Camp Nowhere Read Online Free PDF

a tree.
    As I struggled to get my balance, I heard an angry buzzing sound. I jumped back.
    Something shot past my ear, buzzing loudly.
    Insects? Two more. Five more. I couldn’t count them. They swarmed around my face.
    I slapped the air with my hand. Tried to brush them away.
    The droning buzz became an angry roar.
    “Wasps!” I heard Charlotte cry from behind me.
    “Russell knocked over a wasps’ nest!” Marty shouted.
    A dozen wasps darted in rapid circles around me. I felt one in my hair. Wasps buzzed over my head. Several landed on my T-shirt, wings flitting too fast to see.
    Zzzzzzzzzzz . It sounded like a buzz saw.
    The wasps darted and jabbed against my face, my bare arms. I tried to swat them away.
    “Don’t move!” Ramos called. “Stand perfectly still. Wait till they calm down.”
    I froze with my arms tight at my sides. It wasn’t easy. The wasps circled, darting and spinning.
    I shut my eyes. I gritted my teeth so hard, my jaw ached.
    “Are you allergic?” Ramos called. “Russell—are you allergic to wasp stings?”
    “I—I don’t know,” I choked out. “I’ve never been stung before.”
    And then I cried out as I felt a sharp, stinging pain—like a knife stab—in the side of my neck.

10
    YAAAAIIIIII!
    I wanted to scream. I wanted to wail and shriek my head off.
    But I didn’t.
    I was proud of that. I think maybe that’s one reason no one teased me about the wasps later.
    The sting swelled only a little bit. It itched a lot. But the cream that Ramos spread over it kept it from really hurting.
    “You were lucky,” Ramos said later as we paddled along the river, the current pulling us easily. “All those wasps and only one sting. The others must have decided that you wrecked their nest by accident.”
    I forced a weak laugh. “I guess.”
    “You were brave the way you just froze there and let them climb all over you,” Charlotte said. She shuddered. “Just thinking about it gives me the creeps.”
    The river picked up speed. We took turns paddling. The sun tried to come out a few times. But itcouldn’t break through the high clouds.
    My neck was throbbing and I felt a little dizzy by the time Ramos announced it was time to stop for the day. We pulled the canoes to a wide, grassy area on the shore.
    Then we carried the tents and other supplies across the grass to a flat, dry circle surrounded by tall trees. I saw a rabbit watching us from the edge of the woods. Two squawking blue jays swooped through the low branches of the trees.
    The air carried a chill. The sky darkened to charcoal gray.
    “We need lots of firewood,” Ramos instructed. “After we cook our food, we’ll want to keep the fire going for warmth. Get going, guys.”
    He set to work on the tents. The five of us made our way into the woods.
    I was walking with David and Marty. But when I bent down to pick up some long twigs, they wandered away. I saw the two girls on the other side of a clump of tall reeds. They were struggling to pick up a fat log from the ground.
    “Russell—find any wasps’ nests?” Marty called.
    “Not yet!” I shouted back.
    “We’re staying as far away from you as we can,” David said.
    Erin said something, but I couldn’t hear her. I was staring at something caught in the brambles of a low bush.
    At first I thought it was a small white bird. But bending down, I saw that it was an arrow. A stone arrowhead with a wooden shaft and a long white feather attached. “Weird,” I muttered.
    I picked it up to study it. Was it an Indian arrow?
    “Hey—check this out!” Charlotte called. Carrying the arrow, I hurried over to her. She held up a small brown object. “I found it resting against that tree.”
    “A doll?” I asked.
    She nodded. “It’s made of some kind of leather. And it’s wearing a long dress, all fringed. It’s an Indian papoose.”
    “It’s a Native American papoose,” Erin corrected her, taking it from Charlotte.
    I showed them the feathered arrow. “Remember?