by Sandy Beech
To say that I was stunned would be the understatement of the year. My jaw dropped so hard it practically went subterranean.
“You wha—you wha—you huh?” I stammered stupidly.
Ryan grinned. “Hey, what can I say?” Aside from his bright red face, he seemed ridiculously unembarrassed by this whole conversation. “I have excellent taste in women.”
I had no idea how to react. None. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before.
Ryan was smiling hopefully at me. The tiny part of my mind that wasn’t completely frozen in shock was telling me that I had to say something. But what?
This isn’t fair, I told myself frantically. I’m not the one who goes around flirting with boys and trying to get them to like me and stuff. That’s the twins’ department, or maybe Angela’s. Anyway, I can’t deal with this right now on top of everything else. I’ve just got to get rid of him.
“Look, Ryan,” I said briskly. “I …”
My voice trailed off as he gazed back at me, looking as happy and adoring and anxious as a new puppy at Christmas. How could I just blow him off? It was so totally what Angela would do. First a secret boyfriend and now this—was I turning into an Angela clone? Could the girly-girlness sneak up on you just like that, take you over, and turn you evil like her?
“Yes, Dani?” Ryan prompted me eagerly. “What do you think? Look, I know I didn’t give you any warning. You don’t have to decide anything right away How about if we just, you know, go on a date or something? We could do a picnic up on the ridge maybe. What do you say?”
I opened my mouth and closed it a few times, my stomach sinking in my gut like a rock as I realized I’d just missed my chance to cut him off cleanly. It was as if I’d been playing basketball, hoping to sink a shot, and ended up dribbling right past the basket, under the scoreboard, and out the gym doors into the parking lot.
Snapping my mouth shut, I smiled tightly. “Um,” I mumbled intelligently. “Uh, let me think about it, okay?”
It seemed the best I could do under the circumstances. Unfortunately Ryan seemed thrilled.
“Cool!” he cried, his limbs twitching slightly as his grin stretched from ear to ear. Come to think of it, those few minutes during our conversation were the longest I’d seen him hold more-or-less still since arriving on the island. Or possibly ever. “Take all the time you need,” he added. “You know where to find me when you make up your mind. See you, Dani! ‘Bye! Catch you later!” The twitching turned into actual movement, and he danced off down the path.
I sighed as I watched him go. Okay. What was I supposed to do now?
An hour later I had made up my mind. I had to find Ryan and let him down easy. It wasn’t fair to let him get his hopes up. It wasn’t fair to me, either. Thanks to Ryan’s little announcement, I’d totally missed yet another chance to spend time alone with Josh, and I didn’t want that to happen again.
But finding Ryan was turning out to be harder than expected. He normally spent the afternoon fishing or bodysurfing, but that day there was no sign of him anywhere on the beach. “Hey” I said, sticking my head into the shelter. “Anybody in here?”
Brooke opened her eyes and looked up at me sleepily. “What?” she demanded. “Can’t you see I’m trying to take a nap?”
“Sorry I—”
A shout interrupted my response. Pulling my head out of the shelter, I saw Josh running down the beach waving his hands over his head.
Brooke sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What’s all the yelling about now?” she mumbled grumpily.
“I’m not sure.”
All over the beach, other people were looking over to see what was happening. Ned, who was reading one of the twins’ fashion magazines in the shade of a palm tree, squinted curiously as Josh ran past him. The twins stopped splashing around in the surf and stared. Angela wandered out of the supply cave holding a beach towel. Macy glanced up from chopping something on the food-prep table. Even Ryan finally appeared at the edge of the jungle carrying an armload of firewood.
Josh raced over to the fire pit and jumped up on one of the logs we used as seats. “Hey, everyone!” he called. “Over here! I have something important to tell you.”
We all drifted toward him. Since I was the closest to the fire pit other than Macy I was one of the first to arrive. Josh grinned at me. “Guess what, Dani?” he exclaimed breathlessly. “Kenny was right! There’s definitely a fire on that other island—and I don’t think its a wildfire, either. There’s got to be people over there!”
“What?” Brooke was right behind me, still rubbing her eyes and yawning. But at Josh’s words, she suddenly looked fully awake. “What did you say, Josh? Did you say you saw people?”
“Huh?” Cassie cried, running the last few steps to the fire pit. “Did someone say we’re being rescued?”
“Rescued? What?”
All of a sudden everyone was talking at once. “Wait!” Josh waved his hands desperately over his head. “Listen!”
“Shut up, people!” I shouted helpfully. “Let him talk!”
Angela wrinkled her nose at me. “Gee, this is a first. McFeeney the motormouth telling other people to shut up.”
“Gee, Barnes the butthead acting like a total snot,” I tossed back. That’s a first too. Only not.”
I blushed slightly as I saw Josh shoot me a surprised glance. Normally I tried to control my Angela-insulting when he was around. I’m not sure why, since I’m usually quite proud of the wittiness and creativity of my barbs. But Josh is one of those people who’s nice to everyone. I mean everyone—jocks, computer nerds, teachers, little kids, cranky old people, even Angela herself. Its one of the things that makes him who he is. I guess I was worried about what he’d think of me if he saw me at my most withering. Not that he was likely to have any delusions about how I felt about Angela. I mean, everyone who’d spent more than thirty seconds at Tweedale Middle School knew that Dani McFeeney + Angela Barnes = happy-happy-friendship-time.
The hubbub continued for a moment or two, but finally everyone quieted down except the twins, who couldn’t quite seem to control their excited squealing. That was still quiet enough to allow Josh to continue.
“Anyway,” he began, “I just ran up to the ridge, because of something Kenny—wait. Where’s Ken?”
We all looked around for Kenny. I was a little surprised he wasn’t right up there next to Josh doing a little victory dance. He isn’t the type to be modest about taking credit for things; once after he got an A on his spelling test, Dad caught him on the phone with the editor of the local newspaper. He was trying to take out a full-page ad congratulating himself.
But my little brother was nowhere to be seen. “He’s probably out trapping more helpless slugs and lizards for his zoo or something,” I commented.
“Never mind.” Brooke was staring at Josh intently. She hates being out of the loop. “Go on, Josh.”
Josh explained what Kenny had seen, then what he’d just told me about going up there himself. “Anyway,” he finished, his voice sounding sort of vibratey with excitement. “I watched the smoke for a while, and I’m almost positive it’s a campfire.”
“Wow!’ Brooke rubbed her hands together so rapidly I was afraid her palms might start to smoke. “Now that we know that other island is inhabited, maybe we should think about trying to get ourselves rescued.”
Josh nodded. ‘I’ve already been thinking about that,” he said eagerly. “And I have the perfect plan. We can build a raft!”
“A raft?” Brooke sounded dubious. “Well I guess that’s one option.”
Everyone else seemed equally underwhelmed by Josh’s perfect plan. I guess it wasn’t the reaction he had expected, because he looked surprised and slightly wounded.
“But wait.” Cassie sounded a little confused. “Why are we even worrying about this? What difference does it make? Ms. Watson will probably find us any second now.’
“Yeah,” Macy put in quietly. “That’s what we thought a week ag
o.”
Josh nodded. “That’s the point” he said. “We can keep waiting around for Ms. Watson, but there’s no telling when she’ll actually find us. So that’s why I thought of a raft. We can take it over to that other island and ask the people over there for help. They probably have some way of contacting the mainland—they can tell the rescuers exactly where we are.”
There was a moment of silence as everyone digested that. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was flashing back to the pair of rough-and-ready rafts we’d used to transport our luggage and the other supplies from the wreckage of our boat. Josh and Ryan had thrown them together using a couple of wooden doors and some random bits of wood and twine.
“Come on,” Josh urged, breaking the silence. “We can totally build a raft. We did it before, remember?”
“Yeah, but those rafts only had to make it across the lagoon.” Brooke glanced out toward the glassy stretch of water nestled between the beach and the coral reef. “Going out into the open sea is probably going to be a whole different story.”
“It’s not really the open sea,” Angela commented. “It’s more like a channel.”
“Thanks, Dictionario.” I rolled my eyes.
The others ignored me. “I think Brooke is right,” Ned spoke up. “It might not be the middle of the ocean, but there are waves out there. Serious waves. And currents. And maybe sharks …”
“Sharks?” Cassie cried, one hand flying to her mouth in horror. “I didn’t even think of that!”
Josh flapped his hands as if waving away everyone’s objections. “Okay, okay,” he said. “I hear you. But listen, I’m not saying we should use those same rafts. Not even close. I’m saying we should build a bigger, better raft. An awesome, oceanworthy raft. The King of Rafts!”
I traded a skeptical glance with the twins. Its not that I didn’t want to support Josh. Its just that I wasn’t sure that floating off over the ocean on a raft—even the King of Rafts—sounded like the world’s best idea. Sharks or no sharks.
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.
