Cool Campers by Mike Knudson Page A

we’re sorry. We won’t do it. Please don’t punish us,” BB pleaded. We didn’t want to get stuck cleaning the toilets, which is what happens if you get caught outside after lights-out.
    â€œThat’s Flex’s patrol,” Toad said. He looked around and rubbed his hand through his hair.
    â€œWell, just promise me you’ll go straight back to your cabin after you’re done.”
    We stood there, confused. It sounded like he was actually telling us to go ahead with our prank. Graham raised his hand like we were in school.
    â€œExcuse me, but are you saying it’s okay if we—”
    â€œAll I’m saying,” Toad interrupted, “is that I never saw you tonight.”
    Toad began to whistle, and he started down the path to the staff cabins without saying another word. I remembered how Flex had made that mean comment about Toad earlier, and I wondered if Toad was secretly happy we were pulling a prank on Flex’s patrol.
    A few minutes later we reached David’s cabin armed with our toilet paper. Graham wanted to be the first one to throw a roll. He was standing behind me. He pulled his arm way back, and Tiny, BB, and I looked up to see where the roll would go. Suddenly, I felt a smack on the back of my head.
    â€œOuch!” I yelled, in my loudest whisper. Graham had hit me with the roll of toilet paper. Luckily it was made of, well, toilet paper. Otherwise it would have really hurt.
    â€œSorry, hermano ,” Graham apologized. “I guess my aim was a little off.”
    I knew he was sorry because he called me hermano , which means “brother” in Spanish. We only use hermano when we’re really serious, like when one of us is sorry for hitting the other one in the head with a roll of toilet paper.
    Tiny picked up the roll. “Can I try?” he whispered. “I’ve never done this before.”
    â€œSure,” I said. “Try to throw it to the top of that tree.” There was a tree right next to the cabin, and I thought it would help him to aim at it. Tiny looked awkward as he pulled his arm back. I could tell he probably didn’t play baseball. But when he threw the toilet paper it flew through the air like it was shot from a cannon. It soared up and over the tree and just kept going until we lost it in the dark sky.
    We all stood there and stared into the blackness. “Holy cow, where’d you learn to throw like that?” I whispered loudly.
    Tiny held up his hands and examined them. “I don’t know. I guess I don’t know my own strength,” he said. “I’ll go find it.” Tiny disappeared into the trees. BB had the other roll.
    â€œSo who wants to throw this one?” he whispered, holding it up.
    â€œGo ahead,” Graham said. “You do it.” BB looked at the roll and then looked at the tree.
    â€œOkay, ready or not, here goes.” BB threw it perfectly, and it landed on one of the highest branches. But instead of unrolling as it fell, it just dropped down to the next branch and then fell onto the cabin roof. We all held our breath, hoping David and the others didn’t hear the roll land.
    â€œOh great,” I whispered. “That was our last roll.”
    BB hung his head. “Sorry, guys.”
    I tiptoed toward the woods where Tiny had gone to find the other roll. I motioned for BB and Graham to follow. Tiny was still searching. We looked around for a few minutes but finally gave up.
    â€œHey, where’s BB?” Graham said quietly. We looked around, but he was nowhere to be found. We walked back to the front of David’s cabin and called BB’s name softly. Suddenly we heard the door creak open. We were about to run when we saw BB tiptoeing out the door.
    We froze in our footsteps. I couldn’t believe BB was coming out of David’s cabin. What had he been doing in there? We could see he was carrying something white in his hands. He had a