ROBERT STOOD AT the head of the small table while the other kids sat around it in the room labeled MESS HALL.
There’s got to be a camera on us right now even if we can’t see it, Billy thought. Involuntarily, his eyes swept over every inch of space in the small white room. He would give anything to know where the camera was hidden.
“Okay. We all know how these things work from other shows,” Robert said.
Billy nodded.
Grace was sewing a torn harness.
Polly was reading.
Andrew just looked miserable. “This is day one. We have a total of five days on this ship to ‘bond together as a team and get ready for the challenge.’” Robert’s voice sounded more sarcastic than he had intended.
Polly put her book down. Her stomach still felt unsteady, but she steeled herself. “Excuse me. Who appointed you leader?”
“I appointed myself.”
“What are your qualifications?”
Robert smiled as if she had asked the easiest question in the world. “I’m going to survive. Any more questions? Anyone else want to be leader?”
“Grace? Andrew? Billy?” Polly studied each kid’s face. “Don’t you want to talk about this?”
Billy’s plan was that Robert would do all the work and then, at the end, he, Billy, would do some amazing thing and be voted MVP. So he was happy for Robert to wear himself out as leader.
Grace didn’t care.
“I think Robert’s great,” Andrew said.
“You can be leader, Robert,” Polly said, since Robert was set on the title and no one else wanted it. “But on the big decisions, I think we should vote. One person, one vote. Does anyone disagree?”
No one said anything. “Be leader, then,” Polly said. “It’s fine with me.” She picked up her book. Scott’s ponies had gotten stranded on an ice floe that floated out to sea. Henry “Birdie” Bowers, Titus Oates, and Apsley Cherry-Garrard were trying to rescue them. Polly was happier than usual to have a good book to help her escape from her life.
“Billy and I worked on the supplies,” Robert said. “How about the rest of you? What did you do last night?” Except for Billy, he guessed that they were a worthless bunch.
No one spoke. “How about you, Polly? Did you read all night?” Robert tried unsuccessfully to keep the sneer out of his voice.
“I did,” she said calmly. She held up the book, Scott’s Last Expedition: The Journals.
“So?” Robert said.
“There are books about polar exploration in my cabin,” Polly said. “I know it’s part of the game. You should read one.”
Robert had never learned anything worth knowing from a book, but before he could respond, Grace interrupted. “Did you hear the animals?”
“Yeah,” Robert said. “I was going to bring that up next. We need to figure out how to take care of them.”
“I already have,” Grace said.
“You fed them all?” Robert asked, surprised at her efficiency. “What’s on board?”
“Twelve dogs and two ponies.”
“Ponies?” Billy said.
“I don’t understand.” Robert scratched his head.
Polly cleared her throat. Here was her first chance to show how useful the books were going to be. “Captain Scott used ponies, dogs, and a primitive form of motor sledge for his polar expedition. Of course, his faith in ponies and motor sledges was misplaced. Roald Amundsen beat him to the Pole in 1911 using only dogs.”
“Ponies hauling on ice and snow?” Robert asked. The idea sounded strange. “How did they do?”
“They slipped a lot, and the weather was hard on them. They did better when they wore snowshoes,” Polly added.
“Snowshoes for horses?” Billy asked incredulously.
“Any weird-looking snowshoes down there, Grace?” Robert asked.
“Yeah,” Grace said, thinking of the round things hanging next to the ponies’ bridles that had puzzled her. “Now that you mention it. I didn’t know what they were.”
“That’s the Secretary of Entertainment for you, accurate down to the last little detail.” Billy was anxious to do everything he could to remain the Secretary’s favorite contestant.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Robert broke in. “I hate the suck-ups on the reality shows. The wonderful Secretary of Entertainment this. The wonderful Secretary of Entertainment that.” He tried to imagine a camera in the corner and looked straight at it. “I don’t mean any disrespect, ma’am. I’m glad for this chance to earn money.” Robert turned and glared at Billy. “But we won’t have any sucking up while I’m team leader, you got that?”
“I didn’t mean …” Billy’s voice trailed off.
“So let’s get back to our plan. Billy and I are going to handle supplies.” Robert looked at Grace. “You, animals?”
Grace nodded.
“Polly,” he said deliberately. “I guess you should be Director of Research.” He smiled at his joke. She was prim and executive-looking, like her title.
“I think everybody should read these books,” Polly said.
Robert shook his head. “No time. Find out all you can about Scott’s mistakes. Maybe we don’t even want to bring the ponies.”
“Scott and his men brought them along and then killed them as food for themselves and the dogs,” Polly said.
“Killed them,” Grace echoed, with too much emotion in her voice as far as Robert was concerned.
“Another thing,” Robert said. “Grace, those animals are our tools. We’re not going to cry over ponies or dogs or anything.” He stared hard at her. “You got it? Or I’m going to take you off animals and stick you with the supplies. Understand?”
“I’m going to need some help,” Grace said.
“What about you, Andrew? What did you do last night?”
Might as well tell the lazy truth. “Slept.”
“I’m getting a sense of what the other team members’ strengths are. What do you bring to the team?” Robert said. He tried to keep his voice level and not mocking.
Andrew shook his head miserably. Sometimes his family teased him and called him “couch worm.” That’s what he felt like, a soft, flabby worm.
“Where are you from again?” Robert asked.
“Nashville, Tennessee.” Andrew hung his head.
“You get snow there, don’t you?” Robert said. Andrew nodded.
“Are you a good skier? A good ice fisherman?” Polly suggested.
“No.” Andrew shook his head. “There’s not enough snow to ski.”
“Maybe a hunter? A friend of mine told me that there’ll be seals in Antarctica,” Robert said.
Andrew sighed. He was good at watching television. That was about it. When he was a little boy, his mother told him that everyone had special gifts, but he had long since given up on finding his.
“Okay,” Robert said. No sense humiliating the guy. “You help Grace.”
Andrew nodded.
“Now, we have just five days on this ship. We’ve got a lot to do to get ready….” He snapped his fingers. “I know. Polly, could you be our navigator?”
“Sure,” Polly said.
Grace stood and walked over to a slot in the wall labeled KITCHEN.
“What are you doing?” Robert said.
Robert acted as if each of them needed permission to move, Polly thought.
“I’m hungry,” Grace said.
Me, too, Billy thought. Please, let breakfast be a good bag of chips. Grace punched a large button that said BREAKFAST. Five trays popped out of the paneling.
“Compliments of Shipchef,” said a creaky voice.
“Good button-pushing, Grace,” Robert said. The smell of eggs and bacon filled the cabin. Like most kids in America, Robert rarely ate hot food, so he savored the aroma.
“Is it egg-and-bacon chips?” Andrew asked Grace.
“No,” Grace said. “It’s the real thing.” She walked back to the table with a breakfast tray.
“You say that like you eat real bacon all the time,” Billy said.
“We do. From hogs.” Grace took a bite of her food.
“Where do you live again?” Billy asked as he stood to get his breakfast. As far as he was concerned, a bag of bacon chips was better, but since this bacon was crunchy, bacon and eggs would do just fine.
“On a Hopi Indian reservation,” Grace said. “My mom tries to keep the old ways as much as possible.” Grace and her family didn’t live like her Iñupiat ancestors had. But that didn’t stop her family from being proud of the fact that they grew or raised most of their own food.
Robert returned to the table with his tray. He loaded up his fork with a huge piece of bacon and eggs. He loved bacon and eggs and rarely got to eat them.
“Better than water moccasin?” Billy said to Robert with a touch of sarcasm as he sat down next to him.
Robert decided to ignore Billy’s jab. “Moccasins aren’t that bad.”
Polly and Andrew rose to get their trays.
“I bet your gift has something to do with animals,” Polly said to Grace as she passed her.
“I hadn’t thought about that,” Grace said. “I’m the reservation’s animal doctor.”
“What did you do the day of the farm test?” Billy asked Grace.
“Played with the pigs. Why? What did you do?” Grace said.
“My tester told me that the farm test was optional, so I sat in the car,” Billy said.
“I drove the tractor,” Robert said. He looked at Billy and made a guess. “Did you ace the snow-and-ice computer games?”
“Yeah,” Billy said. But he knew snow-and-ice games were very different from real snow and real ice. “What did you do at the farm, Andrew?” he asked, to change the subject.
“I watched TV,” Andrew said.
Robert laughed along with the others. “You watched television?”
“Yeah, there was a TV in the farmhouse. They said that I could go anywhere and do anything.” Andrew blushed.
Grace pointed to a small black box in the corner of the room.
“What are you looking at?” Robert said.
“Is that a camera?” Grace asked.
“I already checked. It’s a smoke detector,” Robert said.
“The thought of the cameras gives me the creeps,” Polly said.
“We’ve got to put the cameras out of our minds,” Robert said firmly, as much to himself as to the rest of them.
Billy touched the top button on his shirt. “Maybe the cameras are in our clothes.”
Robert pointed to his shirt. The buttons were missing.
“What happened to it?” Billy said.
“Smashed them in my room last night,” Robert said.
“And?” Polly looked up, interested.
“They’re buttons,” Robert said. “Which reminds me: After breakfast, I want us all to try on the gear.”
“If there are cameras, there have to be cameramen,” Polly said.
“Yeah, remember when those cameramen got blown up in Civil War Historical Survivor?” Billy said.
“Well, there’s no camera crew on this ship.” Robert had searched the whole ship and was sure of that.
“I think that they’ve wired the ship in some way, but when we get to Antarctica, there have to be cameramen,” Billy said. “Otherwise, how would they know which way we’re going?”
That was what Polly had been thinking. Adults. Adults had to be near them. They couldn’t be all alone.