Free Camp Rules! by Nancy Krulik

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