No. Not quicksand.

There’s no such thing as quicksand. I remembered that from some science book I read in fifth grade.

I lowered the flashlight.

“Ohhhh.” Mud. Thick, gooey mud.

My sneaker sank deep into the ooze.

I pulled my leg up with a groan—and nearly toppled over backwards.

It’s just mud, I told myself. It’s disgusting—but it’s no big deal.

But then I saw the spiders.

Dozens of them. The biggest spiders I ever saw.

There must have been a nest of them in the mud.

They were crawling over my shoe, crawling up the leg of my jeans.

“Ohhhh. Yuck!”

Dozens of spiders clung to me. I shook my sneaker. Hard. Then I began batting at them with my free hand.

“I hate this caaaaaamp!” I screamed.

I beat some spiders away with the flashlight.

And then I had an idea.

I mean, why shouldn’t I pay Briana and Meg back for what they did to me?

They embarrassed me in front of the whole camp. And I hardly did anything to them.

I emptied the batteries from the flashlight. I took a deep breath. Then I bent down—and scooped a bunch of spiders into the flashlight.

Yuck. I felt sick. I really did.

I mean, can you imagine—me handling spiders!

But I knew it would be worth it. Soon.

I filled the flashlight with the squirming, black creatures. Then I screwed on the top.

I stepped over a fallen tree trunk. Found the path. And, carrying the flashlight carefully, I eagerly hurried to the cabin.

I stopped outside the door. The lights were on inside the cabin.

I peeked in through the open window. No. No sign of anyone.

I crept inside.

I pulled up the blanket on Briana’s bed. Then I emptied half of the spiders onto her sheet. I carefully pulled the blanket over them and smoothed it out.

I was pouring the rest of the spiders into Meg’s bed when I heard a shuffling noise behind me. Quickly, I pulled Meg’s blanket back into place and spun around.

Jan stepped into the cabin. “What’s up?” she asked in her hoarse, croaky voice.

“Nothing,” I replied, hiding the flashlight behind my back.

Jan yawned. “It’s Lights Out in ten minutes,” she said.

I glanced at Briana’s bunk. I’d left one corner of the blanket untucked. Briana won’t notice, I decided.

I realized I was grinning. I quickly changed my expression. I didn’t want Jan asking a lot of questions.

She turned and pulled a long white nightshirt from her dresser drawer. “What did you sign up for tomorrow?” she asked. “Free Swim?”

“No. Canoeing,” I told her.

I wanted to be in a nice, dry canoe. Not flopping around in the dirty lake with fish and other slimy creatures.

“Hey. Me too,” Jan said.

I started to ask if she would be my buddy. But Briana and Meg came strolling through the door.

They saw me—and burst out laughing.

“What was that wild dance you were doing at the campfire?” Briana teased.

“You looked as if you had a snake down your back or something!” Meg declared.

They laughed some more.

That’s okay, I thought. Go ahead and laugh.

In a few minutes, when you climb under your covers, I’ll be laughing.

I couldn’t wait.