Starry Skies and Fireflies by Jenny Meyerhoff

Author:Jenny Meyerhoff
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

Anna shrugged. She thought the game was the same amount of fun whatever it was called, but she was glad to learn that games that sounded scary weren’t always scary for real. They played four rounds, so that each of them could take a turn getting a message from the phantom. Then Bailey said, “Okay, now it’s time to play the Wicked Winker.” Bailey made her voice sound slow and spooky when she said the name of the game, and Anna felt the skin on her scalp grow tingly.

Maybe now it was time to make the lanterns.

“First, everyone will close their eyes,” Bailey explained. “Then I’ll tap one person on their shoulder and that person will be the Wicked Winker.”

“This game works better with more people,” Reed said.

“Shh!” Bailey swatted the air. “Let me finish. Next, we’ll all open our eyes, and the Wicked Winker will wink at different people. The winker has to be careful, though, because she doesn’t want the others to see her winking. When you get winked at, you have to lie down and play dead, and you are out of the game. If the winker winks everyone out, they win, but if someone catches them, they lose.”

This game was a little creepier than Phantom Messenger, but Anna thought it still sounded like it might be fun. She agreed to give it a try. Reed was right, though—they did need more people. As soon as Kaya and Bailey had fallen over to play dead, Anna shouted that Reed was the winker and won the game.

“Do you guys want to try one of my activities now?” Anna asked. She wasn’t really worried that any of the games would be too scary for her anymore. She was actually having a lot of fun. But it still couldn’t hurt to show her friends that not everything about a campout had to be scary.

“Sure.” Kaya nodded. “What do you want to do?”

Anna led them back into the tent and taught them how to play Rainbow Tag. It was much harder than it looked because they could never predict where the rainbows would scatter. They finally stopped playing when Collin poked his head into the tent. His face was covered in rainbows and they all burst out laughing.

“What are you guys playing?” Collin asked. “Can I play?”

“I’ll teach you later,” Anna told him. “I thought you were helping Dad.”

“I was,” Collin said. “Now he wants you to do a taste test. It’s time for dinner.”

“Food!” Reed shouted. He squeezed past Collin and ran out of the tent.

Collin moved out of the way, and Anna, Kaya, and Bailey followed him to the picnic table on the patio. Reed was already several big bites into his first slice. “This is really good, Mr. Fincher. Even if it does have red peppers on it.”

Everyone agreed: Grilled pizza was delicious. The crust was nice and crispy, and the cheese was just the right amount of gooey.

Anna was starting to think that maybe she’d been wrong about the campout, and her friends had been right.

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