Nerd Camp (16 page)

“Red Nation,” said Alex, “let's see your response.”

They held up their card. It read, what is milk snake?

“Milk snake,” said Alex, “or, native to this region, eastern milk snake, is correct! Let's see what you wagered.”

It didn't matter what Red had wagered—it was clear that they'd won.

Disappointed at the outcome but still enthralled by the spectacle of the whole event, all the campers lined up to get Alex Trebek's autograph.

“Milk snake,” said Wesley. “Why didn't we think of that?”

“I know,” said Gabe. “Cereal and milk—it's so obvious.”

Nikhil motioned for the camp director to come over. “Are there really eastern milk snakes in this area?” he asked gravely.

The director shrugged. “They're native to this region, yes, but no one's ever seen one in my time here, and that's going on twenty years. But even if you did, they look scary, but they're one hundred percent harmless.”

“You're sure?” Nikhil asked. Just to be safe.

The director patted his shoulder. “Positive.”

“We can't find our scavenger hunt stuff, and now we lose this,” said Wesley. “I can't believe they knew the eastern milk snake.”

“Now I'll know it forever,” said Gabe, looking at the photo of the snake on the big screen.

“We're not out of luck in the scavenger hunt!” Nikhil realized, forgetting the snake. “Let's ask David to take a picture of us with Alex Trebek—a photo of teammates with a real celebrity!”

Their high spirits restored, they got the host's autograph and took a photo. Wesley, beaming, said, “This is even better than meeting Shamu.”

Alex Trebek raised his eyebrows and said, “Thank you.”

Problem: Am I a nerd who only has nerdy adventures?

Hypothesis: No.

Proof:

Their third bit of luck came when they were back in their cabin after
Jeopardy!

Wesley sang, “We are the champions, my friends!” He continued in the same tune but with his own words. “We found almost everything for the hu-unt! We are the champions, the scavenger hunt champions, we are the champions of caaaamp!” When he tried to hit the high note, his voice cracked, and Gabe and Nikhil burst out laughing.

“Thank you, thank you,” Wesley said, bowing. “That was ‘We Are the Scavenger Hunt Champions,' written and performed by Wesley Fan, Scavenger Hunt Champion.”

“Well, we're not scavenger hunt champions
yet
,” Nikhil reminded them. “We still need to find seaweed and red sand.”

“Still,” said Gabe. “We can tell C
²
that we have five out of our seven.”

“That is really good,” Nikhil admitted. “Five out of seven is, like”—he did some mental calculations—“five sevenths.”

Gabe and Wesley cracked up again, and Gabe wrote that quote on their Funny Quotes poster, right below the question Wesley had asked during lunch the week before: “Which would you rather be: a marsupial or a porpoise?”

“I think,” said Wesley, “that we deserve a reward for being scavenger hunt champions.” He stood on Gabe's mattress, reached up to the top bunk, and wedged his hand between his mattress and bed frame.

“What are you doing?” Gabe asked.

“My mom mailed me my all-time favorite snack a few weeks ago, but I was saving it till the very end of camp.”

“You've been sleeping on it for a few
weeks
? It's probably totally flattened.”

“That's okay. It's supposed to be flat.” Wesley lifted the mattress up, pulled it toward himself, and balanced it on his
head. Then he felt around the opening until he found what he was looking for. He jumped down from Gabe's bed holding out three long, flat sheets of plastic. “Ta da!” he said. He gave Gabe and Nikhil their own sheets before ripping one open himself and taking a bite.

Gabe turned his over in his hands. There was lots of writing on the package, but it was all in what looked to be Japanese. He ripped open the top and slid out the contents. It looked kind of like a dark Fruit Rollup, only less sticky and much, much thinner—it was so thin, Gabe could almost see through it. “What is it?” he asked finally.

“
Nori
,” said Wesley. “We get it at the Asian supermarket. It's so good.”

Nori
, Gabe thought. He closed his eyes, held the sheet up to his nose, and sniffed. It smelled like something he knew he'd smelled before, only he couldn't quite place it. “But what is it?” he asked. “Like, what's it made of?”

“It kind of smells like fish,” said Nikhil.

“Yeah, because it's … what do you call it. …” Wesley thought. “It's not fish, but it's from the ocean. But it's dried. You use it to wrap sushi. It's like, you know, that green stuff that floats in the ocean.”

“Seaweed?” said Gabe.

“Yeah! It's dried seaweed. Try it. It's so good.”

Nikhil shouted, “Seaweed! We need seaweed for the scavenger hunt!”

Gabe said, “And you've had it under your bed this whole time!”

Wesley's eyes widened and his mouth opened as he put together the pieces. “Oh, yeah. I am the ultimate scavenger hunt champion.”

“Don't sing,” said Nikhil.

Someone knocked on the wall that divided their section of the cabin from the next. It was C
²
, for real, in their bunk. Gabe had thought he'd looked cool that day in the lice lab when he was wearing a shower cap, but he looked impossibly cool now in a white T-shirt, green hospital scrubs for pants, and a pair of khaki flip-flops. His black hair was cut short around his face, but in the center of his head a few strands from each side were gelled toward one another, forming a tent shape on the top of his head. It was a hairstyle Gabe had tried, but he didn't remember it looking as slick. Gabe thought that, as far as camp went, if they hadn't managed to get a picture with Alex Trebek, a picture with C
²
would probably have counted.

“What's that about being an ultimate scavenger hunt champion?” he asked.

“We all are,” said Gabe. “We already have six out of the seven things on our list.”

“As Nikhil would say,” said Wesley, “that's, like, six sevenths.” Nikhil shot him a look of death, and Wesley stopped laughing and added, “Just kidding.”

Gabe said, “We're only missing—”

C
²
finished his sentence for him: “Red sand.”

Gabe wondered how he knew. Jenny couldn't have told him; they'd only just found the seaweed a minute ago. The mysterious way he seemed to know everything without even trying only added to his allure.

Gabe said, “Yeah. I was thinking that if we can't find any red sand, then we could get some regular sand and dye it red somehow.”

C
²
shook his head as if to say,
Amateurs
. “Where are you going to get regular sand? The lake only has mud on the bottom.”

“Maybe mixed in the dirt on the playground …,” Nikhil wondered aloud.

C
²
shook his head again. “Here's the deal. Red sand has
been on the scavenger hunt list every year. The past few years it was easy because Sand Art was a choice for activities one night. So you just had to go in the arts and crafts closet and steal some. But this year there was no Sand Art. And there's no sand in the arts and crafts closet. I checked.”

“So what do we do?” Gabe asked. “How do we get it?”

“There is one place that has red sand. But you know why the sand is red there.”

Gabe felt goose bumps rising on his skin. He had a feeling he knew what C
²
was going to say. “Where?” he asked.

C
²
looked him straight in the eye. “Dead Man's Island.”

Problem: Am I a nerd who only has nerdy adventures?

Hypothesis: No.

Proof:

Dear Zack,

Tonight I'm going to kayak to Dead Man's Island. Here's why it's called Dead Man's Island. Two hundred years ago, two explorers canoed to Dead Man's Island together to collect samples. But when they got there, one of them murdered the other and left the body there! When he started to canoe back, the ghost of the dead man haunted the area around the island and made him lose his way. A few days later, an empty canoe came to the shore. The sand on Dead Man's Island is red because of the dead man's blood!

Now get this. I am going to kayak there by myself in the middle of the night to collect red sand for Color War.

Gabe had woken up so early, he finished writing to Zack before the siren even went off. The air was cool and crisp, and a wavy patch of orange light shone through the bottom of the window. He reread the first line of his letter:
Tonight I'm going to kayak to Dead Man's Island
.