Camp Turkey Part 4 of 13 (Patreon)

Kurtis's concerns were all for naught. The swap didn't take place. He couldn't activate the orb. He could give it to Julie and have her make the swap. But he couldn't do it himself. Letting anyone know about the orb was out of the question though.

“Hurry Stephanie, I don't want to be late,” Kurtis told her the next morning.

Sharing a cabin with two young women has its perks, but it also had its problem. The time that it took Stephanie to get ready in the morning was extensive. Stephanie needed to put on her face, which took forever. This was only summer camp, she didn't have to make up her face as if she was going out on the town. But she liked to look pretty and spent the early mornings applying over a half-dozen types of makeup. When she was done, it didn't look like she had much makeup on at all. Kurtis knew the truth. Kurtis appreciated the results but didn't like having to wait for Stephanie.

“I have to put on my face.”

“For who, the campers aren't even here yet.”

“The guys.”

“You don't have to go nuts.”

“I'm, not, I'm not. It's just the basics, primer, concealer, blush, powder...”

“Whatever, just hurry up.”

“I'm going as fast as I can.”

“I have to shave, please hurry. It won't take me any more than three or four minutes.”

“OK, you shave, I'll finish when you're done.”

A couple of days later, Delaney and several of her friends were taking the bus to the camp. The bus had been hired specially to get the campers to the camp.

“My brother is going to be our counselor,” Delaney stated.

“So what? He was our counselor last year.”

“No, he wasn't.”

“Yes, he was. I've been going to Happy Land for years now. Last year he was my counselor.”

“No, last year it was my sister.”

“Your sister?”

“Yeah.”

“Your sister was never our counselor. Never. I don't think she ever worked here at all.”

“She was.”

“I was there too. She wasn't.”

“You don't understand, my sister swapped with my brother.”

“What does that mean?”

“I mean that even though everyone remembers my brother being at the camp, it was really my sister.”

“Naa.”

“Does it make sense for us girls to have a boy counselor?”

“I don't know.”

“No, it doesn't.”

“You're lying. He was our counselor.”

“He was not.”

“Then how come we all remember him?”

'It's magic.”

“Magic? Nuh-uh.”

“Yeah, I'm telling you he swapped.”

“That isn't possible.”

“It is. We have an orb that makes swaps.”

“How do you know?”

“I saw it happen.”

Delaney explained how she was eavesdropping when the orb was used.

“That can't happen!”

“It did.”

“I wish it did, if I could swap with people I would...” the girl trailed off in thought.

“Where is this orb?”

“Kurtis took it with him to the camp.”

“Is he going to experiment on us?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?"

“Yeah, boys can't use the orb. Only girls.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“I still don't believe you.”

“I'll get it and prove it to you when we're at camp.”

“I'd like to see that.”

Delaney would visit her brother at his cabin when she got there. She would find the orb and borrow it to show to her friends. Kurtis would never know the difference.

The counselors greeted the buses full of campers as they arrived. This included Kurtis. Each group had a name that both the campers and counselors knew. Kurtis was holding up the sign for his group, the Butterflies. He also had embroidered butterflies on his uniform to signify this fact.

Seven of the campers in the Butterfly group were Delaney's friends. They all knew Kurtis before getting off the bus. The other girls that didn't know either of them didn't see anything strange about Kurtis being the counselor of a group entirely made up of ten-year-old girls.

“HELLLLLOOOOOOOO Girls! I'm Kurtis your counselor, welcome to the Happy Land Day Camp!” Kurtis announced once he had gathered his entire group.

“This is Tonya, she is the assistant counselor. She'll be helping me, and you'll have the greatest time at camp. By the end of the year, we will all become Best Friends Forever! We all will have so much fun. When I point to you, tell me your name.”

Kurtis knew many of the campers, but despite that, he pointed at each girl. He didn't want any of the girls to feel left out. He greeted them personally once they told him their name, even his sister and her friends who he already knew.

Kurtis escorted the Butterflies to their dorm where they would be sleeping. He showed them their designated beds and where to put their clothes and other personal items. Each bed already had a name of a camper on the bedpost.

Kurtis and Tonya left the girls to get settled in.

“Delaney, Kurtis wasn't our counselor last year?”

“No.”

“But I remember him. I remember his entire speech. He did the same thing last year.”

“That was my sister.”

“No, it was him. He was thinner, but it was him. I remember. I mean we weren't in the Butterflies last year, but it was the same sort of thing. We were Ladybugs last time.”

“I'm telling you; it wasn't him.”

“I don't think I believe you.”

"You'll see.”

Some boys entered the Butterfly dorm as a group. They did what ten-year-old boys do; they harassed the girls. Not all had malicious intent, they were just following the leaders.

“You are being too loud!” the boys told them. This was a lie. The boys just wanted to pester the girls.

“What?”

“You are too loud; we can hear you from next door. You have to stay quiet when we want to sleep.”

“You're crazy!”

“If you're not quiet. We'll make you quiet.”

“You can't do that!”

"Yes, we can!”

The boys were staking out their territory and asserting their dominance over the girls.

The girls were about the same size as the boys, but they weren't as aggressive. That didn't mean that they liked to be bullied though.

“What are you boys doing in here?” Tonya said when she entered the dorm. Tonya as the assistant counselor would be sleeping with the Butterflies. That was part of her job.

“Oh, nothing. We are just being neighborly!”

“That's not true. They said we were being noisy.”

“I don't care what was said. No boys in the girls' dorm!”

The boys left, but they had shot the opening salvo. They had intended on harassing the girls for as long as they could get away with it. There would be lots of opportunities too, these boys and the Butterflies would be spending a lot of time together as they were the same age and roughly the same size.

“OK, girls, now that you have put all your things away, it's time to join the other groups on the main lawn. Come with me!” Tonya announced.

In general, the counselors didn't enter the dorms only the assistant counselors who slept there. This way the campers could have some privacy since the assistants weren't considered adults. In many ways, they were campers just like the rest of them.

Tonya didn't have to explain this to the girls. Most knew this as they had been coming here for years. Those that didn't, would find out on the first night when Tonya stayed the night with them.

As the days passed, the camp fell into a routine. The only consistent problem for the Butterflies was the boys in their brother group, the Beetles.

Delaney's friends also wanted evidence that what she was saying about Kurtis was true. That he wasn't really their counselor. It was only because of magic that they all thought that way. For proof, Delaney would have to show everyone the orb working. But she would need to find it first. She couldn't just snoop around Kurtis' cabin even though she was his sister.

"Tonya, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Kurtis was here last year, wasn't he?"

"Yeah."

"He was the counselor of a girls' group, like now?"

"Yeah."

"That's what I thought."

Perplexed, Tonya stared at the girl.

"Delaney said it isn't true."

"It was. I was here last year. So were you."

"Delaney said it was her sister who was the counselor."

"Her sister? No, I don't even know Delaney's sister."

"She said they used magic."

"There is no such thing as real magic, only magic tricks. You can believe me, it's always been Kurtis. Don't you like Kurtis?”

“I do, but this is what Delaney says.”

“Don't believe her.”

It wasn't a secret that Delaney was Kurtis' little sister. She would go to Kurtis' cabin on occasion. The campers weren't supposed to go to the counselor cabins, but in this case, no one minded. Delaney used the opportunity to look for the orb. It wasn't really hidden; it was just placed in the back of Kurtis' drawer.

Delaney sort of knew how it worked, but she had never used it before. She didn't know that the orb had been set to work only on Kurtis.

Regardless, Delaney needed to test the orb to make sure it worked. She didn't want to be proven a liar in front of her friends. If the orb didn't work, she would simply say she hadn't found it yet.

When she tested it to swap her pigtails with Julie's pretty hair, she got her brother's short hair instead and he got her pigtails. She realized that the orb would only swap traits with Kurtis.

Delaney was about to swap back when Kurtis returned to his room. She stuffed the orb into her pocket so he wouldn't see it.

What Delaney saw was her pigtails on her brother's head. Seeing such a silly sight made her giggle.

Prev Page     Next Page