The bear went cross-eyed for a moment, then Archie was back. “Can we go into the woods yet? I wanna shift!”
“You literally just shifted,” Beth said with distinct disapproval.
Archie wrinkled his nose at her. “I meanproperly. I wanna run around and climb trees and smell things!”
“We’ll go as soon as we can.” Honey reached for a distraction. “How about we play a game, so we can get to know each other? Does anyone know ‘Two Truths and a Lie?’”
Most of the kids looked blank, but Beth’s hand shot up. At Honey’s encouraging nod, the girl cleared her throat, sitting up poker-straight.
“I’ll go through the rules,” Beth said to her fellow campers, sounding more like she was preparing to give a university lecture than explain a fun party game. “We each take it in turns to say three things about ourselves. Two of them have to be true, and one of them has to be a lie. Everyone has to guess which statement is the false one. The game is to try to choose unlikely truths and plausible lies, so that people guess wrong.”
“So… we all guess together?” Claire asked, sounding a little uncertain. “Or do we guess in secret, so that we can keep score?”
“What does the winner get?” Archie asked.
“We’ll just play for fun,” Honey said, to forestallthatpotential car crash. “Who wants to go first?”
“ME!” Archie shouted, just beating Estelle’s upthrust hand. Without waiting to be invited, he jumped to his feet. “I’m Archie and I’m a BEAR!”
“We know,” the other children chorused with varying degrees of exasperation.
Beth looked aggravated. “You weren’t paying attention to my explanationat all.”
Honey hid a smile. “That was a good idea to start with your name, Archie, since we’re all still trying to learn who everyone is. Let’s all do that this round. But the game is ‘Two Truths and a Lie’, remember? Try to think of things about yourself which the rest of us will find unusual or surprising, so that it’s harder for us to figure out which one isn’t true.”
“Ummm…” Archie scratched the back of his neck. “Well, I’m the only bear in my family, ‘cause my mom and sister aren’t even shifters. And I once accidentally shifted at school and had to go hide in a closet, only it turned out to be the teachers’ break room. And, aaaaaaand… one time I was out in the woods and I ran into this GIANT mean grizzly—”
“Don’t even bother to finish that,” Estelle said, rolling her eyes. “You’re supposed to make the lie believable.”
Archie looked around the table, as though hoping for a dissenting opinion. Finding none, he plopped down again, pouting.
“Me next,” Estelle announced. She bounced to her feet. “My name is Estelle, I can beat any of you at arm-wrestling, I once ate a whole chocolate cake and I didn’t even feel sick, and I’m a unicorn.”
“Now you’re the one playing it wrong,” Archie complained. “It’s meant to betwotruths andonelie, not the other way round.”
“I did only tell one lie,” Estelle said indignantly. She thumped her elbow onto the table, spreading her fingers. “I am the arm-wrestling champion. I can totally whip any of you. Come over here and I’ll prove it.”
“Nobody take her up on that,” Finley advised.
Archie folded his arms, glaring at Estelle. “First of all, you totally couldn’t, because I’m a bear and everyone knows bears are the strongest. And second, there’s no such thing as unicorns.”
“Ha! Shows what you know.” Estelle’s whole body swelled with pride. “There’s a whole herd of unicorns living right here on this mountain. Though they’re just regular unicorns, not shifters like my family. Me and my dad and my grandad are the only unicorn shifters in the whole entire world, as far as anyone knows. So there.”
It was a good thing the kids were focused on each other, because Honey hadn’t been prepared for that revelation. Buck’s hasty overview of shifters hadn’t covered unicorns. She did her best to hide her astonishment, wondering what else he hadn’t thought to mention.
At least Archie also looked taken aback by Estelle’s bombshell. He tipped his chin up, eyes narrowing. “Prove it.”
Estelle faltered, losing a little of her belligerent attitude. “What?”
“If you’re a unicorn, prove it.” Archie sat back, looking smug. “Go ahead and shift, right here.”
Twin spots of red appeared on Estelle’s pale cheeks. “I don’t have to prove anything toyou.”
“Anyway, it’s against the rules to shift in the dining hall,” Beth said before Honey could step in to defuse the escalating conflict. She tugged Estelle back down to the bench. “And she’s lying about the cake. She barfed everywhere.”
“I’ll go next,” Finley said quickly. He stood up, hands tucked behind his back as though he was about to recite a poem. “Hello, my name is Finley. My mom and dad are firefighters with the Thunder Mountain Hotshots, I’ve sailed all the way from Miami to Trinidad on a forty-foot catamaran, and I can shift into a great white shark.”
“Really?” Archie let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Coooooool.”
