My Extra Best Friend (3 page)

Mom gives Dad a frown. But I can tell it’s just a costume for a grin.

“Grab your pillow, Ida,” Mom says, tossing my sleeping bag to Dad. “Then head out.” She picks up my suitcase. “I’ll catch up in a minute. It’ll give Dad time to tell you how to booby-trap a cabin door.”

Dad’s eyes brighten. “I almost forgot!”

He tucks my sleeping bag under his arm and draws me into the crook of the other. “You’ll need some rope, Ida…a bucket of water…and the help of a friend.”

I grab my pillow and take one last look around.

Sunny walls.

Gurgling fish tank.

Cluttered desk.

I see the picture of Stacey and Jenna that’s sitting on my dresser.

I smile, happy I’m bringing them along too.

Everyone is already at Jenna’s house when we get there. All my friends, plus their parents. Mrs.
Drews is driving us to Camp Meadowlark. Don’t ask me how the boys are getting there. Hitchhiking, maybe.

“Leave your things with Mr. Drews,” Mrs. Drews tells us. “He will pack the van.”

Mom and Dad add my suitcase and sleeping bag to the pile of stuff Mr. Drews is standing over. They chat with him for a minute and then start talking with the other parents. I wait to give Mr. Drews my pillow.

“Be careful with this one, Paul,” Mrs. Morgan says, pulling a big pink suitcase up to Mr. Drews and parking it in front of me. “Brooke’s pageant crown and sash are inside. We wouldn’t want to damage the rhinestones!”

“Why does Brooke need her pageant stuff?” I ask.

Mrs. Morgan gives me a blank look. “For the talent show, of course. Camps always have them.” She looks at Mr. Drews. “Don’t they?”

“Sometimes,” he replies, letting Brooke’s suitcase
thunk
into the van’s hatch.

Mrs. Morgan frowns at Mr. Drews, then turns to me again. “What are you talented at,
Ida? Singing? Acting? Dancing, like Brooke?”

I think for a moment. “I can draw.”

Mrs. Morgan pauses like she’s waiting for more information. “That’s it?” she finally says. “What will you do?
Sketch
the audience?”

She laughs lightly.

I lift my shoulder. “If they hold still.”

Mr. Drews chuckles.

Mrs. Morgan squeezes my arm. “Talk to Brooke, dear. She’ll help you think of something you’re good at.”

I smile politely at Mrs. Morgan. And make a face when she walks away.

“Is she right?” I ask, turning to Mr. Drews. “We have to do a talent show at camp?”

Mr. Drews takes my pillow and squishes it into a corner. “It’s just for parents at the end of the week. Silly skits, jokes. Everyone sings the Camp Meadowlark theme song.” He leans in a little. “Most kids don’t wear crowns.”

I nod, relieved. I don’t mind singing songs and doing silly skits as long as I’m with my friends.

Mr. Drews lifts my suitcase into the van.
Then he pulls his wallet from his back pocket and takes a photo from it. “I used to work at Camp Meadowlark,” he says, handing the picture to me. “Almost twenty years ago now, but it hasn’t changed much. Camper cabins. Dining hall. Crafts cottage. Ball field. That’s pretty much it, except for the beach and lots of woods all around.”

I study the faded picture. Two people standing by a lake. Round Lake, I bet. I squint, but I can’t see any snapping turtles in the sand. “Is that you?” I ask, pointing to the man.

“Mmm-hmm,” Mr. Drews says. “Minus the beard. And a few pounds.” He chuckles again.

“Who’s that?” I point to the other person in the picture, a girl holding a clipboard. “Jenna?”

Mr. Drews laughs. “No, Jenna wasn’t born yet. That’s Mrs. Drews. We both worked there.”

“With her clipboard, she looks exactly like Jenna,” I say. “Only taller.”

Mr. Drews nods and tucks the picture back into his wallet. “There’s no mistaking where Jenna’s love of organization came from.”

“Dad, aren’t you done
yet
?” Jenna marches up
to us. “If we don’t get going, those
other
girls will get the best bunks.”

Jenna checks her watch and taps a pencil against the clipboard she’s carrying. She’s wearing a Camp Meadowlark T-shirt. The one she got last summer. Her hair is in two braids, like always. Bright red ladybug barrettes are clipped above them. The ones I bought for her.

Mr. Drews grins at Jenna. Then he looks at me. “Ready, Ida?”

I take a big breath. “For anything.”

“Good-bye!” Rachel cries as we pile into the van a few minutes later. “Write to me, Jenna! Catch me a frog!”

“There’re
frogs
at this place?” Brooke says, scooting in next to Stacey.

“Duh-huh,” Jenna replies, buckling the seatbelt that’s next to mine. “That’s why they call it
nature
camp.”

Brooke does a fake gasp. “
Nature
camp? I thought we were going to
nacho
camp. Obviously, I’m in the wrong van.”

Everyone laughs.

“Too late,” Mrs. Drews says, pulling away
from the curb. “Camp Meadowlark or bust!”

Meeka pulls a camera out of her hoodie pocket. She turns it on and looks at us through the screen.

“Say
cheese
!”

We squish together.

“Cheese!”

Click!

“How much farther?” Brooke complains as we carry our stuff down a wooded path, past a row of little brown cabins. Sparrow. Bluebird. Hawk. Each cabin’s name is painted on a sign above its front door. The boys’ cabins have bird names too. We saw them on the way to the dining hall, where we registered. “My arms are stretching longer than my legs!”

Brooke stops to shift her sleeping bag and pillow, then starts pulling her big pink suitcase on its little wheels again.

“I told you to pack light,” Jenna chirps.

Brooke grumbles. “I don’t see why your mother couldn’t stick around long enough to help me carry everything.
My
mom would have.” Mrs. Drews left after we signed in.

“My mother doesn’t believe in long good-byes,” Jenna says. “Besides, I know where our cabin is. I know where
everything
is.”

“Where’s the bathroom?” Randi asks.

“Yeah,” Stacey says. “I drank a gallon of soda on the way here.”

“Me too,” Meeka adds.

“And me,” Jolene chimes in.

“There’s a bathroom in our cabin,” Jenna tells them.

“
One
bathroom?” Brooke’s face sags almost as much as her backpack. “But there are
seven
of us.”

“Ten,”
I correct her. “Us, our counselor, and the other two. Cee Cee and Liz.”

Randi sighs. “Ten girls, one bathroom. I hope someone packed diapers.”

Everyone giggles.

Except Brooke.

“We’re here,” Jenna announces, stopping in front of Chickadee cabin. It’s small and brown, like the other cabins we’ve walked past. A big pot of red flowers sits on the front step.
Welcome!
is written on it. A banner by the front door flutters in the breeze. A chubby bird with gray wings and
a black-and-white head is painted on it. A chickadee, I bet.

The screen door creaks open and a girl steps out. She looks a little older than Brooke’s sister, Jade. She’s wearing a Camp Meadowlark T-shirt just like Jenna’s, only her shirt has
Staff
printed on it. Khaki shorts. Clunky sandals. Her hair is pulled back in a frizzy ponytail.

“Welcome, Chickadees!” the girl sings, giving each of us a warm smile. “I’m Alex, your counselor.”

Jenna steps forward. “I’m Jenna,” she says. “That’s Ida,” she continues, glancing over her shoulder, “and Randi, Meeka, Jolene, Brooke, and Stacey.” She looks at Alex again. “They’re new. I’m not.”

Alex’s smile fades a little. Then she turns it up a notch. “Great!” she says. “An expert camper.”

Jenna nods, then pulls out her clipboard. “I made a shower schedule on the way here. It’s alphabetical. You’re first.”

Jenna holds the schedule up for Alex to see.

“That’s very…helpful, Jenna,” Alex replies. “I’ll look at it later. First, I want to meet the other girls!”

Alex goes from girl to girl, practicing our names. She must be really smart, because it only takes her two tries to memorize us.

“Come on in and choose a bed,” Alex says, holding open the cabin door. “Top. Bottom. Whatever you like. Just leave a bunk for Cee Cee and Liz. They should be here soon.”

Brooke grabs the handle on her giant suitcase. “Excuse me,” she says, barging past us and lugging her stuff up the steps. “I hear a top bunk calling my name.”

When everyone is inside we stop and look around. A bed with a colorful quilt is just inside the doorway, in a little room separate from the rest of the cabin. Stuffed animals sit along it in a neat row. A desk stands next to the bed. Jars of pens and pencils. Pads of paper. Books. A laptop. Watercolor paintings are tacked to the wall above the desk. Trees. Flowers. Birds. One of the birds looks just like the chickadee on the banner outside.
Alex must be an artist, like me,
I say to myself.

“This is where Alex lives,” Jenna announces.

“No kidding,” Randi mumbles.

“The bathroom is through there.” Jenna points to a door across from Alex’s bed.

“First dibs!” Randi hollers.

“Second!” Jolene adds quickly.

“Third!”

“Fourth!”

I peek through a doorway into another, bigger room. It’s bare except for five bunk beds—three on one side, two on the other. A window is on each of the side walls, and another screen door leads out the back. All I can see through it are trees.

“Home sweet home,” Randi says, nabbing a top bunk, then heading into the bathroom. Stacey takes the next one over. Meeka and Jolene grab the bottom bunks underneath Randi and Stacey.

“Nine campers, ten beds? I’ll take two.” Brooke tosses her sleeping bag onto the top bunk that’s closest to Stacey’s, and parks her suitcase by the bed underneath it.

She looks around, frowning. “Where’s my dresser? And my closet?”

“At home,” Jenna replies, claiming a top bunk across the aisle from Brooke and the others.

Brooke grumbles, squirming off her fat backpack
and letting it fall onto her bottom bunk.

Whump!

“If there’s no closet, where am I supposed to hide my—” Brooke pauses, making sure Alex is still talking with the other girls as they wait to use the bathroom. “My…you know…my
stuff
?” She glances at her snack-filled backpack.

Jenna climbs onto her bunk and peers down at Brooke like a grumpy pirate in a crow’s nest. “You were supposed to leave your
stuff
at home.”

Brooke purses her lips and flicks back her ponytail. “I give you two days, Jenna Drews,” she quips. “Then you’ll be begging me for a share of the—”

Giggly laughter floats through the open window by Brooke’s bunks. She darts to it, pulls back the colorful curtain, and gawks out.

“Ohmy
gosh
!” Brooke squeals. “Girls!”

Jenna rolls her eyes. “
Duh
-mazing,” she sasses.

“There’re six of them,” Brooke continues. “Older than us.
Killer
cute swimsuits. One of them has gorgeously long hair. Seriously, she could star in her own TV show! I have
got
to meet her.”

Alex looks over. “They must be our neighbors,” she says. “Hawks.”

“Hawks?”
Jenna says. “Great.” Only she doesn’t say it in a great way.

“What’s wrong with Hawks?” I ask, setting my pillow on the bunk that’s under Jenna’s.

“They have sharp beaks and talons,” Jenna explains. “And I’m not talking about the birds.”

“They look very friendly to
me,
” Brooke says, pulling Stacey in for a look.

I start unrolling my sleeping bag.

Jenna watches me for a moment. “What are you doing? Take a top bunk. That one.” She points to the empty bunk across from us. Then she leans in. “We can whisper after lights-out. Leave the bottom beds for Cee Cee and Liz.”

I pull my suitcase onto my bed and unzip it. “I’m not used to sleeping so high up,” I say. “George might—I mean
I
might—get altitude sickness.”

“But how are we going to—”

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Jenna suddenly stops talking and pushes a button on her watch. She lifts her chin and zeros in on Alex. “It’s time for our swim test,” she announces, hopping down from her bunk and marching over to our counselor.

Alex looks at the watch she’s wearing. “I was hoping the other girls would get here first,” she says. “But it
is
getting late.” She looks at Jenna. “You know the way to the beach, right? If you show the other girls, I can stop by the registration table and check on Cee Cee and Liz.”

Jenna straightens up and gives Alex a very serious nod. Her hand twitches like it wants to salute. “Swimsuits
on,
” she barks, turning to the rest of us. “We leave for the beach in
five minutes
!”

Randi clicks her heels and stands at attention. “Yessss, sir!” Then she yanks a swimsuit from her duffel bag.

“Quick, Stacey!” Brooke says, flying to her suitcase. “Get changed. I want to catch up with those Hawks!”

“Seriously?” Jolene says, stepping out of the bathroom as Randi ducks in to change. “You saw a hawk? They’re amazing! Did you know some can see a mouse from a half mile away?”

“I’m not talking about the stupid birds,” Brooke says, digging through her suitcase, grabbing her swimsuit, then ducking behind the beach towel Stacey is holding up like a curtain. “I’m talking
about the Hawk girls. Sixth graders. Maybe even seventh!”

“Oh,” Jolene says disappointedly. She loves animals like Brooke loves killer cute swimsuits.

Zip! Zip! Zip!

Everyone starts pulling out swimsuits and towels and flip-flops. Pink. Purple. Striped. Flowered.

I unzip my suitcase too, happy that I remembered to pack my one-piece on top even if it won’t make me an Olympic swimmer.

But when I open my suitcase, I do a very surprised gasp.

Not because George has wiggled to the top, which he has.

Something else is on top too.

A new two-piece swimsuit!

Plus, a note.