Tug-of-War (14 page)

“You'd better go to the infirmary and let the nurse clean those cuts up a little more,” Michelle told me as soon as we got back to camp. They didn't even expect me to stay and help put away all the life vests and paddles or unload the canoes from the trailer.

I went to the cabin to change out of my wet clothes before going to the infirmary. Since it was the middle of the afternoon and everyone was still at activities, the cabin was empty. Except for one person.

Devon.

She was lying on her bottom bunk reading, all by herself. When I realized we were going to have to face each other, I almost felt like turning around and walking out again, but she'd already seen me.

She just glanced at me and went back to reading without saying anything. I dug through my duffel for some clean, dry clothes.

“Oh my God! What happened to you?” Devon said suddenly. She was sitting up, staring at the bandages on my knees.

“I got this beauty too,” I said, turning sideways so she could see the dark red gash on my leg.

She gasped and came over to take a closer look. “That looks terrible! What happened?”

“Maggie and I broached our canoe on a rock. I got cut up while we were scrambling around on it. We had to climb out and swim to shore.”

“Wow! That sounds awful!” Devon stood with her arms folded over her stomach, like the sight of my wounds made her woozy.

“It was all Maggie's fault! She was playing around, pretending that we were about to hit the rock, and then we did!” I pulled a clean shirt over my head and ran my fingers through my damp, tangled hair.

“Did she get hurt?” asked Devon.

“No. Of course not! There's not a scratch on her.” The next thing I knew, I was spilling the whole story to Devon, telling her about what a great job we'd done on
the first eddy turn, but then Maggie had to go and be a show-off and get us wrapped on a rock.

“Oh my God! That sounds so unbelievably dangerous! You're lucky it wasn't worse. She could've gotten both of you drowned!”

“I know, right?” I felt so much better now that I was telling Devon about what happened. I didn't mention how I'd yelled at Maggie and pounded her skull with my bare knuckles. She kind of had it coming to her. Maybe.

“You'd better disinfect those cuts immediately. Who knows what kinds of bacteria you picked up from that river?”

“Oh yeah, I'm supposed to go to the infirmary to get these cleaned up.”

We looked at each other. “Are you still mad at me?” I asked in a soft voice.

Devon looked down at her dingy white sneakers. “I thought you were mad at me.”

“Well, I was. For a while. But I'm not anymore. You haven't been talking to me, so I didn't know if I should talk to you.”

Devon wouldn't look at me. “Same here.”

“Well, I hated it when we weren't talking. It's been a whole week!”

“I know. I've been counting every day,” said Devon, flicking her eyes up at me in a quick glance.

“So have I!” I said. A warm feeling of relief spread over me, like I'd just been wrapped up in a soft blanket.

“Look, I'm sorry I talked to Jackson so much. I can see why you got mad at me. I knew you liked him, and I should've backed off. You looked great that night, by the way.”

“Really? Thanks!”

“Yeah, you really did. Your hair was beautiful—don't ever straighten it. And your makeup was perfect, if I do say so myself. Plus, I loved that skirt you were wearing.”

Now it was my turn. I should just say it. Tell her I was sorry for all those mean things I'd said. Apologize for embarrassing her and telling her the wrong Spanish words. And flaunting the fact that she wasn't really bilingual.

But Boo and Maggie walked in the door right at that moment before I could get the words out of my mouth.

“Hey, I want to talk to you,” Devon said to Maggie. Boo winked and made a scared face at me. Then she went straight over to her side of the cabin without a single comment.

“Do you know you could've killed Chris? Have you
lost your mind?” She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at Maggie.

I almost laughed at that; Devon and I really did think alike. Would she tell Maggie her brain was floating down the river?

Maggie looked around Devon at me. “I'm sorry, Chris. I'm really sorry you got hurt.” Her voice cracked when she said it, and her bottom lip quivered.

All of a sudden, I felt like I was on the verge of tears again. If Devon hadn't been there, I might have lost it. The whole thing had been so scary. I wanted to yell at Maggie some more. But then I wanted to tell her I hadn't meant to rap on her head with my knuckles and say all those things about her missing brain. It was just a total reaction to the terror I'd gone through.

“Leave her alone! You've done enough to her already! Your sheer stupidity has always annoyed me, but I never realized how dangerous it was.” Devon turned to me. “Come on, Chris. I'll take you to the infirmary.”

“It has to be one of the Side B girls. They're getting us one by one. First you, then Maggie, and now Betsy. I suppose I'm next,” I told Devon.

We were sitting cross-legged on her bottom bunk, playing chess. Everyone else was at afternoon activities. Warm sunlight was pouring in through the window screens, and I could hear June bugs outside, buzzing in the trees. But here we were, inside.

“Whatever.” Devon shrugged. “I just don't get this fascination with childish pranks.” She moved her bishop and took my pawn.

“But don't you think they're funny? I saw you smiling over Maggie's gorilla socks sewn to her jersey.” I moved my rook to the seventh rank, attacking multiple
pawns and preventing the king from coming out.

Devon pressed her lips together firmly to keep from smiling. She pretended to be concentrating on her next move, but I could see that dimple in the corner of her mouth. She moved her rook so she could take control of the open lines.

Last night as we were getting ready for bed before lights-out, Betsy's retainer case was missing. She always kept it on the shelf by her bed. When we found it on a shelf above Wayward's bed, she opened it to find red, smiling lips inside.

“I've been pranked!” Betsy had shouted. “Somebody actually cared enough to play a prank on me! Thanks, whoever you are!” Then she'd taken the big red lips out of the case and held them in front of her mouth. They were made out of the same clay stuff we'd used in crafts to make our plates. Also inside the case was a tiny, stamp-size note in teensy writing that said,
A kiss from the tooth fairy
.

And still nobody was taking credit for it. Betsy seemed excited to be included in the pranks, but she was worried about where her retainers really were, until she felt something under her pillow and discovered a little box made out of popsicle sticks.

The retainers were inside it, along with another
tiny note:
B: Keep those pearly whites straight! TF

“Boo seems like the most obvious suspect, don't you think?” I asked Devon, moving my queen to take her pawn but still keeping my eye on the back rank mate.

She was completely focused on our game. She took it very seriously, and she almost always beat me. She moved her pawn, attacking my knight. But I couldn't move it because it was pinned to the rook.

“Yeah, I guess. Pay attention to your knight.”

I moved out of the pin, and she took my knight. “I mean, Boo has that sarcastic sense of humor. Laurel-Ann, well, she's just not the type to play pranks. It could be Shelby. Or even Kayla. Kayla's pretty quiet, but you get the sense that she's watching everything and making a note of it.”

I could tell Devon wasn't that interested in this conversation. But like everybody else in the cabin, I was curious about who was behind the pranks. The Side B girls denied everything. They were convinced that Maggie and Devon had pranked each other. But none of them had a good explanation for why Betsy was the latest target. It definitely put a new twist on things.

I leaned forward. “Hey, tell me the truth,” I said softly, not that anyone was around to hear. “Are you
responsible for the gorilla socks prank? You can tell me. I'll keep your secret.”

Devon didn't look up from the board. She rested her chin on one hand, trying to figure out her next move. I waited impatiently for her to answer me.

She moved her bishop into position against my king and sat back, a satisfied look on her face. “There. Check.”

I moved my king out of check. “Well, did you?”

“Did I what?” she asked, moving her knight in, planning to fork the king and queen but also threatening a forced checkmate in two moves. There was no way I could stop it without losing my queen. She hadn't even heard my question. Or was she pretending not to because she was the guilty party?

“Did you sew Maggie's gorilla socks onto her jersey?”

Devon rolled her eyes. “As I've said before, do you think I know how to thread a needle?” Then she crinkled her nose and added, “Do you honestly think I would ever lay a finger on those hairy things Beefaroni puts on her feet?”

She had a point there.

“I think it's Boo. I wonder what she's going to do to me.”

Devon shook her head. “Who cares? Will you make your move, please?”

I moved my rook to prevent mate.

Hanging out with Devon for the past few days had given me a taste of how she'd been spending all her time while I'd been busy going to activities with Maggie. We'd spent the morning in the cabin reading. Devon was thrilled that she now had someone to play chess with, but I couldn't get over feeling like I was missing something.

Friday afternoon I'd switched from not speaking to Devon to not speaking to Maggie almost instantly. It was like I could only be friends with them in shifts. I probably would've talked to Maggie by now, but Devon was always by my side, and I felt like she was shielding me from getting close enough to Maggie to speak to her.

Maggie had taken the hint and was off doing things on her own. I was glad I'd made up with Devon, but I hated spending all my time in the cabin when there were so many other things to be doing.

Where was Maggie right now? She was definitely outside on this beautiful summer afternoon.

Devon moved her knight, forking the king and queen. “Check.” She tried not to smile, but she was obviously pleased with her performance.

I moved my king out of check. After her knight took my queen, my rook took her knight. We exchanged rooks. Then Devon brought her king into the center, rounding up the pawns.

I moved my king into the center too. She had already rounded up the pawns and had a pawn past the fifth rank. I couldn't stop it, so it promoted to a queen.

She then boxed my king in on the last file. I had to move my king because it was the only piece I had left. She then moved her queen to g2 and said “Checkmate,” smiling.

“Good job,” I told her.

“Want to play again?” she asked.

“No, you already beat me twice.” I moved all the chess pieces off the board and flipped it over. It folded in half and served as a carrying case for the pieces. “What should we do now?”

Devon fell back on her bed, her head on her pillow. “Want to read for a while? How far are you in
Brave New World
?” Devon had let me borrow that book to read, but I wasn't too into it yet. It was a good book and everything, about a futuristic world where everyone was controlled by the class they were born into, but I wanted to be
outside
, doing things.

“Not that far, really. I don't want to read anymore.
My eyeballs need a break. Let's go to an activity now, okay? How about archery? You liked that the last time.”

Devon sighed. “It's too hot. There are too many gnats. It's too far to walk.”

Maggie would never let gnats keep her from having fun. I stood up and went over to the window to look out. The sunlight was making a pattern of light green and dark green on the leaves outside.

I turned around to face her. “Devon, come on. Let's do something.” It was one thing for us to hang out in our rooms back home and do nothing on a summer afternoon, but precious camp minutes were ticking away.

Last night at assembly in the lodge, Michelle had announced that another river trip was coming up on Thursday. Maggie and I had kind of looked at each other, but we hadn't said anything. Now that my knees and cut had scabbed over, I wasn't so mad anymore.

I needed a chance to talk to her alone. Without Devon around. But Devon was always around now. There had to be a way I could make up with Maggie but still keep Devon as a friend. Wasn't it possible for me to be friends with both of them at the same time?

My birthday wish hadn't come true. No matter
how hard I tried, I couldn't be friends with Maggie when Devon was around or friends with Devon when Maggie was around. I felt like I was caught in a tug-of-war.