We were quiet for a while, and we took turns going out in pairs, to wash up. First the four of us, then Laura and Sally. I couldn’t get the goo out of my hair, and Jennifer helped me to wash that part with cold water, but it still felt icky. We talked about Sally, and decided that we owed it to ourselves to behave better than she had. So we’ll behave nicely to her, while she’s stuck with us and we’re stuck with her.
After we snuggled into our sleeping bags we just lay there not saying anything for a few minutes. Then someone giggled and we all started giggling. We started telling jokes and even if they weren’t so funny we laughed like it was going out of style. Maybe we were a little nervous, being in a cabin in the middle of nowhere and all that, and maybe even wolves were wandering around outside. It was awfully dark in there. Every now and then Donna would shine her flashlight at one of us and we’d yell at her.
None of us felt sleepy, although it was nice, in a way, lying there. Our noses got pretty cold, but not the rest of us. We decided to tell scare stories, and Jennifer told the first one, then me, then Donna, then Diane and Laura. Some of them were pretty scary.
Sally didn’t want to tell one, but we told her she had to, and she told us one about a ghost hand that appears in a window in a cabin in the woods all dripping blood and goes to look for a victim. It was the scariest story of all of them, and we all shivered in our sleeping bags. She ended the story by yelling, “and there it is!”, and she beamed her flashlight at the window at the end of the cabin and we all screamed.
Mr. Henderson came by on a patrol or something, and he opened the cabin door and said, “What’s going on, girls?”. We were so relieved to see him! We told him what we had been doing and he laughed and told us that this camp was strictly and officially off limits to bloody hands.
It seemed like forever, before we finally fell asleep, and I was glad to, because I felt so tired. I woke up once, and it was really quiet and black, and I could see stars through the window, and someone was snoring. I think it was Donna. Then I fell back asleep.
In the morning I woke up after Jennifer and then the others woke up. We just lay there in the bags, talking and we didn’t want to get up because it was really cold! The birds were singing outside, and it sounded beautiful. It smelled pretty good too, once you got above the mattress smell.
We heard someone going down the path and then Mr. Henderson’s voice called out, “up and at ‘em, breakfast’s in ten minutes!” I know I sure was hungry. My growling stomach told me so. Everyone was, I guess. Because we all squirmed out of our sleeping bags and jumped around trying to keep warm while we got dressed. Then we ran out to the privy, and had to run back in to get our jackets. And then the bell gonged.
Kids were running from all over the place, and shivering too, even with their jackets on. We had our choice of corn flakes or rice crispies, or cooked oatmeal for breakfast. And orange juice and hot chocolate, and toast. We made the toast ourselves, because the cook was busy doing the other things. Half of us had cooked cereal, because we were so cold. And it was really good! I think I had as much brown sugar, though, as oatmeal. It sure warmed us up.
Everyone was cheerful and friendly. Funny, even the stuck-ups seemed to behave nicely to everyone else. Not like at school. I guess they’re not so bad, after all. They’re older than us, and I guess maybe that makes a difference.
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