The four headed into the relative privacy of counselor’s room, and the two little critters ran over and jumped up onto Kyle’s bed and started to bounce around.
“No fair! How come you get such a nice bed and we gotta have stupid bunk beds?” the little skunk boy that used to be Lisa whined.
“’Cause they’re bigger, Lee! You’re such a dumb boy!” Leona the lioness cub said matter-of-factly as she shoved him over, with the name of the little skunk popping into her memory before she even realized it. Soon the two critter kids were arguing and wrestling on the bed, pulling on fur and rolling all over the place.
Allie pinched her nose in frustration and said, “Come on, you two. We need to focus and figure out what’s going on…”
However, the two little kids weren’t listening to her at all, with Leona pulling on Lee’s tail and Lee getting Leona into a headlock. Kyle started to get fed up with this and stomped his hoof once. A voice in the back of his head told him, ‘Kids their age need firm disciple or they’ll walk all over you’, which Kyle nodded along to silently and accepted.
“That’s your first warning, campers. If you keep fighting, it’s no dessert for the whole weekend!” he said sternly, and the two kids immediately sat up straight and nodded.
“Y-yes sir, Mr. Kyle!” they said obediently, putting their hands on their laps and listening closely to Kyle and Allie… For now, at least.
“That’s better,” Kyle said. “Now, whatever’s going on must have something to do with this camp… Maybe everything will go back to normal if we just wait until the end of the weekend.”
“The whole weekend!? That’s forever…” Lee the skunk whined, flopping back in bed and rolling around in boredom. As a little kid, his tolerance for all this sitting around and talking was rapidly fading. He looked out the window and saw all kinds of camp activities, any of which seemed more fun than just sitting around inside…
Allie heard Kyle’s suggestion and frowned. “Kyle, this is some weird magic crap or something. We can’t just wait… We gotta figure out who’s in charge and grill ‘em for answers!”
Leona the lioness gasped when she heard that. “N-no, you can’t put them on a grill! That would hurt really, really bad!” She sniffled a little bit, feeling tears start to form in her eyes.
Kyle sighed and went over to stroke Leona’s hair. “Sweetie, it’s just an expression. We’re not going to hurt anyone…”
“Yeah, you dummy!” Lee said, punching her on the arm, making Kyle stomp his hoof a second time.
“That’s it, you’re in big trouble, Lee Whitestripe! No dessert, and you can’t go to the obstacle course until tomorrow!” Kyle said, making the little skunk boy’s lip tremble a little as his eyes watered.
“Y-y-… You’re a big meanie, Mr. Kyle!” Lee cried, then he ran out of the room and grabbed his camper uniform from next to his bunk bed. He pulled it on as he ran out the door and off toward the rest of the camp with his big skunk tail waving behind him the whole way.
“Wait up, Lee!!” Leona cried as she dashed off behind him, pulling on her uniform as well before chasing the skunk that used to be her wife off toward the mess hall.
Allie groaned as she saw her parents disappear off into the distance, then turned to Kyle. “Good going, ‘Mr. Kyle’! Now what are we supposed to do!?” she said as she looked around for her couselor-issue hiking boots to put on for the day…