And then out of nowhere, I lucked out!
There I was on the dance floor, having the worst three minutes (that felt like three hours) of my life, when some kind of commotion started up by the windows. At first, it was just a couple of kids standing around pointing at something outside.
But pretty soon, it started spreading like a brush fire. You could see kids whispering to other kids and more people crowding around to see what was up.
Some of them were laughing. A few girls screamed or screeched. And then everyone was scrambling for the door to check out whatever it was.
That was all the excuse I needed. As soon as Katie wasn’t watching anymore, I dropped my sister like the hottest potato in the history of hot potatoes and headed out like everyone else.
Do you remember at the beginning of the book when I showed you a picture of a flagpole that didn’t exactly have a flag hanging on it? Well, that was just part of the whole thing. I was kind of saving the rest.
When I got outside, this is what I saw.
Just for the record, this wasn’t anywhere near the first time I’d seen ladies’ underwear. At home, I live with a whole house full of ladies, and believe me, Grandma Dotty isn’t shy about that kind of thing. There’s almost always something white and floppy hanging in our bathroom.
But this wasn’t Grandma underwear, or Mom, or even Georgia. This was real girl underwear. Maybe even counselor underwear. Maybe even… Katie Kim underwear.
And that’s the part that made my head almost explode.
The whole thing was over pretty quick. One of the counselors started taking down the “flag” while the others herded us all back inside, saying stuff like “Move it along” and “Nothing to see here.”
Nothing to see? Yeah, right! That’s what they say at car crashes and crime scenes when there’s all kinds of stuff to see.
Still, we didn’t have much choice. By the time we got back inside, they’d already refilled the refreshment bowls and had the music going again, like nothing had happened.
But it didn’t take a genius to notice the way Doolin was laughing with his friends or how they were all looking around to see what everyone was doing now.
The Bobcats had struck again, of course. Who else?
I guess I couldn’t complain. It got me out of dancing with Georgia. It showed me something I’d never seen before (in a good way). And it meant that Doolin and fiends weren’t doing anything to us in the meantime. It seemed like a pretty good deal, actually.
Or so I thought.
In fact, the worst night of the whole summer had already begun.