4 THE INVINCIBLE GIRLS BRANCH OUT

My life at home might have been a disorganized mess, but the plans for the camping trip came together so easily that it was as if it was meant to be.

Dad reserved a campsite at Butler Woods, and two weeks later, the wilderness called and we answered. He borrowed two tents from a friend, took me shopping for supplies, and talked to Myka’s, Lauren’s, and Emelyn’s parents.

“I’m calling it. This is the official start to our adventure!” Dad announced as he pulled onto the highway.

I held up one of my knitting needles in salute. “Here’s to adventuring in the wild!”

My friends cheered in response, and I could not wait to get there. This was it. We were going to have an incredible weekend!

I pulled my notebook from my bag and flipped to my plans and lists for the weekend. I’d spent all week creating them, to make sure it would be the most epic weekend ever.

It might sound strange, but I liked thinking about what could go wrong and then solving the problem. A well-executed plan meant my world ran smoothly, and when my world ran smoothly, I was a very happy person.

“We’ll be pulling into Butler Woods in one hour and twenty-three minutes,” I told the group.

“Wow, that’s extremely exact,” Lauren said.

I gave her a knowing smile. “Punctuality is my expertise, and when you know, you know. A good reporter never reveals her sources.”

“Except when your source is the GPS on your dad’s phone.” Emelyn pointed to the map on the screen.

“We now have one hour and twenty-two minutes,” I told the group, ignoring Emelyn’s comment. “We’d better go over the itinerary for the weekend and some rules.”

“I thought the whole idea of this weekend was to relax and spend time together,” Myka said. “Don’t a schedule and rules go against that?”

“Not at all. I created them to make sure that we could relax. They’re going to help us not worry about a thing,” I told my friends, but they didn’t look convinced. “All right, let’s start with the rules. These are important. I did some research about camping etiquette. These are super official and created by the American Camping Association. So technically they’re not my rules but the people in charge of camping.”

“There are people in charge of camping?” Lauren asked, an eyebrow raised.

“Of course,” I said.

“And thank goodness for that,” Dad chimed in. “Without people in charge, it would be camping chaos! Imagine it… marshmallows being roasted on the wrong sticks, mosquitoes not knowing who to bite, trees falling in the woods with no one to hear them.”

“Dad,” I said. “This isn’t a joke. We need to take this seriously. Which means, rule number one… Leave everything as you found it. In other words, look with your eyes and not your hands. We are the guests in the woods, and we need to give the earth the respect it deserves.”

Emelyn and Lauren giggled. I brushed their laughs off and continued, “So we can’t pick up things or mess with stuff in the woods. Also, we can never leave a campfire unattended. That’s how disaster happens.”

“I’ll take care of that one,” Dad said. “Just call me the fire master. I’m a pro on the grill and can’t wait to show off my campfire skills!”

“And we’ll eat good this weekend!” I announced. “I found a bunch of recipes on a blog about cooking outdoors.”

Dad caught my eye in the rearview mirror and smiled. “I like the sound of that! We’ll make a great team.”

A great team, I thought, and grinned back at him. I’d have his attention on me and not on everything that needed to get done for the new baby. Just time spent with Dad.

“We also need to remember that it’s not only nature we have to respect when camping but our neighbors and the campground. Keep things clean and our volume down,” I told everyone.

“You girls keep your volume down?” Dad joked. “We might as well turn around now; that will never happen.”

“We can be very quiet,” Lauren said, and paused. “When we’re sleeping!”

“Speaking of sleeping,” I said. “Our schedule for tonight calls for an early bedtime. Of course, we can have a campfire and make s’mores, but we can’t stay up super late because tomorrow we’re getting up early to watch the sunrise!”

Watching the sun come up seemed like the perfect way to start a new day. I’d never done it before, and I was ridiculously excited about it.

“You want us to wake up before the sun?” Myka asked.

“Yeah, that’s how it works,” I told her. “We get up to see the sun come up.”

“I’m tired already, thinking about it,” Emelyn joked.

“It will be fun,” I promised, but no one seemed convinced.

“Since we’re talking rules, I have a few of my own we need to go over,” Dad said.

“You too?” Lauren asked. “Wow, you and Ruby really are alike!”

Dad chuckled. “Yep! Especially with how neat we are!”

I shot Dad a look. “Oh please! The word ‘neat’ has never been used with you before. And what rules? You know I like to prepare for anything and everything.”

“That’s why I didn’t mention it,” Dad said. “I wanted the weekend to be relax-city.”

“Planning is how I relax,” I reminded Dad.

“That, Bee, is not how a person relaxes,” Dad said. “Now back to the important stuff. There isn’t a lot, but I do want to make sure we have fun and stay safe. So first, always use the buddy system. All the time. No exceptions. Everywhere you go.”

“Even the bathroom?” Lauren joked.

“Yep, even the bathroom,” Dad confirmed.

“Bathroom buddies, got it. What else?” I asked, irritated that he hadn’t told me these rules ahead of time.

“Fire safety,” he said. “I’m glad you mentioned not leaving it unattended. That’s a very important detail. You also want to make sure not to run around it or throw things into it.”

“Don’t worry, you can trust us,” Myka promised. “My family loves to sit around our fire pit. I know how to be careful around it.”

“Perfect,” Dad said. “Now, the most important rule is to never, ever leave any food out. Not just outside but also in the tents or your backpacks. It gets put in the trunk of the car or the canister I got that we keep in the tree.”

“Why would we keep food in a tree?” I asked.

“So the bears can’t get to it,” Dad said as if it were obvious. Which, it wasn’t. That was a fact I would never, ever have overlooked.

“Ha ha, Dad,” I said. He loved to throw some pretend obstacle into my plans. He said it built character to be able to pivot and turn, but I never fell for it.

“Sorry, sweetie, but this time I’m not joking. Bears while camping are a serious thing.”

Emelyn turned to me with wide eyes. “You’re taking us into woods full of bears?”

“I didn’t know anything about this,” I said, my voice as panicked as Emelyn’s.

“The woods are not full of bears,” Dad corrected her. “It’s nothing to worry about as long as we take precautions. They want to avoid us as much as we want to avoid them. Well, unless you leave a tasty treat out, and then they’ll come running.”

“Not funny,” I said. It wasn’t funny at all.

I thought about the research, lists, and preparation I had done. Not ever had the thought that we’d be heading into woods full of bears cross my mind.

Nope, a bear attack was most definitely not on the schedule.