Church Camp Chaos (2 page)

Now it’s May, and I think it’s safe to say spring has finally arrived in Spooner, Wisconsin. This is the time of year when the entire state steps outside, breathes in a chestful of fresh spring air, and dances a little jig of happiness. Isaac’s jig is the goofiest of all. He kicks his legs back behind him and throws his head back. He is convinced that if he tries hard enough, he’ll be able to kick himself in the back of the head.

At least the kid has goals, I guess.

There are only three days of school left till summer vacation. (Can you hear the students of Spooner Elementary shouting, “Hallelujah”?) I never thought I’d say this, Diary, but fourth grade hasn’t been so bad. Sure, the year started out a little rough when I thought Ms. Picky Pickerington and I wouldn’t get along, but after the school spelling bee in the fall when I came in second place, Ms. P started to warm up to me. She even began calling me “EJ” instead of “Emma Jean.” Well, she tried.

Please come hand out these worksheets to your classmates.

[I continue to look down at my desk, concentrating on the math problem in front of me. My classmate Coralee taps me on the shoulder, points toward Ms. P, and smirks at me.] Me: What? Ms. P? Are you talking to me? Ms. P: I most certainly am, Eee-Jaaay. If you aren’t going to respond to your initials, then perhaps I should go back to calling you by your real name, Emma Jean—

Me: No! I mean, no thank you, Ms. P. I was just making the numbers line up in perfect columns on my multiplication worksheet—just like you like them. I promise to listen more carefully for my name, ma’am.

Ms. P: See that you do, AJ. See that you do.

From then on, I pretty much answered Ms. P anytime I heard the letters E or J come out of her mouth.

Coralee McCallister is still mostly terrible. She doesn’t know it was me, my family, and our neighbor Mr. Johnson who helped them a few months ago when Coralee’s dad was out of work and they didn’t have money for Christmas presents. Let me tell you, Diary, there have been so many times when Coralee is being not nice to me that I want to blurt out the secret—just so I could see the look of shock and surprise on her face! But the truth is I kind of like knowing something she doesn’t know (it makes me feel a good kind of sneaky), and even though Coralee isn’t the nicest person on the planet, I’m honestly glad we helped the McCallisters.

Speaking of Coralee, she and I both competed in the regional spelling bee in February after we came in first (Coralee) and second (me) in the Spooner Elementary spelling bee last fall. And guess what. I won!

Okay, that’s not entirely true. I went out in the eighth round on the word
accommodate
when I left out an m. But I did get further in the competition than Coralee did! She went out in the fifth round on the word
panicked
, which, if I’m being 100 percent honest, is a pretty tricky word. I’m counting the fact that I outlasted Coralee as a big win for me!

Isaac started losing baby teeth on his sixth birthday on April 6, so he’s looking even weirder than normal with one top tooth and one bottom tooth missing. And now that he knows about the tooth fairy and the cash he can score, he’s constantly trying to pull teeth before they’re ready to come out—or even a tiny bit loose, for that matter. I told him he’d better stop or he’ll be toothless and all he’ll be able to eat is mashed-up bananas. I guess Isaac thought eating mashed-up bananas sounded delicious, because he immediately started into his best impression of a chimpanzee—scratching his armpits, jumping in place, and screeching, “Ooo! Ooo! Ahh! Ahh!” at me.

Ugh. Little brothers.

My eleventh birthday is in just a couple of weeks, so I’m super excited about that. The party is going to be a mystery dinner theater planned by Mom and my favoritest neighbor, Mrs. Winkle! Nana and Pops are going to be visiting from Ohio over my birthday, too. It’s going to be fantastic!

There’s so much to look forward to this summer, Diary, but the thing I am absolutely, beyond description, outrageously happy about is that I get to go to a whole week of church camp! Yes! It’s what I’ve been waiting for my whole life! No more day camp (for babies!) or overnight camp (for slightly older babies!) but a whole Monday-to-Saturday week of adventure! My best friend, Macy, is going to go to camp, too. Things couldn’t be more perfect!

Camp is in July. Is it too early to start packing?

EJ

May 28

Tomorrow is the last day of school! Other than Christmas and my birthday, the last day of school is the best day of the year. Outdoor games in the morning (my class is going to dominate the tug-of-war this year because we have the biggest boys in all of the fourth grade!) and a picnic at the park in the afternoon. The bestest of best days.

Isaac has been so excited for the last day of school that every morning for a month, the first question out of his mouth has been, “Is today the last day, Marmalade?” (Can you believe he still calls Mom by that silly old nickname?) And every day Mom has answered, “No, it’s not the last day quite yet. But it’ll be here soon.” After Isaac asked the same question four days in a row, Mom decided to make a “Last Day of School Countdown” chart to put on the refrigerator.

One afternoon she took a bunch of pictures of us while we made our best crazy faces. (“Okay, this time I want you to look so excited that your head is about to explode!” she said.) She even let my pup, Bert, get in on the action! What were the pictures for? We found out the next morning when Mom unveiled the countdown chart, complete with little magnets made out of our crazy-face pictures that we used to cover up each day as we counted down to the last day. We saved the “so excited our heads are about to explode” magnets for tomorrow—the last day of school!