Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things (15 page)

When he's gone, Robin takes a deep breath and says, “Media people,” and Quinn mutters, “I'm sorry I ever let Dennis talk me into doing that series.”

A little alarm goes off in my brain. “Professor Prag wanted TV cameras up here?”

He nods. “He thought it would help raise funds, which it has.” Then he kind of eyes me and adds, “I know you and Dennis didn't hit it off too well, but I can see why—Dennis likes things done his way and you like to buck authority.”

“I like to buck
stupidity
.”

The minute it came out, I wished I could take it back—even if it was the truth. But the odd thing is, Quinn just sort of pulled back a smile and said, “Dennis is far from stupid, but I do admit he takes some getting used to.”

Then Janey pipes up with, “But back to the condors. It sounds like that Luxton Enterprises is worth looking into . . . don't you think?”

Quinn nods, but it's sort of a reluctant nod.

“What's wrong, honey?”

“I don't know,” Quinn says. “I guess I don't really want to believe any of this. Some angry developer's going to extinguish an endangered species for a few houses and a golf course?”

Janey shakes her head. “I know, but it's probably worth millions to them.”

Robin nods. “She's right, Quinn.”

“But this doesn't seem like it was a big-bucks operation,” I tell them. “I mean, come on. One guy on a horse? A slaughtered pig? A four-by-six tent? And why put a transmitter on a crow? It sure doesn't sound like someone who's trying to get rid of all the condors.”

All the adults just stand there blinking at me. And then Quinn says, “I'm sorry, sweetheart, but maybe you should just let the adults handle this.”

So I blink at
him
a minute, then snort and walk off, wondering why I even cared.

SEVENTEEN

When the food was ready, everyone else joked and chatted while they ate, but I scarfed and brooded.

At one point Casey whispered, “
Psst
. What are you thinking about?”

“Huh? Oh . . .” I looked around. Billy was poking at the wood in the fire ring, Robin was cleaning up, and Quinn was busy entertaining Janey and the other girls with some adventure story. I shook my head. “I can't talk about it right now.”

I did talk to him for a little while about other stuff, but I must have drifted off to Broodsville again because the next thing I know, Robin's saying, “So we all agree?”

“What?” I whispered to Casey. “What are we agreeing to?”

“Packin' it in. Goin' home. Gettin' out of Dodge.” He grinned at me and shook his head. “You have amazing powers of concentration.”

“You mean we're going home? All of us?”

He nodded. “Welcome back.”

I kinda cringed. Here I'd been sitting right next to him and all I'd really done was think about condor killers.

Did I care about them more than I cared about him?

No!

But my stupid fanatical brain had sure made it seem like I did.

“I'm sorry,” I whispered. And for the first time ever I reached out and touched his hand.

Everyone else was standing up, so we did, too, only he held on to my hand and said, “Can you tell me about it on the ride home?”

“You're coming with us?”

“My dad's not scheduled to pick us up at the trailhead for two more days. But Robin's offered us a ride and we're taking it.” He eyed the stack of dirty plates that Robin had collected. “You guys kinda ate up all our food.” He hesitated. “So can you talk to me about it on the way home?”

I glanced at the other girls, then shook my head. “I want to,” I said quietly, “but I can't.”

“So I guess that means you'll finally have to give me your phone number?”

“Uh . . .” All of a sudden I felt like a deer in the headlights. I knew I should run, but I was frozen in place.

He waited, but after a minute of me saying nothing, he said, “Your mom still won't let you talk?”

I said another real intelligent, “Uh . . .” because Casey doesn't know anything about my living illegally with my grandmother or any of that, and I didn't know how to explain that I
wanted
to give him my phone number, but that doing so made me traceable, not just to him but potentially to someone very dangerous.

He let out a dejected sigh. “So you call me then, okay?”

All of a sudden I'd had enough. Enough lying to him, deceiving him, enough just
avoiding
him. Here I was, stinky, burnt, flaky, and matted, and he
still
wanted my phone number.

What kind of amazing guy was this?

So I pulled him farther away from the others and said, “Can you promise me—and I mean really
promise
me—that my phone number will never wind up in Heather's possession?”

“Heather?
That's
what you're worried about? I thought your mom—”

“Don't ask questions, okay? It's complicated and . . .and let's just say that if Heather gets my number, it's going to be a very bad scene.”

“Because you're going to make her eat dirt again?”

I laughed, then said, “No, because she'd track me down and ruin everything.”

His eyebrows went up a little. “She
has
tried to follow you home, you know.”

“I know.”

“And she's tried to squeeze information out of me, too.”

“Exactly! Which is why I've never told you anything that she
could
squeeze you for.”

He shook his head. “All this time I thought it was your mom.”

“Forget my mom, okay? Focus on this: you've got to keep my number away from your sister, okay?”

“No problem.” He was looking right in my eyes. And somehow he'd picked up my other hand, so he was holding on to
both
of them. “So?” he asked, and his eyes were kinda twinkling. And then he started leaning forward.

Closer.

And closer!

At first I didn't understand, but then my heart panicked and my brain screamed, Your lips are a disaster! Run!

“Nine-two-two-eight-eight-four-seven!” I blurted, then broke away.

He grinned. “Nine-two-two-eight-eight-four-seven, got it.”

“And it's top secret! Not even Cricket has it . . . !”

“Got it,” he said again.

So we tore down camp and cleaned everything up, which took
hours.
And then, while Quinn and Janey drove our packs down to Robin's van, the rest of us hiked out. Downhill without a pack was a breeze! I couldn't believe how fast we got to the parking turnout.

After we'd crammed everything inside the van, Quinn and Janey drove back up the mountain, and we drove down. We were packed in
tight,
too. All of us except Billy, who got to ride shotgun. “He stinks too bad to ride back here!” Bella said. “Keep him away!”

“It's snake sweat!” Billy said back, blowing a whiff-of-jiff from under his arm. “I could sell this as an aphrodisiac!”

“Oh, right!” we all moaned.

So the ride home was cramped but fun, and since Cricket's house was the first stop, I got off there with the excuse that I had to return stuff and, you know,
get
stuff.

Through the van window, Casey gave me the I'll-call-you sign and smiled.

I smiled back and blushed pretty good, too. And after Robin drove off, I went into Cricket's house, but there was really only one thing I wanted to get.

My high-tops.

I put them on and I'll tell you what—my feet have never been so happy.

Then I asked, “Can we unpack tomorrow? I just want to go home and take a shower.”

Cricket laughed. “I'm all for that!”

So I headed home, and when I slipped inside the apartment, Grams jumped up from the couch and said, “You're home a day early!”

At first she looked happy, but it didn't take long for her face to fall and the questions to start: “Look how filthy you are! And sunburned! Didn't you bring any sunblock? Where are your things? Oh, look at your poor lips!” And then finally, “What
happened
to you?”

I gave her a cracked-lip smile. “I'm fine, Grams. But I'm real glad to be home.” I looked around the tiny apartment. I'd never really appreciated how clean and tidy and bug-free it was. And the couch looked so,
so
comfy. I sometimes grumble about how living at Grams' is like camping out because I sleep on the couch and live out of her bottom dresser drawer, but looking around the apartment, I realized that I hadn't been camping out—I'd been living in luxury.

“But what happened?” she was asking. “And where are all your things?”

“I have to go over to Cricket's tomorrow to sort through stuff and clean up. We were just too beat to do it tonight.” Then I smiled and said, “But I've got lots to tell you!”

I was making a beeline for the couch, but she intercepted me and steered me toward the bathroom. “I'd love to hear, but first you're going to take a shower! A long,
hot
shower. And while you're doing that, I'll fix us some dinner.”

So I took the longest shower ever. I soaked the athletic tape off my feet, which was slow-going and painful, I washed my hair four times, and then I just sat on the floor, letting the water rain on me. It felt so good.

By the time I was squeaky clean and dressed, Grams had dinner ready. “Trout?” I said, when I sat down at the table.

She flipped open her napkin. “I kept thinking about you being out in the forest. So today when I was at the grocery store and saw trout, I got the urge to have some.” She gave me a little smile. “I was picturing you and your friends maybe having a trout supper, too.”

I'd already started eating, so I said through a mouthful, “To catch a trout, you'd need a
river.
. . .” Then I launched into how the Phony Forest was dry and dusty and creeping with bloodsucking bugs, poisonous plants, and trees with sudden death disease. And
then
I rattled on about the Lookout, Gabby and Bella fighting, Gabby taking off into the canyon on her own, hearing gunshots, and my killer blisters.

Now, the more I talked, the slower Grams ate. But when I got to the part about bumping into Casey and Billy, she stopped chewing altogether.

I guess it's kinda hard to eat with your jaw dangling.

“You ran into Casey . . .
Acosta
?”

I nodded. “And Billy Pratt.”

And even though she was trying to trust me, I could see little thoughts of doubt dancing around the edges of her eyes. So I pointed my fork at her and said, “Would I be telling you about this if I'd planned it?”

She shook her head. “No. No, of course not.”

“So?”

She started eating again. “So go on.”

So I went on, but I decided to skip over the part about getting stuck in the woods overnight. I compressed everything that happened into one day, because sleeping in the same tent as the guy who everyone tries to make into your boyfriend is not something you want to have to explain to your grandmother.

Or anybody else, for that matter.

Besides, Grams was way more interested in how we'd rescued Marvin, and
especially
how I'd met Grayson Mann, than she was in the details of time.

“You actually shook his hand?” she gasped.

I grinned at her. “I'd let you touch me, but his celebrity cooties have been washed down the drain.”

So avoiding the whole boys-and-girls-in-the-same-small-tent subject was actually easy with her. I'm just glad she wasn't with me the next day when I was taking a shortcut through the mall on my way over to Cricket's house.

It turned out to be a very
dangerous
shortcut.

“Hey, loser!” a familiar voice called as I passed by the food court.

I just kept walking.

“Hey,
loser,
” I heard again, and this time the voice was right behind me.

Now, it's not that I like to acknowledge that name, but experience has taught me that facing someone who doesn't mind stabbing you in the back is definitely the superior choice when defending yourself.

So I turned around.

Sure enough, it was the Gossip Grenade herself.

The one and only Heather Acosta.

I gave her a prim little smile, and in an English accent I said, “Such a
pity
. We were hoping you'd come back civilized, dear. Did being so near the royals have no effect whatsoever?”

“You shut up and listen to me,” she seethed. “When my dad finds out that you and my brother slept together—”

I laughed, but it was like trying to breathe when you've been slugged in the stomach. And it was almost impossible to keep the whole sophisticated-English-accent thing going with my brain gasping for air, trying to figure out how she'd heard this
already,
but I did my best. I shook my head and whispered, “High-class ladies do not let their minds race so freely to the gutter.”

She shoved me and sneered. “High class? What would you know about that, huh?”

I brushed off the spot where she'd shoved me and gave her another prim smile. “Apparently more than you.” Then I walked away.

“In your dreams!” she shouted after me. “And when my dad finds out that you slept with my brother—”

The whole food court seemed to fall quiet.

The whole
mall
seemed to fall quiet.

I held my head high and kept walking, but inside, I about
died
. Heather wouldn't stop after dropping this one bomb in the mall. She'd drop them all over town! By tomorrow there'd be fallout everywhere!

She was going to annihilate me.