Wait Miles shouted jumping over the boards at the opposite end But Garth was already winding up seemingly unaware of the rocket about to set down between him and his target In his peripheral vision Miles caught a glimpse of his friends at the side of the court The stricken looks on their faces told him everything he needed to know The rocket was as good as gone Garth brought his plastic hockey stick down with elec trifying speed WHACK Miles cringed as the orange ball hurtled through the air And missed his rocket by an inch The object of Miles’s affection the item he’d spent weeks building to exact specifications simply twisted in the air as it fell the final two feet to earth landing safely on the bluish-gray concrete court Fifty-three miles per hour a deep-voiced adult shouted into a megaphone We have a winner Miles barely registered this as he tore past a flexing fist-pumping Garth First inspecting then lifting then nuzzling the rocket with his cheek he walked off the court toward his waiting friends who didn’t seem nearly as relieved as he was 6
Oh Miles said Nicole Yen his friend from back home She had started coming to Camp Average the summer before when it had finally been opened up to girls I’m so sorry What Miles asked examining the object in his arms The rocket is fine Not a scratch on it Not the rocket explained Makayla Monroe Nicole’s best friend The cabin What about the cabin asked Pat sidling up to the two girls Does ours need renovations too Do we have to go live in the Hortonia lodge Not exactly said Willy Wi-Fi Reston squeezing between Nicole and Makayla an ability he had gained only the summer before having finally overcome an all but-crippling fear of physical contact with girls But the reality isn’t much better Miles’s analytical gaze bounced around his friends anx ious faces Will someone please tell me what’s going on Before he got an answer Garth brushed by his shoul der and hopped over the boards See you later roomie he called as he walked away Roomie Miles thought sneeringly That’ll be the The small boy’s eyeballs nearly popped out of his skull No Setting her voice to maximum soothe Nicole reminded 7
Miles that there were two empty beds in his cabin This fact he knew all too well Those beds should have been occu pied by two of his best friends but he couldn’t think about that right now for fear of tearing up Evidently someone here thought it was cruel to make all the Hortonia kids sleep in the lodge when there were two beds just sitting there said Nicole So camp admin istrators let the Hortonians decide which campers got them They chose to settle it with a slap shot competition By now Garth was a few hundred feet away But his perfectly timed burp still rang out all the way back to them Miles groaned They couldn’t have had a table man ners contest he asked Nicole Makayla and Wi-Fi burst out laughing Good one Miles Pat said crossing his arms But just because I launched a rocket that doesn’t mean you get to be the funny one The dinner bell blared across camp Miles climbed over the boards and slumped toward his cabin like it was the principal’s office Don’t worry said Nicole reading his face Garth won’t have moved in yet Miles Pat and Wi-Fi split off from the rest of the group and made their way to cabin 23 Now that they 8
were thirteen years old they’d made it to senior camp That meant their new living quarters contained nine single beds separated by an equal number of tall wooden dressers eight for campers and one for their lone coun selor No more bunk beds No more plastic bins No more two-counselor setup Crossing the threshold Miles noted with relief that Garth hadn’t moved in yet Instead Nelson Ramos the Nelson Ramos the famous YouTuber and king of the unboxing video was unpacking five polo shirts in dif ferent colors And Spike and Mike the Triplett twins were playing soccey basically ball hockey with a soccer ball in the main aisle between the beds Sitting on his own bed by the front door Laker a counselor in his early twenties whose real name nobody at Camp Average had ever had any use for held a pillow in his hands I swear he said if a fifth soccer ball hits me in the face so help me As the boys entered the room Mike stopped the ball under his foot We heard he began cheering finished his brother Nelson straightened What’d we miss Examining Miles’s miserable expression he furrowed his brow And I keep meaning to ask where’s Mack 9
