The Sign in the Smoke (Nancy Drew Diaries Book 12) (14 page)

Maya ran over. “Oh, cool!” she said. “I think that might be from a sassafras tree. Smell it—does it smell like root beer?”

“It does!” Cece said excitedly.

Maya turned to me. “Nancy, can you hand me the chart?”

“Sure.” I took out the folded paper and handed it to my CIT with a smile. It was great to see the girls get so excited about finding new things in nature!

But as most of the girls surrounded Maya and Cece with curious expressions, someone tugged on my wrist. “Hey, Nancy?”

I turned around. Winnie and Katie stood before me, both wearing troubled expressions. “What’s up, guys?”

Winnie bit her lip as Katie whispered, “Can we talk to you in private?”

“Sure.” I turned back and called to Maya, “Comfort stop!” That’s what we said when someone had to use the bathroom on a hike. It was the only reason I could think of for the three of us to separate from the others without questions. Maya nodded that she’d heard me, but kept chatting with the group.

“Come on.” I led Winnie and Katie up over a little hill and down the other side, where we wouldn’t be seen or heard by the others. “What’s going on, guys? From your expressions, it looks kind of important.”

Winnie and Katie looked at each other, then back at me. “We have something to tell you,” Winnie said.

“What is it?” I asked. I assumed it was going to be something about a disagreement between two of the girls, or some other piece of gossip that Winnie and Katie felt I should know. My bunk got along well, but it seemed like there were always little undercurrents of tension in a group this size. And as BFFs, Winnie and Katie seemed to think of themselves as Friendship Experts.

“Last night?” Katie began nervously. “Before the flood?”

Immediately I became more serious. “You have information about the flood?” I asked. “Did you see anyone?”

Katie looked nervously at Winnie.

“Kind of?” Winnie asked, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. “I mean, it may be nothing. But before the flood . . . like, just a few minutes before . . .” She looked at Katie.

“Something woke me up,” Katie filled in. “It was like a thud, probably someone’s feet hitting the floor. And I looked around and saw Harper getting up and heading for the bathroom.”

I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline.
Harper?
“How soon was this before the flood?” I asked.

Katie shrugged. “I’m not sure, but it couldn’t have been long, because I rolled over to go back to sleep, and the next thing I knew I heard Kiki yelling.”

I took in a breath, trying to calm my fluttering heart. Could
Harper
be behind the flood?
But maybe she just had to go to the bathroom.
It was possible. We all got up during the night sometimes. But then I thought,
It actually makes sense that someone from our bunk would have turned on the faucets and showers.
It meant that nobody would have had to sneak in, which would have been difficult. The only entrance to the cabin opened right into the main room with the bunk beds, and the culprit would have had to walk by
all
the sleeping campers, plus me and Maya, to get to the bathroom. Then that person would have had to hope no one woke up from the noise, and sneak past all of us
again
to get back out.

I sighed, and suddenly became aware that Katie and Winnie had been staring at me for a few seconds, waiting for a response. “Thank you for telling me,” I said finally, looking at them with sincere gratitude. “I’m sure it wasn’t easy. And I’m not sure this means Harper had anything to do with the flood, but I’ll look into it. Okay?”

“Okay,” said Katie, at the same time Winnie said, “We didn’t want to get her in trouble!”

“You haven’t,” I said, putting my hands on each of their shoulders. “You’ve just given me some questions to ask. Okay?”

“Okay.” Winnie nodded, and Katie did too. After a few seconds, we headed back to join the others.

Harper was holding the sassafras leaf now, studying it with the same intensity she used when she read her beloved books. I watched her, thinking about this new information and going back through all the other events in my mind.
Harper wasn’t here when Deborah and I were pulled under. But she was there when Cece and Kiki were . . . and she’s a good swimmer. She could have snuck away from the campfire when the sleeping bags were stolen, but that would be a lot for her to do, and get to the lake without being detected. . . .

As I was thinking, Harper looked up at me and smiled. Struggling to control my expression, I smiled back.

I don’t want to believe it could be her. But I need to look into this.

“HEY, HARPER,” I SAID GENTLY
after the hike, as we were all heading back to the cabin for a quick rest before a camp-wide sing-along. “Can we talk for a minute?”

A flash of fear crossed over Harper’s face, and I felt the heavy weight of disappointment.
Did she really flood the cabin? If so . . . why?

“Okay,” she said hesitantly, looking from me to the cabin just a few yards away. “Um . . . where should we go?”

I nodded at Maya, to whom I’d given a heads-up that I needed a few minutes to talk to Harper. She was taking the other campers into the cabin to use the bathroom and get whatever they needed for the campfire. She gave me a thumbs-up and headed inside.

“Let’s go sit over here,” I said, leading Harper to a bench at the edge of the woods, a good distance from any of the cabins. I sat down and patted the bench beside me. It was clearing up after a cloudy morning, and I pointed at the puffy white clouds strewn around the sky. “Pretty, isn’t it?” I asked, pointing up.

“I guess.” Harper looked where I was pointing only for a moment. She sat down next to me, folded her hands in her lap, and stared at them.

“Harper,” I said after a few seconds of silence, “is there anything you’d like to tell me?”

She kept staring at her hands. She shook her head awkwardly but didn’t say a word. Still, her tense demeanor told me something was definitely up.

I tried to soften my voice. “The thing is, I know you went into the bathroom last night,” I said, “which would be totally normal, except this wasn’t too long before we discovered the flood.”

Harper still wouldn’t look at me. She unfolded her hands, though, and began picking at her cuticles. “Maybe I just had to go to the bathroom,” she said after a while, her voice breaking at the end.

“Maybe you did,” I said gently, “and I want to stress that either way, you’re not in trouble. I just want to talk to you about it.”

Harper looked up at me briefly. She looked very young all of a sudden, and very small.

Suddenly her face crinkled up and she started to cry. “I did it,” she whimpered, then broke into a sob. “I didn’t want to hurt anybody or damage anything. I just thought, if the cabin were flooded, maybe we’d all have to move out and I could go home.”

I reached over, gently pulling her closer and putting a comforting hand on her back. “Why do you want to go home?”

Harper leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder as she took off her glasses and swiped at her eyes with her fist. “Nobody likes me,” she cried, her voice full of pain. “My parents wanted me to come to camp to make new friends, and I haven’t made any new friends. The other girls are just kind of
okay
with me. I think they think I’m weird.” She paused, sniffling. “I’d rather be home with my books and my parents. At least I know what to do there.”

I pulled Harper closer, and she let out a fresh round of sobs. I felt terrible for her. My instinct was to try to defend the other girls, who I felt had tried to connect with Harper, but I didn’t want to deny what Harper was feeling.
How can I fix this?

“Harper,” I said nervously, “is there . . . anything else you want to tell me?”

She looked up at me, confused.

“Is flooding the cabin the only thing you’ve done to try to go home?” I added.

Harper’s eyes widened. “Oh, yes!” she said. “I wouldn’t . . . I mean . . . you must think I’m a monster!”

I shook my head rapidly. “No, no, no, Harper,” I said. “I just wanted to be clear. And I think the other girls do like you. Maybe they just don’t know you that well? You spend a lot of free time reading, which I know you love, and that’s great. But it doesn’t give the other girls a lot of opportunity to get to know you.”

Harper sniffled again. “They’re always busy giving each other pedicures or playing that stupid MASH game,” she muttered. I couldn’t help smiling, remembering the “future-telling” game (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House) that Bess had tortured George and me with when we were younger.
I always kind of thought it was stupid too.

I patted her back. “Tell you what,” I said. “How about we skip the sing-along and have a little get-to-know-you bunk meeting instead?”

Harper drew back immediately, looking at me with concern. “I’m
not
playing Truth or Dare,” she insisted.

Oh, Harper. We have more in common than you know.
I held up my hand. “No Truth or Dare. Scout’s honor.”

“We’re not scouts,” Harper muttered, shooting me a puzzled look.

“Sorry,” I said, putting the hand over my heart instead. “I
promise
. You have my word. Now, will you dry your eyes and come back to the bunk with me?”

Harper looked at me for a moment. She pulled off her glasses again and wiped her eyes, which were still pink and wet. “Okay,” she said, putting the glasses back on. “But if I’d still rather be home, can I leave early?”

I tried to stifle my sigh of disappointment.
What to say?
“If you really feel like you can’t stay, we’ll talk to Deborah and Miles and figure something out,” I promised.

Harper nodded and stood up from the bench. “Deal,” she said, holding out her hand to shake.

“. . . we
all
have something that makes us special,” I said to the whole bunk a few minutes later. We were all sitting in a circle on the cabin floor, sweating in the stagnant air. Maya had run to Deborah to explain that our bunk was going to skip the sing-along, and Deborah had said it was okay. “And I think we all have more in common than we might realize at first. For example, Harper and I realized that we both hate the game Truth or Dare!”

There were squeals of surprise, and a few nods of agreement.

“Oh my gosh, I hate that game too,” said Nina in a rush. “It’s like, want to do something really embarrassing or tell everyone something you
never
planned on telling
anyone
? It’s the worst!”

Kiki pushed her playfully. “Are you kidding? It’s
so
much fun!”

Nina shook her head, turning away. “I clearly have nothing in common with you,” she sniffed.

Everyone laughed, but Kiki held up her hand. “Not true! We both love to watch
Degrassi
on Netflix.”

Nina grinned. “I will grant you that,” she said.

“
Anyway
, guys,” I said. “My point is that we should all make a real effort to get to know everyone here—even the people you don’t
think
you have anything in common with. Because chances are, you have quite a lot in common.”

Cece frowned and looked at Harper. “Harper, why do you read all the time?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Winnie agreed. “It’s
kind
of like you don’t want to talk to us.”

Harper blushed and looked down at her lap. “It’s not that at all,” she said. “It’s just . . . I don’t know. I’m a quiet person. Sometimes when it gets really loud and crazy in here, I just need some time to be in my own head.”

Katie raised her chin. “That’s called being an
introvert
,” she said. “I’m one too! I totally get it, Harper.”

Harper looked surprised. “You do?”

Katie nodded. “That’s why I like to put on my headphones sometimes,” she said, and when Harper looked stunned, she added, “You probably don’t notice. But a lot of times when everyone’s talking, I’ll put on my headphones and just focus on the music and think about whatever. It helps me relax.”