Monkey Bars and Rubber Ducks (12 page)

‘Jonno!’ I said, really pleased to see him. I stared over the top of his glasses into his eyes, trying to send a message:
Save me, save me.

‘Hi,’ said Zoe.

I knew what you were meant to do. Mum says you must always introduce people if you know them both but they don’t know each other.
No way was I doing that.

‘Hi, Zoe,’ said Jonno.
No need anyway.

Jonno looked as though he was going to carry on walking.
Didn’t he realise I needed saving?

‘Why don’t you come down with me, Jonno?’ I said. ‘I was going to ask if we’re allowed to go and get some wood from the beach.’

‘OK,’ he said. Excellent!
Surely that would get rid of Zoe.

I turned to face her.’ Jonno can help me now.’

She smiled again. ‘But I want to come to the beach with you.’

I’m not proud of what I did next. But you have to understand, I couldn’t spend the rest of my time at camp with everyone giggling about me, and trying to get me and Zoe to sit together and all the other rubbish that goes on when there’s a boy-girl thing.

‘Grab this.’ I thrust my end of the bark at Jonno.’ I forgot something. You go down, I’ll catch you up,’ and disappeared back into the wood. Fast. I didn’t look behind me. I went back to the clearing where I’d collected the tinder, saw the other We Hate Spiders coming towards me dragging bundled fuel and decided I needed some time out. I saw a climbable-looking tree and in a second, I was up it.

I stayed in the tree until there was no one left in the wood, which was quite a long time. The Spider group went away but Jonno and Zoe came back up – I guess they weren’t allowed to join the beach crew – and got some big wood. Then Callum’s group came up too. I stayed where I was, perched like a bird, but not chirping. I wondered whether Jonno was going to be cross. Probably not, I decided, because he and Zoe were chatting away. Maybe he
liked
her, if you get me.

When the last wood-collectors had left and no one else seemed to be coming I got down, grabbed an armful of twigs, more kindling than tinder, and strolled down to the campfire.

It looked great, all ready for tomorrow night. A giant teepee shape, with what looked like a doorway on one side to get in. I knew what that was – a tunnel to reach the middle and light the tinder.

I joined the other Tribers (and Lily). Zoe had gone off to her team.
Phew!
We chatted, and amazingly no one asked me where I’d been so that was cool . . . until tucked-up-in-tent time, when Jonno spilled the beans.

‘I saw you in the tree, Keener.’

The raspberry pink came again but it was dark so it didn’t matter.

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘But I had a shadow.’

‘And you gave her to me,’ said Jonno.’ Thanks!’

‘Keen-er's got a girl-friend’,
sang Fifty.

I kicked him, with my sleeping-bag legs. ‘That’s exactly why I offloaded her on Jonno,’ I said.

‘Bit lame,’ said Fifty. ‘Dumping on a mate.’

There was no answer to that. Except . . . You’re right, I’m lame.

‘Shut up about girls,’ said Copper Pie. ‘Let’s work out how to
win.’

‘How to win what?’ I said, glad to change the subject.

‘Everything,’ said Copper Pie.

‘He means the best team at camp. We’re in the lead with two days to go, shouldn’t be too hard,’ said Fifty. ‘What’s left to do?’ I said. ‘The campfire,’ said Fifty.

‘That’s tomorrow night,’ I said. ‘And you can’t
win
the campfire.’

‘There’s the assault course,’ said Jonno.

‘No worries,’ said Copper Pie.

There was a silence. I don’t know what the others were thinking but I know what I was – Fifty was never going to get over the wall, and even if he did, he wasn’t going to do the monkey bars over the river crossing.

‘We’ll help you, Fifty,’ said Jonno.’ That’s the whole point of being a team.’

‘Thanks,’ said Fifty.

‘I could kick you over the wall,’ said our redheaded football fiend.

‘That’s sorted then,’ said Jonno. We all laughed. But we weren’t laughing the next day.

Breakfast was delicious. A bacon sandwich sitting outside with your mates is the best. And as a treat there was a huge urn full of hot chocolate. Even Copper Pie’s suction method of food consumption didn’t ruin it.

Max gave us a rundown of the day, as usual. We were bodyboarding in the morning – yes, yes, yes! And it was the assault course in the afternoon. We were in two halves again: us, the Spiders, Callum’s lot and Team GB.
Bring it on!

The water was heaven. I’d already caught three waves before anyone else was up to their knees. It helped that I’d brought my own wetsuit – there were a lot of kids fiddling with zips and moaning that the suits were too tight around the neck. The waves weren’t cooking (like the day Dad took all the Tribers to Woolacombe) but they were plenty big enough to take you on a ride all the way to the shore. Bee and Jonno came out to join me. And so did Max, the instructor.

‘Keener, I hear you’re a wicked longboarder – well, I’m afraid you have to stay in your depth while you’re here with me.’

‘You’ll have to tell Marco the same thing,’ I said, paddling back to where I could just about stand. ‘He’s Off the Richter.’ (It means awesome.)

Even though Copper Pie and Fifty didn’t go out that far, Tribe was way better than everyone else. In fact we took pity on the Spiders (well, Jonno did and I was standing next to him) and gave them some coaching. I didn’t mind. It’s easy to teach someone how to catch a wave. They all had their weight too far back on the board. The tip needs to be down, whether it’s a surfboard or a bodyboard. I did all the demonstrating and Jonno did the talking. Suited me.

The friendly girl, Zoe, stood next to Jonno while he explained all the stuff he’d learnt when we went together. Me and Fifty winked at each other. Copper Pie saw too, and next thing he’d mown into them on his board. (It didn’t hurt, they’re soft boards.) I think he was rescuing Jonno. Whether Jonno wanted rescuing – who knows?

The morning went too quickly. The sea was warm (for England) and the sun was hot and I loved catching the waves with the others. We came in all in a row a few times – a wall of Tribers landing on the beach together.

‘You’ve all done this before,’ said Max.

We nodded.

‘The Spiders are getting the hang of it too,’ said Jonno.

‘Yes,’ said Max. ‘I saw you helping them.’

We were so going to win. Best at bodyboarding. Best at helping.
Go Tribe!

Lunch was hot dogs. I ate and ate and ate. I didn’t eat as much as Copper Pie, but that would have put me at the Guinness Book of Records level. Afterwards, Max said it was free time until two o’clock. I wanted to go back down to the beach but Max reckoned otherwise.

‘Have a rest. Play cards or something.’

We’re not playing-cards people – we dragged our sleeping bags out on to the grass and laid in the sun, telling ghost stories to try and scare each other.

It didn’t work, because the stories were rubbish and the sun was too bright.

‘Hey Bee,’ said Jonno. He was lying on his back with his eyes shut. ‘Haven’t noticed you sleepwalking this week. Thought it was your speciality.’

Bee propped herself up on one elbow. She had a smug look on her face. ‘I’m cured,’ she said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out Fifty’s flower remedy. It was obviously good stuff. I thought I’d get him to give me some.
Who knows what it could cure?

The camp horn sounded which meant it was time for the afternoon activity. We followed Max and Mr Morris (who was wearing red trousers and a short-sleeved khaki shirt, which was at least better than a jacket and tie).

‘We’re going to walk the course first. I’ll point out the possible pitfalls. Then it’s a relay, in pairs. The first pair goes off on the sound of my gun.’ He shot it and we all jumped. ‘The second pair go off when they hear the gun again, which will mean one pair has reached the other end. The third pair wait for the third shot.’

‘That’s not fair,’ said Bee. ‘Why should all the second pairs go off at the same time? Why can’t —’

‘I didn’t say it was fair. Isaid that’s what we’re doing,’ said Max. That shut her up.

I was next to Fifty, who was concentrating really hard on everything Max said. I could tell he was worried he wasn’t going to make it over all the obstacles. I’ll describe the course: a high wall with a drop the other side, arope bridge, a pole to climb followed by a zip wire over the river, scramble nets to crawl under, aslippery slope to get up, ropes to swing on, a balance beam, then a ladder leading up to monkey bars back over the river, and then a jump on to the bank – or a drop into the river!

‘You’ll be fine,’ I said.

Fifty stared back at me. His face was as white as chalk and his black curly hair looked even blacker, like he’d been monochromed.

‘Course I will,’ he said, ‘. . . and there goes a flying pig.’

‘OK,’ said Max. ‘So, divide your team into pairs, number them one, two, three and send your first pair to the start line. Double quick.’

We all looked at each other.

‘I’ll go with Lily,’ said Bee.

‘Not a great idea,’ said Copper Pie. ‘Two girls together . . . ‘

‘Says who?’ said Bee.

There was a delay, while Copper Pie worked out the right answer.’ No one,’ he said.

‘And why don’t you go with Fifty, Copper Pie?’ said Bee.

‘OK,’ he said. I thought I should go with Fifty but Jonno said, ‘So it’s me and Keener,’ and that was that.

‘We’ll be pair one,’ said Bee. ‘OK, Lily?’

‘Sure.’

They lined up next to Callum and Jamie, Zoe and her partner, and two boys from Team GB.

‘Go Tribe!’ shouted Copper Pie.

Callum turned and sneered. ‘No chance,’ he said.

‘We’ll see,’ said Copper Pie back to him.

‘In your dreams, Ginge.’

Callum was pushing his luck. If Max hadn’t sounded his gun we might have had a
situation.

Bee and Lily shot over the wall in the lead. Bee gave Lily a leg up and then Lily leant down and grabbed Bee’s arm and she scampered up the wall like a lizard. They disappeared after that, and we had to wait until they got to the pole to spot them again. At the top of the pole was a platform to catch the zip over to the other side of the river. Callum and Jamie were there first so Bee and Lily had to wait. Really annoying. But Bee and Lily managed to get ahead under the scramble nets. They were like snakes, gliding below the mesh without getting caught on anything. We all clapped and shouted when they emerged at the other end and started to make their way up the slippery slope. It was greasy, like it had washing-up liquid on it. Bee nearly got to the top by crawling on all fours but then she stood up and slid all the way back down. Lily learnt from that and stayed crouched until the top. Oh no, everyone was catching up! All eight of them were on the slope.

Bee and Lily made it to the top and grabbed a rope just before one of the Spiders.

‘Whee!’ shouted Bee.

‘We’re coming in first,’ said Copper Pie. ‘Get ready for the gun, Keener, and you, Jonno.’

Jonno did a thumbs up. I could feel my pulse getting quicker. I didn’t want to let the side down – if the girls could do it, so could I.

The balancing beam looked easy, but the monkey bars looked really difficult. Bee didn’t bother with the first few, she just reached out and grabbed the third or maybe fourth rung (they were actually ladders laid horizontally – four in a row). Lily was on the one next to Bee, and then there was Callum, and two seconds later, Jamie.

‘Go, Bee! Go, Lily!’I shouted my head off.

Bee finished with the most amazing jump, by swinging her legs back and then throwing her legs up and forward like a gymnast on those parallel bar things. The rest of her body followed and she was first, two feet slammed down on to the bank. Callum landed next. I was half watching them arrive back on our side of the river and half waiting for the shot. It didn’t come, because a complete pair had to land before the next ones could go.

Lily was dangling halfway across the river. Bee yelled, ‘Come on, Lily. Move your arm.’ Lily whimpered, and dropped into the water. It wasn’t far, but it was wet. She waded across, up to her waist. Jamie was struggling too but Callum’s shouting made him do it. They both touched the grassy edge at the same time. Equal first.

BANG!

We were off.

Doing it was completely different to watching other people do it. It was all so fast. I was scrambling up, then down, then across, then on my belly, then at an angle, then balancing and then we were at the monkey bars. It was neck and neck all the way – I could hear loud panting but I didn’t know if it was me or someone else, we were all so close together. We all ended up at the ladders within nanoseconds of each other, so each pair bagsied a ladder. Jonno went in front of me. He’s not that sporty but he had no problem swinging like an orangutan across the water. I was right behind. My armpit skin was stretched so far I reckoned I’d have to fold it under my arm at the end, but I’d decided before I even started that I was definitely making it to the other side, so I did. The shot for the last pair to get going rang out the minute I landed, sweating, panting and doubled-over with stitch. Jonno elbowed me – I think it meant ‘well done’. Neither of us could actually speak.