“Ig!” Beth turned a winning smile on him. “How do you feel about tug-of-war?”
“That depends,” Ignatius said. “Mostly, on whether I’m expected to actually touch the rope. Why?”
Finley sighed. “Beth thinks we can help Conleth impress Paige’s mom by winning the tournament.”
Ignatius stared at Beth in disbelief. “You’restilldoing this?”
“Yes, and so are you,” Beth informed him. “If we’re going to win, we’ll need everyone.”
“Hey guys!” Archie bounded over, Nancy on his heels. “We’re entering the tug-of-war tournament, right?”
“Apparently,” Finley said. “Because?—”
“Because it will make our parents proud,” Beth interrupted, shooting Finley a warning look. “Especially if we win.”
Nancy, who’d been looking rather disconsolate, perked up. “Hey, yeah! That would prove to my mom and dad that I don’t keel over at the first hint of stress. Maybe then they won’t insist I sit on the sidelines for the rest of the summer.”
Archie poked Ignatius in the arm. “Come on, Iggy, you gotta play too. Even though you can’t shift yet, you’re still a dragon. That’s almost as strong as a bear.”
Ignatius heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Fine, fine. Stop hitting me. I’ll join in all the idiotic reindeer games. It’s not like my uncle can be anymoredisappointed in me.”
“All right!” Archie pumped a fist into the air. “I’ll go tell Leonie to sign our pack up for the competition. Meet you at the field!”
As Archie dashed off, Finley lowered his voice. “Why didn’t you let me tell him the real reason you want us to win the tournament, Beth?”
Nancy looked between them, puzzled. “What do you mean, the real reason?”
Ignatius rolled his eyes. “The only reason Beth ever does anything. To make her uncle look good.”
“But don’t tell Archie,” Beth said quickly. “We want him to put all his effort into winning. And you know how he feels about Uncle Conleth.”
“But Archie only tried to keep Paige and Conleth apart because he was worried about his mom,” Finley said. “He may still not be entirely happy that they’re mates, but I’m sure he wouldn’t deliberately do anything to sabotage their relationship.”
“Maybe.” Beth cast a worried glance after Archie. “But it doesn’t hurt to be careful. So let’s keep the plan to ourselves, okay?”
This was thebest day ever.
Archie hopped from happily from foot to foot, stretching his legs and shaking out his hands in preparation for the competition. Counselors were busy laying out long ropes, while Leonie took down team names and assigned the first matches.
“Where’s Ragvald?” he overheard one of the other campers ask in disappointment. “I thought he was meant to be judging this.”
“He’s, ah, busy,” Leonie replied, a bit shiftily. “But don’t worry, he’s around. We just thought it might be better for him to keep a low profile today since, uh, he’s not that familiar with our customs, and we don’t want him to offend anyone. But I can make sure you get a chance to take your parents to meet him later, if you like.”
Archie was pretty sure Ragvald’s absence had very little to do with his manners, and a lot more to do with Ignatius’s weird uncle, who was now regally occupying a kind of hastily constructed VIP area made out of some deckchairs and a tarp propped on poles. All the other parents were just standing around like normal people, and looked a lot less stupid.
Scanning the crowd, Archie found Mom and Paige. He waved to them, but only Mom waved back. Paige seemed to be too busy telling Mom some story that involved a lot of gestures at Conleth. She was smiling a lot, too—the kind of tight, too-big smile that made Archie think she wasn’t actually happy at all.
Mom wasn’t smiling. Not even fake-smiling. Not one single bit.
His bear made a worried huff at the back of his mind, but Archie couldn’t help his own smile getting bigger. It wasn’t that he wanted Mom todislikeConleth, exactly. It was just nice that at least there wasoneother person who didn’t think he was the greatest thing since peanut butter and potato chip sandwiches.
(Archie had wanted to patent that invention and make a bajillion dollars, but Paige had said someone else had probably already come up with it)
Anyway, it didn’t really matter what he or Mom or anyone else thought of Conleth. Just Paige. And since she’d been walking around for the past couple of weeks with a kind of sappy glow about her, it was pretty clear Conleth was gonna be a permanent feature from now on.
Archie made a face, banging a hand against one ear to shake stupid Conleth out of his head. This was no time to get distracted. There was a tug-of-war tournament to win!
He looked around for his team. Finley and Estelle were huddled on either side of Rufus, who was looking kind of twitchy with so many people around. Iggy was—of course—still hanging around his uncle Lord Buttface (the guy madeConlethseem nice), while Nancy was trying to get away from her mom, who was trying to force a giant pink padded vest over her head, like a lifejacket but for land.
