by Sheela Chari
“Toothpaste! How do you know all this stuff?” JP asked.
“I’m not really sure,” Toothpick said. “How did you drag the boat up on shore?”
“What does my strength have to do with your brain?” JP asked.
“I guess it’s just who we are,” Toothpick said. He rolled up the map. “Let’s go.”
“Let’s stick together, too, Pick,” Mars called out as he saw Toothpick disappear ahead through a thicket of trees.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on him,” JP said as they followed Toothpick, weaving between twiggy pine trees that seemed to be everywhere. Then JP flexed their arms in and out curiously. “Guys, am I the only one, or does it feel like there’s something different here?”
“Yeah,” Mars said. “Though I’m not sure why.”
Caddie’s teeth chattered. “One thing: it’s really cold. Brr.”
“You’re shivering, girl,” JP said. “Here, take my sweatshirt.”
Caddie tried to say no. “I thought you hated being wet.”
“That’s wet. I can handle cold.” JP removed their Arsenal sweatshirt and gave it to Caddie. “Here. It’s not even wet anymore for some reason. It should keep you nice and toasty.”
“Thanks, JP.” Caddie took the sweatshirt gratefully and put it on under her raincoat. “I don’t know why I’m so c-c-old. Guess I’m just sensitive.” The sweatshirt felt warm and smelled like cinnamon. JP had baked cinnamon cookies in the morning to cheer themself up. It was hard to imagine JP sad, but it must have been because of that thing JP’s mom said, about not wearing such crazy clothes all the time. That memory was still fresh in JP’s mind, and Caddie was surprised by how quickly she could sense it.
“But I love the way you dress,” Caddie said, then stopped, realizing JP hadn’t said anything.
JP laughed. “Well, don’t think you’re keeping my Arsenal sweatshirt or anything.”
As they continued through the woods, a sound came in the distance. Was it . . . a howl? It came again. Then another time.
JP stopped. “Guuuuys . . . what was that?”
“It sounds like . . . a wolf,” Mars said slowly. Were there wolves in Puget Sound?
There it was again. Only now it was getting louder. And it sounded like a growl.
Mars swallowed. “Let’s hurry up, all right? And make some noise.”
“So it knows where to find us?” JP shot back. “Sorry, I don’t want to be wolf food.”
“Mars is right,” Caddie said. “When I went hiking in Alaska last year, we had bells in our hands to ring in case a bear came by. The noise scares them away. You should know that, JP. Didn’t you go to Alaska one summer?”
“Maybe I missed Bells 101,” JP said.
Meanwhile, Mars pulled out the headphone jack and turned up the volume so everyone could listen along to the podcast he had downloaded to his phone earlier in the afternoon.
Listeners, a puzzle for you.
A man goes upstairs to get his time machine.
He walks back downstairs,
and he travels back in time two hundred years.
Why did he go downstairs first?
Hint: HEAD FOR THE CLEARING.
“Oh man, not Oliver Pruitt,” JP groaned.
Behind them the howling sound came again.
“It’s a good distraction,” Mars said. “Why does the man go back down the stairs, JP?”
“No clue,” JP said. “Maybe he needed a sandwich. I sure could use one.”
Behind them, the howling sounded even closer. And it was gaining!
“OK, guys, RUN!” Mars shouted.
They bolted through the thick underbrush. There was no time to think whether they were going in the right direction. Whatever was howling was getting closer. Now they could hear it plowing through the trees, tearing across the wooded ground. Mars thought of deer being hunted and wondered if this was what it felt like. Except, were they the deer?
“Faster!” Mars yelled. There was a clearing up ahead. Suddenly OP’s words came hurtling back. “We need to get to the clearing,” he shouted. “We’ll be safe there.”
“How do you know?” Caddie yelled behind him.
“He doesn’t,” JP yelled back. “Let’s do it anyway.”
There was no more time for talking, just running while whatever it was chased them, howling and gnashing its teeth.
“Keep going!” Mars yelled. “Don’t stop!”
A few minutes later they broke through the woods and stumbled into the clearing, which was a large, open field. Everyone stopped to catch their breath.
“It’s gone,” Caddie said as she gulped air. “I don’t feel it anymore.”
“You could feel it, Caddie?” JP asked, breathing hard. “Like how you can feel us thinking?”
She shook her head. “No, I could sense it. It went back where it came from. It didn’t want to be in the clearing.”
“That’s what the podcast said,” Mars said. “Remember?”
JP shook their head. “I didn’t hear anything. Sorry, I was too busy running for my life.”
“How could Oliver know we’d be near a clearing at this hour?” Mars wondered. He suddenly noticed something else. “And where’s Pick?”
“He’s not here,” Caddie whispered. “I don’t sense him.”
“This can’t be happening,” JP moaned. “We can’t lose Pick, too.”
Mars’s heart started beating. How many of his friends were going to disappear? Did the thing that was chasing them . . . get Pick?
“I hope not, Mars,” Caddie said softly.
Mars looked at her. “I didn’t say anything,” he said.
Just then, JP called out. “Look, guys, there he is. Up ahead! Pick! Pick!”
They ran to him. Mars was so relieved to see him. Then he saw his face.
“What’s wrong?” Mars asked breathlessly. “Are you OK? Did you get hurt?”
Toothpick shook his head. “I’m fine. I just don’t understand it. It can’t be,” he murmured.
“What, Pick?” Mars asked.
“I watched the videos,” he said. “I studied the layout. I know it all by heart. The science towers, the botany lab, the virtual-reality auditorium, the café with the living roof.” He pointed to his map. “This is where it’s supposed to be. But look — it’s gone.”
“What’s gone?” JP asked.
Toothpick gestured to the dark, empty field ahead of them.
“Pruitt Prep,” he said.
“Maybe the school is on some other part of the island,” Caddie said.
“And we came to the wrong part?” JP asked. The twigs on the ground made snapping sounds as everyone tromped back through the dark woods toward the shore. By now, the howling thing, whatever it was, had thankfully disappeared.
“The map I downloaded seemed accurate,” Toothpick said. “And I cross-checked the coordinates with Google Maps.”
“What if there’s no school?” JP said.
“You mean it’s a fake location?” asked Toothpick.
JP shrugged. “There are worse things.”
“I agree with Mars,” Caddie said.
“I didn’t say anything,” Mars said. “Again.”
“Oh,” Caddie said.
“The school is real,” Mars said.
“Yeah, like I said, I agree with Mars,” Caddie said again.
“That’s because he likes Oliver Pruitt,” JP said. “Makes sense.”
“Look at all the stuff online,” Mars said. “The website, the YouTube videos, the interviews. And the brochure. You can’t take pictures of a fake school.”
“You’d be surprised,” JP said.
“Oliver Pruitt is a rich billionaire,” Caddie asked. “Why would he have a fake school?”
“Why would he take our friends?” JP asked pointedly.
“We don’t know that he did,” Toothpick said. “That’s just speculation.”
JP flapped their arms out in the dark. “Then why are we here?
Mars thinks Jonas and Aurora are at Pruitt Prep. They can’t be here unless Oliver Pruitt had something to do with it.”
As they continued walking, Mars looked up at the night sky. Somewhere Oliver was transmitting his podcast every day. All along, Mars had assumed it was from Pruitt Prep. But Pruitt Prep wasn’t here. Was it all a trick? But why would the greatest mind in the world be bothered with fooling the four of them? Not to mention the thousands of other kids listening to his podcast?
And now this trip to Gale Island had been a complete waste of time. He had let his friends down. He’d sent Aurora that text. If she’d got it, she thought he was on the way, just like she’d thought her dad was on the way. And just like her dad, Mars had failed her.
He sighed. Either he was confused or just plain dumb.
“You’re not dumb, Mars,” Caddie said. “Stop blaming yourself. And Toothpick can stop blaming his map. He didn’t put it up on the Web; Oliver Pruitt did.”
Toothpick looked at her. “I didn’t say anything.”
“And there’s no food here either, JP,” Caddie added. “So you can stop thinking about that.”
Everyone stared at her.
Caddie stopped. “Am I doing that thing again?”
“You’re in all of our minds,” Toothpick observed. “At the same time. It’s unprecedented.”
“And annoying,” JP said.
“I’m sorry,” Caddie said softly. “I’m not trying to be. And I don’t know where the school went, Mars! Stop thinking I’d know.”
She walked off.
“What got into her?” JP wondered. “Just because I was hungry?”
Mars hurried to catch up with Caddie.
“Cads, is everything OK?” he asked. “You seem . . . upset.”
“I’m fine,” she said without looking at him. “I just needed some space. So many thoughts, and they’re not even mine!”
“Oh,” Mars said.
They walked in silence, the sound of the ground crunching under their feet. Autumn in Port Elizabeth was gloomy and wet, and all you wanted to do was stay home and drink hot chocolate and watch a movie. Mars felt like that now, like wanting to be some place dry and warm. As for the movie . . . well, his life felt like a movie. Just not in a good way.
Caddie was shivering again. Mars offered his coat, but she shook her head as she rubbed her hands together. He could see her breaths coming out in white puffs, which was odd because he couldn’t see his own breath.
Everything seemed so complicated. The only thing that made sense was Caddie. Without her, he wouldn’t have come to Gale Island; he wouldn’t have broken into Jonas’s house; he wouldn’t keep looking for their friends. There were a lot of things Mars wouldn’t do without Caddie. He wished he could make her feel better the way she did for him.
“I guess I’ve gotten used to other people’s feelings,” Caddie said. “It was hard when I was little. So many mean people, Mars. With such mean feelings.”
“Yeah,” Mars said. “Like in first grade, it made you cry.”
“It’s different here,” Caddie said. “I can read actual thoughts, not just sense them. I can be completely inside everyone’s minds. Like poor Toothpick. He’s feeling terrible about not finding the school. He always gets things right. It’s huge with him. Now he’s close to tears, even though he can’t tell anyone that. And JP? You think they’re all tough, but they get worried and scared, too. JP had a fight with their mom this morning, and JP wonders if they’ll ever be accepted in this world.”
“JP shouldn’t care what anybody thinks.”
“JP doesn’t let anybody know they care. Except there I am, inside their head. It’s crazy! And wrong, too.”
“So you mean you can tell what everyone is thinking?” Mars asked. He stopped walking. Caddie did, too. “Then what am I thinking right now?” he asked curiously. And just like that, a thought popped in his mind before he could stop it. He didn’t even know it was there until it was.
“Oh, Mars,” she said. “If you want to ask me to the dance, you should.”
“Wait,” Mars said, his face heating up. He didn’t know how that idea had crept into his head. Maybe it had been there all this time, but it confused him because wasn’t he looking for Aurora, too?
“I don’t know how Aurora would feel about it, either,” Caddie said softly, “but I imagine she’s got other things to worry about at this moment.”
“You’re right. I mean,” he said, flustered, “about wanting to ask you, that is. So, uh . . . would you go to the dance with me, Caddie? Like, if we get home and there aren’t more disasters?”
He couldn’t tell in the dark, but he thought Caddie smiled. “I would love to go,” she said.
“Awesome,” Mars said. Wow, it was weird that he had to be on Gale Island to ask her.
“Yeah, it is weird,” Caddie agreed. Then she stopped. “Sorry, I’ll try not to do that, even though it’s basically impossible.”
By now, JP and Toothpick had reached them. “Listen folks, let’s keep it moving. Toothpick, do you remember where we tied the boat?”
“Yes, it’s this way,” Toothpick said. “The shore is right there.”
A few minutes later they reached the beach and stared into the rippling waters.
And they discovered a bigger problem.
The rickety rowboat they had tied to the dock was gone. There was nothing left behind except the moonless night. And them.
JP was furious. “I tied the boat, didn’t I? Tell me I’m not crazy.” In their hand JP squeezed their flashlight in frustration and suddenly it buckled under their grip. “Oops,” JP said.
Toothpick pushed up his glasses. “You’re not crazier than the rest of us, JP. Though maybe you shouldn’t be handling any more flashlights.” He took the mangled flashlight from JP and put it in his backpack.
“I’m sorry, Pick. I don’t know my own strength,” JP said. “But that still doesn’t tell me why the boat I dragged over here and tied up has vanished.”
Toothpick nodded. “Agree. Either a person or an animal was responsible for untying it.”
“You mean the wolf?” JP crossed their arms then leaned forward. “And now I can’t see a blinking thing. Somebody got a light?”
Toothpick rifled through his backpack.
Meanwhile, Mars was thinking about what Toothpick had said. He was right. That boat didn’t get loose on its own. So who untied it? A wolf? Someone from Pruitt Prep? Oliver? As Mars was trying to figure it out, JP caught on fire.
When JP had crushed their flashlight like an empty soda can, their own strength stunned JP momentarily. But mostly they were annoyed it was so dark. When JP asked for a light, they assumed Toothpick would hand out another flashlight from his backpack filled with every kind of survival equipment you could imagine. Instead he pulled out an Ultimate Survival Match. When lit, it was capable of withstanding rain, sleet, and hail. Or something like that. Toothpick had told JP about the matches while they were still in Port Elizabeth waiting for Caddie and Mars to come. Nothing puts them out, he’d said. Nothing.
When JP lit one, it gave a fabulous flame. They’d never seen anything so bright from a single matchstick.
“Dude!” JP said appreciatively. “That is ultimate!” But before they could tell Toothpick just how epic the match was, JP tripped over a large branch in their path.
Then everyone started screaming.
“JP! Your shirt!” Caddie yelled.
“Quick, roll on the ground!” Toothpick shouted next.
Then Mars tackled JP onto the sand with his jacket.
“Oof,” JP said, tumbling down.
“What’s everyone getting in a tizzy for?” JP asked, standing up.
Toothpick breathed, “JP, you were combusting.”
“What?”
“On fire,” Mars said plainly. “You were on fire.”
“Didn’t you feel it?” Caddie wondered. “You didn’t, did you? You have no idea what we’re talking about. And will you st
op thinking about food for a second? You almost got killed!”
It took them a few minutes to sort it out. That JP had been literally on fire, until Mars snuffed them out. But the bigger thing, more than being a human candle, was that JP didn’t feel any of it.
“Well, I am kind of strong . . .” JP said slowly.
“Are you kidding?” Caddie said. “Strength has nothing to do with that.”
“It’s as if JP was fireproof,” Toothpick speculated. “Able to withstand great heat.”
JP grinned. “All right. Now we’re talking. Like I’m a superhero or something.” JP looked out at the dark water and paused. “But, um, guys . . . how do we get home?”
Toothpick knew what to do.
“We build a fire,” he said. Everyone looked immediately at JP. “Not like that,” he added quickly. “Like, a real fire. To keep us warm. And to send an SOS.”
“Who are we SOSing out there?” JP asked.
“The Marines. The National Guard.”
“Really?” JP’s voice went up.
“Or pretty much anyone on a boat,” Toothpick said. He told everyone to collect firewood and kindling. “We need small, thin sticks. Dead and dry. Look for them on the trees. Coniferous are the best. Anything on the ground will be damp.”
They split into two groups, with Mars and Caddie going off near the woods to collect bigger branches while Toothpick and JP and built a shelter on the beach for the fire.
“I still don’t get how you know all this,” JP said as they gathered driftwood for the shelter. “No offense, but you aren’t exactly Boy Scout material.”
“I know,” Toothpick agreed. “I do have a good memory. Only . . . it seems even better here.”
“That’s what I said,” JP agreed. “Something about being here, I guess.” JP dropped a large branch on the ground that almost landed on Toothpick’s feet before he leaped out of the way.
Toothpick cleared his throat. “Maybe not so big, JP?”
“Sorry, Pick!”
Toothpick got out some twine to tie together the smaller pieces of driftwood. “Still, it’s my fault we didn’t find the school. That’s why we came. And I let you all down.”
“Let us down?” JP repeated. “You had the map. You knew the way. That’s why you went ahead of us, remember? We were worried when we didn’t see you.”