Double Foul by Craig Battle

Author:Craig Battle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Owlkids Books Inc.
Published: 2020-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

16

“YOU’RE GOING DOWN, MAN!”

Mack iced his toe, then returned to cabin 13 just in time to join Miles at the back of the group heading to the mess hall for dinner. Up ahead of them, Pat and Nelson walked in a small pack with Spike, Mike, and Hassan, but Brian, Andre, and Wi-Fi each walked alone.

Miles started in immediately on Mack. “When your plans don’t work, it’s bad because they didn’t work,” he whispered. “But when they do work, it’s somehow even worse! How is that possible?”

Mack tried to appear as calm and confident as ever. “I thought it went quite well,” he lied.

“You can’t be serious!” Miles countered. “The whole point of the plan to stop Winston—the covert committee, everything!—was to be subtle. That was the least subtle thing I’ve ever seen.”

“But Winston can’t tie it to us or anyone on either team, so we’re in the clear.”

“Sure, we’ve been safe so far, but—”

“And the teams aren’t going to get better from here,” Mack cut him off. “The players can’t even walk to dinner together let alone play together!”

Miles dropped his eyes to the ground. “I just didn’t think that’s what we were doing. Making our friends hate each other, I mean.”

Mack watched Andre and Wi-Fi plodding on in silence. In his mind’s eye, he could see them sniping at each other on the court, and the image gave him a dull pain in his stomach to go along with the one in his toe.

“I never intended for the game to get that nasty,” he admitted. “But we can fix things. I know we can.”

He put his hand on Miles’s shoulder. “And here’s something that might cheer you up. I think we can disband advanced rocketry.”

“Really?” Miles beamed.

Mack nodded solemnly. “I think we’ve done enough. Last meeting is tomorrow.”

“I never thought I’d be happy about a rocketry class getting canceled. But this is the best news I’ve heard all summer!”

Inside the mess hall, the boys from cabin 13 collected steaming bowls of chili with sides of cornbread and sat down at their table. It was silent apart from slurping and chewing noises, but that wasn’t uncommon for chili night.

Then Pat broke the silence.

“Hey, Spike!” he yelled frantically at the twin to his right. “What’s that on the ceiling?”

As Spike’s eyes shot up, Pat reached stealthily for his cornbread. But Mike caught him by the wrist before he could touch the plate. Then Spike looked down, saw what was going on, and shook his head, smiling.

“Nice …” he started.

“… try …” Mike continued.

“… Pat!” Spike finished.

Mack laughed at the normalcy of Pat’s lame prank, and he could suddenly see a future where things were back to normal. The third game would come and go in a couple of days, and one frazzled, discombobulated Camp Average team would enter the tournament, only to get ousted right away. Meanwhile, everyone else would return to doing what they wanted. No more scheming, no more secrecy.

And at the end of the summer, no more Winston, Mack thought.

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