Page 66 of Finding Little Fiera

After another quick look at Sadie, who was still glaring, Fiera began to paint. Now even her friends were getting mad at her.

Twenty minutes later, Fiera had barely sketched out her plan on her canvas. The comments coming from the table next to her were driving her crazy. They seemed to know exactly how to say things when none of the Bigs were looking. How in the world could they act that way, and then turn around and callhermean?

Mace had told her to turn her hearing aids to noise-cancelling mode. She didn’t like doing that, though. It made her feel like she was underwater. Instead, she took them off and set them on her table because, of course, she’d forgotten her case.

Slowly, the tent emptied as the campers finished their paintings. At least Sadie, Wren, and Daisy were still painting. Hopefully, they wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye. Tears stung Fiera’s eyes.

On top of everything else, she couldn’t get her storm to look right. She wanted it to be the color of Mace’s eyes, but she’d run out of white, so the closest she could get was dark, muddy purple.

Her painting sucked! There was no way she was showing it to her Daddy. She wasn’t even going to turn it in for the art contest. People were already laughing at her enough.

A shadow on her canvas had her looking up, expecting Master Mace. Instead, Laura crouched in front of her table so that she was eye level with Fiera. Great. Just great.

Glaring at her archnemesis, Fiera demanded, “What do you want?”

Laura’s bottom lip trembled. “I just want to say I’m sorry. I know you weren’t trying to run into me the first day. I should have accepted your apology.” Glancing at what Fiera had labeled the mean girl’s table, Laura shook her head.

Who the heck was she signaling? Fiera wouldn’t put it past her to be signaling one of the girls to squirt paint all over her.When she turned to make sure, none of the girls at Laura’s table had moved.

Turning back, Fiera found four tubes of paint that hadn’t been there before. And they were beautiful colors like teal, orange, and green. Even better, there was a tube of white. But still, this was Laura, so there had to be a catch.

“What are those for?” Fiera demanded.

Laura smiled. “They’re for you, silly. A sort of peace offering. I mean, you got here late, so all the good colors were gone. I thought you might like to use these. They haven’t even been opened.”

Fiera studied Laura. What was the girl up to? It had to be a trick. Had she switched the labels on the tubes somehow so Fiera would have an even bigger artistic disaster than she already had? Unscrewing each of the tops, she saw the tubes of paint hadn’t been opened, and the labels looked fine, too.

Maybe Laura realized she’d been wrong. Anyone could make a mistake. And Fiera could really use the paint. If this was Laura trying to make nice and be friends, it wouldn’t be fair for Fiera to turn her down.

She did her best to smile at Laura. “Thanks. I appreciate it. These will really help.”

“My pleasure,” Laura said, doing her best to return a smile. “Good luck.”

As Laura sauntered back to her table, Fiera scolded herself for all the nasty things she’d been thinking about Laura since breakfast. It was all just a big misunderstanding. Squeezing the new colors out of the tubes, Fiera went to work fixing her painting.

Just as she was putting the final strokes on her masterpiece, Master Gavin called time. “Let’s move all the remaining paintings to the drying table now. The judges will want plenty of time to select the winners.”

As Fiera walked to the drying table, she admired her work. She’d done a pretty good job, if she did say so herself. Who’d have thought it would all be thanks to Laura?

When Fiera reached the drying table, Laura and her friends all crowded around, along with all the other budding artistic perfectionists at camp. Even though she told herself not to, her eyes insisted on scanning the room for Sadie, Wren, and Daisy in hopes they’d come back. They hadn’t.

It wouldn’t make her so sad if she hadn’t seen the anger on Sadie’s face when she’d looked at Fiera from across the tent. She wasn’t sure what she’d done. Sometimes she missed the cues other people picked up on. But she wished her friends had talked to her about it instead of walking out.

Before she even placed her painting on the table, she knew something was wrong. Murmurs and whispers worked their way through the Littles, waiting for their turn.

Someone gasped behind her, and it threw her for a moment because she couldn’t tell where the sound had come from. She reached up to adjust her hearing aids, only to find them not in her ears. That’s right. She’d taken them off while she was painting.

Looking over her right shoulder, she jumped because Laura was standing so close that Fiera felt the girl breathing.

Laura yelled, “Fiera cheated!”

Such a loud sound so close to Fiera’s dominant ear made her flinch. Instinctively, Fiera’s shoulders jumped, catching Laura under the chin.

Laura screamed in pain, and Fiera almost joined her. Her nerves were on fire. Her self-control was slipping for the first time in forever. Everyone gawked at her like she had kicked someone’s puppy. And where were her friends?

“Fiera!” Laura wailed. “Just because I said you cheated, that doesn’t mean you can crack me in the jaw. I only told the truth.”

Shock rendered Fiera immobile. What had Laura just said? A quick glance around the table showed her a sea of faces, all staring at her. She spotted her friends and wished she hadn’t. They were on the other side of the crowd, glaring and talking to each other.