Word got around that Gabe was planning on kayaking to Dead Man’s Island, and between battles and meals, kids from the team kept giving him items they thought would help him prepare. He found a pair of binoculars on his bed after breakfast. After lunch, a few of his bunkmates gave him a flashlight and a roll of duct tape so he could attach the flashlight to his hat. And, during free time, he found an envelope with an anonymous note that said its contents would help ward off evil spirits. Gabe opened the envelope but then quickly closed it without even looking inside—whatever was in there smelled horrible.
But mostly people gave him things to read. Victor gave him an article from National Geographic Kids about what causes rapids, which was informative. Jenny brought him a book of ghost stories with a Post-it on the page where a ship of ghost pirates attack a boat of fishermen, which wasn’t very helpful. Wesley lent him a battered copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, since Huck rafts down the river. Nikhil went to the library and took out The Cay and Island of the Blue Dolphins, just in case Gabe got stranded on the island and had to live off the land. Gabe thought he’d prepare better by rereading Swallows and Amazons—which had a sea-island adventure that didn’t involve getting stranded or nearly dying—but when he discovered that neither of his bunkmates had read it, he insisted they read it immediately and gave them his copy.
The day went so quickly that he wouldn’t have had time to read most of these materials anyway. After dinner, it was time to rehearse for the sing-off and then perform. Green wrote and sang “Green Will Rock You,” a song to the tune of “We Will Rock You,” which consisted of that one line repeated in all eleven languages spoken on the team. They thought they were better than Blue, who prefaced their song with a long explanation of why the sky is blue. Red was pretty impressive: They ended their song with not just a human pyramid, but also with a human trapezoid and even a human rhombus, and only one person fell. But it was Yellow that came from behind with what was undoubtedly the crowd favorite. They dressed up as robots and computers and sang their entire song in binary.
Before long, it was time for everyone to go back to the bunks. And shortly after that, it was lights out. And fifteen minutes after lights out, it was time for Gabe to go.
“Are you really going?” Nikhil said in the dark.
“Yeah,” said Gabe. He was antsy with readiness and fear, and he hoped his voice betrayed only the former.
“Wear a life jacket,” Nikhil said. “And the flashlight hat.”
“Don’t forget to bring back the sand,” added Wesley with a silly snicker.
“Okay,” said Gabe.
“Wake me up when you get back,” said Nikhil.
“Okay,” said Gabe. They sat for a few seconds in silence. Then he said, “Well, I’d better go before David gets back.”
He unzipped his sleeping bag and peeled back the upper half, then slid his legs onto the floor and sat up. As he tiptoed down the aisle between bunks, boys whispered phrases of encouragement and, in case he didn’t return, final words.
The cabin door was creaky, so he opened it just enough to slip out. The night was quiet, still, and cold. Apart from the low din of cicadas and the occasional voice from the clearing, where the counselors were hanging out, all Gabe could hear were his own footsteps. He walked in the dark until he was sure the cabin would block a view of him from the clearing. Only when he felt the turf of the field beneath him did he turn on the flashlight on his hat, cupping his hand across the top of it to keep the light from scattering. He quickly pointed it across the field to make sure he was heading in the right direction. Ha, he thought. I’m heading in the right direction, and the flashlight is on my head.
For some reason, this stupid joke gave him the confidence he needed to run to the lake. “One …,” he whispered to himself. He switched off the flashlight. “Two …” He took a breath. “Three!” Gabe exploded across the field like soda from a shaken can, and he didn’t stop until he’d rounded the upper cabins, zoomed through the wooded path, and reached the lake. A few kayaks and paddles were lying upside down on the grass right by the water. That was a relief; he wouldn’t have to go into the shed and lug one out by himself, which would be difficult and noisy. He did go to the shed to get himself a life jacket, though—he was a strong swimmer, but he wasn’t taking any risks for this trip. Besides, if something did happen to him and his body washed up on shore without a life jacket, what would Nikhil think of him?
He kicked off his sandals and dragged a kayak to the lake. It slid into the water with a low plop, and Gabe looked around to make sure no one had heard. He also worried, illogically, that someone might hear his heart pounding as he waded into the cold water and clambered into the kayak. But then he was in, and no one had come running from the campground, ready to bust him for breaking the rules. It was pitch black and stock silent and deathly cold. But a sudden rush of adrenaline sent blood pumping through Gabe’s body. I’m doing it!
He took off with long, powerful strokes. He paddled out past the floating rope that marked the official kayaking zone, then aimed the kayak to the right. As he rounded the bend, his mind shifted to thoughts of going home. First he thought, Nothing nerdy had better happen to cancel out this adventure. But then, as the water became rougher and his strokes became stronger, he thought, Why do I keep thinking so much about Zack? He reached a part where he had to paddle through some trees, and he thought, C2 would think this is cool even if something geeky—
There was a rustling in the leaves. Gabe pushed forward with his paddle to slow the kayak and stop in place. He shut off his flashlight and listened. The rustling noise came again. It’s probably just the wind, Gabe thought. But he dipped his finger in the water and held it up. The air was completely still.
Swwwwwooooooshshsh. The leaves rustled again, followed by a faint whimper. Gabe’s whole body turned to ice. He felt his arm hairs stand at attention. There was something there. It’s the ghost, he thought. He kept his eyes wide open behind his glasses, too afraid of heightening his other senses to even blink.
The rustling became louder, and the whimper turned into words. “Go away,” the ghost moaned.
It doesn’t want me to pass, Gabe thought. That was enough of a reason for him to turn back. He wanted to turn back. If only his brain would send the message to the motor axons to make the muscles in his arms put the paddle in the water and turn around. The breakdown in neural communication left him frozen and floating in place.
The leaves were moving now. They cut back and forth through the water with force. A sudden burst of light flashed from behind the leaves. Gabe choked on his scream, but the ghost’s pierced the night. There was a high-pitched shriek, and then a cry of anguish: “NO!”
Gabe’s respiratory system kicked in, and he started breathing again. That scream, that voice—it couldn’t be from a ghost. It was too present and human and … familiar. Then his circulatory system kicked in, and he flicked on his flashlight.
The trees became silent and still. Now the ghost was afraid of him.
“Hello?” Gabe said.
There was no answer for a second. Then the voice came again: “Gabe?”
Gabe nearly fell out of his kayak. “Amanda?” he said.
“Gabe!” cried Amanda. “Thank God you followed me! My kayak is stuck in the branches, and my flashlight fell into the water.”
Gabe let out a loud sigh. Never in his life did he think he’d be so happy to see Amanda Wisznewski. He paddled into the inlet until the nose of his kayak bumped the back of hers. “What are you doing here?” he asked as he moved his head around to scan the light over the water and find the branches that had caught her.
“Going to Dead Man’s Island to get a cup of red sand. What are you doing here?”
Gabe laughed. “Going to Dead Man’s Island to get a cup of red sand,” he admitted. He might as well say it before she did. “Copying you.”
Their relief made them laugh harder than the joke warranted.
Gabe pulled up through the dense leaves so that he was alongside Amanda. Then he pushed off her kayak and shined his hat beneath it. She had paddled into a tangle of branches, and they came to a thick knot right at the pointy part of the bottom of her boat. “You aren’t afraid of the ghosts?” he asked.
“I was when you put on your flashlight!” she said. “Man, that was scary. I thought you were the ghost of the dead explorer.”
“I wasn’t as scary as you! The leaves were moving, and you were making noise. Why did you say ‘go away’?”
“I was talking to the branches. They were everywhere!”
Gabe used the edge of his paddle to push the knot of branches down. “Try to go forward,” he said.
Amanda pushed off Gabe’s kayak and propelled herself forward. “Yes!” she said.
“Uh-oh,” said Gabe. When Amanda had moved out of the trap, he had drifted in. Now his kayak was stuck.
Amanda turned to the side. “Here,” she said. “Give me your paddle and I’ll pull you.”
Gabe stuck his paddle out to her and gripped the end. She reached the other end and pulled with all her might. At first it seemed like she was only going to pull herself back into the trees, but then she grabbed onto a branch with her other hand to hold her boat in place. With a jerk, Gabe’s kayak became dislodged, and he drifted forward to meet her.
Once they were both through, Gabe moved his head in sweeping strokes to illuminate the area. “Wow,” he whispered. It was Lily Pad Lagoon, and it was unbelievable. The water was low and perfectly calm. Large, flat lily pads dotted the surface, creating a floating, abstract checkerboard. Above them, sweeping tree branches arched around the perimeter in a dramatic canopy. Where the branches stopped, stars filled their place—hundreds of them, glowing like Christmas lights in the late summer sky. Gabe closed his eyes and listened. The lagoon was quiet, sleeping. There was nothing but the low buzz of cicadas and the occasional croak of a snoring frog.
The two kayakers paddled in silence, respecting the peace of the lagoon. After a crossing through another thin passageway, the lake opened up again, and Gabe spotted a small, round mound in the distance. “There it is,” he said. “Dead Man’s Island.”
After the cozy tranquility of Lily Pad Lagoon, the vast open water felt cold and unstable. Haunted, even. They paddled quickly and kept their conversation going.
“My stepbrother is going to think this is the coolest adventure. As long as nothing nerdy happens to cancel it out.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve got a logic proof,” Gabe said. “I am trying to prove that I am not just a nerd who does only nerdy things. But so far I don’t know if I can prove it. I’ve got a chart, and for every good adventure there is a geeky part.”
“Like what?”
“Okay. Like our karaoke thing. That was pretty awesome, right? But we were singing all the countries of the world. That’s nerdy, so it negates my hypothesis.”
The bow of Gabe’s kayak slid stiffly onto the sand of Dead Man’s Island. Amanda’s came ashore right next to his.
“You always look at things backward,” she said.
Here we go again, Gabe thought. Just like she always says it’s me who’s stalking her when it’s really her stalking me. How is she going to turn this around?
“We sang the countries of the world,” Amanda said, “but we had a really crazy sing-off. So for every geeky thing, there’s a really cool adventure.”
Gabe turned to face her. He thought about the time his math team friends slept over his house and how they all looked a little different in the morning. Not just because they were wearing pajamas and orthodontic headgear, but because he had spent a whole night with them and felt like he knew them better than he did before. As the light from Gabe’s hat shined into Amanda’s face, he had the same thought about her. She was wearing a sweatshirt like any other and her hair was still long and thick and kind of wild in the light, but somehow she looked just a little bit different.
Amanda covered her face with her hands. “Are you trying to blind me?” she said.
Gabe moved his head back to face the island. “Do you really think someone died here?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabe unhooked his peanut butter jar from the bungee cords at the front of his boat and unscrewed the lid. It would have been easy to jump onto the island to scoop up the sand, but, thinking like Nikhil, he decided to scoop from within his kayak. Just to be safe. He turned the boat sideways, reached over the side, and scooped a big jarful of red sand.
“Oh, no!” Amanda cried.
“What?” Gabe pictured ghosts and dead bodies and long trails of blood.
“My cup is missing. I must have lost it when I lost my flashlight.”
“Oh, come on,” Gabe said.
“I’m serious. Good thing you brought a jar big enough for both of us.”
Typical, Gabe thought as he screwed the cap on the heavy jar of red sand—his red sand that he had gotten by sneaking out and not getting caught in branches and not dropping his flashlight and jar into the water. Amanda was on the Blue team, and this was Color War, not Color Sharing. He’d already helped her enough that night. She’d still be stuck in the thicket and the dark if it weren’t for him. Now she expected him to share his sand, too?
But there was something about the darkness and the hour and the talk they’d just had and the journey they’d just gone on—there was something that told him they were in this together.
“Yeah,” Gabe said. “Good thing.”
After paddling back and pulling the kayaks onto shore and sprinting across the field, and nudging Nikhil to tell him he was back, Gabe lay in his bed with his eyes closed and the sounds of camp wrapped around him. He’d made it.
Maybe Dead Man’s Island was haunted. It had to be an otherworldly spirit that made him think Amanda looked different in that light and made him promise to share half his sand with her. She was on the Blue team, and she was annoying and crazy and always looking at things backward.
But maybe she was right about one thing. Even if he was a nerd, he had just had one awesome adventure.
Problem: Am I a nerd who only has nerdy adventures?
Hypothesis: No.
Proof:
THINGS I CAN TELL ZACK |
THINGS I CAN’T TELL ZACK |
1. I’m going to sleepaway camp for six weeks! |
1. It is the Summer Center for Gifted Enrichment. |
2. My bunkmates are really cool, and we became friends right away! |
2. They like learning digits of π. |
3. The food is bad, just like at camps in books and movies! |
3. We fixed it with lemon juice to kill the bacteria. |
4. I’m being stalked by an annoying girl! |
4. She is in my Logical Reasoning and Poetry Writing classes. |
5. I creamed Amanda in a sing-off! |
5. We sang all the countries of the world. |
6. We put music and sports pictures on our walls. |
6. They are of Beethoven and the rules of badminton. |
7. Wesley says amazing things in his sleep! |
7. He solves math problems. 7a. and brainteasers. |
8. I tried some cool hairstyles that lots of girls said looked cute. |
8. One is named for Julius Caesar. |
9. Vampire lice are sucking the blood out of people’s heads! |
9. We learned all about the Pediculus humanus capitis and their life cycle. |
10. It was an operation to study the science of lice. |
|
11. I hung out with the coolest guy at camp! |
11. His nickname is C2, and he is so smart, he skipped two grades. |
12. Color War broke with aliens landing in the middle of the night! |
12. Our algorithm was off by a few days. |
13. Green won 90 points in field day! |
13. A rocket crashed into the water-balloon toss because the teacher added too much calcium carbide. |
14. We got three five six all of our scavenger hunt items. |
14. They are include a simile, a metaphor, and a word from the dictionary. |
15. A celebrity came to camp, and I got a picture with him! |
15. He’s the host of a game show for smart people. |
16. I’m going to kayak I kayaked to Dead Man’s Island in the middle of the night. |
16. I read books about islands, I had a flashlight on my hat. … But does it matter? |