Very Private List for Camp Success (3 page)

When Penelope got back to her room, there was a message from Grandpa George on her iPhone.

Penelope considered the message. The bus trip to Camp Tribute was expected to take two hours and thirty-five minutes. So, the bus ride could not possibly be as important as the destination. She’d be at camp for two whole nights (or approximately forty-eight hours).

Penelope adored getting messages from Grandpa George but sometimes they didn’t make absolute sense.

She tucked her iPhone under her pillow, which felt a little bit like having Grandpa close by. Then she pulled Blue Teddy close to her chest, thinking he might need a hug before she went away for approximately forty-eight hours, and fell asleep.

Before leaving the next morning, Penelope grabbed her phone and snapped some last-minute pictures of herself and her luggage. On the way to school, she added some pictures of the footpath and the sky and labelled them ‘8 am’. She sent them to her dad, along with a link to the Camp Tribute website.

Each week, Penelope would send her dad a photo of her school timetable so he would know exactly what she was doing at any time. But since Penelope had absolutely no idea of the camp timetable, he would just have to make do with general information about the camp.

Then she took a selfie of her blowing a kiss to her half-sister, Sienna.

‘Goodbye, iPhone,’ she said, reluctantly handing it to her mum, who had come to help Penelope carry all her camp gear, and to say goodbye.

‘Don’t worry, Poss,’ said her mum. ‘I’ll put it in your special box with the lock and key.’

Penelope had a wobbly feeling as she gave up her phone for forty-eight hours. There was another strange feeling when her mum hugged her.
It was as though the hug was squishing her excitement and her nerves together in quite a messy way.
Penelope was worried she was going to break rule number two on her Very Private List – before they even got on the bus!

Luckily, right at that moment, Penelope saw over her mum’s shoulder that Oscar Finley needed immediate rescuing.

A few kids were gathered around Oscar. He had his arm outstretched and was showing something to the others. Even without knowing
exactly
what Oscar was showing them, Penelope could make an educated guess: some kind of bug or insect. Oscar was a great lover of nature. He knew lots of different types of birds and beetles. He even loved spiders (which Penelope definitely didn’t agree with). He knew many interesting facts about them.

The problem, as Penelope saw it, was that Oscar was totally distracted by whatever he was showing the others. So distracted, in fact, that he did not notice the bus driver putting both of his bags – his luggage
and
his backpack – into the underneath compartment of the bus (which would soon be locked up). They had all been told to put their lunches and water bottles in their backpacks and to bring them on the bus.

Penelope hugged her mum tight. It was a Very Nice Hug and she would have liked it to go on for longer, but she couldn’t stand the thought of Oscar Finley having to go without lunch or even a drink. She felt a pang as she said goodbye to her mum and pulled away.

Penelope went over to explain the situation to the bus driver, then she took Oscar’s backpack over to him.

‘Look, Penny,’ Oscar said before she could say anything. He showed her the bug on his hand.

(Penelope had completely given up trying to get Oscar Finley to use her proper name. The strange thing was, she had actually started
liking
it when he called her Penny.)

‘It’s a praying mantis. It gets its name from the way it clasps its forelegs together, as though it’s praying. Would you like to hold it?’

Penelope shook her head. The praying mantis was like a very tall, leggy grasshopper. It was quite nice to
look
at, but that was definitely enough for her.

Penelope glanced over at the bus. The driver had just finished packing all the bags and was closing the door to the compartment. Oscar still hadn’t realised his backpack was missing.

‘The praying mantis is the only insect that can swivel its head a full one-eighty degrees,’ Oscar continued, as the other kids began to line up for the bus. Penelope felt a fluttering feeling in her tummy as she saw Bob (her very best friend) standing near the front of the line. The fluttering got worse when she saw that the line was moving.

‘Can you believe that, Penny? Isn’t it awesome?’

‘It’s a very interesting fact, Oscar,’ Penelope said. ‘But we need to get going. Here’s your backpack.’

Penelope handed the backpack to Oscar and walked very quickly over to the line. When she looked back, she saw that Oscar was carefully putting the praying mantis in a tree, as if he had all the time in the world.

Finally, much to Penelope’s relief, he joined the very end of the line.

Oscar pointed to his backpack, and then he put his hands together. He moved them up to his forehead like a praying mantis.

‘Thanks, Penny,’ he said. ‘You’re the best.’

In other circumstances, Oscar Finley mimicking a praying mantis would have made Penelope giggle. Just then, though, Penelope was too distracted by her fluttery feeling about not being next to Bob in the line.

She should have joined Bob. Or asked her to wait. Or Penelope should have got to the front of the line herself, when she’d first arrived at school. Now it was too late!

When she got to the bottom step, Penelope stood on her tiptoes and craned her neck, trying to see into the bus. But Bob seemed to have disappeared.

Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, she imagined a certain person whose name began with ‘R’ sitting (in a very determined way) right next to Bob. Now that Penelope (finally) had her very own best friend, it would be heartbreaking if she couldn’t sit with her!

By now Penelope had reached the top of the stairs. She
still
couldn’t see Bob. She was a third of the way down the aisle when she saw two empty seats.

As she reached the seats, Penelope saw that they were not actually empty. There was a hand planted on one seat. Someone was on the floor, rummaging through their backpack. There was no mistaking the head. The cocky’s crest was sticking right up.

‘Nope. That seat’s for Penelope,’ Bob said, not looking up.

The fluttery feeling in Penelope’s tummy completely disappeared.
There was nothing quite like the feeling of having your very own best friend save you a seat on the bus.

As they travelled along the freeway, Joanna tried to start everyone singing a rude song.

‘We wanna, we wanna, we wanna wee.

If you don’t stop for us, we’ll do it on the bus.’

Quite a few kids joined in. Joanna might be the naughtiest girl in Penelope’s class, but she also had a very lovely singing voice. Soon after that song fizzled, someone else started up with some songs from
The Sound of Music
.

Penelope was tempted to block her ears so she didn’t have to listen to Tommy Stratton singing. He did
not
have a lovely singing voice. If Penelope’s voice was anywhere near as terrible as his, she would never sing a single note in public. But Tommy Stratton didn’t seem bothered. He was VERY enthusiastic.

After the fifth round of ‘Do-Re-Mi’, one of the teachers offered to put on a DVD.