by Amy C. Blake
He offered her a reassuring smile and fell into step with Lizzie and Morgan, who were giggling over the way Mr. Austin bellowed when Morgan had knocked the tent down on him in the middle of the night.
“I couldn’t help it.” Morgan’s cheeks pinked, but she grinned. “It was so dark, and I had to use the bathroom. I tripped over the peg.”
Levi chuckled at the memory then glanced at Sara. She trailed the group, worrying her lower lip. What was her problem? Did she really think he’d tell anyone about the key when he’d promised he wouldn’t?
28
Dead Fish
Later that week in Science class, Levi yawned so big his jaw popped. He was worn out because he, Sara, and Steve had gotten permission to stay up late the night before to finish their science project on the animal life in Lake Superior. He leaned back in his desk and peered at the cloth-covered aquarium his group had painstakingly filled with specimens from the lake. They’d taken such care researching each creature—what it ate, how it lived, whether it was endangered. They deserved top grades for their efforts.
From the desk in front of him, Steve turned to give him a sleepy smile and a double thumbs-up. Levi smiled back.
Trevor flopped into the desk beside him. “You guys finish in time?”
“Yep. You?” Trevor, Tommy, Monica, and Lizzie had been assigned an in-depth study of the weather patterns on the lake.
“Yeah, you know Monica. I just had to keep my mouth shut and follow orders. We’ll get an A, easy.” He stretched his long legs into the aisle. “’Course not everybody likes to follow her orders.” He cut his eyes toward Lizzie, who sat grumbling in her desk two ahead of Levi’s.
Levi smirked. Trevor had probably witnessed some serious lightning and thunder in his group—and not just in the weather they’d studied for their project.
“Good morning, children,” Mrs. Austin called briskly as she carried several notebooks into the classroom. She had a pencil stuck through her bun. “Presentation time. I hope you’ve all worked hard.” She flashed a steely smile and dumped the notebooks on her desk. “Come on now, who’s first?” She clapped her hands. “Chop-chop.”
Martin, Suzanne, and Jacqueline meandered to the front of the room and arranged themselves around an oversized poster turned backward on an easel. Martin skulked in the back. Hunter strutted up last, casting a smile at Sara as he passed. When she smiled back, the blood boiled in Levi’s veins. Had she told her friend Hunter about the castle key? If so, she should be worried about him giving away secrets, not Levi.
Once Hunter reached the front, he turned the poster and sent Mrs. Austin an ingratiating smile. “We’ve prepared a study of shipping on the Great Lakes, both past and present.” He gestured toward the full-color, professionally printed poster. “As you can see . . .”
By the time Hunter finished speaking, even Mrs. Austin was yawning. The group swaggered to their seats, Martin looking relieved that he hadn’t been required to speak. Hunter threw Levi a smirk that said top that. Levi smirked back. He knew his group’s project was way better. And they’d done the work themselves instead of plagiarizing some guy’s master’s thesis and sending to the mainland for an expensive print job.
“Next?” Mrs. Austin called, her eyes still slightly unfocused.
Levi, Sara, and Steve walked to the front.
Sara lifted their handmade poster from its perch behind the aquarium and held it up for the class to see. “We studied the animals native to the Castle Island area.” She indicated the neat block letters she’d printed the night before. “We gathered a sample of some of the smaller ones and brought them to show you.” As she motioned toward the aquarium, she nodded to Levi. “The cover?”
He and Steve lifted the sheet. The second the cloth cleared the tank, a gasp went up from the class. Levi grinned. Their work was impressive. Steve flashed him a smile as they dropped the cover in the corner.
At Sara’s whispered, “Oh, no,” Levi turned to see what was wrong. A groan made its way between his lips—a groan echoed by Steve.
The sparkling clean water they’d left full of healthy lake creatures was now dark lavender and clearly toxic. Several fish floated belly-up near the top. Even as he watched, another died.
Mrs. Austin stomped over to them. “Do you think this is funny?” Her eyes bugged out.
He blinked. “You think we did this on purpose?” Heat started up his neck. He glanced at his project partners. How could she believe they’d do something like this? Especially Sara.
Steve’s mouth worked soundlessly before he burst out, “We didn’t!”
Sara’s nostrils flared. “Of course we didn’t. Everything was perfect when we left last night.” Her fists clenched and unclenched at her side. “Somebody sabotaged our project.”
Mrs. Austin searched their faces another moment before turning her glare on the class. “Does anybody know anything about this?”
No one said a word.
“Because if you saw anything, you’d better tell me now.” Her eyes flashed. “This goes beyond messing up another group’s work, which is bad enough. This is about killing innocent creatures.” She made a swiping gesture toward the aquarium. By now the water was deep purple, and Levi was pretty sure all the animals were dead.
Several agonizing seconds passed, and still nobody spoke. Then, when Mrs. Austin’s face had grown so red Levi thought she’d pop a blood vessel, someone near the back raised a hand. He strained to see who it was.
Suzanne stood and said in a sickly-sweet tone, “I didn’t want to tattle, Mrs. Austin, but I have to tell you what I saw.” Her bottom lip trembled. “Those poor little animals . . .” She shook her head and sighed.
“Yes, yes, I know,” Mrs. Austin snapped, “what did you see, girl?”
“I woke up early this morning, and when I got to the stairs, I saw Trevor going into the classroom hallway. I wondered what he was doing, so I peeked through just before the door closed.” Her eyes widened. “He was coming in here.” Her hand fluttered to her throat. “Of course, I didn’t know he was going to do such an awful thing—” She pointed a shaking finger at the aquarium. “—or I would’ve tried to stop him.” An enormous sigh breezed through her cherry-red lips.
Mrs. Austin marched to Trevor and snatched his arm. “Trevor Patterson, how dare you do such a thing?” She yanked him up hard enough she’d have ripped his arm out of the socket if he hadn’t been so muscular.
Trevor stood blinking down at her, his mouth working like one of the fish in the tank—before it was poisoned. “Hang on, I didn’t do this.”
“Likely story. You’re off to Mr. Dominic’s office.”
Levi gulped. Mr. Dominic had warned Trevor and him if they stepped out of line again they’d get suspended.
“But—” Trevor’s eyes darted around the room like he was seeking an escape route.
Levi frowned. Trevor looked . . . guilty.
“No buts.” Mrs. Austin grabbed Trevor’s wrist. “Come.”
She’d yanked Trevor almost to the door when Steve said in a breathless whisper, “It wasn’t him, Mrs. Austin.”
Levi released a relieved breath. Of course it wasn’t Trevor.
Mrs. Austin glared daggers at Steve. “Do you have proof?”
He gave a terrified nod. “I saw who did it.”
Sara let out a muffled gasp that was echoed around the classroom.
Levi whispered, “Why didn’t you stop him then?”
Mrs. Austin stomped to Steve’s side, still dragging Trevor by the wrist. “Who did it?”
“B-B-Brock Smith.”
The teacher’s brow wrinkled. “Brock Smith? Isn’t that one of the twins? The, er, slower of the two?” Suddenly pink-cheeked, she cleared her throat. “I mean to say, why would he do such a thing? He’s not even in this class.”
Steve shuffled his feet. “I didn’t actually see him do anything to the water.”
“What exactly did you see him do?” Little flecks of spittle flew from Mrs
. Austin’s mouth.
Steve recoiled. “I saw him come in here about an hour before class.”
“And what were you doing here an hour before class?” Mrs. Austin’s face was now such a bright shade of purple it matched the aquarium water.
Steve gulped. “I left my Latin folder last night. I had to get it before first hour so I came by before breakfast.”
She advanced on him a few steps with Trevor in tow. “That doesn’t prove anything.”
Steve cowered behind the aquarium. “It’s what I saw.”
“Fine,” the teacher muttered, “I’ll get the Brock boy, and they’ll both go to the director. I don’t have time for this. I have a class to teach.” Still grumbling, she dragged Trevor from the classroom.
Trevor shot Levi a half-irritated, half-amused look and allowed the stumpy woman to pull him through the doorway.
Trevor plopped down at the lunch table where Levi and the others sat eating chicken strips and fries.
“So what happened?” Steve asked around a mouthful.
Trevor gave a disgusted shake of his head. “Brock said he didn’t do it and, you know, I believe him.” He peered thoughtfully at the blob of ketchup on his plate. “When we’re camping, he’s always watching the birds and squirrels with this goofy grin on his face like he really likes them. I don’t think he’d kill any fish.”
Tommy nodded. “Yeah, he hasn’t gotten in trouble at all on our campouts. Maybe his brother’s the troublemaker and he just gets caught up in it.”
Levi shook his head. “Braden hasn’t really done anything wrong when we’re camping either, so that doesn’t prove Brock’s innocence.”
Steve strangled the salt shaker. “They sure did plenty wrong with the toilets.”
“Well, anyway,” Trevor said, cutting off the discussion. “Mrs. Austin said somebody did it and had better get punished, so Mr. Dominic decided to make me and Brock do an extra science project together.” He rolled his eyes and picked up a fistful of fries. “As if I don’t have anything better to do.”
Monica leaned around Tommy and asked, “What sort of project?”
“Yeah, maybe we can help you.” Clearly, Sara believed Trevor was innocent. But Levi wondered.
“Hey, thanks. That’d be awesome.” Trevor smiled, a fry poking out of the corner of his mouth. “We’re supposed to study up on the ecosystem of the lake. That way we’ll learn our lesson if we really did kill those fish.”
Levi watched him stuff another wad of fries in his mouth. Trevor claimed Brock hadn’t sabotaged the project, but he’d never claimed he hadn’t. Was it even possible Trevor might’ve thought putting something in the aquarium was funny? Levi didn’t think his friend would kill the fish on purpose, but what if he’d put in a dye he didn’t know was toxic?
“Well,” Lizzie drawled, “I’m not hanging out with that caveman Brick. We’ll have to help you separately.”
Trevor frowned at her. “He’s not a caveman.” He glared at each of them in turn. “And don’t call him Brick, he hates that.”
Levi’s eyebrows shot up. What was this? Were Trevor and Brock big buddies now?
He scowled as a new thought occurred: what if they’d sabotaged the tank together?
“Hunter probably got Braden to put some chemicals in the tank.” Trevor’s gaze moved to Steve. “That’s probably who you saw—Braden—and you thought he was Brock.”
Before Steve could reply, Levi asked, “What were you doing up there this morning?” He stared at his half-eaten chicken, hearing the blame in his own voice.
The silence following his question lasted too long. Neck burning, he finally glanced up.
“I wasn’t. Suzanne made that up.”
Trevor had left their room before any of the rest of them that morning. Where had he gone?
“I’m outta here.” Trevor stood, shoving his chair back with a loud scrape, and stalked from the room.
Levi’s friends sent him accusatory glances. No longer hungry, he rose, stacked his half-eaten lunch on top of Trevor’s mostly full tray, and scooped up both. He crossed to the pass-through counter, set them down, and left the room without looking back.
He was such a jerk.
Levi found Trevor on the tower rooftop, staring across the sundrenched landscape.
“Hey.”
“What?” Trevor didn’t face him.
“I’m sorry.”
This time his friend turned. His face was red, and his eyes looked slightly damp.
“I shouldn’t have asked you that,” Levi went on, guilt twisting his gut. “I know you wouldn’t do something like that.”
“No, I wouldn’t.” Trevor still sounded a little offended. He turned his face away. “It’s okay.”
Levi moved up to the wall beside him. “Do you really believe Brock, that he didn’t do it?”
“Yeah, I do. He doesn’t seem to be like his brother, you know?”
“What about the toilet thing?”
“I don’t know. It seems like he doesn’t have much choice but to do what his brother says.” Trevor met Levi’s eye. “Their parents like Braden better. Braden’s smarter; Braden’s more athletic. Brock’s just supposed to follow his lead on everything, whether he wants to or not.”
Levi looked across the fields to the distant mountains. He couldn’t help thinking how similar Trevor’s home life was to Brock’s. Was that why Trevor felt so sorry for the twin?
29
Trevor and Brock
Late the next afternoon, Levi headed along the classroom corridor to the science room where Trevor was working with Brock on their punishment project. He glanced at his wristwatch. The others were bound to be at the archery mound by now, wondering why he and Trevor hadn’t arrived. Levi was supposed to get Trevor fifteen minutes ago, but he’d fallen asleep. Another round of nightmares had woken him at midnight, but he’d visited the chapel instead of the rooftop, as he’d promised Mr. Dominic.
“This is really cool,” a voice said from inside the classroom.
Levi hesitated outside the barely open door.
“I mean,” the voice went on, “I always liked animals and stuff, but to see the way the environment affects ’em and how they affect it.” A pause. “It’s too bad them fish got killed, you know?”
“You really didn’t do it, did you?” Levi recognized the voice as Trevor’s, meaning the first speaker had to be Brock.
“Nope, that was my brother. He told me to keep watch outside while he took care of some business. Didn’t tell me what. I figured it was something goofy like the toilets and them water balloons. Something that wouldn’t do no real harm. But killing animals? That ain’t right.”
Levi wasn’t sure exploding toilets were as harmless as Brock seemed to think.
“So you just stood outside?” Trevor asked. “You didn’t actually do any of that stuff?”
“I’m too stupid to come up with that junk, just ask my brother. He’s the family genius.”
“Did Hunter have anything to do with it?” Trevor’s question echoed Levi’s unspoken one.
“Yeah, him and Braden are always hanging out together.” Even from the hall, Levi could hear the jealousy in Brock’s voice. “And it’s so dumb ’cause Braden’s way smarter than Hunter. I don’t know why he does what Hunter says.” A snort. “Whenever Hunter thinks nobody’s looking, he’s got his nose stuck in some prissy purple book that looks like it’s about to fall apart. And he says I’m dense.”
The diary? That faded purple diary from the 1880s Levi had found between Hunter’s mattress and box spring the year before? He studied it? Why?
“Oh, man, I’m late.”
When Trevor’s statement registered, Levi hurriedly pushed through the door. “Hey, man, everybody’s waiting for us. Come on.”
As they trekked across the grass toward the archery mound a few minutes later, Trevor didn’t say a word about Braden and Hunter.
Levi finally tossed his hands. “Are you gonna turn them in?”
Trevor looked at him in complete confusion.
Hot blood rushed into Levi’s head. “You know what I’m talking about. I heard what Brick told you in there. They deserve to get kicked out.”
Trevor’s eyes narrowed to slits. “You were eavesdropping?” He lengthened his stride so Levi had to jog to keep up. “His name’s not Brick.”
“At least I’m not making friends with the enemy like you.” And Sara. She’d actually had the gall to play badminton with Hunter in the courtyard yesterday. She’d never played badminton with Levi.
Trevor glared at him over his shoulder. “Brock is not the enemy. And I don’t know what to do about what he told me. If I tell, it’d be like . . .”
“It’d be like getting rid of the people who make life a nightmare for us.”
Trevor sighed. “It’s not that simple. What about Brock?”
“Who cares about Brock?” Though he longed to stick out his tongue like Jer did when he got mad, Levi simply shot Trevor one last sour look and ran on ahead.
He was so blinded with rage he almost ran over Miss Althea, who stood in the shade monitoring the archers. Her gaze ranged between him and Trevor, who entered the area with a scowl on his face. Levi muttered an apology to her and started away, but she grabbed his sleeve.
“You shouldn’t let jealousy come between you.” Her eyes, so often stern, were melancholy. “Believe me, I know.”
Levi frowned. He wasn’t jealous. Besides, what did she know about what was going on between him and his friends?
She tugged his sleeve. “I see more than you realize. And I know more about friendship than you seem to think.”
Who was her friend? He rarely saw her talking to anybody.
“Nydia Sylvester,” she said as though she’d read his mind. “She was my friend. I know, I know . . .” She fluttered a hand. “We didn’t act like friends. That’s because I let jealousy of her close relationship with Sara spoil things between us.” She flicked her gaze toward the campers. “And now she’s dead.” She looked back, her eyes filled with pain. “What gets to me is that if I hadn’t let my jealousy come between us, maybe she would’ve confided in me. Maybe I could’ve stopped her from . . .”