Chapter 1: Going to Cape Cod

Once when I was in New York, I was getting ready to go to Cape Cod. We were going there because we were dropping off my sister and her best friend for sleep away camp. My sister and her friend Uma were excited but a little nervous. We were going early because we were going to visit our friends Christopher, Paige, and Brooke. We were going to visit them because I would get really carsick if we had to drive straight without stopping at the camp, which is called Cape Cod Sea Camps.

I asked my dad if he knew how long the car ride would be. He said, “Probably six and a half hours.”

“I better get comfortable,” I said. I thought I better take a nap. My sister’s friend was in the car too.

I was excited to get to be in Cape Cod with my friend Brooke, but I was sad that the car ride was SO long. When we started moving, I, my sister Audrey, and her friend Uma listened to our favorite radio channel, Hits 1. They have great music, like “My Friend,” which is a name of a song, I think. We all sang along to the songs!

The car was black. Uma, Audrey and I sat in the back seats, my mom and dad sat in the front seats. Audrey and I have boosters and Uma didn’t have one because it’s not her car. We talked a lot in the car. Some of the things we talked about were how excited we were to get to Cape Cod because we want to see our friends! And I took two naps, my sister and her friend Uma didn’t take a nap so they wanted something to do.

When we got to Cape Cod we went out to lunch at a place on the way to our friends’ house. There was a kids’ menu – my sister and I had mac n’ cheese. It tasted really good and smelled cheesy. Uma, my sister’s friend, got chicken fingers. Uma said they tasted really good, too.

Once we got back in the car after lunch, we drove to their house.

Chapter 2: At Their House

When we got there, Paige greeted us. She is the same age as Audrey and Uma. Paige has a brother named Christopher. He is eighteen (I think). I have a friend the same age as me named Brooke. It was great to see everybody again.

For the first 20 minutes, Brooke and I didn’t talk a lot. My mom and Brooke’s mom said we should go next door to their old house and pick some flowers. On the way, we started talking to each other. We talked about what we were going to do tomorrow.

Brooke said, “I think we’re going to the beach tomorrow!”

I said, “Okay!”

“But before we go to the beach, do you want to take a walk so I can show you around?” Brooke asked.

I said, “Sure. Where should we go?”

Brooke said, “We could go to the club and golf course because my dad knows most people in this town.”

Once we got next door we weren’t wearing any shoes and my feet felt kind of dirty. We had to go in the dirt without any shoes and my feet got even dirtier. First we picked blue flowers (I don’t know the names of most of the flowers). Next we picked pink flowers. All the flowers smelled really good. They smelled like birthday cake! Next we picked white flowers. The blue, pink and white flowers were the same kind but different colors. Next we picked dog bark (I think that’s the kind of flower it was). The petals were sticky. Brooke showed me the inside of the house, but there wasn’t a lot to see. All the rooms were empty except for the kitchen and bathrooms, but the bathrooms didn’t even work. In the kitchen, nothing was in the fridge.

Chapter 3: Flowers for Mom

We got back to the house and gave our moms the basket of flowers. The basket was actually Paige’s laundry bag, but her mom said we could use it. She didn’t ask Paige, so we still weren’t sure if we could use it so we just took it out for a little while. When we were outside on their lawn organizing the flowers into piles, Paige yelled from her room, “Brooke! Did you take my laundry basket?”

Brooke said, “Mom said I could use it!”

Paige ran downstairs and we could hear her yelling, “Mom!”

After we were done organizing the flowers, we needed to find a way to get them inside. We couldn’t use the laundry basket, because we gave it back to Paige. Brooke went inside and asked her mom- “we don’t know how to bring the flowers in?”

Brooke’s mom said, “You can just put in on the middle of the table.”

Brooke said, “Thanks mom!!” She came running back and said, “Nellie, my mom said we can put the flowers on the table.

I said, “Great!!

After we put the organized flowers on the table, it was time for dinner.

Chapter 4: Before the Walk

Dinner was corn and hamburgers. After we ate, we were going to hang out for a couple of hours and then go to sleep. We played in Brooke’s room for twenty minutes and before we were going to watch Teen Beach Movie 2, Brooke and I made our couch bed in the little TV room where we were going to watch the movie. There was another blow-up mattress bed on the floor for Audrey, Uma and Paige. The couch bed was really just a couch, and we had to put sheets, pillows and blankets on it. After we watched the movie we got ready for bed. Brooke and I decided that we didn’t want to sleep on a couch. So that night we slept in our parents bedroom.

In the morning, Brooke got up, brushed her teeth, brushed her hair (I didn’t, I just stayed in bed), and came into my room. She said, “Good morning, Nellie! Are you ready for the walk?”

I said, “Almost, Brooke. I just have to…brush my teeth and hair, get dressed, and eat breakfast. So… it’ll probably take me twenty to thirty minutes.”

Brooke said “Ok, I will just wait for you.”

I said, “Thanks!!”

30 MINUTES LATER…

“Ok Brooke, I’m ready to go on the walk now!”

Brooke said, “Yay!” We went downstairs and got our shoes on. We told everyone where we were going to go, and what we were doing. The grownups said “That’s great, we were just thinking about getting some fresh air.”

We asked, “Can we go by ourselves?!”

The grownups said, “Sure!”

Chapter 5: The Long Walk

Brooke and I started our walk. First we were going to go the golf course since it’s close to her house. When we saw the sign ‘Golfers Crossing’ we knew we were really close. When we saw the golf course, we found two mushrooms. We picked them up. I felt the inside of one and it felt squishy and slimy. The outside was just a little dirty, so we put them in Brooke’s pocket and thought maybe when we get home we can wash them.

When we got into the golf course, Brooke said, “Do you see that circle of sand over there?”

I said I did.

Brooke said, “When we get there, make sure you don’t put your feet in too deep because you’re not allowed to walk in it.”

I said, “I’ll try not to.”

The golf course was super long and we were walking on it for about twenty minutes. We forgot about how long we told the parents how long we’d walk for, and we didn’t care about going back because we forgot. After we got off the golf course we saw the golf club, there’s two clubs a regular club and a golf club. We saw the golf club.

Once we got to the golf club we saw somebody inside.

We asked him, “Do you know where the regular club is? We want some water because we’re both really thirsty.”

He said the club was across the golf course. We got so annoyed because we had to walk across the course again. But since we were so thirsty we had to do it. It took us another 20 minutes. While we were on our walk, Brooke and I talked about our pets. We both have dogs – Brooke’s dog is in Hong Kong in the summer, but Brooke goes to New York in the summer. Brooke told me she missed her dog. Her dog is a goldendoodle. I told her that my dog is a Tibetan terrier, and he is so fluffy.

Brooke said, “I think I remember him from Christmas? Is his name Fela?”

I said, “Yes!’’

Brooke said, “I don’t think our dogs have ever met.”

I said “No! They didn’t.”

On the long walk, we also talked about our older sisters. I said to Brooke, “How is Paige?”

Brooke said, “She’s good, but sometimes she can be a little annoying.”

I said, “Same here.”

Brooke said, “I think Audrey’s nice.”

“I think Paige is really nice,” I replied.

When we got out of the golf course, and onto the street, Brooke said, “Nellie, we’re almost to the club!”

I said, “Good, because I’m getting thirsty.”

Chapter 6: The Club, Part I

When we got to the club, we asked the doorman how we could get some water. He said, “Go straight and make a right.” We followed his directions and came upon a fancy room with a lot of people. We went in and saw that this guy was taking family pictures. We asked him if he could take a photo of us.

He said, “Are you here for the anniversary party?”

Brooke and I were confused. “Um, what anniversary party?” we asked.

The photographer said, “Did you girls not know that this is an anniversary party?”

We said, “No!” We looked around the room and figured it out. We had walked right in to some couple’s anniversary party! There were people everywhere. As we were leaving, these 12 or 13-year-old girls stared at us in a mean way. We tried to ignore them and walk out without anyone else noticing us.

We finally got out and saw a waiter walking by. We asked him how to get water? He said “down the corner.” We said “Thanks!” We got to the diner and Nobody was there. There were just waiter and waitresses, we asked them can we have two waters please. They said sure. They gave us two waters and walked out.

Brooke said, “I have to go to the bathroom.

I said, “Okay. Do you know where the bathroom is?”

She said, “Yep!”

I said, “Okay, lets go then.”

Once we got downstairs to the bathroom we went in to the girls locker room, and went into the stalls. When we got out of the stalls Brooke spotted mint mouthwash…Brooke loves mint anything. She basically screamed, “MINT MOUTHWASH!!!”

I said, “Shhh!”

Brooke said, “sorry, I just love mint anything.”

I said, “I realized that.”

Brooke took a cup and spurted mouthwash into a mini plastic cup. Luckily the mouthwash didn’t spray everywhere, like once when I was with my grandma at a restaurant. Brooke literally took twenty sips of mouthwash and then asked me if I wanted some. I said, “I’m okay.”

She said, “You have to. It’s so refreshing!”

I said, “Okay, once.”

She said, “Once or twice.”

I took a sip and fell in love with it!! (We didn’t swallow the mouthwash because that would be kind of gross, we spit it out). We both drank SO, SO, SO, much of it. And then we walk out of the bathroom and we were about to go but…we saw a piece of paper that said Name on one line, and locker number on another. Brooke and I both love filling out surveys. We both took one and filled out our name. Of course we don’t have a locker number so we just had to make one up. I looked at the lockers and saw names. I then realized that the lockers with name are taken. Then I looked witch locker Brooke chose. I think she didn’t realize that the lockers with names were taken. I told Brooke about the locker name thing, and we decided to pick a locker.

We looked at the rows of lockers and on one of the lockers we saw the name ‘Mary Olsen.’ Mary-Kate Olsen is a famous person, so Brooke and I were shocked and excited. We erased our real names on the surveys and pretended our names were Mary Olsen. Our locker numbers were 122 (that was mine) and I think Brooke’s was 153. Brooke asked me where we should put them? I said we can keep them. Brooke didn’t want to keep them and so she put it back in the slot. And then we left the locker room and went out the back door to go to the playground.

The Club, Part II

I said, “Where is the playground?”

Brooke said, “Next to my camp because it’s the camps playground.

I said, “If it’s the camps playground then are you sure we can play in it?”

Brooke said, “Yes. I’m sure.”

Once we got to the playground, we played on the slide. There were two slides, so we went on the one that was longer and scarier. It was pitch black and you could hear the slide wobbling. Next we went on the swings, first Brooke pushed me and I went super high. Then I pushed Brooke and she went super high too. After that Brooke showed me what she does at camp on the playground. Under the bridge there was a little circle of sand that you could play in. Brooke made a city!! The city was made out of flowers and mushrooms.

I said, “It’s so pretty!”

Brooke said, “Do you want to go to the back lawn of the club and roll down the hill and do cartwheels and handstands?”

I said, “Sure!! Let’s go!!”

When we got to the back lawn, we rolled down the hill three times and we did cartwheels and handstands a bunch of times. We still had our water but they fell down. After that we felt really dizzy. We got some leaves in our hair from rolling down the hill. Brooke said, “Do you know what time it is? I have no idea because we completely lost track of how long we would be out here for.”

We told the moms that we’d be gone for 20 minutes, but it felt like we’d been away for longer.

Chapter 7: The Angry Moms

Just then, we saw a car stop right in front of the hill.

Brooke said, “That car looks familiar…”

My mom and Brooke’s mom came running out of the car, shouting, “Nellie! Brooke! You’ve been away for almost two hours? What happened to you?”

Brooke and I ran down the hill to meet our moms, who gave us a big hug. They had a lot of questions for us.

“Why are there leaves in your hair?” asked my mom.

“Did you guys get lost?” asked Brooke’s mom.

“We were so worried!! But now we’re really happy to see you.” The moms were upset that we’d lost track of time and had walked all the way to the club, but they were relieved to see us all safe and sound.

We all got in the car to go back to Brooke’s house. When we got there, everybody in the kitchen was so happy to see us (Brooke’s dad and my dad). We went upstairs to see Audrey, Paige and Uma.

We said, “Did you guys miss us? Were you scared that we’d gotten kidnapped?”

Audrey said, “Oh? You guys were gone?”

Paige chimed in, “We didn’t even notice!”

Uma then said, “How long were you gone for?”

“Almost two hours – and you didn’t notice we left, and then didn’t come back?” we said. We were outraged. How dare they not notice?!

They said, “No.”

15 MINUTES LATER…

Our moms said, “It’s time to go to the beach!!”

Chapter 8: Time for the Beach!

We packed some sandwiches and drinks and headed to the car. We all sat in one car but we had to pull the back seats up so we could all fit. When we got to the beach, our dads said that we were going on a boat ride. We brought the sandwiches to the boat so when we got to the second beach where we were going we could have a picnic. Our dads called, “Time to get on Jetlag!” I had no idea what that meant. It turned out that the boat’s name was Jetlag. The boat next to ours was named ‘I Love Ponies.’

Chapter 9: The Boat, Part I

In the boat, one of the couches could be opened to reveal a little bathroom – with no door. The bathroom was the dirtiest thing I had ever seen. They never used it. When my eyes looked at it I got so grossed out and I felt like I lost my appetite for the sandwiches. The boat  went really slowly at first and then we told them we wanted to go faster. The dads said that we have to get to the ocean first.

Once we were about to get to the ocean we said, “We’re not going any faster than we were!”

They said, “What one second.”

They were right, in one second we began going so, so, so, fast!! We went so fast that Uma’s hat blew off her head! We had to turn back and my dad had to try to grab it right on time…

The Boat, Part II

Our dad luckily got the hat and we turned back for the boat ride. That didn’t happen again because all of us were either holding on to our hats or me (I took off my hat).  We were still going really fast but now all of us got used to going this fast!! We got to the beach and ate our sandwiches, I had turkey. I wanted to look for hermit crabs now.

Brooke said “I don’t think that there are any hermit crabs here…”

I asked Brooke’s dad and it turned out that there were hermit crabs. I asked my mom if she wanted to help me and she said she would but only if she doesn’t have to pick them up. I said “sure.” We began, We walked this way and that way but we didn’t find any hermit crabs.

Audrey, Uma and Brooke were in the water and they wanted me to come in. I said, “I’m looking for hermit crabs! You can join me, but I don’t want to come in the water right now.”

They said, “Okay, but we don’t really want to look for hermit crabs.”

Sadly, I didn’t find any hermit crabs, but Brooke told me that there are a lot at their beach. After swimming in the water for a while, it was time to head back since it was late in the afternoon. We got back on the boat, and we were about to go.

Chapter 10: Heading Home

When we started heading back to their beach, I felt like we were going even faster than the first time. But it was still super fun. Once we could see their beach, we slowed down a lot. When I could see their beach more clearly, we saw…the boat police! We drove over to them and the coast guard said, “Hey folks. I see four children without any lifejackets on and I don’t know how old they are. So…how old are they?”

He pointed to Audrey and she said, “I’m almost ten.”

Then he pointed to Uma, who said, “I’m also almost ten.”

Paige said, “I’m eleven.”

Then he pointed to me and Brooke. We said, “We’re both almost seven and a half.”

The coast guard said, “Okay, I know these kids’ ages and there are four who need life jackets on.”

Brooke’s dad said, “Sorry sir. For the rest of the ride we will wear them.”

The lifejackets were really, really itchy. But I lived with it. When we got to their beach I was so happy to be there, We ran to the dock and every kid except for me didn’t wear shoes. When we got to the car we got in and I sat in the back again. We drove home and I was happy to be there.

I said, “What a day!!!”

THE END