Chapter 10

Billy sits on a branch above me, giggling like a kid who’s just thrown a water balloon at his best friend. Actually, he isn’t giggling like that. He’s giggling because that’s exactly what he just did.

“What in the world, Billy? I thought you were—”

Gwaaaggaaaplooosh!

My sentence is cut short because a large stream of water hits my face. I look to see Everley holding a big water gun. She’s been hiding behind a nearby tree.

Her giggling joins Billy’s.

“Everley Clementine Armstrong!” (That’s not her middle name, but I’m soaking wet and can’t remember what it is.) “You better not shoot me with that water g—”

Gwaaaggaaaplooosh!

My face is drenched again. How did Everley do that? I wonder.

Everley is pretty good at catching frogs. She can also outrun any boy in school. However, there’s no way she can hit me with a blast of water without pointing her water gun at me.

“How did you—” I start to say.

Gwaaaggaaaplooosh!

I wipe water from my eyes and look at Billy. He’s now hanging off a branch and laughing like crazy. I glance back at Everley, who’s holding her stomach and rolling around on the grass, cackling like a hyena who just heard a joke that I evidently told everyone but still can’t remember.

Where did that third blast of water come from? Then it hits me. This has to be a dream, and I know exactly what to do. I use my right thumb and finger to grab a piece of skin under my left arm. Then I give it the tightest pinch possible in order to make myself wake up.

This doesn’t work. Now I’m awake, soaking wet, and my left arm is hurting. I start climbing down when another blast of water hits me on top of my head. I look over to see a third water bandit in another nearby tree.

“Sarah Antonio Faircloth!” I shout. (I’m really not good at remembering people’s middle names.)

Sarah drops to the ground and joins the other two laughing hyenas.

“Sorry, AB,” Sarah says. “You should see your face. It’s hilarious.”

She pulls out a smaller water gun from her pocket and tosses it toward me. Maybe she’s on my side? I wonder.

Nope. As soon as I reach out to catch the water gun, she blasts me again!

Wait, you aren’t here. So here’s what really happens: I catch the water gun in midair. Then, running acrobatically along a tree branch, I leap into the air, grab a limb with my left hand, do a double flip, and land on the ground like a superhero.

Either way, I end up soaking the three laughing hyenas with my tiny water gun. I start chasing Sarah around a tree when—

Gwaaaggaaaplooosh!

“Gotcha again!” Billy yells.

Billy has obviously recovered from his giggling fit and hits me with another water balloon.

For the next ten minutes, we run all over the forest, soaking each other. At first we stay close to the creek so we can keep filling up our water guns. But it soon turns into a neighborhood water fight.

I even soak Everley when she jumps onto Mr. Polvado’s front porch to get away. Of course she and Sarah get me back, although I don’t think it’s fair because I am busy apologizing to Mr. Polvado.

Honestly, I didn’t see him sitting on his porch drinking tea when Everley jumped up there and said, “Time out!” My water balloon hit Everley but also drenched Mr. Polvado. So while I was trying to encourage him that his shirt no longer needed washing now, the girls snuck up behind me and dumped a bucket of water on me!

I quickly turn and aim my water gun at them. That’s when Mr. Polvado decides to get in the game by pouring his entire glass of tea on my head!

I spin around and burst out laughing. He’s grinning at me with the silliest smile.

“Hmmm,” I say. “Needs more sugar.”

Now Mr. Polvado’s laughing. He walks to the side of the house to get his hose.

Our water battle lasts another twenty minutes before coming to an abrupt end. One of us—and I won’t mention any names—decides to give up because his gun stops working and he’s totally drenched.

All of us sit on Mr. Polvado’s porch to catch our breath and dry off. Mr. Polvado picks up my water gun and tries to fix it.

“What are you kids going to do the rest of the day?” he asks. “Something far from here, I hope.”

Mr. Polvado makes jokes, but I know he loves when we hang out with him.

“We might work on our tree house,” I say. “If you help us, we could get the flooring in place.”

Mr. Polvado scratches his chin in thought. “I’d love to help you kids,” he says. “But I’d rather chew on some tinfoil while shaving my head with a cheese grater.”

We all laugh.

“Thanks for being a good sport with our water fight,” Billy says.

The four of us get up and head back to the big tree. There’s no sign of Triple-H, and all the woodland creatures seem to be scurrying or chirping once again.

We manage to haul the wooden crates up to the middle of the tree. Billy and I position them just right. Then we stare at each other.

“How do we secure them to the tree?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” Billy says. “I thought you knew how to do it.”

While we try to think of a plan, we hear Sarah and Everley frantically climbing up toward us.

“We heard a noise in the bushes!” Sarah whisper-shouts. “It’s coming this way!”

We all peer into the woods. The Huge Hairy Hisser could appear at any moment. I pull the last water balloon out of Billy’s backpack and prepare to defend our unfinished tree house.

The noise gets louder and louder and louder. At last the evil beast steps into the open and . . . coughs?

Unfortunately, my water balloon is already in flight. It hits Mr. Polvado’s shoulder.

Gwaaaggaaaplooosh!

“Hey!” he shouts. “This shirt got washed earlier today! You should remember, since you were the ones who did it.”

I burst into a grin. Mr. Polvado has his tool chest with him. This tree house is going to be amazing!