Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

“ W e have to do something,” Beth hissed to Estelle and Finley a few hours later. “This is a disaster.”

“Not for you,” Estelle muttered into her cup of juice. “At least some of your family is here.”

Beth flushed, glancing guiltily at her mom, who was trying to keep Otis from clambering onto a scale model of the camp made out of paper mache and popsicle sticks. The dining hall had been converted into a makeshift showcase of camp life, with posterboards on the walls and exhibits about the various activities. Excited campers pulled their parents from table to table, while staff members smiled indulgently and answered questions.

She turned back to her friends. “We’re all disappointed that the crew got called away, but we can’t sit around moping about it. Conleth and Paige need our help. Just look at them.”

The kids collectively surveyed their counselors. Conleth was in constant motion; one moment reassuring Nancy’s parents about some safety issue, the next darting through the crowd to steer Lord Golden away from Buck and Honey. His smile was as bright and confident as ever, but his hair was starting to look distinctly crumpled.

In contrast to her mate’s incessant energy, Paige was a pale, worried shadow. She stuck close to her family, occasionally murmuring to her mom as Archie dragged them both from table to table. She kept glancing at Conleth, and then quickly away again, as if looking at him was somehow against camp rules.

“Uncle Conleth’s not getting any chance to talk to Paige’s mom,” Beth said in frustration. “Every time he starts to head in that direction, he gets called away by someone else.”

“So?” Estelle said, as Conleth dashed away from Hetta’s dad to intercept a giggling Otis before the toddler could pitch himself out a window. “It’s not like Paige is going to tell her mom about Conleth in the middle of all this. She’ll wait for a private moment.”

“That’s just it.” Beth twisted the end of her braid in agitation. “If this doesn’t go well, maybe she won’t tell her at all. Don’t you see? She clearly wants to find out what her mom thinks about him before she reveals they’re mates. That’s why Uncle Conleth set up this whole Parents’ Day.”

“You’re saying Conleth organized a gigantic last-minute event that involved persuading hundreds of people to travel here from all parts of the country just to try to make a good first impression on his mate’s mom?” Estelle considered this for a moment. “Yeah, that tracks.”

“It does sound like the sort of thing Conleth would do,” Finley conceded. “But if this is all part of a deeper plan to make her mom like him, I don’t think it’s going so well.”

Estelle scrutinized the family with newfound interest, diverted from her own woes. “Yeah, Paige’s mom does seem kind of on edge. She looks like she’d rather be anywhere else on the planet right now.”

“Let’s hope that’s just because Archie’s been talking at her non-stop ever since she got here.” Beth wrung her hands. “Oh, this is bad. Did you hear what Paige’s mom said to Uncle Conleth when they met? She thinks he’s a terrible counselor. That’s not the sort of person she’s going to want as her daughter’s mate. We have to show her she’s wrong about him.”

“Okay, but how?” Estelle asked. “I mean, what do you want us to do, just go over there and start randomly talking about Conleth?”

“No, that’s too obvious,” Beth replied. “But there’s got to be some way we can help.”

A whistle split the air, cutting through the chatter. At the front of the hall, Leonie stood on a table, waving to attract everyone’s attention.

“All right, everyone!” she announced as the crowd settled down. “There will be plenty more time later to keep looking around the camp, but we have an action-packed schedule of games and events for you to enjoy. To kick things off, we have Camp Thunderbird’s very first inter-pack toga?—”

In a blur of motion, Conleth appeared at the head counselor’s side. He muttered something into her ear.

“That is, tug-of-war tournament!” Leonie corrected herself. “Any campers who’d like to participate, find your packmates and report to me. Parents and other spectators, please follow our junior counselor helpers to the field.”

“That’s it!” Beth exclaimed as the crowd started to disperse. “We have to win the tug-of-war tournament!”

Finley’s brow furrowed. “How is that going to help Conleth and Paige?”

“Because right now her mom thinks he’s a bad counselor, and winning one of the pack competitions will prove that he isn’t,” Beth said impatiently. “That’s bound to make her see him more favorably.”

Estelle looked dubious. “Maybe, but do you really think we can beat the other junior packs at tug-of-war?”

“It’s better than our chances of winning anything else,” Beth replied. “It’s the only competition that doesn’t involve shifting, so we won’t be at a disadvantage. Finley, go get Rufus. He’s the strongest out of all of us.”

Finley hesitated. “I’m sure he’d want to help, Beth, but I’m not sure it’s fair to drag him out in front of a noisy crowd right now. He doesn’t like being the center of attention at the best of times, and he’s still really upset about his parents not being here.”

“Estelle, you go find Rufus,” Beth ordered, pushing the other girl toward the door. “You can always calm him down. Use your power if you have to, just get him here. Where’s Ignatius?”

“And suddenly, I am filled with an immense feeling of impending doom,” Ignatius observed as he joined them. “What are you idiots planning now?”

“Ig!” Beth turned a winning smile on him. “How do you feel about tug-of-war?”

“That depends,” Ignatius said. “Mostly, on whether I’m expected to actually touch the rope. Why?”

Finley sighed. “Beth thinks we can help Conleth impress Paige’s mom by winning the tournament.”

Ignatius stared at Beth in disbelief. “You’re still doing this?”

“Yes, and so are you,” Beth informed him. “If we’re going to win, we’ll need everyone.”

“Hey guys!” Archie bounded over, Nancy on his heels. “We’re entering the tug-of-war tournament, right?”

“Apparently,” Finley said. “Because?—”

“Because it will make our parents proud,” Beth interrupted, shooting Finley a warning look. “Especially if we win.”

Nancy, who’d been looking rather disconsolate, perked up. “Hey, yeah! That would prove to my mom and dad that I don’t keel over at the first hint of stress. Maybe then they won’t insist I sit on the sidelines for the rest of the summer.”

Archie poked Ignatius in the arm. “Come on, Iggy, you gotta play too. Even though you can’t shift yet, you’re still a dragon. That’s almost as strong as a bear.”

Ignatius heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Fine, fine. Stop hitting me. I’ll join in all the idiotic reindeer games. It’s not like my uncle can be any more disappointed in me.”

“All right!” Archie pumped a fist into the air. “I’ll go tell Leonie to sign our pack up for the competition. Meet you at the field!”

As Archie dashed off, Finley lowered his voice. “Why didn’t you let me tell him the real reason you want us to win the tournament, Beth?”

Nancy looked between them, puzzled. “What do you mean, the real reason?”

Ignatius rolled his eyes. “The only reason Beth ever does anything. To make her uncle look good.”

“But don’t tell Archie,” Beth said quickly. “We want him to put all his effort into winning. And you know how he feels about Uncle Conleth.”

“But Archie only tried to keep Paige and Conleth apart because he was worried about his mom,” Finley said. “He may still not be entirely happy that they’re mates, but I’m sure he wouldn’t deliberately do anything to sabotage their relationship.”

“Maybe.” Beth cast a worried glance after Archie. “But it doesn’t hurt to be careful. So let’s keep the plan to ourselves, okay?”

This was the best day ever .

Archie hopped from happily from foot to foot, stretching his legs and shaking out his hands in preparation for the competition. Counselors were busy laying out long ropes, while Leonie took down team names and assigned the first matches.

“Where’s Ragvald?” he overheard one of the other campers ask in disappointment. “I thought he was meant to be judging this.”

“He’s, ah, busy,” Leonie replied, a bit shiftily. “But don’t worry, he’s around. We just thought it might be better for him to keep a low profile today since, uh, he’s not that familiar with our customs, and we don’t want him to offend anyone. But I can make sure you get a chance to take your parents to meet him later, if you like.”

Archie was pretty sure Ragvald’s absence had very little to do with his manners, and a lot more to do with Ignatius’s weird uncle, who was now regally occupying a kind of hastily constructed VIP area made out of some deckchairs and a tarp propped on poles. All the other parents were just standing around like normal people, and looked a lot less stupid.

Scanning the crowd, Archie found Mom and Paige. He waved to them, but only Mom waved back. Paige seemed to be too busy telling Mom some story that involved a lot of gestures at Conleth. She was smiling a lot, too—the kind of tight, too-big smile that made Archie think she wasn’t actually happy at all.

Mom wasn’t smiling. Not even fake-smiling. Not one single bit.

His bear made a worried huff at the back of his mind, but Archie couldn’t help his own smile getting bigger. It wasn’t that he wanted Mom to dislike Conleth, exactly. It was just nice that at least there was one other person who didn’t think he was the greatest thing since peanut butter and potato chip sandwiches.

(Archie had wanted to patent that invention and make a bajillion dollars, but Paige had said someone else had probably already come up with it)

Anyway, it didn’t really matter what he or Mom or anyone else thought of Conleth. Just Paige. And since she’d been walking around for the past couple of weeks with a kind of sappy glow about her, it was pretty clear Conleth was gonna be a permanent feature from now on.

Archie made a face, banging a hand against one ear to shake stupid Conleth out of his head. This was no time to get distracted. There was a tug-of-war tournament to win!

He looked around for his team. Finley and Estelle were huddled on either side of Rufus, who was looking kind of twitchy with so many people around. Iggy was—of course—still hanging around his uncle Lord Buttface (the guy made Conleth seem nice), while Nancy was trying to get away from her mom, who was trying to force a giant pink padded vest over her head, like a lifejacket but for land.

Beth was off to one side, talking to Hetta. Or rather, Beth was talking a lot at Hetta, and Hetta was just shaking her head, looking more and more upset.

Archie frowned. That didn’t seem right. Wondering what was going on, he headed for the two girls.

“Come on , Hetta,” Beth was saying impatiently as he came up behind them. “All the other teams are full packs. We won’t stand any chance of winning if you sit out.”

Hetta’s mouth was doing the shaky thing that meant she was trying real hard not to cry, and didn’t want anyone to know. She shook her head again, even more firmly.

“But all you have to do is hold on to the rope and pull.” Beth’s face had gone red and splotchy, the way it only did when she was really worked up about something (usually him). “It’s not dangerous or anything. You’ve done all kinds of activities over the past few weeks. Why won’t you do this one?”

Uh-oh . Beth didn’t know the real problem, but Archie did. He’d worked out that Hetta was only brave when Conleth was nearby, able to whisk her away if she started to shift by accident. But in an open field, surrounded by people, it would be pretty much impossible to bundle her away in time. Of course Conleth, being perfect, would probably manage it anyhow, but it would still look weird.

“Hey, leave her alone, Beth,” Archie said, wondering how the heck to get Beth to back off without revealing Hetta’s secret. “She doesn’t have to play if she doesn’t want to.”

“Of course you’d take her side, Archie,” Beth said nastily. “I suppose you’d like our team to be at a disadvantage, wouldn’t you.”

“What? No!” Why was she being so mean? “Of course I want us to win. But it’s just a game, Beth. It’s not that important.”

“Yes, it is!” Beth rounded on poor Hetta again. “You said you wanted to be a proper part of this pack. So act like it!”

Paige and Conleth had noticed the growing argument as well. To Archie’s relief, they both hurried over to intervene. Finley, Rufus, and Estelle followed behind, drawn by the commotion as well.

“What’s going on here?” Paige asked.

“Hetta doesn’t want to play tug-of-war,” Archie explained, since Hetta looked too upset to defend herself. “And Beth is getting all up in her face about it for no reason.”

“She’s ruining things for the rest of the pack for no reason!” Beth protested. She tossed her braid over her shoulder, giving Hetta a scathing, scornful glare. “Why do you always have to be such a chicken?”

“Don’t call me that!” Hetta’s voice rose, louder than Archie had ever heard her speak before. All around, heads turned their way, grown-ups cutting off their own conversations to see what was going on. “I’m not a chicken, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not! ”

And just like that, everything made sense.

“You’re a chicken shifter, aren’t you?” Archie said, every word ringing clearly in the sudden silence. “That’s why you don’t want anyone to know you can shift!”

Hetta’s dad, who’d been talking to Beth’s mom nearby, started. “Hetta, is that true?”

Hetta went so white, Archie thought she might faint. She gave him a furious, betrayed look.

Too late, he realized what he’d done. “Hetta, I didn’t mean to?—”

“I hate you!” Hetta shrieked at him, then burst into tears. Whirling, she pushed blindly through the crowd.

“Hetta?” Her dad hurried after her. “Hetta, darlin’, wait!”

“I’ll try to help,” Paige said to Conleth in a low voice. She followed Hetta’s dad, leaving the rest of the pack behind at the center of a murmuring ring of onlookers.

“So Hetta’s a chicken shifter?” Estelle said. “Did anyone else know apart from Archie?”

“Not me,” Finley said. Then he started, whipping around to stare at Rufus. “Wait, you knew?”

Rufus made a low hiss, like an angry cat. Archie couldn’t hear whatever the griffin shifter had said telepathically, but he didn’t need any of the mythic shifters to translate. The way Rufus was glaring at him, gold eyes flat and unfriendly, got the message across loud and clear.

“I didn’t mean to,” Archie mumbled. “And I didn’t know she was a chicken shifter. Just knew she didn’t want anyone to find out she could shift.”

“You knew her secret, and you blurted it out in front of the whole camp?” Beth said accusingly. “In front of her dad? ”

“I didn’t know she hadn’t even told him!” The familiar wave of guilt and shame was creeping up from his stomach, cold and horrible. “And anyway, it’s your fault too! You’re the one who called her a chicken!”

“All right, both of you, that’s enough,” Conleth said firmly. “We’ll talk about it later. Come on, the tournament’s about to start.”

Playing tug-of-war was pretty much the last thing Archie felt like doing right then, but apparently he wasn’t going to get a choice. Conleth hustled the remaining pack onto the field. Another group was waiting for them, already lined up on the far end of a rope.

“Right, we can still do this,” Beth said, though Archie suspected she was trying to convince herself as much as anyone else. Setting her shoulders, she picked up the rope. “We need to line up in size order. Rufus, you go at the back, since you’re the biggest and strongest. Then Ignatius, me, Finley, Nancy, and Archie. Estelle, you take the front.”

Normally Archie would have protested that he should have gone at the back, because even if he wasn’t all that tall yet, he was still a bear, but somehow arguing didn’t seem like a good idea at the moment. He took up his assigned position behind Estelle, gripping the rope with sweaty, clammy hands.

Leonie started to explain the rules of the tournament, and Archie knew he should be trying to listen, but he was too busy feeling sick and awful. He really hadn’t meant to blurt out Hetta’s secret like that. The words had just been there in his head, so he’d said them, and now she was upset and maybe in trouble with her dad, and it was all his fault and she would never, ever forgive him, not that she should?—

Leonie blew her whistle, and the rope jerked in his hands. Caught off guard, he stumbled, nearly yanked off his feet.

“Archie!” Beth yelled from behind him. “ Concentrate! ”

He hastily redoubled his grip on the rope, digging in his heels. Cheers and yells of encouragement rose from the watching parents as both teams pulled with all their strength.

His arms burned. Behind him, Beth was shouting some kind of instructions, but he couldn’t make out the words over the roar of the crowd and the storm in his head. Despite his best effort, he was slipping, losing ground inch by inch. They were going to lose, and it would be all his fault, and everyone would hate him, and Hetta already hated him, and he was a bad friend and a bad person and he could never do anything right and it would be so much easier to be a bear?—

So he was.

The rope whipped through his paws. Unable to keep his balance on his hind legs, he tumbled backward into Nancy, who shrieked and tried to jump to safety.

Unfortunately, she was still holding onto the rope.

Everyone lost their balance. Archie found himself tumbled tail-over-nose, squashed between Estelle and Beth. The whole pack went down in a confused pile of feet and fur.

“Nancy!” shrieked Nancy’s mom, rushing over. “Oh, I knew this would happen. Don’t worry, honey, it’s just a perfectly normal physical reaction. It’ll wear off in a moment.”

“I didn’t faint! ” Nancy protested from somewhere underneath everyone else. “I just can’t move because there’s a bear sitting on me.”

“All right, nobody panic.” Conleth started helping campers to their feet. “Is anyone hurt?”

“Just my self-esteem,” Ignatius muttered, somewhat muffled. “Although I am about to asphyxiate in Finley’s armpit. Is my uncle watching?”

Estelle craned her neck. “Yeah, afraid so.”

A deep, tragic sigh came from the bottom of the pile. “In that case, nobody move. Put on my tombstone that I died as I lived. Surrounded by idiots.”

“We won!” someone yelled. The other team was hugging each other, celebrating their victory. “Who are we facing next, Leonie?”

“Wait!” Beth struggled to her feet. “That’s not fair. We wouldn’t have lost if Archie hadn’t shifted.”

One of the other campers shrugged. “Then he shouldn’t have shifted.”

“Your team would be disqualified anyway,” another girl chimed in. “You’re not supposed to shift in this competition.”

“But—but we should get another go!” Beth appealed to Leonie. “Please, ma’am. Archie shouldn’t be allowed to mess things up for everyone.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Archie protested—or at least, he tried to. Since he was still a bear, it mostly came out as: “Graw.”

“I’m sorry, Beth,” Leonie said, writing something on her clipboard. “But we haven’t got time for rematches. And I did say no one should shift. The other team won, fair and square.”

Beth whirled around, fists clenching. Archie put his ears back, flattening against the ground. He wanted to say he was sorry, but all he could do was whine.

“This is all your fault!” Beth yelled at him. “You shifted on purpose! You wanted us to lose!”

“Beth!” Conleth said sharply. “That’s out of line. Remember the pack contract. Go and cool off until you can apologize to Archie.”

“But—” Beth started.

“ Now .”

Beth glowered, but went. It was clear she wasn’t about to come back and apologize any time soon. Probably not before the rest of the summer.

No doubt the other kids wanted to yell at him too, but Archie wasn’t about stick around to give them the chance. T-shirt rucked up around his front paws, he blundered off the field. Conleth called something after him, but he let the words slide through his ears without trying to make sense of them.

Bears didn’t have to understand. Bears didn’t have to listen to people telling them how they’d disappointed everyone. Bears didn’t feel bad about being a stupid, useless failure who always got everything wrong. Bears didn’t get things wrong. Bears were just bears.

It was so much easier to be a bear.

He let himself slide away for a little while, taking refuge in the warm, safe, uncomplicated world of his animal side. Try as he might, though, he couldn’t lose himself forever. All too soon, his bear was nudging at him, pushing his human self into the driver’s seat.

Better now, his bear told him firmly, fading back into his mind. Safe. Can’t hide in den through every season. Time to come out.

With a sigh, Archie uncurled from behind the woodshed, shaking the lingering tingles from his arms. He’d lost his shoes and shirt at some point, but at least he still had his shorts.

He must have been a bear for longer than he’d thought. When he got back to the field, a couple of junior counselors were coiling up the tug-of-war ropes and taking them away. A lot of families were still milling around, but there was no sign of his pack mates, or Conleth.

That was fine by Archie. There was only one person he wanted right now. The only person he could count on to always be there for him. Who would always love him, no matter how badly he messed up.

And she was…nowhere to be seen.

“Mom?” Archie said uncertainly.

Last time he’d seen her, she’d been standing right here. And he knew he was in the right spot. His nose wasn’t nearly as good in human form as it was when he was a bear, but he could still catch a faint, lingering trace of her scent.

She must have seen him shift. Maybe she’d gone after him, but hadn’t been able to keep up. Bears were fast, after all. She was probably searching for him right now.

Well, it would be easy enough to follow her trail. And when he found her, he’d convince her to take him home. And then he could go away and never come back to camp again, and…and he wouldn’t be around to ruin everything anymore, and everyone else could be happy.

Archie sniffed, rubbing his eyes. Then he hitched up his shorts, and set off in search of his mom.