Natalie Goode

## Natalie

**Natalie Goode**, Nat for short, is one of the main characters in the series *Summer Camp Secrets*.

## Biography

Natalie lives with her mother in a penthouse suite on the top floor of an apartment building in New York City. It is stated in the first book that her parents had divorced when she was four years old. Her mother often spends summers travelling outside the States to purchase art for her gallery, and her secret is her father is Tad Maxwell, a well known movie star who is often travelling for shoots.

She has a fairly well maintained group of friends, one of which is Hannah who was frequently mentioned and appeared. She is the only character in the series to have had two boyfriends, Simon and Logan, and crushed on two separate boys, Reed and Kyle.

## Personality

Natalie is described as a city girl who laps up city life. She is a girly girl who adores make up, magazines and chasing after boys, hence when any of the other girls have problems with boys, they turn to her for advice since she is experienced. She is a fan of sushi and enjoys rollerblading with her friends in Central Park.

When she first arrived at Camp Lakeview, Natalie dubbed herself "allergic to nature" and acted anti-camp during the first two days. As time went on, she realised her bunkmates were not that bad and began to enjoy herself. Because of her "allergy to nature" claim, she only went as far as painting her nails and reading magazines on the lake shore, with the refusal to swim.

Her enjoyment of the first summer results in her returning for another three summers. After Lakeview shut down, she, along with several other characters, attended Camp Walla Walla in *Camp Confidential* books 21 to 25.

## Relationships

* **Mrs Goode:** Natalie's mother who convinced Natalie to spend the summer at camp so she can "broaden her horizons" and get to know other children apart from her friends. She is an art buyer and travelled to Europe whilst her daughter attended camp. Her first name is unknown.
* **Tad Maxwell:** Natalie's father who is a renowned movie star. Due to his busy schedule, he doesn't see his daughter much. He makes up for his absence by sending Natalie gifts: *On Thin Ice* reveals he brought her a Blackberry phone to keep in contact and in *Charmed Forces* he brought her a Boxer puppy named Tum Tum. In *Time to Shine* Tad gets nominated for an Academy Award and Natalie flies out to Los Angeles to be with him for the ceremony, although he doesn't win.
* **Hannah:** Natalie's best friend in New York. She wears her hair in cornrows and is known to wear fashionable clothing. In *Blogging Buddies* their friendship briefly dissolved because of Nat's inability to juggle time between Hannah and Kyle. Her mother is an ambassador who made her first and only appearance in *Party Time!*. Hannah became jealous of Alyssa but apologizes to her at the end. Her last book appearance was in *Camp Confidential* book 22 Extra Credit.
* **Kyle:** a boy who was infatuated with Natalie. In *Blogging Buddies* Hannah explained he wanted to write to Natalie over the summer but accidentally left the address at school. Kyle became jealous after Natalie talks about Simon and takes her rollerblading in Central Park; he later calls it a date and calls Natalie his girlfriend, which she denies. He has not been seen or mentioned of throughout the rest of the series.
* **Simon:** Natalie's first boyfriend at camp whose first appearance was in *Miss Manhattan*. He has curly black hair and blue eyes. Simon and Natalie admit their feelings to each other during their nature camp out. His second appearance was in *Best Friends?* as he and Devon were acting in the camp play. In *Party Time!* he dressed in all black for the camp reunion and spent time with Natalie. In *Three's a Crowd* he revealed he was born in San Francisco and previously owned a pet named Peanut. In *On Thin Ice* his day out with Natalie in his home town in Connecticut goes badly and they both realise they have nothing in common, and they agree to stay as friends. His last appearance was in *The Clique* playing in the Scrabble tournament.
* **Alyssa:** Natalie's best friend at camp. Her first appearance was in *Miss Manhattan*. She is described as the artistic girl of the bunk. In *Three's a Crowd* she is seen budding up with Tori more than Natalie, later revealing they were talking about her and Simon's anniversary.
* **Tori Ann:** Natalie's best friend at camp. Her first appearance was in *Three's a Crowd* as one of four new campers.
* **Logan:** Natalie's second boyfriend at camp. He first appeared in *The Clique* as one of the sixth division campers. He takes a liking to Natalie and asks her to be his girlfriend. They later break up in *Time in Shine*.
* **Reed Garrett:** a boy who Natalie is introduced to and develops a crush on in *Time to Shine*. He is Michael's friend and spent time with Natalie due to her father being busy.
* **Trish:** Natalie's cousin in *On Thin Ice*. She was never seen or mentioned of again.
* **Vicki:** Natalie's cousin in *On Thin Ice*. She was never seen or mentioned of again.

## Books

### Miss Manhattan

   Natalie is begrudgingly sent to Camp Lakeview upon her mother's advice of "broadening her horizons". She is appalled at the state of the bunk and doesn't understand why her mom sent her there. One morning in the mess hall she accidentally bumps into a boy; Marissa says his name is Simon and Nat becomes intrigued by him. Tad Maxwell unexpectedly shows up at camp, much to her chagrin. Whisking his daughter away for lunch with him and girlfriend Josie, he offers Nat the chance to leave Lakeview to travel with him due to the disgruntled letters she sent home. Nat declines his offer and returns to camp, soon learning that her nature group is having a camp out.

While on said camp out, Natalie is paired with Simon and Chelsea, who runs after a rabbit, eventually becoming lost. After being found, Nat takes a moment by herself and is joined by Simon. The following evening before lights out Natalie admits she is sorry for not revealing her secret and shares the snacks she brought from her father, having had her mindset changed thanks to her bunkmates.

### Blogging Buddies

   Shortly after returning home from camp, Natalie is thrilled to see Hannah again. However, while on an outing, Hannah ignores her while talking about Kyle. She is further confused during their school's sixth grade event when Hannah opts to go home early. One afternoon Natalie is invited by Kyle to go rollerskating, which turns out to be a date. Hannah eventually confesses during lunch at school that she became jealous of Natalie and fears that she is further ahead in life than she is. Nat assures her that they can still be friends despite their different interests. Later, Nat converses with Jenna, Alex and Grace on the camp blog about how to prepare a surprise for Chelsea at the upcoming Camp Lakeview reunion.

### Party Time!

Natalie plans two separate sleepovers for her bunk while they're in New York City for the Camp Lakeview reunion. Grace, Jenna and Alyssa diverge from her plans. At the main bunk sleepover, Natalie and the girls show Chelsea how much they care about her by giving her a surprise gift.

### Three's a Crowd

Natalie returns to Camp Lakeview for her second summer along with Alyssa. On arrival, the pair meet with Jenna and to their dismay, find out bunk 3C from the previous year has been split in two, bunk 4A and bunk 4C. Natalie meets Tori, a new camper, and immediately becomes irked by her outward demeanour. While waiting for the cookout, Natalie finds Tori staring at Simon and is urged by her friends to talk to him; she does so, only for the conversation to run dry. Over time, Nat begins to feel jealous of Tori due to their identical personalities, leading to Nat having a fall out with Alyssa since Alyssa is spending more time with Tori than with her.

Whilst on the fourth division camp out, Natalie overhears Tori and Alyssa chatting about her and Simon and runs away. Alyssa follows and they make amends. Nat demands they confess what was really going on, prompting Tori to reveal both of them have arranged a surprise for Simon and Nat's first anniversary. The next day Natalie is resting in the camp infirmary after contracting severe hives. Simon meets with her and gives her an anniversary gift, a charm bracelet. He kisses her and the pair wish each other a happy anniversary.

### On Thin Ice

Natalie is visiting Simon in Connecticut, only to cut the day short after being offered fish and chips and becoming drenched in water when a truck passes by. On the way home to New York, she receives an email from Tori inviting her on her ski trip to Tahoe, California. Whilst spending the day shopping in New Jersey with Jenna, Grace, Hannah and Alyssa, Natalie ignores a phone call from Simon. She reveals to her friends that she and Simon don't have much chemistry and is considering the possibility of breaking up.

After each of the girls discover the Camp Lakeview reunion is occurring on the exact same weekend as Tahoe, the girls who were invited agree to continue with the trip, only to later regret the decision. Returning home from Tahoe, Natalie finds Simon outside her apartment building, who reveals that their relationship should no longer continue and offers to be friends instead. Natalie agrees and the pair go out to eat pizza together.

### The Clique

Natalie offers to help Tori when she is chosen to be the Blue team's captain, but is invited to hang out by Lainie Wilcox. This causes Nat to ignore her teammates and spend time with Lainie and her friends instead. During a relay race, Nat nearly drowns but is saved by a sixth division boy, Logan. When she learns Lainie has a crush, she helps her to get his attention, only to find its Logan. She confronts him and he admits the truth. Candace convinces Natalie to apologize to the fifth division Blue team and she makes up with them, contributing to Tori's group idea. At the singdown, Logan asks Natalie to be his girlfriend and she agrees, before joining her team.

### Time to Shine

Natalie posts a blog post announcing that her father, Tad Maxwell, has been nominated for an Oscar. She travels to L.A. to see him and spend time with Tori, but over the week, Natalie finds it difficult to split her time between her dad, Tori and Reed, resulting in the girls falling out. On the evening of the Oscars, Natalie meets up with Tori and apologizes, before the two and Tad attend the event; Tad loses on his Oscar. The girls travel to Tori's house before Natalie returns home the following day.

## Trivia

* Her IM name is NatalieNYC.
* She is a vegetarian and is shown in *On Thin Ice* to dislike fish.
* Her favourite doughnut flavour is blueberry revealed in *Three's a Crowd*.