Mary Anne And Camp Bsc Part 3

I couldn't remember being four, but I could certainly sympathize with Alicia. I also admired her single-mindedness. And of course, as an experienced baby-sitter, I knew that what she needed was some time to adjust to camp. Once she saw that her mother was going to come back and get her every day, no matter what, she'd be fine.

Everyone returned from the park in high spirits and with big appet.i.tes. We sorted out the lunches (Camp BSC requirement: all lunches had to be labeled by name) and poured out juice and milk. The kids loved eating outside. We all did.

And in spite of the fact that she hadn't gone to the park, Alicia had an appet.i.te to match everybody else's.

After lunch we settled down for a quiet read-aloud storytime. We divided into two groups for reading aloud, and let the older kids choose which stories they wanted to listen to. Jessi and Mal took the four youngest kids, Claire, Alicia, Andrew, and Jamie, inside and read . aloud to them, too, and then settled them down for brief naps.

When quiet time was over, we gathered together all the kids and Kristy stood up. "Welcome to Camp BSC," she said.

Linny Papadakis put two fingers to his mouth and gave a shrill whistle. Some of the kids applauded.

Kristy grinned. "Thank you, thank you. Applause is always welcome. And we'll all be getting plenty of applause because we've decided on a theme for Camp BSC. We're going to have a circus camp!"

Karen's hand immediately shot up. "Kristy! Kristy!" Karen called, waving her hand furiously.

"What is it, Karen?" Kristy asked.

"Is this a real circus camp?" Karen asked, her blue eyes intent behind her gla.s.ses.

"I'm not sure what you mean," said Kristy.

"I've been to a real circus camp," said Karen. She looked around. "We learned about real circus things."

Ricky Torres was nodding and waving his hand at the same time. "Me, too! Are we going to learn about tightropes? Trapezes?"

"Lion taming?" asked Hannie.

"You didn't learn how to tame lions at circus camp!" exclaimed Claudia. I could tell she was trying not to laugh.

Kristy took charge. "How many kids here have been to circus camp?"- "Real circus camp?" asked Karen.

"Karen," said Kristy warningly. "Everybody who has been to circus camp before, raise your hand."

Karen and Ricky raised their hands. So did Natalie, Chris, Hannie, Linny, Nancy, and Bobby. Bobby said, "I didn't go with Karen. I went to another camp."

"Okay, good." Kristy nodded. "I'm pleased to see we have so many experienced circus campers with us. That will make our circus that much better at the end of the camp. I'm counting on you experienced circus hands to help us out."

"Will we have a tightrope?" persisted Ricky.

"We can learn about tightropes," Kristy said. "We'll figure out what acts we want to do as we go along."

"No tightropes way up in the air," said Karen. "They wouldn't let us have a tightrope in the real real circus camp." circus camp."

"I think circus camp is a great idea," said Becca Ramsey. "Maybe some of us can pretend to be lions and do a lion taming act!"

"Excellent," said Kristy. "I want you to think about all the things you want to do for our circus and come tomorrow ready to write them down. Then we'll decide what we want our circus to have in it.

"Now, let's have a game of freezetag."

Kristy had averted a circus riot. I caught her eye and gave her a thumbs-up signal. Then we all joined in a game of freezetag until the parents started returning to pick up their kids.

The moment the first parent arrived, Alicia froze.

"You haven't been tagged yet," I said to her, since I was standing (frozen) nearby.

"Where's Mommy?" she said. "Where's my mother?"

"She'll be here soon," I promised.

Alicia's lower lip trembled. "I want my mother."

"Alicia," I began.

Alicia's whole face lit up. "Mommy, Mommy; Mommy!" she shrieked and took off across the yard.

I followed her to make sure everything was all right and watched her fling herself headfirst into her mother's legs.

"Whoa there," Mrs. Gianelli said. She bent down and scooped up Alicia. "How's my girl? Did you have a good day at camp?"

Alicia nodded.

"I'll go get Bobby," I said.

Unlike Alicia, Bobby wanted to stay until he finished the game. With her mother there, Alicia soon wanted to play, too. Mrs. Gianelli stood by me and watched.

"Has Alicia been, uh, separated from you much before?" I asked.

"No," said Mrs. Gianelli cheerfully. "Today was the longest time. I started to come by at lunch to check on her, but then I thought it might make things worse. Did she do okay?"

Claudia, who was standing beside me said, "Her first whole day! Wow. She did super, Mrs. Gianelli. Except she didn't want to go to the park because she was afraid you wouldn't know where to find her if you came back early."

The game of freeze tag was ending since the parents had arrived. Mrs. Gianelli laughed and caught Alicia's hand in her own as Alicia came running back. "I'll try to explain it to her," she promised us.

" 'Bye, guys," called Claudia.

" 'Bye, Bobby. 'Bye, Alicia," I said.

" 'Bye," said Bobby. "See you tomorrow."

"Good-bye," said Alicia. She looked up at her mom. "I don't have to come back tomorrow, do I?" she asked as they were leaving.

Claudia gave a little snort. "I don't think Alicia likes Camp BSC."

Logan had wandered over to us and he b.u.mped his shoulder against mine. "Who doesn't like the best camp in all of Stoneybrook?"

"Alicia," I said. "She's having some adjustment problems."

"Standard stuff," said Claudia. "She'll get over it. You'll see."

"Maybe," I said.

Everyone else had joined us and we automatically went to work, cleaning up after the day's activities and getting things ready for the next day. We didn't talk much. We were all a little tired.

But circus rebellion and Alicia's adjustment problems aside, it had been a pretty good day. It looked as if Camp BSC was going to be a stupendous success.

Chapter 5.

"No, no, no, noooooo!"

Alicia Gianelli looked like the perfect camper. Her white sneakers were spotless and so were her white socks with lavender trim that matched the lavender stripes on the side of her navy blue shorts. She was wearing a navy and lavender and white striped T-shirt and carrying a safety-orange backpack. Until a moment ago, she'd been holding her lunch in a dinosaur-decorated insulated lunch bag.

But when her mother had turned to go, Alicia had dropped the lunch bag and and the appearance of being a perfect camper and flung herself at her mother to clutch her knees. the appearance of being a perfect camper and flung herself at her mother to clutch her knees.

"Noo, don't gooooo!" Alicia wailed.

Poor Alicia. I knew that Mrs. Gianelli had explained about camp to her. So had I. So had Claudia. And Mal. And Jessi. And Dawn. And Kristy. And Shannon. And Logan.

Everyone in the BSC had tried to convince Alicia that she didn't need to worry. That her mother was coming back - just as she had come back every single day, all four days, since Camp BSC had been in session.

Alicia had nodded. And continued to cling to her mother desperately every single day when Mrs. Gianelli had tried to leave Camp BSC.

"Oh, Alicia," I said softly. I bent over and smoothed her soft, dark hair.

Alicia shook her head angrily. "No!" "No!"

"No way, huh?" asked Mal.

Mrs. Gianelli bent over and unwound Alicia's arms. "Come on, Alicia. I'll walk with you to your table."

Still sniffling, Alicia allowed herself to be led to the table. "We have some new circus books here," said Mal. "Look at this one. It's got a camel in it. You like camels, don't you?"

Alicia reached for the book.

Mal looked up. "I think you can go now," she said softly.

"Well..." Mrs. Gianelli hesitated. Nearby, Bobby had already forgotten about his mother and was involved in a lion roaring contest with Ricky.

"You don't have to," I said quickly.

"Neat camel, Alicia," said Claudia, who'd arrived with some more crayons and paper for Alicia's table. "Want to try to draw one?"

Alicia took the crayons from Claudia and began to sort them into piles of similar colors on the table. Claudia looked up at Mrs. Gianelli. "She'll be fine. Don't worry."

Rea.s.sured, Mrs. Gianelli nodded and strode across the gra.s.s to her car. Alicia, oblivious to the stains of the tears drying on her cheeks, bent over the crayons and her book, studying them intently.

"Poor Alicia," I said softly to Mal as she stood beside me. "It seems mean to trick her."

"Maybe," said Mal. "But once she starts having a good time, I don't think she really misses her mom all that much. You know, some of that crying and carrying on is probably just habit."

I looked at Mal and shook my head. How could she be so unfeeling? Maybe being the oldest in a large family did that to you.

And she was wrong, as Alicia clearly demonstrated when we got ready for our morning trip to the park.

The moment it was mentioned, Alicia began to cry. "Mommy," she whimpered. "What if Mommy can't find me?"

Bobby, with all the callous superiority of an older brother, said, "You are such a baby, Alicia. You think Mom's dumb? Of course she can find us."

"Bobby!" I said. I bent over and gave Alicia, who was staring at her brother's retreating back, a big hug. "Of course your mommy can find you. But if you don't want to go to the park, you don't have to. We can stay right here."

"Mary Anne." I looked up to see Logan standing beside me.

"What?"

"Do you think that's a good idea?" asked Logan. "Giving in like that?"

Honestly, what was the matter with everybody? I know I'm supposed to be very sensitive, but it only took an average amount of sensitivity, a human human amount, to realize what Alicia was going through. amount, to realize what Alicia was going through.

Something in my expression must have alerted Logan to how completely indignant I was feeling, because instead of waiting for an answer, he raised one hand. "Just a thought," he said quickly. "Maybe you're right. Maybe she's not ready yet. It'll probably take a little more time."

"Probably," I said shortly.

Everyone else went to the park. Alicia and I stayed behind.

After the Camp BSCers returned and we'd eaten lunch and had quiet time, we got down to circus business.

"Rehearsals!" Kristy called, holding her clipboard and blowing a whistle. Everyone began to talk at once.

"Roustabouts, over here," said Dawn. "Roustabouts" is the name for circus people who help do all kinds of things. Our roustabouts, Vanessa, Nicky, Linny, Haley, and Carolyn were helping Dawn and Logan move bales of hay to the level field behind the barn where they were setting up the ring.

Jessi gathered the animal dancers together for the animal dance she was helping them ch.o.r.eograph.

Claudia called the wild animals for the wild animal act over to her. She was going to help them work on costumes until the animal trainers - Nicky and Marilyn - had finished being roustabouts.

Kristy and Shannon and the downs went to the far side of the barn to begin practicing their routine. When Claudia had started the animal costumes, she was going to help the downs with theirs.

Mal and I were in charge of the specialty acts and costumes. The specialty acts were going to include some of the campers' pets (we were going to have a couple of special "pet days" for the rehearsals). We hadn't quite decided what the other acts were going to be.

But then, some of the campers hadn't quite decided how they were going to fit into the circus. Or even if they wanted to.

There'd been a sort of division in Camp BSC since the first day, a natural division, really. The kids who went to Stoneybrook Academy were hanging out together and choosing each other for sides in kickball games and things like that. And the kids from Stoneybrook Elementary School were doing the same thing. It wasn't really conscious and it wasn't severe. It was just a pattern that we'd noticed, but we had decided to try to keep the kids from getting too entrenched in it.

We'd been a.s.signing different people to be buddies every day, sitting the kids at different tables at lunch, and trying to make sure they didn't divide into cliques. So far, no problem.