Page 5 of Freak Camp
“Could I get some of these books?”Jake asked.
Tobias nodded.“Sure you could, you’re a hunter.Hunters get whatever they want.But ...”He bit his lip.“If you take them away, then I won’t get to finish them.So if you could wait a little ...”Tobias abruptly looked horrified.“N-n-not that I’m t-t-telling you what to do, I’m just saying that I would m-m-miss them—do what you want.I’m just a monster, don’t listen to me.”
“Don’t worry, Toby, I’m not gonna take your books.I’m sure there’s other copies at some of the libraries I’ve been to.”Though Jake wasn’t sure of that.Some of the books that Tobias had listed sounded pretty rare, and Jake didn’t know that most public schools would carry them.But he wasn’t going to tell that to Tobias, who had looked so upset at the thought of Jake taking away his books.
“You’ve been to other libraries?”Tobias gaped.“You mean there’s more than the one in Administration?”
“Toby, there’shundredsof libraries.One in every school I’ve ever been to—and I’ve been to a lot of schools—and at least one in every town.”Jake told him about his last school, where he had hung out in the library just because the kids were all dumb and not worth talking to.He had read eight Goosebumps books because there had been nothing much else to do.He had pretended that it was research, but most of the stories sounded made up.No way civilian kids would ever be that smart and badass around monsters.
“I mean, I’ve never been to summer camp, but no way it’s anything like Freak Camp, and the cops never help like that.”In real life, Jake knew, cops only ever got in the way or got there too late to help.That’s what his dad said.
Tobias tilted his head.“What’s a summer camp?”
Jake groped for an explanation.“It’s a camp you go to, but only like, for the summer.You stay with other kids in a cabin and tell ghost stories, and during the day they make you do arts and crafts and sh-stuff.”Even though Toby was a monster, it felt weird to swear in front of him.Toby didn’t look like a monster, he just looked like a little kid, like the ones Jake saw sometimes being pushed by their parents on the swing set across the street from his school.
Toby blinked at him.“And then where do you go?”
“Back home.And to school.Um.”Jake realized this might not be as easy to explain to a monster kid as he’d first thought.As smart as Toby was, he didn’t know about libraries.Maybe he’d never even seen a TV show.“Anyway, you gotta know there’s no such thing as monster counselors.”
“What’s a counselor?”
“It’s ...um ...”Jake glanced at the guard outside the chain-link fence.“Never mind, forget it.It’s not like I’ve been to summer camp either.So yeah, that library wasn’t half as big as the one at my third-grade school in Amherst ...”
Tobias listened like he’d never heard anything half as cool in his life.At one point he rocked back and looked up at the sky, too amazed to sit still any longer.That was when Jake really noticed the collar, imprinted with the 89UI6703 ID number in iron figures.
“Does that hurt?”Jake motioned toward his own neck.
Tobias blinked at him.His eyes looked even bigger and more innocent up close.Jake didn’t think monsters’ eyes were supposed to look like that.“Does what hurt?”
“That.”Jake reached toward him but stopped before touching the leather.Tobias hadn’t reacted, just watched his hand.
“Oh.”He dropped his gaze and scratched at the collar.“Sometimes.I’ve had it for a while, so I don’t feel it much anymore.”
Jake frowned.“Does it ever come off?”
Tobias shook his head.
“Not even when you shower?Or sleep?”
He shook his head again.
“Huh.”Jake picked at the ground, not sure what else to say.
“Jake!”
Jake jumped to his feet, seeing Dad on the other side of the fence, waiting for him.He hastily brushed off his knees.“Sorry, gotta go.”
Tobias looked up then, gazing straight into his eyes.“Will you be back?”
Jake stopped, startled.“Yeah,” he said, with a rush of certainty.“Yeah, I’ll be back.I’m old enough now, and Dad said we’ll probably have to come back here now that he’s found something.I’ll come back and see you, Toby.”
For the first time, Tobias smiled.It was a small, hesitant thing that vanished almost as soon as it appeared, but it made Jake feel oddly proud.
“Jake!”
Without another word, Jake turned and ran back to his father.
“Sorry, Dad,” he said when he reached the gate, breathless more from surprise than the short run.“I lost track of time.How did Special Research go?”
