Camp Rules! Read online

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  About the Author

  About the Illustrators

  To Mandy and Ian, who live for camp!—NK

  For David and Jason, who built the prettiest

  cabin in the world!—J&W

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Text copyright © 2007 by Nancy Krulik. Illustrations copyright © 2007 by

  John and Wendy. All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a

  division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York,

  New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group

  (USA) Inc. .S.A.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2006033101

  eISBN : 978-1-440-69605-3

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  Chapter 1

  Katie Carew looked down at the note she had just written. Some people might think it was strange that she was sending a postcard to her dog. But Katie didn’t care. She wanted to make sure her cocker spaniel knew she was thinking about him while she was away at camp.

  An older girl with long brown hair and lots of freckles turned around in her seat and looked at Katie. “Is this your first time at sleepaway camp?” she asked her.

  Katie shook her head. “In third grade I went to science camp for three days with my class.”

  The older girl nodded. “I did that in third grade, too,” she said. “But this is different.”

  Katie already knew that. Katie was going to be at Camp Cedar Hill for two whole weeks. That was fourteen days. Three hundred thirty-six hours. Twenty thousand, one hundred sixty minutes. (Katie had figured that out on her calculator.) When you counted up all those minutes, it sure sounded like forever.

  Suddenly, a nervous feeling came over her. It was the same butterflies-in-her-belly feeling she had gotten when she had boarded the camp bus early that morning.

  “Do you have any friends who are going to Cedar Hill?” the older girl asked Katie.

  Katie shook her head. It was why she was sitting alone on the bus. “I don’t know anyone,” Katie told her. She bit her lip. Somehow, saying it out loud made it even scarier.

  The older girl smiled. “My name is Lexi,” she said, holding out her hand. “Now you know someone.”

  Katie grinned. It made her feel a little better to know someone. Not that they would be in the same bunk or anything. After all, Lexi was a lot older than Katie. But at least there would be a familiar face in the mess hall at lunch.

  “I’ve been going to this camp since I was eight,” Lexi told Katie. “You’re going to love it.”

  “I hope so,” Katie told her.

  “Do you like sports?” Lexi asked her.

  Katie nodded. “But I’m not really great at them,” she admitted. “What I really love to do is paint and draw.”

  “Wait until you see the arts-and-crafts shack,” Lexi told her. “It’s so cool. They have a pottery wheel, easels, and lots and lots of lanyard.” She showed Katie the whistle she had on a long pink and black lanyard. “I made this last summer.”

  “It’s pretty,” Katie said to her.

  “We should be there soon,” Lexi told Katie. “I just saw the sign for Charlie’s Candy Store. That’s about a mile from camp. Last year we stopped there during our hike and bought penny candy.”

  “Yum!” Katie exclaimed.

  Bump. Thump. Bump. The bus moved up and down as it turned onto an old dirt-and-gravel road.

  “We’re here, because we’re here, because we’re here, because we’re here!” Lexi started singing with a bunch of other kids.

  Katie knew that song. Her best friend Jeremy Fox had taught it to her when their class had gone to science camp.

  Jeremy. Suddenly Katie missed him a whole lot. She wished he were going to this camp with her, too.

  But of course, that was impossible. Jeremy was a boy. Camp Cedar Hill was just for girls.

  The bus climbed up a steep hill and stopped by a big field. Katie looked out the window. There were brown wooden cabins all around her. In the distance she could see tennis courts and a lake.

  “This is it,” Lexi told her excitedly. “Camp Cedar Hill.”

  Kids on the bus started cheering. Katie lifted up her backpack and followed Lexi off the bus. A group of counselors were there to greet the girls as they arrived.

  “What’s your name?” a tall, dark-haired counselor asked Katie.

  “Katie Carew,” Katie replied nervously.

  “Oh goodie, she’s mine!” Suddenly a small, thin counselor with a long blond ponytail came bounding over toward Katie. “Hi there, Bumblebee!” she greeted her.

  Katie looked at her strangely. “Bumblebee?”

  “That’s the name of our cabin,” the blond counselor said. “We’re the Bumblebees. Be careful . . . we sting!” She grabbed Katie and gave her a big bear hug. “I’m Shannon, your counselor.”

  Katie’s eyes opened wide with surprise. Her counselor sure had a lot of energy!

  “Come on, the rest of the Bumblebees are already buzzing around the hive,” Shannon told Katie. “You’ll like them. They’re really nice girls.”

  Katie nodded. She sure hoped so. It would be awful to be trapped in a cabin for twenty thousand, one hundred sixty minutes with girls who weren’t nice.

  “Your trunk arrived yesterday,” Shannon continued. “So you can settle in.”

  Katie nodded, but she didn’t say anything. Shannon was talking enough for both of them, anyway.

  Chapter 2

  “We’ve got a new Bum
blebee here!” Shannon announced, flinging open the wooden door and walking into the cabin.

  Katie looked around nervously. The cabin was small, with three sets of bunk beds pushed up against the walls. Beside each pair of bunk beds was a double cubby.

  “Everybody, this is Katie,” Shannon said, introducing her. “Katie, this is everybody.”

  Katie frowned. That wasn’t very helpful.

  “Hi, I’m Rainbow,” a small girl with a long light brown ponytail said, coming over to greet Katie.

  “Your name is Rainbow?” Katie blurted out, surprised. Then she blushed. She hadn’t meant to hurt the girl’s feelings.

  But Rainbow didn’t seem the least bit upset. “My parents say a rainbow is the most beautiful thing in the whole world,” she explained calmly. “That’s why they gave me the name.”

  A tall girl with short dark hair snorted. Then Katie saw her make a face. Katie stared at her in amazement.

  “Oh, just ignore her,” a girl with curly brown ringlets and silver braces on her teeth said to Rainbow and Katie. “Alicia’s always in a bad mood.”

  Katie nodded. Okay, so the mean girl’s name must be Alicia.

  “I’m Gianna,” the girl with the braces introduced herself.

  “Did you and Alicia go to camp together before?” Katie asked, wondering how Gianna knew all about her.

  Gianna nodded. “We were both here last summer. This is my third year at Camp Cedar Hill. It’s only Alicia’s second.”

  “And last,” Alicia groaned. “I told my mother if I got stuck in the baby Bumblebee bunk, I wasn’t coming back here ever again. And here I am.”

  “We’re babies?” Gianna argued. “You’re younger than I am.”

  “Whatever,” Alicia said as she continued to unpack her trunk.

  “You can have the top bunk,” a girl with long beaded earrings and straight strawberry blond hair called to Katie from across the bunk.

  “Okay,” Katie replied. She stepped over the open trunks and duffel bags until she reached the bed.

  “I’m Chelsea,” the girl with the earrings told her. “I took that side of the cubby. I hope you don’t mind.”

  Katie looked over toward the double cubby beside her new bed. Chelsea had already unpacked most of her clothes, her shampoo, soap, and . . . wow!

  “You have your own blow-dryer?” Katie asked her in amazement.

  “Of course,” Chelsea told her. “I never go anywhere without it. My hair gets all crazy and wild if I don’t blow-dry it.”

  Katie smiled at Chelsea. “Your hair does look nice,” she told her.

  “Thanks,” Chelsea replied. “You can use my dryer sometimes if you like.”

  “Wow!” Katie exclaimed. “Thanks.”

  Katie pulled her sheets and blankets from her duffel bag and began making her bed. She looked across the way at Rainbow, who also had a top bunk. She was busy tying something to the rafters above her bed.

  “What’s that?” Katie asked her.

  “It’s a quartz crystal,” Rainbow said, moving to the side so Katie could get a better look at the small clear rock she was hanging above her head. “If you hang it above you, it’s supposed to give you positive energy.”

  “Oh please,” Alicia groaned.

  “Ignore her,” Gianna reminded Rainbow.

  “Don’t worry. I’m fine,” Rainbow said. “Nothing is going to ruin my summer. I can’t wait to get out there and be around all this nature. I sure hope we get to camp out one night and sleep under the stars.”

  “With all these bugs?” Chelsea gasped. “Not me. I’ll sleep in here—behind all the screened-in windows.”

  Katie giggled. “You remind me of my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Derkman,” she told Chelsea. “She’s really afraid of bugs. You should have seen her when we went on our science-camp trip. She had a million cans of bug spray with her.”

  “Did it help?” Gianna asked.

  Katie nodded. “The bugs stayed away. But she got poison ivy instead!”

  Gianna, Chelsea, and Rainbow all laughed, hearing that.

  “I hate to break up the gabfest, girls,” Shannon said with a smile. “But it’s time to head over to the mess hall for some lunch.”

  “I hope it’s something good,” Rainbow said.

  “You wish!” Alicia groaned.

  Katie gulped. “No, she doesn’t. She doesn’t wish anything!” she shouted out.

  The girls in the bunk all stared at her.

  “What’s wrong with wishes?” Rainbow asked her, looking puzzled.

  Katie frowned. What was wrong with wishes?

  A lot.

  Chapter 3

  It all started one horrible day back in third grade. Katie had lost the football game for her team. Then she’d splashed mud all over her favorite jeans. But the worst part of the day came when Katie let out a loud burp—right in front of the whole class. It had been so embarrassing!

  That night, Katie wished to be anyone but herself. There must have been a shooting star overhead when she made the wish, because the very next day the magic wind came.

  The magic wind was like a really powerful tornado that blew only around Katie. It was so strong, it could blow her right out of her body . . . and into someone else’s!

  The first time the magic wind appeared, it turned Katie into Speedy, the hamster in her third-grade class. Katie spent the whole morning going round and round on a hamster wheel and chewing on Speedy’s wooden chew sticks. They tasted terrible, but Katie couldn’t help herself. That’s what hamsters did.

  The magic wind didn’t just turn Katie into animals, though. One time it came and turned her into T-Jon, the rapper in the Bayside Boys. Katie wasn’t very good at writing rap music. She’d almost broken up her favorite music group!

  And that wasn’t the only time the magic wind had caused a musical mess. At the beginning of fourth grade, the magic wind had turned Katie into Mr. Starkey, the school music teacher. The school band had never sounded as bad as when Katie was conducting! It was so awful that all the new kids in the band wanted to quit.

  And then there was the time the magic wind came to the Cherrydale Mall and—one, two, switcheroo—changed Katie into Cinnamon, the owner of the candy store. Katie had almost ruined Valentine’s Day for everyone by putting the wrong messages on the candy hearts. By the time Cinnamon turned back into herself, everyone was mad at her, and at each other. But Cinnamon couldn’t remember why.

  That was one of the weird things about the magic wind. The people Katie turned into never really remembered too much about what had happened to them.

  But Katie never forgot. Which was why she hated wishes so much.

  Right now the kids in the bunk were all staring at her, waiting for some explanation of why she had shouted like that. But Katie couldn’t tell them the truth. They’d never believe her. Katie wouldn’t have believed it, either, if it hadn’t kept happening to her.

  “I just meant that we’re all so hungry, we’ll eat anything they put in front of us,” Katie explained to her new bunkmates.

  There. That sounded sort of believable.

  “It’ll be pizza bagels,” Gianna told her. “It’s always pizza bagels on the first day.”

  “What are pizza bagels?” Chelsea asked.

  “They put some cheese and tomato on top of a half a bagel and then cook it in the oven,” Gianna explained. “They’re kind of soggy, but not too awful.”

  “Oh good,” Rainbow said. “I’m glad it’s just cheese and sauce. I don’t eat meat.”

  “Me neither,” Katie told her excitedly. “I’m a vegetarian. I don’t eat anything that ever had a face.”

  Rainbow grinned. “I think we’re going to be good pals,” she told Katie.

  Katie smiled back. She’d been at camp for only a few minutes, and she’d already made a friend. This was going to be an amazing two weeks. She was sure of it.

  Chapter 4

  “Oh goodie!” Gianna exclaimed as she sat down at the square wood
en table marked “Bumblebees” in the mess hall. “Grape bug juice.”

  “Bug juice!” Chelsea blurted out, jumping up from the bench. “I’m not drinking anything made with bugs.”

  Alicia laughed so hard, she snorted. “Oh, come on,” she said. “Everyone drinks bugs at camp.”

  “Stop teasing her,” Katie told Alicia.

  “There are no bugs in the juice,” Gianna assured Chelsea. “It’s just called that. It’s really just a sugary fruit punch.”

  “Oh, good,” Chelsea said, pouring some of the purple drink into the plastic cup on her tray.

  “Hey, girls, you’re awfully quiet,” Shannon said as she sat down on the bench beside Rainbow. “Where’s your Bumblebee spirit?”

  “I left it on the bus,” Alicia grumbled. “Along with my candy wrappers.”

  Shannon ignored her and smiled at the rest of the girls. “I feel a cheer coming on!” she said suddenly. “We are the Bumblebees, couldn’t be prouder . . .”

  “And if you can’t hear us, we’ll shout a little louder!” Gianna added. She obviously knew the cheer from last summer. “We are the Bumblebees . . .”

  “Couldn’t be prouder!” Katie said, joining in. “And if you can’t hear us, we’ll shout a little louder!”

  Before long, all the girls in the mess hall were cheering. It was so loud, Katie could barely make out the names of the other cabins. She thought she heard names like the Sunflowers, the Stingrays, and the Blue Jays, though.

  “WE ARE THE BUMBLEBEES,

  COULDN’T BE PROUDER!” Katie shouted.

  “I’ve never gone swimming in a lake before,” Rainbow said as she slipped into her yellow-and-green flowered swimsuit after rest hour was over. “Do you think there are fish in there?”

  “There are,” Gianna told her. “Plenty of ’em.”

  “I’ve got my goggles,” Katie said, holding them up. “That way I can open my eyes underwater. Maybe I’ll come face-to-face with a fish.”

  “I can make a fish face,” Rainbow told her. She sucked in her cheeks and squished her lips in and out.