Katie and Joy raced their bikes down Blackberry Road.
"We'll be late!" Joy shouted.
"All because you couldn't get out of bed!"
"It's summer!" Katie called back. "We're allowed to sleep late!"
"Not today!" Joy reminded her.
The twins turned left on County Road and sped toward town.
Luke was running out of his front door.
"Hurry, Luke!" Joy called.
The girls flew past Aunt Sally's house and down Main Street.
A crowd of boys and girls had gathered at the town park.
A banner flapped between two trees.
It said "WILLOW CREEK DAY CAMP."
"Hey!" yelled Laura.
She ran across the grass to Katie and Joy.
"You're here!"
"Yep," said Katie. "This better be fun."
She looked around the park.
"There's Carlos!" said Joy.
Carlos and his little brother Manny were playing kickball.
"Emily's here too," said Laura. "And AJ!"
Emily Morgan was ten years old.
Her brother AJ had just finished kindergarten.
Luke's bike screeched to a stop beside the girls.
Before they could say hello, they heard a loud whistle.
"It's Mrs. Penkov," said Luke, hopping off his bike.
Mrs. Penkov taught science at the high school.
"Welcome to day camp! Come in, come in!"
she shouted, marching the kids into the community center.
"Are you the teacher?" asked Katie.
"This isn't school!" Mrs. Penkov laughed.
"I'm your day camp leader!"
Katie looked around.
She saw tables, chairs, bookshelves, computers, a whiteboard, and a map.
"It looks like school," she said.
"Day camp is two weeks of fun!" said Mrs. Penkov.
"We'll play! We'll make friends! And . . ."
She pointed to the map.
"We'll explore our community.
This is a special year for our town.
In two weeks, it will be Willow Creek's one hundred fiftieth birthday!
And all of you will get to be in the birthday parade!"
Mrs. Penkov passed out little houses and buildings cut from colored paper.
"Let's pin our houses to the map and show everyone where we live," she said.
"I live here on Walnut Street."
She pinned a house to the map.
Carlos, Manny, Luke, and Laura pinned their houses on County Road.
Emily and AJ put theirs on Blackberry Road.
The other kids pinned their houses on the map too.
Together they pinned the stores and town buildings to the map.
"These are the places where people live and work in Willow Creek," said Mrs. Penkov.
"This is our community!"
She clapped her hands.
The boys and girls clapped and cheered too.
"Attention, campers!" said Mrs. Penkov.
Everyone became quiet.
"Now I have a special project for you.
It's called a scavenger hunt."
"What's that?" asked Manny.
"Let me tell you how it works," said Mrs. Penkov.
"First, we need to split into five teams."
Katie and Luke were on a team with Emily and AJ.
"Let's call our team the Earthworms," said Luke.
Joy and Laura were with Carlos and Manny.
"We'll be the Tornadoes," said Carlos.
"Excellent!" said Mrs. Penkov.
"Now I'll give each team a list of things to search for right here in Willow Creek!"
"A yard sale announcement," said Luke, reading off the list.
"A campaign button," read Laura.
"A calendar of community events," read Joy.
"Each thing you find will teach you something about our community," said Mrs. Penkov.
"This looks hard," said Manny.
"This looks like homework," said Katie.
"Did I tell you?" cried Mrs. Penkov. "It's a contest!
The team that finds the most things wins a prize."
"I love prizes!" said Katie.
Mrs. Penkov gave each team a shopping bag.
"Keep everything you find in here," she said. "Happy hunting!
See you on Wednesday.
We'll be making parade hats and crowns!"