CHAPTER 1

THE NOT-SO-GREAT OUTDOORS



It was sunset and the sky was zombie goldfish orange. I flipped open the lid of the water canteen hanging around my neck and whispered, "Look, Frankie, it's your color."

Frankie, my pet zombie goldfish, peered out of the canteen and snatched a quick peek at the sky. Then he swished his tail and went back to swimming in tiny circles. He was not impressed.

The next thing I knew, I face-planted into the mud on the trail as I tripped over my stupidly long bootlaces for about the fifth time today. I wasn't impressed with this "weekend trip" either.

"I think I've changed my mind about wanting to go camping," I huffed as I wiped the mud off my chin.

Frankie thrashed a fin as if he was saying, "Yeah, right, sure. Now you tell me." When did Frankie learn how to be sarcastic in fin sign language?

"Cheer up, Tom," Pradeep said as he held out his hand to pull me back up. "It's gonna be the best weekend ever. I can't believe you nearly didn't come!"

"Yeah..." I began, snapping shut the lid of the canteen. I thought about how I'd tried to back out of the trip, but Mom said that I needed some fresh air so I was going and that was that. Then I looked at Pradeep's super-excited face. "It'll be great," I said, and forced out a smile.

"I'm still not really sure why you brought Frankie though," Pradeep whispered.

"I had to." I sighed. "Mom said that she was going to do a mega spring clean. What if Frankie thought the Hoover was trying to attack him again and went all zombie-thrash-fish in front of Mom? I couldn't risk it!"

"Listen up, campers!" the group leader shouted. "There's a fork in the path ahead. Can anyone use their wilderness skills to work out which way to head?"

"Past the knife and spoon," I yelled, and giggled at my own joke.

No one else laughed. If there was tumbleweed in the woods, it would have blown past me at that exact moment.

Then Pradeep spoke up. "Wind blowing westerly. And it's blowing the campfire smoke toward us, so the camp must be due west."

"Good work, camper," the leader shouted back. "Let's get moving then."

Pradeep took his camping very seriously and he was good at it. He'd been camping with the Cubs lots of times. He knew how to read a map and use a compass. He could make a tent out of a sheet and a couple of sticks, and it would stay up all night too!

"I told you this camping trip was going to be epic!" said Pradeep, as we started walking again. "Meeting Sam Savage from Savage Safari AND Grizzly Cook! It's going to be BRILLIANT!"

I had just started to feel the beginnings of a corner of a real smile creep across my face when all the wind was knocked out of me as I was hoisted up by my backpack and dangled above the grass.



Text copyright © 2014 by Mo O'Hara

Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Marek Jagucki