Camp Rules! (7 page)
Authors: Nancy Krulik
“I don’t need anything from you, Bumblebee baby,” Alicia snapped back.
Alicia was going to take the punishment all by herself. And even though Alicia was a big mean bully, Katie still felt kind of guilty about it.
“Okay, everybody, mail call!” Shannon shouted a few minutes later as she returned to the bunk with a pile of letters and packages. The girls all raced over to see if they’d gotten anything.
“Here’s a big box for you, Chelsea,” Shannon said, handing her a package. “There’s a package for Rainbow, too. You got a postcard, Gianna. And there are
three
letters for you, Katie.”
three
letters for you, Katie.”
Katie smiled and took the three envelopes from Shannon’s hand. She could tell who they were from right away.
One letter was from her mom. She always wrote SWAK (which meant Sealed With A Kiss) on the back.
The one with glitter stickers all over it had to be from Suzanne. No one loved glitter more than Suzanne Lock.
The third letter was from George Brennan. Katie could tell because he’d written jokes all over the envelope. On the front he’d written Katie Kazoo before crossing out Kazoo and spelling Carew over it.
“Hey, you guys, where do baby dogs sleep when they camp out?” Katie read aloud.
“Where?” Gianna asked.
“In a pup tent!” Katie answered, laughing.
Shannon chuckled. “That’s a good one, Katie.”
“Ooh, look at what my cousin sent me,” Chelsea squealed suddenly. She reached into her box and pulled out a pile of hair ribbons. “They’re from my favorite store in the city.”
“Wow, can I wear one to the campfire tonight?” Gianna asked, running over to Chelsea’s bed.
“Sure,” Chelsea told her. “How about this red ribbon?”
“Thanks!” Gianna exclaimed.
“This headband matches your eyes, Katie,” Chelsea said, holding up a green-and-white striped stretchy band. “You should wear it tonight.”
Katie smiled. “Gee, thanks,” she said.
Alicia, who didn’t have any mail, rolled her eyes. “Why are you guys getting all dressed up for a campfire?” she groaned. “This isn’t the city, Chelsea. You don’t have to look all fancy. Besides, those ribbons and headbands are going to smell like smoke if you wear them.”
“That’s okay,” Chelsea said, reaching in and pulling out a bag of clips. “There are plenty more where they came from.”
“Friends, friends, friends we will always be. Whether in fair or in dark stormy weather, Camp Cedar Hill will keep us together . . .”
Katie smiled as she and Rainbow wrapped their arms around each other and sang. She looked over at Gianna and Chelsea. They really were all friends. Just like the song said. And it was pretty amazing, because they’d only been at camp for three days, but already Katie felt as if she had known them her whole life.
“Ahhh! My marshmallow’s on fire!”
Chelsea yelled out suddenly. She held up a metal skewer with a burning marshmallow on top.
“Blow it out!” Rainbow shouted.
Chelsea blew hard. The fire went out. All that was left was a blackened marshmallow.
“Oh man, it’s ruined,” she said.
“They taste best that way,” Gianna assured her. “Try it.”
Chelsea looked doubtful. But she pulled the ooey-gooey burned marshmallow from the skewer and took a bite anyway. “Mmmm,” she purred. “This is good.”
“Told ya,” Gianna replied. “The counselor I had my first year here taught me that.”
“We’re so lucky to have you in our bunk,” Chelsea said. “You know all about this place.”
“We’re all lucky to be in the same bunk,” Gianna told her.
Just then an older girl walked over to where the Bumblebees were sitting. “Hi, Katie,” she said.
“Hi, Lexi,” Katie greeted her.
“See, I told you you would have a great time here,” Lexi said.
“You were right,” Katie agreed. “Are you having fun?”
“The best summer ever,” Lexi told her. “I learned how to water-ski today. You’ll get to do that, too, when you’re in the Stingray cabin.”
“I can’t wait!” Katie exclaimed. And she meant it. She knew she wanted to come back to Camp Cedar Hill every summer for as long as she was a kid. This place was the best.
As Lexi walked away, Katie put another marshmallow on her skewer. “Come on, you guys,” she said to her fellow Bumblebees. “Let’s see who can toast the gooeyest one!”
Chapter 12
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The rain was the first thing Katie heard when she woke up in the morning. She lifted up her head and looked out the window. Sure enough, the leaves on the trees were heavy and wet. The ground was covered with soggy puddles.
Camp didn’t look nearly as pretty in the rain. It was just a big, wet, muddy mess. Katie pulled the covers over her head and sighed.
The heavy downpour had woken Alicia, too. “Man, this stinks!” she groaned. “I hate rainy days. You can’t play ball or go boating or anything. I’ll be stuck in this cabin with Bumblebee babies all day.”
Katie rolled her eyes. She didn’t get upset when Alicia called them all babies anymore. Nobody did. They ignored her.
“Sometimes we go to the movies or the bowling alley in town when it rains,” Gianna recalled. “Remember, Alicia?”
“That’s only if it rains for a few days in a row,” Alicia reminded her.
“My hair is going to frizz,” Chelsea moaned, sitting up in her bed. “I always look like a mess when it rains.”
Katie frowned. This was the first time she’d woken up unhappy at camp. Only Rainbow had a big smile on her face. “This is awesome!” she exclaimed, leaping out of bed.
“Okay, I think she’s finally gone crazy,” Alicia grumbled as Rainbow pulled a bathing suit from her cubby.
“I don’t think we’re going to be swimming today,” Katie told Rainbow kindly.
“Oh, I’m not going swimming,” Rainbow told her. “I’m taking a shower.”
“In your bathing suit?” Gianna asked.
Rainbow nodded. “I’m going to take a shower in the rain.”
“Cool!” Katie exclaimed and leaped out of bed. “Wait for me.”
“Me too!” Chelsea cried. “I’ll bet rainwater is really good for your hair.”
“Wow. I’ve never done this before,” Gianna told Rainbow. “Not once in the three years I’ve been here.”
“Are you coming, Alicia?” Katie asked as she grabbed her shampoo bottle and headed for the door.
Alicia sighed. “Well, I guess I have to shower anyway,” she said, slowly getting out of her bed.
By the time Alicia made it outside, the other Bumblebees were all lathered up. Shannon walked out on the porch and smiled at her girls. “Now that’s the Bumblebee spirit,” she said. “When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.”
“I’m glad it’s not raining lemonade,” Chelsea told her. “That would make my hair really sticky.”
Katie giggled. Then she waved her hands high in the air, wiggled her hips, and did a little happy dance.
At camp even the rain was awesome!
Dear Suzanne,
You won’t believe what I learned how to do today.
My friend Chelsea taught me how to French braid my hair! When you wear your hair that way you look so grown-up! I’ll show you how to do it when I get home.
I also found out that rainwater makes your hair really shiny. That’s right. I actually took a shower in the rain! You can get pretty clean that way- your entire body except your feet, which get kind of mudly. You have to rinse them off after. Write back soon.
Love,
Katie
Chapter 13
The next day the sun was shining brightly. Katie and the other Bumblebees were busy all day long.
Katie had had an especially busy day. She’d played a game of softball during athletics, gone out on the lake in a sailboat in boating, made tea out of dandelions in pioneering, and played flashlight tag during evening activities.
Before bed, everybody wrote letters. Everybody except Alicia.
“You guys want to have some
real
fun?” she asked the girls right before lights-out.
real
fun?” she asked the girls right before lights-out.
“I had real fun all day,” Gianna told her. “Now I want to get some real sleep.”
“Me too,” Katie agreed, putting away her stationery. “I’m bushed.”
“You guys are so boring,” Alicia said. “Let’s go bunk hopping.”
“What’s that?” Katie asked.
“Sneaking out of the bunk and visiting other cabins,” Alicia told her.
“That’s not allowed,” Katie told her. “We’re supposed to stay here after lights-out.”
“Come on,” Alicia said. “Don’t be such a goody-goody.”
Katie frowned. Sometimes her friends at school called her that, too.
And she hated it. She just believed in following rules, that was all.
“It’s no big deal,” Alicia told the girls. “They
expect
us to do it. It’s a camp tradition.”
expect
us to do it. It’s a camp tradition.”
Chelsea looked over at Gianna. “Is it?” she asked.
Gianna shrugged. “I’ve heard a lot of the older girls talking about how they go bunk hopping some nights.”
“Exactly,” Alicia agreed. “And the Bumblebees can’t do anything the older girls can.”
“She’s got a point,” Rainbow said. “We’re only a few months younger than the Sea Horses. But they got to go on that sleepover canoe trip and we didn’t.”
“Yeah, and didn’t that friend of Katie’s tell us the Stingrays get to water-ski?” Rainbow recalled.
Alicia nodded. “I’m a better swimmer than most of them, but I don’t get to do that,” she pointed out.
“It’s not fair!” Rainbow shouted.
“I know,” Alicia said. “Which is why I think we should go bunk hopping.”
“Me too,” Chelsea agreed.
“I’m in,” Rainbow said. “It’s a matter of principle.”
“Well,” Gianna said slowly. “When you put it that way . . . Let’s just not get caught.”
“We won’t,” Alicia said as she grabbed her flashlight. “We’re too smart for that.”
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