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There were laughs as Amy blushed.
“Never mind!” Mabel said, inviting everyone over to take a bowl. “You’re all gonna love it just as it is.”
Amy sighed. “I think I wanna go back now.”
Sharon, the psychologist, who had retired to her tent early last night, cleared her throat. “How about you and I have a chat, Amy? We could explore those feelings in more depth awhile.”
“Iwant to go back too,” whined Lydia. “I miss my stuffie, Mr. Whiskers.”
“Maybe I should speak to you both,” said Sharon.
Georgia sighed. “Yesterday was fun, but I didn’t sleep so well. I do kinda miss… everything.”
Sharon looked overwhelmed.
The Littles all began conversing excitedly with each other about all the things they missed, but Sharon hushed them.
“Listen!” she said. “I have an idea. Given that it seems like the general consensus is that we go back, I’m going to chat to your team leader,Mabel, first today.”
Mabel rolled her eyes. So far, she’d managed to avoid speaking to the psychologist. She assumed the brain-doctor was just there for the actors, and she hoped she wasn’t about to get analyzed.
“I think the actors have learned what they needed to from this trip,” the psychologist told Mabel in hushed tones.
Mabel ate a large spoonful of acorn oatmeal, pleased with the tweaks she’d made to the recipe. In a way, it was good that the unfortunate acorn incident had occurred the other day, because now she was positive thatthese acornswere safe to eat.
“In fact,” the psychologist continued, “I think that this contest is really just foryou.”
Mabel sighed. “It was meant to be a team-building thing. To give them confidence.”
“They’re plenty confident,” said the psychologist. “They’re Hollywood actors, for goodness sake. They’ll be fine now that Brandon Marshall is back in town. They’ll do as they’re told and I bet you won’t have a single problem with those guns back on set.”
“So… my work here has been completely unnecessary?”
“No,” said the psychologist. “The actors have had fun. You gave them a boost when they needed it most. It seems that you ruffled the Weapons Master’s feathers, too. Maybe he’ll think twice about being so authoritarian in the future.”
Mabel almost choked on her acorn oatmeal. “I doubt it.”
“You’re a natural leader,” said the psychologist. “But part of that is knowing when it’s okay to stand down.”
“I’ll stand down once we win the contest.”
“The contest is over, Mabel,” said the psychologist. “There’s no fight here. These people want to go back home. You put them in survival mode yesterday and it was an interesting experiment, but that’s enough now.”
“It’s not enough,” said Mabel. She stood up. “Hey guys! We only have another three miles to go until we reach our target! Then we head back. Who’s with me?”
There was an eerie silence among the group.
“Who’s with me?” Mabel asked again.
Still nothing.
“Fine,” she said huffily. “You’re all holding me back anyway. I’m gonna get to the finish line all alone.” Under her breath she muttered, “Just like always.”
“Come on, seriously?” said Mabel. “Surely these things are solar-powered. How can it be out of juice already?”
Before Mabel had left the rest of the group, Georgia had handed over her smartwatch. “You’ll need this for the GPS,” she said. “To prove to the guys that you made it to the end.”
But now, the smartwatch looked just as broken as she was. She’d spent the day looking up at a ridiculously steep mountain, trying to find a path that would get her around it, but there was a wide river on one side, and an area of brushland so thick and thorny she’d have needed an ax to get through it at any kind of speed.
