who-oo-oo Vik’s hoot was pretty loud but no one else heard him because the other campers were singing Nate laughed Okay he said You’re on Hey Nate Vik said Knock knock Who’s there I hope so said Vik Get it Oh man that’s painful groaned Nate He shoved two uncooked marshmallows in his ears Now Vik laughed Vik was a newbie it was his first summer at Camp Wolf Trail Nate had hit it off with Vik right away and he was really glad that they were both in Birch Cabin along with his friends from last summer Yasu Jim Erik and Zee and the other newbies Zack Kareem and Sean All right everybody said Simon one of the counselors That wraps up the show for tonight Another counselor Carlos lifted the strap of his guitar off of his shoulder and started to put it in its case Time to hit the sack boys Nate leapt to his feet tossing his ear marsh mallows into the flames He was eager to put out 13
the fire and be on his way But most of the other campers didn’t want to leave Noooooo they groaned One more song One more song Carlos held up his hands in surrender Okay he said You got it One more song on the condi tion that you sing it as you follow me back to your cabins Deal Deal yelled the campers Nate glanced at the woods He hoped the noise wouldn’t scare the owl away It might be a screech owl or maybe a great horned Carlos strummed his guitar You’ll be sorry he said to the campers with a mischievous look I’m gonna sing the goofiest song I know He took a deep breath and sang at the top of his voice You put your right foot in You put your right foot out The campers laughed and howled with glee and soon everyone was singing the Hokey Pokey as they danced left foot in left foot out behind Carlos through the woods to the cabins As the 14
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last That’s what it’s all about faded away Nate was glad that most of the cabins were in the opposite direction from where he thought the owl might be At the lake Nate filled two buckets with water and Vik filled a bucket with sand They lugged the buckets to the fire circle and then Nate dumped the water on the fire making the flames hiss and smoke and sputter out Vik grabbed a stick and stirred the soupy gray slurry He dumped the bucket of sand in the slop to finish the job Thanks guys said Simon He poked a large stick into the mess that used to be a blazing campfire to make sure the fire was really out Fire was a serious danger at Camp Wolf Trail since all the cabins were made of wood I’m headed to a meeting up at the dining hall said Simon I’ll see you two back at Birch Got it said Nate See ya Simon said Vik After Simon walked away Vik clicked on his flashlight held it under his chin so that it cast a weird light on his face and asked Nate in a ghoulish voice Still up 16
