Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the show Hamtaro. Just like absolute power, it would be neat. XD
Chapter One: Introducing...
Hamtaro's POV
Summer camp starts today! I'm so excited! A new adventure! Yippee! I hope some of the gang comes, but if nobody shows up, I'm sure I'll meet others. Maybe they can come to meet all my friends at the club! That would be neat. I hope none of them live too far away, though. I hear kids from all over the United States go to this camp. I guess we can always keep in touch by letters, right? Hey! Speaking of friends, there's Sandy! I wonder where Stan is...
The patterned red-head dashed over to the honey blonde. She twirled her big pink ribbon furiously as she spun on her tennis shoes' heels. As was Hamtaro, Sandy was extremely anxious and ready for a summer full of fun and adventure, also lots of physical activity as well. She didn't notice him walking up to her until she nearly fell. Hamtaro caught her in mid-tumble and was slapped in the face with her bristly side ponytail.
"Oh. Hey, Hamtaro! Thanks! I can be like, so clumsy sometimes," she said, sweat dropping.
"That's okay. Where's your brother?" Hamtaro asked.
"Dunno. I think he's with our dad," Sandy replied.
"Oh. She's a cute one." Hamtaro heard as Stan's father pointed to another female camper.
"Daaaaad," Stan whined. "You're so embarrassing!" he looked at the girl again. "You really think?"
"Yeah, man! And she's totally checking you out!"
"Ugh, pops...? It's because you're pointing at her."
"...Oh."
Maxwell's POV
I've read books about camping, camps, the occasional bear-repellant encyclopedia, but I've never actually been to a camp. In fact, I've never even slept outside before. This will be new. I better take lots of notes. The only reason I'm here is because my cousin invited me... in person. Over the phone wouldn't have been so bad, but when we visited her apartment for their Christmas party, those sad brown eyes pleaded at me- beckoned me to go, and mom didn't help either. She just had to waltz her way over and say, 'Maxwell would have a wonderful time.' then turn to me and say, 'plus, you and Candace never get to see each other since we moved. It would be a nice time to bond.' Ugh. My fate was sealed. So, here I am at Camp Greenwich, five and a half miles north of Washington, D.C. ...
"A phanny pack?" someone scoffed from behind.
"It's full of medical supplies in case someone gets hurt," Maxwell snapped.
"Max, take it easy!" they giggled.
"Oh. Hey, Candace."
"Max! Duuuuude!" someone shouted from a distance.
"Oh boy," Maxwell groaned, smiling.
"Who was that?" Candace asked.
"Max! C'mon! The gang's all here, man!"
'The others came?' "Alright! Hold on! I'll be there in a minute!" He turned around and grabbed Candace's hand and led her down the hill. "I want you to meet some friends of mine," he told her. She smiled.
The Hams stood at the bottom of the hill and finally saw Maxwell. Somebody was with him. As they descended, the others noticed it was a girl about most of the group's age- twelve, fourteen. Sandy became slightly jealous at seeing the two holding hands. Maxwell walked over to them, made a weird hand gesture with Stan, and pointed out the strange girl everyone had gawked at.
"This is my cousin, everyone. Her name's Candace." Random greetings were murmured to her. Sandy silently sighed.
"Want a piece of gum?" Cappy offered. She looked down at the nine-year-old, smiling. A glint came from her mouth.
"No thanks. I got hardware," she replied politely, smiling and pointing to her bracketed teeth. Braces. Every kid's worst nightmare.
"Ouch!" Boss, Stan and Howdy said appreciatively, chuckling along with Candace.
"Aww! Look, a doggy ookwee!" Penelope dashed over to the dog.
"Penny, wait!" Pashmina yelled to her. Penelope stopped and turned around.
"What?" Pashmina had a skeptic look on as she pointed to the dog.
Its tail did not wag. Its ears were pinned back. Something did not seem right. Its black glaring eyes continued staring and its lips began to curl in a snarl. Penelope backed up as a growl was heard from deep within its throat.
"Ugh...Nice doggy..." Boss said slowly, snatching the small girl before the dog could lunge.
It tried to jump but stopped in mid-leap, yelping. The canine retreated to the woods nearby, howling in pain. Leaving a trail of blood from its left front paw as the group stood in absolute stupor and looked around at one another. Maxwell cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention.
"I once read someplace that animals who are hurt become very defensive so as to not have any more harm done to them."
"So, it was afraid?" Dexter asked.
"It shouldn't be afraid of us! We're a nice bunch," Hamtaro added.
"But the dog doesn't know that," Maxwell replied.
"Oh..." some of the Hams looked down.
"Poor thing..." Pashmina cooed.
"What kind of dog was it?" Panda asked. "It looked like a Dalmatian to me, but its spots were golden."
"That's quite odd. I was thinking the same thing," Maxwell said. "Hmmmm..."
"Hmmmm..."
"I say we help it!" Hamtaro began to run into the woods.
"Hamtaro!" said a motherly voice from afar.
"Uh-oh. He's in for it now," Stan said and chuckled with Howdy.
"Eep. Yeah, Mom...?"
"What do you think you're doing, young man? I don't want my little boy lost on his first day of camp," she said in a gushy, baby-talk voice that made the others laugh and Hamtaro turn red up to his Ham-Human ears. "Now, come here and give Mommy a goodbye kiss."
"Mooooom!" Hamtaro groaned as her lips stamped his cheek with coral pink.
"Children, all of your families are at the main office building to tell you goodbye," she told the gang.
They walked down the driveway and met up with their families for the last time until July twenty first. Hugs were spread around from everybody's parents as some cried, others rejoiced and few did neither.
"Ooh. Forget what I said about the girl earlier, that one is cute!" Mr. Williams pointed to the brunette standing by Mr. and Mrs. Edwards and some gray man.
"Dad! That's Max's cousin!"
"Max? Your little buddy from school?"
"Yes, Max, my little buddy from school," Stan replied in a biting tone.
"Cool! Maybe you could ask him to hook you up, bro!"
"NO! Stop trying to give me advice on ladies! I'm only twelve for the Lord's sake!"
"Sheesh! Take it easy!"
"I will when you stop trying to act cool." He stomped away from his father.
"He's just trying not to miss us. He'll be crying on the phone by next week, you'll see," Mrs. Williams consoled her frowning husband as they walked to the car.
Later that afternoon, the counselors called all the kids in to play a name game to get to know each other. Each kid had to say their name and then something they liked that started with the same letter of it.
"Je m'appelle, Bijou and I like bows," the French Ham said, fiddling with her pigtails.
"My name's Jesse and I like juice."
"My name's Stan and I like...Pass. It's not camp appropriate." Laughter filled the room. Sandy sweat dropped, only imagining what her twin was about to say.
"Um...Let's have a round of questions!" the main counselor said, clapping, to change the subject. Maxwell raised his hand. "Yes?"
"What's wrong with your dog?"
"Dog? Camp Greenwich only has one pet and that's Bruno, the goldfish in the main office. It could belong to one of the neighboring homes on this road...Any others?" Campers all around raised their hands high in the air. Maxwell and the others gave troubled looks to each other.
The groups of campers were led around the sites by the counselors. The Hams' next stop was the infirmary, where blood curdling yelps could be heard. They walked in to investigate.
A petite brunette scuttled across the room with a wet, soap covered rag. She was attending to the strange dog from earlier. She pressed the towel on the pup's leg and it yelped again, beginning to snap, but never once bit the girl. She shushed it gently, trying to soothe the ailing creature as it whimpered and growled even more when she took off its overly-wide collar with strange red tags to check its information. The tags were blank except for a very faint printed name which she could only make out two c's towards the end.
"Hey, Josie!" the leader said.
"Josie?" Stan and Sandy said, wide-eyed. "We haven't seen you in forever!" she began to run up to them but stopped short.
"I'd hug you, but I'm kinda covered in blood at the moment," she said apologetically.
"Where have you been? Your dad's ship doesn't come around anymore," Sandy said.
"I've been living with my uncles at the old house since dad died. The boat is a wreck, but I plan on fixing it up so I can be a marine vet."
"Oh. What are you doing here?" Sandy asked.
"Josie here is the assistant volunteer nurse at the camp. Like she said, she wants to become a vet, so this is perfect practice...sort of," the main nurse came up to the group, taking off her bloodied gloves.
"A marine vet," Josie corrected, beaming. "And I got the grades to show it."
"Well, it's nice to see you again. How's England?" Stan asked.
"Same ol'," Josie replied with a yawn and smiled, going back to the dog.
That night, another load of campers came. Many were late because of family or last-minute school events, sports or instrument lessons, plane delays or too many train stops, but they were finally there nonetheless.
Their parents said their goodbyes to the children who were quickly carted off to their designated cabins. They took about fifteen minutes to unpack and such and returned to the recreation hall where all the other campers were mingling.
One of the new kids was a tall golden haired girl who dressed in clothing as dark as her ashen kohl eyes. She wore a black hooded cape and a bizarre red amulet, both of which added to the eccentric outfit. A younger camper approached the giant beauty with a purple magic marker.
"Can I sign your bandage?" he asked as she reluctantly, confusedly, presented her left hand to him.
It wasn't just the outfit that made the Hams think something was up.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Really long intro to a drabble-ish thing, I know. All of the other chapters will be fairly to extremely short, FYI, so please bear with the eye torture. Thanks for reading. Sorry about the length. Huzzah! (It's kinda late for a summer fic, eh? Aw, who cares? It'll keep ya'll warm for the winter to come! XD)
Oh! And I updated my profile again! Subtly, but still...
Beta'd by Elric24 (Cuz I lurf DA 14!)