Out of Tune

by Gail Nall

  Shiver holds out her hands, and he sprays into them. As she wipes the spray on her face and rubs it into her hands, I realize that’s all she needs. She’s wearing tight black jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt with the name of some band I’ve never heard of on it. And her huge black boots probably crush a million mosquitoes each time she takes a step.

  “Hold still, Maya Mae.” Dad aims the canister at me.

  “I can’t! They’re eating me up.” I hop up and down as he shoots me with bug spray.

  Even when we’re all covered, the mosquitoes buzz in our faces, looking for a way in.

  Mom studies the hands flying all over as we keep smacking various parts of our bodies. “Who wants PB and J in the RV tonight?”

  Dad beats everyone inside.

  “Are you sure you still want to do this?” Mom asks Dad the next afternoon, as we wait in line at the visitors center. “What about the killer mosquitoes?”

  “They only seem to come out in the evening. I’ll hide in my tent and read.”

  “That won’t help with bears.”

  Dad waves his hand like bears aren’t any scarier than Hugo.

  While Mom goes through a litany of bad nature stuff and Dad shrugs it all off, I check out a display of framed photos on the wall. Maybe I should send a postcard to Kenzie. I should send one to Jack, too, just to remind him that he already has a partner. Except by the time the postcards arrive, I’ll already be there. If I can find Remy, anyway.

  “What’s that?” Shiver pokes my backpack.

  “What?” I slide it off my shoulder.

  “It looks like that huge book.”

  A corner of Everything Y’all Ever Wanted to Know sticks out of my bag. I yank the zipper shut. “Nothing. Just a book. Why, what’s in your backpack?”

  Probably a book on how to ruin people’s very important life plans.

  “None of your business.” She wanders across the small room and studies a map tacked to the far wall.

  The couple in front of Mom and Dad turn to leave. As they walk through the door, Mom points to the ginormous bags on their backs with stuff dangling from the sides and bottom. “But you don’t have any of that,” she says to Dad.

  “Can I help you?” the woman at the desk asks. Her long curly brown hair cascades out from under her ranger hat. If my hair did that, I wouldn’t be stuck with Heidi braids all the time.

  Dad gives her a huge grin. “I’d like to go backpacking!”

  The ranger bites her lip. I’m pretty sure she’s trying not to crack up at Dad’s enthusiasm. “All right. How many of you, how many nights, and which trail?”

  “Just me. I’m not sure which trail. Maybe a week?”

  “One night,” Mom corrects him.

  “Have you backpacked before?” the ranger asks Dad.

  “No, but I’m ready to start.” He pulls out his Your First Backpacking Trip book.

  “Well, we advise you to go with at least one other person, especially if you’re new at this. For safety reasons.”

  Bug practically leaps toward Mom and Dad and places her hands palms down on the counter. “I’ll go with him! I’m a Girl Scout, and I know all about trail safety.”

  “No,” Mom says before Dad can even open his mouth.

  Bug’s face falls. I squeeze her arm. As annoying as she can be sometimes, I hate seeing her disappointed.

  Mom studies the map taped to the counter. “What’s an easy trail to start out with?”

  “Challenging,” Dad says. “I’d like a challenging trail.”

  Behind the ranger, a door labeled OFFICE opens and another curly brown head pops out.

  I blink. I can’t believe my luck!

  Chapter 15

  6 days until Dueling Duets auditions

  “No way,” I whisper as I stare at Remy. It’s got to be divine intervention or something.

  Like a shadow, Shiver appears behind me. “What’s he doing here?” She doesn’t whisper.

  Everyone looks up at her, including Remy.

  “This is my son,” the ranger says. “He’s just waiting for his dad to pick him up.”

  Remy’s face breaks into a grin. “Hi, Maya.”

  My face goes all warm. Is it possible for someone to get even cuter in two days? I wave at him.

  Mom’s glancing back and forth between us, while Dad and the ranger lady just look confused.

  “Shiver and I met Remy at Yellowstone,” I supply.

  “Are you guys going on a backcountry hike?” Remy asks.

  Shiver snorts.

  “Just me, son,” Dad says as if he’s ninety years old. I guess that when you have two daughters, you call boys you just met “son.”

  Remy’s mom, who I realize now looks just like him, gets back to the trail options and what Dad will need. Remy listens in and nods as if he’s some kind of park ranger in training. Every once in a while, he says something like “That one’s near some moose habitat” or “Didn’t part of that trail wash out last month?” While they talk, I try to figure out a way to meet up with him again without looking desperate.

  Although I am desperate. Desperate to get home. And spending more time with Remy is definitely a nice plus.

  Finally, Dad settles on a trail and has a list of stuff he needs, courtesy of Remy.

  “Thank you for your help,” Mom says. “Maybe when your husband gets back, you all can come on over to our campsite for some dinner.”

  Say yes, say yes, say yes. I throw what I hope are ESP signals toward Remy’s mom.

  She waves a hand. “It’s my job, but dinner would be lovely. Especially since it seems our kids are already friends.”

  Yes! Now I just have to get Remy alone. And keep Dad from catching the entire park on fire while Remy and his parents nibble hot dogs.

  “See you around,” Remy says to me. He drops his voice to a whisper. “I kind of have the run of this place. And I know some secret trails here, too.”

  I could not smile any more than I am as I follow my family out of the visitors center. I can’t believe this is happening. Not only do I have a cute outdoorsy guy just dying to show me around Grand Teton National Park, he might also help me figure out how to get to Nashville.

  OMG he’s here! I type to Kenzie. Of course, she can’t read it. The text goes to the back of the line where all my texts to Kenzie are waiting to be sent. There’s no cell signal here in the campground—plus, my phone was sitting inside a drawer in Bertha for two days. Mom finally took pity on me and gave it back, but not before grilling me on whether I’d learned the consequences of my actions.

  I stuff the phone into my jeans pocket and try to look cool. Which is almost impossible because Remy is here. To see me!

  “Did you swallow a mosquito?” Shiver asks. She’s slouched in a camp chair, earbuds dangling around her neck, being the least helpful person on the planet. As usual.

  I don’t answer her. Instead, I make myself busy by lighting the mosquito-repellent candles Mom picked up at the park general store. I’m wearing my super-cute red sandals, even though the mosquitoes are trying to eat my feet.

  “Welcome!” Dad waves his barbeque tongs in greeting. “Grub’s almost ready.”

  Remy’s dad, who’s tall and thin and bald, sets a plastic container on the picnic table and joins Dad at the grill.

  Bug sneaks a peek into the container. “Chocolate chip cookies!”

  While Mom makes a fuss over the cookies to Remy’s mother, I give him a smile.

  “Hey,” he says as he shoves his hands into the pockets of his cargo pants. I could swear he looks embarrassed.

  “Hey yourself.” Ugh. Why did I say that? I sound like Dad. All I need to do now is call him by some obnoxious nickname. Remy-Bemy or something.

  “So this is home?” He gestures at the RV.

  “Bertha, live and in person.” I wish—so, so, so hard—that Remy was coming over to my house in Nashville. There was nothing weird or embarrassing about my house there.

  “Why does it
say ‘Gloria’ on the back? Over the deer?”

  “Yeah . . . that’s what my dad calls this thing. I don’t think it looks much like a Gloria. Which is why I renamed it Bertha.”

  “No, it’s definitely a Bertha. You should paint a cow over the deer. Really bring out the Bertha-ness of the whole thing.” He pushes some curls behind his ear and tugs on his plain gray T-shirt.

  And my heart melts.

  But what I’m thinking is that he saw the freaky-eyed doe and Frankendeer and he didn’t run away screaming. He saw Groovy Travels with Gloria, and he doesn’t seem to expect some whackadoo singing ’70s TV family.

  In other words, Bertha and my crazy family have not scared him away. I try to remember how Jack reacted to Bertha, but I can’t right now. It’s hard to remember what Jack even looks like with Remy standing right here.

  “So, um . . . you want a tour?” I ask. I can’t believe I just offered that. But if the outside of Bertha didn’t weird him out, the inside won’t.

  He nods, and I yank open the door and lead the way inside. He laughs at our ancient, tiny TV and says how cute Bug’s cubbyhole is.

  “Do you have a dog or a cat?” He taps Hugo’s food bowl with the toe of a worn tennis shoe.

  “A cat, Hugo. Mom and Dad got him when I was two, so I don’t even remember a time when he wasn’t around. He sleeps with me every night.” Oh my God. Why am I saying all this to Remy?

  “I had a dog who did that. She died a couple of years ago.” He gives me a sad smile.

  I want to reach out and touch his arm to let him know that I understand. But that would be weird, so I don’t. Instead, I tell him I’m sorry about his dog. Then I lead the way back to my cubbyholes.

  “This is your bedroom?” he asks.

  “Yup.” My face goes warm as I realize last night’s pajamas are lying on the floor. I snag them with the heel of my sandal and slide them into the open closet. Then I move the door shut, very quietly, as I point across the narrow aisle.

  “That’s Shiver’s side.” For the first (and probably only) time, I’m actually thankful that most of my stuffed cats and Barbies and other kid things are in plastic garbage bags in the truck. Shiver doesn’t know it, but she helped me save face in front of Remy. I pull open the curtain I always keep shut on my side. “And this is mine.”

  He picks up one of the few stuffed cats I still have on my bunk. A black-and-white one that Kenzie gave me because it looks like Hugo. “My best friend back home gave me that.”

  “That’s really nice,” he says, kind of wistfully. I wonder if he’s missing his best friend at home. “I don’t have a whole lot of friends here. You know there are kids who live in the park all year long?”

  I shake my head. I can’t imagine living in the wilderness all the time.

  “Yeah, they’re all really close. I’m kind of like an outsider to them, since I’m only here for the summer. Then at home, I miss the best part of the year, so it’s hard to fit in there, too. And I don’t have any brothers or sisters. You’re lucky to have two.”

  I snort. I can’t help it, even though my heart hurts at what Remy’s just said. Shiver as my sister? No way. “Um, Shiver’s not related to us. At all.” I tell him the story of Gert and how we’re taking Shiver home.

  “Your parents are really cool.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Cool and my parents are two things that don’t go together at all. He doesn’t say anything else.

  Outside, our parents laugh about something. I need to ask for his help, and fast, before someone comes barging in and announces dinner’s ready.

  I pull my phone from my pocket. “So, um, can I ask for your help with something?”

  He puts the Hugo cat onto my bunk—right next to the real, sleeping Hugo—and looks at me, curious. “Sure.”

  “I have to get home. Like, yesterday. I have an audition in six days, and I promised my duet partner I’d be there.” No need to mention that my duet partner has a new partner. Once I let Jack know I’m on my way, he’ll have to drop Lacey. I hope. “And it’s crucial to my future career.”

  He tilts his head, like he has zero idea what I’m talking about.

  “As a singer. Country music. The audition’s for this huge reality show that I just know I can get on, but only if I can actually show up for the audition.” I almost mention Jack, but decide not to. It feels weird to talk about Jack with Remy.

  I open my OMGH list, scroll past the embarrassing part about Jack, and pass the phone to him. “I’ve been trying for days, and nothing’s worked out. I have a hundred dollars in birthday money, but that’s it. And I was wondering if maybe . . . I mean, since you tried to get home too, a long time ago, you might have an idea?”

  I stand there and twist a braid around my finger as he reads the list.

  “You were going to walk to Tennessee?” he asks as he hands the phone back with a grin. I must look super anxious, because he drops the smile right away. “You’re really serious about this, aren’t you?”

  “Um, yeah. Weren’t you when you tried to bike home?” I don’t add that I only thought about walking for, like, ten seconds. “Singing is my whole life.”

  He’s quiet for a minute as he stares through the doorway toward the kitchen. I almost literally have to bite my tongue to keep from going, So? Are you going to help me or not?

  “I don’t know . . . I mean, I want to help you. But isn’t this kind of extreme for a TV show?”

  “It’s not just any TV show. It’s called Dueling Duets and . . . I’m really good, I promise. I know I can make it. Listen, I’ll sing for you, and then you can decide.” I open my mouth, about to belt out a song and not even caring if Shiver hears when Remy holds up a hand.

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to prove it or anything.” He turns a little red. “I mean, I don’t mind if you sing. I’m sure you’re really good or you wouldn’t be trying so hard to get home. But, um, you can sing, if you want?” He shifts his feet and looks everywhere but right at me.

  Awkward. I close my mouth. “Um, maybe later, then?”

  He’s quiet for a moment, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to say no. Instead, he takes off his hat and runs a hand through his hair. “Can I think about it?”

  “Sure. It’s just . . . I don’t have a lot of time.”

  “Can you meet me tomorrow and I’ll let you know?”

  I turn around to close my curtain so I don’t have to look him in the eye. I don’t know why I thought this would work. I barely even know the guy. “Yeah, sure.” Maybe he’ll change his mind. In any case, spending more time with him isn’t a bad thing at all. Just thinking that makes me feel all warm again.

  Outside, we round the back of Bertha and Remy admires the spare tire cover again. “You know, I kinda like those deer.”

  Chapter 16

  5 days until Dueling Duets auditions

  Early the next morning, Mom and Dad take us up to the top of Signal Mountain. Which is totally appropriate, because up there I finally get a cell signal. I don’t know how Remy lives without a reliable cell signal. Or maybe his parents actually pay for halfway decent phone service. All my stored-up texts to Kenzie send, one-by-one.

  A message immediately comes back from her. OMG!!! Can’t wait to see you. Tell nature hottie thx. M’s got a boyfriend! ;)

  My face goes red, right on top of that mountain. I barely even know Remy, but the idea of him being my boyfriend isn’t a bad one at all. And it’s sort of hard to keep crushing on Jack when I haven’t seen him in so long—and considering how fast he dropped me as his partner. I’m definitely going to miss Remy when I leave. I wish there was a way I could still hang out with him and go home at the same time. At least I’ll have that sneaky picture I took when I first met him.

  I think about sending Jack a text for two seconds, but don’t. I’ll do it when I’m actually on my way home.

  That afternoon, I find myself on a nature hike with Bug and Shiver, waiting for Remy.

  “Now, this is an
aspen,” Remy’s dad says to the tour group. He knocks on a tree overlooking the lake.

  I glance down at my phone. 12:10. Where is Remy? Right before he left our cookout last night, he said he’d be here with his dad’s guided hiking group at noon. The longer it takes, the more knotted up my stomach gets. Maybe he’s decided no but is too chicken to actually tell me.

  “You can tell this is an aspen because the bark is white and the leaves are heart-shaped. When the wind picks up, you can hear the leaves rustle and see them flutter, which is why some people call them quaking aspens.” Remy’s dad cups a hand around his ear, as if he’s listening to the tree.

  Bug steps next to him and puts her ear right up to the tree’s trunk.

  “What are they going to do next, hug the tree?” Shiver mumbles next to me, one earbud dangling against her shoulder.

  Laughter rises in my throat. I try to stuff it down, but it gurgles out as some kind of strangled sound.

  “You okay?” she asks.

  I nod. There’s no way I’m letting her know I almost laughed at her joke.

  “Aren’t you going to listen to the tree?” a voice says from behind me.

  Finally! I turn around and smile. Remy, his hair curling out from under a tan hat with a brim all around, leans against another tree.

  An irritated sigh escapes Shiver, and she plugs in her other earbud.

  Fine by me. I don’t want her listening in anyway. “So?” I ask in a stage whisper.

  He nods, and I about leap toward him to smother him with a hug. But I don’t, because the whole idea makes me blush just thinking about it, and also because he’d probably go running off. “And?” is all I say, like I didn’t just think about hugging him.

  He nods again toward all the people. We’re going to have to wait until we can get away to talk without Shiver or Bug or his dad overhearing.

  “So do they really look like they’re quaking? The trees?” I ask him.

  His smile takes over his whole face. “Sure, when the breeze blows. Did you know that groups of aspens are connected underground? That’s why you usually see a lot of them all together.”