Cool Campers by Mike Knudson Read Free Book Online Page B

Graham?”
    Graham caught the hint. “Um, yeah . . . wallets. It was really . . . um . . . weird.” Everyone was looking at Graham like he was crazy. “My bud is having marshmallows with the girls tomorrow night. My girlfriend, Kelly, is coming from the girls’ camp. Just in case you wanted to know.”
    It was my turn. “I guess my rose is just being here at camp. My thorn would be either that I didn’t pass my swim test or that I did a cannonball in the shallow part of the lake.” I rubbed my backside, which still hurt. There were a couple of chuckles from the patrol. “My bud is having this campfire every night. I love campfires.”
    In the end, I thought Roses, Thorns, and Buds was pretty fun. Afterward, we all sat around the fire for a while and chatted as, little by little, people went inside their cabins to go to bed. Pretty soon it was down to BB, Tiny, Graham, and me. Graham and I ended up telling them about how we wanted to become cool and popular at camp.
    â€œAre you guys part of the popular crowd at your schools?” I asked BB and Tiny.
    â€œI’m actually the most popular kid at my school,” BB said confidently.
    â€œMe too,” Tiny said. Graham and I stared at them in disbelief.
    Then they both burst out laughing. “Just kidding! Of course I’m not,” BB said.
    â€œI hardly even know who the popular kids are at my school!” Tiny giggled.
    I couldn’t believe it. They sounded like they didn’t even care that they weren’t popular.
    â€œWell, we’re tired of being just regular guys,” I said. “We want to be the guys that everyone likes and wants to invite to their parties.”
    â€œYeah, like Mark Herron,” Graham said.
    BB shook his head. “Just because he calls everyone dude and eats some gross stuff, he’s suddenly an instant hit? I’ll bet he doesn’t even know the life expectancy of a flea.”
    Then Graham stood up and hit himself in the forehead like he just remembered something. “Wait a minute. What if Mark didn’t eat all of those weird things? And what if he didn’t call everyone dude? What would he be like?”
    I thought about that for a moment. “I don’t know. Just some regular guy, I guess.”
    Graham smiled. “That’s right, just a regular guy. A regular guy like us.”
    â€œYeah, so what? You’re not saying we should eat a bunch of weird things so people will think we’re cool, are you?”
    â€œWhy not? It seems easy enough,” Graham continued. “We could just throw a couple of things together on our trays and do what Mark did. And we could call everyone dude.”
    I thought about it. “I don’t know,” I said. “What if we just try calling everyone dude for a day? Maybe that would be enough and we wouldn’t have to eat anything gross.”
    Graham rubbed his chin. “It’s definitely worth a try . . . dude.”
    â€œAll right, let’s start right now, dude,” I said. I felt cooler already, like I wasn’t just a regular guy anymore. I felt like, well, a dude.
    I stood up. “Dude, I’m going to bed.”
    Graham yawned. “Yeah, let’s go.”
    â€œDon’t you mean, let’s go, dude ?” I said.
    â€œRight. Thanks, dude.”
    BB and Tiny looked at us strangely. “Are you guys serious?” BB asked.
    â€œOf course we’re serious, dude,” Graham replied.
    Tiny stood up. “I think I’ll pass on the whole dude thing,” he said.
    We all grabbed our toothbrushes and walked down to the bathrooms together.
    â€œWe’ve got to think of a great prank to pull on David,” Graham said as we arrived at the sinks. We thought hard about what we could do, but none of us was really used to pulling pranks on people.
    Tiny, BB, and I finished up in the bathroom and were waiting outside for Graham to come out when we