“Bless their little hearts,” Jayden said. “They’ve lived an entitled and totally sheltered life. Someday they’ll look back on this and appreciate the fact that they got the opportunity to turn their lives around.”

“But today isn’t that day. I bet they check under their beds and in every corner before they go to bed tonight,” Novalene said. “Truth is, I intend to do the same thing in my room. Spiders or anything that crawls, including snakes, give me the heebie-jeebies.”

Diana shivered. “Me too. I don’t like those things, but a mouse or a rat will put me to running in high gear a lot faster than that. How do those big old things get into a cabin anyway?”

“I think our spider came through that little tear in the spacer where the air conditioner hangs in their bedroom,” Novalene answered.

Jayden pulled the biscuits out of the oven and set the pan on the buffet line next to the scrambled eggs, sausage, and blueberry muffins. “Do you think Lauren tore the plastic to let the smoke out when she was there?”

Novalene shook her head. “No, she was cracking the other window for that. I bet Bailey and Keelan talk Elijah out of some duct tape before bedtime tonight, though. They will most likely tape every crack and cranny in the whole cabin, and if they do, I’m not saying a word about it.”

“I bet all of them have nightmares for the rest of this week.” Diana sighed. “We’ll be up at night with them like they’re tiny babies.”

Not mine, Jayden thought. If they made that tear in the plastic and shooed that big-ass spider into Moonbeam Cabin, then Bailey and Keelan had it coming.

The commotion started the second the girls all filed into the dining room. Bailey got right up in Tiffany’s face and narrowed her eyes until they were barely slits. “You turned that spider loose in our cabin to pay us back for giving y’all bad haircuts, didn’t you?”

Tiffany’s smile was so saccharine that Jayden had no doubt her girls definitely had something to do with the whole escapade. “Bad haircuts? We thought y’all did a fine job on our hair, didn’t we?” She turned toward Carmella and Ashlyn on down the line.

“Love my new shorter ponytail,” Carmella said.

“I was thinkin’ of askin’ y’all to cut another inch off mine,” Ashlyn told them. “But if you deliberately gave us ugly haircuts, then you should be ashamed. We trusted you. I guess what we heard in church last Sunday about vengeance belonging to God went right over your heads.”

“God didn’t put that spider in our cabin,” Keelan argued.

“Maybe the devil did it, just like he made you give us bad haircuts,” Carmella said in a sugary-sweet tone. “Y’all should ask God for forgiveness for your evil deed, and maybe He will step in and keep old Lucifer from bringing more fire and brimstone down upon y’all’s heads.”

“You are related to the devil himself,” Bailey hissed. “I saw you put that spider in the box you carry around.”

“Why don’t you come visit us in our cabin and look at all the bugs pinned to my board?” Carmella smiled. “You’ll only see one tarantula there, and unless he’s turned into a zombie spider and came to visit you, then I expect that you’re confused. I didn’t even like the first one, so I surely wouldn’t want to deal with a second one.”

Jayden couldn’t keep the smile off her face. Carmella had given a convincing argument, but not once had she denied doing the dirty little deed.

Bailey took a step back. “What do you mean by fire and brimstone?”

“Talk to God,” Tiffany answered as she picked up a tray and slid it down the buffet line. “He’s the one who takes care of that, not us.”

“Besides, we didn’t do anything mean to the Daydream girls, and the spider came to visit all of us, too, so don’t blame them. I flat out fainted,” Violet chimed in as she shoved her way between Tiffany and Bailey and picked up a tray. “Get over yourself, girl, and eat some breakfast. We’re in the danged desert. We can expect spiders and lizards. You didn’t even faint like I did, so stop your whining.”

“It sat on my forehead.” Bailey shivered.

“Well, it crawled up my leg,” Rita countered.

“At least you had pants on,” Violet told her. “I thought for sure it was going to take a bite out of my arm and scar me for life.”

The girls all completed the line and took their trays to their tables. They were still talking about spiders and the worst thing they’d experienced since being at the camp as Jayden filled her tray and joined the other counselors and Elijah at the adult table. She was sure her girls had something to do with the spider issue, but since she didn’t have a single shred of evidence, she decided to take the advice her mother always gave her and keep her suspicions to herself.

Elijah nudged her with his shoulder. “I thought we’d have to leave Violet behind after she fainted, but she made the entire three-mile hike. What a trouper.”

Novalene nodded in agreement. “I was surprised that Bailey kept up this morning at all. For a little while there, I thought we might have to call out the EMTs to get Bailey breathing again.” She told Elijah what had happened to start off her day that morning.

When she finished, Diana told her part of the morning’s incidents. “At least it wasn’t a scorpion. If one of those gets loose in a cabin, the girls might burn it to the ground.”

“Be hard to burn down a stucco building,” Elijah laughed. “I imagine they’ll remember this with a shiver when they get home.”

“Did I hear scorpion?” Carmella stopped by the table on her way back from getting another bottle of orange juice. “What do they look like? Will they kill me if they bite me? Where can I find one for my bug collection?”

“Look it up in the bug book this evening,” Jayden said.

Elijah pushed back his chair, stood up, and tapped his coffee mug with a spoon. The room quieted immediately. “Carmella has just asked a good question. July and August are the months when we begin to see scorpions in this part of the country. Could any of you identify one if you saw it?”

Not one hand raised.

“Carmella has a bug book that she’s going to go get when I get through talking. You will all look at the picture of scorpions in it so you know exactly what they look like. Bark scorpions are what is most common here. They can climb walls and walk across ceilings,” he said.

Several of the girls looked up and scanned the walls in the dining hall.

“They show up in bathtubs, sinks, and even beds because sometimes they fall from the ceiling,” Elijah told them. “They can crawl through a crack as small as an eighth of an inch wide, and outdoors they can be found in piles of lumber, bricks, and brush and trash. A sting will not kill you, but it will deliver acute pain for about three days. If you get stung, go to your counselor or come to me immediately, and we’ll treat it so you don’t have nausea or vomiting.”

“We’re in hell,” Bailey groaned. “I thought that spider was the worst thing we’d have to deal with.”

“I don’t mean to alarm you, but you need to be sure you recognize the scorpion and don’t mess with it in any way. That includes catching and sketching, girls.” Elijah’s tone left no doubt that he was very serious.