Rick pouted in annoyance when he heard Marianne talking about him. What was the matter with her, acting like a dumb girl… and how dare she call him a ‘trash panda’ like that! Totally uncalled for!
“Fine, I’m just gonna play with Jack and Sean, then! Rudderbutt! Nyaaah!” he retorted, sinking deeper and deeper into his childish mindset before running over and getting breakfast. Marianne watched as he sat down by Sean and Jack, sighing affectionately at how cute he was.
Janet noticed her friend staring at the boys and was a little confused. Now that she was only 8 years old, the idea that her friend could actually like a boy seemed like the weirdest thing in the world, so she tugged on Marianne’s dress and said, “C’mon! Let’s go eat with the other girls!”
Marianne nodded, then blushed when she realized how comfortable she was with being thought of as ‘one of the girls’. “Okay, Janet, let’s go,” she said, holding onto the younger cougar girl’s hand and sitting with the other girls, still watching over the cute little raccoon over at the other table with her heart fluttering…
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Once breakfast was all over, the councilors announced all the activities for the day, with all kinds of hiking, swimming, arts and crafts, and games going on all over the camp. Rick listened in, feeling himself get more and more excited by the second, wishing that he could try them all but knowing they’d only be there for the weekend… but what happened after that? Would he be a little raccoon boy for the rest of his life, or would be turn back into a grown-up raccoon again… Wait, he had always been a raccoon, right?
Next to him, Sean and Jack were already talking about how much they wanted to go swimming, joking about how they’d try to pull the girls’ swimsuits off, which Rick thought sounded hilarious. They lined up with the councilor going to the beach, not noticing Marianne lining up right behind them with some of her new friends, while Janet headed off with some of the other little girls to do some arts and crafts with the camp councilors.
At the beach, everyone got changed into their swimsuits, which were brightly colored and decorated with all kinds of cute cartoon critters, and soon they were shouting and splashing around in the lake, getting their fluffy fur soaked. Wearing an adorable purple one-piece swimsuit, Marianne felt a surge of energy as she used her powerful new otter tail to swim effortlessly around the water, still staying close to Rick, Sean, and Jack, who were looking for some girls to prank. She silently swam up close to them and started to think about what to do to them…
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Meanwhile, the big sign over the front of Camp CritterCreek started to shimmer and change. Where it once read ‘Special Adults-Only Weekend’, it now read ‘Little Critter Camp – All Summer Long!’ Seems like our little friends’ 'weekend' might be a little longer than they thought…