“He said that if he was stuck with me for a whole hour, he might as well get some use out of me. So he gave me a laptop and a big pile of papers, and I was supposed to type all the numbers into the computer. Only it was soboring.Even worse than school.”
Paige had a sinking feeling she knew where this was going. Even before he’d started shifting, Archie’s grades had always ranged from ‘bad’ to ‘dismal.’ In a way, it had been a relief to discover he had a bear in his head. At least it explained why he struggled so much in the classroom.
“Let me guess,” she said. “Rather than doing the assigned task, you decided to enter random numbers instead.”
Archie fidgeted guiltily. “Well, I mean, they were just numbers, right? Nothing important.”
“And Conleth noticed?”
“Noooooooooooo,” Archie said, drawing out the word. He kicked his heels against the side of the bed. “Not straight away, at least. But then I thought, since I was making up stuff, I might as well make upfunnystuff.”
Paige could imagine all too easily what ‘funny stuff’ Archie might have made up. “I assume Conleth noticed at that point.”
“Yeah,” Archie said glumly. “I mean, it would have been kind of hard for him not to notice when the computer blew up.”
“The computer blew up?” Paige repeated, nonplussed. “You mean, it crashed?”
“No, I mean, it literally blew up.” Archie mimed an explosion in the air with his hands. “There was a big bang and smoke came out the back and all the lights went out.”
Paige stared at her little brother. “How?!”
“That’s what Conleth said,” Archie agreed. “I mean, once the power came back on and I was able to turn back human and he got my underpants down from the ceiling fan.”
Paige made a mental note to send the camp manager a gift basket. “Please tell me Conleth kept you away from the computer after that.”
“Yeah, he said my new detention was to clean up the office, and I couldn’t leave until everything was back in order.” Archie’s face creased into a disgruntled expression. “And then about five minutes later Conleth said he’d changed his mind and mynewnew detention was to sit silently in the corner without moving whilehecleaned up the office.”
‘Sit silently in the corner without moving’ was about as much within Archie’s capabilities as flying to the moon. “I take it that didn’t go well either.”
“I tried.But after the third time I accidentally broke Conleth’s chair, he said he’d been punished enough and he was taking me back to Buck.” Archie folded his arms, with the air of a prosecution lawyer resting his case. “Anyway, that’s why he’s horrible and I hate him and you can’t be his mate.”
Paige groaned. “For the last time, Archie, I am not Conleth’s mate!”
Archie glowered at her, but whatever he might have said was interrupted by the cabin door banging open. A young girl stood in the doorway, beaming at Paige as though she was her new best friend.
“Hi!” the girl announced. She was a tiny thing, with pale skin and startling mismatched eyes; one blue, the other green. “You’re Conleth’s mate!”
“Estelle!” A much taller girl hurried in after the first. “You can’t just blurt it out like that!”
“Why not? It’s what she is.” The tiny girl whirled back to confront Paige, her silvery hair whipping around her. “I’m Estelle, by the way. That’s Beth. And you are absolutely, definitely, positively Conleth’s mate. So that clears all that up. Can I be a flower-girl at your wedding?”
“Uh…” Paige searched for a response. All she could come up with was a less than eloquent: “What?”
“Itoldyou!” Archie exploded—not at the newcomers, but at Paige. He jumped to his feet. “I told you Conleth’s your mate!”
“He’s right,” Estelle confirmed. “But since you didn’t seem to believe him, we thought we’d better come in and tell you so ourselves. We’ve been listening to your whole conversation.”
The tall girl—Beth, apparently—flushed as red as her hair. “Estelle!”
“You were the one who said we had to do something, Beth.” Estelle turned back to Paige. “It’s a good thing we were listening. This could have been a disaster, otherwise.”
Red to the ears, Beth elbowed Estelle aside. She fixed Paige with serious green eyes, her posture as stiff as a soldier at attention. There was something strangely familiar about that young face, though Paige couldn’t quite work out what.
“I’m so sorry about her, ma’am,” Beth said. “And for bursting in like this. We couldn’t help overhearing.”
Archie narrowed his eyes at the two girls. “Especially not with your ears pressed to the door, I bet.”
“Oh, like you’ve never snuck around anywhere,” Estelle retorted. “You want me to tell your sister here about the frogs?”
