Hit the Beach (10 page)

“So, you called to tell me this?” Madison asked her fellow camper.

“Uh-huh,” Ann said. “I just thought it was so cool.”

“So, you’re done looking up my name now, right?” Madison asked.

“I guess,” Ann said. “It’s fun seeing where you go to school and who your other friends are.”

“Yeah, well, it is kind of late now,” Madison said, trying to cut Ann off.

“I’m sorry,” Ann said quietly. “You sound mad.”

“I’m not mad,” Madison said. “I just have to go. That’s all.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow …” Madison said, her voice trailing off.

She hung up the phone, a bit stunned by the exchange. Of all the people in the world who could have called her, she hadn’t expected Ann. And she hadn’t expected Ann to learn so much about Madison’s life during one Internet search.

Madison went back to the computer and reread her short (and thankfully private) file. Then she pressed
SAVE
. The blog was great. The school website was great. But Madison knew that the best place to talk about her real feelings was in these private files.

Yawn.

Madison opened her mouth wider than wide.

Yawn. Yawn.

She couldn’t stop yawning, which clearly meant that at that moment she needed sleep more than anything else. Her eyes ached from looking at the computer, reading all those blogs, and doing Internet searches.

It had been a lo-o-o-ong day.

So, with a click and a
zap
, Madison turned off Dad’s computer and turned herself off, too. She crawled onto the bed and whispered good night to the moon just as she had the night before.

And then Madison whispered good night to Aimee, Fiona, and Lindsay, too—long distance, of course.

T
HE THIRD DAY AT
Camp Sunshine, which was Wednesday, turned out to be quite sunshiny indeed. Stephanie dropped Madison off outside the ELC. Dad was off at work again.

Once inside, Madison immediately bumped into Will and Teeny. Their parents had just dropped them off, too.

“Hey,” Will said when he saw Madison.

“Hey,” Madison said, smiling.

“Are you ready for this?” Will held up a yellow sheet of paper with a chart on it.

Madison nodded. Everyone had been given a list to review the previous night. The groups would team up for a camp scavenger hunt today. Of course, she had gotten the list just like everyone else, but for some reason she had glanced at it only that morning, on the drive over, and she hadn’t looked at it closely. The night before, she’d been more focused on feeling homesick. Although she liked camp so far, she missed her friends.

“Just tell me: how are we supposed to find all this stuff?” Will asked.

“Yeah, and what’s a scrub jay?” Teeny asked.

“How come ‘Find three bugs’ counts as one thing to do and not
three
things to do?” Logan asked.

“And ‘find three shells’ and ‘three rocks,’” Suchita added. “Why so many?”

Madison laughed. “I really can’t believe they put ‘alligator’ on the list. Where are we going to see one of
those
!”

“Yeah, right,” Teeny said. “I see one of those and I’m so outta here.”

“The alligator must be a joke,” Will said as the three of them sauntered inside with the rest of the campers.

“Hey, guys, wait for me!” Ann said chasing everyone inside. She’d just arrived. Immediately, she came over and stood right next to Will, arms waving all over the place as she explained how that morning she’d almost overslept and almost lost her cat and just missed being super late for camp.

“Whoa,” Teeny cracked. “Take a breath.”

“Sounds like a pretty gruesome morning,” Will joked.

Madison couldn’t help chuckling. Ann sounded silly. But she kept right on talking.

“Anyway! I am so ready for this hunt,” Ann said. “I think that our group has the best chance of winning, don’t you? Because it’s only been a day, but we are all really tight already, right?”

Madison felt herself wince, just a little bit. It had been only three days at camp and already Ann was convinced the Egrets would be friends forever.

And why did she keep touching Will’s shoulder?

“What were you guys talking about just now?” Ann asked.

“Hmmm. Not much,” Teeny replied.

Teeny and Will started to walk toward one of the round wooden tables in the entry area of the ELC. Leonard had posted signs with the group names on the tables: Alligators, Butterflies, Crabs, Dolphins, Egrets, or Flounders. Suchita and Logan were already seated at the Egrets’ table.

“Let’s sit next to each other,” Ann suggested. She linked arms with Madison as they walked over to the table.

Madison didn’t put up any kind of fight, but Ann’s clinginess made her uncomfortable.

A moment later, thankfully, Leonard clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention, and Ann broke loose.

“Everyone!” Leonard cried. “As you know, we have a big, big day today. So let’s get organized. Please take your seats at the tables if you haven’t done so already.”

Madison glanced around at the other teams. She wished Ann were on the Butterflies or Flounders instead of on her team.

“Aren’t you excited? Aren’t you?” Ann said, a little too enthusiastically, tugging on Madison’s T-shirt. She was too close, Madison thought.

Way too close.

Leonard reviewed the items on the list. “Now,” he explained. “Some of these things may seem a little impossible to find, but trust me—it’s all out there in the natural habitats. You are allowed to search for any of the items anywhere at the learning center.”

Then Leonard passed out maps.

“You will see on the map that there are defined areas to search. This includes a sandy beach area, a small pond near a wooden bridge made from old logs, and a mangrove swamp. But you can look anywhere at ELC if you need to. Remember that.
Anywhere
.”

One kid from the Crabs’ table raised her hand.

“So what do the points mean?” she asked tentatively.

Leonard explained how the teams were supposed to keep track of items on the list, checking them off as they found them. “Keep notes on what you see, because I will be collecting every team’s notes in order to score the results,” he insisted. “And go for those extra-credit points. They will make all the difference.”

“This sounds like way too much fun,” Suchita whispered to Madison.

Madison wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. How much fun was too much? There was no such thing, she thought.

Logan tapped out a drumbeat on the table. “Know what? We are winning this. I don’t lose, and
we
will not lose.”

Teeny agreed. “You’re so right, Logan. This scavenger hunt is
ours
.” He threw his hand out and placed it on the center of the table.

Immediately, Ann slapped her hand on top of Teeny’s. Then Suchita put hers down; and then Logan and Will after that. Madison laughed at her team’s determination. She liked it.

“Well?” Will asked. “Are you in or are you out, Mad Dog?” That was the strange nickname he spontaneously gave to Madison.

Sheepishly, Madison put her hand on top of Will’s hand. “I’m in,” Madison said. It felt so awkward to be touching Will—even though it was just a handshake pileup. Did this count as holding hands?

“Go, team!” Teeny cried. The hands went into the air with a cheer, and Madison felt as if she had been in the locker room before a big game.

The teams scrambled to leave the room as Leonard declared the official start of the hunt with a sharp whistle. His parting words were, “Have a good hunt, and be back by noon.”

The Egrets hustled outside toward the mangrove swamp with everyone else. It was the closest spot on the map—and it would have many of the items on the list.

Leonard and some of the other counselors joined the kids as they all marched toward the same places.

“Maybe you should split up so that you aren’t all in the same area at the same time,” Leonard suggested. He disappeared back into the ELC.

“So what now?” Teeny asked.

Madison shrugged. “Let’s pick a place where no one else is headed.”

They moved toward the small beachfront. It turned out to be a smart move. No one else was there.

“I see a shell! No, I see two … no,
three
! Wait, there are, like, a hundred shells here,” Ann said. She raced around as if someone had wound her spring up and then just let go.

Madison noticed the boys giggling at her antics.

Suchita, who was taking the hunt very seriously, pointed to a grove of sea grape set back from the shoreline. “That’s on our list, too!” she said.

“And there’s a pelican,” Logan said, pointing to the water.

“And an alligator!” Will yelled.

Everyone shrieked. Then Will cracked up and fell onto the sand in mock hysterics. Madison smiled. He’d played a good joke.

“Now we need to find an egret,” Madison suggested as they lingered on the beach.

“Why?” Teeny said. “It’s not on the list, is it?”

“Because we
are
the Egrets!” Ann cried.

Madison couldn’t believe that Ann was the one and only person in their entire group who understood. That was a major fluke.

After leaving the shore, the Egrets headed to the mangroves, since the other groups had left by then. Along the pathway, Logan picked up a few rocks, and Ann found a rotting log. They examined the log for creepy-crawlies, moss, and extra points (of course). As they were taking notes and observing, two of the camp staffers came by to congratulate them on their hard work. One of the staffers snapped a photograph.

After an hour went by, nearly all the items on the list had been found. They’d seen both a pelican and an ibis, or at least Will thought they had seen one. No one was really sure if they could tell one bird from another. The bird-watching lesson was happening on a different day.

“So what’s left?” Logan asked, looking over the list.

Ann was quick to point out all the things they’d missed. “Well, we didn’t see a crab,” she said, sounding rather bossy.

“Yeah, we did,” Teeny said. “It was on the beach. Wasn’t it?”

Ann looked at everyone. “We can’t say we saw it if we didn’t
all
see it.”

“Why not?” Suchita asked. “I believe Teeny.”

Ann put her hands on her hips. “Look, I don’t want to be a downer, but we have to play this fair, or we won’t win.”

Will rolled his eyes. “What else did we miss on our list?”

Ann spoke right up again, reading down through her list and notes. “Well, we saw about twenty of those little lizards. We found a set of animal tracks …”

“Dog tracks,” Madison pointed out.

“Are you sure?” Logan asked.

“Yes,” Madison said right away, even though she wasn’t entirely sure. In fact, she wasn’t entirely sure about any of it. How could six total strangers be expected to agree on all of these things?

“I think we saw the scrub jay, right?” Ann said. “You know, there’s a petition to make the scrub jay the state bird.”

“Huh?” Teeny asked back. “What does that have to do with our scavenger hunt?”

“Maybe we’ll get extra points for knowing that little factoid,” Ann suggested.

“She’s right,” Madison said.

“Factoid?” Teeny said, repeating the word with a laugh.

“Okay. What about the alligator?” Suchita asked.

Ann laughed out loud. “That was just a joke! Will even said so.”

“What if it wasn’t?” Madison asked.

Everyone stared at her.

“Huh?” Ann said. “Of course it was a joke.”

“Madison, you don’t think the camp expected us to see a real, live alligator, do you?” Logan asked.

Madison shook her head. “No, but …”

“But
what
?” Ann asked.

Madison gazed off into the distance. She knew that Leonard would not have put the word “alligator” on the list if he hadn’t really expected it to be found—by someone, somehow. This was the best brainteaser ever.

She wanted to solve it.

“What if …” Madison thought aloud, “what if there really is an
alligator
somewhere around here?”

“And what if he’s hungry?” Will teased.

“That is so
not
funny,” Ann said.