Get Lost! (5 page)

Genie looked down at her clothes. Her army pants were covered with mud. “What happened? What’s going on here?” Genie barked to Katie, who was now standing beside her.

Katie knew she had to say something. “I’m so glad you found me,” she blurted out. “I’ve been lost so long. You’re a great counselor, Genie.”

“
Head
counselor,” Genie reminded her. She scrambled to her feet. Then she looked at Katie curiously. “You were lost?” she asked.

Katie grinned. “Of course. How else could you have found me?”

“Okay, soldier, just another few feet,” Genie shouted back to Katie. “Try to climb at the same time I do.” Genie had wrapped her belt around Katie’s waist. She was using the belt to tow Katie up the slippery hill.

Katie planted her feet firmly into the mud and tried to climb. “This is hard,” she moaned.

“Almost there,” Genie assured her.

“Hey, look,” George cried out. “It’s Katie Kazoo!”

As Katie and Genie wandered back toward the others, Jeremy raced over to them. “Where were you?” he demanded.

“I went into the woods to ...to ...”

“She went to pee.” George giggled.

Katie blushed. “Anyway, I got lost, and Genie found me.”

“Just in time,” George said. “I’m starving. We never got to have our cookout because we were looking for you. Let’s just get back to camp and eat something.”

“Which way do we go?” Jeremy asked.

Genie’s eyes confidently scanned the trees. Suddenly, her face fell. “Where are the red ribbons?” she muttered.

“What ribbons?” Katie asked.

“The red ribbons!” Genie exclaimed, sounding very nervous. “The ones that are tied to the trees. They mark the path back to camp.”

“We must have wandered off the path when we were looking for Katie,” Jeremy thought aloud. “Can’t we take another path?”

“We could,” Genie agreed, “if I knew one. But I have no idea how far we are from camp or which way to turn to go back. I’m not even sure how we got here. It’s all sort of a blur.”

“This is all your fault, Katie Kazoo,” George snapped.

Katie stared at George. Did he know that it was she, not Genie, who had gotten them lost? Did George know about magic wind?

“If you hadn’t disappeared, we wouldn’t have had to look for you,” George continued.

Okay, so George didn’t know about the magic wind.
But he was right. She was the reason the kids were lost. And now even Genie couldn’t get them back safely.

“I hate the dark. I hate it,” Suzanne blubbered. “We don’t even have a flashlight.”

“What if there really is a Science Camp monster out there? He could get us.” George’s eyes grew big. His lip quivered, but he didn’t cry. He just stared out into the woods.

Even Jeremy seemed nervous. “Do you think the other kids in our class are worried about us?” he asked.

“Maybe they’ll call the police to come look for us,” Suzanne said.

“I’ll bet Mrs. Derkman is a total wreck,” George added. “You know how she can get.”

“I doubt it,” Katie said. “I’ll bet she’s fine. She knows we’re with the head counselor. Genie can take care of us.”

“What was that?” Genie cried out.

Katie gulped. Maybe Genie wouldn’t be able to take care of them after all. It seemed that even the head counselor was scared to be in the woods at night.

“I think it was an owl,” Katie told her. “Tess said there were a lot of owls in these woods. Don’t worry, owls won’t hurt you.”

Grrrr.
Just then, everyone heard a loud grumbling noise.

“Now what was
that?
” Genie wailed.

Katie giggled. “George’s stomach.”

“It always makes that noise when I’m hungry,” George moaned.

“Well, we still have all our cookout supplies,” Jeremy suggested. “We could eat. All we have to do is build a fire.”

“I don’t know how,” Suzanne said. “My dad always does the grilling at our house.”

The kids looked to Genie for help, but the head counselor was busy staring into the woods. “Where are those ribbons?” she kept saying over and over. “I need my ribbons.”

“We’re going to have to do this ourselves,” Katie told her friends. She was trying to act like a head counselor. After all, she’d been Genie—for a little while, anyway. “Jeremy, did they teach you to make a fire at your camp?”

Jeremy nodded. “I can build one. But we’re not allowed to use matches, remember?”

“Genie can handle that,” Katie said. “You just tell us how to do the rest.”

Jeremy pointed to some fallen branches nearby. “Suzanne, you and Katie go collect sticks. Start with little twigs, and then get bigger ones. Make sure the wood is dry. George, you and I will get some wood, too.”

Before long, the kids had plenty of wood. Jeremy showed them how to build a little box of twigs. Genie lit the twigs with her matches. Then she and Jeremy built up the fire, by throwing logs onto the flames.

There was plenty of food to cook. Jeremy, Suzanne, and George cooked hot dogs on sticks. Katie ate carrot sticks and potato chips. Then the kids toasted marshmallows.

Genie didn’t eat anything. She just sat by the fire, staring into the woods.

When the kids were finished with their food, Katie turned to Genie. “We should put the fire out, right?” she asked.

Genie nodded. She seemed to have finally calmed down. At least she wasn’t mumbling about the red ribbons anymore. “We shouldn’t leave it burning while we sleep,” she told Katie.

“Sleep?” Suzanne asked. “Sleep where?”

Genie emptied her canteen of water on the fire. Katie and Jeremy did the same. “We’re going to have to sleep here tonight,” Genie told the kids, as the last of the flames disappeared. It was dark now. The moon was the only light they had.

“Sleep on the hard ground?” Suzanne asked. “With all that dirt?”

“What’s the matter?” Jeremy asked her. “You didn’t bring the right clothes for sleeping outside?”

Suzanne made a face, but didn’t say anything.

Katie grabbed a paper garbage bag and began filling it with soft leaves.

“What are you doing?” Suzanne asked her.

“Making a pillow,” she answered.

That seemed like a good idea. The kids all grabbed bags and began to make their own pillows. Katie made an extra one for Genie. She felt bad for her. None of this had really been her fault.

Katie yawned. Her eyes were feeling heavy. She lay down and put her head on her pillow. Before she knew what was happening, Katie was asleep.

Katie hadn’t been asleep very long when she heard footsteps in the woods. There was someone prowling around the campsite!

Katie looked at Genie. She was curled up in a ball, snoring away. She wasn’t going to be any help.

Now a quiet sniffling noise was coming from where the fire had been.

Slowly, Katie stood and walked in the direction of the sniffles.

There was George. He was wide awake—and he’d been crying.

“George, what’s wrong?” she asked him.

George wiped his nose with his sleeve. “Nothing,” he mumbled.

“Come on, George,” Katie urged. “I know something’s wrong.”

“You’re gonna laugh” he said quietly.

“No, I won’t. I promise.”

“I’m scared,” George whispered. “I’ve never been away from home before.”

Katie understood that feeling perfectly. Now she knew why George had acted so grumpy. He didn’t want anyone to know.

“You won’t tell, will you?” he begged.

“Never.” Katie looked around. Everyone else was sleeping. “I have a great idea. Let’s stay up all night and see the sun rise.

George smiled a little. “We can tell jokes and stories and stuff.”

“Okay,” Katie agreed. “Want to see a neat trick?” She put on the hood of her sweatshirt. Then she pulled the strings really tight so the hood closed around her face.

“That’s funny,” George said. “You look like a faceless monster.”

“A faceless Science Camp monster,” Katie giggled.

“Do you know what fairy tale gives a monster the shivers?” George asked her.

Katie shook her head.

“Ghoul-dilocks and the Three Brrrrs!” he laughed at his own joke.

Katie grinned. George was back to normal.

One problem solved.

The next morning, the group was up early. They wanted to get back to camp right away.

“Can you find the right path now?” Jeremy asked Genie hopefully.

“I’m not sure,” she replied.

Katie could tell that her friends were getting scared again. But somehow, things seemed less frightening in the sunlight.

“I’m hungry,” George moaned. “Do we have any food left from last night? Maybe a hot dog or something?”

Suzanne made a face. “Hot dogs for breakfast? Yuck!”

“I’ll eat anything when I’m this starved,” George told her.