Free Wagon Trail by Bonnie Bryant Page A

about?”
    “Yeah, Stevie,” Carole chimed in. “I could tell you weren’t asleep, too.” She sat up in her sleeping bag.
    Stevie raised herself on one elbow. “Actually, I was thinking about Phil. About how neat it is that he and I are probably a thousand miles apart but we’re still doing exactly the same thing. You know, sleeping under the stars and everything.”
    “That is neat,” agreed Lisa.
    Then Stevie sighed again and idly snapped a button on her sleeping bag. “But I was also thinking about Gabriel.”
    “Gabriel?” Lisa asked in disbelief.
    Stevie nodded. “You know how annoying he is—howhe puts on that Mr. Superior attitude and struts around here like some movie cowboy.”
    “Yes?”
    “Well, there’s something else, too. I mean, have you ever noticed how blue his eyes get when he’s being such a jerk? And how when he’s acting his worst he grins the most mischievous grin in the world? And have you seen the way he wears his hat?”
    “Stevie!” Lisa cried. “You’ve got a crush on him!”
    “Shhh!” Stevie hissed. “Don’t talk so loud! The whole camp’s going to hear you! And besides, I don’t have a crush on him. I just think he’s kind of interesting, in a way. Don’t you think so?”
    “Sure,” said Carole. “He’s fascinating if you like an obnoxious jerk who thinks he knows everything and doesn’t mind telling you about it.”
    “And if you like someone who assumes you’re the dumbest person in the world before you’ve even said a word,” Lisa added.
    “Oh, I don’t think he’s that bad.” Stevie turned and vigorously fluffed her pillow.
    Lisa shook her head. “Look. If we’re sitting here in the middle of the night having a conversation about whether or not Gabriel is cute, then we definitely didn’t get enough sleep last night! We’re so tired, we’re probably not thinking straight, and five-thirty in the morning is going to be here in about five minutes.”
    “She’s right.” Carole flopped back down in her sleeping bag. “I’m going to sleep. Stevie, you’ll have to figure out Gabriel’s cuteness quotient all by yourself.”
    “Okay, okay,” Stevie said as her friends rolled over and went to sleep. She snuggled down in her own sleeping bag and closed her eyes, but her mind spun with thoughts of Phil and Gabriel.
Okay
, she told herself,
so you find that a basically obnoxious boy has some attractive features. So what? It doesn’t mean you have some big-deal crush on him. You just realize that jerks can have nice qualities, too.
She looked over at Carole and Lisa.
You certainly don’t have to make excuses to your friends for that. But
—she frowned as she looked at Carole—
didn’t Carole say that absence would make my heart grow fonder? If my heart’s growing fonder of Phil, then why are my eyes suddenly starting to wander? And what if Phil’s eyes are wandering just like mine? What if a thousand miles away there’s some cute
Ms. Know-It-All on his rafting trip? Or maybe she isn’t Ms. Know-It-All. Maybe she’s Ms. Cuter-and-Smarter-Than-Me. Maybe she’s even a better rider!
Stevie sat up straight in her sleeping bag, her heart thudding.
What if Phil’s a thousand miles away falling in love with someone else?
    For a long time she stared at the dim orange glow of the banked campfire, almost wishing she’d canceled this trip and gone rafting with Phil and his family. Then at least if their hearts hadn’t grown fonder, their eyescould only have wandered toward each other. Now there was probably some other wonderful, fabulous girl Phil had fallen for.
Oh, well.
She sighed as she once again flopped down in her sleeping bag. There was nothing she could do about Phil and his gorgeous new girlfriend that night. That night the only thing she could do was sleep, and that didn’t sound like a half-bad idea.

I T SEEMED AS IF Stevie had just closed her eyes when the clang of the triangle jarred her awake. For a moment she lay in her sleeping