Tug-of-War (16 page)

Late in the afternoon, the nurse decided I was finally well enough to leave the infirmary. I hadn't had a fever all day. I walked back to the cabin by myself, wondering what everyone was up to.

Since it was the Fourth, the whole schedule today had been different. I'd already missed a lot of fun stuff, but at least I was getting out in time to see the fireworks over the lake tonight.

I could hear voices coming from the window screens as I got close to Cabin Four. One of them sounded like Maggie. And then I heard Devon laugh. I sped up a little and pushed the screen door open.

The cabin was dark after the bright sunlight outside,
and my eyes had to adjust for a second. All I could see were silhouettes.

“Hey! Look who's here!”

“How are you feeling?”

I blinked and looked around. Betsy was sitting on her bottom bunk, smiling at me, and I was sort of aware of Laurel-Ann and Kayla on Side B talking to Gloria.

Then the strangest sight in the world met my eyes.

Maggie.

And Devon.

Sitting together on Devon's bottom bunk.

“Glad you're back. You won't miss the fireworks,” Devon said cheerfully, leaning back on one arm.

Maggie sat cross-legged next to her. “Yeah, you should've been here for the counselor hunt. Nobody caught Wayward. That's three straight years she's gone without being caught, and she's worth fourteen points!”

“But we did catch Tisdale in Cabin One, and she was worth seven points, so that helped,” said Betsy.

So I'd missed the counselor hunt, a kind of campwide hide-and-seek where the campers all looked for the counselors, and each cabin could score points based on how many years the counselors they found had been coming to Pine Haven.

“Yeah, and we beat the Seniors this morning in the capture-the-flag game,” Maggie said. “The strategy of distraction, right?” She gave Devon a fist bump.

Devon smiled. “Strategy of distraction. It worked, too, didn't it?”

The back of my throat felt raspy and dry. Strategy of distraction? What was that all about?

Something weird was going on. I wanted to walk out of the cabin and check the sign by the door to make sure I'd walked into Cabin Four. Because it was starting to feel like I was in the twilight zone.

Devon and Maggie, sitting together on Devon's bottom bunk. Bumping fists. Laughing and talking.
Together.

“What's going on here?” I said finally. I'd dropped the overnight bag with my stuff in it at my feet. I was holding Melvin by one furry paw.

Maggie looked up at me with her eyebrows arched. “What do you mean?”

I couldn't think of how to explain how weird this whole scene was. Was this a leftover symptom from my fever? Was my brain just not working completely normally yet?

“You . . .” I glanced over at Betsy on her bunk, and she looked back and shrugged. “What . . .” Maggie and Devon waited for me to finish my sentence.

“Why are you sitting there?” I finally asked, pointing an accusing finger at Maggie.

“What are you talking about?” She swung her legs around so she was facing me. “You sure you're feeling okay?”

I held my hands up and then dropped them at my side in exasperation. Melvin bounced against my thigh. “You two are actually talking to each other?”

“Oh, wow, you really have been gone for a while,” Devon commented. “Maggie and I are friends now.”

“Friends?” I asked, like Devon was speaking in Lithuanian.

“Yeah, we've been hanging out together. And guess what? I'm a vegetarian now. Devon's teaching me all about it,” Maggie added with a big grin.

“Vegetarian?” I asked. Another foreign word I was hearing for the first time. I hoped my jaw wasn't touching the top of my purple and red high-tops.

“That's right,” Devon put in. “Veggeroni here hasn't eaten anything with a face for three days.”

Had I heard that right? Did Devon say
Veggeroni
?

“Yeah, you know, I've always thought it was cool that you're a vegetarian. You didn't believe me at first when I said I was going to try it out myself,” Maggie told Devon.

Devon shrugged. “Sorry I doubted you.” She looked up at me. “You remember the day you went to the infirmary? At lunch, Maggie ate the tofu and veggie stir-fry.”

“See, Chris! I told you I was being nice to Devon for a change! Plus, we were both lonely without you.”

I didn't say anything. Both lonely without me, huh? Well, at least they were able to keep each other company.

“At first I thought she was setting me up for some big joke. I was really skeptical,” Devon went on, telling me the fascinating story of how the two of them became friends. “But she kept asking me questions, really good questions about how to keep a balanced diet, and how to deal with temptations . . .”

“Like bacon!” Maggie added.

“And I realized she was truly interested in becoming a vegetarian. Plus, it's like you've been saying—she's a lot smarter than I ever realized.”

Maggie fluttered her eyelashes in a Devon imitation. “And she also appreciates my sense of humor now.”

Devon couldn't keep from smiling. “She really can crack me up at times. Remember that joke you told last night about—.”

“I'm not in the mood to hear a joke right now!” I snapped at Devon.

Maggie looked at me sympathetically. “You still feeling a little sick?”

“Yeah, I'm still feeling a little sick,” I said in a loud tone.

Devon leaned forward. “I know what will make you feel better. You should join us. Boycott the hot dogs tonight and eat the pasta salad and baked beans instead.”

She and Maggie were both smiling like they'd just joined a zucchini-eating zombie cult.

“I like eating animals that have faces!” I shouted. I threw Melvin onto my top bunk and he bounced before landing on his back.

Devon and Maggie both stared at me, and Betsy snorted and then started coughing to hide her laugh.

“But Chris, just try it for a day. There are so many non-meat foods available, and Grainy Girl has taught me all about . . .”

I had no idea what Devon had taught Maggie because that “Grainy Girl” name came sailing through my left ear and got lodged in the middle of my brain.
Veggeroni? Grainy Girl?
They'd made up new pet names for each other?

“I'm eating a hot dog tonight and that's final!” I heard some crazy person yelling in a voice that sounded like my own. “Leave me alone!”

I turned and shouted at Betsy. “What time do we eat?”

She shrank back a little and glanced around. “Uh, six thirty. We're having supper on the hill tonight, buffet-style.” Then she swallowed like she hoped I wouldn't yell about anything else.

“And they're serving hot dogs? Great, I'm starving!” I glared at my two best friends with flames shooting out of my eyes. “I'm definitely having seconds.”

There was no doubt about it. I'd stepped out of the infirmary yesterday and into the twilight zone.

I'd only been gone for three days, but in camp time, that was about equal to a month. And during that time, something radical had happened.

The earth must have tilted on its axis. East was now west, up was now down, and Devon and Maggie, my two best friends who couldn't go for more than five seconds without insulting each other, were now friends.

And not just mild acquaintances. They'd bonded like superglue.

In
three
days.

Last night as we'd sat out on the hill eating supper,
I'd had to listen to more “how we became friends” stories from Devon and Maggie.

Maggie had definitely been the one to make the first move. She'd been worried about how the three of us would get along when I came back from the infirmary. Somehow, sharing menu ideas made them connect in a way I never thought was possible.

They both kept telling me how much they appreciated each other's sense of humor now—
suddenly
. I sat there, gobbling down two hot dogs while they ate their baked beans and told their stories.

I started to get the impression that if Maggie and Devon had been left alone from the beginning without me in between, maybe they would've been friends from the start.

And even though I should've been happy that they were finally friends, I couldn't help feeling like I was now in their way. As I'd watched the fireworks last night over the lake, I'd had this disturbing feeling that I was watching my friendships with Devon and Maggie explode.

Now it was Saturday morning, and the three of us were on our way to the tennis courts. That was another thing that had apparently happened while I was gone. Devon and Maggie had been playing tennis together,
and suddenly Devon was Venus Williams or something.

“You really need to start reading labels. Lots of things you think sound vegetarian might have animal by-products in them,” Devon advised.

“Really? Like, what does that mean, exactly? Animal by-products?” The two of them were walking side by side, swinging their rackets. I was a couple of steps behind them. I was waiting to see if either one of them would notice I was even there.

“Well, for instance, tomato soup. Sounds vegetarian, right? It could be made with chicken broth, and you'd never know it if you didn't check the label for ingredients.”

“Are you kidding? Chicken broth in tomato soup? Weird! So have you never eaten meat in your whole life?” asked Maggie.

“Oh sure, my parents fed me meat till I was eight. Then I put my foot down and insisted on a cruelty-free diet. I plan to raise my kids as vegetarians. If they choose to eat meat when they're older, so be it. But at least they'll have a choice I never had.”

“I admire that,” Maggie commented. “Maybe I should do that with my kids too.”

“Devon, maybe you should name your firstborn Asparagus, and Maggie, you can call your kid Brussels
Sprouts, or just Sprout for short,” I muttered under my breath.

Neither of them heard me over the sound of their own voices.

The night before I'd had the freakiest dream. I was sick in bed with a fever, only I was in the cabin instead of the infirmary. And I was in Devon's bed with white sheets on it. The nurse had just taken my temperature, which, for some reason, was six thirty. She made a point of emphasizing the thirty part and how high that was.

It was all dark and shadowy in the cabin, and I was tossing and turning in bed. The next thing I knew, Devon and Maggie were hovering over me. They had no eyes, only dark sockets where their eyes were supposed to be.

And Maggie was holding a red bell pepper in her cupped hands, and Devon was waving around a gigantic purple eggplant. They were both chanting, “Join us, Chris! Join us!”

I woke up in my own top bunk with my rainbow sheets, drenched in a cold sweat, shaking with terror. It was absolutely horrible.

“You know who else is a vegetarian? Meredith Orr in Cabin Two,” said Maggie. “She's gone on river trips with us, and she told us that at lunch one day.”

I'd always thought it was cool that Devon was a vegetarian. Sure, I liked meat, but at some point, I could probably give it up as easily as Maggie had.

But there was something so annoying about the way they walked along, swinging their rackets, Maggie with her curly red hair bending closer to Devon with her straight black hair.

It made me hope we were having bacon double cheeseburgers for lunch today. With a fried egg on top.

“Oh good, there's an empty court,” said Maggie, pointing with her racket. “Chris, wait till you see how good Devon has gotten in the past few days.” Maggie looked over her shoulder at me, suddenly remembering my existence.

“But you and I have been playing singles. We'll have to find another partner to play doubles,” commented Devon. “If we can't, maybe the two of us should play Chris.”

Maggie smiled at her. “I don't know, that doesn't sound fair. You and I would probably pound her.”

That sounded absolutely delightful to me. My two best friends pounding me.

Tisdale, the tennis counselor, said hello to us and bounced some balls in our direction, which Maggie scooped up and crammed into her pockets.

“I wonder what kind of doubles partners we'd be. I bet we'd make a good team,” Maggie said to her new best friend.

“True, because your serve is much better than mine, but I'm pretty good playing close to the net,” Devon replied to
her
new best friend.

I bent down to grab a stray ball rolling across the court. I felt like shoving it in my ear to drown out the sound of the two of them complimenting each other.

We walked onto the empty court and stood by the net. Nobody else was around who wasn't already playing, so we were missing a fourth doubles partner.

Maggie bounced a ball up and down and glanced at me. “Uh, Chris? Want to just watch for a few minutes? You can see how much Devon's improved lately.”