THE FINAL PRANK
It was Daniel who came up with the ultimate prank on the counselors.
They planned it for the very last campfire of the week. Megabat wriggled in anticipation all through the singing of the silly songs, but finally, it was time.
“Okay, guys,” Fiona said. “Get ready for the last ghost story of the week. It’s the scariest one yet.”
Irwin raised his hand. “Actually, if the counselors don’t mind, Cabin 8 wants to tell a story tonight.”
Fiona looked to Vijay, who glanced at the other counselors. They all shrugged. “Fine with us,” Vijay said.
Daniel stood up. He looked around the circle at the gathered kids and counselors, then, even though his voice shook a little at first, he spoke loud and clear. “This is a true story,” he said. “In fact…” He paused ominously. “It’s happening at this very campfire…tonight.”
That got the counselors’ attention.
“Rumor has it there are some counselors here,” Daniel went on, “who once tried to trap bats.”
Vijay and Fiona exchanged a nervous, puzzled glance.
“And when the bats of Camp Wildwood heard about it, well, they weren’t too happy. So they started to beat their wings.”
The twins stood up. They waved their arms slowly for an especially spooky effect. “FLAP. FLAP. FLAP,” they said together.
“Real cute, guys,” Fiona said.
“FLAP. FLAP. FLAP.” The twins said it louder this time.
“You’re gonna have to try harder than that if you want to scare us,” Vijay added.
“In fact,” Daniel went on, “the bats were so angry that they decided to fly out to the campfire.”
Irwin stood up and shone his flashlight around. There was nothing…just trees and shadows. At first the counselors looked smug, but the second Irwin switched off the flashlight, a tall counselor from Cabin 4 jumped so suddenly that the marshmallow he’d been roasting fell into the fire.
Vijay followed his gaze. “AHHHHHH!” he screamed. Eerie eyeballs were glowing in the darkness all around them. A bunch of the other kids, who’d been warned that the story was a practical joke, started laughing.
The kids from Cabin 8 had used up the entire pack of stickers from Daniel and Megabat’s care package. They’d stuck them to the trees earlier in the evening. The stickers had gone unnoticed before. But thanks to the light from Irwin’s flashlight, they were shining bright.
Daniel continued. “Like I was saying, the bats came to the campfire, flapping their powerful wings.”
Right on cue, there was a terrific noise up above.
Megabat glanced up just in time to see Babybat leading the way as the bat colony from the cave flew overhead. All together, their wings made such a strong breeze that the fire’s flames flickered. This time a few kids screamed too, and Fiona threw her hands up over her head and ducked. “What the heck?!”
“And then…,” Daniel continued, “one of them spoke in a thundering voice.”
Irwin turned on his flashlight again. That was when Batzilla landed in front of its beam. She was huge to begin with, but thanks to the way the flashlight magnified her, her shadow loomed as tall as the trees.
Daniel nodded at Megabat. Here was his big moment! He took off into the treetops, chose a perch where he was virtually unspottable, and used his loudest, spookiest voice.
“Mine is Batzill…aaaaaaaah! BATZILL-AHHHHHHHHH!” he cried. “And mine is here to tell yourses that batses are friendses!”
“Okay, enough guys!” Vijay said. “Where’s that voice coming from?”
“SHUSHING!” Megabat shouted. “Be listening to Batzilla!”
Vijay’s mouth dropped open, but he stopped talking.
“Batses are friendses,” Megabat repeated. “So do not be trapping batses or chasing thems away. For fact, batses are an important part of the egosystem.”
“Ecosystem,” Daniel corrected in a loud whisper, but Megabat was on a roll.
“Theys is eating pesty bugses. Suchly as munkskitos and critterpillars.”
Megabat made a face. Personally, he’d never understand the appeal.
“Mine is Batzill…ahhhhhhhh!” he yelled. “BATZILLA!”
At that, the real Batzilla flapped her huge wings once, twice, and took off into the night sky. For a moment, there was silence except for a few of the counselors, who were clutching each other tight and breathing heavily. A bunch of girls from Cabin 3 began to roar with laughter.
“If you could see your faces right now,” one of them said.
“Very funny. Okay, guys,” Fiona said after she’d caught her breath. “That was pretty good.”
“Seriously. How’d you do it?” Vijay asked.
“Do what?” Daniel shrugged.
“It wasn’t us,” Gus added.
“Yeah. It was Batzilla and her friends,” Rusty finished.
“Right,” Vijay said with a small smile, but his voice was a little warbly. “Nice try. Super-creative. But you didn’t actually scare us. Not one bit.”
Only, the very next morning, the campers were awoken by hammering.
Megabat opened his eyes groggily.
“What’s going on?” Irwin said.
“I don’t know,” Gus answered. “But whatever it is, it’s annoying.”
The four boys and one bat made their way to the porch. There, in the clearing between the cabins, the counselors were hard at work building something that looked like a big birdhouse.
“It’s a bat box,” Vijay explained as the other counselors hoisted it up on a long pole. “We can’t let bats roost in our cabins…but up to one hundred bats can live in one of these. Not that we believe in Batzilla,” he said quickly. “But she made some pretty decent points about the ecosystem, and we all hate mosquitoes, so…”
The rest of the morning passed quickly, between eating a last waffle breakfast, packing their things and saying goodbye to their new friends.
“Hurry up, guys,” Vijay said. “The bus’ll be here any minute.”
Daniel already had his bag over one shoulder, but Megabat was still sitting in the corner. “What’s wrong?” Daniel asked. “Aren’t you excited to see Birdgirl, Priscilla and Talia again?”
“Undoubtedly,” Megabat said sadly. “Ours didn’t even have time to writes thems letters! Mine muchly wants to go home. But now it’s being daylight, and mine forgotted say farewells to Babybat.”
“It’s okay,” Daniel said. “I have an idea for how you can use the stamps from the care package when we get home.” He looked out the window and laughed, “Plus, I think Babybat said farewell to you. Come see.”
Megabat flew into Daniel’s pocket and they went out together. There, pulling into the clearing, was the school bus…but it wasn’t just yellow anymore. It was wrapped in a criss-cross of colorful strings. They draped across the windows and dangled from the stop sign.
“I parked it in the lot last night,” the driver said to Vijay as he got out. “I don’t know what happened.”
Megabat grinned. “Babybat maked mine the biggest, bussiest friendship bracelet ever!”
The driver had to clear off some of the string before the kids could load their luggage and climb aboard, but when it was Daniel’s turn to board, the driver stopped him. “Well,” he said, “I’m waiting for my report. Did you have enough fun to earn this?” He tapped the Ewok’s bobblehead.
“I actually had a lot more than ten kinds of fun,” Daniel answered. But he and Megabat had already decided what to do—difficult as it was for Megabat, who really did love that bobblehead. “Keep it though,” Daniel went on. “You can give it to the next kid who’s scared to go to camp. Because I already know I’m coming back next year.”
The bus driver tipped his cap. Then Daniel and Megabat joined the busload of stinky, sleepy, sun-kissed campers headed home from the adventure of a livingtime.
