The Secret Language of Birds by Lynne Kelly

Author:Lynne Kelly [Kelly, Lynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2024-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Rainy days were worse than windy days. Rain meant no going to the infirmary—all outdoor activities were canceled, so it’d be way too obvious if we went hiking in the pouring rain. Those days, I had to just wonder how the cranes were doing and what photos were sitting on the memory card. Hopefully more than just swaying plants and rain.

One morning, we were soaked after the short run from breakfast to the Oddballs cabin, with the wind blowing the rain sideways. After changing into dry clothes, I flopped onto a bed and pulled up the covers.

“Wonder what the cranes do when it’s raining like this,” I said.

“Hang out under some trees, maybe,” said Emma.

“Guess we’ll see whenever we can check the camera again,” said Ant. “Till then, we need something to distract us.”

“Maybe a game?” I said, even though nothing would take my mind off the cranes.

“Another round of truth or truth?” said Emma.

“Okay,” said Georgie. “Who’s first?”

“I have one for Ant!” said Emma. “Truth—why are you called Ant? And don’t tell us it’s because you like ants. There’s more to it than that.”

Ant sighed and said, “Fine. But it doesn’t leave this cabin.”

“Right,” said Georgie. “Oddballs promise.”

“Okay, this was in fifth grade, and we were outside for PE, playing softball. I was in center field. I can catch anything. Not many fifth graders can hit that far, but if anyone had a pop fly or a line drive…”

“We get it, you’re a star athlete,” said Emma. “Anyway…”

“Anyway,” Ant continued, “my ankle started stinging and itching. When I reached down to scratch, fire ants were crawling all over me.”

“Oh no,” said Georgie.

“Exactly. I started yelling and trying to brush them off my jeans, but there were too many. Pretty soon the other kids gathered around, and then Coach Vogel came running up. She got everyone to back away and told me, ‘Hurry, take your pants off!’ I was so desperate for the biting to stop, I almost did take them off. But then I remembered…hedgehogs.”

“Um, hedgehogs?” I said.

“On my underwear,” said Ant, looking grim. “My underwear had little hedgehogs all over them. Hedgehogs wearing Santa hats.”

We all groaned and laughed a little, feeling Ant’s embarrassment.

“Yeah,” she continued. “Do I look like someone who’d have underwear with cute little animals on them? And even worse, it was waaay past Christmas. I didn’t care when I grabbed them from the dresser that morning. ’Cause who’s going to see them, right?”

“Only your whole class,” said Emma.

“I wasn’t about to let that happen,” said Ant. “I’d rather die by ant bite.”

“What’d you do?” Georgie asked.

“Broke away from Coach Vogel and ran into the school, with every fire ant in town biting my legs. I ran straight to the nurse’s office, yelling ‘Ants!’ the whole way.”

We were all laughing by then. “I wish I could’ve seen that,” I said.

“Well, here’s a reenactment for you.” Ant stood up and ran around the cabin, flailing her arms, face contorted in pain, calling out “Ants! Ants!” between pretend sobs.

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