Breakout! Read online

  For all the aspiring Color War officers,

  and the Color War officers who’ve inspired them

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

  ISBN: 978-1-4197-2291-2

  eISBN: 978-1-6833-5076-7

  Text copyright © 2017 Stacy Davidowitz

  Illustrations by Melissa Manwill

  Book design by Pamela Notarantonio

  Inspired by the original musical Camp Rolling Hills

  Copyright © 2013 Adam Spiegel, David Spiegel, and Stacy Davidowitz

  Music and lyrics by Adam Spiegel

  Book and lyrics by David Spiegel & Stacy Davidowitz

  Published in 2017 by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

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  Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

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  THE CAMP ROLLING HILLS SERIES

  Book One: Camp Rolling Hills

  Book Two: Crossing Over

  Book Three: Breakout!

  A Prayer to the Color War Gods

  Reveille sounded at 7:45 A.M. Jenny popped open her eyes, climbed down from her top bunk, tickled her BFF Jamie awake, and began to dance around Faith Hill Cabin with an imaginary trumpet. Then, without anyone asking her to, she began her daily chores. According to the job chart, today she was Sweeper.

  Anyone who knew Jenny was aware that this behavior was very un-Jenny-like. Normally, she’d shove earplugs in, strap an eye mask on, and ignore anyone who tried to wake her up. Earlier this summer, she was so over the obnoxious bugle sound that she threw her water bottle at the speaker. Ever since, it sounded muffled, like camp directors TJ and the Captain were drowning. But Jenny was on her very best behavior today for a very important reason: so she’d get chosen as Color War Lieutenant, aka a team leader in the annual camp-wide competition, aka the MOST HONORABLE HONOR EVER!

  Color War broke out every year in a surprise way, at a surprise time. And since camp was ending in nine days, that surprise was fast approaching. Any day, any minute, any second now, the whole camp would be split into two teams, Blue versus White, and go head-to-head in sports, the Novelty Relays, Bucket Brigade, Hatchet Hunt, Apache Relay, Rope Burn, Boating Regatta, Color Bowl, and of course, SING!

  Jenny smiled to herself, remembering how Color War vocab was gibberish to people at home, like her hot boyfriend Christopher. But the thing was, once she got started telling him about a Color War memory, she couldn’t stop, not even when he tried to kiss her. That’s how much passion she had about it all.

  “Jenny, you’re so hyper this morning!” Missi yawned, stretching herself awake in downward-facing dog pose.

  “Duh,” Jenny said, looking around at her cabinmates. She was surprised that they were normal-morning sluggish. Sophie picked away at her eye crust. Melman slowly tied her short hair back with a green bandana. Slimey shuffled to the bathroom. Jamie had already started falling back asleep. “How are you all not hyper?” Jenny asked them.

  And then, before they could answer, three taps over the loudspeaker bumped the Faith Hillers up a few rungs on the awake ladder. They clutched their ears.

  TJ: Good morning, Rrrrrolling Hills! It’s a funny, sunny day out. Fantastic weather for—

  Captain: Your normal scheduled activities.

  TJ: Yes, today is not special at all.

  The Faith Hillers laughed all-knowingly.

  Captain: We do, however, need ten more minutes to prepare breakfast. Chef Ralph had a snafu with the pancakes.

  TJ: Don’t worry, they will be perfectly edible.

  Captain: Please take this extra time to spiff up your cabins, because after breakfast, everyone will go straight to their first Activity Period. Thank—

  The PA system went off with its signature squeal. And because of the Faith Hill speaker damage, it sounded even worse—like a dying seal.

  “Already sweeping!” Jenny cried, raising her broom. “Chore time, Faithers!” Her instincts were always spot-on when Color War was around the corner.

  “Omigod, I really hope you’re my Lieutenant,” Jamie said, bending down with a dustpan. “I’m going to cry if you’re not.”

  “Me too,” Jenny said. “It’s been my dream since I was in Two Tree Hill Cabin. I’ve never told anyone this before, but I shadowed all of my Lieutenants.”

  Jamie looked up with her big, wondrous eyes. “You did?”

  “Yeah. Like, I watched them lead cheers, and make sports rosters, and assign campers to Apache events, and write SING songs. I recorded my observations and how I would do stuff better.”

  “How would you do stuff better?”

  Jenny scanned the pages of her diary in her head and landed on an answer. “It’s about being insanely spirited, even when you think no one’s looking, because someone is always looking. At least a hundred campers will want to be me, you know?” Jenny was lowballing it because, well, she didn’t want to sound too conceited.

  Jamie’s eyes popped open in awe. “That’s a lot of pressure. I’d be so scared. Not that you should be scared. You know what I mean.”

  Jenny smiled. “Totally. I’m going to have to make really big decisions, and I might end up hurting people’s feelings. Not yours, of course, but still. Like, not everyone was born to do the Egg Toss, you know?”

  Jamie nodded. Jenny hoped she understood where she was going with this—Jamie would not be doing the Egg Toss. Sophie would, if Sophie was on her team, because even though Sophie was generally spastic, she had a lot of experience caring for egg babies in health class.

  Jenny plowed on, carefully sweeping her pile into Jamie’s pan. “And the thing is, I’ve worked really hard all summer to show that I’m an amazing leader. The Captain has no choice but to give it to me.” Her mind flashed to the time she gave Melman the Princess Bethany makeover, and makeup-designed Miss(ter) Rolling Hills, and spearheaded the Sparkling Clean Initiative, turning Faith Hill Cabin dust bunny–free for Visiting Day. If this didn’t qualify her for the coveted position of Lieutenant, she didn’t know what did. “It’s going to happen, I just know it.”

  “Obviously,” Jamie confirmed. “The Captain would have to have memory loss or something not to give it to you.”

  Jenny smiled a big thanks and then bravely went to sweep toilet paper and hair from the bathroom floor. The rest of cleanup wasn’t boring like normal. When the hills were buzzing with Color War anticipation, even unclogging the sink of Cup o’ Noodles was fun. At least that’s what Slimey had said yesterday while she was doing it.

  But by the time the bugle sounded ten minutes later, letting the whole camp know that Ralph had breakfast ready, Faith Hill Cabin looked messier than when they’d started. There were six dust piles that had been scattered from reenacting last Color War’s SING choreography. Sophie had reclogged the sink with the wet toilet paper she’d used to scrub the drain. And t
he cubbies were torn apart—the girls had fished through their clothes to separate their whites from their blues so they’d be prepared for whatever Color War team they were assigned. The pink clothes, which had been featured for six and a half weeks, were temporarily shoved to the back. Melman, being the anti-pink tomboy she was, seemed thrilled about this.

  “So when do you think Color War’s going to break?” she asked the group as they walked to breakfast. “Let’s take bets.”

  “Lunchtime,” Slimey said, sticking a leaf into her bedhead ponytail. “We’re going to walk into the Dining Hall, and there’s going to be blue and white disco lights! The themes are going to be Saturday Night Fever versus . . . uh . . . Real Fever!”

  Jenny doubted that. Considering how sunny it would be at noon and how many windows the Dining Hall had, disco lights would barely show. Plus, last summer, Color War broke in the Dining Hall. TJ and the Captain rode in on donkeys. The teams and themes and officers were announced in packets taped under the tables. Another Dining Hall Breakout would be lame. “No,” Jenny said.

  “I think it’ll happen tonight!” Missi squealed, halting halfway up a mini-hill to look at Jenny for approval. Jenny gave her no such thing. Her first summer, Breakout had happened during an Evening Activity hosted by Mercutio Solomon, the touring summer camp magician, and that had only worked because the whole camp was in the Social Hall to watch him empty the Color War packets from his supposedly empty hat. Tonight, every age group had a different Evening Activity scattered about camp.

  Missi carried on, unfazed. “If you look at the calendar in the HC, under tonight’s Evening Activity for the Faith and Hamburger Hillers, the Captain wrote ‘TBD,’ which she said stands for ‘The Beading Demolition,’ but, like, the Arts and Crafts shack has been sealed off. They’re obviously using it to make the Color War banners.”

  “What’s ‘The Beading Demolition’?” Jamie asked, totally naive like always.

  Missi scrunched her nose in thought. “Um.”

  “There’s no such thing as ‘The Beading Demolition,’” Jenny snapped, wondering if she really was the only one who understood how camp worked. “The Captain was messing with you.”

  Missi smiled, embarrassed. Then she laughed, a little delayed.

  “‘The Bot Day,’” Sophie offered, which was no surprise. All summer she’d been obsessed with her award-winning robot, Georgina. “You can never have too many robo-activities!”

  Everyone ignored her.

  “It could also mean ‘The Big Day,’” Slimey suggested, just as clueless.

  “Yeah, but the Captain’s smarter than that,” Melman said. “‘TBD’ has gotta be more cryptic.”

  “‘TBD’ means ‘To Be Decided,’” Jenny said flatly. “Do you all seriously not know that?” She took in a breath of fresh mountain air and moved on. “Who do you think the Lieutenants will be?” While she waited for them to answer, she sang in her head, Me, me, me, me, me. She saw Lieutenant as part of her hard-earned destiny. At home, before she’d turned double digits, she’d shed all the uncool things about her. Only then was she able to befriend Willamena, the Most Popular girl in all of Roslyn. And now, here at camp, Jenny was Most Popular. Girls like her were meant to use their popularity for good in positions such as: Head Cheerleader, Homecoming Queen, Miss Long Island, Miss America, Miss World, and Miss Universe. She’d studied the system. Being Lieutenant just made sense.

  Slimey shrugged. “I think it could be any of us. I mean, we’re all pretty great.”

  “Aw, Slimes,” Melman said. She crouched down, and Slimey hopped onto her back. “You’re great.”

  Jenny rolled her eyes.

  Missi and Jamie spoke in unison: “I think Jenny!” Then, in unison: “Jinx!” And then, because that was in unison: “Double jinx!” Then they broke into laughter, ran ahead, and forgot all about Jenny. She felt a pinch of jealousy. And then felt dumb for being jealous of Missi of all people, as if she were a threat to the unbreakable J-squad.

  The only one who hadn’t answered was weirdo Sophie. Jenny hung back while Sophie and their Scottish counselor, Scottie, finished a game of thumb war. Sophie had dipped her entire left thumb in white nail polish and her entire right thumb in blue nail polish and was apparently competing with both thumbs to predict who would win Color War. Because Sophie was ambidextrous, aka both-handed, neither thumb had the advantage. Neither color won. Scottie beat her both times. Then they continued to trudge uphill.

  “Hey, Sophster,” Jenny purred, sidling up between them. “Who do you think is going to be Lieutenant?”

  “Scottie.”

  “Thank you, my lady,” Scottie said in her wacky accent, which was the normal way she spoke.

  “Scottie can’t be Lieutenant,” Jenny told Sophie impatiently. As a fifth-year camper, Sophie should know this. Jenny explained to Scottie, “Counselors are only up for Generals, and they don’t give first-year counselors General. It’s something you earn after being here for a lot of years.”

  “Then me,” Sophie said.

  “Then you what?” Jenny asked.

  “Then I’ll be Lieutenant,” Sophie said.

  Jenny laughed and then tried to cover it up as a cough. If Sophie were Lieutenant, it would be loser chaos. Everyone would wear robot costumes and vampire fangs, regardless of the theme. “Cool. That’s amazing you have so much self-confidence.”

  Sophie nodded.

  “But, OK, who else? There’s going to be one Blue and one White Lieutenant in Faith Hill.”

  Sophie gazed at their cabinmates, now a full mini-hill away. “I think Slimey.”

  Jenny narrowed her eyes. She feared Slimey might get picked over her, because Slimey was like a commercial for positivity and friendship. But Jenny had been trying not to think about that, because stress gave her chin pimples. The last time she got a chin pimple, she’d begged her mom to let her go on Accutane like Willamena’s older sister, but her mom had told her she was even more perfect with all of her imperfections. It was a totally delusional thing to say. Delusion didn’t get a Popular girl anywhere. It was time to face the truth. “Why?”

  “Let’s see . . . ,” Sophie started. Jenny crossed her fingers that Sophie would say something irrelevant like “Because Slimey is a bloodsucking robot and that’s neato.” But instead she said, “Because she’s nice and friends with everyone and a good artist.”

  “That’s true,” Scottie confirmed, as if Jenny hadn’t known Slimey for four summers and this was news.

  “Or Melman,” Sophie added.

  “Or Melman what?” Jenny asked.

  “Or Melman could be Lieutenant.”

  Jenny wished she’d never hung back to ask Sophie. Yes, Melman was the sportiest, most intense Faith Hiller. Obviously. Jenny didn’t need it rubbed in her face. But oblivious to Jenny’s chin pimple in the making, Sophie blabbed on: “Melman has calves of steel and the short hair of a brave soldier. Who wouldn’t pick her?”

  It took a second, but then Jenny sighed with relief. Everyone knew you didn’t need exceptional leg muscles or a boy haircut to be Lieutenant. There was a reason TJ and the Captain chose one boy and one girl from every cabin for each team. It was called balance. Also, hadn’t Melman gotten enough attention this summer with Ghost Court, and making out with Totle, and pretending to be Melvin the Soccer Stud? Surely the camp directors would want to spread the love. “Well, if we’re both Lieutenants,” Jenny told Sophie, “you’d better watch your back.”

  Sophie patted her own back, and then pointed at Jenny with an enormous smile. “You watch your front!” Then she waited for Jenny to pat her front or something, which Jenny was not about to do.

  Jenny, Sophie, and Scottie walked up and down one last hill before they reached the Dining Hall. By the time they joined the rest of the Faith Hillers at their table, Jenny felt a little deflated. She munched on some Froot Loops while she waited for the hot trays to be served, hoping that might lift her spirits, but the cereal just tasted like crunchy medicine. Ugh
. Jenny wanted everyone to believe in her, not just Jamie and Missi, who had to believe in her because they were her Best Friend and Wannabe Best Friend. She guessed she’d have to prove her amazingness during the war.

  Jenny was suddenly distracted by a commotion at a table up front and accidentally swallowed three Froot Loops whole. She darted her eyes to another commotion at a table in the back. Then at some tables in the middle. The Dining Hall erupted into gasps and screams. Everyone seemed to be hovering over their breakfast trays. What was up with the pancakes? Had Ralph had another snafu? As Scottie lowered the tray to the table, Jenny snatched off the metal lid, revealing . . . blue and white pancakes! She lit up like a Hanukkah bush. This was not a drill! Color War was about to break!

  The Dining Hall erupted: “ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR! WE WANT COLOR WAR!”

  Jenny stood on top of the table, stomping and clapping and screaming the loudest of all the Faith Hillers, maybe even the whole camp. But then it occurred to her that, as Lieutenant, she would need the full range of her voice. She took it down a notch volume-wise, but exaggerated her lips so that she still looked spirit-crazy. “Five, six, seven, eight! We don’t want to wait!”

  Jamie jumped up to Jenny’s side so fast she made a fork fly off the table. “I’m so excited, but I’m also worried we’re going to be separated,” Jamie said. “Like, you won’t be my Lieutenant.”

  Jenny pulled Jamie in for a hug. She smelled like the organic gummy bear vitamins her mom made her take every morning so she’d grow boobs like other thirteen-year-olds. “If they separate us, it’s only because together we’re too powerful.”

  Jamie pinched her skinny arm where a bicep was supposed to be. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m as sure as you are pretty,” Jenny said. “Still, I’ll freak out if you’re not on my team. Can you imagine me leading without you? Who would be my second-in-command?”

  Jamie shrugged with a smile, and together they scanned the Dining Hall. Jenny beamed, taking in her future subjects, all of them infected with the prewar spirit bug. Missi was clapping two spoons together. Slimey was doing the Twist. Sophie was balancing a pancake on her face. Scottie was whipping her bandana in the air. Melman was juggling her muddy soccer ball (spirited, but unsanitary). Literally, everyone was on a table or bench, chanting: “One, two, three, four! We want Color War!” Jenny would never tell Jamie this, but she knew in her heart of hearts that any Faith Hiller could be her second-in-command. A good enough leader could help anyone, even a follower like Missi, step into her leadership role.