Chapter 13
“Hey, guys!” Tiff bounded into the woodshed. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Whatcha all doing in here?”
Finley scrambled up from a log. “We were just, uh…”
“Talking,” Beth said quickly. “About, um, stuff.”
“Incredibly idiotic stuff.” Ignatius folded his arms, scowling at the rest of the group. “Believe me, Tiff, you’re better off not knowing. I wish I didn’t.”
Tiff was far more interested in sharing her own news. She brandished a notebook at the group, beaming. “Guess what? I’m writing a new column for the camp newspaper! It’s gonna be called True Tales of Terror.”
The other kids exchanged glances.
“That’s… nice?” Finley said, in a way that indicated distinct doubts.
“I think it sounds awesome,” Archie said. “Way better than all the stupid junk they usually print in that thing.”
“You’re just still mad the newspaper club rejected your dumb poem about bears,” Estelle muttered. “I told you it didn’t scan.”
“It wasn’t a poem, it was an ode,” Archie retorted. “And anyway, ‘beat all the rest’ does too rhyme with ‘completely the best.’”
“Does Leonie know you’re doing this?” Beth asked Tiff.
Tiff nodded eagerly. “It was her idea, actually. She said that since I like horror stories so much, I should go around and interview people about spooky stuff they’ve seen at camp. So of course I thought of you guys straight away! You can be my first story!”
“Oh, please,” Ignatius said, an evil grin spreading across his face, “please interview them. At length. Rigorously.”
“That’s why I’m here!” Tiff said as Estelle kicked Ig in the ankle. “Who wants to start? Finley, how about you?”
Finley looked like he’d rather start running. “Why are you asking me?”
“Because I know you’ve seen something.” Tiff opened her notebook. “Whenever I talk about ghosts, you go all shifty and change the subject.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Finley said. “By the way, have you seen Rufus anywhere?”
“See! You’re doing it right now!” Tiff poked him with her pen. “Come on, spill the beans.”
Finley backed away. “I’m sorry, but I really can’t help you.”
Tiff gave him a narrow-eyed look before turning to the back page of her notebook. “Okay. In that case, I’ll put you down on my special list. Shan said I should make a note of any campers who didn’t want to talk to me.”
“Not to be rude, but we’re kind of in the middle of something here,” Estelle said, not-so-subtly shooing Tiff out again. “Why don’t you go question some of the older campers? We’ll see you later.”
Finley sighed, watching Tiff trot off. “I still don’t like excluding her and Spencer. It’s not right, keeping secrets from our pack mates.”
“We can’t tell them what we’re doing,” Beth said firmly. “Tiff and Spencer are new to camp. They don’t care about Leonie the way we do.”
“You mean, like obsessive stalkers?” Ignatius muttered.
Beth glared at him. “I mean, we can’t trust them to keep our secret. If we let them in on the plan, we’ll have to tell them that we lied about seeing a ghost.”
“We can’t risk them blabbing to the grown-ups,” Estelle agreed. “And anyway, we’re not excluding Spencer. It’s not like he wants to hang out with us.”
Ignatius snorted. “Of course he does.”
“What do you mean?” Archie asked. “He barely talks to anyone. I’ve asked him to play shift tag with us loads of times, but he always says he’d rather read his book. He obviously doesn’t even want to be at camp.”
“No, he’s just so scared of his own animal, he thinks it’s safer to push everyone else away.
” Ignatius surveyed the ring of blank faces.
“Oh, for the love of gold. Am I the only person who’s bothered to exchange more than two sentences with the poor saps who’ve been stuck with us this summer?
I’m supposed to be the arrogant, unlikeable one. ”
“We’re supposed to be talking about Shan, not Spencer,” Estelle said. “What are we going to do about him?”
“We can’t keep trying to get his sunglasses,” Beth said. “Not now Leonie’s caught on. We’ll get in trouble.”
“Perhaps Leonie will figure out the truth without our help?” Finley said hopefully. “I mean, he’s always finding things to do for her. Surely she has to catch on sooner or later.”
“It might be a lot later,” Archie pointed out. “Grown-ups can be really stupid.”
“Yeah, we’re gonna have to make sure he stays at camp.” Estelle tapped a finger against her chin thoughtfully. “So, Shan has Tiff collecting ghost stories, huh?”
“Oh, no.” Ignatius buried his face in his hands. “Please, please tell me you aren’t planning to put a sheet on your head and hang around other campers’ cabins going wooooo.”
Estelle grinned like a shark. “Not exactly.”