“It’s too bad he doesn’t want to come out in the sun with us,” added another goblin.
The big goblin chuckled. “That’s why we had to take Cara the Camp Fairy’s magic items. If Jack Frost can’t have fun in the sun, then nobody will!”
“So that’s why he stole the magic items,” Kirsty whispered to Rachel.
Rachel looked around. The goblins were still busy with their picture frames.
“Come on,” she urged in a whisper. “Let’s get that bracelet and get out of here.”
The girls tiptoed to the shelf that held the friendship bracelets. Rachel saw the glowing bracelet, reached inside the bin, and slipped it into her pocket. It shone with fairy magic.
The girls hurried toward the front door. But then one of the goblins took a step backward and bumped into Kirsty. Her fake nose slipped off!
The goblin gasped in surprise.
“Hey, these aren’t goblins!” he yelled. “They’re the girls who help the fairies!”
Rachel grabbed Kirsty by the arm. “Run!” she cried.
“Don’t let them escape!” the big goblin shouted.
The goblins raced to the door, blocking the way.
“Quick,” Kirsty said, pointing to the back wall and shedding the rest of her goblin costume. “We can climb through that open window.”
The girls darted for the window, and Rachel reached it first. She pulled herself up. But the goblins were right behind them. Would they make it?
“It’s time to stop you goblins in your tracks!” a voice cried right then. It was Cara! She flew through the window and waved her wand. All of the glue bottles magically floated into the air. Then they turned upside down, dumping all of the sticky glue on the floor!
The goblins tried to lift their feet, but they were stuck in the goopy glue.
“We can’t move!” the goblins yelled.
“Rachel, Kirsty, hurry!” Cara urged.
The girls quickly climbed out of the window and followed Cara to the woods.
Rachel looked behind her. Some goblins from another cabin were chasing them now!
Kirsty saw them, too. “Maybe we can lose them in the woods!”
They soon reached the trees and hurried down the path. They ran and ran, with Cara flying behind them.
“Camp Oakwood should be just past those pine trees,” Kirsty called out.
But when they passed the pine trees, there were just more trees. Kirsty stopped to catch her breath. “That’s weird,” she said.
“We should be at camp by now.”
“You’re right,” Cara agreed. “It feels like we’re going around in circles.” Kirsty slapped her forehead with her hand. “That’s it!” she cried. “Jack Frost still has the magic compass, which keeps campers from getting lost.”
Cara started to fly up toward the trees. “I’ll fly overhead and see where we are.”
At that moment, a voice rang through the air. “Don’t move!”
The girls froze. A dozen goblins emerged from the trees, surrounding them in a circle.
One of the goblins stepped forward. “Give us the magic friendship bracelet,” he ordered.
“And what if we don’t?” Cara asked.
“Why, we’ll—ow!” the goblin yelled.
The rest of the goblins started crying out, too. “Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!”
Cara started to laugh. “Look!”
A small army of chipmunks had gathered around the goblins. They were pelting the goblins with acorns!
“Run away! Run away!” one of the goblins yelled.
The goblins scattered, and the chipmunks scampered over to Cara and the girls.
“Thank you so much, my friends,” Cara said. “You know these woods very well. Can you help us get back to Camp Oakwood?”
The chipmunks made happy chirping sounds and ran ahead. The girls and Cara followed the cute little critters through the trees, to the edge of the woods by their camp.
“Thank you!” Rachel and Kirsty called as the chipmunks ran off.
Then Rachel reached into her pocket. “This belongs to you, Cara.” She held out the magic friendship bracelet.
“Oh, thank you!” Cara cried happily. “All of the wonderful things I’ve heard about you girls are true.”
She waved her wand over the friendship bracelet, and it shrunk down to fairy-size. Then Cara placed it in her backpack. “From now on, all the activities and games at camp will be fun,” she promised.
“Rachel! Kirsty!”
The girls spun around. Kelly was running toward them.
Kirsty looked behind her. “Cara, you need to—”
But the little fairy was already gone.
Kelly’s brown eyes were shining. “Did you see that thing with the glittery wings? I bet it was a fairy!”
“Are you sure it wasn’t a butterfly?” Kirsty asked quickly. “There are a lot of pretty butterflies around here.”
Kelly frowned.
“We can pretend it was a fairy, though,” Rachel told the little girl. “Why don’t we play a game? We’ll go on a fairy search.”
“I hope we find one for real!” Kelly said. She sighed. “I want fairies to be real so badly!” She ran ahead, toward camp.
“I wish we could tell her that fairies are real,” Rachel whispered.
“Jack Frost is real, too,” Kirsty whispered back. “We need to find the last two magic items soon, so we can start having fun at Camp Oakwood!”
We’re the Rowdy Raccoons!
Can’t Beat the Heat
Cara to the Rescue!
The Trap is Set!
A Race throught the Woods
“Rise and shine, campers!”
The camp counselor’s cheerful voice rang through the cabin. Rachel sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes. Kirsty put a pillow over her head.
“Is it morning already?” she asked.
“It’s morning, and it looks like it’s going to be a hot one,” Bollie told them. “But don’t worry! We’ve got lots of fun things planned. Breakfast in fifteen minutes! I don’t want my Rowdy Raccoons to be late.”
Rachel hopped down from the top bunk. “Wow, Bollie’s right,” she remarked. “It feels very hot already.”
“Well, it’s summer. It’s supposed to be hot,” Kirsty said with a yawn.
The girls changed and headed to the mess hall with the rest of the girls from their cabin. Even though it was only the third day of camp, all of the Rowdy Raccoons had become friends. There was red-haired Brianna; Sophie with the freckles; Madison, who made everyone laugh; and Alyssa and Abigail, the twins.
Inside the mess hall, the other campers were fanning themselves with their plates as they waited on line for breakfast.
“It’s so stuffy in here,” Rachel complained.
Kirsty pointed to the corner. “Look. I think the fans are broken.”
Two of the camp counselors were Standing next to a big fan in the corner.
“It’s plugged in, but it won’t turn on,” one of them was saying. The girls looked at each other. “It’s the missing water bottle,” Rachel whispered. “Cara says it helps keep campers cool in the heat.”
“We’re never going to cool off if we don’t get the water bottle back from Jack Frost,” Kirsty whispered back.
As the campers ate their eggs, bacon, and cereal, Bollie made an announcement.
“Attention, campers! The canoes have been fixed. After breakfast, we’re all going to the lake so we can beat the heat in the cool water!”
Everyone let out a cheer.
As soon as they finished eating, Kirsty, Rachel, and the other Rowdy Raccoons went back to the cabin to change into bathing suits and flip-flops. They came back outside carrying towels and bottles of sunscreen. Bollie was waiting for them.
“Excellent, Raccoons! You’re the first ones changed. Line up and follow me,” she instructed.
Grinning, they all walked down the sunny path to the lake.
“I’m going to teach you your first camp ch
eer,” Bollie called out. “After I sing a line, I want you to sing it back. Okay?”
“Okay!” the Rowdy Raccoons replied.
Bollie began the cheer, and the campers repeated after her.
“Everywhere we go!”
“Everywhere we go!”
“People want to know!”
“People want to know!”
“Who we are!”
“Who we are!”
“So we tell them.”
“So we tell them.”
“We’re the Rowdy Raccoons!”
“We’re the Rowdy Raccoons!”
“And if they cannot hear us!”
“And if they cannot hear us!”
“We sing a little louder!”
“We sing a little louder!”
The girls repeated the chant again and again, singing louder and louder each time. By the time they reached the lake, they were all giggling. They had almost forgotten how hot they were!
Suddenly, Bollie stopped marching.
“Hold on, everybody,” she said, putting out an arm to stop the girls. “Something’s not right.”
She walked closer to the water and then turned back to the campers.
“The lake is even lower than it was yesterday,” she said. “It’s definitely too low to go canoeing, and it might not be safe to swim.”
Rachel, Kirsty, and the other Rowdy Raccoons ran to the shore. Only a few feet of water covered the lake bed.
Rachel gasped. “This is terrible!”
“And it’s all Jack Frost’s fault!” Kirsty whispered to her friend.
By this time, the other campers had reached the lake, too. They all groaned when they saw how low the water was.
Bollie and the other counselors huddled together and talked in low voices for a minute. Then they clapped their hands and broke the huddle.
“Okay, campers!” Bollie announced. “Looks like we won’t be canoeing or swimming today. Please report to the camp courtyard for a water-balloon fight!”
All of the campers cheered.
“That sounds like fun!” Rachel said.
“And cool, too,” agreed Kirsty. She lowered her voice. “I just wish we had a chance to go back to Jack Frost’s camp.”
“There’s nothing we can do until free time,” Rachel said. “But I bet Cara is trying to get the magic water bottle back right now.”
“Rowdy Raccoons, line up!” Bollie called out. “Repeat after me: Everywhere we go …”
Rachel and Kirsty got in line as the campers chanted and marched away from the lake. Campers from the other cabins joined in, too. The chants got louder and louder as each cabin competed to see who could be the loudest of all.
The campers were hotter than ever by the time they reached the courtyard between the camp cabins. Bollie marched them over to an outdoor faucet on the back of the mess hall. One of the other counselors came up and handed her a bag of balloons.
“Let’s do this in an assembly line,” Bollie said. “Rachel and Kirsty, you fill the balloons with water. Sophie, Alyssa, and Abigail, you tie the knots. Madison and Brianna, see if you can find a bucket to hold the finished balloons.”
Rachel turned on the faucet. She held her hand under the water that trickled out. It felt ice cold at first, and Rachel splashed some on her face to cool off. But when she put her hand underneath again, the water was warm. Rachel frowned. “I don’t think this water-balloon fight is going to cool us off.”
The girls worked together to fill up all of the water balloons in the package. Soon they had a whole bucketful. Around the camp, girls from the other cabins were filling up their balloons, too.
“Okay, Raccoons, everybody grab as many balloons as you can,” Bollie told them. “We’re going to line up around the courtyard.”
All of the campers formed a circle in the courtyard. Bollie blew her whistle.
“Let ‘em fly!” she cried.
Rachel hurled a balloon across the courtyard. Splat! In landed in front of one of the Cheerful Chipmunk girls, splashing her with water. She laughed and tossed one back.
Splat! The balloon landed in front of Rachel and Kirsty, soaking them. But instead of being cool and refreshing, the water was warm and uncomfortable. Yuck!
The excitement of the water-balloon fight quickly died down.
“Change of plans!” Bollie announced. “We’re sending some of the counselors into town for some ice cream. You’ve got free time until they come back. I suggest you rest quietly in your cabins. Play some checkers or read a book. It’s too hot to do anything else!”
The soggy campers shuffled out of the courtyard. Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other and nodded. Instead of going to the cabins, they went right to the woods.
“I hope this is all right,” Kirsty said worriedly. “Bollie said we should go to our cabins.”
“She suggested it,” Rachel pointed out. “That’s different. Besides, we have to try to get that magic water bottle back. If we don’t, we’ll never cool off.”
“You’re right,” Kirsty said, nodding. “Let’s go.”
They easily found the path that led through the forest. They followed it for a while until the path forked in four different directions.
Rachel frowned. “I don’t remember this.”
“Me, neither,” Kirsty said. “Let’s pick a path and see where it leads us.”
The girls took the second fork on the right and continued through the woods. But they had to stop when the path forked again.
“I definitely don’t remember this,” Rachel said.
Kirsty’s dark eyes got wide. “Oh, no! Remember what happened yesterday? Jack Frost has the magic compass that keeps campers from getting lost.”
“And now we’re lost again!” Rachel cried.
Poof! Just then, Cara appeared in front of them. The air around her shimmered with fairy magic.
“Oh, girls, I’m so sorry!” she said. “I’ve spent all morning trying to get into Jack Frost’s cabin. But now that he knows we’re on to him, he has extra goblin security everywhere.”
“Thanks for coming to our rescue,” Kirsty said. “We were starting to think we’d never find our way out of these woods.”
“I can fly above the trees and lead the way,” Cara told them. “But I don’t think there’s any point in us going to Camp Frost right now. We need a different plan.”
Kirsty looked thoughtful. “If we can’t get into Camp Frost, we have to get the goblins to come out.”
“But how can we be sure they’ll bring the water bottle with them?” Rachel asked.
Kirsty shrugged. “It’s awfully hot out today. It seems like they’d carry water everywhere!”
“It won’t be easy to get the goblins to leave camp, though,” Rachel said.
Cara fluttered around the girls. “They’re very anxious to get the friendship bracelet back again. We could use that to lure them out of their camp.” She gave her backpack a worried pat. “But that could be dangerous. I’d hate to lose it again.”
“There’s lots of glittery thread in our Craft Cabin,” Kirsty remembered. “We could make a fake friendship bracelet and fool them.”
Rachel nodded. “Yes! We could bring a blanket to the edge of the woods and make friendship bracelets there. I’m sure the goblins will come sniffing around.”
Cara looked excited. “And I can hide in the trees and surprise them! If one of them has the magic water bottle, I can shrink it with my wand. Then I’ll swoop down and grab it before they can stop me!”
“That’s a great plan,” Rachel agreed.
“But first we have to get back to camp, and we’re lost,” Kirsty reminded her.
“Not for long!” Cara sang out cheerfully. She flew up, up, up, above the trees. “Look in the sky and follow the fairy shimmer!”
The girls looked up and saw what looked like a twinkling star shining over the trees. The star moved down the path, and the girls followed it. Within minutes they were back at camp, thanks to Cara
!
“Wait here, Cara,” Rachel told the fairy. “We’ll get the stuff we need and hurry back.”
As Rachel and Kirsty walked to the Craft Cabin, they saw some of the camp counselors pull into the courtyard in a minivan. One got out of the passenger side, opened the back, and hauled out a big cooler. “Ice cream! Get your ice cream!” she called out.
Kirsty looked at Rachel. “Do you think the ice cream is okay, or will the missing magic water bottle ruin it?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Rachel said, grinning.
They ran to the counselor and waited in line to get their ice cream. The counselor handed them each a wooden spoon and a small cup with the words CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM on the lid.
“Here goes,” Kirsty said. She lifted off the lid.
“Uh-oh.” Rachel looked into her cup and saw that the ice cream was bubbling!
“It’s hot chocolate!” another one of the campers wailed.
“It’s tasty, but it won’t cool us off,” Kirsty said after taking a sip. She looked at Rachel. “We’d better hurry up with our plan.”
They ran to the Craft Cabin and collected all the supplies they needed to make friendship bracelets: glittery thread, sparkly beads, scissors, two pieces of cardboard, and tape. Then they went to the Rowdy Raccoons’ cabin and pulled a small picnic blanket from Kirsty’s trunk.
Once they reached the edge of the woods again, Kirsty spread out the blanket. Both girls sat down and spread out the bracelet-making supplies.
Cara flew down from the trees, flapping her wings excitedly as she hovered between them.
“There are lots of goblins patrolling the woods, searching for the friendship bracelet,” she said. “Maybe you could talk in loud voices about the bracelets. If they hear you, I bet they’ll come running.”
Cara the Camp Fairy Page 2