“No way I can do that,” I told them. “I’m still grounded. Really truly grounded this time.”
“Okay, then, we wait until the barbecue to make our move,” said Scooter. “People will be so busy eating and talking, they won’t notice we’re gone.”
“What part of ‘grounded’ don’t you understand?”
He looked at me and smiled. “C’mon, Truly! You found a way out of it before—you can find a way out of it again.”
It was tempting.
Especially since a pirate treasure might hang in the balance.
But then I thought of my parents, and how hard they’d both been working this summer. They didn’t need me adding to their worries. I was tall timber, I reminded myself. I could stand my ground and do the right thing for once.
“Nope,” I told my friends. “You’ll have to go without me this time.”
CHAPTER 36
“ ‘The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king,’ ” quoted Dr. Calhoun. We were in Camp Lovejoy’s Lower Lodge, getting ready for our performance. It was stuffy inside, despite a whisper of breeze that drifted through the screened windows, and the large room smelled faintly of past fires in the giant stone fireplace. “That’s the Bard, of course, from Hamlet. Not that our goal is to catch anyone’s conscience! But if we can catch the interest of the audience, now that’s a noble goal. With any luck, this sneak preview will whet their appetites and spur ticket sales.”
We’d all been worried after this morning’s dress rehearsal. Really worried. But Dr. Calhoun had tried to calm our fears. “Dress rehearsals are often less than perfect, to say the least,” he’d said on the ride over in the camp bus that Artie Olsen had sent to pick us up. “Sure, you were a little rough this morning, but I’ve heard you practicing all week, and I have full confidence that you’ll pull this off without a hitch.”
Now he clapped his hands and beamed at us. “I have two surprises for you, people! First, we have been given special permission by Camp Lovejoy to use a very special stage for our performance—Dreamboat, the camp’s floating cabin!”
There was a gasp of excitement at this announcement. Pippa and Lauren had told me about Dreamboat. One of the high points of camp was when each cabin got a turn to have a sleepover on it.
“And second,” Dr. Calhoun continued, “Mrs. Winthrop stayed up late the last few nights, and she finished the costumes!”
A whoop went up as the cast crowded eagerly around Lucas’s mother. She handed each actor his or her costume, and everyone scattered to the four corners of the room, which had been curtained off with bedsheets, to try them on.
Everyone except me. My costume was stuffed into the enormous duffel bag at my feet, and I wasn’t planning on putting it on again until the very last minute.
“Check it out!” crowed Scooter, strutting across the lodge toward me a few minutes later. He was wearing jeans, a white T-shirt, and a fake black leather jacket with a skull-and-crossbones patch sewn on its breast pocket.
Calhoun was right behind him, dressed in an identical costume.
“Looking good, boys!” said Cha Cha, who resembled a pint-size ball of fluff in her pink poodle skirt and matching pink cardigan.
“Thanks,” said Calhoun, smiling at her. “You, too.”
I’d been trying really hard not to think about their onstage kiss. At least the real thing was still over a week away. For this sneak preview performance, we were just doing a trio of numbers from the first act.
Hatcher emerged next in his Modern Major-General costume, which featured a ton of gold braid, rhinestone buttons, and big, flashy fake medals. Bling! Definitely nothing Lieutenant Colonel Jericho T. Lovejoy would ever be caught dead wearing, but it was going to look great onstage.
We all retreated to a quiet spot by one of the windows to go over the plan one more time. I glanced outside to see if I could spot my family and was dismayed to spot Amanda Appleton’s familiar red sports car pulling into the parking lot. “What’s she doing here?”
“My dad invited her,” Calhoun replied sheepishly. “I totally forgot to tell you. He ran into her at the library again today after dress rehearsal and, well, I guess he thought that with her interest in pirates, she’d get a kick out of the show.”
“Great.” I heaved a sigh. “You guys will have to be extra careful when you head to the island, or she might try and follow you.”
I scanned the crowd on the grassy lawn that led to the water-ski beach. My parents were here, of course—all of our parents were here. And so were Aunt True and Professor Rusty and both of my sisters. The wheelbarrow races were just finishing up, and there was a lot of shouting and cheering going on.
“After the show, when the barbecue starts, Hatcher will create a diversion,” Scooter began. “On my signal, we’ll peel off one by one and head for the kayaks.”
“Wait, you’re just going to take Camp Lovejoy’s kayaks?” I said. “Without permission? This is your plan?”
“You’ve got a better one?”
I flapped my hand. “I’m sitting this one out, remember?”
“Like I was saying,” Scooter continued, clearly enjoying the role of team leader for a change, “we head for the kayaks. Once we paddle out to the island, we’ll find the eagle’s nest tree, and Lucas will do the rest.”
I looked over at Lucas, who had been avoiding me all day and still wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Are you sure he’s up to it?”
Calhoun shrugged. “He’s the best swimmer we’ve got besides you.”
Was it my imagination, or was Lucas looking paler than usual? I was guessing he didn’t like this idea any more than I did, but he wasn’t going to
