We had a really good time in the cabin that night. Winning actually is kind of fun. I had no idea. Rusty brought around brownies and chocolate milk before lights-out. Everybody but Dweebs had some. Even Norman was getting into it.
“Cheers, dudes!” Rusty said, and we all cheered him back on his way out the door.
He probably thought we were feeling good about the gold medal, which was true. But that wasn’t all of it.
Y’see, none of us had gotten wedgied all day. None of our beds had been short-sheeted. None of our toilet seats had been covered in butter. Today had been a win-win-win for us.
“Great job, Dweebs,” Bombardier said. “And good job, Norman. Way to come up with the big idea.”
“Um… thanks,” Norman said, like he was embarrassed with everyone gawking at him. But I think he liked the attention.
“What do you think they’d do if they found out?” Dweebs asked.
“Who? The rat-faced Bobcats?” Cav said.
“Yeah. Of course, the rat-faced Bobcats.”
“I don’t want to think about it,” Bombardier said.
“If we don’t let them know, then they never have to find out,” I said. “As far as they’re concerned, that camera’s in a safe place and we’ve already made a jillion backup copies of all those pictures.”
“Yeah, the ones that don’t exist!” Smurf said, and we all cracked up.
It really was a kind of awesome plan, considering how badly it could have gone.
But here’s the thing: My luck stinks. It seems like all I have to do is think, I’ve got this, and then—BLAM!
Something blows up in my face.
Or falls apart.
Or goes down the drain.
Or… crawls under the cabin to spy on us and overhears every word we’re saying.
“What’s that noise?” Cav said all of a sudden.
“What noise?” Dweebs said.
“Shh!”
We all stopped and listened. Cav lay down and put his eye up against one of the cracks in the floor.
“What do you see down there?” Bombardier asked.
“Nothing. It’s too dark,” Cav said.
“Think it’s a raccoon?” Smurf said.
“Maybe,” Norman said. “I don’t think there’s enough room down there for a bear.”
“A bear?” I said.
Just then, something scratched on the floor from the other side. Right under our feet.
Whatever was there, it was moving fast, making some kind of sneaky getaway. My heart was kick-boxing at the inside of my chest, but we all piled outside anyway. I totally expected to see some kind of green-eyed rabid killer grizzly or something.
But it wasn’t that at all. It was just a person.
By the time we spotted him, he was already running away, straight up the path. I couldn’t see who it was in the dark, but I knew. In my heart, I knew.
“That was a Bobcat!” Smurf said. “A rotten, stinking, spying Bobcat.”
“How much do you think he heard?” Tunz asked.
“Who knows?” Smurf said. “Enough!”
“We might still be okay,” Cav said. “Maybe he couldn’t hear anything through the floor.”
“Are you kidding? Are you serious? Are you nuts?” Tunz said. “You can see through our floor. What in the name of LeBron James makes you think he didn’t hear anything?”
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” I said. But I definitely knew what had just happened—we all did.
The Bobcats had just busted us.
And dead meat was back on the menu.
