Megabat Is a Fraidybat Page 4

  “All right,” Fiona said from the front of the dining hall. “Very funny. Which one of you snuck away from the fire last night and tie-dyed the staff uniforms?”

  Nobody would admit to it. Vijay eyed his campers suspiciously. “You know,” he said, “if you prank the counselors, we’ll get you back.”

  Daniel slipped a strawberry to Megabat, who was hiding under his napkin. “Are you sure you don’t know anything about this?” he whispered.

  “Mine was explorationing caves,” Megabat said innocently. He mashed the berry in his mouth while crossing his blue- and purple-tinged wingtips behind his back to cancel out the lie. After all, it wasn’t his fault. How could he have known that the white laundry he’d borrowed belonged to the grown-ups or that Babybat would be so enthusiastic about arts and crafts?

  * * *

  It was camp Olympics day. So right after breakfast, the kids took part in a beanbag toss, three-legged race and egg-on-a-spoon challenge. Megabat was boiling hot inside Daniel’s pocket, and the campers were all sweating in the sun. Everyone was relieved—at first—when Vijay brought out paper cups and a big pitcher of icy-cold orange drink.

  “Mmmmmmm. Juice of the orange! This will be most roofreshing,” Megabat said. Daniel offered him the straw, only—“Pah! Dust-gusting!” No sooner had he sipped it than he was spitting the liquid all over Daniel’s shirt, and he wasn’t the only one who didn’t like it.

  “Ugh. That’s NOT orangeade,” a girl in a red shirt yelled.

  “Gross!” a boy with a baseball cap whimpered. “Ew. Get it out of my mouth!”

  “What IS this?”

  Daniel and the other boys from Cabin 8 were spitting onto the grass when they heard the sound of laughter. The counselors were doubled over, gasping for air—especially Vijay. “Gotcha!” he said with a huge smile. “We switched the orange drink mix with cheese powder.”

  “If you guys could see your faces right now,” Fiona cackled.

  * * *

  “Okay, now it’s on!” Irwin announced later that afternoon. It was raining, and the kids were gathered in the games room doing puzzles and playing board games. “I can still taste that cheese juice.”

  So could Megabat. Inside Daniel’s pocket, he was sucking on a grape from lunch, but it wasn’t helping much.

  “We’ve got to think of something epic to get them back,” Gus agreed as he threw the dice and moved his piece up a ladder in the game he was playing.

  “We could put plastic wrap over the toilet seats?” a girl named Tammy suggested.

  “Nah. Too messy,” Rusty pointed out. “Plus, what if a camper needs to go?”

  “My dad put underpants up the flagpole when he went here,” Daniel offered, as he worked away at a puzzle.

  “A classic,” Irwin conceded, “but we need something even bigger.”

  By campfire-time, the kids were no closer to deciding on a prank to pull, and Megabat was so preoccupied worrying about the scary forest and haunted bat cave that he didn’t help much.

  “Has yours ever done a jigsaw puzzle?” he asked when Babybat showed up again that night and tried to tug him into the spooky woods. “Mine knows of a most dangerous one.”

  That got her attention.

  He took her to the games room and held up the box. “It’s being a crunchodile!”

  Babybat examined the sharp-toothed, bumpy-skinned animal in the picture. She even helped sort edge pieces for a while, but she must have grown bored and decided to go exploring because—just as Megabat was fitting together pieces to make a ghastly, glassy crunchodile eye—

  CRASH!

  Boxes of puzzles began flying off the shelves.

  “Babybat!” he yelled. But she was too busy lying in the giant pile of mixed-up pieces, flapping her wings, to answer.

  * * *

  “Not cool, guys!” Vijay said at breakfast the next morning. “Harmless pranks are one thing, but whoever dumped out twenty-five one-thousand-piece puzzles in the games room last night went too far. We’ll never be able to sort them out!”

  “Was that you guys?” One of the girls from Cabin 12 was leaning across the breakfast table.

  “Nope,” Irwin answered. “You?”

  Nobody seemed to know who was responsible—except, of course, for Megabat—but he wasn’t about to get himself or Babybat in trouble.

  Thankfully, he had an idea for a nice quiet activity for that night that couldn’t possibly go wrong.

  “Ours will be crafting fun and fancy friendship bracelets!” he announced when Babybat showed up to take him exploring. She whined and motioned to the forest with her head, but Megabat held firm. He’d watched kids make bracelets at the picnic tables that day during free time. It looked easy—not to mention safe!

  “Yours will be loving it,” he promised. “Seeing all the colorful strings?”

  Babybat did admire the bright shades Megabat had gathered. They found a picnic table and set to work.

  “Firsting of all, ours must choosing colors.”

  Babybat liked red, blue and purple.

  “Next, ours must measuring the strings.” Using their mouths, they unwound the colors and stretched them out. “Stopping! That’s being enough!” But Babybat had already unwound her spools right to the ends and moved on to the next step. “Undoubtedly, yours must tying knots now,” Megabat said, “but not quites like that!”

  Babybat’s strings weren’t going neatly one under the other to form tidy rows. Instead, she was flying every which way, hooking them on branches, tangling them around rocks and stringing them between buildings like party decorations.

  Megabat buried his head in his wings and sighed.

  He did have to admit it looked pretty though…especially in the morning light the next day when the counselors found it.

  “Very funny, guys!” Vijay said to the campers, who were admiring the decorations and were every bit as puzzled as the counselors were. “Now clean it up.”

  It was hard work untangling the strings—especially in the high places—and by the time they were done that and the day’s activities of sailing, orienteering and basket weaving, everyone was tired…especially Megabat. Keeping up with camp fun plus his nights with Babybat was wearing him out. In fact, he didn’t have the energy to come up with a better plan when Babybat showed up wanting to go flying again.

  “Perhapsing ours could be playing naptime.” He flopped down on the bunk he shared with Daniel.

  Tut-tut-tut. Eeeeek. Eeeeeek.

  Babybat motioned out the window as she nattered at him.

  “Or hide-and-goes-seeks. Mine will be hiding first.” He pulled a corner of Daniel’s sleeping bag over his head and closed his eyes, but Babybat tugged it off with her teeth and screeched at him.

  It was clear that her patience was used up. They’d done what Megabat wanted to do three nights in a row. Now it was her turn to choose. And her choice was the scary forest and the deep, dark cave.

  “Mine’s too nappy for flying tonight,” he told her, finally. “Going by yours-self.”

  First Babybat pouted. Then she threw a tiny tantrum complete with hissing and snarling. But eventually she left, letting the door slam behind her. Megabat yawned and closed his eyes. He was nearly asleep, in fact, when the voices on the front porch roused him.

  “I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they brush their teeth tonight.”

  Megabat flapped up to the window and spied out. It was Vijay and Fiona. Vijay was holding a big box that said SALT on it.

  “The old salty toothbrush prank never hurt anyone,” she said. “And they’ve got it coming after all the pranks they’ve pulled this week. Although, I’ve got to admit, seeing Cook Martina in that rainbow hat every day is pretty funny.”

  “Hey! Shhhh!” Vijay said. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Fiona asked
.

  “That rustling. I think it’s coming from my cabin roof. I’ve been hearing scratching up there all week. Especially in the mornings. And look!” Vijay pointed to the narrow gap in the cabin’s peaked roof.

  “A bat!”

  Both counselors ducked as Babybat squeezed out of the gap, streaked across the sky and disappeared into the forest.

  “Uh-oh,” Fiona said. “Where there’s one roosting, there are usually more. We’d better tell the custodian to set a trap.”

  Megabat gasped. A trap!

  “I’ll check if he can come do it right away while the kids are still at the campfire,” Vijay said.

  Megabat hung in a shadowy corner while the two counselors came in and gleefully salted the kids’ toothbrushes, but as soon as they’d gone, he flew down.

  “Mine must saving the day,” he said to himself. “Before Babybat and Batzilla fallings into the trap.”

  Except, before he’d taken a single step toward the door, he realized the trouble with that plan. To warn Babybat and Batzilla, he’d have to go through the deep, dark forest to the haunted cave—and he’d have to do it all alone!

  THE FEARSOME FOREST

  Passing through the spooky forest was going to be tricky, but there had to be a way.

  “What would Diamond Foot be doing?” Megabat asked himself.

  It was easy enough to find out. He flapped up to Irwin’s bunk and opened the book. There was his hero, boldly battling the five-headed lizard with bad breath…but, what was that on his face?

  “Aha!” Megabat said. “His is wearing a mask!” Megabat searched Daniel’s suitcase, hoping he’d packed one, but no. He’d have to improvise. He gnawed two eye holes in a tube sock and pulled it over his head.

  “What’s else? Aha! His is having tools.”

  Diamond Foot didn’t always rely on just his mighty, glittering foot. He also had a ray gun that went pshew-pshew and shot sonic stun beams at the lizard. Megabat looked high and low, but there wasn’t a single sonic stun gun in Cabin 8.

  “Aha!” There was a grape juice box in the special care package Talia, Birdgirl and Priscilla had given them. If he stuck the straw in, he could squeeze it at enemies. “Standing back.” He wrapped his wings around the juice box and practiced his tough-bat act. “Or mine will juice yours. And juice of the grape makings big, bad stains!” He knew because he’d spilled it on the couch once. Daniel’s mother had not been happy.

  Now he was ready. Only…Megabat paused near the door. He still didn’t feel brave. Something must be missing.

  He went back to study the book and smacked himself in the forehead. It was obvious! Sparkle lines were emanating from Diamond Foot’s magnificent boot. He was aglow with bravery. Well, Megabat could glow too.

  He decorated his wings with the glow-in-the-dark eyeball stickers from the care package, then, by the light of the full moon, he balanced the juice box on his back and took off into the shadowy woods.

  “Mine’s coming, Babybat!” he proclaimed. He flapped his wings with all his might, but the heavy juice box made it hard to fly straight.

  “Mine will warn yours of the evil plot to trap the batses!”

  It was also difficult to see out the holes in the sock. He veered around a big evergreen, just managing to miss the trunk.

  “Mine will saving yours and Batzilla from capturization!”

  He plummeted low, almost to the ground under the weight of the juice box, then flapped harder than ever trying to get some lift.

  “Mine will be so muchly brave that—AH!” Megabat cried.

  Something had grabbed him! He reached for his juice box to spray his way free but, as he twisted, it rolled off his back and fell to the forest floor with a thud. Still the grabby beast clutched him, yanking the sock mask right off his head.

  “Ahhhhhhhhh!” Megabat screamed when he found himself falling. “Oof.” He landed in a bed of pine needles and checked himself all over. He seemed to be all okay.

  Only…“Wh-wh-what’s is that being?”

  Straight ahead, there was the snapping of twigs. A shadow moved in the darkness.

  He looked right: more shadows.

  He looked left: shadows, shadows and more shadows!

  They surrounded him, circling.

  “Helping MINE!” Megabat hollered. “PEEEEEEEEZE! Helping mine!”

  He wrapped his wings around himself and rocked back and forth. Long minutes seemed to pass, although they might have been only seconds.

  “Megabat? Is that you?”

  He blinked into the beam of a flashlight and saw the gleam of silvery braces. Irwin! And, right behind him, Daniel!

  Megabat swooped toward his friend and buried his face in Daniel’s sweatshirt. “Mine was so ascared.”

  “It’s okay.” Daniel stroked his fur. “I’m here now. We were on our way back to the cabin to get a drink of water and we heard you call for help. What happened?”

  It took a moment for Megabat to calm down enough to explain. “There was being a terrible grabby beast,” he said, taking shuddery breaths. “It did pull mine’s sock mask away! Mine’s juice box ray gun did fall. And m-m-m-most spooky shadowy creatures circled arounds and arounds.”

  Irwin shone his flashlight in a wide arc. “You mean, these shadowy creatures?” Megabat unglued his face from Daniel’s shirt to look. Crouched in the darkness was a family of bunny rabbits. They froze in the beam of light. Their eyes flashed red, then they turned tail and hopped away.

  Irwin laughed. “I think you landed in a rabbit den.”

  Just bunnies?

  “And maybe this was the grabby beast?” Daniel suggested. He unhooked the tube sock from a tree branch where it was snagged.

  Just a branch?

  “What were you doing out here all alone, anyway?” Daniel asked. “Where’s Babybat?”

  “Hers flyinged to the caves to find hers’s mummy,” Megabat explained.

  He told all about the bat trap the custodian was going to set.

  “Megabat knew mine had to warning theirs!” he proclaimed. Then he added sadly, “Only mine was too afeared.”

  “But…you’ve been exploring the forest and caves every night since we got here,” Daniel pointed out.

  Megabat had to admit that he hadn’t been. Not even once. And then he had to tell Daniel and Irwin who’d really played the pranks—and how they’d all begun because Megabat was avoiding the spooky woods and creepy cave and trying to keep Babybat busy in safer places.

  “Only theys wasn’t pranks!” he said in his defense. “Babybat is just most busy and getsings into everythings!”

  “Gee.” Daniel grinned. He peeled a glow-in-the-dark eyeball sticker off Megabat’s wing. “I wonder what it’s like to have a friend like that?”

  Megabat held up his wings to show the remaining stickers. He motioned to the chewed tube sock that Daniel had stuffed in his pocket, then the grape juice box that had fallen to the ground. “Mine prepared mineself in all the outfittings of bravery. But it was none use. Mine’s just a fraidy-bat.” He hung his head in shame. “A scaredy, little fraidy-bat.”

  “No, you’re not, Megabat,” Irwin said kindly, but Megabat didn’t believe him.

  “Yours can jumping off the dock and climbing to the tippiest top of the ropes course,” Megabat pointed out. “Yours knows nonething about fraidy-bats.”

  It was Daniel who managed to make Megabat feel a little better by telling the truth. “Okay. So maybe you are a little bit of a fraidy-bat. But so what? What’s wrong with that?”

  “Fraidy-bats isn’t brave like Diamond Foot,” Megabat pointed out. “Or twinkle-toothed and fear-free like Irwin.”

  “I wish!” Irwin said. “Braces don’t make you brave. And neither do costumes or ray guns.” He picked up the juice box. “Plus, nobody in real life is like Diamond Foot. ‘A brillian
t hero has zero fear-o.’ ” He scoffed at Diamond Foot’s catchphrase. “Sounds cool, but seriously? Everyone’s afraid of something.”

  “Even yours?” Megabat asked.

  “Um. Yeah,” Irwin said, like it was obvious. “For example, I’d never have had the guts to lick a caterpillar.” He grimaced. “Also, just so you know, I only started doing cannonballs last year…and that’s the highest I’ve ever been on the ropes course. I was scared the first time I came here too, but this is my third year. And I’m sorry I laughed at you just now. If I didn’t have my flashlight, I’d have been freaked out by those bunny rabbits too.”

  Just then, there was a snapping of twigs. Both the boys and the bat jumped, then Irwin redirected his flashlight.

  “See?” He’d illuminated a deer in a thicket of trees. It nodded its graceful head, as if to say hello, then bounded off into the night. “Once you shine a light on scary stuff and kind of get to know it, it’s usually not so bad anymore.”

  “Huh.” Megabat watched the deer’s spotted bum leap away. He was starting to understand. “Nicely to meet yours, deer!” he called out.

  After all, getting to know things had worked for Daniel. Daniel had been scared of Lake PieCrust, but only until he dipped his toes in and saw there were no leeches. And he’d been worried about the camp food, but only until he’d tasted the garlic bread. In fact, even bugs had started to seem a little bit interesting to Daniel once he’d met Whiffy.

  The only problem was…the idea of taking those first few steps into the dark woods was making Megabat’s tummy do flips and flops.