Not a Happy Camper by Mindy Schneider Read Free Book Online

up.”
    This wasn’t going the way I’d planned. Kenny was acting like he was interested in Dana even though he knew she liked Aaron. Perhaps he thought he could still win her over, but not if I won him over first.
    â€œI’m not busy,” I offered.
    Kenny hesitated, which I determined had to do with the temperature. Even though it was early July, the night air was cold and we shivered as we walked down the dirt road and around the lake. Kenny put his arm through Dana’s and picked up the pace. I tried to keep up, found I couldn’t, but failed to see the metaphor.
    I arrived at Boys’ Side ten steps behind them. Dana thanked Kenny, then said goodnight to us and headed off. It was just thetwo of us now, the moment I’d waited for, the reason I was here. My chance to flirt. If only I knew how.
    â€œSo what do you want to do now?” he asked.
    I wanted to cross my arms and blink my eyes and make him like me. Instead, I just shrugged.
    â€œDo you sing on Boys’ Side?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œSing. At services. On Girls’ Side, after dinner, everybody sings. It sounds really pretty. I don’t really sing, but—what songs do you like? What are your favorite prayers?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Kenny muttered, then stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around.
    I needed to regain his attention, to make this sound interesting.
    â€œI like
Dona Dona
,” I offered. “Well, I like how it sounds with the harmony and the melody. Do the boys sing it with the harmony and the melody? Actually, if you think about it, it’s pretty sad. I mean, it’s a whole song about a calf about to be killed. I wonder why we sing that.”
    â€œUh, I don’t know...”
    â€œI kind of like
Zum Gali Gali
, too,” I went on, waving my hands and gesturing, as if this made my story more exciting to hear. “There’s this one girl, Erica, she’s only eight. She’s from Queens. She likes to stand on the table and lead us in it. I also like
Hava Nagila
, especially when you change the words to ‘Have a banana’ even though I don’t really like bananas. The smell bothers me. So far Friday night is my favorite part of camp. How about you?”
    I’d thought about if for months, what I’d say or do when I was alone with a boy I liked and now, here I was, talking about songs and bananas.
    Kenny looked at me like I’d just stepped off a space ship.
    â€œI think my counselor might be looking for me,” he said. “I think I have to go back to my bunk. Uh—see you at services, I guess.”

    Kenny turned and walked away, but I clung to his last remark. It was surely an invitation. I’d see him again in a few hours.
    For now, I needed to get back to my bunk, too. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that familiar with the layout of Boys’ Side since I’d seen it only in the dark. I knew where the dock was, behind the dining hall, and I walked down to the beach where I found a canoe with a paddle in it. I pushed off and climbed in and since I didn’t have a lifejacket, prayed I wouldn’t tip the boat over or fall out, as I once again hadn’t passed my deepwater test.
    There was a reason why I was a terrible swimmer. It was all because of my nose. At my former camp and at the Springfield Community Pool, girls were required to wear bathing caps. But if you are a girl with a prominent proboscis, you do not want to put one on. No number of floppy plastic flowers adorning your headgear can detract from the fact that without your hair to hide behind, you are nothing but a giant nose. I hated swimming because I hated bathing caps because I hated my nose. And because of this, I was sure, my crush on Kenny Uber was going to end up with me drowning.
    I paddled slowly at first, feeling for rocks and straining to see if I was heading in the right direction. And then I heard it—Vrroooom! My concentration