by Sandy Beech
Panic twisted in my gut as I wondered if Kenny had somehow figured out about me and Josh and was mounting some horrible new prank. But he was gazing at me innocently.
“Really?” I said cautiously. “Er, what does he want?”
Kenny rolled his eyes. “How do I know what he wants? I’m not his stupid secretary’
“Fine, whatever” The panic was already subsiding. How would Kenny find out anything? Nobody knew except me and Josh. I certainly hadn’t told my little brother anything, and we already know how Josh felt about spilling the secret. “So where is he?”
“Up at the ridge.” Kenny shrugged.“Oh yeah, I guess maybe he wants to talk to you about the raft. Or something. I think he’s, like, looking for more wood, maybe.”
Doing my best to hide my sudden attack of stomach butterflies, I nodded. “Okay” I said, carefully keeping my voice casual. “Guess I’d better run up there and see what’s up.”
“Dani?” Ryan poked his head out of the shelter. “Are you—”
“Be right back!” I sang out, drowning out whatever he was going to say. Then I took off for the jungle, not slowing down until I was out of sight of the beach.
Then I slowed to a brisk walk, wondering what was going on now. Why was Josh summoning me up to the ridge? Was it just a way to get us some time alone? I wasn’t sure why Josh would send a messenger—especially a notoriously unreliable one like Kenny—on that kind of errand.
Then again, if Josh was willing to trust Kenny with his message, maybe that meant he was coming around on the secrecy thing. My eyes widened as a new possibility popped into my head. Maybe that was exactly what he wanted to talk about. Maybe he was ready to tell everyone about the two of us!
Crossing my fingers hopefully, I broke into a jog. Within minutes 1 was sweating in the dense humidity of the jungle. Why had Josh chosen such a distant spot for this meeting, anyway? I could have been to the butterfly spot three or four times already.
“Oh, well” I muttered under my breath. “At least maybe this means we won’t have to worry about anyone else barging in on us, like Angela or—Macy!” I blurted out as I burst into the sunny clearing on the ridge and saw the other girl sitting on a large boulder. “What are you doing here?”
“Sorry, Dani,” Macy said shyly. “I hate lying to anyone, especially someone nice like you. But we weren’t sure how else to get you up here.”
“We?” I repeated suspiciously.
Hearing the sound of running footsteps behind me, I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Kenny burst out of the jungle. “Whoa!” he panted. “Living on this island is making you a lot less lazy, Dani. You got up here fast!”
I glared at him, then at Macy. “Okay, what’s going on here?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Where’s Josh?”
The two of them exchanged a glance. Macy looked worried, and Kenny looked smirky and amused. “Um, he’s not here,” Macy admitted. “We just needed a way to get you up here. Quickly. Sorry.”
My face went red as I realized that Macy had used her inside knowledge about Operation Distract Josh against me—and worse yet, she’d apparently let Kenny in on it too. I wasn’t sure whether to be furious at them for tricking me like that, or embarrassed that I’d fallen for their story hook, line, and sinker.
I was still trying to sort that out when Kenny let out a shout. “There it is!” he cried, pointing off toward the ocean.
Before I could figure out what he was talking about, Macy grabbed me firmly by the shoulders and spun me around so that I was facing in the same direction. “Look!” she commanded.
Before I could protest, a flash of sunlight sparkled off something out there in the water, making me squint. As I focused on the source of the sparkle, my jaw dropped.
“Whoa,” I said blankly. “It’s a boat!”
I just stared for a second, wondering if I was hallucinating. I’d heard that the tropical heat could do that to you. But no—it was real. A large boat was chugging along out in the open water beyond the neighboring islands, its white sides and polished-chrome accents standing out starkly against the sapphire blue water. If I squinted hard, I could almost make out human forms walking around on the broad deck. Okay, maybe that was wishful thinking—it was too far away to make out that much detail. But it seemed like a pretty safe bet that those were people on board.
“I can’t believe it.” I tore my gaze away from the boat to stare at my brother. “You were telling the truth about seeing a boat!”
He looked insulted. “Duh,” he said sourly. “I only told you like a million times.”
“Never mind,” Macy said. “The important thing is, we’re all on the same page now. So what are we going to do about it?”
She looked at me intently. I gulped, catching on to her meaning. I may be stubborn, but I’m not slow.
“I—I don’t know.” My mind raced along at a thousand miles an hour, storing, labeling, and categorizing this new information. All along I’d been assuming that even if Kenny wasn’t making up the whole boat story, he was probably at least exaggerating whatever he’d seen. He tends to do that; my parents refer to it as his “creative spark,” but I prefer to call it what it is—pathetic shouts for attention. In Kenny’s nutty little mind, he could make a rescue boat out of a passing pelican or a white plastic bag floating along on the current. And Josh had been so busy directing the raft-building process that he hadn’t had a chance to go up to the ridge himself and check it out yet, which meant we hadn’t had any non-Kenny-based proof that the boat existed at all.
Until now.
“Okay,” I said slowly, still trying to digest this new development. “So there’s a boat. That’s cool. It means when Josh finishes the raft—”
“No!” Macy interrupted, looking alarmed. “Forget about the raft. What about the fire idea?”
“Well I don’t know. The raft plan is a better bet. Probably.” The words sounded lame even as they left my lips.
Kenny wrinkled his nose. “Get real, Danielle,” he said. “The raft will take forever to finish, and nobody even knows if it will float. The fire will be a lot easier.”
“And safer” Macy gazed at me imploringly. “Just think about it, Dani, okay?”
I was already way ahead of her. For a few stubborn seconds I kept trying to convince myself that Josh’s plan could work out just as well as Kenny’s idea. But it was no use. All my potential arguments collapsed in the face of plain old common sense. Why risk our necks—and our tender, non-shark-chewed flesh—setting out on a rickety raft when there was an easier way? If we could build a fire big enough to be seen by either whoever was making the smoke on that other island or the people on the boat, one or the other was sure to investigate. And before we knew it, we would be back home trying to forget we’d ever known what a choo-choo bug was.
“Okay. I see your point.” Despite my rising excitement at the thought of imminent rescue, I felt like the world’s biggest traitor as Josh’s face flashed into my mind. Or should that be the world’s worst girlfriend?
I pushed that out of my mind, deciding to look on the bright side: Once we were rescued, nobody would remember or care how it had come about.
“So are you with us?” Macy asked cautiously.
I nodded. “I’m in,” I said. “But lets hurry, okay? We should try to get the fire going as soon as possible. Like way before the raft is ready to go.”
Macy looked worried. “I’m not sure we can do that.” She glanced around the ridge, which was rocky and exposed, a large bare spot in the sea of vegetation that covered most of the island. “There’s not much wood up here, which means we’ll have to carry it all up from the jungle. If we want the fire to be big enough for anyone to see, that means a lot of wood. And with only three of us working on it …”
She didn’t finish, but that was okay. Nobody needed to draw me a picture to make my options clear. I could sneak around behind Josh’s back, hope we could pull it off in time and that he wouldn’t be mad at me when he figured it
out. Or I could do the right thing and talk to him.
He’s a sensible guy, I told myself. He’ll see that this is the best way to go. Won’t he?
I took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll go talk to Josh right now?”
Macy smiled. “Great,” she said, sounding relieved. “Thanks, Dani. We’ll get to work up here until you report back. Right, Ken?”
I left them gathering sticks at the edge of the ridge. Even though the trip back to the beach was all downhill, I moved a lot slower than I had going up. I was looking forward to this conversation about as much as a pig looks forward to becoming pork chops. Maybe less.
Deciding to practice a little, I cleared my throat. “Listen, Josh,” I said to a passing choo-choo bug. “I don’t want to hurt your feelings or anything, but your raft idea stinks. My eight-year-old twerp of a brother came up with a much better plan…. Wait.” Taking a deep breath, I started again, this time addressing the lizard that was scurrying frantically down the path ahead of me. “Okay, Josh, I need to be honest with you. You know that raft you’re building? You’ be lucky if it makes it as far as the coral reef. So here’s an idea that might actually work….”
I shook my head. Maybe it was better not to practice.
When I reached the beach most of the others were gathered at Raft Central. Josh was helping Ryan tie pieces of wood together, while Ned and the twins busily ducttaped the life jackets. Angela, of course, was standing around being useless.
None of them had noticed me approaching yet. I watched them work, trying to psyche myself up for what I had to do. How hard could it be? All I had to do was tell them what I’d just seen up on the ridge, then convince them to ditch the raft thing and help build the fire.
Taking a deep breath, I hurried forward. Josh was the first to spot me. He looked up at me and smiled.
“Hi, Dani!” he said, sounding really happy to see me. “Where’ve you been? We were all just wondering.”
“I—I—,” I stammered lamely. I’d been all ready to blurt out what was on my mind. But that first look at Josh’s open, happy face stopped me in my tracks. If I said what I needed to say in front of all those other people, it would embarrass him half to death. I couldn’t do that to him.
Angela wrinkled her nose at me. “Yeah, we were wondering if you were planning to do any work today at all.”
I glared at her. She was the last one who should be complaining about other people being lazy. But I didn’t have time to point that out to her. Instead I turned back to Josh.
“Listen,” I told him, trying to sound casual. “I just found a new spot with a big bunch of wood out in the jungle. It looks like it might work for the raft. Want to come see?”
Ryan immediately jumped forward. “I can go with her and check it out if you want Josh,” he volunteered eagerly.
I gulped. “Er …,” I began.
“No!” Cassie blurted out. As everyone glanced at her in surprise, she smiled sheepishly. “I mean, don’t go, Ryan. Stay here with us.”
“Yeah, its okay, Ry,” Josh added calmly. “I’d better go look myself. You can keep working on the rudder, okay?”
Ryan looked a little disappointed, but he shrugged. “Sure.”
I saw the twins exchange a relieved glance. Angela didn’t look quite so pleased, but she didn’t say anything as Josh and I headed up the beach toward the jungle.
We stepped into the shade of the trees side by side and made our way down the trail. Within a few minutes we were well out of sight and sound of the beach. That was when Josh reached over and took my hand in his as we walked.
He glanced over at me, suddenly looking a little shy. “So is there really a pile of wood out here?” he asked.
“No.” Taking a deep breath, I tried to Figure out how to proceed. I decided maybe it was like ripping off a Band-Aid—better to do it quickly. “Listen, Josh, I have to talk to you. It’s important.”
He stopped and turned to face me, grabbing my other hand as well. “I want to talk to you about something too.” His deep brown eyes suddenly looked all sincere, and his voice sounded a little choked up as he continued. “When we got stranded on this island, I thought it was the worst thing ever, you know? But now I’m glad it happened. Otherwise I might never have figured out how cool you are, or had the guts to tell you. You know?”
“Wow!” I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Talk about being thrown off track. “I—well, yeah. Me too.”
He smiled. “Its also totally cool how we’ve working on this raft together. I mean, I know everybody else is helping too, but I’m sort of thinking about it as our project, you know? You’ve been, like, so supportive and helpful and stuff, and it’s really cool. In fact”—he paused, looking shy again—“I wasn’t going to tell you yet, but … well, I already decided I want to dedicate the raft to you when its finished. People always give girls names to boats and stuff, so I thought we could call it, like, Dani’s Dream or something like that.” He shot me an apologetic look. “Oh, but I haven’t told the others that, of course. It’ll be, like, our secret.”
Of course,” I murmured, totally confused by now. Somehow, what I’d meant to be a serious talk about switching over to the fire idea had turned into a rah-rah session for the raft. And for me.
While I was still puzzling over that one, Josh took a step closer, his hands tightening on mine. I blinked at him stupidly, not sure for a moment what he was doing.
Then he leaned forward, his eyes drooping half closed. My heart raced as his face loomed closer and closer. I finally snapped my own eyes shut as his lips touched mine, feeling surprisingly soft and warm….
And this time there was no Angela around to interrupt.
I guess most girls probably spend a lot of time imagining what their first kiss will be like. For instance, my best friend Tina always says she wants hers to take place in a pretty flower garden under the moonlight. And even though she already kissed this one guy on a dare last year, my other best friend, Michelle, thinks it would be cool to have her first real kiss on a train platform. Don’t ask me what that’s about, but hey, it’s her fantasy, not mine.
As for me, well, I’d never really put a lot of thought into it. But now that it was happening, I knew that I couldn’t have imagined anything more perfect than the reality. I mean, what could be better than standing in a sundappled little clearing in a tropical jungle while the coolest guy in the world gives you your first kiss? Okay, so maybe I wouldn’t have chosen the sweat dripping down my back or the large choo-choo bug buzzing around our heads. But the rest was pretty amazing. Oh, and not that I had any basis for comparison, but Josh was an awfully good kisser.
Finally we pulled apart, both of us a little red faced and bashful, but happy. “That was nice,” Josh whispered.
I nodded, still a little stunned about what had just happened. Happy stunned, of course. “Uh-huh.”
“Oh!” Josh blinked. “Sorry, I forgot you wanted to talk to me about something too. What was it?”
I gulped, reality crashing down on me once again. After what had just happened, there was no way I could say what I’d meant to say No way I could risk ruining this moment. No. Way.
“Erp,” I blurted out. “Uh, I mean, its nothing. That is, I just wanted to tell you the same sort of thing. You know?
Oh, okay? Josh smiled at me. “Cool.”
Luckily he didn’t; seem suspicious at all, as he leaned in for another kiss.
I guess maybe all the kissing must have immobilized part of my brain, because I managed to completely forget about reporting back to Macy and Kenny. It wasn’t until I saw their faces, wearing matching anxious expressions, that I remembered. Actually, only Macy’s face looked anxious. Kenny looked more annoyed, and maybe a little constipated. Then again, he often looks like that.
“Hey, Dani. There you are!” Macy called, hurrying toward me with Kenny on her heels. I was standing at the fire pit carefully pouring a bucket full of water into our metal water-boiling pot to start lunch. Broo
ke and Ned were over at the food-prep area debating whether to boil or roast today’s coconut course.
I looked up at Macy with a guilty smile. The lost part of my brain kicked back into gear instantly, and I realized it had been more than two hours since I’d left them up at the ridge. “Oh,” I said lamely. “Er, there you are. I was looking for you before.”
That was a bald-faced lie, but Macy seemed willing to let it slide. Kenny, however, was another story.
“Where did you look?” he demanded, his hands on his hips. “We’ve been up at the ridge all morning!”
“Shh!” Macy cast a worried look toward Brooke and Ned. “Never mind that. Did you talk to him, Dani?”
“Not exactly’ I pretended to be very busy pouring so I wouldn’t have to look her in the eyes. “Er, I sort of changed my mind about that.”
“What are you talking about?” Kenny exclaimed.
Brooke glanced up curiously. But I guess she figured the commotion was just me and Kenny arguing as usual, because she shrugged and turned back to Ned almost immediately.
“Quiet, Kenny, please” Macy murmured. “Maybe we should all go somewhere more private and talk about this a little.”
I shrugged, carefully kicking the pot of water a little farther into the fire. “There’s really nothing to talk about,” I muttered. Not anything I felt like discussing with the two of them, anyway. I wasn’t about to admit to them that I was wussing out because I didn’t want to risk messing things up with Josh. I could barely admit that even to myself.
“But, Dani …,” Macy began uncertainly.
“Dont be a dork, Danielle,” Kenny added.
I rolled my eyes. “Look, I just decided it was better to do both things. Two plans have got to be better than one, right? It means twice the chance of success.”
Macy looked dubious about that one. “Well, maybe. But we still should tell Josh that we—”
“Look, I’ll still help you guys with the fire and everything,” I interrupted, noticing the others approaching from the direction of Raft Central. Josh was leading the way, with Angela hovering right around his left shoulder like a hungry choo-choo bug. “But only on one condition. We have to keep it a secret from everybody else. Especially Josh.”