Here's the new chapter! Sorry about the wait, but I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter 54
"I am sooooo excited about our camping trip!" Jaz yelled, dancing around me and Daisy.
I groaned as I dragged my duffel bag behind me. "Jaz, please take a chill pill." We were all meeting at the school, where we'd get on a bus with the rest of our troop, plus the boys' troop too.
Too bad it meant we had to get here at six in the morning.
"Maaax," Nudge whined, rubbing her eyes, "can you carry my duffel bag? It's so heavy!"
I sighed, taking it from her and nearly dropping it. "Whoa! What do you have in here?"
Nudge frowned, tapping her index finger against her chin. "Let's see. Nail polish, some Barbies, magazines, clothes for my Barbies, lots of hair clips, more nail polish-"
"Nudge," I cut her off, "you know we're going camping, right?"
Nudge nodded eagerly. "Yeah! That's why I brought all of that stuff!"
I rolled my eyes, looking at Fang. He was standing there looking bored, with only a small backpack. "Don't tell me you've only got Barbies in there too," I teased him.
Fang shrugged, looking annoyed. "I brought a map. A compass. Some snacks."
"What about extra clothes?" I asked him. "Or are you just going to wear the same clothes every single day?"
"I'm not going to take a shower for the whole weekend!" Gazzy cheered, running over from where he'd been talking to some other boys.
"I'm not going to be hanging out with you then," I muttered as he and Iggy snickered and Nudge shrieked, "Ewww!"
"Attention!" someone called. I looked up – it was angry Girl Scout Lady Laura. I could have sworn she was glaring at me, the way authority figures usually do when they're around me. "We're going to get on the bus! Please board in an orderly fashion!"
Of course, everyone ended up pushing and shoving each other as they tried to all climb on the bus at the same exact time.
Girl Scout Lady Laura did not look amused. "Enough!" she roared. Everyone froze.
"Form a single file line and board the bus!" she ordered.
"Scary," Nudge whispered from behind me, clinging onto my shirt in an attempt to not get separated.
Finally, we made it onto the bus, pushing our way to the back seats.
"Wow! This bus has a toilet!" Gazzy exclaimed, looking thrilled. He yanked out his brand new disposable camera that Jeb had bought him, and took a picture of it.
Iggy rolled his eyes. "Of all the things you could be describing to me, you decide to talk about the toilet."
I laughed, sitting down next to him. "Gazzy's gonna waste all of his pictures on dumb things like toilets and-"
"Get that thing out my face!" I heard Fang complain to Gazzy.
"And close-ups of Fang's face, apparently," I added, grinning.
"Hey!" Jaz yelled, popping up from the seat in front of me. Daisy's head popped up next to her. I groaned. "Hey Max, what's up?"
"I'm right here, you don't need to yell," I told her. "I have really good hearing."
"I have even better hearing!" Iggy added.
"WHAT?" Gazzy screamed in my ear.
"Someone had too much Lucky Charms this morning," I muttered, glaring at Gazzy.
"Max, lighten up!" Nudge said from the seat across from me. I turned to look at her. She was already unpacking her bag – the seat next to her was filled with dolls and tween celebrity magazines. "It's supposed to be fun! Hey, does anyone want a manicure? I brought at least twenty-three bottles of nail polish!"
I just rolled my eyes at her, but Daisy smiled. "A manicure sounds like fun! Nudge, you can give me one."
"THERE WILL BE NO MANICURES ON THIS BUS," Girl Scout Lady Laura's voice boomed. I turned around to see her towering over us, a furious expression on her face. Before anyone could say anything, she had swiped Nudge's nail polish, Barbies, and magazines, dumped them into a bag, and stomped off to the front of the bus.
Nudge looked like she was going to cry. "That's not fair..." she whispered, for once speechless.
I actually felt kind of bad for her, so I said, "Uh… maybe we can buy you something from the camp gift shop. I'm sorry, Nudge."
Nudge nodded. "Well… okay. Hey, at least I still have some jewelry and hair clips!"
I laughed. "Right. That's… great, Nudge."
"I think the bus is about to start going!" Gazzy yelled from the seat next to Fang. He took a picture of all of us. I blinked right when the flash went off.
"Aw, man!" Gazzy complained. "Okay, redo!" He tried to take another picture, but it didn't work. "Hey! This dumb thing is already out of pictures!"
"Good," Fang muttered, looking annoyed as usual. I snickered at him, and he glared at me.
Maybe this camping trip was looking up already.
~~::~~
An hour later, we were on the freeway, and Gazzy was starting to drive me nuts.
Okay, correction. I think Gazzy was starting to drive everyone on the bus nuts.
"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer!" the Gasman sang, launching into his fourth reprise of that particular song. Nudge, Daisy, and Jaz were happily singing along.
Fang was looking like he wished he'd brought a pair of ear plugs. He looked like he was trying to sleep, but a loud five-year-old screaming a song about beer right in his ear was probably not helping.
I laughed, wondering if maybe I should take a picture of Fang's expression. We could frame it.
Iggy grinned. "I can't believe they haven't gotten in trouble yet." He opened a bag of cookies. "Want one?"
"I do!" Gazzy shouted, jumping over Fang and grabbing three cookies out the bag. He shoved them all in his mouth at once.
"Ewww," Nudge cried. She seemed to have gotten over her nail polish loss and was happily coloring in her Hello Kitty coloring book while singing along to Gazzy's dumb song. "Hey, don't forget to save some for me! They're chocolate chip, right? That's my favorite kind! Oh, but I really like those sugar cookies too, the ones with the frosting! Those are good!"
"Those are good," Daisy agreed with a laugh. She was sitting next to Nudge now, helping her color in the picture of Hello Kitty that they'd been working on.
Jaz grabbed a few cookies from Iggy and tossed them to the two other girls. "Think fast!" she yelled. Daisy caught hers. Nudge wasn't so lucky. A cookie hit her in the forehead and then landed on the floor, splitting into pieces.
"Noooo!" she bellowed. I guess bad things just kept happening to poor Nudge today.
"Five second rule!" Gazzy shouted, scooping the pieces up and stuffing them into his mouth.
"Ew!" almost all of us yelled.
Fang frowned. "The floor has germs."
"Oh well!" Gazzy screamed, spewing cookie crumbs out of his mouth. I winced as some crumbs landed right on Fang's face. Fang wasn't having a good day either, apparently.
"Aw, that's gross!" Jaz commented. She yanked a package of tissues out of her bag, grabbing one and dabbing it all over Fang's face. "There you go, Fnick!"
I pretended to gag. "Jaz is being gross again," I muttered to Iggy.
Fang just kept a completely straight face throughout the whole thing, which was actually kind of funny. "Thanks," he said when Jaz was done.
Jaz beamed at him. "Anything for you, Fnick!" she sang sweetly.
I covered my eyes with my hands. "Is it over yet?"
Luckily, we were all spared the horror of Jaz's flirting attempts, as Nudge shouted, "We're here!" She was pressing her face against the window. "We're here, we're here!"
"Thank god," I murmured. Iggy laughed. "Let's get off this bus already."
"But I didn't even get to use the toilet!" Gazzy whined, pointing at the bus restroom.
My eyes widened. "You're going to smell up this place!" I yelled at him.
Thankfully, we were able to get off the bus before Gazzy did anything else weird. I swung my bag over my shoulder, noticing that Nudge was having an easier time with hers now that it wasn't filled with dolls and accessories. I ruffled her hair. "You've got it now, right?"
She smiled up at me. "Yeah! Max, this trip is going to be so much fun! I hope we get to go to our cabin right now!" She peered around. "I wonder where it is. I hope it's close!"
Unfortunately, Girl Scout Lady Laura had other ideas. "Grab your stuff!" she shouted. "We've got a long three-mile hike to our campsite ahead of us!"