Mountain Mission
Page 5
Despite all his sports training, Russell was already winded. He had never worked out wearing a forty-pound backpack! As they hurried downhill, Russell could hear Sage and Eliza tallying their points.
The way Russell saw it, they couldn’t change anything now. Either their team would have the most points or they wouldn’t. As they neared the finish line, it looked like they wouldn’t. Two teams had already arrived. Just as Team Ten was about to cross under the banner, Dev pulled out the ancam again. “Still no signal,” he said with a frown.
“Don’t worry about it now,” Russell told him. “We’re here. We made it.” As soon as he’d crossed the finish line, Russell yanked the hiking pack from his shoulder and let it drop to the ground. Then he sat on the bag and drained his water bottle, not caring when the water splashed out and streamed down his face. He stared at Dev, who was dripping with sweat. Russell couldn’t figure out why his teammate hadn’t done the same. Mari lifted her braid off her back and fanned her neck.
Dev glanced around. Sage and Eliza had already approached the other teams, trying to find out if anyone knew the standings.
“I’m going to tell the organizers about our ancam, just so they know,” Dev explained. Russell watched as Dev headed over to where Bull Gordon was standing. After a few minutes, he returned to the team with a smile on his face.
“Where’s the ancam?” Russell asked.
“I had to turn it in,” Dev said. “They had to make sure that the problem was on their end.”
“And?” Mari asked.
“Of course it was,” Dev replied. “Our ancam was as good as gold.”
Russell wasn’t sure why Dev was making such a big deal out of it. The ancam hadn’t lost the signal until after they’d submitted their answers and photos. But Russell wouldn’t pretend to understand any part of the special relationship between Dev and that device.
At last Team Nine crossed the finish line. Russell wasn’t sure how Team Ten had managed to beat them. Was the route Dev had suggested really that much shorter, or had Team Nine gone off to track down last-minute photo points? Russell couldn’t know for sure. He glanced over at Dallas, whose smile looked especially bright against his mud-caked skin.
Bull Gordon and the organizers herded the teams together. Bull climbed up on a boulder that was in the middle of the camp and cleared his throat.
“Remember, with the thirty points for third place, we’ve got 190,” Eliza announced in a whisper to the rest of their team. “That hardly seems like a winning score, but I’m crossing my fingers anyway.” Mari raised her hand to show that her fingers were crossed, too.
“Knowing a lot about wildlife doesn’t always translate into knowing a lot about people—or caring.” Bull Gordon glanced around the group. “I’ve watched you all through two entire competitions. If there were a way to earn points for taking care of not only the natural world around us, but also each other, you would all be winners. But that isn’t how this race works.” Bull’s expression was serious. “And even though you can’t get points for being helpful or thoughtful or kind, I noticed many of you doing those things. So I commend you.” He reached up and touched the rim of his faded fedora, nodding to the group in general, but Russell thought that his gaze lingered on Team Ten.
When Bull paused, the silence was filled with sighs. Russell couldn’t blame anyone. They were all exhausted. They’d been on their feet for hours … days. And all anyone really wanted to hear was who had won.
“Now it’s time to announce the results,” Bull said. His booming voice had brightened, and it carried up into the mountain air. “We have a runner-up with 260 points, boosted by the one hundred points for a snow leopard sighting. Team Nine!” Murmurs filled the crowd.
“How did they get that photo?” Eliza muttered, disenchanted.
“And our winners, with 290 points, also with a snow leopard sighting, are the members of Team Ten.”
“What?” The members of Team Ten shared a collective gasp. A snow leopard? When? Where? They were all mystified. All except Dev, who had taken the picture.
“Just go up and get your medals,” Dev directed, giving his teammates gentle shoves. “I’ll explain later.”
“You’d better,” said Sage, who had a big, fake smile plastered on her face as she threaded her way toward where Bull Gordon stood on the boulder.
Accepting the winners’ medals did not feel real to Russell—especially since Dev was the only one who knew exactly how they’d won. When Russell looked out at the small crowd, he saw Jace, who looked only a little surprised and very proud. And he saw Dallas, who looked pretty much the same. It made a lot more sense when Dev told them the full story ten minutes later.
“It happened really fast,” he said. “When you guys were helping Javier, Dallas showed me the snow leopard. It had been pacing on the cliff above us the whole time. Team Nine had tracked it there. Then, as soon as I got the shot, it vanished, so I couldn’t show him to you. And I didn’t want to tell you about the photo, because I couldn’t submit it without the ancam signal.”
“And you didn’t know if they’d accept it, if you hadn’t sent it in during the race,” Russell pieced together.
“Exactly. I didn’t want to get your hopes up if it wasn’t going to count. I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you guys,” Dev said, looking forlorn. “I just didn’t want to let you down.”
“Um, you didn’t let us down,” Eliza replied. “You won it for us, Dev!”
“I would have liked to have seen the snow leopard,” Mari admitted, her voice quiet, “but I suppose I’ll forgive you, just this once.”
“So let me get this right,” Sage said, glancing over her shoulder to make sure the team was alone. “Dallas pulled you aside, showed you the fabulous one-hundred-point animal, and that was that?”
“That was that,” Dev confirmed. “And then we won.”
“We won!” Eliza called out as if reminding herself.
But in that moment, winning wasn’t what mattered most to Russell. If there was one thing that he was sure of after trekking through the land of the mighty mountains and shaky ground, it was that solid friendships were game changers—and even lifesavers, sometimes.
He and Dallas might have had a rocky past, but Russell knew he cared for his friend. They had learned that they could trust each other when it mattered most, and Russell wouldn’t let that change. He looked forward to taking the football field with Dallas at the rec center. It’d feel good to be on the same team again.
And as for his Wild Life team, it felt weird that he’d be going back to his real life where he didn’t have all of them by his side. He was now accustomed to having each of them around. He’d grown to rely on their strengths. Sage’s leadership. Dev’s tech savvy. Mari’s quiet kindness (and animal genius!). Eliza’s ambition. And yet he’d miss them for so much more.
Russell had to remind himself that at one point, he had felt like he was stuck with this group of strangers. He had believed that all of his friends were on another team. Not anymore. Now Russell realized that their ragtag crew didn’t make a good team because they were friends. But they were now good friends, and it was all because they had learned together what it took to make a good team.
KRISTIN EARHART grew up riding horses, pestering her cat, and reading books about amazing animals. These days, she lives with her husband and son in Brooklyn, New York, and writes books of her own. She still loves animals. But now, when she pesters her cat, the surly cat pesters back.
Text copyright © 2016 by Kristin Earhart.
Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Scholastic Inc.
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e-ISBN 978-0-545-94198-3
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