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“It was an appropriate response to the situation.”

“Okay. But was it high-pitched?” he tried again.

I opened my mouth and immediately closed it.

Alvin slapped both hands over his heart. “Oh my God. You screamed like a little bitch while trying to catch a spider for me.”

“I didn’t say it was for you.”

He glanced back at the terrarium. His grin faded but only slightly. “This was what you were busy doing?” He swallowed the lump I could see forming in his throat.

I leaned against the table. “I was busy trying to find one that wasn’t too big, too fast, or outwardly looking to bite me.”

“You were in the woods every morning?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“In the dark.”

“Yes.”

“Touching bugs.”

I shook my head and aimed a finger at him. Just the thought had a shiver running down my spine. “Not touching them.”

“Okay, handling bugs.”

“Barely,” I grunted.

“Dismantling the natural ecosystem of Camp Dix.” He lifted a challenging brow.

“I was trying to catch one spider, Alvin.”

“Why’d it take so long then?”

I gestured towards the trash can. He followed my hand. A pile of crumpled plastic cups and more than a dozen folded index cards I swiped from the infirmary sat inside it. Something with too many legs scurried across the top of one of those cards before disappearing beneath the rim.

Alvin walked over and peered inside. “These aren’t even spiders, Dee.”

I shrugged. But that didn’t stop Alvin from continuing to point out the obvious.

“That one’s a beetle. And that’s a moth. And I’m pretty sure that’s a… leaf?”

I leaned over the top and frowned at the trash can. “The leaf moved.”

“The wind probably moved it.”

“I didn’t want to look too closely.”

Alvin stared at me for a long second. Then he broke out into full-on hysterics. The sort of laughing that had him bending forward and made him grab his bruised ribs.

“You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“I’m sorry,” he managed to huff out. “You spent an entire week—no, longer! Catching leaves.”

“I spent an entire week making a valent effort to catch you a creepy-ass spider, Alvin Carter.”

“You caught a moth.”