Not a Happy Camper Read Online Free PDF

around the circle and repeated her words.
    â€œShe looks sick.”
    â€œShe looks sick.”
    â€œShe looks sick.”
    All of us solemnly repeated the words, like a mantra.
    â€œShe IS sick.”
    â€œShe IS sick.”
    â€œShe IS sick”
    And so forth.
    After three more rounds of false observations, Autumn Evening whispered, “Let’s lift her.”
    Dana’s body rose in the air to our gasps of surprise and delight.
    â€œIt’s really working!” Hallie shouted out.
    â€œShhh, you’ll break the spell,” Autumn Evening admonished.
    â€œOh, c’mon,” said the skinny boy in the Mets cap. “There’s ten of us. That’s forty fingers holding up, like, what, ninety pounds?”
    Dana herself appeared to be in a trance for several moments until she shouted out, “Put me down, I need to pee!”
    We practically dropped her as the counselors returned, turning the lights back on and announcing it was time to leave. In an instant, the mood and the tension were broken, which was okay by me. I was pretty sure I’d made a good first impression on the boys. I hadn’t done anything memorably stupid.
    After a quick goodnight, my bunkmates and I were all safely jammed back inside the Valiant, clown car-style. Maddy put the key in the ignition, turned it, and—nothing. The engine was dead. Not even a cough or a sputter. We’d have to find another way back across the lake.

    â€œWhat about the motorboat?” Autumn Evening suggested.
    â€œI don’t think so,” Maddy said. “There’s a lot of rocks in the lake. It’s dangerous.”
    â€œEspecially when Maddy’s at the wheel,” Dana added.
    â€œIt’s not the wheel,” countered Autumn Evening, who then turned to the rest of us. “She has no idea how to control the speed. It’s kind of exhilarating. You could die at any minute.”
    â€œWhy don’t we walk?” our counselor suggested, mildly insulted, as she popped a fresh Pep-O-Mint Lifesaver into her mouth. She could make those suckers last for hours and I wondered how she resisted biting them.
    We issued a group whine and Maddy left to find us a boat driver. My bunkmates and I sat by the Boys’ Side dock, waiting, when suddenly a vision appeared. He was tall and handsome with curly blond hair, a sixteen-year-old god with a Learner’s Permit. He was Aaron Klafter. He was a new camper. He was from exotic Cheyenne, Wyoming.
    â€œSays he can drive the boat,” Maddy informed us. “We’ll see.”
    Aaron looked at us, shyly, and then at last he spoke: “Hey.”
    No other words were needed. We climbed aboard. Aaron expertly guided the boat across Lake Wallanatchee, the cold wind whipping through his curly locks. When we arrived at the Girls’ Side dock and got out, I thought about flashing him my best smile, but realized it wouldn’t mean much with all the metal in my mouth. With his help, I gracefully stepped out of the boat. Then, once on my own, I tripped.
    Back at the bunk, we got ready for bed, even though this camp didn’t seem to have any notion of a curfew. We would have stayed up all night talking about Aaron, but Maddy went to sleep early. She’d done this all three nights so far, which struck me as odd. Wasn’t the whole point of being a counselor for the evenings off? For hanging out with the rest of the staff and doing things you couldn’t dowhen you were thirteen? I wondered if Maddy was unpopular and had no social life. And was that going to happen to me?
    â€œHey!”
    It was around two in the morning.
    â€œHey, Mindy!”
    Someone was shining a flashlight in my face.
    â€œWe’re going on a raid,” Autumn Evening whispered. “We’re going back to Boys’ Side.”
    I jumped out of bed. A raid! I’d always wanted to go on a raid and here I was.
    Betty was muttering something in her sleep and