Fiona Goes To Camp
Fiona goes to sleep away camp and discovers how her parents met.
Fiona did cartwheels around her bedroom. She stuck her head out into the hallway to yell to her dad, “IS IT TIME to GO YETTTTTTTT????????”
“No Fiona.”
“HOW ABOUT NOWWW???”
“No Fiona.”
“WHAT ABOUT-”
“NO FIONA!!!!!”
She got a snack from the kitchen-some fresh blades of grass and a tiny piece of chicken. As she chewed she debated which of her sculptures she wanted to bring to camp. It would be her first winter at Camp Spillway for Foxes.
She chose her family sculpture and her one of her and Dolly. Then she grabbed three wood chips in case she wanted to carve something new.
She was so excited! Both her parents and all her grandparents went to Camp Spillway and they loved to tell her about in. On the first day all the foxes worked together to dig a hole in the spillway that led to a huge burrow, even going under the lake in some parts. They would insulate it with snow. Then they would go inside and lay out their beds. Their bunks were rooms inside the burrow. Every week everyone came out to hunt for chickens.
Fiona’s mom’s favorite story to tell went like this. Felix, Fiona’s dad, was in one of the rooms under the lake. He was helping to make lunch: chicken, seaweed, and acorn. He accidentally sliced a hole in the ceiling. The lake started to flood! He clogged up the hole with acorns and figured no one would ever know, but he did end up ruining an entire batch of the acorn affogato they would have for dessert by soaking it and also removing the acorns.
Then, one week later, Felix and his buddy were on kitchen duty together, making an acorn-chicken stew. Felix’s buddy, said, “That sure is a weird place to store acorns!” And pulled one out to slice up and use to season a stew that had just been cooked recently.
“WAIT-NO-“ Felix began and tried to sop his friend, but he pulled out the acorn and the entire pile came crashing down. They ran from the floodwaters, yelling at everyone to get out of the burrow, Fiona’s mom included.
They all had to work together to get the water out, and the Burrow stayed damp for two weeks.
Felix liked to talk about the Filling Ceremony at the end of camp. They’d all gather snow and mix dirt and sticks in until it was brown and almost just plain dirt. Then they’d fill up the burrow. He said it was always sad to pack up his dirt bed and then cover it with icky snow. It was a nice way to say goodbye to the winter though.
Frido, Fiona’s grandfather, liked to talk about the activities. Everything Fiona liked was on the list. She couldn’t wait to go! If only it would be time to go already.
Eventually Felix came in. “We’re leaving in five minutes. Your hole is number 5, your counselor is Fiyla, and your bunkmate is Foozia, okay?”
“Okay,” Fiona said. “Five, Fiyla, Foozia. 5, Fiyla, Foozia.”
“Good luck. Have fun.”
“I will. I won’t flood the burrow, like you did.”
Felix smiled. She grinned at him and checked if she had everything one last time. She did.
It was Camp Spillway time!
She left home to take the path to the spillway which she knew very well, but this time a lot of foxes were there. Fiona waited as more and more joined. Eventually one of the counselors started roll call. When she got to “Fiona the Fox?” Fiona shouted, “HERE!” Later she got all the way to Foozia the Fox, and Fiona heard a dark red fox shout, “HERE!” Almost as loud as her.
They began to dig. Fiona imagined she was sculpting. She helped with the kitchen, which was pretty hard because they had to carve out appliances and stuff. Two foxes named Forfiwin and Follia were there too. After they finally figured out the fireplace they used in place of an oven, they agreed to go to the dining hall. Tables and chairs would surely be much easier.
Fiona asked what hole they were in. “Six,” They both said. “Oh, I’m in five,” Fiona said. “My bunkmate is Foozia. Not sure what a bunk is.”
“You’re going to have to build your beds on top of each other,” Forfiwin said as she made and stacked plates. “Follia and I are bunkmates actually.”
Fiona nodded. “Cool.”
After the burrow was set up, Fiona went to hole 5. She and Foozia built their bed. It came out pretty cool. Day 1 and she had three friends already!
Fiyla helped them carve out shelves to store whatever they packed. Later everyone went to the dining hall to wait for the food to come out. There was a signup sheet for kitchen duty hanging right outside. Fiona signed up for breakfast the next morning.
The camp counselors brought out baskets of sour chicken and grass soup. Blegh. Fiona’s grandpa liked to talk about how the first night’s food was always gross because no kids were on kitchen duty. However, whenever he made chicken and grass soup he also made it sour.
“So what do we do here exactly?” Asked Fiona. “Oh, lots of things!” Foozia said happily. “Art! Music! I don’t know if you saw the incredible piano Foma and I carved! And of course cooking! Everyone does kitchen duty here. It’s a privilege.” Fiona nodded. “How about sports?”
“Volleyball, soccer, frisbee, competitive jump-roping, they’ve got everything!” Her face suddenly turned grim. “Just don’t do basketball.”
“O…kay.”
“PROMISE ME, FIONA!”
“Um…sure? I promise?”
“Great!” Foozia said cheerfully. “Let’s do competitive jump-roping together!”
That night, Fiona wrote a letter to Dolly.
Dear Dolly,
Camp rules, but it would be better with you! I made a new friend, Foozia. She’s kinda creepy. She screamed at me to not do basketball. Guess that’s out. How’s your mom? She’s almost ready to have her baby now, right?
-Fiona
Then she went right to sleep. She had to wake up early the next morning for kitchen duty. Acorn puffs on grass bread with tree sap syrup. Mmm! According to Fiona’s mom, the pre-made acorn puff batter had oak leaves in it, and the grass bread batter had pine needles. She and her friends had always made their dough from scratch, and their recipe was in the bag of kitchen materials premade that the builders were instructed to put in. Fiona found it, unfolded it, followed the instructions, and showed the batter to her fellow bakers. No distinct scents of grass or pine neeedles in either. They set them in the oven and played poker on the kitchen counter with Forfiwin’s cards.
Fiona glanced at the other side. Another recipe her mom had never told her about? Nope: It was something else. Holes 1-4 Basketball starting lineup: Fyllis, Fygram, Felix, Frindan, Frulef. Fiona’s dad was on it!
Why was it on the back of her mom’s recipe, in her mom’s handwriting? Maybe she was the basketball coach. But wait, she wasn’t in holes 1-4. She was in Hole 8.
Had she been tracking the other team or something? No, that’s weird. Who would do that? Maybe she was just interested? As a fan? No, she was in hole 8.
Maybe she was an opposing player.
Basketball was the one sport Foozia said to avoid. Maybe it was bad luck, all because of her parents!
“Hey-Fiona. Earth to Fiona. You’ve been zoned out for ten minutes and we thought you’d want to help make the tree sap syrup.”
“My mom’s recipe-add oak leaves.” Fiona took the oak leaves out of the acorn puffs premade batter and stirred it in.
“Your mom sure makes good syrup!” Forfiwin said as she tasted it.
After they made the food they carried it out to the people waiting to eat. Fiona licked her lips. Mmmm.
After she had scraped her bowl clean, she went to competitive jump roping with Foozia. She won, with 77 points! After that they did music, learning Mary Had A Little Lamb. Then it was They sculpted in art, making stuff from multiple types of wood, extra fancy. Then they had lunch. In Baking they learned how to make acorn soufflé, in swimming (the entrance out of the lake was extremely difficult to make and flooded three times) they practiced breaststroke, and after that they went to art again, for watercolors. After all that it was nearly time for dinner. They passed the basketball court. “Hey, why don’t you want to do basketball?” Fiona asked.
Foozia looked her in the eyes. “It’s cursed.”
“What?”
“What?”
“What?”
“Come on, let’s go play soccer!”
So they did. Fiona’s team won. It was a good day, but that night Fiona wondered. Why was basketball cursed? Not that she could play basketball. Or, really, wanted to play basketball. But the moment Foozia mentioned how she shouldn’t do it, it became the thing in the world she most wanted to do!
Right after breakfast Fiyla gave Fiona a letter. It was from Dolly!
Dear Fiona,
I wish I could go to your camp! Camp Hideaway is the worst. They say they want to make you less scared, but I’ve just been terrified the whole time. My mom will be having her baby soon. I hope she has it when I’m at camp because I’ll get to go home early.
-Dolly
Poor Dolly. Fiona made her a drawing of everyone at Foresthood School in art. That wasn’t very hard. She only had to draw fourteen people. She and Forfiwin did volleyball and swimming together. After lunch, she did frisbee with Follia.