Love and Pollywogs from Camp Calamity by Mary Hershey Page B

hard! But at least it was outside of the water. I hoped everyone would be slow learners and we’d stay on the dry dock until 11:45.
    “The main areas to focus on rolling are hips, knees, and ankles,” Mr. Bucko said.
    He came around and checked our progress. We all looked pretty silly. “Okay, you’re getting it! Excellent! Does anyone know what swimming stroke uses the dolphin kick?”
    “Butterfly!” Kayla shouted.
    Figured she’d know.
    “That’s the one! And the butterfly is the hardest stroke of all to master. Depending on how well you do with the dolphin kick, maybe we’ll get to that later in the week. Okay!” he said, clapping his hands. “Good work!”
    And then he said the two words I’d been dreading to hear.
    “Everybody
in!”

L ake Cachumo is not just big and deep-looking. It is icy cold! It’s like climbing into a Slurpee. I think there might be a glacier in the middle of it. They definitely did not mention that on my postcard, or in the camp handbook! Mr. Bucko probably lost a whole year of hearing from our high-pitched screaming.
    He told us that for now we had to stay on the inside of the buoys, which separated the shallow part from the deep part. He said the lake drops off steep after the buoys, and we had to have supervision to go past them. Absolutely no problem with that, sir! Off in the distance was a big platform that we would swim out to, but not today. First he wanted to see how we all did in the shallower part. Excellent plan.
    The platform looked like it might be all the way to Hawaii! It was so far away you had to squint your eyes to see it. I didn’t know how anybody could swim that far. It looked like a terrible place to practice diving. How was I ever going to get myself out of that? I wondered if I could get Maxey to sneak out and teach me to swim tonight. Oh, right, that would only work if she was actually speaking to me! Why couldn’t this camp have a nice, regular swimming pool?
    After everyone got all the way in the water and got all the squealing out of their systems, Mr. Bucko had us hold on to the dock while we practiced our dolphin kick. After that, he gave us kickboards and let us try it on our own. He said we could play mermaid too and try it underwater.
    Nit and Aurora were excellent mermaids right off. I could see them skimming by. In fact, my whole class was pretty good at it. Except Kayla. She couldn’t seem to keep her feet together. Must be connected to the same muscle that keeps her jaws flapping open all the time.
    Everyone seemed to want to have their swimming test, because whenever he called out “Who’s next?” everyone raised their hand. I went under and studied the bottom of the lake, in case he was one of those adults who like to pick the kid who doesn’t raise their hand.
    I was practicing my dolphin kick, holding on to the kickboard, when I heard someone yelling my name. Really loud.
    “EFFIE!”
    I lifted up my goggles and turned in circles until I saw Chica standing on the dock.
    “EFFIE! HI, I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!”
    “Hi, Chica!” I waved and started kicking back to the dock. Least, I was trying. I wasn’t getting there very fast.
    “EFFIE! COME TALK TO ME!” Chica yelled.
    “I’m coming, Chica!” I yelled. My dolphin kick seemed to want to take me in reverse, not forward. “Here I am!” I panted, when I finally arrived.
    “I was looking for you, Effie!” Chica said.
    “I know! Is everything okay?” I asked.
    “Grandpa said I could invite you over to see my room! I have a goldfish!”
    “I have a goldfish at home,” I told her. “His name is Bubba. What’s the name of your fish?”
    “Mom!” she said.
    “You named your fish Mom?”
    “Yes! She’s red on top, just like Mom and just like
you
!”
    “Really?”
    Chica nodded. “Can you come to my room now?”
    I turned to look behind me. “I really wish I could, but I’m in my swimming class. Maybe after lunch! I’ll check.”
    “I don’t like swimming!” she