Hailey Twitch and the Campground Itch (7 page)

“It's okay,” I say. I squeeze Addie Jokobeck's hand. “We were just getting out of here.”

“Promise me,” he says. “That you will never come back here again.”

“I promise,” I say.

“I promise,” Addie says.

“I promise,” Hayden says.

And this time, I do not even cross my fingers behind my back.

I did not want to say it, but I am very glad we are getting out of that place. I am very glad we are going back to the beach to play. And guess what? That Hayden is not so mean after all! He is very good at building sand castles! He is very good at making gorgeous windows and doors and towers and all kinds of good things.

“This sand castle reminds me of my own castle,” Maybelle says. She came popping right up when we starting building it. “Where I used to live. And I will never be fun, and I will never get my magic back, and I will never go back to living there!” And she sounds very upset about it.

“Yes, you will,” I tell her. “Do not worry.” I am shoveling some sand into a bucket. Scrape, scrape, scrape. I scrape that sand nice and flat over the top.

“Who are you talking to?” Hayden asks. He is making a very good flag for our sand castle out of a straw that he had in his picnic basket.

“No one,” I say real quick.

Maybelle is looking right at our castle. “Your castle would look good with a moat,” she says.

“What is a moat?” I whisper real soft. I have never heard of this word
moat.

“It is water under a drawbridge!” she says. She is getting very excited about this idea. She is even pulling out her wand. This is making me very nervous in my stomach. But I cannot stop her. Because she is not listening to reason. I know all about not listening to reason. It happens to me lots of times, especially when
we are having something for dinner that I do not really want to eat.

And then she points her wand at that sand castle. And she tries to make it into a moat! But something goes horribly wrong! And the whole sand castle goes wash, wash, washing away right into the lake.

“Oh, no!” I say.

“Oh, no!” Addie says.

“That's life in the big city,” Hayden says. “I guess we will have to start making another one.”

But I do not want to start making another one. I want that one! That one that was completely and wonderfully gorgeous and already done! But it is gone. It is washing away all into the water. So I start to get very, very mad. And I start to feel like maybe I am going to have a big tantrum right on this beach.

I do not know what else to do. I am so very upset about that sand castle. I do not want to make a whole other one starting from scratch. I look at Hayden. I look at Addie. I look up to where my dad is sitting under the big umbrella that makes sure his skin does not get all wrinkly in the sun. I stand up and flip my bucket right over, and all the sand in it goes plopping onto the ground. And then I burst into tears.

My dad takes us back to the camper. On account of that I started cry, cry, crying. And
on account of that he thinks I am overtired because I was up very early. But I am not even tired one little bit! Which I try to tell him. But he does not listen.

“I am not even tired one little bit,” I say.

“I am not either,” Addie Jokobeck says.

We are sitting outside our camper at the picnic table. And we are trying to think of something fun to do.

“Hey, Addie,” I say. “I know what we could do!”

“What?” She sits up and pays very close attention.

“Well, if we wanted to have a very fun, fun, fun time right now, we could run over to the camper next door and knock on their front door!”

“And then what?” Addie says. “We would try to become friends with them?”

“No.”

“We would invite them over for dinner?”

“No.”

“We would see if they knew any fun games to play?”

“No,” I say. “We would run away and hide!” I cross my arms and wait for her to be very impressed with that idea. But she does not look impressed. Not even one little bit. She just looks confused.

“But why?” she says.

“Like a fun joke,” I tell her. “We would run away and hide in those bushes over there. And we would see them come out and say, ‘Yoo-hoo, who is knocking on my door, who's there? Yoo-hoo, yoo-hoooo!'”

“That does not sound that fun,” Addie Jokobeck says. “That sounds like being naughty.”

I do a big sigh. Addie Jokobeck is a very good friend. But she does not get that sometimes being fun and being naughty are the very exact same thing.

Finally it is time for all of us to eat dinner.

My dad pulls out his chef apron. And he puts a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs and pieces of steak right on the grill. And there is a lot of smoke, and when they are done we all sit at the picnic table to eat them, and they taste very good, good, good.

“You should make orange sauce to put on your burger,” I tell Addie Jokobeck. Orange sauce is something very tasty that I came up with. It is ketchup and mustard all mixed together. Red ketchup and yellow mustard makes orange sauce! I love orange sauce! It is one of my most favorite foods. You should be allowed to buy it in the grocery store even.

“Okay,” Addie Jokobeck says. So we make orange sauce to put on our burgers. And it is very fun and funny and tasty. But Maya and Kaitlyn do not look so happy. On account of the fact that Maya has poison ivy all over her.
And lotion. That she keeps getting on Kaitlyn by accident. And Kaitlyn keeps screaming and saying, “Keep that poison ivy away from me, Maya!”

“Excuse me, Maya,"Isay. “Would you like me to make you some orange sauce to put on your burger?” I decide that maybe I should try to be nice to her. Since she is very sick with poison ivy and everything. That is called knowing your manners and being polite.

“I am not having a burger,” Maya says. “I am having a hot dog.”

“Well, that is okay,” I say. “You can have orange sauce on a hot dog! You can have
orange sauce on anything. Me and Addie can whip you some right up, can't we, Addie?”

“Oh, yes, definitely,” Addie says. She is squirting ketchup all over the place. Addie Jokobeck catches on very fast to things. She is a real pro at making orange sauce already. I think she is even maybe going to be a famous chef when she grows up.

“I
said
no thank you,” Maya says.

“Kaitlyn?” I try. “Would you like some?”

“No,” Maya says. “She doesn't.”

“I can answer for myself, Maya,” Kaitlyn says. “And I would love some orange sauce.” So Addie and I whip up some orange sauce for Kaitlyn. We mix that mustard and ketchup up on a paper plate and then plop it right on her hot dog.
Plop, plop, plop.

“You will love this orange sauce,” Addie tells her.

“Yes,” I say. “It is fabulous-o.”

“Thank you,” Kaitlyn says.

She gives me a big smile. And I give her one right back. I think maybe I will forgive her for being mean to me. I think we might even be sisters again.

After our campfire, I am very sleep, sleep, sleepy. It has been a very long weekend with a visit from Mr. Tuttle and a wrecked sand castle and finding a disaster area of a tree house. I think maybe my mom and dad are very tired, too. On account of how much golf my dad played. And on account of how my mom has been very busy taking Maya to get her hair fixed and helping her put on poison ivy lotion.

So we are all in bed falling asleep after our
campfire. Until I hear some noises that are waking me up! And those noises are Kaitlyn and Maya sneaking right out of the camper! I see them going right out the door.

“Addie,” I whisper. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!” I am poke, poke, poking her through her sleeping bag.

“Mmmm,” Addie says. She is rolling over and not really waking up even.

“Wake up!” I say again.

“What is going on?” Maybelle whispers. She is on the pillow next to me, and she is rubbing her eyes and looking very sleep, sleep, sleepy.

“Where have you been?” I ask.

“I have been off feeling sorry for myself,” she says. She takes a big sniff. Her nose is very red, red, red like maybe she has been crying.

“Well, I was very worried about you,” I say. “You missed dinner, and we had orange sauce and everything.”

“I love orange sauce!” Maybelle says.

“I know.” I try to wake up Addie Jokobeck again, but she is not waking up. So finally I have to give her a small little pinch on her arm.