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Open House day dawned and the girls in the cabin stretched and tried to open their eyes. Weary from the final night campfire of pre-camp and the rigors of the entire week, they struggled to get out of bed. Trixie rolled off of her bunk and stood, surveying the others as they sat up.
"Come on you guys. Times a wasting. We find out at breakfast what unit we'll be assigned to." Seeing that the others weren't moving, Trixie grabbed her pillow and threw it at Ryma's head.
"That's your first warning. Y'all don't start moving and I'm going to come over and jump on you! Who's gonna be first?"
Groans from her cabin mates greeted her, but they all gradually got out of bed and straggled to the biffy. Diana stood in front of the mirror and inspected her reflection. Hurriedly pulling a brush through her lush black hair, she finally shrugged and pulled it up in a quick ponytail. Honey stood next to her and gathered her hair in a banana clip. They looked at each other and then at Trixie, who pulled a comb through her curly mass, plopped a hat on, and turned and grinned at them while she waited for them to finish.
"You know, for once having short hair is a good thing. At least I don't have to fuss with all that hair."
Honey and Diana both turned and stuck their tongues out at her before putting on their own hats.
Diana looked at her reflection again and sighed. "I don't know that I'll ever get used to this. One outlet for eight girls! There's no time for using a hair dryer or a curling iron unless I want to get up early. And that rat Ryma didn't even warn us about this." She turned and yelled at the showers. "Do you hear me Ryma? I hate you!"
A voice floated back from the showers. "I don't know anybody named Ryma. Must be some other gal." The voice broke into laughter.
"Argh! Sunny then. You're a fiend Sunny!"
"Yes, yes I am! Hee-hee-hee!"
The three Bob-Whites trudged off to breakfast leaving Ryma behind. Diana turned and yelled one more time. "You better hurry Sunny or there won't be any food left. I might not save anything either. Ha!"
Honey's expression turned thoughtful. "You know that we have to tell Corky what our nickname is by the end of breakfast. Have you guys thought of anything yet?"
"Well, you know how Daisy, I mean Kiwi, said it should be reflective of our personality or something we like?" Honey and Diana both nodded. "You both know how much I want to be a detective, so I was thinking maybe I'd be Kinsey, like in Sue Grafton's books. What do you think?"
Honey clapped her hands together excitedly. "Oh, I like it. It's perfectly perfect for you! How about you Diana, what are you going to use?"
"Oh gosh, I've been thinking about this all night. Didn't you hear me tossing and turning? I just couldn't think of anything clever like I knew you both would. Trust me, I was getting pretty desperate. Finally, I thought of something Mart is always saying to me."
Trixie started to gag. "Do we have to bring up my dear brother? I'm enjoying being away from him for the summer."
"Oh you, stop that. You know you'll miss him. Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Diana glared at Trixie for a moment, "Mart did say something interesting to me."
"What was it, Diana?" Honey the peacemaker, tried to encourage Diana whenever possible.
"This is going to sound a little smushy," Diana grinned sheepishly. "You know how Mart and I like to watch classic movies. We were watching Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, and Mart turns and looks at me and told me how much I look like her. So I was thinking of maybe calling myself Cleo, for short you know." She looked despairingly at the others. "Please tell me you don't think it's too dorky!"
Trixie, feeling a little ashamed for picking on Mart in front of Diana was the first to congratulate her. "I think it's a wonderful name for you. Mart is right, you do look like Elizabeth Taylor. 'Cept I think you look nicer than she does. She looks kind of scary now that she's older."
Trixie and Diana both giggled, but Honey walked along forlornly. Turning around, Trixie noticed how sad Honey looked. "What's the matter, Hon? Something bothering you?"
Honey burst out, "You both have great names, but I still haven't thought of anything!"
Trixie grabbed Honey by the arm and guided her to the base of the big tree outside the dining hall. "We still have some time before breakfast starts, why don't we sit and brainstorm something for you real quick."
Diana sat on the other side of Honey and patted her on the arm. "We can do it. If I could think of something, I know you can. We just need to think. It's like Kiwi said--something reflective of your personality...
"Shoot, that won't work. Your real nickname already does that." She tapped her fingernail thoughtfully on her chin. "Think, think, think...."
Honey spoke hesitantly. "I like Trixie's idea about a famous detective. I like watching Cagney and Lacey--I just don't think I can be them, you know what I mean?"
"I didn't use a TV detective, Honey; you don't have to either. Maybe there's some kind of detective that you've read about. Goodness knows, you did a lot of reading when you were at those fancy boarding schools. Remember, you told me that when you were sick, that's all you used to do." Trixie clapped her hand to her mouth in horror. "Oh gosh, I'm so sorry Honey! I know how much you hate being reminded of those places."
"No, it's okay," Honey hurried to reassure her. "I'm not nearly so bad about it now like I used to be. Besides, being around you guys really has made all the difference. Just think, I'm almost as goofy as you are." She poked Trixie in the arm with a grin as she spoke.
They all sat quietly for a moment, deep in thought. All of a sudden, Honey jumped in the air. "I think I have something!"
"What?" Trixie and Diana yelled at the same time.
"I just remembered this obscure set of stories I read at Broadmoor called The Adjusters . It's about a group of amateur crime fighters who have a bunch of different talents. It's called the adjusters because they adjusted the results of the law, by tricking criminals into trapping themselves. The guilty were punished and the good were protected, released or compensated. One of the main characters was Daphne Wrayne, who was a sporting society girl. Don't you see? That's perfect for me! Trixie and I are amateur crime fighters and I am a society girl. Well, I should be, even though I don't act like one, and my mother cringes at some of the stuff we do, and is always trying to get me to go to society events."
Honey stopped to take a breath and looked expectantly at the other two girls. "So what do you think?"
Diana stood up, walked in front of Honey and stared at her, almost as if she were inspecting her. "Hmm, I think it could work. Especially since you do look like Daphne." She turned to look at Trixie and winked. "Don't you agree, Trixie?"
Not comprehending where Diana was going with this, but willing to play along, Trixie agreed. "Oh, absolutely."
"What do you mean I look like Daphne? I haven't even told you what she looks like!"
"Not that Daphne, silly. Daphne on Scooby Doo. You sort of look like her."
Now Trixie started staring. "Oh my gosh, you're right. I didn't realize it till just this very second. You do look like Daphne." Cupping her hands around her mouth, she called out, "Scooby Doo-o-o, where are you?"
Trixie and Diana clung to each other, giggling hysterically. At that moment, Ryma came walking up the path. "What did I miss?"
Honey smirked and started laughing too. "My new camp nickname. I'm Daphne..." She trailed off as her laughter became uncontrollable.
Ryma stood, hands on hips, one eyebrow raised quizzically. "Would one of you three goons stop laughing long enough to tell me what's so funny about the name Daphne?"
This time it was Honey who called out, "Scooby Doo, where are you?" She gave a most un-lady like snort. "I came up with a perfectly good literary detective and these two goofballs told me I look like Daphne on Scooby Doo."
Diana and Trixie stood there, unrepentant in their glee. "It's true! Look, they have the same color hair and Honey's face does kind of look like Daphne," said Diana.
Ryma started to laugh. "Well, I have to agree with the goofballs. I think you're stuck with Daphne, Honey."
"I guess so." Honey laughed again. "Well, as long as I know the real reason, you doofuses can think whatever you want." With a regal air, she swept up the path to the dining hall. "And you better hurry up if you want to get some breakfast," she called over her shoulder.
Once breakfast was cleared away, Corky got up by the fireplace with the list of assignments for the first session. "I know you all have been eagerly awaiting your first placement, so I won't waste any time. However, when I finish, I need everyone to give this end of camp a good going over. The families will begin arriving at 10:00 am and I want camp to look as good as possible. They will be here until 3:30 pm. At that time, you can begin moving your gear to your new unit."
As Corky began reading down the long list of counselors, the girls sat eagerly awaiting their name. Gasps of joy erupted with the occasional loud whoop. Honey sat with her hands under the table to hide her crossed fingers. Oh please, let me get something easy to start off with. I'm not ready to do some of those rough units.
Honey sat up straight when she heard her new nickname. "Daphne, you'll be assigned to Make New Friends." Corky smiled at her. "These are the Brownies in grades 2 to 3. I'll think they'll appreciate your special understanding of how hard it is to be away from home."
Trixie hugged Honey and whispered to her. "That's just what you wanted you lucky duck. I hope I get something good too."
"Kinsey," Trixie's head swiveled back quickly. "You'll be in The Camp Challenge. With as much energy as I've seen from you, I think you'll be a great inspiration for your campers."
Trixie bounced on her seat with excitement. "Yes! That's exactly what I was hoping for this session."
"Cleo, I noticed on your application that you've taken a lot of art classes. You'll be assigned to Awesome Art this session." Corky consulted her list again. "Sunny, you've been itching to try roughing it. You got your wish. You're going to the Outback."
Ryma whooped with delight. "Finally!" She looked at the other three. "Take a good look at me while you can girls. You won't see me for the next two weeks."
"Two weeks!"
"How come?"
"When they say outback, they're not kidding. We're going to hike up the Pacific Crest Trail and come out by the Palm Springs Tram. I've been wanting to do this for the last couple of years. I'm so glad Corky's finally going to let me." Ryma sighed with satisfaction. "Sounds like we all got we were hoping for, huh?"
Bubbling with excitement that scarcely could be contained, the girls burst from the dining hall as soon as Corky finished reading the assignments. Once outside, staff supervisors called out their unit name so that the new members could greet each other before getting ready for Open House.
Later that afternoon, the counselors gathered back at the Snoqualmie and Ribbonwood units so they could pack and move to their new units. Ryma quickly loaded her gear in her beat up 1967 Beetle. Noticing several inquisitive stares, she defended her car. "Hey, it may look like crap, but it still runs and out here in Cali it's easy to find parts. I can even do most of the repairs myself. Besides, my car's so old, I can still run leaded gas and save big bucks."
Ryma, eager to move in with her Outback pals, gathered the other three in a huge group hug. "Take care you guys. And most of all--have fun! I'll miss you. Try and think of me every now and then will ya?" One last hug and Ryma was chugging away in her Beetle, exhaust pipe rattling as she drove off.
Honey, the only one not moving as the Brownies would be staying in Snoqualmie, helped Trixie and Diana pack. "This is it. We're really going to be on our own now." Feeling a little queasy, she sought to keep the fear out of her voice. Diana, always sensitive to other's moods, put down her clothes and went over to give Honey a hug.
"Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine. You'll be great with the little kids."
Chiming in, Trixie added, "Yeah, remember how much you like taking care of Bobby. If you can deal with him, you'll have no problems with a bunch of little girls. Now me, on the other hand, I'd go nuts have to read bedtime stories to that many kids." She shuddered. "After all of Bobby's 'read, read, read' I'm looking forward to kids who are in 4 th to 6 th grade. And besides, if we schedule our time off right, we can always hook up. I'm just right on the other side of the hill from you, especially if you take the shortcut that Kiwi showed us."
"And I'm just down the road in Kitchiwani," Diana reminded her. "Wouldn't it be neat if we could all get the same night off together so we could compare stories?"
Honey sniffed a little as she saw how much they were trying to cheer her up. "You guys, you're the best pals a girl could have. You're absolutely right. Everything is going to be fine. Now lets get you packed up so we can get you moved down to your new places.
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Author's Notes :
I had the hardest time coming up with nicknames for the girls. I hope you enjoy them.