Rumors by Katy Grant Page A

and that made all of us laugh. I felt bad for her, but it really was a funny sight.
    â€œThat’s okay,” Jerry told her. “You can have this one.” Hehanded Laurel-Ann his stick. The marshmallow on the end of it was toasted to perfection. I could see Katherine frowning in the orange light of the fire. Those two really did seem to be mortal enemies for some reason.
    â€œI’ve got a story,” said Lori. “This is true, by the way.” And then she told us about a cabin less than a mile from our campsite where a man’s beautiful redheaded wife had gone out to pick berries one day and never returned. He’d searched for her for years, and sometimes he’d hear her voice calling to him, and sometimes he’d find a strand of red hair by the berry patch. But he never found her.
    â€œBut if you listen tonight, you might hear her calling, and when you wake up tomorrow, don’t be surprised if you see a strand of red hair hanging from the trees.”
    Then Jerry told a ghost story that started off really scary but turned into a joke. After about three or four other ghost stories, Rachel said it was time to get some sleep.
    Laurel-Ann had insisted that we put our sleeping bags as far away from Katherine as possible. Ashlin and Natasha had moved theirs close to ours, and luckily Katherine was on the other side of the campfire with Erin and Brittany.
    After we crawled into our sleeping bags and turnedoff our flashlights, I realized how completely pitch-dark it really was out here. By now the fire was just a bunch of red, glowing coals, and we could hear the sounds of the embers crumbling and popping as they slowly burned down.
    All of a sudden, we heard a lot of loud laughter. We sat up and looked across the campsite to where Brittany, Erin, and Katherine were in their sleeping bags. They still had a flashlight on, and all three of them were laughing about something.
    â€œI wonder what’s so funny?” Natasha asked.
    â€œI don’t know,” said Ashlin. “Something’s sure cracking them up over there.”
    â€œI bet it’s Katherine,” Laurel-Ann whispered to us. “She’s probably telling Brittany and Erin a bunch of lies about us.”
    â€œWell, if she is, they’re funny lies,” said Ashlin.
    Another shriek of laughter made all of us sit up and try to see across the dark stretch of ground between our group and theirs. The beam of a flashlight was dancing all around, but we couldn’t see anything else.
    â€œHey, keep it down over there,” Rachel’s voice called out.
    â€œOkay. Sorry,” we heard someone answer. Then things got quiet, and we all settled back down in oursleeping bags. The frogs were making that
burap, burap
sound, which I was actually sort of used to by now.
    â€œLet me see it!” a voice said suddenly. And then there was a playful scream, followed by lots of laughing.
    Just then we heard Jerry’s voice call out, “You know the best way to attract bears at night? Make a lot of noise!”
    That made the girls across the campsite laugh so hard that Rachel got up and turned on her flashlight. “What’s all the racket about?” she asked them.
    â€œNothing.”
    â€œAll right then. Time to get quiet.”
    All the flashlights went off, and the laughter stopped. I pulled my sleeping bag up under my chin and zipped it as far as it would go. I was nice and cozy this way, but a cool breeze was blowing that made my ears cold.
    â€œI know Katherine’s over there making fun of me,” Laurel-Ann whispered. “I bet she told Brittany and Erin all kinds of mean things about me.”
    â€œI doubt that,” I told her. “Anyway, they’re quiet now, so don’t worry about it.”
    I could hear Ashlin pulling her sleeping bag closer in the darkness. “Why do you think Katherine’s making fun of you?” she asked.
    â€œBecause she hates me.