Camp Foxglove
by Sarah Bartash

Tonya watched Nick dig through the box he had just received in the mail. “My big brother told me I get to live in a cabin,” he said, as fliers and papers scattered across the steps of Foxglove Apartments. “And on the last day, we get to have a bonfire. Wow! Here’s my tee shirt!” Nick pulled a bright blue shirt out of the box.

Tonya picked up one of the fliers. On it, kids grinned and toasted marshmallows around a huge campfire. All the kids wore “Camp Silver Lake” shirts, exactly like the one Nick was yanking over his head.

“You’re so lucky,” she sighed. “My mom says I’m not old enough to go to camp.”

“Well I am two months older than you, even though we’re in the same grade,” said Nick. “I’m going to go upstairs and show everyone my shirt.” With that, he scooped up the mail and ran up the steps to his third floor apartment. Tonya, still clutching the flier, trudged down the first floor hallway to her friend Lily’s apartment.

Lily was in her living room doodling in a notebook.

“Nick just got his camp stuff in the mail,” said Tonya, sitting down with her chin in her hands. “I can’t believe my mom says I’m not old enough to go.”

“He just gets to go because his brother works there,” said Lily. “I just want him to go and get it over with. Then we won’t have to listen to him brag about how much fun he’s going to have.”

“I guess so. But then we’ll have to listen to him talk about how cool it was.”

“Aw,” Lily said, “I bet we could have just as much fun as he does. Maybe even more.”

Tonya looked at the camp flier still in her hands. “Well, we can’t go horseback riding because we don’t have horses. We can’t go swimming because we don’t have a lake.”

“We can go swimming at the Aquatic Center,” said Lily.

“Well, yeah... but listen to this,” Tonya read directly from the flier, “Camp Silver Lake has over 120 acres of beautiful meadows.’”

“So what? We can go hiking in the park,” said Lily, her face brightening. She scooted over and looked over Tonya’s shoulder. “And we don’t live in cabins, but maybe we could make a tent in the back yard.” She grinned. “That would be fun!”

Tonya thought for a minute. “Maybe we could make our own camp.”

Lily nodded. “We could call it Camp Foxglove.”

Finally, Tonya smiled. “Lets start writing our ideas down.”

Lily flipped to a page of her notebook and started writing down ideas. Soon, they had a schedule of activities for Camp Foxglove:

Monday - Go to the library.

Tuesday - Go swimming.

Wednesday – Go on a nature walk in the park.

Thursday – Do crafts.

Friday - Camp out.

Later that night, as her family sat down for supper, Tonya showed off the list. Her Dad said, “I’m really proud of how organized you are. Can I help you with the camp out? We could cook hot dogs on the grill.”

“I’ll walk with you to the library tomorrow, if that’s alright,” said Mom. “I need to get a few things, and we can get a book about trees for your nature walk.”

“Alright!” said Tonya. “Lily’s mom said she could take us to the Aquatic Center. And can I use an old shirt to make into a Camp Foxglove shirt?”

“Certainly,” said Mom.

The next few days few passed quickly. Tonya and Lily checked some ghost stories out at the Library to tell around the campfire. They had fun swimming at the Aquatic center, and even saw some other kids from their school.

On the third day, as Lily was writing down all the trees they identified on their nature walk, a car pulled up to Foxglove Apartments.

“Is that Nick?” asked Lily.

Nick jumped out of the car and ran into the building. His mom got out too and dragged a duffel bag from the trunk. “Hi girls.”

“Hi,” said Tonya, “I didn’t think camp would be over already.”

“Well it is for Nick,” she said, looking glum. “He called us from camp because he was having a hard time sleeping, and we went to pick him up.”

Tonya thought for a minute, and then said, “Lily and I made up our own camp called Camp Foxglove. Since Nick lives in Foxglove Apartments, he can join if he wants to.”

Nick’s mom smiled. “Thank you for thinking of him.”

Tonya went on; “We’re having a barbecue in the backyard Friday night if he wants to come.”

“I’ll check with him and see what he thinks.” She shut the back of the car and went inside.

“See,” said Tonya, as she and Lily returned to their leaf collections, “I told you he wasn’t old enough.”

“But you know what? I think he’s just the right age for Camp Foxglove,” said Lily.