by R. L. Stine
“Huh?” She realized she hadn’t heard a word he’d said for at least a mile.
“Did you and Gary break up?” He stared straight ahead at the road.
“Well, yeah. I guess. I mean no. I don’t know.”
Pete laughed uncomfortably. “Should I choose one of the above?”
“Sorry,” Della said. The question had gotten her all flustered. “Gary and I… I mean, we haven’t really settled things.”
“Oh.” Pete didn’t hide his disappointment. “This overnight should be fun,” he said, changing the subject. “You’re not scared about spending the night on Fear Island, are you?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
“Stick with me. I’ll protect you,” he said in an exaggerated, deep he-man voice.
“Protect me from what? From Ricky’s bad jokes?”
“I think he’s kind of funny,” Pete admitted, turning down Fear Street and heading toward the woods. “In a gross, unfunny kind of way.”
The car bumped over the road, which ended at the edge of the Fear Street woods, fifty yards or so from the water. “Everyone’s here already,” Della said. Pete honked the horn as the others came into view.
She could see Gary and Ricky arguing about something. Maia was sitting by the water. Suki was standing next to Gary. Pete stopped the car and cut the engine. Della could see backpacks and sleeping bags piled up beside the two canoes Gary had brought.
She waved to her friends and helped Pete carry their equipment from the back of the station wagon. “The lake looks so pretty today,” she said. The water was very still and very blue, reflecting the clear sky above. Two ducks squawked and bobbed their heads as they swam near the shore. Fear Island was a low mound of green on the horizon.
“Okay. We’re all here. We can get going,” Gary said, looking at Della. He was wearing a faded denim jacket over a red T-shirt. His blond, wavy hair sparkled like gold in the sun.
He looks terrific, she thought. She gave him a warm smile, and he smiled back. “Gary, I want—” she started.
But Suki quickly stepped in front of her. “I’ve never paddled a canoe. Will you show me how?” she asked Gary in a kittenish voice.
“Sure,” he told her. “Just sit in the middle and watch. The person in the middle doesn’t paddle.”
“I’ll take this canoe. You guys can all take that one,” Ricky said. He jumped into the one on the left and stretched out on his back, taking up the whole canoe.
“Very funny, Schorr. Remind us to laugh later,” Suki said.
Della had to smile at Suki’s outfit. It wasn’t exactly outdoorsy. Her jeans had silver studs up the pants legs. She wore a long black T-shirt with a shorter white Guns-N’-Roses T-shirt on top of it. As usual, she had four different earrings in each ear.
“Hi, Della. I’m here.” Maia hurried over to Della, smiling but looking worried just the same.
“Great,” Della said. “Did your parents give you a hard time?”
“No. Not really,” Maia said. “Only, when they dropped me off here, they wouldn’t leave. They wanted to talk to Mr. Abner first.”
“Oh, no. What did you do?”
“Schorr made a few jokes, and they decided they’d rather go,” Suki cracked.
“Give me a break,” Ricky cried, still lying in the canoe. “Hey—where’s the gas pedal in this thing?”
“They changed their minds,” Maia told Della. “But I just know they’re going to find out what we’re doing.” She nervously squeezed her hands into tight fists at her sides.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Della said. “How will they ever find out?”
* * *
A few minutes later they were paddling, three to a canoe, over the still blue lake, out to Fear Island. “The water’s so clear today, you can see fish in there,” Pete said, leaning over the side and peering down.
The canoe started to tip. “Oh. Sorry about that.” He straightened and continued to paddle.
“Going for a swim, Pete?” Ricky called from the other boat. “You didn’t bring your rubber-ducky inner tube!”
No one laughed. The two canoes cut through the water side by side. Pete and Della paddled one canoe with Maia sitting in the middle. Gary and Ricky paddled the other, with Suki practically sitting in Gary’s lap.
Is she going to leave him alone for one second? Della asked herself. She was determined to talk to Gary as soon as possible. She had rehearsed over and over what she wanted to say. She knew he would want to go back to her once she talked with him, once she apologized. Suki could just find someone else. That wouldn’t be a problem for her.
Patient, be patient, Della repeated silently as she rowed. But it was so hard to wait. Why was there so much waiting in life? Even when you were supposed to be having a good time, you spent most of it waiting!
The slap of the paddles against the water was the only sound now. Della began to feel really warm despite the cool air. She moved her paddle smoothly, keeping in rhythm with Pete’s paddle. The island grew larger as they glided closer. She could make out a rocky beach in front of a line of pine trees. A few more minutes…
“Whoa!” She heard Ricky cry out and looked up to see him standing up in the other canoe. His eyes were wide and he was covering his mouth with his hand. The boat tipped from side to side.
“Sit down!” Gary yelled to him.
“Seasick! Seasick!” Ricky shouted, struggling to stay on his feet as the canoe bobbed violently beneath him.
“Don’t be a dork. You’re going to tip us over!” Suki cried, very alarmed.
Ricky held his paddle up over his head with one hand and kept his other hand over his mouth. “Seasick! Ulllp! Seasick!”
“Sit down and be seasick!” Gary yelled again.
“Oh. Good idea.” Ricky plopped back down in his place. He grinned at Gary and Suki. He had been faking the whole thing.
“Not funny, Schorr,” Gary said, shaking his head.
“You should change your name to that,” Suki added, still looking shaken. “Not-Funny Schorr.”
“Come on,” Ricky said, resuming his paddling. “You guys got a laugh out of it, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”
They didn’t answer him.
The canoes began to bob up and down as the current became stronger near the island’s shore. Della was enjoying the ride, the feel of the paddle in her hands pulling the canoe forward with each stroke, the cool wind against her face, the splash and tumble of the rolling water.
A few minutes later they were pulling the canoes onto the beach. “I want to keep on going,” she said to no one in particular. “It felt so good on the water.”
“It feels much better to be on dry land,” Suki said. “Hey!” She let go of the canoe to examine her hand. She had broken one of her long, purple press-on nails. “Now what am I going to do? I didn’t pack any replacements,” she grumbled.
“I guess that’s what’s called roughing it,” Ricky cracked.
She stuck out her tongue at him.
Suki walked alongside the others, examining her broken nail as they pulled the canoes across the narrow strip of pebbles to where the trees began. “They should be okay here,” Gary said, dropping the front of his canoe at the foot of a tall pine tree.
“Is it lunchtime yet?” Ricky asked. “Can we order a pizza or something?”
“Good idea. Why don’t you go get it?” Suki said, throwing the broken nail onto the sand. “We’ll wait here for you.”
Ricky looked hurt.
“I love campfires and making hot dogs over a fire,” Maia said, looking a lot more cheerful.
“Hey—it’s still morning, remember?” Gary reminded them. “We’ve got a lot to do before it’s campfire time. Come on. Pick up your packs and stuff. We’ve got to find a good campsite.”
“Aye, aye, chief,” Ricky said, giving Gary a backward salute.
Pete helped Della on with her backpack and handed her sleeping bag up to her. She thanked him and hurried up to walk with Mai
a. Pete was being really sweet. Too sweet. She really didn’t want to encourage him.
They walked along the beach for a while, keeping near the tree line. The sun was higher in the sky now and it was becoming really warm. Della looked up to see what was causing the loud, discordant squawking she heard. Two blue jays on a low tree limb seemed to be having an argument. “Look how big they are!” she said to Maia, pointing.
“Blue jays are the noisiest birds,” Maia said disapprovingly. “They’re not at all like bluebirds. Bluebirds are so sweet.”
“Welcome to Nature Studies 101,” Ricky interrupted.
“Come on, Ricky,” Della scolded. “Why’d you come on this trip if you don’t like to look at nature?”
“To get close to you, babes,” Ricky said, flashing her an evil grin. “You know, I brought a king-size sleeping bag. Big enough for me—and a friend.”
“What an irresistible invitation!” Della made a face and started walking faster. A dirt path led into the trees, and they followed it. It curved through thick woods, still deep with brown winter leaves. After a while they came to a circular clearing of tall grass and weeds.
“This looks good,” Gary said, tossing the tent he’d been carrying over his shoulder to the ground. “Let’s set up here.”
They all gratefully removed their packs and placed them on the ground. There were two tents to be set up, one for the boys and one for the girls.
“No. Turn them around this way,” Pete instructed after they had started to stretch the canvas over the poles they had put together. “The wind usually comes down from the north. So the backs of the tents should face north.”
“Very impressive, Pete,” Gary said, only half joking. He looked up at the sun, which was directly above them. “But how do we tell which way is north?”
“It’s that way,” Pete said, pointing. “I have a compass on my watch.” He held up his wrist, displaying one of those calculator watches with a dozen different functions.
“Do you think Daniel Boone had one of those?” Ricky asked.
Once again, everyone ignored him. They worked to turn the tents around and get them tightly pegged to the ground. Then they set off in different directions to gather enough firewood to last the night.
Pete started to follow Della, but again she hurried to catch up with Maia. “This is kind of scary,” Maia said, stepping carefully over a deep puddle.
“But fun,” Della added. She was very excited, she realized, but she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the fact that they were really on their own, with no adults in sight. Anything could happen. Anything. Just the six of them, alone in the woods for the night. It could be so romantic.…
She headed away from Maia and started in the direction Gary had gone off in. This is my chance to talk to him, she thought. She realized that her heart was pounding. Her mouth felt dry. She didn’t think she’d be this nervous.
Gary must mean more to me than I let myself admit, she thought. She stepped quickly over the dry brown leaves and fallen twigs, looking for him through the birch and pine trees.
It smelled so sweet and fresh in the woods. She couldn’t wait to talk to him, to be with him again, to feel his arms around her. How could she have been so stupid as to lose her temper like that and break up with him? She didn’t even remember now what the argument was about.
A squirrel stopped halfway down a tree trunk. It stared at her as she hurried past, then scampered over the leaves to the next tree.
“Gary, I want to apologize.” Those were going to be her first words. No fancy introductions. No excuses or explanations. She’d just apologize and get it over with.
She stopped. There he was. She could see him through a gap in the trees. She stifled a horrified gasp.
He was leaning back against a broad tree trunk. Suki was pressed against him. They had their arms wrapped tightly around each other. Their eyes were closed. They were locked together in a long, long kiss.
CHAPTER 3
No one was surprised later that afternoon when Ricky pulled a gun from his pack.
“Come on, guys—everybody take one.” He pulled out five more pistols, one at a time.
“Great! Let’s do it!” Pete cried enthusiastically.
“Okay!” Gary was just as gung ho. He grabbed a gun from Ricky and pretended to fire it at Pete. Pete hit the ground and pretended to retaliate with his gun.
The three girls groaned in unison.
“Not another ZAP war,” Della sighed.
“I hate war games,” Suki complained. “They’re so… competitive.”
What a long word for her, Della thought bitterly. In the hours since she had seen Suki and Gary in the woods, her hurt had turned to anger.
“I’ve never played,” Maia said. “Do you divide into teams, or is it every man for himself?”
“We’ll do teams,” Ricky said, pulling out the paint for the ZAP guns.
“Include me out,” Suki said.
“Come on, girls. It’ll be fun,” Gary pleaded. “A bunch of us had a ZAP war a few weeks ago in Shadyside Park. We ended up covered in paint. It was hilarious.”
“Sounds like a real laugh riot,” Suki said sarcastically.
“Okay. I’m game,” Della said, suddenly changing her mind. If Suki was against it, then she was going to be for it! Let Gary see who was the better sport.
“Me too, I guess,” Maia said, looking at Della for reassurance.
“Great!” Gary cried. “Come on, Suki.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You’re the only holdout.”
“I told you, I don’t like war games,” Suki insisted, pulling away from Gary.
“It’s not a war. Think of it as just a game—with shooting,” Ricky suggested.
Suki glared at him and poked his stomach with her finger. “Will I get a chance to shoot you with paint, Schorr?”
“Yeah. I guess,” Ricky said. “Ooh. Poke me again. I love it!”
“Shut up!” Suki said, making a fist and shaking it at Ricky playfully. “Okay, you win. I’ll play. But only because I’ll get to massacre you, Schorr.”
“Girls against the boys,” Pete suggested.
“Good deal,” Gary agreed quickly.
Della was disappointed. She wanted to be on Gary’s team. And she didn’t want to be on the same team with Suki.
Ricky was busy loading the ZAP guns with paint, yellow for the girls, red for the boys. “Remember, two hits and you’re a prisoner. Three hits and you’re dead,” he said seriously.
“I should’ve known you were bringing these,” Pete said, rolling his loaded gun around in his hand. “Your backpack was so much bigger than everyone else’s.”
“I bring them everywhere,” Ricky said. “I brought them to my cousin’s wedding!”
“How long are we going to play?” Maia asked, looking at her watch. “Not when it’s dark, are we?”
“We’ll have creamed them by then,” Suki said, taking her loaded ZAP gun from Ricky. She squirted a stream of yellow paint into the air. Ricky glared at her. “Just testing,” she said.
“No shooting for ten minutes,” Ricky said. “That gives us time to scatter and take positions.”
ZAP wars were the only times Ricky was ever serious. Della decided she liked him better this way, not cracking horrible jokes, not trying so desperately hard to be funny. Unfortunately, according to Gary, Ricky wasn’t too good at the game. He made too big a target and was always getting hit.
A shadow passed over the campsite. Della looked up at the sky. A few puffy gray clouds interrupted the clear blue. The air suddenly got colder.
The boys left camp first, traveling south in a group. The girls decided to wait a few minutes and then go west. Then they’d split up and circle in on the boys. After the boys left, laughing and joking, Suki changed into an olive-green sweater, saying it was better camouflage.
Wow, another big word. Two in one day, Della thought. She never had liked Suki. Actually, she had never thought much about her at all. They did
n’t hang out with the same crowds. But now Della had plenty of reason to think about Suki, and plenty of reason to dislike her.
Or was she being unfair? She had broken up with Gary, after all. Sort of.
“Come on. Let’s get going,” Maia said. The pistol looked really big and out of place in her little hand.
They started walking together into the woods. “This is kind of sexy,” Suki said.
“Huh? Sexy?” Della didn’t get it.
“Yeah. You know. Hunting and being hunted.”
“Oh.”
“It’s kind of exciting,” Suki said, carefully stepping over a fallen tree limb.
A gust of wind made the new green leaves on the trees whisper and shake. A large cloud rolled over the sun, and the woods suddenly grew dark.
“Is the paint washable?” Maia asked. Her enthusiasm was short-lived. She sounded like her old worried self again.
“Yes, of course,” Della said sharply. “Ricky told us it was washable. It’ll come right out.”
Maia looked at her, recognizing the impatience in her voice. Della reminded herself that it was Suki she resented. She shouldn’t take it out on Maia.
“Let’s split up here and circle around,” Suki said, gesturing with the large gray pistol.
“Okay,” Della agreed quickly. She realized she was looking forward to being on her own, away from everyone.
“How do I find you if I get lost?” Maia asked, tugging at the sleeves of her sweatshirt.
“Walk away from the sun. East. And you’ll be heading back toward camp,” Della advised.
Maia looked up at the sun, as if to make sure it was still there. “Okay. See you later.” She turned and walked off slowly through the trees, holding the pistol in front of her.
“Listen for footsteps,” Della called after her. “No one will be able to come up behind you without making loud footsteps.”
“Thanks!” Maia called back.
“She’s such a little girl,” Suki said quietly.
She didn’t say it scornfully, but Della didn’t like the idea of Suki putting down her friend. “She’s okay,” she told Suki, sounding angrier than she had intended.
“Gary’s really nice,” Suki said suddenly.