She's Got a Way

by Maggie McGinnis

  By the time they’d pulled the sleeping bags out of the van, the moon had been high in the sky. And by the time they’d put their elementary spatial reasoning skills to work and figured out how to fit five sleeping bags in the space, Gabi had been ready to go sleep in the van.

  It had practically killed her to sit there and watch the girls struggle to figure out the tent. As they’d argued and clanked poles and screeched when the whole thing came crashing down—multiple times—she’d checked her watch, checked the sky, checked the perimeter of the clearing for glowing eyes, sure that a message had to have gone out into the wilderness by now announcing the arrival of fresh meat.

  After five long tries, though, the girls had finally pushed up the poles and braced themselves for the tent to come falling down again … but it hadn’t. Gabi’s eyes had widened as she’d watched the four of them, all with their hands out in front of them, ready to catch poles and canvas. And when Sam had given her pole a gentle push and nothing bad had happened, a whoop had gone up, and Gabi’d smiled in relief.

  But now it was dead-dark, the mosquitoes had discovered every single hole in this godforsaken tent, and it sounded like the entire wild kingdom had gathered just outside the platform to investigate.

  “I’m sure it’s nothing, Waverly. Go to sleep.”

  Suddenly Waverly leaped out of her sleeping bag and crawled over Sam, making Sam curse loudly.

  “Well, it might be nothing, but it’s got a nose, and it just poked right through that hole.” Her voice was half whisper, half screech, and Gabi pulled out her flashlight to shine it in the direction of Waverly’s pillow.

  Two brown eyes and a masked face froze in the light, and crafty black paws closed around a chocolate bar.

  The next thirty seconds were a blur of screeches and confusion as Gabi and the four girls slithered out of their sleeping bags and made for the tent flaps, running out into the clearing. They’d almost made it when Waverly accidentally tripped Eve, who went flying into a tent pole. As Gabi closed her eyes and cringed, the entire tent crashed to the ground, and five little raccoons skittered back into the woods.

  Gabi scanned the clearing with her flashlight, hoping her heart rate wasn’t going to send her to the nearest ER. After she’d assured herself that there weren’t any more four-legged creatures lurking, she turned the light on the girls, who were huddled near the collapsed tent, their eyes wide as they slapped mosquitoes.

  “Who. Had. Chocolate. In the tent?” Gabi ground the words out between clenched teeth.

  No one raised a hand. Shocking.

  She pointed to the tent. “Waverly and Eve, hold up the edges. Sam and Madison, go get the backpacks.”

  “Are you going to search us?” Madison crossed her arms. “At two o’clock in the morning?”

  “Are you concerned that I might?”

  She tightened her arms. “No.”

  “Then go get the backpacks.” Gabi pointed with the flashlight, then jumped when she saw another light appear on the pathway.

  Great. This would be Luke.

  “Everything all right down here?” He came closer, and in the flashlight-lit darkness, his hair looked rumpled, his eyes sleepy, his T-shirt just thrown on. Gabi swallowed hard, not wanting to like the sight even half as much as she did.

  “We’re fine, thank you,” Gabi answered.

  “Engineering flaw?” He raised his eyebrows as his flashlight swept the pile of canvas.

  “No,” Madison growled. “The tent was fine until Eve knocked it over.”

  “Waverly tripped me!” Eve shot back.

  “I was trying to get away from the raccoons!” Waverly screeched. “I’m sorry!”

  Gabi saw Luke smile as he turned to her. “Got a visit from the welcome wagon, did you?”

  “Something like that.”

  He turned back to the girls. “Somebody forget what I told you about coons and food?” Nobody answered, and Gabi could tell he expected just that. “Well, now you know I wasn’t joking. Gonna be tough putting this tent back up in the pitch-dark.” He clicked off his flashlight and turned toward the path. “Good night, then.”

  “He’s not going to help us?” Madison glared at Luke’s retreating form.

  “Obviously not,” Gabi answered. “Why should he? Is he the one who brought chocolate into the tent? Did you guys think he was kidding about that? Did you think I was?”

  The girls were silent, Gabi was dead tired and sick of slapping mosquitoes, and there was no way she had the energy to supervise putting up this damn tent again right now.

  “Get your bags, girls.” She sighed, wishing she had a voodoo doll of Priscilla Pritchard. Right now she’d poke it square in the eyes. “Looks like we’re sleeping in the van.”

  Sam eyed Madison, glaring, and suddenly Gabi knew exactly who’d brought chocolate into the tent.

  Maybe, in the light of morning, she’d have a remote clue what to do about it.

  * * *

  “I see you survived the night.” Luke smiled over his coffee mug as Gabi stumbled into the dining hall the next morning, four grumbling girls at her heels. He was leaning against the service counter in a soft gray T-shirt and dark charcoal khaki shorts, and Gabi fought not to compare him to the guy on that coffee commercial she loved. “How’d everybody sleep?”

  She reached deep to pull out a fake smile. “Just fine, thank you.”

  “Comfortable van?”

  “Not a bit, but at least we were safe from the stinging hovercrafts you people call mosquitoes.”

  “Yeah, they’re bad this year.”

  “You think? How much blood does the average child lose here at Camp Echo?”

  “They generally pack bug spray.”

  “Ah.” She nodded, kicking herself for forgetting it. “Maybe you could give me back my battery today so I could go buy some?”

  “Maybe.” He picked up his coffee mug and took a sip. Gabi found herself uncomfortably drawn to this early-morning version of Luke, all freshly showered and relaxed.

  Showered.

  He obviously had running water.

  “Luke, seriously. You can’t hold the van hostage.”

  He shrugged, smiling. “Can if I have orders from your boss, who is now—apparently—somehow also my boss. And you know her far better than I do, so I would imagine the orders don’t really surprise you, as much as they’re probably pissing you off.”

  “It might be the glee with which you are holding the van that makes me more angry.”

  “Oh, believe me, Gabi. There’s no glee here.” He handed her a mug. “Little grouchy before your morning coffee?”

  She glared at him. “Yes. That’s what this is—a coffee issue.”

  He handed her a jug of creamer, amusement making the edges of his eyes crinkle. They were like dark, sooty emeralds—a color he’d probably hated as a kid, but girls had probably loved.

  Gabi tamped down her irritation. He’d made her coffee, for goodness’ sake. She could at least try to be civil.

  “Thank you for the coffee.”

  “Ladies?” Luke turned to Gabi’s charges, who were milling uncomfortably near the door. “Piper’s got pancakes and bacon ready. Juice and milk are here on the service counter. Grab a plate, fill ’er up, and eat. Kitchen’s only open for a half hour, then closed till noon.”

  Sam and Eve came toward the counter, but Madison hung back, which meant Waverly did, too. Gabi raised her eyebrows in their direction.

  “Girls? Did you hear him?”

  “I heard him.” Madison crossed her arms delicately. “Just not a fan of pancakes and bacon.”

  “No problem.” Luke shrugged. “Don’t eat.”

  “But—don’t you have other options? Yogurt? Fruit?”

  “Nope.”

  Madison huffed dramatically. “I can feel my arteries screaming already.”

  “Your arteries are fifteen. They’ll survive a slice of bacon.” Luke raised his eyebrows at Gabi and motioned to the counter. “You going
to eat?”

  Gabi wasn’t the least bit hungry, but well-drilled manners prevented her from saying so. The last thing she wanted to do was insult Piper’s cooking on the second day here. After all, the woman could turn out to be the only ally Gabi might have this summer.

  “Coffee first.” She took a sip as she sat down on a rickety wooden stool propped near the counter, then sighed without meaning to. “Oh, God. This is good.”

  Gabi studied Luke over the top of her mug, noticing that his stubble was a little lighter than yesterday, but not fully gone. Either he needed a new razor, or he preferred the shadowy look. Her eyes locked onto his biceps, then slid to his pecs, outlined under the soft T-shirt.

  She wondered if he was married. Then she closed her eyes.

  Seriously.

  When she opened them, he was looking straight at her, an amused expression on his face. She felt her cheeks flush as he raised his eyebrows again.

  “Going forward, as long as you don’t have any food in that tent, the coons shouldn’t bother you. You’ll get used to them sniffing and scratching around. Skunks, too.”

  Gabi pictured the girls’ backpacks, currently sitting in the van. She knew darn well that most of them were probably brimming with whatever they’d been able to collect from the dining hall and vending machine before the van had left Briarwood yesterday.

  “And by food, I mean anything that can be eaten. One granola bar could send a family of raccoons on a search-and-destroy mission through your entire tent. And anything a bear can smell, a bear could decide to eat.”

  Gabi shivered, despite herself. “Of course. Obviously. Right.”

  “Happy to use my voice of doom to remind the girls of this, if you want.”

  “I have a perfectly good voice of doom, but thank you.”

  He smiled. “Has your voice of doom ever cleaned up after a raccoon raid? What they did to the tent last night was nothing.”

  “No.” She tipped her head, conceding. “Mine has not.”

  “Then mine will be scarier.”

  “Fine.” Gabi waved a careless, exhausted hand. “You be doom.” Then she sighed, leaning her chin on her hand.

  “Hey, Gabi?”

  She lifted her eyes to his. “What?”

  “I’m not kidding about the bears.”

  Chapter 5

  “Craft project?” Eve’s eyebrows almost touched her purple-streaked hair an hour later. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m dead serious.” Gabi handed out plastic bags. “We’re at camp. We’re going to do camp … stuff.”

  Madison sighed. “We’re going to die of boredom.”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” Gabi tossed a bag her way. “But you never know. This craft project could be epic.”

  All four of them groaned and rolled their eyes.

  If she’d known ahead of time that Camp Echo was completely devoid of both staff and programs, she would have at least headed to the library to check out a stack of books that could have helped her survive being a pretend camp counselor. As it was, she was limited to what she could remember from her own summer camp days … and they’d been a scary-long time ago.

  As she doled out paper and crayons, her eye caught on Luke as he came down the pathway hauling a small pine tree he’d just cut down. He moved with a smooth grace that belied his muscular build, and God, those muscles. They were the kind that came from good, honest work, not a set of barbells, and in a moment of sleep-deprived insanity last night, she’d wondered what it would be like to touch them … him.

  Gabi shook her head. The handyman’s body was not what she needed to be focused on right now. The sun was out, the lake was beautiful, and she’d arbitrarily decided it was arts-and-crafts hour. She already knew the girls would hate it, and honestly, she didn’t care. They’d gotten themselves sentenced here. They’d have to deal with … here.

  She pointed up the pathway from the beach. “Here’s your job: without losing sight of the admin cottage, head out into the woods and find some leaves, ferns, flowers—anything that can lie almost flat. Put them in your bag, and once you have ten different items, come back to the picnic table and I’ll show you a project.”

  Madison did her patented eye roll. “This is so stupid.”

  “You want to head for the other camp? Catch your own food? Because that can be arranged.”

  Madison grumbled and snatched her bag. As she turned, Gabi was pretty sure she heard her mumble “bitch,” but she was honestly too tired to call her on it.

  Waverly called up her best sneer as she took her own bag, anxious to show Madison that she, too, thought the project was lame. Too bad her efforts were wasted, as Madison was already halfway across the lawn.

  Eve sighed and held out her hand. “Ten different things?”

  “Ten different things.”

  Sam raised her eyebrows. “You hoping this will take forever? Because guess what? There are a lot of plants out there. We’ll be back in, like, five minutes.”

  Gabi shook her head as she handed Sam her bag, but she couldn’t help smiling. She was probably right.

  “Walk slowly, okay?”

  Ten minutes later, long before Gabi was ready for them, three of the four girls were back at the picnic table, their bags full of leafy plants. She showed them how to take the paper she’d found in a supply closet Oliver had shown her in the admin cottage, flip the leaves so their veins were showing, and rub crayons over them to trace the shapes. It was a project she remembered doing way back when she was a kid, but as she demonstrated, she didn’t remember it seeming nearly so lame when she’d done it.

  With a minimum of grumbling, the girls started arranging their plants, and when they’d been at it for almost half an hour, Gabi looked toward the edge of the woods where Madison had been sitting since leaving the picnic table.

  “You going to join us, Madison?”

  Madison rolled her eyes again, and for a moment Gabi wished the old wives’ tale about eyeballs getting stuck that way actually held true.

  Sam looked over. “It’s better than sitting on your ass in poison ivy.”

  Madison jumped up like a marionette, then looked down at the ground. “Shut up, Sam. It’s just grass and weeds.”

  Sam laughed, not looking at her. “Do you even know what poison ivy looks like?”

  Madison gave her the finger, but made her way reluctantly to the table, dumping her bag of leaves at the end. Gabi handed her paper and crayons, but didn’t bother to give directions again. After all, as Madison had so kindly pointed out, it was something fourth-graders could do. Or kindergarteners, really.

  “So what does poison ivy look like, anyway?” Gabi paused her own rubbing, figuring it was something they should probably know, since they were here in the boonies.

  Sam looked up at her. “You don’t know?”

  “No. No idea.”

  “Huh.” Sam bit her lip, looking down at her paper for a moment, then at the little pile of leaves in the middle of the table. “Looks pretty much like that.” She used her eraser to point at a couple of shiny plants at the center of the pile. Then she turned toward Madison, who held a similar one in her hands. “And that.”

  She looked down again, not even bothering to contain her smile this time. “And you were sitting in it, princess.”

  * * *

  “Poison ivy? You had them do a project … with poison ivy?” Luke’s eyes were wide when Gabi tracked him down in the admin cottage a few minutes later.

  “I obviously didn’t know it was poison ivy. And I didn’t pick it—the girls did.”

  He shook his head. “Do you have any idea how much that stuff itches?”

  “Yes, Luke.” She tried to subtly scratch her palms, even though she was pretty sure she couldn’t possibly be having a reaction yet. “What do we do about it?”

  “Is it just on your hands?” He walked to a cupboard over the copier, opening it as he talked.

  “I think so. Except for Madison. She—um—she app
arently sat in it.”

  Luke paused, his hand on the cupboard. Then he turned to her. “I won’t even ask.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “Here.” He handed her a bottle. “It’s safe for the lake. Get them in the water and use this. And you might want to get your hands on an industrial-sized bottle of calamine lotion for later. Sounds like you’re all going to need it.”

  “This isn’t funny.” She took the bottle, wishing she could wipe the grin from his face.

  “No. You’re right. It’s definitely not.”

  “Stop smiling.”

  He laughed. “I’m sorry. I just—can’t.”

  “Let me ask you this—are there other plants that might attack us in the area?”

  “Eh.” He shrugged. “Depends whether you give them a reason to.”

  “Luke.”

  He put up his hands. “Sure. There are plants that’ll make you itch, plants that’ll make you bleed, plants that’ll kill you if you eat ’em. So just don’t mess with anything if you don’t know what it is.”

  “I don’t know what anything is.”

  He nodded sagely, turning back to the ancient computer on the desk. “Guess you’d better stick close to camp, then. That’s just the plants that can do you in. There are four-legged critters out there who can smell fear. And they like it.”

  * * *

  Fifteen minutes later, Gabi and the girls were gathered on the sandy beach, all of them stripped down to their bathing suits except Sam. She still sat at the table, running her pencil over sheets of paper, grinning when she looked at them.

  Gabi was not amused.

  “We’re not seriously going to bathe in there.” Madison’s eyebrows slid so high Gabi feared they might get caught in her hair.

  Gabi handed her the bottle of organic soap-shampoo. “Would you prefer to scratch yourself insane? Your choice.”

  “I’d prefer to take an actual shower.”