I took a step back. “What do you want?” I snapped.
“We want to apologize,” Briana said.
Meg nodded. “Yeah. We’re sorry we played that dumb joke on you.”
Richard’s voice droned on behind us. Briana put a hand on my shoulder. “We got off to a bad start,” she said. “Let’s start all over again. Okay, Sarah?”
“Yeah. Let’s start fresh,” Meg agreed.
A smile spread over my face. “Great,” I said. “Excellent.”
“Excellent!” Briana repeated, smiling too.
She slapped me on the back. “A fresh start!”
Richard was still making announcements. “Tomorrow at four-thirty, those interested in windsurfing…”
Aaron will probably try that, I thought. I watched Briana and Meg walk away.
A fresh start, I thought. I began to feel a lot happier.
The happy feeling lasted for about two seconds.
Then my back started to itch.
I turned to the fire and saw Briana and Meg staring back at me. They were both giggling.
Other kids had turned away from Richard and were watching me.
“Ohhhh.” I groaned when I felt something warm wriggle against my back.
Something warm and dry, moving under my T-shirt.
“Ohhhh.” It moved again.
I reached one hand back. And poked it under my shirt.
What is it? What did Briana put back there?
I grabbed the thing and pulled it out.
And started to scream.
7
The snake wriggled in my hand.
It looked like a long black shoelace. With eyes! And a mouth that kept snapping open and shut.
“Noooooo!” I totally lost it.
I let out a shrill scream. And I heaved the snake with all my might.
It sailed into the woods.
My back still itched like crazy. I could still feel it wriggling against my skin.
I reached back and tried to scratch with both hands.
Kids were laughing. Telling each other what Briana had done.
I didn’t care. I just wanted to rub away the feeling of that snake against my skin.
My whole body tingled. I uttered an angry cry. “How could you?” I shrieked at Briana and Meg. “What is your problem?”
Aaron came hurrying over to be the grown-up again.
Just what I needed. Mr. Mature Kid Brother.
“Sarah, did it bite you?” he asked softly.
I shook my head. “I can still feel it!” I wailed. “Did you see it? It was three feet long!”
“Calm down,” Aaron whispered. “Everyone is staring at you.”
“Think I don’t know it?” I snapped.
“Well, it was just a tiny snake,” Aaron said. “Totally harmless. Try to get yourself together.”
“I–I-I-” I sputtered. I was too upset, too angry to talk.
Aaron raised his eyes to Briana and Meg. “Why are those two girls picking on you?” he asked.
“I don’t know!” I wailed. “Because… because they’re creeps! That’s why!”
“Well, try to calm down,” Aaron repeated. “Look at you, Sarah. You’re shaking all over.”
“You’d shake too if you had a disgusting snake crawling up and down your skin!” I replied. “And I really don’t need your advice, Aaron. I really don’t-”
“Fine,” he replied. He spun away and hurried back to his friends.
“I don’t believe him,” I muttered.
Dad is a doctor, and Aaron is just like him. He thinks he has to take care of everyone in the world.
Well, I can take care of myself. I don’t need my little brother telling me to calm down every second.
Richard was still talking. But I didn’t care. I stepped away from the campfire circle and started back to the cabin.
The path curved through a patch of woods, up the sloping hill where the cabins were perched. Away from the glow of the fire, I was surrounded by darkness.
I clicked on my flashlight and aimed the yellow circle of light at my feet. My sneakers crunched over dry leaves and twigs. The trees whispered above me.
How did I get off to such a bad start? I asked myself.
Why do Briana and Meg hate me so much?
Maybe they’re just mean, I decided. Maybe they’re total creeps. Maybe they’re mean to everyone.
They think they’re so hot because they were at camp last year.
Without realizing it, I had wandered off the path. “Hey-” I swung the flashlight around, searching for the way back.
The light swept over tilting trees, tall clumps of weeds, a fallen log.
Panic tightened my throat.
Where is the path? Where?
I took a few steps. My sneaker crunched over leaves.
And then my foot sank into something soft.
Quicksand!
8
No. Not quicksand.
There’s no such thing as quicksand. I remembered that from some science book I read in fifth grade.
I lowered the flashlight.
“Ohhhh.” Mud. Thick, gooey mud.
My sneaker sank deep into the ooze.
I pulled my leg up with a groan-and nearly toppled over backwards.
It’s just mud, I told myself. It’s disgusting-but it’s no big deal.
But then I saw the spiders.
Dozens of them. The biggest spiders I ever saw.
There must have been a nest of them in the mud.
They were crawling over my shoe, crawling up the leg of my jeans.
“Ohhhh. Yuck!”
Dozens of spiders clung to me. I shook my sneaker. Hard. Then I began batting at them with my free hand.
“I hate this caaaaaamp!” I screamed.
I beat some spiders away with the flashlight.
And then I had an idea.
I mean, why shouldn’t I pay Briana and Meg back for what they did to me?
They embarrassed me in front of the whole camp. And I hardly did anything to them.
I emptied the batteries from the flashlight. I took a deep breath. Then I bent down-and scooped a bunch of spiders into the flashlight.
Yuck. I felt sick. I really did.
I mean, can you imagine-me handling spiders!
But I knew it would be worth it. Soon.
I filled the flashlight with the squirming, black creatures. Then I screwed on the top.
I stepped over a fallen tree trunk. Found the path. And carrying the flashlight carefully, I eagerly hurried to the cabin.
I stopped outside the door. The lights were on inside the cabin.
I peeked in through the open window. No. No sign of anyone.
I crept inside.
I pulled up the blanket on Briana’s bed. Then I emptied half of the spiders onto her sheet. I carefully pulled the blanket over them and smoothed it out.
I was pouring the rest of the spiders into Meg’s bed when I heard a shuffling noise behind me. Quickly, I pulled Meg’s blanket back into place and spun around.
Jan stepped into the cabin. “What’s up?” she asked in her hoarse, croaky voice.
“Nothing,” I replied, hiding the flashlight behind my back.
Jan yawned. “It’s Lights Out in ten minutes,” she said.
I glanced at Briana’s bunk. I’d left one corner of the blanket untucked. Briana won’t notice, I decided.
I realized I was grinning. I quickly changed my expression. I didn’t want Jan asking a lot of questions.
She turned and pulled a long white nightshirt from her dresser drawer. “What did you sign up for tomorrow?” she asked. “Free Swim?”
“No. Canoeing,” I told her.
I wanted to be in a nice, dry canoe. Not flopping around in the dirty lake with fish and other slimy creatures.
“Hey. Me too,” Jan said.
I started to ask if she would be my buddy. But Briana and Meg came strolling through the door.
They saw me-and burst out laughing.
“What was that wild dance you were doing at the campfire?” Briana teased.