Camp Officially Begins

The tasty plot-stew thickens.

Camp officially begins

 

            “Ok, we have ten girls now,” I said to the group of small six, seven, and eight year olds. There were five six year olds, four seven year olds and one eight year old. They all looked a little anxious. I tried to break the silence, “Raise your hand if this is your first time,” I told the girls. All of the six year olds raised their hands, and two of the seven year olds raised theirs.

            “Really? It’s my first year also!” I said happily. The girls looked shocked.

            “B-but you’re a big girl!” a six-year old tried to reason.

            “I know!” I said.

            “That’s silly,” said a seven-year old.

            “She’s lying! Right Wiggy? You’re lying?” the eight year old asked.

            “Cross my heart, I’m not lying.” I said truly.

            “Whoa,” they all said.

            The two girls we had been waiting for came with their mothers. The girls looked about six, each with short brown hair and light freckles. One had brown eyes and the other had blue,“Hi,” I said, for what seemed to be the millionth time that day, “My name is Wiggy. I’m your CIT. Your counselor is Nara, you may have seen her when you were signing in. What’s your name?” I asked the girls.

            “My name is Belinda,” said one of the two girls, “and this is Leah.”

            “Leah and Belinda Hagan” her mother told me quickly. I checked them off on my sheet.

            “Ok girls, once Belinda and Leah say their goodbyes, we’ll go off to the cabins and learn all about camp!” The girls cheered as Belinda and Leah hugged and kissed their mom. I numbered the girls so that every time I said “Countdown!” they would each say their number. That way, as long as I got through 12, I would know I had everyone. Then I commanded, “Everyone pick a buddy,”-the girls shuffled to someone they wanted for a buddy and held her hand-“now it’s your job to keep that buddy safe! If you lose your buddy, tell me right away! Now let’s go to our cabin!”

            After a few minutes of going down the trail in silence, we reached the beautiful bunny camp site. Their things were getting picked up by truck and dropped off later, so for now all of the girls had nothing with them. We sat in a circle (as Nara had instructed me to do) and learned each other’s name. By the time we had gotten to the eleventh girl, Nara was back.

            “Hello girls, my name is Nara and I am your counselor!” she said happily, “I’m sorry that I wasn’t here before, but I had to help other girls sign in.”

“Oh! I saw you in line!” said a small six-year old with wild blonde hair named Mackenzie.

“I saw you too!” Rachael shouted.

“Me too!”

“So did I!”

As the girls gushed about how they had seen her, and I figured all was forgiven. We made cute little name tags and taught them how to play a camp game “Frogger”. Soon the truck of their things came, and it was time for lunch. We worked together to get all of the stuff in the correct cabins, and were about to leave for lunch when Kat came with 1a.

“Girls,” Nara announced to the line of girls behind her, “this is 1a. We’re sharing a cabin site together and having swimming and sports time with them. We were supposed to learn names with them, but something must have come up,”-Nara’s eyes met Kat, she was filled with curiosity and concern, but knew it had to wait-“so we’ll talk with them later tonight. Say goodbye, girls,” Nara started walking, her in the front and me in the back.

“Wait!” Kat called out, sounding scared.

“Yes?” Nara asked sweetly.

“Can I come with you? I don’t know where Bubbly is, and she’s not answering her walkie. I don’t know what to do!” The last part came out as a moan, and she sounded hopeless.

“Of course, um…”

“My name is Red,” Kat said quickly, and her girls joined our girls. We walked to the lodge, the little girls taking pictures and talking to each other. I stood next to Kat.

“Hey, Red,” I said, since the rule book strictly said to only use camp names.

“Hey, Wiggy,” Kat, also known as Red, looked nervous and jumpy.

“So, when did you last see Bubbly?”

“She dropped her phone and started crying, then ran into the registration building.”

“Oh, well at least you have the kids.”

“My counselor is an idiot.”

“Don’t say that! I’m sure she has some kind of…secret ability?” I guessed uncertainly.

“The ability to make my time at camp a living-”

“Shh! There are children here!” I cut her off, but still laughed. After a small fit of giggles, I got serious. “You’ve only known her for a few hours. I’m sure that she’ll be ok once you get to know her.”

“Maybe,” Kat sighed and stroked her hair.

We reached the beautiful lodge. It was newly remodeled and looked pristine. It overlooked the lake, which was overwhelmingly beautiful in the midday sun.

“Food!” the girls shouted happily. Screw nature! I’m hungry! I thought happily, and walked into the air-conditioned building.

“Wait a second,” Nara told me, while she ushered the girls to their table, “we need to talk.”

Oh dear! What did I do? Did she catch me laughing at Kat’s joke? It was a funny joke! What if she thinks I’m not qualified and disowns me? What have I done?! Nara brought me to the mud room to talk with me. The sound from the cafeteria was uncomfortably loud, but in the mud room it was almost like faint whispers.

“Yes?” I asked, trying to look professional.

“You did…” Nara stopped and looked in my eyes, AAAHH! JUST TELL ME!!! She brushed back a piece of her hair, and said slowly, “a wonderful job today. It was very responsible. I’ll be talking about it to Aster.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Nara, who was talking about getting our junior counselor tomorrow. We went to sit with a table with our girls. Well, I went while Nara tried to find Bubbly.

 

 

Later that Night

 

“Wiggy,” called Leah, “it is cold and dark outside.”

“I know Leah, but there’s nothing wrong with the dark,” I answered calmly, as we walked back to the cabin. The camp was coming back from Campfire, which only happened three times during camp. At the first Campfire, the counselors taught us about the rules through skits, and we learned the Camel Song. It was cute and funny. Now the sky was a dark blue, and the moon was bright and full. Most of the bunnies were frightened. Nara, Kat, and I told them that if they were scared they could hold our hands. I had Leah on one hand and Mackenzie on the other, both of them shining flashlights in front of them.

“Will the cabin be cold and dark?” Mackenzie asked.

“No, you have a nightlight and warm blankets to huddle under,” I told them.

“I’m scared,” one of them said.

“We’re going to read a story when we get back,” I said, trying to calm them.

“What story?”

“Either Black Beauty or a Bearstein Bear Book. It’s up to your cabin to decide.”

“Black Beauty,” Leah suggested.

“We’ll decide when we get to camp, ok?” I smiled.

“That’s ok.”

We continued walking back, Nara leading the front and me taking the back, most of the girls were holding hands and/or shining flashlights around nervously. Bubbly and Kat had taken their girls first. The night was very relaxed. Nara read The Bearstein Bears Go Camping to one 1b cabin, and I read Black Beauty (the kid’s version) to the other 1b cabin. We tucked the girl’s bug nets under their mattresses and said goodnight, then Nara told me I did a good job, we were getting a junior counselor the next day, and that I could go back to my cabin when Kat was done. The buddy rule was a strict rule that we were always expected to follow. Kat had to read to both cabins, since Bubbly had complained she had a tummy ache and fell asleep in her pink, fluffy bed. I didn’t mind waiting, since I had a new Sarah Dessen book that Mom had brought in her care package. I wedged a flashlight between my neck and shoulder and sat on a bench by the cabin’s empty fire pit. Kat came by me right after I finished a few pages, and we walked to our cabins at around 9:30. I played cards with Courtney, Grace, and Addie, our nightly ritual, while Ashley slept like a log, Kayla hung out with the 8a girls, and Pink supervised 8a, since they were usually more rowdy.
            Our conversation flowed smoothly and happily. Tomorrow, junior counselors were getting distributed to different charges and CIT’s were able to sign up for clubs and activities. We talked about our new campers and how excited we were, playing Speed, Spoons, and BS as we gabbed. By 10:30, we were all settled down and fell asleep almost instantly, worn out from such an exciting day.

 

 

***

By noon the next morning, things were going smoothly. Our junior counselor was Striker, a 16 year old who adored soccer. It was a relaxing day, since Striker absolutely adored the girls and the feeling was obviously mutual. The bunnies were crowded around her, asking questions and playing games with her. I had filled out what clubs I wanted to join (hiking, kayaking, polar bear swimming and lanyard-making) and spend most of the day reading my book as the girls had nature class and sport field time. Scath, the nature director, didn’t need too much help from Nara, Striker, and me, and Nara and Striker had sports covered. I had barely any hand eye coordination, and couldn’t run for the life of me. I was much better at sitting on the side lines and helping the bunnies put on sunscreen. I played in a small game of freeze tag and Red Rover toward the end, but other than that I was relaxing and reading in the shade.

Nara noticed this toward the end, and mistook my laziness for boredom, “Wiggy?” Nara called me, tearing me away from my book, “Belinda fell on a rock and got a boo-boo. Would you mind bringing her to Tink?” Tink was one of our two camp nurses. They handled passing out medicine and small cuts and bruises. I nodded to Nara, packed up my book, threw my small backpack over my shoulder, and grabbed Belinda’s hand.

“You’ll be fine,” I assured her, though her knee was covered in blood. I looked away and talked to her softly on the way to the registration building, where Tink was usually stationed.                 The sports field was located on the other side of the road, separated from the rest of the camp. We took the small trail and turned to cross the road, the registration building in site, when I saw a small group of girls huddled around a girl on the ground, who was moaning in pain. I had seen this girl before, and my suspicions became confirmed when one the girls whispered, meekly, “Red?”

Author's Note

tell me what to improve!