The bus arrived at camp shortly before lunch. This was Anna’s first time seeing it after the recent renovations. As they drove through gates Anna and Mark observed a new swimming pool and a new tennis/basketball complex. They also saw some girls apparently from a different town who had arrived earlier and were walking around what appeared to be a brand new building. “That must be the new dorm,” Mark deduced.
“Yeah, that’s where the older kids will be staying…and ‘Jennifer’ too.”
Mark tried to look on the bright side. “At least it’s closer than our houses back home.”
The bus stopped on the road in front of the two dormitories and across from the main hall. Heather stood up. “Okay, girls! We’re here! Those of you who are age 10 to 13 will go with Anna to the building on the left. Those of you who are 14 to 16 will go with me to the building on the right. Anna, can you please come up here?”
Anna had hidden Mark in her purse again and walked to the front of the bus. Heather handed her several sheets of paper and a large envelope. “Here’s the list of room assignments. Make sure everyone gets to their assigned rooms. Their keycards are in the envelope. Yours is in there too.” Heather leaned in and spoke quietly. “You might want to keep an eye on Alice and make sure she isn’t too scared or she may throw up again.”
“Got it,” Anna confirmed. She was enjoying the responsibility.
Heather addressed the bus once again, “Okay, everyone! Make sure you’ve grabbed everything from your seats and don’t leave anything on the bus. Take your trash with you. There’s a garbage can right outside. What do we say to our bus driver?”
As they stood up and gathered their belongings, the girls spoke in monotone unison, “Thaaaaank youuuu…”
Outside the bus, the girls had assembled into two groups around Anna and Heather. Heather spoke up to be heard over the excited conversations taking place. “You’ll have time to find your rooms and drop off your bags, but then we’ll all head to the canteen for lunch.” Heather waved her arm. “Okay, half you girls are with me!”
Anna followed suit, “And you kiddos are with me! Who’s excited to see their room?”
The girls cheered and followed Anna into the older dormitory. Inside, Anna pulled out keycards one at a time and read off room assignments. Each girl stepped forward, grabbed her key, and hurried off to find their room down the hall. Anna intentionally saved Alice until the end. “Okay, Alice. I see you’re in room 201. Oh, that’s a great room! It’s right across the hall from me in room 200! I hear they only give room 201 to the coolest girls.”
Alice’s eyes lit up, “Really?”
“Yeah, but don’t tell anyone or they’ll get jealous. It’s our secret.”
Alice smiled and put a finger to her lips. “Shhh.”
“Let’s go find our rooms.” Anna led Alice down the hall to the end where room 200 was on the right and 201 was on the left. Alice peeked into room 201 and saw two other girls in there who were each already sitting on chosen beds. Anna walked in with her and was relieved they were from a different bus so they wouldn’t know that Alice had thrown up. “Hello girls! I’m Anna, your lead assistant this year and I’ll be staying right across the hall. This is my friend Alice. It’s her first year at camp and she’ll be rooming with you.”
Alice waved and offered a shy “Hello.”
An Asian girl about Alice’s age hopped off her bed and ran up to Alice. “Hi Alice! I’m Emily! You wear glasses like me!”
Alice touched her glasses. “Yeah.”
“Alice, Emily," Anna looked to the blonde girl sitting on a bed. "And what’s your name?"
“My name’s Sharon.”
“Hello Sharon. Nice to meet you!” Anna turned to address all of them. “We’ll be heading down to lunch in a few minutes, so I’m going to go drop off my stuff across the hall and let you get acquainted.”
“What’s a ‘quainted’?” asked Sharon.
“‘Acquainted’ means ‘get to know each other’,” explained Anna. “Information like your names, where you’re from, your favorite Disney princess, or your favorite animal.”
As Anna left, she heard Sharon comment, "I’m from West Chester, Pennsylvania and I like horses."
Looking across the hall at her room, she noticed the door was already open. Anna poked her head inside. “Hello?”
A face emerged from behind the door. “Hi? Oh! Anna! So great to see you again! Are we roomies?”
“Hi Kylie! Yeah, it seems that way.” Kylie was a short, dark-haired girl whom Anna had known for a few years. They had gotten along well, but this was going to be their first time as roommates. Anna wheeled her luggage in.
“Woah! Big suitcase! Planning a fashion show for us?” Kylie asked with a chuckle. “It’s like you’re packing for two!”
“Oh, uh… Dad insisted I bring this…because of the wheels. It’s half empty,” Anna lied. She didn’t want to explain how she had to bring an extra wardrobe for her boyfriend who was currently a hamster in her purse but they planned to transform into a girl later today.
“Well, I’m going to start 'herding the cats' down to the canteen for lunch. You take your time getting settled. I got this.” Kylie winked.
“Thanks Kylie! I owe you one!”
Kylie shut the door on her way out leaving Anna on her own…or so she thought. Anna wasted no time extracting Mark from her purse and placing him on a desk.
Mark looked around as his new surroundings. “Nice room. Looks pretty big, but maybe that’s just my perspective.”
“It’s the same size as other rooms on this floor, but as counselors we are only two per room. Kids are three or four per room.”
“So should I wait here while you go do camp stuff?”
“That’s probably the safest option. You’re less likely to get noticed or smooshed if you stay here. I’ll leave you the bag of snacks in case you get hungry. I’ll put my purse and some T-shirts on the desk for you to hide in if Kylie returns.” Anna began fashioning a place for Mark to hide on the desk. She took the cap from a water bottle, turned it upside down on the desk, and filled it with water for Mark to drink.
“What if I have to use the bathroom?”
“Uh… I’d normally have wood shavings out for Nibbles, but I obviously can’t do that here.” Anna looked around. “Oh, I know!” She opened up the suitcase and pulled a plastic sandwich bag out of her toiletries. She opened it up and sat it down on the desk and hid it behind her purse and shirts. “Impromptu hamster toilet.”
Mark nodded. “Okay, I guess I’ll just hang out here.” He walked to the back of the desk and reached up to the windowsill. At least I can look outside.”
“Okay, I’ve gotta go. I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise!” Anna leaned down and kissed him on the head. “By my watch, you changed around 7:30am, so we’ve got another 7 hours and 20 minutes to go before the medallion will work on you again.”
“I’m counting the minutes!”
Mark ate more snacks, drank some water, and managed to avoid having to relieve himself. He hoped Anna would be able to take him outside later because peeing in a plastic baggie seemed so humiliating. Realizing he finally had some time alone, he decided to take the opportunity to get a closer look at his hamster body.
Mark extended his arms and wondered if his hands were still considered hands or if they were paws. He looked at his hands and got a good look at the light fur covering them. He noted he only had four fingers and no longer had an opposable thumb, but the fingers still seemed quite dextrous. Looking down at his feet, they seemed similar. He tried to look back at his tail, but had trouble seeing it and was actually surprised at how short it was. He had never really paid much attention to hamsters before and just assumed they had longer tails.
Mark considered the fact he was now female and had no idea how to tell a female hamster from a male, but assumed the male had a penis and the female had a vagina. He tried feeling his crotch and didn’t feel a penis, but also wasn’t entirely sure he was searching the right area. He started to get weirded out by the whole situation and decided to stop before Anna walked in on him feeling himself up. He climbed up on the windowsill and looked outside to watch people walking by.
After a little more than 45 minutes, Mark could hear Anna outside the door talking to someone and hid behind the shirts.
“Oh, is this your room?” the voice asked.
“Yeah, I’m rooming with Kylie,” Anna replied. “I need to get freshened up though, so I’ll see you later.”
“Okay,” said the voice with disappointment. “It’s so great to see you again!”
A moment passed before Anna opened the door. “It’s okay, it’s just me.”
Mark emerged from behind the shirts. “Who were you talking to?”
“Oh, that’s just Abby, another counselor. I’ll introduce you when you’re human again. You doing okay back here? Need anything?”
Mark looked at the plastic baggie. “I wouldn’t mind going outside for a bit to pee. I’d rather go there than in the bag.”
“Okay, I can sneak you out in a moment.” Anna dropped some paperwork on the desk and a couple camp T-shirts worn by all the counselors. “I feel bad you’re missing out on getting settled in. They want to meet with all the lead assistants in the administration office at 4:30, but I’ve got to lead a bunch of tours of the camp for the new kids before then.”
"Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine," Mark reassured her. "It’s not like we could do much hanging out anyway. Not with me like this."
"Oh, but I do wish I could just stay here and snuggle you!" She picked him up and held him up to her cheek. "Who’s my widdle cutie wootie snuggly wuggly hamster?"
Mark groaned. "I hate being 'cute'."
"Your curse will soon be reversed. For the time being, I’ll take you out to answer the call of nature." Anna didn’t bother with her purse and kept Mark cupped in a hand. She quickly exited her dorm room to the right, opened the fire door to the stairwell, walked downstairs, and exited outside. Looking around, she didn’t see anyone and put Mark down. She looked around to make sure nobody was coming while Mark did his business…and also to give him a little privacy.
Mark had scurried behind a bush to relieve himself. When he finished, he returned to Anna and tapped her on the foot.
Anna picked up Mark and hurried back up the stairs and returned to her room. Discovering the door open, she found that Kylie had returned.
Kylie noticed Anna entering the room. "Oh, hey Anna!"
Anna, desperate to hide Mark, held him in a loose fist and quickly moved that fist with Mark behind her neck. She hoped Mark would get the message and hold onto the neckline of her dress. Anna replied somewhat awkwardly, "Hey there Kylie. Didn’t expect you back here yet."
Mark, being held awkwardly upside-down, was willing to grab whatever he could. He grabbed the dress with his exposed hands. When Anna let go of him, he also tried to hold on using his feet.
Kylie explained that she would be getting the boathouse in order and wanted to change clothes before heading down there.
As she explained, Anna side-stepped over to her desk and sat down. She nodded as if she was interested and taking in everything Kylie was saying. After Anna sat, she continued facing Kylie, but extended her arm out to the desk and rested her elbow near the pile of T-shirts somewhat awkwardly. She hoped Mark would take the opportunity to move to the desk.
Seeing Anna make a bridge to the desk with her arm, Mark recognized the opportunity to get to safety. He just had to do it without Kylie seeing him. He peeked through Anna’s hair to get a look at Kylie. When she had turned her head to get some clothes from her bag, Mark seized the opportunity and scurried down Anna’s arm, around the shirts, and shoved his little body into the pile.
Knowing Mark was back in his hiding place, Anna stood up. "Well, I actually have to get going. I’m leading some tours." She pointed at her pile of shirts. "Sorry about the mess. I’ll have time to get this all picked up tonight once things settle down."
Kylie looked at the folded shirts on the desk. "Oh, don’t worry about it. Today’s crazy busy. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to hang out and catch up tonight."
"Yeah, totally. That would be great!" Anna backed out the door. "I’ll see you at Mrs. Berkin's 4:30 assistant meeting!" She hoped Mark would be okay on his own for a few hours, but she had obligations until after dinner.
In the room, Kylie changed into her new camp T-shirt and unpacked her suitcase. She hung some dresses in the closet and unpacked other clothes into one of the dressers. She took framed photos of her boyfriend and parents and placed them on top of her dresser along with a jewelry box. After plugging in her phone charger near her bed, she stood in the center of the room and looked around. "Okay, I guess all my stuff is set," she said to herself. "Maybe I should help Anna. She’s so busy today." Kylie looked at Anna’s luggage. "Well, I’m not going to go through her bag, but I can at least help her by putting away these shirts for her."
Mark heard Kylie talking to herself and panicked. "Oh, shit!" he thought. "Where do I hide?" He scurried out the back of the shirts and looked. He could scramble up onto the windowsill and try to hide in a corner, but she might see him. The desk was pushed up against the wall, so he couldn’t jump down behind it. He considered sitting there and trying to look cute. "No, it would be better to at least try to hide."