My Summer at Camp Kickapoo
Chapter Four
Camp Pocahontas

My marching orders had been to meet Emma, Joanne, and Dee at Eight O' Clock sharp in the morning. But I had classes. But, thankfully by noon all of my instructors had signed off on all the forums that I'll need to turn in for each badge I'd signed up for. I was also told that tomorrow morning I should sign up for my second week worth of lessons. My guidance counselor strongly suggested that I focus my efforts on earning badges that would advance me toward Star. That included earning my “Life Saving” badge and  the “Orienteering” Badge. Both were required to advance from Scout First Class to Star. 

Both of those classes lasted about two hours at a time. He then suggested that I take the “Fishing” badge since I'd already earned the “Fly Fishing” badge. And finally he suggest I take “Creative Writing” to round things off. I agreed to all those suggestions. I also asked if I could take “Art” since I had one hour left. I was told Art was not being offered next week but I could take “Theater” if I wanted to so I agreed to that.

After that, he signed off and so my schedule for next week was settled.  Then I turned attention toward the lake. The fastest way to reach the girls camp would be to cross the lake and that would require either swimming across the lake or using one of our camp's canoes. After giving the matter some thought, I decided to borrow one of our camp's canoes. 

The guy watching the canoes wanted to give me some grief about borrowing a canoe to cross the lake.  Since I did not have the “Canoeing” Badge. But after a brief back and forth. A scout who had the badge was found and the matter was settled. The scout in question would paddle me over and then hang around on the shore till the thing was done and then paddle me back.

And so around One O' Clock in the afternoon we shoved off. Five hours late. It took us around twenty minutes to reach the other side as the scout paddling the canoe stuck to the shallows. This puzzled me as it would have been faster if we paddled straight across. But the scout seemed on edge as paddled so I kept quiet.

Finally we reached the other side of the lake. Once we were on shore, we were greeted by Emma, Joanne, and Dee both standing on the sandy shore with their hands folded under their breast and their eyes focused on me.

“You're late!” Joanne said.

“But only for five hours!” Emma said, shaking her head. 

Dee just looked at me.

“Sorry!” I said blushing a little. “I had to finish some badge coursework and get everything signed and squared away.”

At this Emma, Dee, and Joanne just shook their heads and held their hands up.

“Whatever!” They all said in unison. 

A few minutes later I was being led off the shoreline and into the camp proper. The first thing I noticed was the road that led from the shoreline to the lake was paved in blacktop. It made traveling a lot faster. The next thing I noticed was the center of camp.

You see, the center of the girls camp was different from ours. For one most of the buildings were brick with black slate roofs. Many had concrete walkways connecting them to the main road. Also I noticed that there were signs hanging on the doors of each building. For example the dining hall had the words 'Dining Hall' cut into a wooden sign that was located in the middle of the door. The nurse's office also had a sign reading 'Nurse's Office' on it and so on. The main lodge, the dining hall, the nurse's office, and the camp store all seemed to be located no more than a stone's throw from each other.

“Welcome to the village square.” Emma said we passed through the area. “To your right you notice a trail, in a few short hours you will usher down that trail to our camp's outdoor amphitheater where we'll be hosting the pageant. Of course we don't expect our princess to walk all the way from our cabin to amphitheater so we'll get send for one of the golf carts.”

“Anyway! At first we wanted to send you into town to get the full make-over. Believe it or not there is a Sephora outlet store in town. But because somebody was a little late, we had to scrap that plan.” Dee said, smiling a little. “Thankfully, between Emma, Joanne and I, we managed to gather up enough supplies for a little make-over.” 

“And because you have black hair. We've decided that the gown you'll wear will be Hot Pink, because according to 'Teen Fashion', Hot pink is among the top six colors that go with your hair color.” Joanne said smiling. She then paused. “You can keep the dress too.”

“And the shoes!” Emma said smiling. “Sorry the only shoes we could find had three inch heels on them. So be sure to take small, but graceful steps. We were going to give you a crash course in art of walking in heels. But again, you were a tiny bit late. So we had to push back that lesson.” 

“We really want a fellow scout to win this.” Dee said, smiling a little. “Oh, and I think we failed to mention that the person who places first will get more than a tiara and a sash, that they can keep of course. But also we're throwing in a fifty dollar gift voucher for our trading post.” Dee paused and smiled a little. “I mean I'm sure you can find something there you might need. After all I heard that your camp's trading post has been forced to close down, something to do with lack of stuff for sale?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

Really, I had nothing to say. Compared to our camp, the girl's camp was like a little city. The further we got from the center of things the more I noticed how comfortable the girls were. For example, across the lake we slept in tents. Here, it seemed all the girls slept in cabins. Wooden cabins. And a concrete walking path connected the front of each cabin with the main road.

Heck, there were even lanterns hanging from a post. I paused and looked at one of the lanterns.

“We light those after dark.” Emma said. “You know, so our girls don't stumble and fall at night. I mean the last thing we need is for a girl to twist her ankle coming back from a late night class or something.” 

I nodded my head.

“Well, here we are,” Dee said as she pointed toward one of the cabins. “Pardon the mess, we've had a busy morning.” Dee walked down the concrete walkway toward the front door of the cabin. “Home sweet home.” And then she pulled the door open and stepped inside.

“The three of us share a cabin.” Emma said smiling. “I figured we could use our cabin as a home base. I know you boys don't have hot running water over there.” As she said that Emma pointed over her shoulders toward the lake and I figured she was pointing at the distant shoreline. 

“So we figured you could use our shower, we have a spare bathrobe for you. And we picked up a few extra things we thought you might need.” Emma said as she followed Dee inside.

“Including a spare razor, soap, shampoo, nail polish, panties, bra, chicken fillets.” Added Joanne as she ushered me in after Emma. 

And so ends another chapter.