“What the fuck, Abi?” I said. Because—and I hold my hand up—I’m not a morning person. I mean, if I ever was going to kill someone, it’s over the breakfast table I’d probably do it.
Oh, piss off.
Sitting there telling me this is serious? You think I don’t know that already?
It’s you who’s the joke. You, your little sidekick here. Your whole so-called investigation. So why don’t you get serious for once, and stop wasting time judging me?
I am calm. I was.
Whatever. Do you want to know what happened or not?
Sunflower seeds. Right. So they’re going everywhere. And there’s only one thing Abi’s more obsessed with than food, so right away I should have realized what was up.
“Where is it?” Abi was saying. “Where the hell is it?”
“Where’s what?” said someone else. Luke, I think, from the edge of the clearing, sounding even more confused about where he was than I’d been.
“My phone,” said Abi. “My sodding phone. It was just . . .” She spun around, pointed at the head end of the blanket. “Right there. I left it right there, so I could see the time if I woke up in the middle of the night.”
I looked at my watch, and realized it wasn’t even seven. The light was sort of milky, and in the sky there was an early-morning haze. They were the first clouds of any kind I’d seen in weeks. Already it felt muggy, like stepping into the bathroom after somebody else has just had a shower.
Fash sat up, blinking. Cora, lying beside me, gave a groan, like she was awake but was still in denial.
“Relax, Abi,” I said, getting up. “It probably slipped under the blanket or something.” I gave Fash a nudge with my foot, and he half crawled, half rolled to one side. But when I lifted up the top edge of the blanket that he and Abi had been sleeping on, there was nothing under it but grass.
“See?” said Abi. “It’s not there. I already looked. And it’s not in my pocket before you say anything, and it’s not in my bag either. I told you, it’s gone!”
“For Christ’s sake,” I heard Cora mumble. “S’just a phone. Wasn’t any signal out here anyway.”
“That’s not the point!” said Abi. “And it was a brand-new iPhone, thank you very much. Not your shitty old Samsung.”
Cora had given up on sleep, it looked like. She sat up, scrunching her eyes against the light. “Now you’re just getting personal,” she said. “It’s not my fault you lost your stupid phone.”
“So whose is it then?”
“Seriously?” said Cora, turning. “You’re actually trying to blame me?”
“You’re the one who was having a go at me yesterday for trying to get a signal!”
“I wasn’t having a go at you for trying to get a signal! I was having a go at you for staring at that stupid screen all day when we were supposed to be—”
“Um, guys?” said Fash. “I think mine’s gone, too.”
He was frisking himself, checking the space around him. He even stood and lifted up the blanket the way I had. Cora’s groundsheet, as well, which is what finally forced Cora onto her feet.
I’d started looking around for my phone by this point. I’d emptied my pockets and piled the stuff beside my bag. My lighter was there, my wallet—but not my phone.
“Shit,” said Cora, who’d realized by now that hers was missing as well. If anything, she looked more panicked about it than Abi had, whipping the groundsheet into the air and rummaging through the pockets of her rucksack.
“What the hell?”
It was Luke’s voice again. I turned—we all did—to see him holding his water bottle upside down. A single drip fell to the floor.
He looked at Cora. “For Christ’s sake. I would have shared if you’d just asked me. There was no need to drink it all.”
“What are you talking about?” said Cora. Luke was still staring at her, and now the rest of us were staring at her, too. “Seriously,” she said. “What the hell is everyone looking at me for?”
“Your bottle was half-empty,” said Luke. “And I wouldn’t let you drink from the stream. So you obviously decided to steal the rest of my water while I was asleep.”
Abi held out her hand. “Give me my phone back,” she said to Cora. “Enough messing around.”
“I don’t have your stupid phone! And I didn’t touch your water, Luke!”
Luke was holding his bottle to his mouth, tipping his head back to try to catch another drip.
“Here,” said Fash. “Have some of—”
But when he picked up his bottle, he shook it and it didn’t make a sound. Then I checked my bottle, which was lying at the foot end of the groundsheet. It was empty, and so was Abi’s.
“What about yours, Cora?” Abi said.
Cora was already reaching into her rucksack. Her bottle was still half-full.
“That . . . that doesn’t mean anything,” she said, seeing the way everyone was looking at her. “I was using my rucksack as a pillow!”
“So?” Abi said.
“So whoever messed with your bottles couldn’t have got to mine! That’s the only reason mine’s still full!”
Abi rolled her eyes. She took a step and made a lunge for Cora’s rucksack.
“What the hell, Abi! Get off.”
Abi had Cora’s bag by one of its straps, and Cora was trying to keep her from taking it.
“Whoa,” said Fash, “what are you doing?”
“I’m going to look inside her bag, that’s what,” said Abi, giving the strap another yank. “I bet she’s got our water in a secret flask or something. Not to mention my phone.”
“A secret flask?” said Cora. “Seriously? And will you stop going on about your stupid phone! The rest of ours are missing, too!” She was still having a tug-of-war with Abi, until Fash and Luke pulled them apart.
“Everybody calm down,” said Luke. “Let’s just . . . I don’t know. Try to work out what’s happening.”
“It’s obvious what’s happening,” Abi said, and she jabbed a finger at Cora. “She thought it would be funny
