The Girl Next Bunk?

I was just starting to spread my sleeping bag out on my bunk when one of the guys on the rafters fell off, landing flat on his face on the floor right in front of me. He had crazy long and crazy frizzy hair, and he was as pale as Norman. He stuck his hand up to me from the floor and lifted his head. His nose was bleeding and his forehead was scraped up, but he didn't seem to notice or care.

'Welcome to Camp Wannamorra,' he said in a kind of wheezy voice, which I guessed was because that fall had knocked all the air out of him. 'I'm Rhoda McClenaghan.'

Rhoda. Whoops. My mistake. He, who I now knew was actually a she, stood up and dusted off her clothes. She was a lot taller than me and wore those black glasses you would usually see on someone's grandpa.

I was a little uncomfortable—okay, a lot uncomfortable—that there was a girl in our cabin, but more than that, I was confused as to why she was here in the first place.

'Hey, uh,' I began awkwardly, 'shouldn't you be on the other side of the camp?'

For some reason, she laughed.

'If I get more people like you who say stuff like that, New Kid, I just might!' she said. 'You see, I'm—er—not a normal girl. I've been trying for two years to get Sherwood to let me switch, but he still thinks it's just something I'll grow out of.'

'Oh,' I said. 'I'm, uh, sorry about that.'

'Ah, it's ok,' she said, shrugging. 'I don't mind a whole bunch. All these guys are super cool about it, and we've been friends for a long time. You don't have to worry about me, I promise.'

'Thanks,' I said, relieved.

'YO SIS, THINK FAST!' someone yelled, and then a pillow flew out of nowhere and caught her right in the face.

She bent down and picked up the pillow. 'YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT ONE, DWEEBS!' she yelled back, but she was smiling. She threw the pillow back up and pulled her hair out of her face, and I saw this huge red splotch on her neck and jaw.

'Uhh,' I said, 'are you okay?'

'Huh? Yeah, it was just a pillow, dude,' she said, laughing.

'No, I mean, um...' I kind of awkwardly pointed at the splotch.

'What? Ohhh,' she said. 'Yeah, I'm fine, that's just a birthmark. It's called a port-wine stain. Some people think they're ugly. I think it looks cool.'

'Oh. Cool,' I said, because I didn't really know what else to say. And when I thought about it, it kind of was.

'So, New Kid,' she said, 'what's your name?'

'Rafe Khatchadorian,' I said, and we shook hands.

'Oh, that's a cool name,' she said. 'I've never met a Rafe before. Let's see...' She gestured to Norman. 'You've already met Norman, of course.' She pointed to another kid, who was pretty fat and wearing a baseball cap, on a top bunk yelling and throwing pillows with the other guys on the rafters. 'That's Noah, but we all call him Two Tunz, or just Tunz. He got the nickname from his grandma when he was a baby. He's super nice.

'That's Justin'—she pointed to a kid with a beanie and freckles—'who's like a human tracking dog and who we call Bombardier—you'll find out why soon enough.

'That's Jake'—she pointed to the only guy as tall as she was, with blond hair and similar glasses—'we all call him Dweebs, because he's a huge DWEEB!'

'RUDE!' he yelled back, but both of them were laughing.

'That's José'—she pointed to a dude with weirdly cut blue hair—'we call him Smurf, obviously. Fair warning: he never. Shuts. Up.

'That's Cav'—she pointed to the shortest one in the cabin, wearing a snapback and glasses like her and Dweebs—were those suddenly fashionable again?—'short for Cavanaugh. Everything about him is short, from his stature to his temper—don't tick him off.

'That's Francis'—she pointed to a kid in a flat cap who was on the highest rafter, throwing pillows left and right—'he's actually my brother, my twin brother—you'd never know, would you?—we call him Psych because he's got an IQ of about twelve thousand and he can always tell what you're about to say...

'Oh, and that's Legend.' She pointed to the only one of them who wasn't participating in the pillow war (except Norman, who was reading again), a real skinny kid with hair as dark and wild as hers, but not nearly as long. He was sitting on another top bunk and looked half bored, half angry. 'And all the guys call me Sis.'

She gathered more pillows and climbed right back up into the war zone. I kind of wanted more information on this Legend kid, since Sis hadn't said much, but the look on his face made me a bit reluctant to ask him—or anyone else.

Meanwhile, this pillow war looked pretty fun.

'Hey!' I called up to them. 'Mind if I join you?'

Sis, Dweebs, Two Tunz, and Psych all grinned at each other, and I was immediately pelted with about six or seven pillows. I laughed and gathered a couple up before climbing up with them, and pretty soon, I was laughing and shouting just as loud as everyone else.