Disruption by Steven Whibley Page A

was Day One, and I’d been beaten up twice and very nearly been blown up. I rubbed the side of my chest, wincing at the pain. Now I was hiding in the woods contemplating ditching this place. On the one hand, I felt like such a baby, but on the other, no one in their right mind would stay at a camp like this. It was crazy!
    Even as I contemplated my escape, I knew I couldn’t do it. Not because I was afraid of getting caught, or afraid of my father’s disappointment when I got home. No, after watching the violent mayhem that had just swept across the grounds, I simply had to know what was going on. I had to.
    I’m not sure how long I stayed there, huddled among the trees, but I didn’t leave until it was dark. I stopped at the showers in my section of the camp and cleaned myself up. A thin line of black was forming under my right eye, and I cursed the fact that Chase would see it in the morning and have another reason to laugh at me. The only good thing was that my nose wasn’t broken. I’d thought for sure that girl had cracked it, but it was still straight and wasn’t really that tender to the touch. Also, there was a good chance several other campers would be as beat up as I was.
    I snuck back to the cabin and eased my way through the door. Some moonlight trickled in through the windows, but not enough to see much more than a few feet in front of me. The springs of several beds creaked when I closed the door, and I knew my teammates were awake.
    “Where were you?” Rylee whispered through the darkness.
    I groaned. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    There was a click , and a flashlight beam blinded me. “Get that out of my face,” I snapped.
    The beam dropped to my feet, and Juno whispered, “We thought one of the other teams had you.”
    “Well, thanks for coming after me,” I said. Juno kept the beam of light just in front of my feet, making it very easy to find my bed.
    “We looked for you,” Rylee said, no longer whispering. “After questioning a few campers from other teams, we realized you were probably just biding your time.”
    “Is it true you beat a girl with your shoe?” Yaakov asked.
    “That’s harsh by even my standards,” Angie said. I could hear the smile in her voice.
    I groaned again. “No, it’s not true.” I rummaged for another clean shirt from my bin and changed into it. “It was an accident.”
    “Well, everyone thinks you’re bat crazy,” Angie said. “And that’s a quality I like in a team captain. To think I had you pegged as a real novice.” She laughed. “Then you go and pull that genius move. I think you must be one of the best actors in this place.”
    “Yeah, yeah,” I said, “Real—” I stopped. Had she just given me a compliment?
    “It was risky,” Rylee said. “I mean, if they’d caught you, you could’ve been really hurt.”
    “I was really hurt,” I said.
    “Why didn’t you bring us along?” Juno asked.
    “Along where?” I asked. “What exactly do you guys think I did?”
    “It’s all over camp, Captain,” Angie said. “You caused one of the biggest fights of any camp in recent history. You put at least a dozen members of each team out of commission. Team Squirrel got the worst of it. Apparently fifteen of their campers got beat up.”
    I dropped into bed and put my hands behind my head. “Good. They deserved it.” They had, and I didn’t mind saying so. For a moment, my injuries hurt just a little less.
    “You’re inspiring confidence,” Amara said. “It’s only the first day, and you have the respect of all the campers in Team Grizzly. You probably have the respect of most of the other teams too.”
    I doubted that. Not once word got out about how I’d used puke to escape Chase’s team. “I’m tired,” I said after a brief pause. And confused , I thought, but didn’t say that. “I just want to sleep.”
    I lay awake in bed for a long time thinking about things, trying to work things out. Clearly the path that