Archie waved his hand at Vivian in that infuriating way he did when he wanted someone to be quiet. She almost kept talking to spite him, but instead just frowned in his direction and stepped backward into the next row, where she could pretend to examine the immense selection of fashion magazines and gum but still keep an eye on him over the racks. If this was lesson time, she was ready to pay attention. That was the only reason why she was hanging out with him, after all.
Vivian hadn’t used her camera yet—she wasn’t interested in taking pictures of Camp Shady Brook, and it’s not like she had any friends she wanted to memorialize—but the fact that that she had it hidden under her bunk gave her a small sense of satisfaction. Whatever this camp expected of her, she was determined to give it something different in return. She was tired of being played. It was, finally, her turn to be the big shot. Whether Archie realized that or not.
“Hey,” Archie said, in the eager voice she’d already begun to recognize as his usual manner when he approached potential marks. At first she didn’t know who he was talking to, but then she realized a pair of boys had walked into the camp store and were standing near the doorway, looking around.
They turned at the sound of Archie’s voice. Vivian recognized one of them as a kid from the eleven-year-old boys’ cabin, the Bluegills. It was the boy who had fallen into the lake the day before, the one Archie had convinced that he’d been pushed.
“You’re Julian, right?” Archie asked too loudly, and with almost too much forced friendliness. Vivian wondered what he was playing at this time. But she figured she didn’t have long before she found out.
“Yeah,” Julian said, taking a step closer and leaving his friend to examine the T-shirts on a rack by the door. “And you’re Archie Drake, right?”
“You know me? Really?” Archie said. “Wow.”
“Everyone knows you.”
Archie laughed uncomfortably. “I doubt that. Anyway. I’m sorry to bug you. I just, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay, you know, after yesterday.”
The boy’s face darkened. “I got a little wet, okay? Though my sneakers are ruined, they won’t dry out for weeks, and they were the only pair I had. But I’m fine. That Mike Cooper, though . . .”
“Is he the guy, who, you know . . .” Archie lowered his voice. “Pushed you?”
“He swears he didn’t but I know the truth,” Julian said. “I told him to stay away from me if he knows what’s good for him.” He idly picked up one of the candy bars from a shelf, then dropped it like it was on fire. “Three dollars? Come on! Just my luck, my mom didn’t let me bring any food from home and the candy here is three dollars?”
Archie smiled ruefully. “Those prices do seem a little high,” he said, as though money was no concern of his, and he was just being polite to the regular folk who viewed three dollars as a price that might give them pause. “I guess I should be happy I brought so many chocolate bars from home.”
Julian eyed him. “How many chocolate bars did you bring?”
“A couple of boxes. My father insisted. I honestly won’t be able to eat half of them while I’m here, I don’t know what he was thinking.”
Julian’s eyes narrowed. “Any interest in sharing . . . them? Or maybe even selling them? As long as you charged less than three dollars, you know kids would be lining up to get one.”
Archie took a deep breath. “Selling my chocolate bars? I don’t know about that. I wouldn’t even know what to charge. And how would I even approach people—not to mention it’s probably against the rules, isn’t it?”
Julian lowered his voice. “I could help you out. I mean, you helped me out, right? Give me a box of chocolate bars and I’ll sell them for you. You won’t have to do anything except take the money.”
“Well, I don’t know . . . ,” Archie said. “Are you sure it’s okay?”
“Trust me. It’ll be fine. I’ll give you a dollar a bar. I can sell them for double that around here.”
Archie considered the offer. “I’m not sure it’s the best idea, but okay. I mean, we’re friends, right?”
Julian smiled widely. “Just stop by my bunk after dinner,” he said. He turned around and caught the eye of the boy he came in with. “Come on, let’s go, this place is a rip-off,” he said, and the pair hurried out together.
Vivian came around the corner of the candy rack and stood next to Archie, pretending to examine the bags of potato chips hanging on hooks on the display in front of her. The store was deserted now, except for the CIT at the counter who was still flipping through a magazine.
“I don’t get it,” she whispered. “What was the point of all that?”
“The point? He thinks he’s going to make a killing selling those candy bars he talked me into letting him have,” Archie whispered back. “He’s already counting the money in his head.”
“And he’s right,” she said. “Even at two dollars each, he’ll sell out in hours. And you’ll only make half of that. Those chocolate bars probably cost a dollar each to begin with! I don’t get it. What kind of scam is that?”
“Ah, but what you don’t know, my dear Viv—”
“I told you not to call me that.”
“Sorry, Vivian. First, I didn’t pay anything for those candy bars, I got them off another camper last year. Second, what you don’t know is that once he sells that first box, he’ll come literally begging for more. Which I will, after a lot of convincing, provide—but at a higher price, of course. I only have three more boxes, you see, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to want all of them.”
“Okay,” she said. “So this guy is doing the work for you. I get the appeal of that. But I still don’t see why you can’t just sell the candy yourself and make all the money. It can’t be that hard for a guy like you. Why even bother with a middleman?”
“Ah, but there you go,” Archie said. “What you also don’t know is that mere moments after my friend Julian back there and I complete our second transaction, those boxes of candy bars are going to be confiscated by a CIT who will threaten to report the whole situation to Miss Hiss. Until we let him keep all the candy bars and all the money Julian has already made, of course.”
“Oliver,” Vivian said. It wasn’t a question. She already knew she was right.
“Yes, our good friend Oliver. Then he’ll return the candy bars to me, I’ll give him his share of the money and keep the rest, and I’ll be able to do the same con again next week. What do they call that? The gift that keeps on giving?”
Vivian shook her head in fake disapproval at his deception, but she was smiling. This was excellent, way better than anything she’d ever imagined. Not only because it was a good con.
It was also one more thing she knew about Archie that she could use against him.