Chirp

by Kate Messner

  Mia looked. Carlee was leaned over with her chest and stomach flat on the floor, her skinny legs spread almost in a split. Mia used to be flexible like that. Before she got hurt and everything.

  Mia stretched a little more, leaned toward Clover, and whispered what had happened—how that guy had tried to buy Gram’s farm but she said no. And then the seagulls showed up. And then the beetles.

  “Whoa.” Clover leaned to stretch the other way. “Sure sounds like somebody’s messing with her.”

  “Now reach for your toes!” Maria called.

  Mia reached. “I know, right? But we can’t call the police just because we think that guy might be doing stuff.”

  “We need to find evidence!” Clover said. “I’ll help. I love mysteries. My moms still have their whole Nancy Drew collections from when they were little. I read a few, and they weren’t the greatest, but there are way better mysteries out there now. Have you read The Parker Inheritance? Or Moxie and the Art of Rule Breaking? Or Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring?”

  Mia shook her head.

  “Point your toes and stretch again!” Maria called.

  “Well, they’re amazing, and you should read them,” Clover said. “Plus, it’ll give us ideas for how to investigate the sabotage at your grandmother’s farm. But I have some thoughts already. We can start after camp!”

  Mia was about to ask Clover what those thoughts were when Joe shouted from across the room. “Over here, everybody!”

  He was standing near a line of rings hanging from the ceiling. The twins ran over, and one of them—Isaac or Liam, Mia couldn’t tell them apart—jumped up and swung across. Joe gave a big whoop and turned to Mia. “You’re up next. Ready?”

  She wasn’t. But she nodded anyway and jumped up to grab the rings. Then she just sort of dangled.

  “Pull on the back ring so you get a swing going,” Joe said.

  Mia tried to do that, but it felt like her arms might pull out of their sockets.

  “Here … want me to give you a little extra swing?” Joe held up his hands as if he were getting ready to spot her, but he waited for Mia to answer.

  She didn’t. Her heart sped up. She didn’t want help, and she didn’t want anybody to touch her. No, she thought. But her throat went dry, and she couldn’t say it. She couldn’t say anything. Even her breath felt trapped. Her arms were burning, and now her eyes were, too. She let go and dropped to the mat. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks. Now everyone at Warrior Camp would think she was a terrible sport.

  “Hey … it’s okay.” Joe followed Mia off the mats as Jake jumped up to the rings. “You want to try again?”

  Mia looked at him and swallowed hard. He seemed so nice, like he truly wanted to help her. But you really didn’t know anything at all about a person just because they seemed nice.

  Mia shook her head and said, “I can’t do this. I broke my arm, like, really bad, a while ago, and I … I just can’t.”

  “Ohh …” Joe nodded. “Bummer.”

  Mia nodded. It really was. The broken arm and everything else.

  “I broke mine rock climbing three years ago,” Joe said. “It was brutal trying to get back into things. First day I went to the gym, I had this dull, aching pain right here.” He rubbed his forearm.

  It was where Mia’s arm hurt, too. She nodded. “I thought I could do this, but it’s too much.”

  “We’ll get you back up there,” Joe said, “but for now, let’s try something else.” He led her to a hanging bar that was set apart from the other challenges. “Whenever you’re ready, just hop up there and see how long you can hang.”

  Mia took a shaky breath and jumped. She grabbed the bar with both hands and held on, swaying back and forth. She couldn’t believe how soon her muscles started burning. She used to do three-minute routines on the uneven bars, swinging the whole time and pulling herself up to the higher bar, over and over. She used to be so strong.

  She tried to count seconds in her head but only made it to six before she had to let go. Tears stung her eyes again.

  “That was great!” Joe said, as if she’d just made it through an entire warrior course in record time. “You want to give the spider wall a try now?”

  Mia blinked away her tears and looked across the room to where kids were leaping off a little trampoline and sticking—somehow—with their hands and feet on two walls about four feet apart. If she couldn’t even hold on to a dumb bar for ten seconds, there was no way she’d be able to do that. But she was trapped here for—what—another half hour at least? Mia’s heart started racing again, as if it were trying to bust out of her chest and leave without her. Why couldn’t she feel normal and try things like everyone else?

  “No pressure,” Joe said. “Maybe you just want to work on building some arm strength on the bar today?”

  Mia nodded, and Joe started to leave, but then he turned back to Mia. “Hey. You know, it’s okay to come back slowly after an injury like this. You just need to stretch. When that bone in your arm was healing, your muscles and tendons and everything tightened up around it to protect it.”

  Mia looked down at her scar. It wasn’t just her arm that felt that way. It was all of her. And it was hard to believe that any amount of stretching could fix that.

  CHAPTER 7

  Chocolate Cricket Cookie Dough

  The best thing about Warrior Camp was that it made Launch Camp feel like a vacation. Mia woke up Wednesday with both forearms aching but happy she wouldn’t have to hang from anything all day. She also woke up thinking about her business plan and decided to bring a jar of Gram’s sea salt and garlic crickets to camp.

  Mia had been thinking about what Zoya said, about creating demand by convincing people to eat crickets. For years, Gram had been all about sneaking cricket powder into cookies and smoothies for extra protein. But when you ran an actual business, you couldn’t do that. You had to tell the truth about ingredients, especially since people who were allergic to shellfish might also be allergic to insects. They had to find a way to get more people to eat crickets on purpose. And tasting them was the first step.

  When Mia got to camp, she brought the crickets to Clover, who popped a handful into her mouth, no problem. “They taste like salty potato chips or corn nuts,” she said as she chewed. “And maybe a tiny bit like dirt.”

  Mia laughed. “I’m not sure that’s a great selling point.”

  “We have to find the right way to say it.” Clover helped herself to a few more. “A crunchy, nutty, earthy snack!”

  “Did somebody say snack?” Eli slid his chair over.

  “Yep.” Mia held out the jar. “Want a roasted cricket?”

  “Seriously?” Eli looked into the container and hesitated.

  “These are sea salt and garlic,” Mia said, and tossed a few in her mouth. “The maple ones are good, too.”

  “Maple crickets?” Eli said, loudly enough that Dylan rode his skateboard across the room to see what was going on. Pretty soon, half the camp was snacking on crickets. Anna and Quan and Julia said they were pretty good. Aidan tasted one but wasn’t wild about it. Dylan was allergic to shellfish, so he couldn’t try one, and Bella said there was no way she was eating a bug on purpose. Eli took one but then just kept staring at it.

  “Dude, it’s only a bug,” Clover said. “It’s protein!”

  “Protein with legs.” Eli wrinkled his nose. “But okay. I’m gonna do this.” He made a big show of holding it with two fingers and smiled a big dimply smile. “Somebody get a picture!”

  Quan took a photo, and then Eli popped the cricket into his mouth. “Not my favorite,” he said. “But send me that picture, okay? I want to share it. It’ll freak people out.”

  “Take a picture of me eating one, too!” Julia said, and posed the same way.

  Aidan must have decided he liked attention more than he didn’t like crickets. He ate another one so Quan could take his picture, too.

  “Are you posting yours now?” Eli asked, pok
ing at his phone. “We need a hashtag.”

  “Yes!” Clover turned to Mia. Her eyes were huge. “That’s exactly what we need! Eli didn’t want to try a cricket, but everybody else was into it, and then it seemed cool, so he not only wanted to try one, he wanted to show everybody he did. It’s perfect!”

  Mia nodded slowly. “You think this could happen on a bigger scale?”

  “Totally,” Clover said. “My mom works in marketing and always says a hashtag is a great way to get people talking. Everyone will want to try it!”

  “Yeah!” Eli was all into the crickets now. “The eat-an-insect challenge.”

  “The Chirp Challenge!” Mia said, clapping her hands.

  “That’s it! We’ll make a big banner.” Clover jumped on a chair and held the imaginary banner in her arms. “Hashtag: Chirp Challenge!” She turned to Mia. “Where can we set this up?”

  Mia knew the answer right away. But she’d already said no to staffing Gram’s booth at the farmers market. She had never liked talking to strangers to begin with. The only time she’d ever felt comfortable out in front of people was when she was doing gymnastics, flying over the bars or tumbling across the floor. Now that she didn’t have that, it was harder to think about being brave somewhere else.

  But maybe it wasn’t too late to change her mind about the market. Mia imagined herself standing with Clover at the booth in City Hall Park, handing out samples and telling people about the Chirp Challenge. Somehow, the idea of sharing roasted crickets with strangers seemed less scary with Clover by her side.

  At lunchtime, Mia texted Mom, who said it was fine if she and Clover worked at the market for Gram a week from Saturday. Next, Mia texted Gram, who replied with ten cricket emojis. Mia hurried over to tell Clover it was a go.

  “Perfect!” Clover said. “I’ll help you make a whole social media campaign.”

  “That’d be great,” Mia said, “but aren’t you doing KicksFinder?”

  Clover shrugged. “My part is pretty much done. Nick and Eli are just debugging now. They don’t need me until the competition. Also, I’d rather work with you. Because we need to talk about your gram’s sabotage situation, too. I was rereading this book To Catch a Cheat last night, and I have an idea for how we can scope out that guy she doesn’t like.”

  “You mean, like, spy on him?”

  “Kind of. We can talk about that later. And oh! You know what else I was thinking?”

  Mia shook her head. Clover’s brain changed gears so fast it was hard to keep up.

  “When we’re downtown for the market, we should visit businesses and ask if they’ll add crickets to their menus. Didn’t you say some restaurants already do that?”

  “Not here, but yeah.”

  “I bet we could get some bars to offer bowls of roasted crickets instead of nuts or pretzels. And what about on pizza?”

  “Yes!” Mia found her business plan so she could get all these ideas down. “That chocolate shop on Church Street could do chocolate-covered crickets. And the ice-cream place could use them as mix-ins!”

  Mia had been half-joking about that last one, but Clover was already naming flavors. “Chocolate Cricket Cookie Dough!”

  “Mint Chocolate Chirp!”

  “Mealworm Marshmallow!”

  Mia wrinkled her nose. “Let’s stick to crickets for now.”

  “Fair enough.” Clover put on a more serious face. “We have a lot of work to do over the next week and a half. I’ll make the banner. You should get your pitch ready for the restaurants.”

  “My pitch?” Somehow, Mia hadn’t thought about the fact that all these fun ideas had to be shared. Out loud. With strangers. But Clover was so enthusiastic that Mia would feel like a jerk if she bailed out now. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s get to work!”

  CHAPTER 8

  A Bark in the Dark

  Mia spent Wednesday night in her room, trying to figure out what to say to strangers who might want to serve crickets in their restaurants but probably not.

  “Crickets are the superfood of tomorrow,” she practiced in her mirror. “Trendy restaurants across the globe are already serving insects on everything from tacos to avocado toast.” She ran through the pitch again and again until she could almost imagine saying it to strangers without getting queasy.

  She practiced some more at Launch Camp on Thursday, while Clover worked on the Chirp Challenge banner.

  “We hope you’ll consider leading the way in what’s sure to be a food revolution!”

  “Perfect!” Clover put down her paintbrush and applauded.

  “Yeah, but it’s easy with you guys. You’re not strangers.” As soon as Mia said that, she realized how great it was—that somehow her fellow Launch Campers already felt like friends. It wasn’t like they even talked outside their teams that much. But everybody was kind of in tune with everybody else. People were always stopping to check out Dylan and Julia’s soda-can-tab earrings and sample Quan and Bella’s dumplings or Aidan’s cookies. Eli made sure everybody knew when he and Nick made progress on KicksFinder, and even though Anna was quiet, she ran a demonstration of her robot arm, and everybody cheered when it managed to pick up a pencil and put it in the electric sharpener. It felt good to be working together in that room, even though they were working on different things.

  At the end of the morning, Clover rolled up the banner. “So listen. I have some ideas for gathering intel on that Chet Potsworth guy.” She pulled a notebook from her backpack. “I was doing some research online, and his food-processing plant—Nature’s Healthy Harvest, it’s called—is less than half a mile from the cricket farm. We should take a walk and check things out before camp today.”

  “Check what things out?” Mia asked as they unlocked their bikes. “It’s not like we can knock on the door and ask if he’s hiding seagulls and beetles in there.”

  “No, but we can go in and have a look around,” Clover said. They hopped on their bikes and started down the path. It was almost eighty degrees, but Lake Champlain hadn’t warmed up yet, so a cool breeze blew in from the water.

  “Even if they’d let us in, I can’t imagine we’d learn much,” Mia said, swerving around a fallen tree branch.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure.” Clover stood on her pedals to catch up. “In my books, there are always clues around—papers and open emails and stuff. Criminals can be pretty dumb. We should check it out, at least.”

  “Maybe. If Gram doesn’t need help.” Mia hoped that Gram would need help. She didn’t think she’d be as good at sleuthing as the characters in Clover’s mysteries.

  “Oh! I love this park!” Clover pulled her bike over to the side of the path and took out her phone. Mia recognized the little beach right away. It was the one where she’d jumped off the high rocks into the water. The one from the picture. The sky was impossibly blue today, too, and the rocks were still that perfect red. But Mia couldn’t imagine herself jumping from them now. She didn’t feel like a person who got to do things like that anymore.

  Clover was that kind of person, though. Mia watched her balance on a rock for a selfie, and she felt envious. As they rode the rest of the way out to the farm, Mia decided she should at least try to be more that way. Like Clover. Like she used to be. The kind of person who wasn’t afraid to jump off rocks and try things.

  Because what if they could learn something to keep Chet Potsworth from messing with Gram’s farm? What if they could make a difference with the Chirp Challenge and outreach to local businesses? What if Mia could do more than she thought? She owed it to Gram to try.

  When they got to the farm, Syd came wobbling out to greet them, wagging her stub of a tail. When she saw Clover, she stopped and barked like an attack dog.

  “Wow. Your dog hates me,” Clover said.

  “Syd hates everyone for fifteen seconds or so. After that, she’s your best friend. See?”

  Syd was already nuzzling Clover’s shins, looking for love.

  “Well, you’re a pushover, aren’t you
?” Clover bent down to rub Syd’s belly.

  “Hey, I’m glad you’re here.” Daniel came out of the office. “We got to the bottom of one of our issues, at least. Bob helped me rewire the humidifiers so we don’t keep blowing fuses.” He gestured to another man who was walking out of the office with Gram.

  “Well, hello there!” he said.

  It was the Moose Man Mia had met on Saturday. She almost called him that but caught herself and remembered to be polite. “Hi. It’s nice to see you again.”

  He smiled at Mia. “You know, I found out you were being humble when you said you didn’t play a sport. Your grandmother says you’re quite the gymnast.”

  “Not anymore,” Mia said quickly.

  Thankfully, Daniel rescued her from the Moose Man. “Mia, how would you and your pal feel about cleaning out water dishes?”

  “Sure.” Mia and Clover followed him into the cricket room.

  “It’s so loud in here!” Clover said.

  “Yep,” Mia said. “Whoever made up that phrase ‘nothing but crickets’ to describe silence has never been in a room with a million chirping crickets.”

  “More like half a million,” Daniel said. “Only the males chirp.”

  “Wait, what?” Mia had never known that. “Female crickets don’t chirp?”

  Daniel shook his head. “Just males. To get attention when they’re looking to mate. Also to show other males how tough they are. But the females don’t make any noises at all.”

  “I bet they’re secretly in charge of everything,” Clover said.

  Daniel laughed. “I wouldn’t doubt that.”

  Mia laughed, too, but when she looked into the bin, she couldn’t help wondering about all those quiet females. Was it that they couldn’t chirp at all, no matter what? Or were the boy crickets so loud that they never got the chance? It felt like too weird a question to ask, so Mia stayed quiet, too.

  “Hey, are you on the baseball team?” Clover asked, pointing to Daniel’s Lake Monsters hat.

  “I am!” he said. “Need tickets for a game?”