Adventures at Camp Lots-o-Fun

by Marilyn Helmer

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  Text copyright © 2010 Marilyn Helmer

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 Mike Deas

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in

  any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,

  recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be

  invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Helmer, Marilyn

  Adventures at Camp Lots-o-fun / written by Marilyn Helmer ; illustrated

  by Mike Deas.

  (Orca echoes)

  Also available in an electronic format.

  ISBN 978-1-55469-347-4

  I. Deas, Mike, 1982- II. Title. III. Series: Orca echoes.

  PS8565.E4594A73 2010 jC813'.54 C2010-903523-2

  First published in the United States, 2010

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2010928734

  Summary: DJ’s wild imagination takes the boys in Cabin Six by surprise

  and makes for an adventurous, fun-filled week at summer camp.

  Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs

  provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund

  and the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Province of British Columbia

  through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

  Orca Book Publishers is dedicated to preserving the environment and has printed this book

  on paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

  Typesetting by Teresa Bubela

  Cover artwork and interior illustrations by Mike Deas

  Author photo by Gary Helmer

  ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

  PO BOX 5626, STN. B PO BOX 468

  VICTORIA, BC CANADA CUSTER, WA USA

  V8R 6S4 98240-0468

  www.orcabook.com

  Printed and bound in Canada.

  13 12 11 10 • 4 3 2 1

  To Cameron, Riley and Andrew,

  three very adventurous guys. —M.H.

  Contents

  Chapter One: Camp Not-so-Fun

  Chapter Two: Bear Scare!

  Chapter Three: Barely Escaped

  Chapter Four: Sockster

  Chapter Five: Something Fishy

  Chapter Six: A Surprise

  Chapter Seven: Hermit Island

  Chapter Eight: Noises in the Night

  Chapter Nine: Pillow Fight

  Chapter Ten: Creepy Crawler

  Chapter Eleven: Stargazing

  Chapter Twelve: Power Man to the Rescue

  Chapter Thirteen: Lots-o-Fun Day

  Chapter Fourteen: Something Lost

  Chapter Fifteen: Going Home

  CHAPTER ONE

  CAMP NOT-SO-FUN

  DJ sat on the bottom bunk, chewing the end of his pencil. He read over what he had written.

  Dear Lots-o-Fun Journal,

  Here I am at Camp Lots-o-Fun. Me and the other guys in Cabin Six call it Camp Not-so-Fun. It’s on Great Bear Lake. But we can’t go swimming or canoeing or any of that fun stuff. It’s been raining since we got here. Some of the puddles are so big there are creepy crawlers in them. There are bugs and mosquitoes all over the place!

  Chris sprayed our cabin with Bug-Be-Gone. He’s our counselor. His hair is so long he wears it in a ponytail. He has big muscles too. He showed us his biceps. They look like boulders. You don’t want to mess with Chris. I hope the Bug-Be-Gone works. I saw a cockroach in the dining hall this morning. Raj said it was a cricket, but he didn’t have his glasses on. I know a cockroach when I see one.

  Buggily yours,

  DJ

  DJ looked at the other boys in Cabin Six. Raj, Ernie and Andrew were sprawled on the floor, making their journals. DJ had finished his yesterday. He had also made a monkey mask, a bucket hat and a rock paperweight. He was tired of crafts.

  DJ glanced at the rain-streaked window. Wait a minute. Something yellow peeked through the trees. DJ shot to his feet. “The sun’s out!” he shouted.

  Chris opened the door. “Looks like it’s clearing up. Get your rain gear, guys. We’re going for a hike.”

  The boys scrambled for their jackets and boots. DJ rummaged through his duffel bag. His fingers touched something soft. He started to pull it out. When he realized it wasn’t his rain jacket, he shoved it back into his bag.

  “DJ, hurry up. We’re waiting to go,” said Andrew. He swiped his dark hair off his forehead.

  “I’m looking for my rain jacket,” said DJ. He remembered taking the jacket out of his bag to pack something else. Something he had decided to bring at the last minute. But had he remembered to put his jacket back in?

  “You did bring a jacket, right?” Chris asked.

  “I think I forgot it,” said DJ.

  “There’s a Lost and Found in the dining hall,” said Chris. “See if you can find something there.”

  The Lost and Found was crammed full. DJ found a jacket among the jumble and pulled it out.

  The jacket was bright green. Across the front, in big letters, were the words Girl Power. DJ groaned. He couldn’t wear that jacket. The guys would laugh at him.

  DJ stared at the letters. He dashed to the supply cupboard and grabbed a roll of red tape. He taped over the word Girl. Then he taped the word Man after Power.

  “Did you find something?” Chris asked through the screen door.

  “Yup,” DJ shouted back. He shrugged into the jacket and ran outside. “Meet—Power Man!” he said, pumping his fists in the air.

  CHAPTER TWO

  BEAR SCARE!

  The hike was fun, even if the woods were wet.

  DJ led the way. His red hair was curlier than usual from the dampness. It stuck out the sides of his baseball cap. DJ didn’t care. He liked his hair the way it was.

  Thoughts raced through DJ’s mind. He could climb the tallest tree. He could leap over the biggest rock. Power Man wasn’t afraid of anything.

  DJ spotted an empty bird’s nest, high in an old dead tree. “Power Man can climb up and get it,” he said.

  “No way,” said Chris. “I want Power Man on the ground where I can keep an eye on him.”

  DJ sighed. What was the fun of being Power Man if he couldn’t do any power stuff?

  The boys stopped to rest in a grassy clearing. Chris passed out juice boxes and granola bars.

  Andrew sat across from DJ, gobbling down his granola bar. DJ thought Andrew had the biggest teeth he had ever seen. No wonder he could eat so fast.

  “Let’s play I Spy,” said Andrew, brushing crumbs from his mouth. “I’ll go first. I spy something that begins with the letter B.”

  Everyone took turns guessing. “Nope,” Andrew said each time. “It’s your turn, DJ. I bet you won’t guess it either.”

  DJ wasn’t listening. He stared into the woods. Something was moving among the trees. Something very big. Something very hairy. Something very, very scary.

  “Bear!” shouted DJ.

  Andrew snickered. “Dumb guess. I don’t see any bears around here.”

  DJ pointed to the trees. “Then what’s that?”

  Four pairs of eyes followed DJ’s finger. Something was moving among the trees. Something very big. Something very hairy. Something very, very scary.

  DJ shot to his feet. “It’s a bear. Run for your life!”

  The boys took off in a screaming, screeching scramble. “Wait! Stop! Come back!” Chris shouted after them. “There are no bears around here.”

&
nbsp; Nobody waited. Nobody stopped. Nobody came back. The boys from Cabin Six raced toward Camp Lots-o-Fun as fast as their legs could carry them.

  CHAPTER THREE

  BARELY ESCAPED

  The boys burst through the trees at the end of the path.

  Another group of campers was heading out for a hike.

  “Run! Run! There’s a humongous bear chasing us,” DJ said as they raced past the startled group.

  When they reached the cabin, DJ slammed the door behind them. “We’re safe,” he gasped. “That old bear can’t get us in here.”

  “Hold on.” Ernie’s voice squeaked. His short spiky blond hair stood up like a bristle brush. “Where is Chris?”

  Suddenly the door flew open. Chris staggered in. His jacket was torn. His jeans were muddy. His face was streaked with dirt.

  Raj’s eyes widened. “Did you get in a fight with the bear?”

  “No, I did not.” Chris stopped to catch his breath. “There was no bear. It was only a big dog.”

  “But I saw it,” said DJ. “It was humongous. Like fifty feet tall. It had claws like daggers and huge hungry teeth.”

  Chris sank into a chair. “What you saw, DJ, was a big dog. A. Big. Dog.” He said each word slowly. It reminded DJ of the way his mom spoke to him when she was cross.

  “How did you get so dirty?” asked Andrew.

  “I fell,” said Chris. “Twice.” He stood up. “It’s lunchtime. I want you all to go straight to the dining hall. I’m going to get cleaned up.”

  The dining hall was in chaos. Everyone was talking at once.

  “Did you hear? A kid got eaten by a bear.”

  “Some kids were chased by a whole pack of bears.”

  “The bear was huge.”

  “I want to go home!”

  Mike, the head counselor, stood at the front of the room. He blew his whistle—Blast! Blast! Blast!

  “Listen up, everyone.” Mike’s voice boomed. “There is no bear. There are no bears anywhere near here.” He glared around the room. “If I hear one more bear story, there’s going to be trouble with a capital T.”

  “But…” DJ stood up.

  Andrew grabbed his arm. “Be quiet,” he hissed. “You’ll get us all in trouble.”

  DJ sat down again. They would be in a lot more trouble if that bear had followed them back to Camp Lots-o-Fun.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SOCKSTER

  Dear Lots-o-Fun Journal,

  No rain today. We haven’t seen the bear again. Maybe he got lost in the woods.

  We went swimming this morning. Chris said we should swim out to the raft. I told him that wasn’t a good idea. There are horrible things on the bottom of the lake. They look like weeds, but they aren’t. They are monsters with wavy tentacles.

  I saw one of the monsters gobble up a giant fish. It swam into a big clump of tentacles. But it didn’t swim out the other side! When I told Chris about the monsters, he rolled his eyes. He does that a lot.

  He’s going to be sorry if campers start disappearing. This afternoon we made pinecone crafts. Chris told us pine trees grow from pinecones. I had a fan-tabulous idea! I collected a whole bunch of pinecones. I’m going to plant them in our garden. Mom and Dad will be so surprised when they find a pine forest in our backyard.

  Dinnertime. Got to go.

  Hungrily yours,

  DJ, a.k.a. Power Man!

  At the group campfire that evening, there was a sing-along. DJ loved to sing. He sang louder than anyone else.

  The rosy sunset faded into darkness. Faces glowed in the flickering firelight. Night closed in around them. Finally, Mike said, “It’s time for one last song.”

  DJ sprang to his feet. “Can we sing ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat’? I made up a new verse. Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. There’s a bear out in the woods and that will make us scream,” he sang.

  Some of the campers laughed. Others glanced nervously at the woods.

  At lights-out, the boys returned to their cabin. DJ woke up in the middle of the night. The cabin was pitch-black. He heard a humongous splash coming from the lake. Then another. What was out there?

  DJ scrambled out of bed. He rummaged through his duffel bag. His fingers touched something soft. He pulled it out and climbed back into bed.

  DJ wrapped his arm around his sock monkey. “Don’t be scared, Sockster,” he whispered. “Power Man will keep you safe.”

  The next morning, before anyone else was awake, DJ tucked Sockster back into his duffel bag.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SOMETHING FISHY

  “Does everyone have his life jacket on?” asked Chris.

  “Yes,” the boys answered.

  “Okay. Two in a canoe. Andrew and Raj in one. DJ and Ernie in the other,” said Chris. “I’ll bring up the rear.”

  DJ climbed into the closest canoe. “You know what, Ernie?” he said. “Last night I heard a humongous splash. I’ll bet it was that giant fish. Maybe it wasn’t eaten by the lake monsters after all.”

  Ernie hesitated. “I think I’ll stay on the dock.”

  “Ernie, hurry up and get into the canoe,” Chris said. “We’re ready to go.”

  “Don’t worry, Ernie,” said DJ. “I’ll protect you. If a big old giant fish attacks us, Power Man will give him a karate chop.”

  The boys paddled along the shore until they came to a small bay. The lake’s surface was as smooth as a mirror. DJ looked over the side. “I see the giant fish!” he shouted.

  Ernie screeched. A pair of startled fishermen glared at them from their boat.

  Chris paddled alongside their canoe. “What’s going on?” he asked DJ.

  “There’s a giant fish down there.” DJ pointed. “I think it’s following us.”

  Ernie clutched the side of the canoe. “I want to go back to camp,” he said.

  Chris stared into the water. “Calm down, Ernie. It’s just an old log.”

  Andrew and Raj paddled over. “I see it,” said Raj, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “I think it’s moving.”

  “The ripples from your paddle make it look like it’s moving around,” said Chris. “Come on, it’s time to head back.”

  Andrew looked at DJ. “Only sissies believe in monsters and giant fish,” he scoffed.

  DJ didn’t answer. He stared into the water. Something was down there all right. Something that moved. Something that looked like a giant fish. DJ swallowed but he wasn’t scared. Power Man would never be scared.

  “Let’s go, DJ,” said Ernie, snatching up his paddle.

  DJ grabbed his own paddle. They were the first ones back to the dock.

  That night DJ slept with Sockster again. Just in case Sockster was scared.

  CHAPTER SIX

  A SURPRISE

  Cabin Six was in an uproar. Chris had announced they were going on an overnight camping trip. “After breakfast tomorrow morning, we’re off to Hermit Island,” he said.

  “Does a real hermit live there?” asked DJ.

  Chris shook his head. “The island is deserted. But it’s a cool place to camp.”

  Deserted? DJ’s thoughts took off like a racehorse. “Maybe it isn’t deserted,” he said. “Maybe it’s haunted by the hermit’s ghost.”

  Chris rolled his eyes. “Hermit Island is not haunted,” he said.

  “Besides, there’s no such thing as ghosts,” said Andrew.

  DJ stood his ground. “What about Halloween?”

  “They are only pretend ghosts,” Andrew said.

  “I read a book about a ghost,” said Raj. “It was a true story. The ghost lived in a big old haunted house.”

  Chris’s hand shot up like a Stop sign. “There is no hermit on Hermit Island. There are no ghosts on Hermit Island. There is nothing on Hermit Island but rocks and trees.”

  “But maybe…,” DJ said.

  Chris raised his hand again. “It’s bedtime,” he said. “Let’s get a good night’s sleep.”

  DJ went to bed. But
he did not go to sleep. His mind whirled. What if the hermit’s ghost was guarding Hermit Island? What if the ghost did not like visitors?

  Once again, DJ slipped out of bed. He rummaged through his duffel bag. Power Man might not be scared. But that didn’t mean Sockster wasn’t.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  HERMIT ISLAND

  “This place is awesome,” said Raj as they pulled the canoes up onto the beach.

  “Grab your gear and follow me,” said Chris. “We’ll get our tent set up. Then we’ll go exploring.”

  Ahead was a grassy clearing surrounded by towering spruce and pine trees. DJ wished he could go exploring right away. But an hour later, they were still struggling to set up the tent. It had already collapsed three times.

  “Don’t worry, Chris,” said DJ. “If we can’t get the tent up, we can rough it.”

  “What’s roughing it?” asked Ernie.

  “We can sleep outside,” said DJ. “It’s really fun. You can see the stars and everything.”

  “Are there snakes around here?” asked Raj.

  “I’m not sleeping outside,” said Ernie.

  Chris stood up. “The tent is all set now. Let’s go for a hike.”

  “Are we going into the woods?” asked Ernie. “What if we get lost again?” His eyes darted toward the trees. “What if that bear swam over here?”

  “Don’t worry, Ernie,” said DJ. “Bears can’t swim.”

  Andrew folded his arms across his chest. “Yes, they can,” he said. “Bears can swim anywhere.”

  Ernie shivered. “I’m not going into the woods.”

  Chris raised both hands. “I don’t want to hear another word about bears,” he said. “There are no bears on Hermit Island. Follow me, guys. We’ll walk along the beach.”

  DJ followed the others, practicing his karate chops, just in case.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  NOISES IN THE NIGHT

  DJ picked up a stick and wrote Power Man Was Here in the wet sand. That would scare away any old ghost.