Scouts

by Shannon Greenland

  “Oh, my God!” Scarlett excitedly says. “You have, haven’t you?”

  “What? No. No!”

  “Oh. Well, I have. His name was Scott. He tried to French me and I told him no.”

  “Scarlett, that’s gross! I’m never letting a boy stick his tongue in my mouth.”

  She giggles. “I might if it were Edge. He’s so phat.”

  Yes, he’s definitely that. “Why have you been flirting with Rocky, then?” I mean, if she likes Edge, why bother with Rocky?

  Scarlett doesn’t answer, and just when I think she’s not going to, she says, “I don’t know. It’s what I do. I flirt. I like it. It’s fun.”

  I don’t get it. What’s so fun about all the weirdness? Heck, just the thought of flirting makes me a little queasy.

  She continues. “Kind of like when I embellish stories. I like it when people notice me. It makes me feel good about myself. And also kind of crappy, I guess. I mean, I’d rather not tell lies, but they come out of my mouth before I know it. My counselor tells me I’m trying too hard to get people to like me.”

  “Your counselor?”

  “When my parents got divorced, the court ordered all of us to see a counselor.”

  “Oh.” That must stink, being ordered to see a counselor. And having your parents get divorced. I wonder what it would be like to only ever see my parents separately. “So the NASA telescope wasn’t true?” Of course, Fynn already told me the answer, but I ask the question anyway.

  “Oh, I made a telescope, that part’s true, but no, not the NASA thing.”

  I wonder how many of her tales have some sort of truth to them. Like the squirrel. Maybe she really did get bitten and made up the rabies part. “You know, you don’t have to do that around my friends. The embellish thing. Just be yourself. They’ll either like you or they won’t.”

  Though I’m behind her and can’t see her face, I get the feeling she’s smiling. “Yeah, I’m getting that. The problem is, like I said, the lies come out of my mouth before I even realize it.”

  “‘Second nature.’ That’s what my mom calls it when you say or do something before thinking.”

  “Lying is ‘second nature’ to me.” Scarlett thinks about that a second. “You’re right, it is.”

  “‘Something to work on.’ That’s something else Mom says. To find your weakness and work on it.”

  “Hmm. Come to think of it, I haven’t embellished in a while. At least not around you all, but I did with Edge when I told him I had a friend with a one-legged dog. I think my counselor would still be proud, though. She’d also probably say my behavior is getting better because I’m getting comfortable with you and your friends.”

  “They’re your friends, too, now.”

  “Yeah, I guess they are.” Scarlett keeps moving forward. “Okay, then what’s your weakness? What’s your ‘something to work on’? Other than swimming, of course.”

  I give that question some good solid thought, and I frown. “I have a lot. My room is always messy. I don’t study. I give Mom a hard time about all the girly clothes she buys me, because I never want to wear them. Pretty much any time I sneak off with the Scouts, I fib about it. And… I’m really possessive of my friends.” It’s hard admitting that last one, but it’s true. I like having them to myself, and I don’t like that they’re all making new friends outside of our group. “I suppose that makes me selfish.”

  “Nah—you’ve been pretty good about sharing them with me.”

  Not really. She just doesn’t realize it. “I’ll do better.”

  “There! We’re here!” She crawls out of the hole and drops three feet down, and I fall right on top of her.

  Straight into cold water.

  Scarlett screams, and we pull each other to our feet to discover we’re standing ankle deep in water. Scarlett flashes the light around a room that looks to be about as big as my school’s gymnasium. Water fills the entire area. From one wall to the next and back.

  I sigh. Why does it have to be water? I swear to God, if I make it home after all of this, I’m getting swimming lessons.

  If I make it home? When did I start thinking that way? Please. I’m going to make it home. We all are.

  We have to.

  Scarlett hands the flashlight to me, and leaning down, she scoops up some water and starts cleaning off the mud caked on her body from the previous crawl space. As she does that, I run the light beam across the murky surface. I’m not sure she should be splashing herself with this water. “Um, is it just me, or does it seem like there’s silver glowing in the water?”

  She stops with her cleaning and together we study the water for a second, and sure enough—there are silver particles floating in it. I look around the room again. So does that mean one of those silver balls came this way? Or maybe the silver is here because it rained and the water flowed in here from up top.

  Suddenly, the light bounces off something all the way on the other side of the room. “It’s the next crawl space,” I say.

  Taking the light back, Scarlett studies the water again. “That’s definitely silver.”

  “It’s all connected to whatever fell from the sky.”

  She sucks in a breath. “You don’t think there’s an alien in here?”

  I catch my own breath and look back down at the water. “Can aliens swim?”

  “I-I don’t think so.”

  But she doesn’t sound very convincing.

  We move closer to each other until we’re touching. I’m completely ready to dive back into the crawl space we just came from if need be. But there’s nothing here. Just us and the water.

  I hope.

  “Okay,” Scarlett says. “I say we stick to the wall. Water’s only ankle deep. We’ll just make our way around the room to the other side and get out of here.”

  Something brushes my leg, and I jump. “Did you feel that?”

  She freezes. “What?”

  I jump again. “That!”

  She flashes the light straight down and we both leap back. Fish! Everywhere. Big ones! But there’s something wrong with them.

  Something scary.

  These don’t look like any fish I’ve ever seen. They’re a grotesque milky white, like a foot long and just as wide, with no eyes.

  We scream, and the fish scatter. I guess they can hear us.

  I reach for Scarlett. She reaches for me. And we cling to each other as we hop from foot to foot.

  “Whatarethey, whatarethey, whatarethey?” she chants.

  “I don’t know.” I climb the three feet right back into the hole we just came out of, and she scampers in after me.

  Together we lie squished, our flashlight trained down into the water, staring wide-eyed, waiting for the fish to make another appearance.

  Just when my pulse starts to calm back down, a few of them surface. I swallow, and the sound gurgles in our tiny space. Side by side we watch as the fish saunter by, lazily moving, out for a merry little stroll. Or rather, swim.

  “They seem harmless,” I say.

  Scarlett nods. “Yeah, but they’re ugly.”

  “I bet Beans would know what they are.”

  “Yeah, bet so.”

  A few baby ones float by, and I smile. “Those are cute.”

  “Why don’t they have any eyes?”

  I shrug. “Maybe it’s a cave thing. They don’t need them in the dark.”

  She takes a breath and looks over at me. “Well, what do you think?”

  I think about a National Geographic video we saw at school about sharks. Not that these are sharks, but the film pops into my mind anyway. “No sudden movements. We’ll make our way around the room, slow and steady. If they wanted to eat us, they would’ve already nibbled on our ankles.”

  “That’s a good point.” She nods. “Okay, I’ll go first.”

  “That’s brave of you.”

  Scarlett shrugs off that comment and out the hole she goes. I watch as the fish lazy on up, swim around her ankles, an
d head off.

  I release a breath. Boy, she is brave.

  “You coming?” she asks.

  “Oh, sorry.” I slide out and into the water and stand dead still while the fish do the same to me.

  Once they finish inspecting and are gone again, Scarlett grabs my hand, and I grab hers back. “Okay, steady. Around the room we go.”

  She leads, and I follow. We keep our backs plastered to the cave wall and carefully shuffle our feet along the perimeter of the water-filled room. The fish come and go, but, truly, they are harmless. I can’t wait to tell the boys about them.

  “Uh-oh,” she says.

  “‘Uh-oh’? What uh-oh?” I don’t like uh-oh.

  Scarlett takes a step down, and the water now hits at her knees. “A dip, but the gap is only a few feet. No big deal.”

  Gripping her hand, I step down, too, but my foot slips and I fall straight into the water. It rushes into my mouth and I flail my arms—no, not again! I spit and swallow and spit some more, and suddenly I feel a yank and realize Scarlett is pulling me up out of the dip.

  She gives me a hard shake. “Annie, stop fighting! I’m trying to rescue you.”

  It takes every ounce of control I have, but I manage to refocus my brain into getting up beside her. When my back is plastered to the wall and I’m standing once again in ankle-deep water, I look over at her, and I don’t bother hiding both the fear and gratitude in my voice. “Thank you.”

  She smiles. “That’s what friends are for.” She grabs my hand and continues around the rest of the room, and I carefully follow.

  That’s what friends are for. Huh, what do you know? I do have a new friend in Scarlett.

  We reach the next crawl space, and I go in first this time. It’s the least I can do since she rescued me and all.

  More mud, no worms. And a couple of minutes later we plunk out the other side.

  “There they are!” Rocky shouts.

  I glance up as the boys race toward us. If I had a bag of confetti, I’d throw it in the air right now. Rocky lands on top of me and squeezes me so tight I squeak. Then Fynn. Then Beans. Then we’re in a group hug with Scarlett and me squished in the center. I swear someone kisses me on the cheek. I wonder if it’s Rocky.

  “You two stink,” Fynn says. “And you’re probably contagious.” But he hugs us hard anyway, apparently forgetting he’s mad at me.

  Edge chuckles. “All right. Break it up. This tunnel right here leads us out.”

  CHAPTER 18

  While Scarlett details everything that happened to us, I listen, smiling, wondering if she realizes she’s not embellishing one single thing.

  When it’s my turn to talk, I tell everyone about the silver we saw in the water. “I know it’s weird, but doesn’t it seem like the meteor left a trail for us to follow? Almost like it’s wanting us to find it?” Okay, maybe I’m stretching things a bit, but my imagination is running a bit wacky.

  The boys look at one another, grinning, and I immediately know something’s up. Edge unzips his pack and pulls out a different handkerchief. He unfolds it, and inside sits another silver ball the same size as the one Beans and I found in the field.

  My mouth drops open. “You found one in here, too?”

  Beans eagerly nods. “Must’ve fallen through an opening or something. How many do you think there are?”

  We all look at Edge, like he’s supposed to know the answer to that, and he just shrugs. “No clue, but if we keep going, we’ll probably find more.”

  Excitement squirms around inside me. Yes, how many more are there, and what are they all going to be worth when we sell them? But more importantly, what are they?

  As we near the exit of the cave, we hear voices and duck back into the darkness.

  “I dunno why yuns don’t just do a fancy helicopter or somethin’.” It’s Otis’s voice.

  “Because, sir, we don’t want to alert the locals. How many kids were there?” From the formal tone I assume he must be one of the military camo people. But why would they be talking to Otis Mason? Don’t they realize he’s bad?

  “Let’s see. Five ’round the same age and then an older one,” Otis says. “And that map of theirs was heading west ’round ’nother mile or so. But they took off with it, so I couldn’t tell ya for sure.”

  What a liar! He has the original map.

  “And how was it they got away?” the military guy asks.

  “Hit one of mine o’er the head,” Otis says, and my mouth drops open. We did not!

  After that there are a few beats of silence, and then their footsteps shuffle away.

  In the shadows of the cave, I look at all my friends. They seem as shocked as I am. “Guys, we should go out there and rat the Masons out. We should tell them they kidnapped us. We should tell them about Basinger’s skeleton!”

  “If we do that,” Fynn whispers, “then this whole thing is shot.”

  “I don’t know what all is going on,” Beans says. “But not only is Otis lying to him about us, he’s also told him the wrong way.”

  “Well,” Scarlett says. “If they’re heading the wrong way, that’s good for us, right?”

  Edge shakes his head. “If Otis is leading them in the wrong direction, I bet you anything Mary Jo and their sons are going in the right direction.”

  I chew on my thumbnail a second. “Yeah, but they’re the military. They’re not brainless. And why would they be asking Otis for help?”

  “Because he can show them the ins and outs of these hills better than any technology,” Rocky says, and we all nod. That does make sense.

  I look at my friends again. We’ve been through a lot, but I notice that no one is mentioning going home. Not even Scarlett.

  “What time is it?” Fynn asks. “I’m starving.”

  Beans checks his watch. “Four o’clock, and I’m starving, too. But we’re almost there.”

  “Think about the enormous pizza we’ll eat when all this is over,” Rocky says, and we all groan.

  Four o’clock on Saturday. Seems like it should be Sunday. It’s hard to believe that at this time yesterday we were coming home from our last day of school.

  “Let’s do this,” I say, motioning them on ahead.

  Fynn nods. “If the military wants it, whatever fell must be awesome, and we will find it first. Let’s go.”

  We take a second to peek out and make sure the coast is clear, before clearing the cave. I follow the others out into a now drizzling, sunshine-filled afternoon.

  “So how much farther to the meteor?” I ask.

  Beans checks the compass and the map. “Shouldn’t be much farther.” Beans looks around. “There’re supposed to be railroad tracks around here, and they’ll take us pretty much straight to it.”

  “Up there.” Scarlett points, and sure enough, up the bank and through the trees I see the tracks. “But first I have to pee.” She grabs my hand. “Come on.”

  I yank back. “What? I’m not going with you.” I pee alone.

  “Yes, you are. You’re going to stand guard while I do my business. I’m not going to have a snake sneaking up on me or a bear or those mountain people.” She yanks me harder. “So, yes, you’re going with me.”

  She does have a point about the Mason Clan, so reluctantly I go and stand guard while she squats behind a bush and wipes with a leaf because, of course, her toilet paper got soaked.

  When she’s done I take a turn, and I have to admit it is nice to have someone watching out for snakes and bears while I pee. As much as I love the Scouts, I would never allow them to pee-guard me.

  When we get back, the boys are arguing.

  “Let me see the map,” Fynn says.

  “No,” Beans snaps.

  “What’s the big deal?” Rocky reaches for it.

  Beans steps back and his whole face clenches into an angry line. “It’s my map. It’s my meteor. You wouldn’t even know where to go without me!” With that he stomps off.

  Fynn looks at Rocky. Rocky looks
at Fynn. Then they both look at me.

  I don’t know what I just missed, but I defend Beans anyway. “He’s right. It’s his map. Just leave him alone.”

  Fynn throws his hands up. “See, you defended Beans again.”

  “Against you and Rocky,” I point out, and Fynn angrily folds his arms and looks away.

  “It might be Beans’s map, but it’s not his meteor. What’s his problem?” Rocky asks.

  “Maybe you’re his problem,” Fynn says, and goes stomping off, too.

  Rocky spins away and charges up the bank toward the railroad tracks, keeping distance between him and the rest of us.

  For a few seconds, I stand here, shooting furious glares at both of their backs, and then my gaze drifts up to Beans and I notice he’s fiddling with something in his backpack. Oh, that’s right, the silver ball we found in the cane field. I almost forgot about it.

  “Hey,” I whisper, jogging to catch up with him. “What are you doing?”

  He glances around to make sure everyone is a distance away before saying, “I really want to see what’s in this thing.” He’s careful to keep the orb hidden inside his backpack while tinkering with it. We keep walking.

  “Beans.” I sigh. “No more secrets. You need to tell Rocky and Fynn about your house and about this sphere you’re hiding.”

  Beans ignores me, and I watch as he fiddles with the seam of the ball, trying to pry it open with his fingernails. I wish I knew what was going on with him.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t touch it,” I tell him. “You saw how Edge handled it with a glove.”

  “Maybe you should stop trying to tell me what to do.”

  I stop walking. “What did you just say? I’m doing everything I can to keep your secret and you’re mouthing off at me?”

  Edge passes by, giving us a strange look, and Beans stops fiddling with the silver ball. He slows his pace and I follow his lead, slowing mine. Then Scarlett goes by, totally ignoring us as she focuses on catching up with Edge.

  As we step onto the railroad tracks, Beans grabs a rock from between the wood slats.

  “Maybe we can try to break it open with this,” he quietly says, and starts picking at the seam again while I silently watch.