This is the last chapter here. I'm running out of material. :(



Chapter 10
In the late hours of the morning, when the sunlight shone through the Roman blinds and onto my face, Odette shook me awake. “Wake up and then pack up, Marie. We are going camping today,” she said. I sat up in my bed and then flopped back down again. I wasn’t in the mood to go camping today. I felt like sleeping.
“But I want to sleep,” I said. I sat up all the way and bonked my head on her forehead.
“Ouch. That hurt,” we said at the same time. We simultaneously reached up to our foreheads and started rubbing the sore spots.
“Fine, I’ll go,” I said, feeling like I was going to regret going there.
“That’s my sister,” she said as I pulled on a pair of jeans and a jacket over my pajamas.
I started packing. I put all my clothes in it, but there was a lot of extra room. I already told my mom to stop buying bridesmaid dresses for me, but she wouldn’t listen. And there was no way I was going to stuff all 23 of them in my suitcase.
I climbed into the Jeep, the most suitable car for camping trips. Claire followed me, and Odette climbed in last. “Ready, kids?” my mom asked in a very enthusiastic voice. We didn’t answer. “Where are we going?” Claire asked.
“To Yosemite,” I replied. “Mom told us a billion times. Remember?”
I fell asleep at about in the middle. When I woke up, I was surrounded by lush forests and I could see Old Faithful spitting out water. A small child touched the water, but then got burned. Poor kid.
“Where’s Peggy and her family?” my mom wondered out loud.
“Ooh! I see them! Right over there!” Odette pointed. She started waving her arms as if she were trying to survive and encounter with a mountain lion.
“Let’s set up camp!” my dad ordered.
“Come on, honey, time to set up camp,” Bob said to Peggy while Charlotte skipped over to where I was.
“Let’s set up our tent now,” Charlotte said. I loosened the drawstring on the tent. We pulled the flowery tent out of the bag, and we stuck the poles as the structure. Charlotte put the fabric part of the tent onto the structure, and I spread out our sleeping bags inside it. We unpacked, and I took out the cage that held Acorn captive. Charlotte helped me set up a dog pen underneath the large blanket the tents were under. Charlotte and I asked permission to go walk Acorn, and our parents agreed.
We wandered over to Old Faithful. There were a bunch of tourists ready to snap pictures of it when it erupted again. Acorn barked right on cue. A second after the barking reached the ears of the people, Old Faithful sprinkled its warm water on me, Charlotte, and Acorn. Acorn shook his little body, and the water sprayed onto us. We giggled, and then hit the trail.
Acorn sniffed into a few holes along the way, and after about an hour of walking, we came to a bench. Charlotte wiped her forehead with her handkerchief. We saw a man with a black cup in his hand, just sitting there on the trail. A rushing mom rolled her baby’s stroller over him. Charlotte tried to help him get to his feet, but he seemed to be too heavy. She told me to grab his right arm, and she grabbed his left arm. I reached for his arm, but felt merely a sleeve. I realized that this could be the man that had kidnapped Odette and Charlotte! Acorn sniffed him cautiously. He recognized the smell and started barking. The man tried to act as innocent as he could. Acorn bit his leg, his calf to be exact, and the man started howling too. He lifted his pant leg, and pointed to the spot that Acorn bit him. “Look what your dog did!” he scowled. I noticed there were already teeth marks on that area. I turned my eyeballs back into my head and remembered Acorn bit the man in the Louvre museum back in France. I yelled for him to come back, but my message fell on deaf ears. I grabbed for his coat, and there was a loud ripping sound. He ran away with half of his jacket.
At least I got the other half of his jacket. Suddenly, my new pink iPhone vibrated in my pocket. I answered it, and my mom shouted into the phone, “WHERE ARE YOU? IT’S DINNER TIME!” I had to hold it back a few inches from my ear.
“Come on guys, let’s go,” I said to Charlotte and Acorn. I noticed that Acorn was shivering. I wrapped the half jacket around him and then picked him up.
“It’s warm,” Charlotte informed me. “Why is Acorn shivering?”
“Oh well,” I said. “Let’s go!”
It took only 15 minutes to get back to camp. If we took breaks, it would have taken about an hour. We saw a campfire, and we heard my mom’s familiar voice going, “Hey! The dirt is getting on my Juicy Couture sweatpants!”
“Is it dinner time?” Charlotte asked, looking at the adults roasting marshmallows.
“Yes,” said Claire.
“Sa-weet!” Charlotte said, licking her lips. “Dessert for dinner!”
I picked up a strawberry-flavored marshmallow to start with. Acorn gave me a stick to put it on. I stuck the sticky marshmallow into the stick, and before you could blink, I had eaten around fifty.
“I’m tired,” I announced, laying down on the grass. I stuck my hand into the pocket of the half jacket and pulled out a wallet, a pocket knife, and the valuable diamond of the Louvre Museum! When we got back home, I was going to return the diamond back into the right hands. I would also tell the police about the crime and show them the man’s ID.
“If you’re tired, then go into the tent, okay?” my mom said. “I don’t want you to get your clothes all dirty.” Who cared about clothes? I thought. That's what washing machines were for, right?
I pretended to get into my tent, but instead I lay down on the piece of grass behind the tent. I stared up at the stars. They seemed to wink at me, as if there was something that was going to happen. Charlotte lay down beside me, and also stared up. The clouds were now covering the moon, but the stars shone brighter that ever. Then, a loud noise filled the air.
“What’s that?” Charlotte asked, shielding her eyes.
I gasped. It was Halley’s comet! Its radiance grabbed me. I smelled the strong scent of magic. “It’s Halley’s comet!” I said.
“Wow,” Charlotte said. “It’s as beautiful as the moon.”
I looked at the moon. It was blue. Bluer than any ocean I had seen before. Bluer than my jeans. Acorn howled to the moon. I thought to myself, so he does have a little wolf-ness in himself. The comet soared through the sky like my heart. It followed the comet to paradise. What more could a girl want? I had a wonderful family, and the best friends I could have.
“How often does the comet come?” Charlotte asked.
“Once in a blue moon, Charlotte,” I said. “Once in a blue moon.”