The Real Thing (Full House: Club Stephanie) - Softcover

Clark, Kathy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671041932 ISBN 13: 9780671041939

Publisher: Simon Spotlight, 2000

Synopsis

Too Many Secrets Stephanie is having a blast at Camp Sail-Away. She's head over heels for her boyfriend, Luke -- and now she's been put in charge of the camp talent show! This is turning into the best summer of her life! Until it all starts to go wrong. First someone steals all the music for the show. Then the set is wrecked -- and the costumes are slashed to bits. These pranks aren't funny -- and people are saying that Luke did them. Stephanie knows he didn't -- but she's got to figure out who did. If she doesn't, her show and her love life will both go down in flames!

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1

Stephanie Tanner raced across the beach to the edge of Camp Sail-Away's lake and stopped short. Out on the lake, two Windsurfers were wobbling toward each other. The girls on them were not paying attention.

"Tammy! Marguerite! Look up! You're about to crash!" Stephanie called to the girls on the Windsurfers.

Good thing I came down here dressed to swim, Stephanie thought. She tossed her T-shirt and towel on the sand, jumped in the lake, and started swimming. Just as she approached the girls, Marguerite veered abruptly away from Tammy.

But the near-crash was enough to make both girls lose their balance and fan into the water.

"Look out for the Windsurfers!" Stephanie shouted to the two ten-year-old girls. She grabbed one of the Windsurfers, to keep it from hitting the girls.

"Whoa! Sorry, Stephanie," Marguerite Hansen said. The straps of her black and silver swimsuit sparkled in the midday sun. Small and pretty, she pushed her short blond hair off her face.

"Thanks for catching my board!" Tammy Walters called as she stood up and waded through the water on her long brown legs. She was tall and athletic, with an open, friendly smile. Both Tammy and Marguerite lived in Loon Cabin, where Stephanie was a counselor-in-training or CIT. Or used to be, she thought in frustration. Until yesterday.

"You guys need more help?" Stephanie said as she moved toward Tammy and Marguerite.

"Please," Tammy said.

"Well, all I can offer is to tell you to get back up there," Stephanie said with a laugh. She squeezed water out of her long, blond ponytail. She put a hand above her blue eyes to shield them from the sun and gazed out at the lake.

"Do you see Luke out there in his motorboat?" Marguerite asked as she pulled the second Windsurfer toward Stephanie. Tammy had managed to get back on and was sailing away from them.

Stephanie shook her head. But Marguerite had read her mind. Stephanie was keeping an eye out for him. Luke Hayes had been her boyfriend until he was kicked out of Camp Clearwater, Camp Sail-Away's brother camp.

"Too bad," Marguerite said. "I'd really like to talk to him, you know? I don't think I thanked him enough yesterday."

Stephanie thought back to the camp's Silly Sailboat Race the day before. What a disaster! Marguerite had been racing when she capsized and almost drowned. Stephanie tried to rescue her, but Marguerite's heavy costume nearly dragged them to the bottom of the lake. Luckily, Luke showed up in his motorboat and saved them both.

But Stephanie wasn't allowed to talk to Luke since he'd been expelled from camp. She lost her CIT position for breaking that rule even though he'd rescued her and Marguerite. It was so unfair!

Stephanie felt sad thinking of her adorable, blond, blue-eyed Luke. Something about him was so...right for her. They'd only been dating a week or so when someone vandalized the boys' camp lodge, and all the signs pointed to its being Luke. He'd been accused of cutting loose all of Camp Clearwater's boats one night the summer before. He lost his CIT privileges for that. This year he was kicked out of camp even though he said he didn't vandalize the lodge. And I believe him, Stephanie thought.

"I don't think I thanked him enough, either," Stephanie told Marguerite. I hugged him, and I told him I'd clear his name and get him readmitted to camp. But is that enough? Not until I actually do all the things I promised.

"Maybe we could get a boat and go find Luke together," Marguerite suggested. "He lives around here, right? You said his family has a cabin on the lake, so all we have to do is -- "

Stephanie smiled at Marguerite and patted the Windsurfer. "Are you going to sail this thing today or what?"

"Okay, okay -- I'm going!" Marguerite laughed and carefully climbed back on her board. She slowly got to her feet and grabbed the sail bar.

Stephanie smiled to herself, glad that she and Marguerite were finally getting along. Marguerite's older sister Cynthia was a member of a club called the Flamingoes -- the same club Stephanie had refused to join back in the sixth grade. Ever since then, the Flamingoes had made it their business to be mean to Stephanie and her friends. Cynthia had told Marguerite she hated Stephanie -- so Marguerite copied her big sister and hated Stephanie, too.

But that changed after Stephanie had tried to rescue Marguerite the day before. Suddenly Marguerite seemed to think that everything Stephanie did was perfect.

Stephanie held the Windsurfer steady for Marguerite. "Okay, set your feet apart. Now, what you want to do is -- "

"No, no, no!"

Stephanie turned around to see Heather O'Donnell standing above them on the dock. Heather was the assistant camp director. She wore creaseless khaki shorts and a green Camp Sail-Away staff polo shirt that looked as if it had been ironed. Her short brown hair curled perfectly around the shirt collar.

"Am I doing something wrong?" Stephanie asked, surprised. She'd taught a lot of kids to windsurf, and no one ever challenged her about it before. "She has to grab the sail," Stephanie argued.

"Well, yes, of course," Heather admitted. "'You know exactly what you're doing. The problem is, this is against camp regulations. You're not a CIT anymore, Stephanie," she said firmly. "You no longer teach water sports!"

"I wasn't teaching a class," Stephanie said, stung by Heather's words. "I was just helping Tammy and Marguerite -- "

"I'm sorry, Stephanie. But you'll have to leave the teaching to the counselors from now on," Heather said.

Stephanie couldn't help noticing that Heather didn't sound very sorry about it at all.

"But we like it when Stephanie helps us," Marguerite piped up. "Before Stephanie came over to help us, Tammy and I almost crashed into each other." She slipped off the Windsurfer into the lake. "Please don't fire her," Marguerite pleaded. "It's a really dumb idea."

Heather's eyes widened. "Oh, is that so?"' She sounded surprised.

"Marguerite!" Stephanie whispered. "Shh!"

Marguerite ignored Stephanie's warning. She arched one eyebrow and gave Heather a very snobby look. "Stephanie saved my life. She's the best CIT at camp. When I tell my daddy that you fired her, he'll...he'll...he'll ask for his money back!"

"Sorry, Heather," Stephanie interrupted. She gently tried to push Marguerite aside. "Marguerite's just upset." She didn't want Marguerite to get into trouble, too.

Heather frowned. "No one"s getting their money back. Now, Stephanie. As you may have guessed, you'll be moving out of Loon Cabin," she said briskly. "I see you've signed up for all three two-week sessions. Since camp is full right now, you can stay in Loon Cabin until this session ends next Sunday -- one week from today. But you'll be spending the last session in Brown Bear Cabin." Heather turned and marched across the sand to talk to a counselor teaching swimming.

Stephanie's heart sank as she watched Heather go. She didn't want to move out of Loon Cabin. She had been hoping she could stay in the same cabin, even if she wasn't the CIT there. She walked out of the water and picked up her T-shirt and towel from the beach.

"Stephanie, I don't want you to move out!" Marguerite cried as she dragged the Windsurfer out of the water.

Tammy zipped toward the shore and jumped off her Windsurfer. "You're moving out?" she asked.

"I lost my CIT job," Stephanie said.

"Heather's making her move," Marguerite explained.

"Who's going to tell us ghost stories that make our skin crawl?" Tammy asked. "Who's going to clean up after we clean up -- so we don't get in trouble?"

"I never did that," Stephanie said with a laugh.

"Oh. Well, maybe that was just wishful thinking," Tammy admitted. "But you were a really good CIT. You almost had us winning the Silly Sailboat Race."

"Come on, Stephanie -- please don't move," Marguerite begged. "I know, we'll start a petition. Everyone in the cabin can sign it."

"Thanks, but I don't think that'll work. Believe me, I don't want to move, but..." Stephanie shrugged. "I guess I'll have to. I'm not a CIT anymore."'

"We've got to do something. I don't know what but...we'll find a way," Marguerite promised.

Stephanie grinned at her. "Why do I get the feeling you will?"

But no matter how much her campers believed in her, Stephanie didn't think she would ever be a CIT again. Heather didn't trust her.

Stephanie knew there was only one solution to the mess she was in. She had to clear Luke's name -- and her own! If Luke is innocent, then talking to him wouldn't be wrong, she thought. I'll track down the person who really trashed the boys' lodge.

But how?

Copyright © and ™ 2000 by Warner Bros.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon Spotlight
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0671041932
• ISBN 13: 9780671041939
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144