Watch Your Step by T. R. Burns Page A

wait, I sneak peeks at Elinor’s reflection in the shiny glass. Her skin’s still the same color as creamy vanilla ice cream. Freckles are still scattered across her nose and cheekslike pink sprinkles. Her long dark-red hair is still pulled back in a braid, which is still tied in a green satin ribbon.
    She’s still the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.
    The elevator arrives. The door swishes open.
    â€œLet’s do this,” Abe says, and lunges inside.
    Gabby and Lemon join him. I step aside to let Elinor in first, and she does the same for me. We pause. Our eyes meet. She gives me a shy smile and steps inside. When I follow, Abe gives me a look. Then he pushes the up button, the door swishes shut, and we take off like a rocket.
    â€œI have a question,” Gabby announces after liftoff. “Annika invited our families to Kamp Kilter after Seamus told her about what was happening with our parents.”
    â€œWhat was happening with your parents?” Elinor asks.
    â€œI’ll fill you in on everything later,” Gabby says. “But back to my question—do you think Annika had already planned to invite our families to Kamp Kilter, just later in the summer?”
    â€œNo,” Abe says.
    â€œDid any of you ever hear her or our teachers say anything about the camp while we were at school?” Gabby asks.
    â€œNo,” Abe, Elinor, and I say.
    â€œSo do you think Annika created Kamp Kilter overnight?”
    I look at Elinor. “Did your mom know anything about this?” Annika and Nadia Kilter, Elinor’s mom, are sisters. They’re not close, probably because Nadia runs IncrimiNation, a rival troublemaking school (if you can call it that), but maybe she’d talked about Kilter’s programs in the past.
    â€œNo,” Elinor says. “And I could tell it was the first she’d heard of it. When I showed her the invitation, her eyes got big and her face turned red, and then she stormed out of the house. She slammed the door so hard it fell off its hinges. That was the last time I saw her before the helicopter came.”
    â€œWhat helicopter?” Abe asks.
    â€œAnnika’s. She knew Mom wouldn’t bring me, so sent a Good Samaritan to pick me up.”
    Abe huffs. I try to read Elinor’s expression to see if talking about her mom, who’s even harder to figure out than my mom is, makes her sad, mad, or something else. I’m still trying to decide when Gabby continues.
    â€œSo then does that mean Annika built all of this . . .”—she motions around the elevator, points down then up—“in less than twenty-four hours?”
    â€œGuess so,” Abe says.
    â€œBut how?” Gabby asks.
    He shrugs. “She’s Annika.”
    The elevator stops. The door swishes open. We file out of the chute and through the raggedy tarp tent.
    â€œTroublemakers!” a low voice booms. “Are you ready . . . to meet . . . your DOOM?”

Chapter 7

DEMERITS: 430
GOLD STARS: 150
    I t’s just for show. . . . It’s just for show. . . . It’s just for show. . . .
    This reminder skips through my head like a scratched part on one of Dad’s old Frank Sinatra records. But it doesn’t make the scene outside any less intimidating.
    â€œWhat are you waiting for?” a low voice roars into a megaphone. “Start digging!”
    Dozens of my classmates are on the beach. At Annika’s command, they scatter and sprint to rusty metal shovels standingupright in the sand.
    â€œDid you really think you’d get three months off?” she demands. “Did you really believe that you deserved to do whatever you wanted after doing countless things nobody wanted you to?”
    â€œHurry up, Hinkle!” Abe hisses. He’s already claimed a shovel a few feet away from our tarp tent. I head for one a few yards away.
    â€œ Good kids go to camp!”