Very Private List for Camp Success (2 page)

Penelope closed her eyes and imagined herself rising into the sky on a giant swing. In fact, she imagined so hard that she felt quite giddy and almost forgot she was on the phone.

‘Pen? Are you there?’ Bob prompted.

‘Yes,’ Penelope said, glad to be back down on earth. ‘And Bob, don’t forget things like orienteering and bush cooking.’

Penelope knew she would probably never be excellent at sport, or any kind of physical activity, but she was absolutely sure she would excel at many other things.

‘It’s going to be completely crazy-mad,’ Bob squealed.

Penelope giggled. Though she’d become quite used to the way Bob spoke, it still made her laugh. This, along with the way Bob wore her hair (extremely short with a cocky’s crest at the top) and the way she insisted on being called Bob instead of Brittany O’Brien (which was her real name), was what made Bob a unique and fabulous very best friend.

‘I wonder who’ll end up in our hut?’ Penelope said, when she’d stopped giggling.

The students had each listed the three people they would most like to share a hut with. Penelope and Bob had put each other first. (This had never happened to Penelope before, so she had checked Bob’s list with her own eyes.)

Ms Pike had already told the class that everyone had got their first choice. But until they got to camp, they wouldn’t know who else they were sharing a hut with.

‘I don’t really mind who it is,’ Bob replied. ‘Sarah and Tilly would be good.’

‘Or maybe Eliza and Alison,’ Penelope continued.

‘Even Joanna could be fun,’ Bob offered.

After last year’s lasagne incident, Penelope wasn’t sure about sharing a hut with Joanna. Joanna was
absolutely
the naughtiest girl Penelope had ever met. She also had a terrible habit of sticking her tongue out in very unusual and disagreeable ways.

Still, she did have
some
good qualities. For instance, Joanna had been very apologetic after Penelope’s outburst about the lasagne.

‘Yep, even Joanna would be OK,’ Penelope replied.

The girls were silent for a moment.

‘As long as it’s not –’

‘Don’t!’ Penelope said urgently. ‘Don’t even say her name, or you’ll jinx us.’

‘OK,’ Bob said, ‘I won’t say it starts with an “R”. And I won’t say that the next letter is –’

‘I have to go,’ Penelope interrupted. Even though it may have
sounded
like a lie, and even though Penelope really did want to stop speaking about the person they really, really didn’t want to share a hut with, it was actually true that Penelope needed to go.

Because just then there was a very loud bang on Penelope’s bedroom wall that needed immediate investigation.

Although Penelope was usually pretty calm and sensible, sometimes (she had to admit) she could be really bossy and cranky. It was like there were two different Penelopes living inside her. It was the angry, frustrated Penelope who (sometimes) had outbursts. Outbursts were terribly exhausting and embarrassing, so she had been practising how NOT to have one. She was
determined
to stick to the number-one rule on her list.

Instead, she started to type ‘Camp Tribute’ into the search engine on her iPhone. She’d looked at the camp’s website before, of course, but suddenly it seemed necessary to confirm the exact height of the challenge swing. She was sure she’d seen the word ‘optional’ somewhere.

If she wasn’t
required
to go on the challenge swing, she could put her energy into being excellent at some other activity. (Penelope was very glad she’d changed her list to read ‘try
most
activities’.) She thought she might be quite good at orienteering. Orienteering was about being careful and thorough, and Penelope was definitely careful and thorough.

She had typed the first six letters into the search engine when there was another bang on the wall. This time it was followed by a burst of music.

‘We will, we will, rock you!’

Penelope put down her iPhone and crossed her arms. Harry had a basketball ring in his bedroom, and even though the ball was soft, it still made a loud banging sound when it hit the wall. Even worse, the ball was most likely covered with something disgusting. There was always a range of disgusting things to choose from on Harry’s floor. The last time she’d looked under his bed, Penelope had counted three smelly socks, a hairy orange and two ancient, half-eaten pieces of Hawaiian pizza.

Whenever the ball hit the wall, she imagined it releasing a fungus colony that would multiply and spread into her own (neat and clean) bedroom.

Penelope opened her middle drawer and sprayed some anti-bacterial spray around the room, just in case. Then she went back to her phone. She had only managed to type in ‘Camp Trib–’ when another bang interrupted her.
PENELOPE LOOKED IN THE MIRROR AND SAW THAT HER NOSTRILS WERE FLARED.
She concentrated on un-flaring them. She was still determined not to react (even though it
was
the night before camp, and Harry really should have more consideration).

The best thing was to stay calm and definitely not have an outburst. In fact, this was Very Good practice. Penelope walked casually towards Harry’s room.

Her mum was standing in the doorway, cheering Harry on. Penelope was quite sure that most mothers would not do that.

‘You need to aim a bit to your right, Haz,’ she was saying.

Penelope paused in the hallway and watched over her mum’s shoulder as Harry jumped on his bed and threw the ball. Though she couldn’t see the ring, she could tell Harry had got it in. Her mum’s face lit up. She was on her second air punch when she noticed Penelope standing there.

‘Oh hello, Poss,’ she said. She hesitated mid-punch, as though she wasn’t entirely sure whether to continue.

For some reason, that made Penelope a little bit sad. Even though her mum and Harry were quite different to her, and sometimes the things they liked seemed silly to Penelope, she didn’t want to ruin their fun.

‘So,’ said her mum, ‘are you all ready? It’s so exciting. Harry loved Camp Tribute.’ She turned to Harry. ‘Didn’t you, Haz? Any advice for your little sister?’

Harry’s bed squeaked as he jumped onto the floor. His Batman pyjama pants had big holes in the knees, and he was wearing his Space Invaders T-shirt, which was much too small. The combination was quite difficult for Penelope to look at.

‘Camp Tribute is awesome,’ Harry said. ‘You’ll love it. You should try to do all the activities.’

Penelope did not roll her eyes.

‘I’m planning to throw myself into bush cooking, and I think I might be quite good at orienteering,’ she said.

Harry looked a bit confused, as though he had never heard of those activities. Penelope supposed that was because camp was such a long time ago for Harry. He probably couldn’t remember much about it at all.

‘Just make sure you go on the challenge swing,’ Harry said. ‘It’s sick! Do you know it’s eighteen and a half metres high?’

‘I’m quite sure the challenge swing is
optional
,’ Penelope said, a little snappily.

It was a shock to hear that the swing was more than
THREE TIMES THE HEIGHT
of their house. It was also a shock that Harry remembered the exact height. He wasn’t the type of person who usually paid attention to detail.

A series of images ran quickly through Penelope’s brain.

Even though it was just an image, and not real, suddenly the feelings Penelope had been trying to squash down by
not reacting
rushed past the calm and nice part of her. Penelope felt doomed to have an outburst at camp in front of everyone, no matter how hard she tried not to.

‘Hey, remember not to hold your breath, Penelope,’ Harry said.

Sometimes Penelope would hold her breath without even realising it. This was not a good thing to do, because (as the girl whose name began with R had pointed out) it made her red in the face, and it made her veins pop out.

‘There are loads of nerdy activities too,’ Harry said, after Penelope started breathing again. ‘You’ll be fine.’

‘Of course you will, Poss,’ her mum joined in. ‘I know you’ll have a great time.’

Even though Penelope was not keen on Harry describing the kind of activities Penelope liked as ‘nerdy’, and even though her mother couldn’t
really
know that Penelope would have a great time, Penelope felt a little better.

But worrying a bit less about camp just opened up some room for worries about her mum and Harry.

Without Penelope there to organise things, the two of them could definitely run into problems.

‘The question is, will you two be OK?’ she asked.

Although she was quite serious, her mum and Harry were smiling. Penelope sighed. Honestly, Harry and her mum didn’t understand how
important
she was when it came to keeping their house organised.

‘Mum, you’ll need to buy healthy food,’ Penelope reminded her. There was a good chance that Harry and her mum would eat junk food the whole time she was gone if Penelope wasn’t strict with them.

‘I will shop as though you’re right there with me,’ her mum promised. Penelope was pleased to see her mum had her hand on her heart as she spoke, which meant it was a
core promise
. A core promise was one you couldn’t break (no matter what).

Penelope knew a lot about core promises because her dad was a politician, and politicians made core promises quite a lot.

‘Harry, what are the five major groups in the food pyramid?’ she quizzed.

Now that she had a core promise to reassure her, Penelope felt quite playful. They’d played this game a million times, but there was something about the silly way Harry always answered that Penelope loved.

‘You’re impossible, Harry!’ Penelope interrupted, rolling her eyes.

But it was quite big-brotherly and night-before-camp-ish when Harry ruffled her hair.
Penelope rather liked it – even though her hair had been neatly brushed, and would have to be brushed again now.