Was it the sunshine? The buffeting breeze? The rocking of the boat? Whatever it was, once we got back to the cabin, we all crashed. Even the counselors, and Karyn, who claimed she never slept during the day, were snoring away.
Good thing Jocelyn smelled pizza in her sleep and woke up to announce that she was hungry, or we would have totally missed dinner. We changed into fresh orange T-shirts, then literally ran to the dining hall—Jocelyn won! They still had plenty of food for us, and Jocelyn was right—it was pizza night. I ate mine without the crust—yummy sauce and cheese with bits of olives and sauteed pepperoni. Athena named it a bowl of pizza and asked for one too.
We were so late getting dinner that I didn’t realize it was almost campfire time. Most of the kids from the other cabins were already there, and the fire crackled red and gold as we approached. When we got to the edge of the fire circle, I looked around and saw the guys from the boat ride not far from where we were. And yeah, I’m a dork, but I actually gulped.
Trinity grabbed hold of the awkwardness and called out, “Hey, Jeremiah! How’d your crew like the pontooning?”
“Awesome!” the tall, bearded guy I’d seen talking to Noah on the boat answered. “Perfect weather today! Captain Carter really knows how to get that boat moving! How about your girls?”
Trinity made a sheepish face. “Ha! When we got back, we totally crashed. The pontoon ride will do it every time. We almost missed dinner!” Then I swear she looked from me to Noah before adding, “You know what? We haven’t introduced our cabins to each other. Who are your mighty Panthers?”
“Well, I’ve got a rocking crew here.” Jeremiah pointed proudly to his four campers and the other counselors, and then directly at the boy in front of him. “This young man is Devin. He’s got two pit bulls at home named Noodles and Doodles.”
Must be hard to be fierce with names like that!
“And this big red-bearded guy,” Jeremiah went on, “is Devin’s counselor, Charles.”
Charles, who also sported a thick reddish Afro, stroked his beard and gave us a nod. “Hey, y’all,” he said, Southern in his voice. “Glad to be part of the Green Glades crew. And glad to have this dude Devin to hang out with this week.” He placed a hand on the back of Devin’s chair.
Devin gave a chin nod and a “Hey.” His wheelchair was incredible—he pushed a button, and it lifted him to an almost standing position! I’m a wheelchair expert, and I’d never seen one like that before! His head wobbled a little and his arms seemed to be connected by invisible puppet strings—kinda like my legs—but his smile was gorgeous.
“Awesome wheels,” Athena breathed.
Totally!
The next guy Jeremiah introduced sat in a manual chair like mine, but now I was feeling like I needed to start checking out new chair styles, because this one was the coolest wheelchair I’d ever seen. Painted bright neon orange, it was built sort of like a motor scooter, but that’s where the similarity stopped. This was the bomb chair-bike! It had two wheels in the back, and one thick wheel in the front. The spokes, painted a metallic gold, glimmered in the firelight. It even had a rearview mirror and a horn!
When the kid in it spoke, I looked up in real surprise—he had a talking machine like Elvira!
His Medi-Talker spoke loudly for him, in a voice I recognized as “Douglas” from the Medi-Talker system library. I couldn’t really see it from where I sat, but I couldn’t wait to check out the techs of his system up close. “Howdy, everyone. I am Santiago Delgado,” his machine said. “And I just turned twelve. I sure hope we get to make s’mores one of these nights!”
Jocelyn whispered, “He’s kinda cute, cute, cute!”
True that, I thought. And he taps lightning-fast, was my next thought.
A counselor in cutoffs and Timberlands standing next to Santiago gave him a playful nudge. “So you gonna introduce me, dude?”
Santiago laughed. “Naw. No need for all that.”
After another nudge, Santiago looked back at the guy and laughed. “Okay, okay!” he said. “This is my counselor, Harley. And you know what? He actually owns a Harley motorcycle! At least that’s what he told me!”
Harley smiled wide. “Hey, everybody. Glad to meet you all. And yeah, I’ve got a bike in my garage at home. Unless my wife has taken it out for a spin while I’m here at camp!”
Cool, a motorcycle! I wonder if that felt anything like zip-lining? Actually, Santiago’s chair almost could pass for a motorcycle.
“And this is Malik, and his counselor Brock,” Jeremiah said, placing a hand on a sunburned counselor’s broad shoulder. Malik, the kid with the awesome white hair and the pale eyes, put his hand to his forehead and gave a small salute.
“Malik is my personal hero,” Brock told us with a grin. “He showed up to camp with a suitcase full of gummies and Skittles and my favorite—mini Butterfingers! So now we call him the Candy Man.”
Malik sat in… I’m not kidding… a gold-colored wheelchair—manual, but GOLD! Where do these guys find such cool chairs? The ones I’ve had over the years were useful and clunky and, well, not really cute. I couldn’t tell if Malik’s had come like that or been painted at a later time, but yeah, I was having major wheelchair envy.
But when Jeremiah introduced the last Panther, my focus quickly shifted. It was Noah, leaning on a neon-blue walker, his right hand clutching a bag of Takis. He waved at us with orange-stained fingertips, his left hand balancing on the walker.
“Hey, all,” he began, his head bobbing a little. “I’m psyched to be here! I thought camp would suck, but it doesn’t. That’s why I’m here for another round!”
Karyn sat up at that, I noticed.