Isle Be Seeing You (6 page)

Josh jumped off his log and crouched down in the sand. “Check it out,” he said eagerly. “I'm thinking we use some of the tree branches that came down in the storm, and maybe the life vests we brought over from the boat….”

He started sketching in the sand with his finger. The others moved closer, peering down at what he was doing. I watched too, hoping that Josh would draw something that would make me change my mind. But no. All I saw was a raft. The King of Rafts, maybe. But still a raft. And I had my doubts that any raft was going to carry us safely all the way to that other island.

Ryan scratched his head as he flung himself to his hands and knees beside Josh. “Hey, I guess that could work.” Ryan is nothing if not an optimist. He stabbed
one finger at a particular spot on the drawing. “But I think we need better bracing there to counteract the blah blah blah….”

Okay, he didn't actually say “blah blah blah.” But I had no idea what he did say because all I could focus on at that moment was Angela, who stepped forward and leaned over Josh, resting one hand on his back. The nerve! I glared at her, wishing my eyes had laser-beam powers so I could shoot her straight off the island. Of course if I could actually do that, I could just shoot her right over to the mainland so she could tell the rescuers where we were, and then none of us would have to deal with this whole raft situation.

Since the laser-beam thing didn't seem to be happening, I moved forward a few steps, “accidentally” stepping on the back of one of Angela's sneakers. “Oops,” I said sweetly when she yelped and jumped, almost tripping over Josh. “Sorry about that. I didn't see you there.”

She glared at me, then leaned down to check her sneaker. One of her evil powers is the ability to keep every inch of her clothes looking clean, neat, and perfectly pressed at all times. That included her white sneakers—until now. Now there was a big grayish
smudge on that heel, which gave me more satisfaction than it probably should have. But hey, when you're trapped on a deserted island, you have to take whatever kind of fun you can find.

Meanwhile the others weren't paying any attention to the two of us at all. They were all still staring down at Josh's neat sand sketch, which now had several messy Ryan lines added to it.

“I dont know.” Brooke continued to look doubtful. “It seems pretty risky to me. And how do we know for sure that the islanders will even have a way of contacting the mainland?”

I started to nod my head in agreement. As much as I wanted to support Josh's plan, I wasn't sure it was such a great idea.

Then Angela spoke up. “Well, I think the raft sounds awesome,” she declared, putting her hand on Josh's shoulder. She smiled at him. “You can count on me, Josh. I promise to work day and night by your side to help make it happen.”

I stopped myself in mid nod, noticing the grateful look Josh was giving Angela. With a gulp, I quickly pasted a smile on my face.

“Me too” I said quickly. “I'm all about this plan. Totally!'

Josh shot me a quick, extra-grateful smile. I forced myself to smile back, telling myself I wasn't really agreeing to the raft plan just because I was afraid Josh would start to like Angela, instead of me if I didn't.

Even though I totally was.

The next morning after breakfast
Brooke cornered me as I was washing papaya juice off my hands in the surf. I know, I know—youre probably thinking it sounds impossible to be
cornered
on a wide-open beach. But that's only because you dont know Brooke.

“Hey Dani,” she said, a funny little half-grin dancing around on her face. “I just talked to Ryan. So what are you going to do?”

I stared at her in horror. “He told you, too?”

The previous afternoon I'd been so distracted by the whole fire-raft-rescue situation that I'd sort of lost my
nerve about the whole letting-Ryan-down-easy thing. So far I'd managed to avoid him, even though it was pretty obvious he kept trying to get me alone. Of course, at the rate he was telling people the whole stupid story, it wasn't: going to matter soon whether we were alone or not. First Ned had grinned at me after dinner last night, muttering something about Ryan being a cool guy. Then I'd passed Macy on the path to the stream and found out Ryan had confided in her, too. At least Macy had some sympathy for my predicament since she knew about my plan to get together with Josh. Unfortunately she didn't know how that had really turned out—
secret
romance, remember?—so I guess she thought I should cut my losses and go for the sure thing.

“Ryan's really kind of sweet,” she'd offered shyly. “I mean, Josh is great too. But you and Ryan seem more compatible, you know?”

Nice. Now the geekiest girl in the seventh grade was tactfully telling me I was aiming too high.

And now Brooke knew too. Delightful. Who was next—Angela? The very thought made my spleen quiver in horror.

“Look, I dont want to talk about it.” I pushed past Brooke. “So get off my case, okay?”

“What's the matter with you?” she demanded. “You don't have to act like such a drama queen; I'm just trying to make conversation.”

Yeah, right. Trolling for gossip was more like it. But I couldn't really blame her for being surprised by my reaction. It wasn't like me to be all
no comment
about a simple question. Then again, it wasn't like me to have two boys liking me at the same time, especially since I couldn't even tell anyone the truth about one of them. That was kind of stressing me out.

Oh, and then there was The Raft. We'd started work on it right after that little meeting the afternoon before, and Josh and Angela were already out there lashing branches together by the time I woke up that morning.

Brooke was still staring at me expectantly I knew she wanted to hear all the juicy details about Ryan, but I really, really didn't feel like discussing it with her or anyone else. It wasn't as if I'd
asked
him to start liking me. I wished he would just forget about the whole thing and go away. Why should I have to deal with something like that when I had so many other things on my mind?

“I've got to go,” I muttered in Brooke's general direction, not meeting her curious gaze. “I told Josh I'd find some more wood for the raft.”

I headed along the beach toward the spot that had become Raft Construction Central. As I splashed through the surf I caught a sudden spasm of movement from up near the jungle. Glancing that way, I saw Kenny racing across the sand in my direction.

“Ugh,” I moaned aloud, once again feeling trapped. When Kenny had finally turned up again the previous day, I'd been expecting him to get all gloaty-happy over the way Josh had followed up on his observation. Instead Kenny had seemed sort of agitated when he heard about the raft. Go figure. That would teach me to try to predict the reactions of my twerpy brother.

He'd found me a little while later as I returned from the latrine. “Dani,” he'd blurted out without so much as a
hey-sis-how's-it-going
. “Did you tell Josh about the fire?”

“Yeah.” Only about five percent of my attention was on Kenny. The rest was on Ryan, who was down near the water with Josh and the twins playing kickball with a coconut. “So?”

“You didn't tell him the rest of my plan to get rescued!”

I rolled my eyes. “That's because you never told me, genius.” I gulped as Ryan finally glanced over and spotted me. His face broke into an eager grin that didn't falter even when the coconut bonked him in the shin.

“Oh, yeah.” Kenny didn't notice my distraction. “Anyway, Josh's raft idea will take way too long. My idea's better. See, I thought we could—”

Ryan was already jogging in my direction. “Sorry” I interrupted Kenny hastily ready to sprint back into the woods. “Got to go. You can fill me in on your little plan some other time.”

He'd been trying to do exactly that ever since. The trouble was, I didnt want to hear it. Okay, so maybe I still wasn't totally convinced that Josh's raft plan was going to work. But I wasn't about to let anyone know that—not when Angela was treating him like some kind of genius. Besides, how was some snot-nosed eight-year-old going to come up with a better plan than someone like Josh? I'd be ready to believe that about the same time I'd believe Angela Barnes was a decent person and not evil incarnate.

So that meant I had two people to avoid—Ryan and Kenny. Suddenly the island was starting to feel awfully small.

“Dani!” Kenny cried now, waving at me as he barreled down the beach.

I suddenly felt an irresistible urge for a swim. Pretending not to notice Kenny's approach—or the fact that I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt—I turned and splashed out through the tiny waves until I felt the firm, wet sand drop off beneath my feet. Making a more-or-less graceful swan dive into the deeper water, I swam straight out until I was pretty sure Kenny wouldn't come after me and then turned and paddled along the shoreline.

Macy and Ned looked surprised when I emerged from the surf like some kind of wacky shorts-and-T-shirt-wearing mermaid. They were the only ones at Raft Central; Ned was peeling the bark off a large tree branch while Macy picked at the knots and tangles in a big bunch of twine. The raft itself was already starting to take shape. Specifically, the big, rectangular shape of a bunch of sticks tied together.

“Hey, guys. Where's Josh?” I smoothed back my wet hair, trying not to feel silly about my impromptu swim.

Ned shrugged. “Haven't seen him in a while.”

“I think he went into the woods to look for some bigger branches,” Macy added in her soft voice.

“Oh, okay. Just wondering.” I flopped down on the sand beside them, relieved at having escaped my little stalker—er, brother—once again. Not to mention successfully avoiding my spastic suitor for another few minutes at least.

I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. “Yo, Dani!”

I glanced over my shoulder, my stomach clenching as I saw Ryan hurrying toward me. “Oh,” I said, my mind going blank. Now what was I supposed to do? “Um, hi.”

“Hey, if you re not doing anything, can I talk to you for a minute? You know—privately'

Out of the corner of my eye, I was vaguely aware that Macy and Ned were glancing at each other knowingly. Feeling my face burn, I tried to maintain a normal expression, my eyes darting around looking for anywhere to land except on Ryan's eager face. I felt like one of Kenny's creepy crawlies trapped in one of his hand-made twig-and-pebble corrals. Maybe worse. At least the creepy crawly would have the comfort of knowing that a bird might fly down and chomp it at any second, putting it out of its misery.

“We can leave you two alone if you want.” Ned was already climbing to his feet.

Macy nodded. “We need to go look for more twine anyway.”

The two of them rushed off, leaving me alone with Ryan. Still sprawled on the sand, I stared up at him, feeling panicky and a little sick. This was it, then. The moment of truth. Or at least the moment of awkward, semitruth-based excuses.

He looked uncharacteristically serious. “I just thought we should talk. You know.”

Suddenly salvation appeared at the edge of the jungle in the form of my little brother. Okay, that's not a phrase I ever thought I'd use. But sometimes you just have to go with the lesser of two evils. And seeing Kenny pop out of the trees and wave at me, I realized that escape was at hand.

“Sorry,” I told Ryan, hopping to my feet. “Maybe later, okay? Kenny needs to talk to me right now. You know what they say—family first!”

I took off before he could respond, sprinting up the beach and skidding to a stop in front of my brother. Kenny looked startled at my dramatic arrival. Also a little suspicious.

“What's the matter with you?” he demanded.

“What do you mean?” I tried to shove him into the
shelter of the jungle, not wanting Ryan to get any bright ideas about following me. Glancing quickly over my shoulder, I saw him watching me. My sudden escape made me feel like a major dork, but I figured maybe in this case that was a good thing. It might make Ryan give up on this whole liking-me mistake. “Come on,” I told Kenny urgently. “Let's go somewhere more private.”

“You're acting like a freak.” He flapped both hands at me to stop the shoving, hitting me in the stomach in the process. I was tempted to hit him back, but I could still practically feel Ryan's eyes boring into me. I settled for an evil smile.

“Okay,” I said. “You wanted to talk to me. So talk. What's the big emergency?”

“You mean you're actually going to listen to me?” Kenny rolled his eyes dramatically. “It's a miracle.”

“Very funny. Now talk already.”

“Geeze, even when you're being nice, you act like a big jerk,” he muttered. Then, seeing my glare, he quickly continued. “But anyway, I just wanted to finish what I was telling you yesterday. You know, about the smoke.”