convince her mom to let her invite the boys over to make team shirts. Derrington was there, too, simply because they didn't want him to be left out. Besides, as Derrick had told Kristen earlier, he couldn't let his girlfriend be around a bunch of boys without him around to make sure they didn't try anything. Kristen still couldn't get over the fact that they were actually going out. She hadn't quite figured out how she was going to keep the relationship a secret from Massie, though. She knew that Massie would see this as the ultimate form of betrayal and would probably kick her out of the Pretty Committee. And even though she hated that Massie had tried to force her to boy-fast, the members of the Pretty Committee were her best friends, and she'd hate to lose them.
Kristen had turned their dining room into a DIY station: five red cotton t-shirts lay out on the table. The reasoning for the color choice was that Kristen had once read in a sports magazine that red was the color of winners. In addition, there were buckets filled with all sorts of craft supplies. Paint and paint brushes, fabric markers, and glitter glue were just some of the options available.
"I don't know guys," Plovert said seriously. "I think we should put glitter on the shirts."
He had to duck as the other four boys pelted him with paint brushes.
"Okay," Kristen laughed, "the glitter glue's a NO. I get it."
"Any ideas what the design should be?" Cam asked.
"I don't know," Kemp shrugged. "Ask Kristen. She's the girl here."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Kristen asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"Just that you're good at this kind of stuff. Guys aren't."
"Ever heard of Marc Jacobs? Yves Saint-Laurent? Both male, and both highly successful fashion designers," Kristen retorted.
"Let me rephrase that. Straight guys aren't good at that kind of stuff," Kemp replied, getting high fives from the boys and an eye roll from Kristen.
"Whatevs. Luckily for you guys, I did have a design in mind." Kristen picked a sheet of paper off the table and showed it to the group. It resembled the Fantastic Four symbol, but in the place of a four was a five. "And then we can put our names on the backs of our shirts," she explained.
"Sounds good to me," Josh shrugged.
And with that, they all set to work. Cam frowned in concentration as he attempted to draw a perfect circle on the shirt. Kemp's five ended up lopsided and Josh's circle resembled an oval. Only Kristen was able to get the design exactly right- she is a perfectionist, after all.
As they sat around waiting for the shirts to dry, there was a knock on the door.
"I got it!" Kristen called. She padded barefoot down the hall to open the door. Standing in the doorway was a thin girl of medium height with shiny brunette hair that fell just past her shoulders and side swept bangs. She was wearing a BCBG yellow sundress that brought out the golden tint of her eyes and white Jimmy Choos. She had gotten a bronze tan since the last time Kristen had seen her, but other than that she looked exactly the same as the girl Kristen remembered. The girl who had been haunting Kristen's conscience for the past two weeks. The girl who was supposed to be in Florida. The girl known by all as Massie Block.
