Mystery Camp

This is actually a sequel to my last story Texas Mystery,  so it has a lot of the same names as last time.  Enjoy!

Mystery Camp

By Makaela Marie Foerderer;

Age 10 ¾

3/16/12

“Morning Elena,” I said looking out the window of our cabin.  Elena and I were on a vacation at a horse camp for the week and I hadn’t been sure if I wanted to go, but I already knew it was worth it.  Even through the cabin walls you could smell the fresh sent of hay and horse manure.  “Ummm,” I took a deep breath and smelled everything, it smelled delicious.  “Elena, wake up,” I said shaking her in her sleep.

“What?”

“It’s time to get up,”

“Ok, I’m up, I’m up,”

“Well, then come on, let’s go get dressed.  I think we should wear our new cowboy clothes, what do you think?” I asked.

“Sure, why not?” she said going through her suit case.

“Let’s go to the dressing room and get ready.  Last night Miss Ottertail told us we were having French toast with fruit for breakfast and I don’t wasn’t to miss it, let’s go,” I said already half way out the door.

“Alright, I’m coming,”

As we walked you could hear the wet juicy grass crushing underneath us, it smelled so sweet !  “This grass smells wonderful, doesn’t it Elena?” I said taking a deep breath.

“It sure does, and I think I can already smell that French toast cooking, can you?”

“I sure can,”

We reached the dressing room and as we walked in we saw a tall, light blond haired, girl brushing her hair.   “Hello,” she said.  “I’m Nor… I mean I’m Emily,”  She said continuing to brush her hair.

“Well, nice to meet you,” Elena said smiling. 

“Pleasure’s all mine,” Emily replied.

“This is my friend Hannah,” Elena added.

“Hi,” I said, but not very happily.  Something about this girl made me wary.  “Shall we get dressed Elena?” I asked.

“Ok,” she said. “Bye Emily, see you around.

“Alright,”

“Don’t you think she was weird in just the least little way?” I asked Elena frowning a bit.

“No, do you? I thought she seemed very nice,”

“Well, either way, keep an eye out for her, ok,”

“Ok, ok relax I’m sure everything will be fine,”

“Didn’t you even notice that she was about to say her name was Nora, but changed it to Emily?”

“No, I think your just imagining things,” she said slipping her boots on.

“Ok, if you say so,”

We walked out of the dressing room and to our amazement saw a sign that sent me almost falling on the ground.

Elena and Hannah:

Keep out of others peoples business;

Or Else;

“That’s why I told you to keep an eye out for her,” I said looking at Elena.

“Oh, I’m sure it wasn’t her,” Elena said.

“Who else would it have been? We haven’t met anyone here except for her and Miss Ottertail,” I said feeling a rush of blood go too my head.

“Maybe it was Miss Ottertail,” Elena said opening the door.  “Come on, you don’t want to miss breakfast do you?  We can worry about this later; I mean YOU can worry about this later.”

I glared at Elena and said “Fine,”

“Well, then, come on,” she said heading out the door.

We went to the cabin to put our pajamas away, a bunch of other girls were awake and getting ready.  A blond haired girl walked over to us and said, “Hi, my names Jessica, and yours?”

“I’m Hannah and this is Elena,” I said.

“Ok, your Hannah but, where’s Elena? Jessica asked.

“What, Elena, Elena, oh great,”

“What’s wrong?”

“She probably left looking for Emily or Nora or I don’t know,” I said.  Something on Jessica’s Jessie’s face made get 10 times more worried than before.   “What’s wrong, Jess?” I asked beginning to panache.

“Well, Emily is a little strange,  last time I was here she put a note in the bathroom for Ell and Tessi saying to keep out of anyone’s business or else.  So I researched a little and found out her name is actually Nora and that her father’s name is Rene Gansauge and THEN Tessi and Ell disappeared for 2 days and then came back saying they had gotten lost, I stopped trying to find things out after that, it was just to risky.  But, I’m ready to start investigating all over again this year,

“Oh, that’s a bit creepy, I better find Elena,”

“Yep, you better,”

“Will you help me?”

“Why of course, I thought you’d never ask,” she said looking as delighted as could be.

“Well, then, come on,” I said, “we don’t have all day, plus we have to get to breakfast on time, Or Else,”

“Alright, but, I bet all beat you in a race,” jess said, as she whizzed past me.

“Ok, but, I’ll win!” I laughed almost at her side.

We ran across the grass and up into the breakfast cabin.  I didn’t know why we were going there but I thought I better trust Jess. 

“We tied,” Jessica said catching her breath.

“That’s good, because if we hadn’t you would have been sad,”

“Hah, hah,”

We entered the cabin and to my astonishment I saw that to my left Elena sat talking and eating with Nora, the so called Emily.  I barged over and said to Elena “Elena, what are you doing here?”

“I was just coming down to eat and I saw that Emily was here, so I sat down.

“You mean you saw that Nora was here?” I said glaring at the so called Emily.

“What,” Emily said.

“Yah, what Nora,”

“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she stammered trembling.   “Just stay out of everything, you might get hurt,”

“Yah, by you,” Jessica said.

“STOP IT,” Elena said standing up.  “Stop being a bully,” she said glaring at me.

“Fine, if you want to be her friend fine, “

“Yah Fine,” Elena said sitting back down and turning her head.

“Let’s go Jess,” I said taking her arm and pulling her away.

We walked over and got our food and then sat down on the other side of the room, not even lifting our heads to look at them.

“We should investigate,” I said. “I think she’s up to something.”

“Yah, I think so to,” Jess said taking a bite of her French Toast.  “After breakfast let’s go to our cabin and we can research some on my laptop, our classes don’t start till 9:30 and it’s only 8:30,”

“Ok, that sounds great,”

A bunch of other girls walked in and started to get their plates.   There was an occasional “hi, or Hello, or Sup” but not many girls noticed us.  When we were done eating we went back to our cabin and Jess grabbed her laptop.  “Horse Ranch Crimes in 2011-2012” A list of about 22 crimes came up one said, “Valley Wood,”  “That’s our camp,” we said in unison.

“Yah,” Jess said as she clicked on it.

Criminal: Rene Gansauge;

Criminal’s daughter: Nora Gansauge;

Criminal’s wrong:  Horse stealing and selling property;

Age:  46;

Daughters Age:  11;

Mother is dead, name was; Leiha Gansauge;

“Ok,” I said. “Now we know, Emily is Nora and that we need to get Elena away from her,”

“That’s for sure,”  “Let’s catch Nora alone and tell her to stay away from Elena,”

“Yah lets,”

“Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding,” The bell rang and Jessica and I ran out the door. It was horse riding time.

 “This is great,” I said.

“Totally,” Jess said.

“We ran over to the barn and met our counselor Miss. Ottertail and a man standing next to the halters.

“Hello children.  I am Miss Ottertail and this is our other newer camp counselor Mr.Gansauge,” Miss
Ottertail said pointing to Mr. Gansauge, “and this is his daughter, Emily”

“What, that’s the thief’s names and that’s Emily I mean Nora,” I whispered tripping over my own words.

“I know, something’s wrong here,”

“I have that same feeling,”

“Well children, let’s go to the pasture and get this horse camp started,” Mr. Gansauge said.

            We all ran out to the pasture and opened the gate.  We had all been assigned to our horses the night before.  I had been assigned to Storm Pearl and Elena had been assigned to Ocean Mist. 

“Where’s Elena?” I asked Jess looking around.

“I don’t know,” she said running over to her horse.

“What’s your horse’s name?”

“Dazzling Duke,” she said proudly.

            I skipped over to my horse grabbed his halter and walked him out the gate with Jessica and Duke following closely behind.  We went back to the barn and Mr. Gansauge (who was very tall) and Miss. Ottertail helped us get their saddles and bridles on after we thoroughly brushed them.  “I still haven’t spotted Elena,” I said peeking over the stall at Jessie.

“Me either, it’s kind a weird.  I think that they should be here by now,” she said.

“They?”

“Yah, her and Emily, I mean Nora,” she said buckling Duke’s saddle.

“I guess so,” I said. “Come on Storm open your mouth, ahh that’s a good boy, there you go,” I said, finally getting Storm’s bit in.  

            We walked Storm and Duke out of their stalls and up to Mr. Gansauge.  “Well girls, it looks like you did a pretty good job getting your horses ready,” he said looking our horses over carefully.  We both stood our distances wary that he was a criminal.  “Alright, you girls go head and take your horses to the arena, ok,” 

“Ok,” we said walking as far away from him as possible just in case he had a gun.

            We reached the arena and saw that about 5 girls were already there including Nora and Elena.

“Whew, that’s a relief,” I said to Jess, “I thought something bad might have happened or something,”

“Yah, me too,” Jessica said taking a breath of relief.

            Miss Ottertail came over and told us to line up single file.  We got in place and then Miss Ottertail told us how and helped us get onto their saddles.  We walked our horses around in circles and then came to a halt.  “Children, children we now are going to take you to the green pasture over there on the other side of the cabin. Either remain on your horses or get down and walk them, whatever you feel more comfortable with,” Miss Ottertail yelled through her megaphone.

“Yes Miss Ottertail,” we all yelled back.

            After that we went back to our cabin and put our swimming suits on.  We were going to go swimming in the big lake in the middle of the horse pasture.

“This is going to be great!”

“It sure is.”

We ran across the grass and up to the lake.  I put my feet in and felt that it was very warm.   I jumped in with a big splash.

“Wow, this is nice water,” I told Jess who had just jumped in.

“That’s for sure, it’s just perfect,”

            That afternoon we did a few more activities had supper and now we were going to have a campfire before we went to bed.   Jess and I had been waiting all day for a time to tell Nora or Emily to stay away from Elena, but the right chance hadn’t come.  Now it did, Elena wasn’t there yet and Nora was standing next to the big oak tree about 10 meters from the camp fire. “Hello Nora,” was the first thing I said.

            “Hello,” she said eying us suspiciously.

“We’re here to tell you that you need to stay away from Elena,” Jess said trying to look as mean as possible.

“Why?” she asked looking a little scared.

“Don’t you know?” I exclaimed.

“That’s right, you should know since your dad is a criminal,”

“What, my dad is not a criminal, he’s helping FIND the criminal,” Nora said shaking her head.

“Yah, sure, whatever you say,” Jess said heading away from Nora.

“Just stay away from her Ok?” I said.

            Nora looked like she was about to burst into tears.  She looked at me and then at Jessica, then she turned around and ran away. 

“Oh, great, now she’ll go tell her dad, the criminal”

            After the camp fire we all went back to our cabin.  Mysteriously Nora never came back, Elena did come eventually though.  She glared at me and then sat down.

“She must have found out,”

“Yah, I bet she did,”

We got ready for bed and I crawled into my bunk. 

“Good night Jess,” I said yawning.

“Good night,”

That night I just couldn’t fall asleep, but it was probably a good thing because at about 11:30 I saw a figure out the window that was heading for our cabin door.  I sat up and turned on the light, the door opened a bit and then shut quickly.  I turned the light of and lay in bed.  About 30 minutes later the door opened again and in walked a man that was very tall a lot like Mr. Gansauge. 

“Help,” I screamed and jumped out of bed.

“Freeze,” the man said pulling out his gun.

The other girls woke up including Jess and Elena.  “What’s going on Hannah?” Elena asked me looking scared.

“I said FREEZE, put your hands behind your backs, get down from your beds and sit down on the floor.   I don’t want any of you little immature girls messing with my plans like last time,”

“Like last time?   Wait, what, no it can’t be,” I said trembling.  “Are you Luke Hay Wire?”

“Yah, I am, so just shut up,” Luke said rolling his eyes.

“Oh, this can’t be happening, I got it all wrong,”

“Yep, you did you little sneak,” Luke said rolling his eyes again.

            He tied everyone up and then headed over to me.  “You didn’t win last time Luke, and you’re not winning this time” I said standing up.  I took Jess’s laptop and smashed it on Luke’s head.  “Ouch,” he yelled, “You’re going to pay for that,” he said and reached out to grab me.  I tried to run, but I tripped and he caught hold of me.  He held his gun against me. “You don’t win this time Luke,” he said trying his best to mimic me.  Honestly, it sounded horrible.

“Stop,” a voice said coming from the door.  “Take the gun away from her,” the voice said walking toward us.  It was Mr. Gansauge.  I had got it all wrong; I felt miserable, I knew now that I should have listened to Nora.

“Sorry, but no can do,” he said took the gun away from me and turned to Mr. Gansauge.  “BOOM” Luke’s gun fired and Mr. Gansauge fell to the ground.  “No,” I said trying to rush to his side, but Luke caught me first.  “Come on Hannah, give it up, you don’t win this time.”  

“That’s not true Luke,” some voices said.

            Just then two men rushed in and pulled me away from Luke and handcuffed him before he even knew what was happening.  I rushed over to Mr. Gansauge’s side, and Nora joined me, coming in from the open door.  “Papa,” she said crying bitterly.  I checked him over to see where he had been hit.  I couldn’t see anything, but then I saw blood on his ankle.  “Oh, Nora, he’s going to be ok, he just go shot in his ankle,” I said inspecting it. 

“Oh, thank you Hannah, thank you,” she said giving her papa a big hug.

             He opened his eyes and hugged her back smiling amidst the tears in his eyes.  I stood up and ran over to all the other girls to untie them.  I untied Elena and then gave her a big hug. 

“I’m sorry Elena;”

“Oh, it’s ok; I should have listened to you. I had no idea Luke had gotten out of jail,” Elena exclaimed.

“Me either, that was a shocker, but I’m glad you stuck up for Nora.”

“Yah, me too.  Friends?”

“Friends,”

I ran over and gave Jess a hug and then I went over to Nora, “I’m so sorry Nora; I should have believed you, “

“That’s ok,”

“Your name is Nora, right?” I asked smiling.

“Yep.  I think,” She laughed.

“And thank you Mr. Gansauge for rescuing us,”

“Oh, you’re welcome and please call me Rene,”

“But, why did you change your name Nora?” I asked curiously.

“When Luke escaped from jail the first time my dad caught and put him back in jail.  He said that if he ever got out of jail his revenge would be to hurt me.  So I changed my name to Emily so he couldn’t track me down very easily,” Nora said.

“Ahhh, that makes sense,”

“Alright, now come on let’s get to bed. It’s already 12:30 and we still have another 6 days at camp,” Elena said.

 “That’s right, thank you again Rene, and now good night everyone,”

“Good night,”

            6 hours later…

“Bring, bring, bring, Bring bring, bring,”

            “Hello,”

“Hi Hannah, this is your mom,”

“Oh hi, what’s up?”

“Well, I just wanted to let you know that in a few months you going to have another little brother or sister around,”

The End