Church Camp Chaos (3 page)

EJ

“EJ! Look!” Macy waved her arms excitedly from behind a bench on the Spooner Elementary School playground. “It’s like some kind of miracle!”

“What is it, Mace?” EJ crouched down next to her best friend, and peered at the “miracle”—a tiny, crystal-clear butterfly chrysalis hanging from one of the bench’s wooden slats. EJ’s eyes widened in amazement as she realized she was looking at the black-and-orange wings of a monarch butterfly.

“It’s trying to come out,” Macy whispered. “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?”

EJ held her breath as the chrysalis quivered and the bottom split open. A few seconds later, the butterfly began to emerge, sliding out a fraction of an inch while its tiny black legs scrambled furiously to escape its see-through prison.

After about a minute, the entire butterfly was out and clinging to the empty shell of the chrysalis as it unfolded its brand-new wings and took a couple of tentative trial flaps.

“That. Was. Awesome,” Macy said. “Think of it, EJ! That little guy just completely changed. A whole new identity!”

“Like a superhero—and it can even fly!” EJ said, grinning. “I bet he’s not sorry to say good-bye to his lame caterpillar body.”

“What are you two dorks doing back there?” CoraLee perched high on her knees on the bench and sneered down at them.

EJ opened her mouth to tell CoraLee to buzz off, but the almost-always-nice Macy started to speak first.

“We found a butterfly that just came out of its chrysalis—come look, CoraLee!” Macy scooted over to make room for CoraLee. EJ decided she wouldn’t budge an inch.

“Gross!” CoraLee scrunched her nose in disgust and cupped her hands around her mouth, shouting, “MS. PICKERINGTON, EJ IS OVER HERE PLAYING WITH BUGS!”

“CoraLee, what is your
problem
?” EJ jumped to her feet and rounded the bench, coming at CoraLee with gritted teeth and fists at her sides. “We’re not hurting anyone or anything!”

CoraLee put her hands on her hips, nose in the air. “Ms. P. thinks proper young ladies shouldn’t play with bugs,
Emma Jean
.”

Ms. Pickerington, wearing a sun visor on her head and a whistle around her neck for field day, marched up to the girls in a huff. “CoraLee, what’s all the shouting about? It’s time for fourth grade to head down to the soccer field for tug-of-war and relay races.”

“EJ is playing with bugs.” CoraLee used her best tattletale voice and aimed her pointer finger right at EJ’s nose, so close that EJ’s eyes crossed a little bit.

“Ms. P, ma’am, we aren’t playing with bugs.” Macy stepped from behind the bench, her hands behind her back. “We were watching a butterfly come out of its chrysalis. See?” Macy revealed her left hand, palm up, where the small butterfly remained for a second before flapping its wings to take off on its first wobbly flight.

“Oh, how lovely.” Ms. P’s breath caught in her throat as she watched the delicate creature flit toward the monkey bars.

A few moments later, Ms. P snapped out of her trance and turned back to the girls. EJ braced herself for the scolding she was sure was about to come out of her teacher’s mouth.

“CoraLee, it would do you well to mind your own business, dear,” Ms. P said, pursing her lips. “In other words, I think you should try to be less of a tattletale.”

“What? I mean, are you serious?” CoraLee looked shocked. But EJ looked even more shocked, her mouth hanging open, glancing back and forth between her teacher and classmate.

“Quite serious,” Ms. P said. “Now, CoraLee, please go to the soccer field with the rest of the fourth graders. We’ll be there shortly.”

Speechless, CoraLee shot one more spiteful look at EJ before stomping toward the rec field, cross-armed and red-faced.

“You know, EJ, I’m proud of you,” Ms. P said.

“Proud of me?” EJ looked confused. “For playing with bugs?”

“No, no.” A smile tugged at the corners of Ms. P’s mouth. “I’m proud of you, because the Emma Jean Payne I met at the beginning of fourth grade was too busy imagining herself doing a space walk on top of the monkey bars to see the miracles going on around her every day—like the transformation of that butterfly.”

“Well, to be honest, Ms. P,” EJ said, jabbing her thumb toward Macy. “It wasn’t me who found it. It was Macy.”

“Then good for you for picking your friends wisely,” Ms. P said. “And Macy, thanks for keeping EJ’s feet on the ground. I can tell you two balance each other out.”

EJ and Macy smiled at each other. Even though Macy was in a different fourth-grade class, she’d heard the stories (mostly from EJ) about how hard it was to stay on Ms. P’s good side.

“Okay, girls, let’s get down to the soccer field so our class can beat your class in the fourth-grade tug-of-war, Macy,” Ms. P said with an uncharacteristic twinkle in her eye.

“You’re on, Ms. P!” Macy said.

Twenty minutes later, after Ms. P’s class had won the tug-of-war tournament, the fourth graders were preparing to start a three-legged race.

EJ tugged on the rope that tied one of Macy’s and EJ’s knees together.

“Is it supposed to be this tight?” EJ asked.

“It needs to be snug like that so we can run like we’re one person,” Macy said, looking around at their competition. “We’re lucky we’re so close to being the same height.” She nodded toward a handful of kids practicing on the sidelines. “CoraLee and Sara are going to have a tough time.”

Sara Powers was a girl in EJ’s class who had started an impressive growth spurt the summer before fourth grade and now was at least a foot taller than anyone their age—boy or girl. It was pretty much a guarantee that Sara would be the first person chosen for most teams. She could hurl a dodge ball with major league pitching speed and shoot a basketball over the outstretched arms of any opponent. CoraLee had quickly snatched Sara up as her three-legged race partner, figuring Sara was such a good athlete that they’d be sure to win. But as EJ watched the two girls practice for the three-legged race, she thought they looked more like a newborn giraffe trying to take its first awkward steps than two girls tied together at the knees.

“Put your arm around my shoulder—like this.” Macy took EJ’s left arm and draped it around her own shoulder. “And I’ll put my right arm over your shoulder. That’ll help us stay together even more.”

“How do you know so much about three-legged races?” EJ asked. “Is this a secret gymnastics event I’ve never seen at one of your competitions?” Macy had taken gymnastic lessons since she was three and was really good. EJ had taken six weeks of lessons when she was three until the teacher suggested to Mom that EJ should try doing something that didn’t require balance or coordination.

Macy laughed. “No, we don’t do three-legged races, but one time we did a team-building exercise where we tied our ankles to someone else’s, and we all had to get through an obstacle course. We weren’t quite as graceful that day as you’d expect a team of gymnasts to be, that’s for sure.”

“Like a gymnast centipede—all tied together in a line?” EJ asked, imagining a multilegged gymnast trying to walk across a balance beam.

“Exactly,” Macy said. “Compared to that, this race will be a piece of cake.”

Macy and EJ practiced walking together, first slowly as Macy called out, “Out, in, out, in!” taking steps with their outside legs and then inside legs at the same time. Pretty soon they were able to start jogging, and then they even sprinted a few steps. The pair ended their practice at the starting line just as Ms. P blew her whistle and told everyone to take their marks.

There were about a dozen teams lined up for the race, everyone looking mildly uncomfortable at being tied to someone else. CoraLee and Sara were directly to their right, the girls arguing over how to call out instructions to each other during the race.

“It needs to be ‘right, left,’ ” CoraLee insisted. “For crying out loud, Sara! Just follow me and let me do it!”

“CoraLee.” Sara’s voice sounded strained, like she was trying her best to be patient with her partner. “Your
right
leg is tied to my
left
leg, so we need to move our
opposite
legs at the same time or we will end up in a heap on the ground.”

EJ tried to hide a grin and focused back on Macy and the race.

“We got this, Mace,” EJ said, holding up her palm toward her best friend.

“We got this, EJ,” Macy replied, slapping EJ’s hand in a high five.

“Ready?” Ms. P called out. “Steady! Go!”

At the sound of Ms. P’s whistle, everyone bolted forward—five of the teams falling flat on their faces. For a split second, the arms and legs flailing around EJ made her forget which leg to move first, but she felt Macy’s confident step tug on her inside leg, and she heard Macy’s clear voice shout, “In! Out! In! Out!” and they took off, quickly falling in step with each other.

EJ saw CoraLee and Sara out of the corner of her eye—Sara picking up CoraLee by the waist after they had fallen to the ground with their first step.

“Arrrgggghhh!” CoraLee let out a frustrated part-scream-part-grunt that sounded to EJ like the sound a baby giraffe might make….

The baby giraffe takes another loping step, finally finding its footing, and lurches forward into an awkward run. Looking around frantically, the gangly creature searches for its mother, but she is nowhere to be found
.

“Aww, what a cute little giraffe,” EJ said dreamily, looking over her shoulder at CoraLee and Sara. “But where’d the mom go?”

“Come on—they’re gaining on us!” Macy said, shaking EJ by the shoulder. “Stay with me, EJ!”

EJ blinked her eyes rapidly to try to keep the daydream from taking over.
Focus, EJ—Macy’s counting on you!
she told herself.

“Out! In! Out! In!” EJ fell in step with Macy, and they started gaining speed. Twenty yards from the finish line … fifteen yards …

EJ took a quick peek to her right and left and didn’t see any of the other teams in her line of vision. Were they really going to win the race this easily?

A second later, CoraLee and Sara came out of nowhere and caught up to Macy and EJ. EJ couldn’t imagine that they had so quickly figured out how to work together as a team, but then she saw how it happened: Sara’s arms were around CoraLee’s waist, and the taller girl was literally
carrying
her partner to the finish line.

EJ had to admit Sara’s athletic ability was pretty impressive right now.

“Hey, no fair!” EJ shouted, still keeping in step with Macy. “That’s cheating!”

“Says who?” CoraLee hissed at EJ. “Get outta the way, EJ Payne-in-my-neck!” CoraLee stuck her foot out just enough to trip EJ’s outside leg.

EJ put her free hand out just in time to catch herself from taking a face plant in the grass. In the same moment, she saw that CoraLee’s foot had gotten tangled up with Sara’s foot and they were falling forward, too.

EJ lifted her head and saw that the finish line was just a few feet ahead of them.

“Macy! Tuck and roll!” she shouted.

With the skill of a pro gymnast, Macy dropped her shoulder toward EJ and propelled herself forward in a burst of speed and power that rolled EJ forward as well. Time seemed to stand still for a moment.

“EJ and Macy—winners!” Ms. P shouted, tweeting her whistle.

Flat on their backs, EJ and Macy looked up at the sky, trying to catch their breath.

“Mace?”

“Yeah?”

“I never thought I’d say this,” EJ said, rising up on her elbows. “But that finish was better than anything even my imagination could’ve come up with.”