CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Knock, knock.”

“Who’s there?” mumbled Marco, still half asleep.

“Zubat,” said the voice. Where was it coming from?

“Zubat who?” asked Marco.

“Zu-batter wake up. It’s zip line time!”

Marco sat up with a start, and heard Logan laughing from his bed across the room. He fought the urge to whip a pillow at him for making such bad jokes.

Today’s no joke, Marco remembered. It’s zip line day. Ready or not.

It helped, though, that Logan was back to his usual jokey self.

“Hey, Marco,” he said as they walked to breakfast. “Why are Zubats hard to get along with?”

“I don’t know,” said Marco. “Why?”

“Because they can be a real pain in the neck!” said Logan, doing his best vampire impersonation. Then he started right in on the next one. “Which Pokémon likes to visit animals?”

Marco grinned. “Let me guess. A ZOO-bat?”

“Yes!” Logan threw back his head and laughed hysterically.

This could go on all day, thought Marco. But he was glad his friend was back to normal. As they headed to breakfast together, Marco almost felt hungry, in spite of the butterflies fluttering inside him.

Just outside the Dining Hall, they met Maddy running toward them from the girls’ cabins. Her cheeks were flushed, and she looked like she was bursting with a huge secret.

She held out her closed fist in front of Marco. Then she opened it to reveal a woven bracelet made of pink, orange, and white floss. “For you,” she said. “A Focus Band. I made it.”

“A Focus Band?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “You know—they keep Pokémon from fainting during attacks. So now you won’t faint on the zip line.” She said it with such certainty that Marco almost believed her.

“You know, Maddy,” said Logan in his I-can’t-resist-messing-with-you voice, “Focus Bands aren’t actually real.”

She blew her bangs off her forehead and stared at him for a long, hard moment. “I know that, Logan,” she finally said. “I’m not a little kid. But I’m trying to help Marco. And sometimes it’s good to pretend.”

“She’s got a point,” said Marco. “Thanks, Maddy!”

“Wait till you see what Nisha made, too,” she said, bouncing up and down. She was obviously dying to tell them about Nisha’s invention, but she didn’t.

Before heading into the Dining Hall, Marco remembered something he had to do. “I’ll catch up with you,” he told his friends. “I’ve got to go mail a Wingull letter.”

He’d written it late last night, when he couldn’t sleep. And this time, he hadn’t even thought about what he was writing—he’d just told his parents the truth. He talked about the zip line, and about how scared he was, and about how good he would feel when it was all over.

After dropping the letter in the Wingull mailbox, he felt even better. Lighter somehow. But as he turned away, something caught his eye. A feather?

He bent down to pick it up. The soft blue feather was enormous—it stretched from his elbow almost to his fingertips. That’s a big bird, he thought, and a pretty one.

He stuck the feather partway into his pocket and hurried back toward the Dining Hall, hoping he’d be able to eat.

“It’s a Cresselia feather!” Maddy insisted as they walked toward the zip line after breakfast. “It’s big and blue. What other kind of bird could that come from?”

“Well, he found it by the Wingull box. So I’m going out on a limb here and guessing a Wingull, maybe?” joked Logan. He was using just one crutch now and moving a whole lot faster.

“No, it’s from a Cresselia,” Maddy insisted. “And holding a Cresselia feather cures you from nightmares.”

“Really?” said Marco, running his finger along the soft edges of the feather. “Will it cure me from daymares, too? Because in about fifteen minutes, I’m about to have one.”

“Yes,” said Maddy. “It will.” Her eyes twinkled.

It’s fun to pretend for a while, Marco decided. Right now, he was pretending he was walking to school. Or to a friend’s house. Anywhere but to the zip line. He hoped Maddy would keep chatting so that he wouldn’t have to face reality just yet.

But after they’d passed the girls’ cabins and the pier, there was no more pretending. The zip line towered over Marco like a Mega Steelix, taller than he remembered. It cast a dark shadow on the lake beyond.

Marco’s fingers found the Focus Band on his wrist, and he spun it around and around. At least I won’t faint, he thought with a smile. But the ground beneath him felt kind of wobbly, and he decided to sit down to wait for Nisha.

Every time he heard voices, he turned, hoping to see Nisha’s face. Most of the teams were here, and Professor Birch was already handing out orienteering maps. But still, no Nisha. Where was she?

Logan seemed antsy, too. He held his crutch like a rifle, pretending to scope out ducks on the lake—or maybe wild Pokémon. Marco didn’t ask which. He was too busy wondering what he was going to do if Nisha didn’t show up.

If she doesn’t come, he realized with a sickening feeling, I’ll have to do the zip line. I won’t have a choice!

He glanced back at the woods, wondering if he should make a run for it now. And then he saw her. Nisha!

She jogged toward him like a superhero—or a girl who could turn into one at any moment.

“Where’s your invention?” asked Maddy, jumping up from the grass. “Show Marco!”

“Just wait,” said Nisha, raising a finger in the air. But her eyes flashed the way they always did when she’d created something good—really good. “Marco, can you run down the list of things we need?”

“Um, sure,” he said.

But just then, Professor Birch hurried past. “Good morning, Team Treecko,” he said in his sing-songy voice. “Nice to see you here early, and all together.” He chuckled as he handed Nisha a crisp orienteering map. Then he headed for the zip line tower, his whistle bouncing against his clipboard as he walked.

“Okay,” said Marco. “So we have the map.”

“Check,” said Nisha, grinning.

“Camera?”

“Check,” said Logan. He dug Dex out of his pocket and handed it to Marco.

“Stopwatch?” said Marco. He smiled and pointed at the lanyard around his neck. “Check.” Running down the checklist helped him stay calm. He was glad Nisha had asked him to do it.

“Anything else?” asked Nisha, tapping her foot impatiently.

But Marco couldn’t think. He ran a hand over his head, trying to remember.

“Compass!” Maddy answered for him. “Duh.”

“Oh, yeah.” Marco’s face fell. He could still hear the crunch of the compass beneath his knee in that dark tunnel. “We don’t actually have one of those, thanks to me.”

“Actually,” Nisha corrected him, “we do.” She reached for her backpack. Out of the mesh side pocket, she pulled out what looked like a travel mug.

“Hot chocolate?” asked Logan hopefully.

“No!” said Maddy. “It’s the compass!”

“Really?” Marco moved in for a closer look.

When Nisha popped off the lid, he saw that the mug was halfway filled with water. And something floated on the surface—a circle cut out of cork, with a needle sticking through it.

“It points north,” Nisha announced proudly. “I rubbed the needle over a strong magnet to magnetize it.”

“That’s really cool,” said Marco, leaning over the mug.

“Cooler than hot chocolate,” said Logan. “Get it?” He cracked up at his own joke.

Marco laughed, too, but then he caught the look on Nisha’s face. She was staring up at the sun. “Wait a minute,” she said slowly. “The needle isn’t pointing north. North is that way.” She gestured toward the woods.

Marco looked at the needle again, which was pointing in the exact opposite direction—toward the boathouse on the lake. “Right,” he said. “It’s pointing … south.”

“Oh, no,” whimpered Nisha. “No, no, no, no, no. It was working last night. I must have set it down by another magnet. Or something made of iron. Or something in my backpack… .” She crouched down and started frantically digging through her backpack, looking for the culprit.

When she came up empty-handed, she turned to Marco with wild eyes. She looked like she was going to throw up.

It’s her worst fear! he suddenly realized. One of her inventions didn’t work.

“It’s okay,” he said quickly. “We can get another compass from the counselors, remember? It’s no big deal.” He wasn’t sure that there was time, and they’d lose a point or two if they had to ask for a new one. But it didn’t matter. He just wanted Nisha to feel better.

“Yeah, it’s okay, Nisha,” said Maddy, patting her shoulder.

Nisha squeezed her eyes shut for what felt like a long time. When she opened them again, the old Nisha was back. “Okay. I’ll go ask Professor Birch if he has a compass.” She sprang up from the ground and ran toward the tower.

But seconds later, she was back, shaking her head. “We have to get one at the Media Center,” she said. “And it’ll cost us a point.”

“We don’t need it,” Marco said quickly.

“Yes, we do!” Nisha insisted. “Cresselia is going to be tough to find without a compass. And we need to capture Cresselia and the hidden item to win this game!”

When Professor Birch blew his whistle from the top of the zip line tower, Nisha sprang into action. “I’m going to the Media Center. I’ll sprint the whole way. You take the zip line to the island, and I’ll meet you there.”

She pressed the map into Marco’s hand, and then she was gone—before he could say a word.

Loneliness washed over him, and a ringing sound filled his ears. Maddy was saying something, but he couldn’t hear a word of it. Because Maddy wasn’t going on the zip line. Logan wasn’t either. And Nisha was running in the opposite direction, like a compass needle gone awry.

I’m on my own, Marco realized. Nisha’s worst fear came true. And mine just did, too.