“Whoa, I’m crazy about that fire, fire, fire,” Jocelyn said, reaching out toward the warmth.
“Yep, it’s hot, hot, hot,” Athena replied. She tilted her head and looked at Jocelyn for a second. “I only said that three times because it’s triple cool,” she said, I guess to let Jocelyn know she wasn’t making fun of her.
Jocelyn gave Athena a high five, and they plunked down together in the only two unoccupied folding chairs near the fire pit. Everybody else either sat in chairs, or on the ground with blankets or mats, or attached to whatever device made their lives function best, like I do.
As I got settled in my spot, I made Elvira shout out, “Hey, now!” Lots of kids, even those I hadn’t met yet, waved or hollered in reply. Karyn, who evidently had tucked her bunk-bed blanket under her chair, rolled up next to me. She snatched up the blanket, flicked it open, and smoothed it over both our legs. I elbowed her in thanks. She elbowed me back, You’re welcome!
Trinity and some of the other counselors made a dash to the kitchen. They were back a few minutes later with bags of marshmallows (the big ones—not the teeny ones Mom puts in Penny’s hot chocolate), dozens of bars of Hershey’s chocolate, and two boxes of graham crackers. Trinity let me know, however, that she had my back: she’d packed some caramel sauce for me! I don’t need crackers—I like my caramel sauce by the spoonful. She’s the best.
The Panthers were the last to arrive, all wearing brand-new-looking purple T-shirts, looking both embarrassed and victorious at the same time. Santiago, whose legs were covered by a fuzzy purple blanket, rolled in with his Medi-Talker playing really cool, really loud salsa music. All right! Apparently the guys had managed to recuperate!
When Jocelyn saw them, she murmured, “Stinky, stinky, stinky.” I had to press my lips together not to laugh. The Badgers were a lot less subtle. They made a big show of holding their noses and fanning the air as the Panthers rolled in, but to my total shock, the Panthers didn’t reek. I sniffed the air hard, but all I caught was that crisp smell of branches on fire, and maybe a hefty dose of aftershave lotion.
Jeremiah came and stood by Trinity. I heard him tell her that they used up all the baking soda from the kitchen to wash the stink off—and Cassie had to drive into town, where she bought out the entire supply from the grocery store there. Who knew baking soda helped with skunk smell? Cassie, apparently.
The fire tonight sparkled and blazed as if its job was to entertain us. Which I guess it was! Stacked beside it were dozens of twigs, along with broken branches and boughs—way more than the night before. I hoped they didn’t run out before the end of camp. Nah, we were living in the woods—we’re good. As if on cue, the Badgers brought over armfuls of even more fire fuel and dumped it by the blaze.
Santiago, who clearly survived the skunking with no problems, made his machine shout, “You ever hear the joke about the skunk?”
A few kids shouted back, “No!”
Santiago, his machine cranked up to its loudest volume, shouted, “Never mind—it stinks!”
I caught Jocelyn’s eye, and we tried not to, but we laughed so hard we were holding our stomachs. The freshly scrubbed, probably majorly embarrassed guys tried to act like they didn’t care. But I bet they did, a little!
Which made it even more of a surprise when Noah, bopping on his walker, headed over to where I sat and plopped down—right in the folding chair beside me.
Acting like this was the most ordinary thing in the world, to get sprayed by a skunk and then come sit by me, he grinned and said, “Hey, Firefly Girl.”
And—I couldn’t help it, I just couldn’t—even while I waved hello, I took a little sniff. I might have detected a slight leftover odor, but mostly I smelled a combination of woodsy-spice soap and a ton of the type of aftershave lotion my dad uses.
“Did you get hit bad?” I tapped.
He made a face. “No, not directly. I was behind the other guys when it happened. But Santiago and Devin! Those poor dudes nearly took a direct blast! Good thing we’d all moved back when we did! Jeremiah had to throw their clothes away. And even though the counselors scrubbed our cabin with pine cleaner, and sprayed it with a whole bottle of aftershave, it still reeks like a skunk factory!”
I tapped out, “That’s terrible!” But I couldn’t keep from laughing. Luckily, Noah started laughing too.
“We spent the entire afternoon in the showers—almost three hours!” he exclaimed. “That lake is probably only half-full now.”
Poor Panthers. No crafts. No swimming. No art. Just showers. All afternoon. I was sorry it happened, though it was a little bit funny.
The fire blazed gold and red—just being fiery and stuff like it was supposed to. Noah stared into it and joked, “I hope the smoke smell is helping with the skunk stink a little!”
I wondered if stars had any smell to them—the sky was loaded with them tonight. If they did, they should beam some down! But seriously, the smell was hardly noticeable.
I was about to tell Noah that when Cassie hollered out, “Who’s ready for s’mores?”
Everybody raised their hand or shouted out something. To be honest, I’d never had a s’more in my life.
Jeremiah ambled over and held out a very long stick with a marshmallow stuck on the end to Noah. “Here you go, buddy!” he said.
But Noah replied, “Uh, no thanks. I’ll pass.”
Well, that blew me away.
He shrugged and grinned. “Don’t tell anybody, but I don’t like chocolate! Or marshmallow.”
“Seriously? Me neither!”
“Where do you land on caramel?” he asked.
“Top of my list!” I told him.
“I just need this fire, and I’m good.”
Me too! my insides were saying. Me too! Me too!
CHAPTER 27