The next thing the military campers knew, it was pouring down and they were about to be given their next task.
"Now, when I give the order, you drop to your yellow bellies and shimmy under the barbed wire! There you'll meet a recruit on the other side of the building and hand off the baton then shimmy back up and return to your starting place!" The director began to say as he carried an umbrella before he got up in everyone's faces. "Are we having fun yet?!"
"Sir, yes, sir!" The young cadets responded since they were made to say that.
"Okay, uh, sir? I have a question." Otto spoke up.
"What is it now?" The director glared at him.
"What is this supposed to teach us exactly?" Otto asked.
"Teamwork, Rocket! Something you clearly know nothing about which is why your father sent you here for the summer!" The director explained firmly, sounding more stern with Otto than anyone else on the campground.
"Hmm... right... just checking." Otto murmured at that.
"I say ready... set... GO!" The director then said before barking into his megaphone.
This then made the young cadets start running.
"Man, this whomps." Otto complained as he began to crawl under the barbed wire.
"You get used to it." Gus advised as he was used to this sort of training.
Darren panted and grunted as everyone else kicked mud in his face and he was left behind, even more so than Otto or Gus. "Man, gimme a break!" he then complained.
Soon, a familiar face was shown as she grunted and panted before getting her hair caught. "Ouch! Stupid barbed wire!" she then complained.
"Miranda?" Darren asked out of shock. "You're here too?"
Miranda then coughed up some water before she explained what she was doing here in the first place. "I got drafted once Courtney and Dakota backed out of our cruise," she then stated sternly. "My dad's head sergeant here."
Darren gave a whistle in response. "I thought I had it bad." he then remarked.
"How do you guys think I feel?" Otto complained. "How am I supposed to impress people with my skate and bike tricks if I'm stuck under barbed wire?"
"People, this is not a cakewalk, do you copy?!" The director glared at them as he saw that they were just talking. "Now hand off that baton and move, move, move!"
Darren then got Miranda's ponytail unstuck since he saw her struggling.
"Thanks." Miranda smirked at that.
"Save you a seat in Mess Hall?" Darren offered as he gave her the baton while Otto gave his to Gus.
"Assuming you make it back alive? I guess." Miranda smirked as she accepted Darren's baton before she crawled away.
Darren smirked back a little, then began to crawl the other way. However, it actually wasn't raining. Jen and Brick were standing in a crow's nest and were using hoses to make it look like it was raining.
Meanwhile, Lil took out a slip of paper as she began to find her new cabin for the summer. She then grimaced once she saw that it was mostly fluffy and pink and soon opened the door and looked wide-eyed.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Angelica complained once she saw who came into the cabin next. "Please tell me you're lost."
"Angelica? We're cabin mates?" Lil asked with wide eyes.
"No way..." Angelica said before checking her own slip of paper to say which cabin she had. "'Carnation Cottage'?" she then asked.
"Carnation Cottage," Lil repeated out of disgusted dismay as she rolled her eyes. "Looks like we might as well get used to each other's company and try to deal with it." she then added.
"Good," Angelica smirked before she put her backpack on the top bunk of a bed she stood in front of over the top of a bunk that hadn't been claimed yet. "While you're dealing I'm claiming the top bunk."
"I wanted the top bunk!" Lil complained at that.
"Knew you would," Angelica smirked. "After all, I'm a teenager and you're just a lowly little preteen."
"I just hope my other cabin mates aren't as obnoxious as you..." Lil grumbled.
However, it seemed to get worse when the door opened.
"Oh, Angelica, do we have a new friend in our cabin?" One girl asked.
"It appears that we do and I think I recognize her too." The second girl added.
"You gotta be kidding me," Lil complained. "Savannah Shane and Rhonda Wellington-Lloyd?"
"In the baby lotion accented flesh." Savannah smirked.
"Don't feel bad, maybe someday you'll be as cool and pretty as us," Rhonda added as she brushed her hair. "But probably not~"
Lil grumbled and rolled her eyes as Angelica smirked at both Savannah and Rhonda.
Later that night at Camp Caprice, the girls were all gathered around a campfire as it was getting dark and it was time for scary stories.
"...and even though it was the middle of the day and she was Camp Caprice's best swimmer, she never came back." Jed soon told the campers as he looked through the book he was reading from.
"So you're saying she drowned?" Macie asked with a snort.
"Nope. They drained the lake. They never found her. She just disappeared," Jed explained in a grave voice. "Once or twice in the Mess Hall on Make Your Own Taco Night, I could swear I've seen her ghost. Standing in line for more flour tortillas. No lie."
A twig then snapped which caused all of the girls to scream.
"Fraidy cats." Savannah rolled her eyes.
"Oh, yeah. Totally." Angelica added with a nervous grin.
"It's her!" Macie panicked.
"Sorry I'm late," The boy from earlier said as he came to the campfire. "Um, I couldn't find the crackers."
"It's okay, guys, nothing to be scared of." Zoey soothed the younger girls who soon sighed in relief.
Ginger looked like she wanted to say something to the boy.
"I can't take that swimming test, you guys." Macie said nervously.
"Aw, come on, you don't really believe the story," Ginger said to her friend softly. "You'll be fine, Macie."
"I can't!" Macie trembled. "I don't wanna end up haunting Taco Night too."
"Don't worry, Macie; Zoey, Dakota, and I will be there to make sure nothing goes wrong," Jed soothed the green-haired girl. "I'm the waterfront guy, remember?" he then added.
"Do I?" Macie replied as she giggled and blushed a little at that excitement.
"Maybe that can be your summer goal, Macie." Zoey suggested.
"Yeah! Working up the courage to swim across that lake!" Dodie added in excitement. "I'll write it on the chalkboard when we get home!"
"That sounds like a good idea." Zoey nodded.
"Thanks, Zoey," Dodie smiled. "I knew you'd like it."
Zoey nodded before looking at her younger cousin. "How about you, Ginger?" she then asked. "What's gonna be your summer goal this year?"
"Uh... nothing yet." Ginger replied.
"Well, think about it. The session will be over before you know it." Dodie reminded her friend.
"Tell me about it." Ginger nodded as she looked at the helper boy who was handing out boxes of crackers to everyone.
"I told you they were right here, Courtney." Dakota's voice said from behind the bushes as everyone went to look that way.
"Oh! There you all are!" Courtney said as she jumped out to join them as she looked at her compass. "I swear I can't make heads or tails of this compass thingy."
"What'd we miss?" Dakota then asked.
"Ghost stories." Zoey replied.
"Okay, ladies, who wants to make s'mores?" Margie announced as she suddenly came by with a tray full of graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows.
"We do!" The girls cheered in response.
"Do you want some help, Margie?" Zoey offered to the female counselor.
"Oh, I'll do it!" Dodie piped up in excitement.
"Dodie, I have to say, I'm really impressed with your camp spirit, spirit, spirit," Margie smiled in admiration at the younger girl. "How would you like to be sort of a counselor-in-training?" she then offered.
"What?!" Zoey and Dakota asked out of shock.
"Oh, I would like that more than anything, Margie!" Dodie gushed.
"Then let's make those s'mores!" Margie smiled as she gave her whistle to Dodie right away.
"Oh, man..." Zoey groaned to herself.
"Is something wrong?" Dakota asked. "I don't know Dodie that well."
"I do..." Zoey sighed and rolled her eyes. "To be honest with you, I don't think she's a very good friend to Ginger."
"Really? How come?" Dakota wondered.
"It's a bit of a long story," Zoey replied. "I'll tell you later."
Dakota blinked at that before shrugging and deciding to just go with it. Dodie then blew the whistle.
The helper boy approached Ginger before whispering to her as he took out the boxes of graham crackers. "Take the next one down." he then whispered to the redheaded girl.
Ginger was curious, but she did what was asked of her. The boy then took the other box and went to give it to other girls like Reggie and Eliza. Ginger then took out what looked like a note and read it to herself: "In case you wondered, my name is Sasha". She then looked over as the boy helped out other campers.
"Hey, no hogging the crackers, Ginger! Dodie complained, pulling Ginger out of her reverie. "You look funny. What's up?" she then wondered.
"Nothing," Ginger replied bashfully as she looked toward the boy curiously. "Just thinking about my summer goal."
Sasha then gave a box over to Tootie and Little Suzy before seeing Ginger looking at him, then gave her a small smile. Ginger smiled back as the fire crackles filled the sky that night as the campers began to share their s'mores until they would go to bed for the night. That night was mostly a peaceful sleep, though except maybe for the "Carnation Cottage". Lil was stuck in the bottom bunk underneath Angelica as the older blonde girl snored rather loudly while Lil tried to block out the sound by tossing and turning and to make matters worse, the bed broke right underneath her.
When the next day came, the Navaho Girls were fast asleep, except for Ginger who woke up early and began to tiptoe across the cabin and slide her shoes on so as not to wake up anyone else. She then grabbed a bag before the door shut behind her, though it was unexpectedly louder than she thought it would be.
"Hey, easy on the camp property, Ginger!" Dodie complained as the redheaded girl waved at her before running off suddenly. "Margie just replaced those doors last summer! Sheesh!" she then rolled over to get some more sleep.
Macie continued to sleep herself until she heard a noise that bothered her, so she woke up and put her glasses on.
However, the noise wasn't as annoying to anyone except for maybe Courtney who had enough. "Buzzing little pests, a total lack of privacy, and no indoor plumbing I can pretend to live with, but when you compromise my beauty sleep-" she then began to fuss until she rolled up her sleeves, then complained and scratched the red bumps on her arm.
"Oh, Courtney, don't scratch those," Dakota told her cousin as she began to wake up. "That'll make it worse."
"Well, I'm sorry, Dakota! But I can't help it," Courtney complained. "Remind me to sue these mosquitos later when we find better cell phone reception."
Zoey groaned and rolled her eyes a little as she overheard that.
"Ouch... those mosquitoes had a field day on you, CG." Macie remarked as she saw the bites from her bed.
"Macie, I asked you a million times to stop calling me, CG!" Courtney complained.
Macie didn't say anything and soon tried to kill a mosquito with her bug spray.
"Dakota, make her stop." Courtney demanded.
"This is gonna be a long summer." Dakota said to Zoey.
"Gee, ya think so?" Zoey replied.
Soon, there was a horn being played over the PA system to wake up the campers for a brand new day. Dakota looked to see that the time was only 7:30 and that made her even more infuriated as she looked like her head was going to explode.
"Looks like someone's a little short on camp spirit, spirit, spirit! Sing it loud so we can hear it!" Dodie noted as she came down from her bed.
"Not now, Dodie." Both Dakota and Zoey demanded.
"No, Dodie, I won't! Look at me! I'm a mess!" Courtney whined. "I haven't had a proper blow dry in days, my only companions are you four, and my poor, ravaged body doesn't even know how to metabolize that garbage they call food!"
"At least Chef Hatchett isn't cooking here." Dakota remarked.
"She'd probably have a heart attack." Zoey added.
Macie continued to try to kill the mosquito, but didn't seem able to get it until Courtney took the bug spray, then killed te bug, causing it to fall on the floor. "Have you tried jerk tuna salad pinwheels?" she then suggested. "They're not half bad, CG."
"Argh! One more time, Lightfoot, I'm warning you!" Courtney scowled at the bespectacled girl.
"Hey... does anyone know where Ginger went?" Zoey wondered.
Everyone then looked around the cabin all of a sudden as that was a pretty good question.
"I guess she went to the bathroom or something," Dodie shrugged. "I saw her leaving early."
"Yeah... I guess that must be it," Zoey nodded, though she wasn't fully sure herself. "Maybe I should go after her."
"Are you really sure you should?" Dakota asked.
"Well, Ginger was always like the little sister I always wanted," Zoey shrugged in defense. "It couldn't hurt to keep an eye on her and not just Dodie, Courtney, and Macie, right?"
"Well... okay," Dakota said. "Be careful out there."
"Relax, Dakota, the worst of Camp Wawanakwa is far behind us," Zoey soothed as she put her hand on her best friend's shoulder. "You should probably try to help give Courtney some guidance anyway since she seems to look up to you."
"All right, we'll catch up with ya later." Dakota sighed and nodded at that.
Zoey also nodded and soon grabbed her own bag and headed out the cabin door while Dakota decided to be in charge of the cabin for the time being. "All right, Ginger, what'd you get yourself into this time?" she then asked herself before she wandered off into the woods.
Ginger soon ran up a boulder to embrace the fresh air and sunshine. She then hopped down and kept running before doing cartwheels on a soccer field, then attempted to catch a butterfly. As she put her hand up in the air, she unknowingly backed up against a certain someone who was carrying bows, arrows, and quivers, causing them both to fall on the ground suddenly.
"Uh... Cupid, I presume?" Ginger asked Sasha bashfully as she picked up a bow and arrow.
"Not exactly. I just work for him." Sasha replied as he smiled at her while putting arrows away from the ground.
"Hi, Sasha!" A young girl smiled as she walked by.
Sasha smiled back at her and waved at her in response.
"She's cute," Ginger remarked as she decided to help out Sasha. "I remember my first summer at sleepaway."
Zoey continued to sneak around until she finally caught a glimpse of her cousin from afar. A whistle soon blew which got Sasha and Ginger's attention right away and they saw that Margie was ready to give Sasha some work to do.
"Yeah, well, duty calls," Sasha told Ginger apologetically as he gathered his supplies together rather quickly. "I gotta go set up the archery course."
"Sasha, wait, listen," Ginger said, trying to stop him and luckily she was able to. "I think you got the wrong impression the other day. See, I'm not like Courtney Gripling," she then began to explain as Zoey continued to watch in silence, seeing that this was very important to her cousin right now. "I mean, the way she talked to you; it was really rude. And I'm not one of those kind of girls."
"So, what kind of girl are you?" Sasha wondered.
Margie then blew her whistle again and began to look very impatient with him right now.
"Guess you're gonna have to find that one out for yourself." Ginger said bashfully to Sasha.
Sasha then took a bow back from Ginger and smiled at her before walking off. Ginger then turned away with her own smile as she began to look hopeful.
"So that's what's going on," Zoey said to herself with a small smile. "Ginger has a crush. Oh, I'm so proud of her," she then said before sighing. "Oh, Mike... I hope you're doing okay this summer." she then prayed to herself.
"Zoey?" Ginger asked as she looked over suddenly into the bushes.
"Oh, uh, hi, Ginger." Zoey smiled bashfully and waved at her younger cousin.
"Were you spying on me?" Ginger asked as she put her hands on her hips. "I thought that was Carl's job."
"Okay, I'm sorry, but you disappeared from the cabin and I just wanted to make sure that you were all right." Zoey confessed and apologized.
"Oh, well, I'm more than alright..." Ginger said before blushing. "In fact, I think this is gonna be the best summer ever."
"I can see why you'd think that." Zoey smirked playfully to herself.
"Zoey!" Ginger whined.
"Sorry, sorry, big sister/cousin job," Zoey chuckled and waved her hand. "Come on, let's get some breakfast before we miss our turn."
"Yeah, good idea, Zoey." Ginger nodded.
And with that, the two cousins walked off together as everyone else back at camp began to slowly start the day.
Later on, two teams of girls were in a tug-of-war together. Eliza, Reggie, Lil, and Patti Mayonnaise were on one team and Bessie Higginbottom, June McIlvaine, and Helga Pataki were on another team. The crowd cheered for them as both teams were struggling until soon, Lil seemed to fall asleep, causing her to fall over, then the rest of her team lost the game and landed in the mud while the other team cheered.
"Ah!" Lil yelped as that woke her up.
"Lil!" Eliza, Reggie, and Patti complained.
"Sorry, I didn't sleep very well..." Lil grumbled before yawning.
"You know, Lil," Savannah smirked as she, Rhonda, and Angelica came by. "We have some cover-up to conceal the monstrous bags under your eyes."
"Wouldn't have the bags under my eyes if not for your ferociously loud snoring!" Lil retorted firmly at the three of them.
"Us?" Rhonda asked.
"Snore?" Savannah added.
"Must have been the crickets." Angelica concluded.
"Only if you inhaled them!" Lil retorted.
The other three girls snarled in response to that.
"How did I get stuck with you three for the summer?" Lil groused to herself.
"Forget about it, Lil, let's go for a hike." Eliza suggested.
"Maybe we can find a nice, soft rock for you to sit on." Reggie added.
"Yeah, I guess that sounds good." Lil nodded as she sat in the mud.
"You wanna get out of there?" Eliza suggested.
"Nah, I don't mind sitting in the mud for just a while longer." Lil said before smirking blissfully.
Reggie and Eliza just blinked at her in confusion before backing away slowly until they soon made it over to Ginger's cabin. Dakota was keeping Courtney company as everyone else seemed to be split up, especially with Zoey going after Ginger.
"Hey, Ginge! We're going on a nature hike! You wanna come with?" Eliza called out while Reggie glanced inside the cabin.
"I guess no one's there." Reggie shrugged as she overlooked Courtney, seemingly on purpose.
"Hello? I'm Courtney..." The blonde girl said as she stepped out of the cabin, though Reggie and Eliza just stared at her in silence. "Gripling?"
"Hmph." Eliza firmly pouted and glared.
Reggie did the same before hiding a sly smirk.
"Ginger's already gone." Courtney soon told them with a sigh.
"Oh, let's go, Reggie." Eliza suggested.
The latter two girls then got ready to turn away.
"Sorry Ginger didn't get a chance for formerly introduce us," Courtney said as she tried to catch up with them. "We're super-tight friends."
Reggie and Eliza shared glances with each other before looking back at Courtney in disbelief.
"You? And Ginger?" Eliza asked with her hands on her hips.
"Absolutely! She's been to a bunch of my parties," Courtney smiled. "I've tried to introduce her to all the right people. I guess you could say I've really taken Ginger under my wing."
Both Reggie and Eliza soon snickered at that.
"Sure, right." Eliza replied.
"Well, then, we're just going to go, you know, take a hike." Reggie then added.
"Brilliant!" Courtney beamed as she ran inside. "Let me just go grab my parasol."
Reggie looked deadpan at that.
"You know, she doesn't seem as bad as you say she is." Eliza remarked to the purple-haired girl.
"Trust me, Eliza, she's bad news," Reggie replied. "You'll thank me later."
"Well, I guess she can't possibly be worse than Sarah Wellington, right?" Eliza shrugged to herself. "Not to mention Debbie on a bad day, especially when Donnie gets loose in her stuff." she then added.