by Robin Mellom
Trevor took a quick breath and said, “Do what I do. Make yourself as large as possible. Don’t look frightened.”
Without any hesitation, Trevor stood up, making himself tall with his feet planted widely apart and his arms on his hips, superhero style. He put on his best “I’m not afraid of you” face. Strangely, doing all these things made him feel that he actually wasn’t afraid. His research said to use a deep, calm voice—be in charge. “Go away, bear. This is our spot,” he said.
But the bear didn’t budge.
Without hesitation, Corey scooched behind Trevor, doing his best to stay unseen as he shivered with fear.
It was then that Trevor heard a sound—the familiar clanging from his ghost-in-a-band dream. The sound came from Corey’s backpack.
“What’s in there?” Trevor asked.
Corey quickly realized what it was…the tin cans he’d used for his ghost prank. All his shivering in fear had caused the cans to rattle.
“They’re the cans I used to haunt your cabin.” Corey dropped his head. “Sorry, man.”
But Trevor’s research told him the best way to scare away a bear was to make a loud sound. “Apologies later, bro. Hand me those cans!” Trevor snatched them from Corey and banged them together as he shouted, “Back off!”
The bear grunted. Then it turned and headed back down the trail. When the bear was gone, Trevor collapsed onto the tree stump. “Man, that was close.”
But Corey started hopping around. “Did you SEE THAT?! We scared that bear off like a boss, bro!”
“We did. Sure thing, Corey.” He gave him a thumbs-up. “Couldn’t have done it without you.”
“We gotta find our way out of here,” Trevor said. But Corey was too busy doing double fist pumps in celebration of his bear scare.
It hit Trevor that it was up to him to get them back. “Follow me.” Trevor marched down the trail, his head high as he used all his senses to find his way.
That’s when he heard the sound of water. “Do you hear that?”
“All I hear is the sound of our AWESOMENESS!” Corey pulled another fist pump.
“Quiet. It’s a river!” Trevor said.
“How will that help?”
“Remember the hike yesterday—when I humiliated myself by being the ONLY one who didn’t fall into the river?”
Corey nodded. “That was super humiliating for you, bro.”
Trevor rolled his eyes. “But my humiliation might be the one thing that will save us. I can’t believe I just said that.”
The boys rushed through the woods in the direction of the running water. They spotted the river in a clearing and ran up to the water’s edge. “There!” Trevor pointed upstream. “The bridge that I was allergic to!”
Corey threw his hands in the air. “Yes!”
With Corey on his tail, Trevor darted between bushes and trees and found the spot past the bridge where he’d easily crossed. They happily hopped from rock to rock and made it safely to the other side without even getting a drop of water on them.
Corey looked down the trail. “I see it! Dining hall lights!
“I think we can safely pull some fist pumps now,” Trevor said with a smirk.
But Corey didn’t pump his fists, and he didn’t head down the trail back to camp. Instead, he sauntered up to Trevor. “Listen, you’re the reason why we got away from that bear and found our way back. All that nature stuff that you knew…it was totally impressive, bro.” Corey dipped his head and added in a soft voice, “I understand why Libby talks about you all the time.”
“Thanks, man.”
Corey poked him on the shoulder. “But I don’t get it. How’d you stay so calm?”
Instantly, Trevor realized how he’d done it.
That bear.
“You know, this whole year I’ve been avoiding my problems. But doing that never solved my problems. And facing that bear head-on, standing my ground, making myself big, not being vulnerable…” Trevor took a deep, satisfying breath, realizing that the experience had changed him—really changed him. “It hit me that facing things head-on and not being scared…that’s how you solve a problem. I guess it took me coming on this trip that I was so afraid of to realize that. And you know what? I think I’m done with being scared.”
Corey’s eyes grew big. “Whoa. That was deep, man.”
Trevor smiled. “Let’s head over to the social. I think Libby will be happy to see you back safely.”
Corey bumped shoulders with him and headed down the trail by Trevor’s side. “She’s going to be happier to see you, bro.”
It’s starting to get dark. Everyone’s back from the scavenger hunt except for Trevor and Corey!
Not going to panic, not going to panic…
But what could be holding them up? Are they talking about me? Are they fighting? Are they lost?!
[paces and thinks out loud]
Trevor HAS to get here soon—alive and well, but mostly alive. He needs to help me fix this disaster of a social!
It took only a couple of minutes for everyone to finish the scavenger hunt because I wrote “Find something blue” on EVERYBODY’S card. I figured they’d all find different blue things, and we’d be amazed by how many blue objects we’d gathered, and it would spur on deep, meaningful conversation.
BUT NO.
All we ended up with was a heaping pile of blueberry jam packets.
So then the next part of the social, where they were supposed to “meander like a stream” and “act natural”?
[momentarily peeks her head inside the dining hall]
Nothing. They’re doing NOTHING.
Apparently the “natural state” of a group of seventh and eighth graders is extreme boredom.
And Savannah Maxwell looks the most bored of them all. She is now counting the squares on the checkered tablecloth. But she keeps losing track and starting over.
This is a disaster.
I need Trevor back.
NOW.
HELP. THAT’S WHAT LIBBY NEEDED. And she spotted it in the northeast corner of the dining hall.
Molly was sitting by herself looking unusually sad, even for her. Libby rushed up to her. “Where are Trevor and Corey?”
She shrugged. “I dunno.”
Libby paced back and forth in front of her. “What if they’re lost? There’s no way they’ll find their way back. Corey probably thinks getting lost is awesome, and Trevor is, no doubt, about to hyperventilate because he’s scared of the dark. He’s scared of everything.”
Molly threw her hands in the air. “What’s the big deal? I’m sure they left footprints. They can just follow them back.”
Libby perked up at that—such a simple solution. “Huh. I guess that’s possible.” She stopped for a moment to consider the actual likeliness of this happening.
Libby tightened her grip on her clipboard. “Oh, no. They’re lost; I just know it. We have to tell Miss Plimp.” Libby grabbed Molly by the arm and dragged her across the room with her. Molly resisted, but Libby kept up the tugging because—whether she knew it or not—Molly always seemed to come up with solutions that no one else would have thought of.
Libby tugged on Miss Plimp’s sleeve. “Trevor and Corey are missing. They didn’t come back from the scavenger hunt. What do we do?”
“Missing? What do we…um…gosh…” Miss Plimp was rattled. She had prepared for many things—games, songs, intense social interaction—but an actual emergency was not on her to-do list.
“I’ll ask my dad,” Molly announced. She was shocked the words came out of her mouth because she hadn’t spoken to her father the entire trip. Getting a promotion wasn’t a bad thing, and at one point, she had come very close to congratulating him, but the moving away part made it too hard to bear. Even though she’d hoped her three days of silence might make him change his mind about taking the promotion, she would have to break the silence in order to help Trevor. Seeing no other choice, she charged across the room to where he was standing.
>
“Dad, I need to talk to you.”
He looked at her over his reading glasses. “I’m happy to hear that, Molly. You haven’t spoken to me in days.”
She leaned in closer. “It’s not about the move. I’m still not talking to you about that. But right now we need you to take charge—Trevor and Corey haven’t come back from the scavenger hunt. Can you help?”
Decker fumbled through his backpack. “Let’s see…yes, I can take charge. We need to follow the procedure outlined on this incident report—”
But Molly didn’t have time for things outlined on an incident report. It was just this type of attention to detail that had got him the promotion, but right now all she wanted was action. “Never mind. We need to find Trevor.” Under her breath she added, “He’s my only friend.” Molly took off and zoomed across the room, skillfully weaving in and out of groups of students, and marched up to Marty, who was busy gnawing on a chicken wing. “Trevor and Corey are in the woods,” she said to him matter-of-factly. “They may be lost. You have the survival skills to find them without an incident report. You dropped some sauce.”
He dabbed at a stain on his sweatshirt. “Me?”
Libby suddenly rushed up to join them. “Yes, this is brilliant, Molly. Marty knows everything about the wilderness.” She turned to Marty and put her hand on his shoulder, as if he was special…the chosen one. “Marty. You read all those magazines and stuff. Now go! Please! I need Trevor’s help before this social ruins my reputation!”
“But—”
“GO!”
Marty nodded, ate one last bite of his chicken wing, then took off toward the woods.
On the far side of the room, there was a thunderous clang. Plates fell. Snacks spilled all over. People squealed in terror!
Everyone whirled around to see Brian and Brad Baker flailing their hands in the air. “Help!” they screamed. Then Brad, or possibly Brian (who really knows at this point!), jumped up on one of the chairs and yelled out to the crowd, “An animal! There’s a wild animal in here!”
A bushy tail disappeared under a table.
The entire room screamed and howled and went totally berserk, running around trying to get away from the wild beast.
And that’s when Libby’s unplanned and downright boring social suddenly became very, very interesting.
“IT’S A BEAR!”
“A coyote!”
“A raccoon!”
“A WEREWOLF!”
All the kids were yelling out whatever animal came to mind, hoping they’d hit on the right one. No one knew why the first animal that came to mind for Jared Benson was a werewolf.
The only evidence they had was a bushy tail and a plate of Fancy Cheese Nips that was mysteriously missing the Fancy Cheese Nips.
Mr. Skeely stormed up to the group of kids. “Where’s the animal?”
They all pointed to the far table in the corner. An unidentified Baker twin said, “We saw it run under there. It’s pretty big. And it has vicious teeth. It was possibly foaming at the mouth, too.”
Libby paced the floor. I can’t believe this. A wild animal on the loose is the most exciting part of my social so far.
But that wasn’t her only problem. Trevor, who should have been at her side helping her calm down by way of emergency ranch dressing, was lost. She looked out the window, hoping to see Marty, Trevor, and Corey heroically heading their way.
But they were nowhere to be found.
Cindy Applegate bounded up to her. “What’s wrong? Other than this social falling apart completely? And Savannah Maxwell still not talking to me?”
“There’s a raccoon or something under the table. Which is actually good because everyone was bored out of their minds. But the worst part is Trevor and Corey are missing. Marty went to find them.”
Cindy covered her mouth. She’d just told Marty to go feed Lucy, and it was a well-known fact that Lucy got super grumpy when she was hungry. And since Lucy was starting to show signs of becoming a bit wild, well…she might be more than grumpy.
But there was something about Marty choosing to help others—even when her cat was in need—that made her feel sort of proud. In a low voice, Cindy said, “That’s my Marty.” She joined Libby and peeked out the window.
Skeely stepped up, excited to take control of a nature event happening right there in his dining hall. “I know how to get the animal out of here—stand back, kids.”
And that’s when it happened.
It.
The big it.
Skeely blew on a blow horn, hoping to annoy the wild animal out from under the table. But the loud sound scared the Baker twins, and they jumped back, tripping over each other, and Brian and/or Brad reached out to stop from falling over completely, but what he grabbed instead was the fire alarm.
The alarm rang, and shortly following that was the sprinkler system.
Soaking wet students screamed and ran to the open area just outside the dining hall doors. Libby and Cindy sprinted outside, and Libby immediately rounded up some towels to help everyone dry off. “Take this. Dry off. Everyone please remain calm,” Libby instructed.
In the chaos, Cindy spotted Marty standing at the edge of the woods with a pale face. She rushed up to him. “What’s wrong?”
Marty bit at his lip. “Libby begged me to find Trevor. I’m just not sure what supplies I need. These things take preparation—”
“What are you talking about, silly?” She waved him off. “Just get out there and do what you do best—save them, Survival Man! Lucy can wait a few minutes to get her dinner.”
Marty paced back and forth. “But that means I’m trying to attempt a wilderness rescue, and there’s probably a checklist I should go through first.”
Cindy grabbed him by the elbow to stop him. “Marty. You’re the expert at all things survival-ish.
“But…but you don’t understand—”
She narrowed her eyes. “Marty Nelson doesn’t need a list from a magazine to save the world.”
Marty stuffed his hands in his pockets, and his face rushed with warmth. He couldn’t believe he was going to say what he was about to say. But Trevor and Corey needed to be found, and he didn’t see a choice, even if it meant Cindy not liking him anymore. “Here’s the thing.” He kicked at a rock on the ground, then let it all out. “I know how to read a magazine, find every tip, memorize all the nature facts, and I can even complete the crossword puzzle at the back without reading the clues. But the truth is, I’ve never even been camping. My mom is a vegetarian, and my dad is a wedding singer. The most extreme nature experience we’ve ever had was going for a walk in the neighborhood when there was a possibility of rain.” He sighed. “It didn’t even rain a drop. We are the tamest people in the world.”
Marty sighed and looked away—he didn’t want to see the disappointment on her face by telling her the whole truth. “I know everything there is to know about nature….I’m just not certain I can go out there and actually do those things.”
Cindy stuck her hand on her hip. “Look, that is a super sad backstory and all, but snap out of it. We have people to save! And a cat to feed!”
Marty smiled. Her yelly voice was sort of cute.
“You know what?” she said. “Something exciting is happening. So we’re going to do this together. Hand me your magazine—there has to be something in here about tracking down a couple of middle-schoolers in the woods who are super late for a social.”
He shoved it into her hands. “Page ninety-two.”
Brian: The animal was huge.
Brad: Ginormous.
Brian: Bigger than a basketball.
Brad: No animal is the shape of a basketball—it was more like the size of an Xbox 360.
Brian: So now the animal’s the shape of a video game console?
Brad: Whatever, you still have my pencil.
Brian: You’re wearing my shirt.
CINDY FLIPPED TO THE PAGE. “Aha! How to find someone in the wilderness in seven easy s
teps!”
They headed off down the trail as Cindy read the instructions and Marty tried his best to pull together some survival-related confidence. She used her best super-positive radio announcer voice. “First, determine where the hiker was last seen. Also, there’s an advertisement for a travel bed for small pets that looks fantastic!”
From behind them a voice said, “The hikers were last seen right here.”
Cindy and Marty whirled around to see Trevor and Corey strolling up to them.
“Dude!”
“Man!”
“Bro!”
Cindy ducked out of the way and covered her eyes. “Too much guy talk, y’all!”
A group of people arrived from the direction of the dining hall.
Libby.
Miss Plimp.
Decker.
Rushing up to Trevor to put her arm around him, Libby blurted, “Are you okay? I was so worried!”
Before he could answer, Miss Plimp stepped up and clasped her hands together in a worried fashion. “What happened, boys? You can tell me anything—I’m your counselor. Was there a kidnapping involved? Anything extraterrestrial?”
Trevor paused, noticing the incident report Decker was holding in his hand. Trevor knew that the school couldn’t handle one more camp incident. And Decker might be held responsible for two kids who went missing and also had to escape a bear. It could be a transferrable offense. And he couldn’t stand to see Molly have to move anymore. Plus, he really wanted her to stay at Westside.
Which is why Trevor—who suffers from the disease of being always truthful—told a lie. A total, complete lie.
(His first.)
“We found some blueberries for the scavenger hunt. I ate them all on our way back; that’s all that happened.”
Corey tilted his head in disbelief.
Trevor continued. “But we told each other compliments, Miss Plimp.” Which actually was the truth, and it made him feel a little less queasy.
With a triple clap indicating her excitement, Miss Plimp led the group back to the dining hall. But just before they reached the doors, Trevor noticed Molly standing alone by the side of the trail, her hoodie pulled tight around her head.