Church Camp Chaos (20 page)

“Me!” EJ and CoraLee said in unison.

“Okay, both of you, over here,” Sara said, pointing at the wooden puzzle pieces.

EJ and CoraLee narrowed their eyes at each other. Could they really work together?

“Two heads
are
better than one,” EJ said, testing the waters with CoraLee.

“No way am I eating beef jerky,” CoraLee said. “Let’s do this thing!”

EJ and CoraLee spread out the puzzle pieces on the platform, and the rest of the team formed a half circle around them, cheering them on. They would have to assemble the puzzle in a frame that was built into the hatch that led to the slide, and only when the puzzle was completed would the hatch swing open.

“I see letters and a design,” CoraLee said as she finished flipping over the puzzle pieces to all face the same way.

“It seems familiar….” EJ closed her eyes for a moment and a picture started to take shape. “C. H. R. I…. It’s the Camp Christian logo!” she shouted, opening her eyes.

“Yes! You’re right!” CoraLee picked up the first four letters—CAMP—and put them in the puzzle frame. “Nice job, EJ!”

EJ and CoraLee finished the puzzle in no time flat, and soon everyone was barreling down the slide to the beginning of the maze. EJ was running on pure adrenaline now. The race against the other teams was extremely close.

The red team entered their maze and immediately hit a dead end. The narrow passageway and tall hay bale walls made for difficult communication among the girls, so there was a lot of confusion about which way to go and who was leading. EJ was getting frustrated quickly. She jumped up into the air to try to see which way they should go. All of a sudden, she realized there was someone on her team that could see above the walls without jumping.

“Sara,
you
have to lead us through the maze!” EJ said. “Guys, let Sara Powers go to the front of the line!”

“What? Why me?” Sara looked confused.

“You’re tall! You can see over the walls so you know which way to go!” EJ said, nudging her forward. “Hurry!”

Sara got to the front of the line and quickly led the girls through the maze, only hitting one more dead-end that was in a really tricky spot, so no one blamed her.

The red team was the first out of the maze, and they all ran toward the rope bridge, nearly tripping over each other as several girls unsteadily made their way out on the rope. A few seconds later, five of them screamed and fell in the creek, wet from the waist down.

“Hold on, everyone, we have to make a plan!” EJ shouted. “Anybody have an idea?”

“I do!” Macy held up her hand.

“Okay, go,” EJ said.

“It’s like when I’m training for gymnastics—you have to leave enough room between you and the next person, or you’ll mess each other up,” Macy said. “So the first person should go, and then the next person should wait until the first person is halfway across. That way you won’t feel the person next to you moving the rope as much as you would if you were right next to each other.”

“Yeah, that’s how we ended up in the creek,” said Alexa, one of wet-from-the-waist-down girls. “That sounds like a good plan!”

“It’ll take patience, though,” Macy warned. “The other teams are catching up with us, and we’re going to want to go faster and send more than one person across at once, but slow and steady is going to win it for us.”

Macy coached the team across, one by one, and her plan worked really well. The other teams quickly finished the maze and tried the all-at-once approach, but no team got more than one or two girls across that way before they ended up in the creek. By that time, the red team had a nice lead, but the blue team was copying their one-at-a-time approach and was quickly catching up.

“We need to pick up the pace, so just try to go a
little
faster,” Macy said, glancing over her shoulder at the blue team. EJ was on the rope now, and she concentrated on keeping her center of balance directly over her feet. She gripped the hand ropes loosely so she could slide her hands along them without getting rope burn. Soon she stepped off the rope bridge on the other side and immediately started cheering on the remaining teammates behind her.

EJ saw the blue team only had three people left on the far creek bank, but there were four left on the red team’s bank. Both teams were shouting encouragement to their teammates, but the blue team was nearing a fever pitch—it was like they could already taste the gooey s’more deliciousness.

The last member of the blue team started on the rope bridge at the same time CoraLee started for the red team—that still left Macy on the far bank. Apparently being barefoot was a real asset to walking across a rope, because CoraLee walked across the rope so fast that she almost caught up with the girl in front of her.

EJ saw Macy’s eyes light up as she watched CoraLee’s quick trip across the rope. In a flash, Macy removed her shoes and socks and eased out onto the rope. EJ heard the roar of the blue team and saw that their final teammate was more than halfway across the rope bridge already. It seemed like there was no way the red team would be able to pull out a win, but EJ knew better than to count out Macy Russell. With a clear path in front of her, Macy took a deep breath and pranced gracefully across the rope, her hands stretched out at her sides to keep her balance. Part gymnastic feat, part lovely dance, she looked perfectly at ease coming across the rope in her bare feet, pointed toes and all. The red team seemed to hold its breath as she floated toward them, passing the girl on the blue team, who was struggling to keep her balance. At the end of the bridge, Macy vaulted off the suspended rope and did a front handspring onto the ground. The red team went crazy. EJ could already taste the fire-roasted hot dog—with relish and extra ketchup!

“Flashlights off in two minutes, girls!” Susan called from her tent.

EJ zipped the tent door shut and shined her flashlight beam at Macy, who was already snug in her sleeping bag.

“Hey, my eyes! You’re blinding me, EJ!” Macy said, pulling the edge of her sleeping bag over her head to block the light.

“Oops, sorry.” EJ flashed the light in her own eyes and grinned. “There. Now we’re even.” Now blind as well, EJ groped toward her sleeping bag and crawled inside.

“All I can see right now are those green blobs you get when someone takes a picture with a flash,” Macy said, laughing and grabbing at the nonexistent blobs in front of her eyes.

“Oooh, yeah, those are so weird!” EJ laughed. “Want some gummy worms? I still have a whole bag left from Aunt CJ’s care package.”

Macy looked conflicted. “But I already brushed my teeth.”

EJ grinned, pulled the package of gummy worms from her backpack, and ripped it open. “So did I, but I won’t tell anybody if you won’t.”

“All right,” Macy said. “But just this once.” Macy took three gummy worms from the bag and started gnawing on one.

“Lights off, ladies!” Susan called. “Good night!”

“Good night, Susan!” EJ and Macy joined in with the chorus of girls.

EJ turned off her flashlight and watched the orange light from the dying campfire dance on the wall of the tent as she chewed on a lemon-flavored gummy worm.

The girls were both quiet for a minute; the only sounds were an occasional giggle from a nearby tent and the constant chirp of crickets in the woods. EJ’s brain started thinking about what she absolutely
didn’t
want to think about.

“Hey, Mace?” EJ whispered.

“Yeah?”

EJ took a deep breath before she started a very long sentence. “I haven’t told you something because I knew you were worried about moving away and I was worried, too, but now that you’re not moving away, I think I should tell you that my parents have been acting strange this summer in the same way your parents were acting strange, and I think it’s because
we’re
moving away.”

“Are you sure?” Macy asked.

“Pretty sure,” EJ said. “I’m an excellent detective. And all the clues point to it.”

Macy held out the gummy worm bag to EJ, who grabbed two more and shoved them in her mouth, hoping they would help the nervous churning of her stomach as she shared her secret with her best friend.

“You know what really stinks?” EJ asked, lying back on her sleeping bag and staring at the stars through the mesh window at the top of their tent. “We’re just kids. There’s nothing we can do about … anything! Adults make all the decisions, do what they want, and even keep secrets from us. It makes me feel so … so …”

“Helpless?” Macy finished EJ’s thought.

“Exactly,” EJ said, sighing.

“I don’t want to move away,” EJ said quietly. “If a miracle happens and we don’t move, I’ll never say a bad thing about Spooner again.”

“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep, EJ.” There was a hint of a smile in Macy’s voice. “It
is
a boring town.”

“Okay, I’ll
try
to say more good things than bad things about Spooner.” EJ grinned. “Is that better?”

“That seems more believable,” Macy said, yawning. “And anyway, one miracle has already happened. We’re not moving. So I think a miracle can happen for you, too.”

“Maybe you’re right,” EJ said, unconvinced. “Good night, Mace.”

“Good night, EJ.”

July 25

Last night after lights out, we had a furry visitor to our campsite. And by “furry visitor” I mean a bear. And by a “bear” I mean the dorm mom from dorm A dressed up in a goofy bear costume she borrowed from the camp cooks. Apparently they thought it’d be fun to prank us since we were the only dorm to eat actual food for supper—and boy, were those hot dogs and s’mores amazing!

I guess dorm A’s plan was to make us think our leftover food attracted a grizzly to our campsite. Except Susan (aka, the best dorm mom ever) heard them giggling as they came through the woods, so she quickly woke us all up and we were ready for them.

When the “bear” and group of girls stepped foot in our tent circle, we all jumped out from behind our tents and pelted them with our leftover marshmallows. You should’ve seen the looks on their faces, Diary! Several girls screamed and ran into the woods, but soon we were all laughing. We even shared our leftover chocolate with them, and then the dorm moms let us play a game of sardines in the woods before we all had to go back to bed.