Bailey’s Estes Park Excitement (4 page)

“Yes, I'll be available in an hour. Thank you. See you then.”

Mr. Chang flipped his cell phone closed and said to Mrs. Chang, “William Perkins will meet me in the hotel lobby in an hour for our conference. His wife and children are here with him, and he's bringing them to meet us. They're also staying at this hotel.”

“Guess I'd better clean up.” Mrs. Chang sprang from the bed and headed to the shower.

“Will has two boys, so I don't imagine the girls will be too interested in hanging out with them much.”

“Or will they?” Mrs. Chang said with a sly smile. She laughed and shook her head. “Probably not, but it will be nice to meet them anyway. It's always nice to have a friendly face, just in case you need something.” Mrs. Chang turned on the water. “Will you get the girls up while I shower?”

Mr. Chang moved to the girls' bed and whispered, “Biscuit!” The dog stretched and yawned, but soon he was prancing all over Bailey and Kate, nudging Bailey's pillow off her head, licking hands, faces, and feet.

“Biscuit! Stop!” Kate howled, hiding her face in the covers.

“We're too tired. Go away.” Bailey rolled over.

“Come on, girls,” Mr. Chang said. “Time to get up. Some people are meeting us downstairs in an hour.”

“Ugghh,” Bailey moaned.

“You, too, Trina.” Mr. Chang shook his older daughter's shoulder. “Mr. Perkins is bringing his family to meet us.”

“How could you do this to me?” Trina wailed, with all the dismay she could muster at seven a.m.

“Easy!” Mr. Chang chuckled. “Watching you writhe around and moan is good early morning entertainment.”

Trina threw a pillow at her father, which he deftly dodged. When she saw him pick up the pillow and pull his arm back to throw it, she jumped up. The pillow landed with a
whoosh
in her empty bed.

“Ha!” Trina laughed. “Missed me!”

“Ha, yourself.” Mr. Chang laughed. “I got you up.”

Bailey and Kate had pillows in hand ready to throw but put them back down when the action wound down so quickly. “Shucks,” Bailey said. “We missed our chance.”

An hour later, they stepped out of the elevator into the hotel lobby.

The Perkins family was looking at the old Stanley Steamer car in the lobby when the Changs arrived.

“Will! Great to see you.” Mr. Chang and Will Perkins shook hands.

“George, I'd like you to meet my wife, Janice, and my sons, Joseph and Justin.”

Bailey inhaled sharply and elbowed Kate. Joseph and Justin were the two boys Biscuit had nearly attacked in the hall the day before. Good thing they'd taken Biscuit for an early morning walk and left him in the room before coming to meet the Perkinses.

“It's a pleasure to meet you,” Mr. Chang replied, shaking each of their hands. “This is my wife, Dory, and my two daughters, Trina and Bailey. And this is Bailey's friend, Kate.”

Bailey smiled politely.

“Hey, aren't you the ones who had that dog in the hallway yesterday?” Justin asked.

Mr. Chang cleared his throat. “I guess we are. I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you. We're terribly sorry about Biscuit barking at you. He's a little skittish being in a new place and off his usual routine.”

“No harm done,” Mr. Perkins assured him.

Bailey noticed that Justin, the older of the two, was scowling.
What's his problem?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a friendly looking older man and his wife approaching them. “There they are!” the man said.

“Grandpa!” Joe ran to the couple, who greeted the boy with warm hugs.

“Hungry for some breakfast?” Grandpa asked him.

“Starving!”

Mr. Perkins introduced his parents, Glen and Clara Perkins, to the Changs.

“They live here in Estes Park. That's why I brought the family along,” Mr. Perkins explained.

“We're off to have breakfast at the Waffle House,” Grandma Perkins said. “You're welcome to join us.”

“George and I need to get to our conference,” Mr. Perkins said. “But maybe Dory and the girls would like to.”

“That would be lovely,” Mrs. Chang said before Bailey could signal that she did not want to eat with these grouchy boys. She turned her back to the group and rolled her eyes at Kate.

After getting directions to the Waffle House, Mrs. Chang, Trina, Bailey, and Kate piled into the car. “That was nice of them to invite us to join them for breakfast,” Mrs. Chang said.

“Nice if you like eating with Oscar the Grouch,” Bailey retorted.

“Bailey!” her mother warned.

Bailey looked down at her lap. “But Mom, those boys are so rude!”

“Maybe they're not morning people,” Mrs. Chang said.

“Apparently they're not afternoon people either, since they were so grouchy yesterday when Biscuit barked at them.”

“Maybe they're afraid of dogs,” Trina said.

“Who could be afraid of sweet little Biscuit?” Kate asked.

“As I recall, Biscuit wasn't exactly his usual, sweet little self when he barked at the boys.” Mrs. Chang turned into the Waffle House driveway. “Let's just give them a chance. We don't know what's going on in their lives. Maybe they're having some kind of problems at home or something.”

Bailey nodded. She never thought of that.

“Right this way.” The hostess grabbed menus and motioned for them to follow her to two tables pushed together.

Bailey sat next to Kate, with Justin and Joe directly across from them. While the adults chatted pleasantly, the children were silent. Bailey cleared her throat. “So how old are you?”

The dark-haired boys shifted in their seats. They seemed uncomfortable making conversation with the girls.

“I'm twelve,” Justin said, eyes narrowed.

“And I'm ten,” Joe added less than enthusiastically.

“You're about our ages, then,” Kate volunteered. “I'm eleven and Bailey's nine.”

“What about her?” Justin nodded in Trina's direction.

“That's Trina. She's fourteen.”

“Umph,” Joe said.

Whatever that means
, thought Bailey. She eyed the boys more closely. They weren't bad looking. They could even be considered cute if they smiled more. Freckles sprinkled Joe's nose and round cheeks. Justin's face was more chiseled and his build was more muscular than his younger brother's. His eyes burned with anger or hurt or something Bailey couldn't quite identify. His eyebrows pointed downward in what looked like a permanent frown.

“Did you hear about the elk problem they're having?” Kate asked, trying to be polite.

“Of course we did,” Joe snapped. “Our grandparents live here.”

“Oh, right,” Bailey said. She added, “Did we say something wrong?”

“What do you mean?” Justin placed his hands on the table, palms down as if he were about to jump up.

Bailey shrugged. “Well, you just seem mad at us.”

“Why should we like you?” Joe scowled.

“Why shouldn't you?” Kate smiled in spite of herself.

“We don't have anything against you. We just don't like your dog.” Justin leaned back and folded his arms.

“Have you had a bad experience with dogs before?” Bailey asked.

Joe watched his older brother, waiting for his answer. “Maybe, maybe not.”

“Well, I'm sorry if you did,” Kate said. “Biscuit is a really nice dog, and he'd never hurt a flea.”

“Whatever.” Justin picked up his menu and hid behind it.

“Have you eaten here before?” Bailey asked, changing the subject.

“Our grandparents bring us here all the time,” Joe said, suddenly sounding almost friendly.

“What do you recommend?” Kate asked.

“I usually get the Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.” Joe licked his lips.

“What about you, Justin?” Bailey asked.

“I don't have a favorite,” he said from behind his menu.

“I'm thinking of the ham and cheese omelet,” Kate said. “Ever had it?”

Justin lowered his menu slowly. Bailey saw his jaw clench. “I've had it and it's fine,” he said through gritted teeth.

Were those tears in his eyes?
Bailey blinked to see more clearly. Too late. The menu was back up again.

The waitress took their orders and they ate their breakfast without much conversation.

Afterward, Mrs. Chang and Trina went to do some shopping while Bailey and Kate took Biscuit for a walk and talked about their strange encounter with the Perkins boys.

“Something was definitely bothering Justin,” Kate said.

“No kidding!” Bailey's eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Did you see when you asked him if he'd had the omelet before? I thought he was going to cry!”

“We need to get on our Camp Club Girls Web site to let the other girls know what's going on around here. So far we have elk gone mad, unexplained ghost noises, and two crabby boys who hate us for no reason.” Kate stopped to let Biscuit sniff some bushes.

“Maybe Justin and Joe don't hate us, but they sure do act weird,” Bailey said.

Back at their room, Bailey opened her laptop and signed onto the CCG Web site then clicked on the chat room. Kate pulled out her cell phone and also went to the site.

Kate told Bailey, “Tell them about Justin and Joe.”

Kate rolled her eyes at Bailey. Leave it to Alex to get the wrong idea about boys.

Bailey closed the laptop and sighed. “I wish we could all be together to work on our mysteries.”

“It's great that we can at least stay in touch so easy, though.” Kate suddenly sat up straight. “Hey! We never finished exploring the wire we found under the wallpaper last night.”

“Let's go!” Bailey was off the bed faster than you could say “ghost children of the night.”

“You stay here, Biscuit,” Kate said. “We won't be long.”

Kate brought along her camera-pen, and Bailey her camera-watch. There were no ghost noises in the bright sunlight of afternoon. A neighboring door opened and Justin and Joe came out, binoculars hanging around Justin's neck. They stopped short when they saw Bailey and Kate.

“Hi, Justin. Hi, Joe,” Bailey said. “Where you going?”

“Hiking.” Justin kept his eyes to the floor.

“That sounds like fun,” Kate said. “Maybe we can go with you sometime.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Joe answered, his eyes meeting Bailey's.

“We don't know our way around the trails like you probably do since your grandparents are from here,” Bailey said, trying to build the boys up just in case McKenzie's idea about them being insecure had any truth to it.

“Hmmph,” Justin grunted. He pushed past them.

“What's that long thing under your jacket?” Bailey asked.