Frog Freakout Read Free

door. It sounded like a squirrel with urgent news.
    Danny blearily slid out of his top bunk, narrowly avoiding standing on Josh’s head below, and went to the door. Outside it had stopped raining and there in the dim light of the moon stood Charlie in her pajamas, clutching several shiny rectangle things.
    â€œMy DS! WHOA!” yelled Danny, scooping up his computer gadget in delight.
    â€œShhhhh!” Charlie looked around edgily. “Don’t wake everyone up, you plopstick!” She stepped inside and pushed the door shut with her shoulder, grinning wickedly. “I couldn’t sleep,I was sooooo bored. So I thought I’d get these back for us.”
    Callum and Sayid were now awake. They got out of their bunks and seized their own gadgets, whooping with joy. Josh sat up in bed, smiling and shaking his head. He hadn’t brought a computer game with him—creepy-crawlies were his kind of fun. “You’re going to get into SUCH trouble this time, Charlie,” he said. “How did you do it?”

    â€œI noticed where Drill Sergeant left the key to the confiscation cupboard while I was in the camp office getting shouted at for the hair thing,” said Charlie with a casual shrug. “It’s on a hook right next to his bunk in the room next door.” She held up the key, an old-fashioned iron one with a fob hanging off it—one of those soft plastic bulblike fobs with a mini yellow fish floating in red water inside it.
    â€œI still can’t believe you cut Sally’s hair,” guffawed Callum.
    â€œShe wanted me to! I didn’t make her!” said Charlie, dropping the key back in her pajama top pocket. “Why all the fuss?”
    They settled onto the bunks and switched on the gadgets with assorted jingly noises and flashes of color. The power chargers were still in their drawers so they hooked up to the mains and went on gaming for hours. Josh joined in a bit, although mostly he watched. Until he noticed something slightly worrying.
    â€œErm . . . guys,” he said, peering out of the window. “The sun is nearly up. Don’t you thinkwe ought to get some sleep now?”
    â€œSheeesh!” Charlie stood up, looking worried. “I’d better get these back in the cupboard and the key back on the hook before Drill Sergeant wakes up.”
    â€œIt’s only 5:15,” said Sayid, looking at his watch.
    â€œBut he gets up early to go running,” said Charlie. “His cabin’s next to ours, and I hear his alarm clock go off at six o’clock, every morning, and then he hoofs past our window ten minutes later.”
    â€œWe’ll come with you,” offered Josh, clapping Danny’s shoulder. “We can keep watch while you go in.” Sayid and Callum handed back their switched-off games and scrambled back into their bunks.

    It was cool and fresh as they stepped out into the dawn and made their way quietly toward the cabin that housed the office and Drill Sergeant’s room at the far end of the camp. As they passed the large pond, Josh paused, entranced by a chorus of purring croaks. “Listen! It’s the frogs! The froggy dawn chorus is just starting!” His eyes were shining.
    â€œWe haven’t got time,” hissed Danny, feeling very nervous now that the sun was so far up. He didn’t fancy meeting up with Drill Sergeant while clutching all these gadgets.
    â€œNo—I want to see!” whispered Charlie and ran after Josh who was now kneeling at the edge of the pond, pointing to the little greeny-brown noses and pop-up eyes of six or seven frogs in the dark water.
    Charlie dropped the games on the bank and leaned in to look. “Ooooh—they’re so sweet, aren’t they? Ooh—look—did you see that one go? He just hopped right out from under that rock and into the water!”
    â€œMore ‘leaped’ than hopped, really,” said Josh. “Toads hop. Frogs