"No, no," Duncan scolded, snatching Ezekiel's pen away, "'Climb the tallest tree'? 'Run a lap around the island'? What is this? Dude, the whole point is to come up with something that Heather would suck at and Owen would be able to win. He's too overweight to run or climb. Do you want him to lose? Do you want Heather to win the hundred thousand?"

"Ooh…" Ezekiel took back his pen, crossed out the first few dares on his list, then wrote 'Chew your own toenail slowly'.

Snort. "Where's your killer instinct, Homeschool?"

"What? Sadie thought it was real disgustin' when The Zeke did it."

"Come on, dude! Beth wrote down something about re-chewing Harold's old gum and diving into a pool filled with leeches. Trent has 'Keep ten raw eggs in your mouth for a full minute'. Even Noah managed to come up with something as deadly as wrestling an alligator underwater. You're telling me that the worst thing you could think of has to do with chewing toenails?"

Ezekiel started to add 'Have Izzy run you over with a horse' to his card, but he didn't quite finish, because a heartbeat later, someone tackled him from behind.

"Wha- Gagk!"

It was Lindsay, if the familiar choking arms around his neck were anything to go by. Really was sad that he could add 'familiar' into that description. In the time it took for Ezekiel to loosen them enough to breathe again she had collapsed against his shoulder and begun to shake with light sobs.

"Yo, yo, Lindsay-dawg," he said, patting her hand. "What's goin' on with ya?"

"It's T-Tyler! Ava k-killed Tyler!"

Duncan nearly dropped his sandwich. "Whoa- Chick did what now?"

"She's talking about her firefly," Beth said, reaching up to place a comforting hand on one of Lindsay's shoulders. Her tone was rather flat, as if she'd told the story twelve times already and could foresee she'd have to do it twelve more before the twilight had faded into full-on dark. "She saw it buzzing around and she named it Tyler. Then Eva and Noah and Izzy started trying to catch all the fireflies, and Tyler got squished."

Lindsay began wailing again. Ezekiel tried to push her away and Duncan covered his ears and said, "It's just a stupid bug- Go and find another one. They're all over the place tonight. Look, there's one over there by Leshawna and Dorkface."

Dares for the final-three challenge could wait. Sobbing Lindsays could not. Physically. If someone didn't take care of her, there would be shouts or even threats flying through the air, and that would be the end of their pleasant evening barbecue. Ezekiel stood with a sigh and took her hand. "C'mon, homes. The Zeke'll help ya find a new Tyler, eh?"

"Yeah, go with Zeke," Beth said, hastily backing up. "I, um… I've gotta go help Cody. He's, er, choking. Hang on Cody, I'm coming!"

"Tch. Girls. C'mon, Linds." Ezekiel led her over towards Katie and Sadie, who had already managed to gather five or six fireflies in a jar by working together.

"No," Sadie said, "that one is Justin. His light's the brightest, so that means he's hotter than all the others, remember?"

"Are you sure? Because this one looks way brighter."

"Oh, you might be right… I don't know, then."

"I have an idea. Let's just name them all Justin!"

"Oh my gosh, I was totally just about to say, like, that exact same thing!" Both of them clapped and squealed over this discovery, and then looked up when Ezekiel and Lindsay's slight shadows blocked the warm glow from the nearest lampposts.

"Yo-"

"Zeke! Oh my gosh, Sadie and I were, like, totally talking about you just a few minutes ago. And Sadie has something that she really wants to tell you. Don't you, Sadie?"

Lindsay started blubbering into his shoulder again when she saw the jar of fireflies. "Uh," he began, "this might not be the greatest time for any kind a'-"

Sadie only sighed and stood. "Okay, okay, fine. Look, Zeke. Some of the things I've said to you haven't, um… been as nice as they could have been. A lot of them, actually. Probably most of them. But Katie says that you're actually, like, a really cool guy… And I guess you are kinda cute-"

"Oh, he is so totally cute," Katie agreed. She sat back on her heels and gave Ezekiel a wide smile. "Okay, so yesterday Sadie and I decided that you were, like, number seven on our 'Cutest Guys at Camp' list after, like, Justin and Trent and Tyler and Duncan and Cody and Noah. Like, you're nowhere near hot-cute, but you're puppy-cute."

"Tyler?" Lindsay asked, raising her head. Her lower lip began to tremble. "My… my Tyler. He was the cutest little thing, and now he's been murdered!"

"Uh… Thanks, dawgs, but-"

Sadie made a lunge for him then, but Katie caught her arm and held her back.

"Let me go! He called me a dog- you heard!"

"Okay, but he totally didn't mean anything by it, so we can blow it off and it'll be fine. Right, Zeke?"

"Yeah, yeah, word." Ezekiel paused to pry Lindsay's fingers from his shoulder, then pointed at the jar of fireflies nestled in the grass by Sadie's foot. "Look, homes. You can get a new Tyler, eh? Katie'n Sadie've a'ready caught-"

"And now you're trying to steal our lightning bugs? That's so totally not okay."

Even Katie narrowed her eyes a bit at that. "Oh, I know, right? That is so not cool, Zeke. Why don't you go and catch your own fireflies?"

"Tyler is still dead!"

"Tch…" Shaking his head, Ezekiel dragged her off without even bothering to say good-bye to the two girls. "Ne'er mind, homie. We'll just head into the forest a little bit and catch 'em ourselves, eh?"

But Lindsay was no longer listening to him. Instead she suddenly stiffened up and pointed a finger in Eva's direction.

"You!" she cried, taking a step forward. She was surprisingly strong, especially for a girl, and especially with her skinny arms, and another step was enough to drag Ezekiel after her. Eva had been holding Izzy back from 'The flying glowy marshmallows', but the redhead wriggled free when her captor glanced away, distracted by Lindsay's voice. "You… Why did you do it?" And then she was bawling again. "My little Tyler wouldn't have hurt a fly!"

"Uh, Lindsay-dawg? Tyler kinda was a fly."

"You're saying 'was'! Why do we have to say 'was'? Nw he's a dead fly. Erica killed him! Why? Why?" Lindsay fell to her knees as she yelled that last part, sobbing uncontrollably, and since she was still gripping Ezekiel's wrist, he went down with her.

"This is dumb," Eva muttered, and folded her arms. After listening for a moment more she finally snapped, "Look, I'm sorry, all right? It was an accident. Yeesh."

"Tyler is dead, and that's all you can say about it?"

"All I tried to do was catch the dumb insect. Closed my hands just a little too tight- that's all. It wasn't supposed to be personal."

"Why'd you do it? At least let me hear the motive."

"It was just a dumb bug! Get over it already!"

Ezekiel sighed and patted Lindsay's head with his free hand. "Think she ain't gonna stop 'less ya bring her a new one, homes."

"Aw, forget this!" Eva raised a hand, apparently intending to slap Lindsay's cheek with it, which only caused her to scream in panic. She wrapped her arms around Ezekiel's neck and made him splutter for air, but Eva's blow never came. Her hand dropped to her side when Noah kicked her in the ankle and shot her a fierce glare.

"Ignore her," he said to Lindsay. "She's just playing. We're trying to socialize her."

"Playing, eh?" Ezekiel repeated, cowering behind the blonde girl. Eva stared at him, then simply gave a snort of, "Whatever," before she spun on her heel and marched off.

"Oh my gosh." Lindsay's face had gone pale. "She is, like, way scarier than Heather and that boy with the green hair combined. I can't believe you actually stood up to her like that."

"Right," Noah said, kneeling beside her. "Listen. If I just give you my firefly, will you promise to stop crying?"

"You want to give it to me?"

"Sure. Like Iron Woman said, it's just a bug. She can catch me more."

"Aw, that's so sweet of you." With a slight giggle, Lindsay took his hands in her own. "I think I'll name it Nate, after you!"

Noah only sighed. "Whatever," he mumbled, and headed off after Eva.

"Huh. It looks like someone's feeling a little cranky today. Well, I thought it was sweet of him. Do you think he likes me?"

Ezekiel didn't even look up from massaging his wrist. It seemed to tingle something awful, but surely that was all in his head. Lindsay's grip couldn't really have cut off the circulation of his blood. "Nah, Noah don't like anyone, 'cept Bri'gette. The rest, like Eva an' Izzy, he just kinda tolerates. Think he just didn't like listenin' to all a' your cryin', eh?"

"Oh." Lindsay raised her clasped hands to her eye and peered in through her fingers. "That's good, because I'm already dating Tyler. I mean the real Tyler- not the one that Ava killed."

"Look, Princess Lindsay," a voice mumbled from behind them, and she and Ezekiel both turned to see Duncan walking over, his bare feet scuffing and dragging in the grass and sand. "I found you a new Tyler, so if you open your hands-"

"Oh, that's okay, Dustin. Nolan already caught one for me, so I don't need it anymore. Thanks anyway, though. That's nice that you offered."

Duncan blinked rapidly several times in surprise. "Noah beat me to the punch?"

"Punch?" Ezekiel was on alert for Eva immediately. "Where? Oww! Yo, yo, dog! What was that for, eh?"

"Yeah, why'd you kick poor Zach? He wasn't hurting anybody."

"Because copy-cat Noah has conveniently disappeared, that's why," Duncan retorted, and gave him another kick before running off to join Courtney and Trent on the far side of the pool.

"Tch." Ezekiel rubbed his sore arm. "I really doon't like that guy."

"I think I changed my mind," Lindsay said, anxiously clutching Nate the firefly close to her chest. "He is totally scarier than Eva is."

"He's only been here for two days and a'ready I think I hate him more'n I hate anyone else. Makes me want a' try beatin' him up or somethin' someday, eh?"

Lindsay's blue eyes went huge. "Oh my gosh, don't even joke about that, Zach. He'd kill you! Like Eva killed Tyler! But worse!"

"Yo, The Zeke ain't stupid! He'd ne'er do that for real. But, y'know… He'd still kinda like to." His eyes wandered over the stars. He made a strangling motion with his twitching fingers. "Just pounce on 'im when he ain't expectin' it, eh? Wrestle him inta the dirt, beat on his head with my fists while I sit on his back ta pin 'im down flat." Ezekiel folded his arms behind his head and lay back in the grass. "Huh. Look, Lindsay-dawg. Ya can see the big bear real nice from out here this evenin'."

She followed his gaze, then she looked down at her hands for a moment. At last she stretched out her arms and released Nate from between her fingers; he zipped away into the night.

Ezekiel sat up. "Yo, why'd ya do that, homie? Noah worked real hard tryin' a' catch it for ya, eh?"

Lindsay chewed on her lip for a moment, then tugged at it with her fingers. "I know, and I feel kinda bad, but… I'd be sad if it didn't get to be with all of the other fireflies in the sky, you know?"

"Huh." Girls were so weird. "But, uh… Ya get that those are stars, right?"

"Oh, I know a lot about stars."

"Ya do?"

"Duh. I watch, like, tons of movies. I've even been to Hollywood- twice! I grew up in California for a few years."

"… All right then." He lay down in the grass again, listening to his fellow ex-campers either laughing or arguing with each other all around him. "Lindsay-dawg… Where d'ya think we go after we die?"

"Oh, I think I read a book like that one time."

"You read a book?" Ezekiel regretted the words immediately and sat bolt upright, eyes widening, clamping a hand over his mouth as Lindsay shot him a hurt look. "I didn't mean it, eh!"

"It's all right, Zeke," she replied after a few seconds, squeezing him around the neck. "I forgive you."

'I forgive you'. He blinked at that, at the way she'd said them like they were the easiest three words in the world to say. How was it that Eva had spent almost six more weeks with him than Lindsay had, and yet the bubbly blonde girl had told him those words first?

"Anyway, I hope that when we die, we end up in a place that's just like this, you know? With a big, warm pool and great food, sunshine… Ooh, and a mall where everything is half-off all the time, and it's always open, even on Sunday. There has to be a mall, or I would, like, die. And I hope that all of our friends could be there too. Especially Tyler and Belle, and also Trent because he's kind of cute, and Lafawnda because she locked Heather in the fridge, but not Ava or Duncan. They're really mean. They shouldn't be there." With that, she stretched out in the grass beside him. "So, it's supposed to be my turn to ask now, right? What do you think happens when we die, Zach?"

Ezekiel frowned up at the sky, his hands now folded lightly over his stomach. "Well… My aunt used a' tell me an' my cousins an' their cousins on the other side a' their family that in heaven, e'erythin' that was e'er wrong in the world gets fixed. No more war and no more sickness and no more pain. E'erybody is whole again. Say, if Coody had died when he was stuck in that wheelchair a' his, he would a' been all back to normal in heaven, eh?"

"You're talking about someone specific, aren't you?"

"Huh?"

Lindsay rolled over, propping her elbow in the grass and her cheek in her hand. She made a knowing spiral motion with her fingertip. "I could hear it in like, the way you said, 'No more sickness, no more pain'. You were thinking of someone, weren't you?"

"Yeah. Kind of. Yeah, I guess so."

"What's she like?"

"… You're startin' a' scare me now, homes."

"Well, it was obvious that you were talking about a girl. I am, like, really good at figuring out that kind of stuff, no matter what Noah says. Shoot- Nate, I mean. I said Nate. Don't tell him I called him Noah, Zach. Um… You were talking about a girl, weren't you?"

Ezekiel scratched behind his ear. "You could say that."

"Before she got sick or hurt, was she really pretty?"

"She's still real pretty, eh."

"Oh, that's good." Lindsay patted at her hair. "Daddy told me that prettiness was, like, what really gets a girl far in life, and I would so hate to not be pretty. So what happened to her?"

He blew out a long stream of air. "She just… She just got sick. Real sick. The sick that makes ya go kinda crazy, homes."

"Did she die?"

"Well, no, but- Oof!" Ezekiel jerked upright, clutching at his stomach, while Izzy merely scrambled off shouting, "Get back here, flying marshmallows! Izzy is not gonna let you little glowbugs get away from her again!"

"Iz, come back! That would be super-bang messed-up for your health!"

"Haha, make me, Tyler! Insects like those bad boys have lots of protein in them! Oh, oh, this one time when I was hiding out in the woods with my friends the beavers-"

"Think she broke some a' my ribs," Ezekiel moaned, staring after the disappearing redhead. "Y'know, sometimes I think that Izzy might a' caught the insanity disease too, eh. Tch… Girls."

Lindsay looked at him again, her face screwed up. It was a frightening expression to be staring out at him in the darkness, with the lamppost far behind her so most of her front was deep in shadow, but the only thing she did was hug him once more.

"I forgive you, Zach. Now come on. I want us to go and catch more Tylers, and then introduce them to my real boyfriend. It'll be like a great big Tyler party!"

Sometimes it was just better to humor her.

"Sure, homes. Whate'er ya say. This'll be the best, uh, 'Tyler Party' ever, eh? Word."