CHAPTER 31

Mal was supposed to be practicing guitar, but the music just wasn’t in her that day. So instead she wandered around looking for Molly until she spotted Jen and an able crew of hammering scouts working to repair one of the roofs recently damaged by a set of very sharp griffin claws.

Stacks of fallen feathers had already been collected and turned into pillows. And, I will say, if you’ve never slept on a pillow made with griffin feathers (which are only acceptable to use if you have a bunch of them left in your camp after a griffin swarm), you haven’t slept.

Mal hadn’t really slept all that much over the past few days, which had very little to do with her pillow, and everything to do with her worries.

A small crew of scouts was hammering away on the roof tiles and on their Because I Have a Hammer badge. A badge that teaches scouts the basics of hammer, nail, screw, drill, and, inadvertently, roofs.

“Mal,” Jen called down, slinging her hammer into her pocket. “Shouldn’t you be in the music portable?”

Jumping down from the roof, Jen raised an eyebrow. “Not that you scouts are ever where you’re supposed to be.”

Mal considered. “I’d say sixty-five percent of the time we are.”

“Hmmmm. Okay. I’d say sixty,” Jen said, brushing the sawdust off her sleeves. “But it’s a guess. Did you find your socks?”

“I did.” Mal held out her feet, which were now socked.

“You don’t look very pleased,” Jen noted, lowering her face to look closer at Mal. “Everything okay?”

“I just worry.” Mal shrugged. “About people. Sometimes.”

“OH!” Jen held her hands up in the air. “TELL ME ABOUT IT! Imagine worrying about five scouts who are ALWAYS off on crazy adventures that probably put them in the path of DANGER, like possibly in the claws of giant griffins or on the backs of mountains that don’t exist.”

“That sounds very stressful,” Mal said.

“It is. BUT.” Jen held up a stern finger. “The key to being a good counselor is knowing that worrying doesn’t actually do anything. Which is very frustrating, as you can imagine, but it is the truth.”

Just then, in addition to the noise of hammering, there was a very loud creak. The hammering abruptly stopped.

“OH! GOTTA GO!” Jen cried, dashing off toward the cabin. “HOW MANY SCOUTS ARE ON THE ROOF? I SAID FOUR!”

Several scouts pointed at one another.

“Which one of us is five?” Marcie from Dighton called down.

“It’s not me,” Leah said, pulling out a nail. “I’m three.”

“I’M three,” Caitlyn of Roswell piped in. “You’re TWO. Wait, or are you one?”

Jen waved her arms. “Everyone DOWN!”

Mal turned and started walking toward the library.

Worrying wasn’t doing anything but eating at her stomach.

Mal was sure there was something else she could do to make things better, she just didn’t know what.