How old are you Bick asked Twelve I answered You Turning fourteen next week she said I’m a Songbird this year I nodded trying to remember the different names for each age group You got on the bus in New York City right Are you from there or did you come in from Long Island or New Jersey Bick asked From the burbs I said You N-Y-C she said exaggerating her accent I’ve been going to Mon Mon for three years Mon Mon I asked Yeah our camp Camp Mon Mon Lake Bick laughed Don’t worry newbie we’ll show you the ropes You know about first night snake line and
the Condors senior theme right I shook my head All I know is there’s a lake I said But I can’t wait to see it all Fake enthusiasm Maybe that’s the way to deal with all of these super-über camper types You’ll love it She began listing activities The camp shows the singing color war the hiking trip so much fun stuff Plus you might get a camp sister Like someone older who’ll show me around and help me adjust No silly you’d be the older sister I swallowed hard How could I be a camp sister when I was so new Great I said faking it again Only 48 and a half days left
CHAPTER 2 Five hours and fifty camp songs later we got off the bus The second my feet touched the gravel road I was buried in a sea of older girls They were singing a song that had words like pep best sisters summer and of course Camp Mon Mon Lake To make things worse they were jumping up and down and giving random hugs I am definitely not a random hugger When the singing ended one of the counselors
took me and a few of the other new girls to the Main House The owner of the camp who everyone called Aunt Alice was waiting to greet us Aunt Alice was between my mom and my grandma’s age and had this crazy curly gray hair which was peeking out from a fishing cap When we walked in she jumped out of her chair and gave us a big Camp Mon Mon Lake welcome MMM-LO MMM-LO A big MMMMM hello I didn’t understand half of what she said after that it sounded like some sort of weird bibbity-bobbity language I was never going to get used to all the singing and strange talking Next Aunt Alice went down the line of new campers and said something to each of us When she got to me she whispered I know you expected your friend to be here and this must all seem very strange to you dear But I promise in no time
