Tug-of-War (20 page)

Betsy let out a nervous laugh. “Oh, wow! We'd better hurry!”

“I know, right? Just think how mad they're going to be when they find two completely empty trunks. I thought they had it coming to them. How did I know they're both innocent?” As worried as I was about
undoing my prank, the whole thing was pretty funny, and I couldn't stop laughing.

We jogged past the camp office and almost ran right into Eda, who was carrying her always-present clipboard. “Well, good morning, ladies. Nice day for a run,” she called to us as we sprinted past her.

I threw her a friendly wave, and when she was out of earshot, I glanced at Betsy. “Think she suspects that we've both committed felonies?”

Betsy snorted with laughter. “Maybe she'll come visit us in lockup!”

“Stop laughing!” I told her, but I couldn't make myself stop. “We've really got to fix this.
¡Vámos, chica!
We have to hurry!”

We ran up the steep hill to Middler Line. We were both panting and out of breath by the time we got to the place where I'd dragged the canvas bag into the woods.

“This way, but be careful. I got scratched up by the tree branches before,” I warned Betsy as we struggled through the brush. I stopped when I came to the two trees.

“Wait a second,” I said, looking around. The bag was nowhere in sight.

“What's wrong?” asked Betsy, standing behind me. She was still breathing heavily from our jog up the hill.

“It's gone,” I said finally. My eyes were scanning every
inch of ground around us, but the bag wasn't there.

“Maybe this isn't where you left it,” Betsy suggested, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the side of her arm. Her hair was stuck in wet strands against her bright pink face.

“No. It was right here!” I pointed to the mashed-down leaves and underbrush on the ground around us. “See, you can tell that's where I dragged it along.” I patted the two tree trunks in front of me. “Then I shoved it right in between these trees and covered it up with those leaves and branches.”

I saw something white under the dead leaves I was pointing to and kicked it with my foot. It was a sock.

“Evidence!” I shouted, picking up the sock. I spun around in a circle, looking in all directions for any sign of the bag. “I'm telling you, Betsy—someone must have moved it!”

“Okay, so first the bear is kidnapped, now the clothes?” Betsy said slowly, trying to take it all in.

“Let's look around some more.”

We spent probably fifteen minutes scrambling through that thick section of woods, but the laundry bag was gone.

“Poof!” I said, holding my hands up. “It's like it disappeared into thin air!”

“Maybe Devon and Maggie saw you and brought their stuff back after you left,” Betsy said.

I clutched Melvin under one arm and held the stray sock in my other hand. “I was really careful not to let anybody see me.” I looked at Betsy. “What am I going to do now?”

Betsy shook her head. “This is all my fault.”

“Stop it!” I snapped, and Betsy looked worried that I was going to blow my top at her. “I mean,
I
did this. You can't blame yourself. You didn't know anything about this.”

“Now what?” asked Betsy.

“I guess we go back to the cabin,” I said, not looking forward to what was about to happen. “I have to face this sometime.”

We made our way through the brush back out onto Middler Line. Maybe Maggie and Devon wouldn't be in the cabin yet. Or if they were, maybe they hadn't yet looked in their trunks.

But I'd have to tell them. They'd find out eventually.

Betsy opened the door to the cabin, and we walked in to find Devon standing next to her open, empty trunk.

Maggie was inside her own trunk with her knees folded up. She reminded me of someone sitting in an old-fashioned bathtub.

“Okay, Chris, what's going on?” Devon snapped as soon as she saw me.

“Yeah,” said Maggie from inside the trunk, “first a bearnapping. Now a robbery.”

Betsy stood with her hands clasped in front of her and cleared her throat. “You know, this used to be a really nice neighborhood before the recent crime wave.” She looked at us all solemnly. “Maybe we should start a block watch.”

Betsy sounded so serious, I couldn't help myself. I covered my face with both hands and started laughing. Pretty soon, my whole body was shaking with laughter. “Okay . . . okay, this isn't funny,” I said, but I couldn't control myself. “This isn't funny, and I promise I'm going to fix it.”

I was trying to get my story out, but I couldn't stop laughing. I tried to catch my breath, but the sight of Maggie sitting in her empty trunk and Devon standing there looking so annoyed and Betsy looking so serious made me start up all over again.

Devon sighed. “She's delirious.”

“You got Melvin back!” Maggie noticed suddenly. “Put his pants back on.”

That comment made me fall to my knees. Here Maggie and Devon were, both missing every piece of
clothing they had, and yet Maggie was concerned about my pants-less teddy bear. I laughed so hard, I was afraid I was going to wet my pants.

Now Maggie and Betsy were both laughing too. I took the stray white sock I'd been clutching in my hand and draped it over Melvin's bare bottom.

“Is that better?” I said finally, gasping for breath.

“Wait a second, is that my sock?” Devon asked. She took two steps forward and snatched it off of Melvin. That almost killed the rest of us. We laughed for another five minutes at least while Devon stood there, sighing and shaking her head.

“Let me explain,” I said, taking deep breaths and wiping my face. “I did something really mean. I put all your clothes in the laundry bag and hid the bag in the woods.” I'd finally stopped laughing, and now it was time to get serious.

“I was convinced you'd kidnapped Melvin and I was just trying to get back at you.” Devon frowned at me, waiting for me to go on. “But . . . then I found out Betsy was the one who kidnapped Melvin, so she was going to help me put your stuff back.”

Devon had a disgusted look on her face. “I don't understand this endless fascination with ridiculous
pranks!” She narrowed her eyes at me. “So where are all my clothes?”

“That's a really good question. I wish I knew.” I told them about how Betsy and I had gone back to the woods to get the laundry bag, but it was missing.

“Chris, I can't believe you did this,” Devon said. She sounded so annoyed, but I had to admit she was taking it surprisingly well. Much better than I would have, that was for sure.

Meanwhile, Maggie hadn't moved from her trunk. She didn't seem the least bit upset that all of her clothes had disappeared.

“I have an announcement to make. I want to say something,” I started. “I've—I wish I could . . .” They were all three looking at me, and I couldn't think of how to get the words out. “What I mean is . . .
lo siento mucho
.”

There, I'd said it. Finally.

Devon looked at me and waited. Maggie gripped the sides of her trunk. Betsy stood there with a confused little smile on her face.

“And I really mean that,” I assured them, because they didn't seem too impressed that I'd just apologized.

“Mean what?” asked Maggie. “What did you say?”

“I said I was sorry!”

“Oh,” said Maggie. “No wonder you don't apologize very often. You really suck at it.”

Everyone burst out laughing over that, including Devon.

“I'm sorry!
¡Lo siento!
” I yelled over their laughter. “
¡Es mi culpa!
It's all my fault! There—is that any better?”

At that moment Boo walked in the door and stared at Maggie. “What are you doing?”

“Packing,” Maggie said simply.

Boo shrugged and went over to Side B. Then she came back over and gave us all a puzzled look. “Didn't we already sort the laundry?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Betsy suspiciously.

Boo pointed toward the other side of the cabin. “There's another bag of laundry in the middle of the floor there.”

At that, Maggie hopped out of her trunk in a single bound, and we all rushed over to see what Boo was talking about.

“That's it!” I shouted. The canvas laundry bag was sitting right in the middle of the floor on Side B.

“How did it get here?” asked Betsy.

“What's going on?” asked Boo.

“Great. Put my stuff back, please,” Devon told me.

I crouched down and examined the bottom of the bag. “Everyone, look! See how there's dirt on the bottom of the bag? And that's a grass stain! Somebody moved this after I hid it!” I turned to Betsy. “Are you sure you're not the mastermind behind this?”

“No! I had absolutely nothing to do with this, cross my heart.”

I peeked inside the bag. It was crammed full of all the clothes I'd shoved in it earlier. I let out a huge, relieved sigh. I'd never been so happy to see piles of clean laundry in my life.

“Okay, I have
no
idea what's going on, but Melvin's back, your missing clothes are back, and I gave you all a really lousy apology. So I'd say everything's okay now!”

I sat on my top bunk and paused for a few seconds, holding my pen above the paper. Rest hour was almost over, so I had to finish this up fast. My hand was feeling cramped from all the writing I'd done, but it was worth it. When I was finished, I reread the letter I'd just written.

Maggie,

I know I really suck at apologies, but here goes. I feel really bad for the way I treated you when we broached on that rock. I don't want to remind you of all the mean things I said, so I'll just say, “Lo siento.” I'm sorry. And I'm sorry I yelled at you the night Melvin
got kidnapped, and sorry I blamed you for it. One more thing: Thanks for being so easygoing about the prank I played on you. How's that? Am I getting better?

Chris

I folded her letter up into a paper airplane and wrote her name on the wing. Then I checked over the letter to Devon again.

Devon,

There are so many things I feel bad about. Maggie told me I suck at apologies, but maybe the more I do this, the better I'll get at it.

My Top Five List of Things I'm Sorry I Did to My Best Friend, Devon

1. Rubbing it in that you're not bilingual YET (but you can get really good at Spanish, and I'll teach you new words)

2. Not talking to you for DAYS after the first dance

3. Accusing you of kidnapping Melvin

4. Emptying out your trunk and hiding your clothes

5. Calling you a horrible friend because
you talked to Jackson (you're not—you're definitely my BEST friend)

I just want to say Lo siento. I'm sorry for all these things.

Chris

Then I folded Devon's letter into a paper airplane too and wrote her name on the wing. I leaned over to look at her on the bunk below me. “Hey, incoming,” I said before I sent the airplane sailing down to her.

Once Devon had caught her note, I flew Maggie's note across the cabin, and it landed at the foot of her bed. I lay stretched out on my bunk, looking up at the rafters. I knew they were both reading their notes now because I'd heard them unfolding the paper.

I did feel better. A lot better. I still didn't like admitting I was wrong about stuff, but at least I was learning a little bit at a time. And I figured my temper would get me in trouble again sometime, but I'd decided I really, really needed to work on controlling it.

The past few days of camp had been just about perfect. Finally, all three of us were friends with each other at the same time. We'd gone to activities together, Devon was teaching Maggie how to play chess, and I'd even been eating the vegetarian choices at meals since
Wednesday. Maybe I wasn't ready to give up meat completely, but it made Devon happy when I ate the veggie lasagna last night instead of pork chops.

I heard the bell ringing for the end of rest hour, so I sat up and noticed that Maggie had finished reading her note and was carefully refolding it back into a paper airplane. “Hey, Kachina, I totally forgive you. I'd say you're definitely getting better at the whole apology thing. Good job.”

“You think so?” I asked, climbing down from my bunk. “That's a relief.” I looked at Devon. “How about my other best friend? Do you totally forgive me too?”

“
Other
best friend?” Devon raised her eyebrows. “I'm not sure I like the sound of that.”

“Hey, we've all been getting along great lately, so don't stir things up,” I warned her. “Do you forgive me or not?”

Devon folded up her apology note and laid it on the shelf by her bed. “I suppose I can forgive you. Oh, wipe that wounded look off your face. Of course I forgive you.”

Betsy was about to walk out the door behind Shelby and Boo when I called to her. “Hey, Mastermind! Come back here for a second.”