Suddenly, from near the mess they heard one of the councilors, a motherly-looking bear, sternly call out, “Jack! Sean! Stop playing with your food and eat it!”
Rick looked over to one of the tables at the mess and saw two kids making a mess of their breakfast. On one hand, a sporty-looking squirrel boy was grabbing pieces of cereal and tossing them up in the air and trying to catch them in his mouth (missing half the time), while the skunk boy with bright blond hair at his side was blowing bubbles in his milk with his straw. They were surrounded by all kinds of different critter kids who were laughing uproariously at their antics, much to the annoyance of the camp councilors.
The skunk and squirrel spotted Rick and grinned, then they waved over to Rick. “Hey, Rick! Over here!” the squirrel said, and Rick cautiously went over with Janet and Marianne behind him, with Janet hiding behind Marianne in fear of the scary boys.
“H-hi there… Jackie?” Rick said to the squirrel, going out on a limb and guessing what happened to the two girls overnight.
The squirrel boy giggled and said, “Nope! I’m Sean! And he’s Jack!” Sean (formerly Sarah) pointed to the skunk boy next to him, who was looking at Janet and Marianne and giggling.
“Jared and Martin’s weiners fell off and now they’re gross girls!” Jack announced, making Janet blush and the boys around them burst into laughter. “Rick, you’d better not hang around them or it’ll happen to you too!”
Rick’s face went pale as he thought about that… He didn’t wanna be a gross girl, too! Maybe he shouldn’t hang out with Janet and Mari-… No, he had to stop thinking like that! Marianne huffed indignantly at that, saying “Being a girl’s better than bein’ a stinky skunk, Jack!” she said, making the girls around her nod and giggle. Jack and Sean stuck their tongues out at the girls playfully, looking like a pair of boys teasing their crushes.
Rick tried to sort out all the weird feelings that were filling his mind… For some reason, he wanted nothing more than to play around with the other boys, exploring the camp and doing all kinds of fun camp activities. And he felt himself thinking of the girls standing next to him as a little… ‘yucky’. But he knew he wasn’t supposed to think like that… right?