Irish Dance Camp

Chapter 14

I felt like I was going to be sick.
This isn't happening. This can't be happening.
I immediately walked back to the camp office to find that Mrs. Palinsky wasn't there anymore.
Whoever this is wants you to be scared. I thought to myself, You are NOT going to let them win.
I stuffed the note into my dance bag and went up to my dorm room. Carly was sitting on her bed, swinging her legs and obviously waiting for me.
"Hi Ciara! Where have you been? Are you okay? Hey, what's wrong?" I was crying for the millionth time that day.
I sat down on my bed and told Carly everything. My soft shoes, the sock glue, and the notes. By the end I was pretty much sobbing, and Carly looked absolutely shocked.
"I can't believe someone would do that stuff.... Do you think it might have been Taylor?" She said apprehensively.
"I honestly have no idea..." I said, shaking my head. "It could have been anyone, and I just don't know who to trust..."
"Well, you can trust me. And I'm pretty sure you can trust Julie, too, because it sounds like she was with you when someone put glue on your hard shoes and when that note got put on your bag..."
"I think so too." I said, nodding.
"I promise that I'll be looking out for you. It's just crazy to me that someone would be cruel enough to do all this. What sort of gain could they possibly hope for?"
"They want me eliminated. Not just from camp, but probably from nationals, too. If I got injured now, there'd be no hope of me competing. Whoever it is desperately wants to do well." I felt completely overwhelmed with hopelessness. If I couldn't compete at nationals, I wouldn't be able to prove to everyone that I could make the podium.
I glanced over at the digital clock Carly had set on the desk. 11:39.
"We should probably head to lunch now," She sighed. I grabbed my dance bag and water bottle and headed into the hall, and at the same time Julie and Marie were headed out. As far as I knew, the two of them hadn't spoken to one another since Marie's blow up at breakfast yesterday.
"Um, I'll catch up with you guys. I need to go check something," Marie said.
"Oh, I accidentally left my dance bag. Can you grab it for me?" Julie asked her. Marie nodded, and headed back into her room.
"Guess what?" Julie whispered to me.
"What?"
"Marie and I made up! She said that she was angry because she's been frustrated with her own dancing, and she feels really bad that she took it out on me."
"That's great, Jules!" We were only a few days into camp, and I already had a nickname for Julie.
"Yeah, I'm really relieved." She said.
I decided not to tell Julie about the other note I had gotten because I didn't want to make her more worried. There was nothing she could do, anyway.
We ate our lunch and then we headed to our next class, which was with Niamh again. She announced that we had to change into hard shoes. As soon as we all started changing shoes, I noticed Julie frantically rummaging through her dance bag, looking distraught.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"My hard shoes and soft shoes are gone!" She cried.