JULIUS HELD THE FOOTBALL in his hand. He breathed slowly, praying his adversary would not leave him lying on the grass beaten and defenseless. His best friend, Mark, yelled at him: “TTTTHHHRRROW THE BAAAAAAAALLL!”

Even if Mark had been speaking in a loud mic, Julius could barely make out what he was saying. Everything was in slow motion. Leonardo was running toward him, two hands outstretched. Julius darted to the left, hoping to make the touchdown. Then, he heard him: his enemy.
Oh NO! Julius thought. Not now! Oh man! Julius didn’t turn back, and he didn’t need to. He could feel his opponent breathing down his leg…. Literally. Suddenly, Julius saw the two cones that stood for the touchdown. I can make it! Julius told himself. I can make it! We can win! We can— but, it was not meant to be. Julius tumbled, and landed on his arm, the football only a centimeter away. Then, Julius could hear the hot breath of his dog, Captain, who had tackled him.

“Come on Captain,” Julius said, “why do you ALWAYS have to tackle me. It gets so annoying!” Mark chuckled. Julius lifted his head so he could see his now once-best friend.

“Hah! Probably he knows he can get you better than anyone else.”

“Yeah,” jeered Horace, one of the boys.

“You realized that this is my backyard, right?” Julius said. He sat up and watched as the rest of the gang crowded around him. There was: LEONARDO (which they named him that for his artistic and inventing mind), MARK ANTONY (which they called him for his history with pretty girls), HORACE (which they named for his love of poetry and nature), VIRGIL (which they called for his memory of history) and JULIUS himself (whose real name was John but since he was such a good leader they called him Julius, like Julius Caesar). CAPTAIN was also there and you could say he was the mascot of the club of boys. That was why the boys were known by one name: The Captain Club.
As Captain licked his master’s hand, Julius’s dad Mr. Parker, walked outside. He wore a huge smile on his face, huger than his usual. That could only mean one thing: they were going camping.

“Pack your bags fellas’, we’re going camping!”

“Whoohoo!” the boys cried together. Captain jumped up and down, barking happy remarks.

“And I’m coming with you,” said a voice from the wooden deck above them. Julius looked up and saw Leo’s sister, Julia, which suited her name because she acted so much like Augustus Caesar’s daughter, Julia Caesar. Leo’s sister had tied her hair in a bun and wore a pair of black skorts* and a pink top that said: 'Girl’s can camp too!'. This was given from one of her friends for her birthday a few weeks before. Leo groaned.

“Did Mom and Dad say you can come?” he asked.

Julia nodded. “Uh huh. Mom said that if you can go camping with your friends then I should come with you too since she let you go to that camp last month.” Julia stuck out her tongue. “Hah-hah!”

“Grrr!” Leo growled. “Come on Julia, we better get home.” So Leo stomped up the steps and led Julia back to their house so they could pack.
Julius smirked. “Now I’m totally glad my little sister Dianne is only one year old.”

THE NEXT DAY, THE Captain Club was packed into the Parker’s family van.
It was a fifteen-passenger, and since there were only ten people (Mrs. Parker and Virgil’s dad came along also) there was enough room for the camping gear such as the tents, sleeping bags and SACKS and SACKS of frozen hot dogs and marshmallows to be cooked around the camp fire. It took all of Julius’s strength to keep Captain locked in his cage on the floor.
Five very long hours of the Road Alphabet Game the boys (and girl) finally made it to their campsite. People called it King’s Forest, probably because of all the sightings of cougars and bears, the kings of the American forest.
About an hour of unpacking and setting up, the group had their own campsite.

“It’s kind of cozy,” Julia said.

“I agree,” Mrs. Parker said with a sigh of relief. It took a lot of work to finish but the boys still had enough energy for adventure.

“Father,” said Virgil, “would it be possible if I could explore our surroundings with my class peers and have a small venture into the forest?” (As Virgil also knew about history he also talked like a historian).

Mr. Walker smiled. “Sure son, go ahead.”

“Whoohoo! Come on guys, let’s go!” Leo yelled as he climbed up a small slope. Julius called to Captain. “Come on Captain!”

Captain barked. “Yap! Yap!”

The boys walked around the forest for about several minutes before they heard Julia shouting at them. “GGUUYS! Wait up! WAIT UPPPPP!”

Leo rolled his eyes. “Why did I have to have such an annoying sister?”

Mark shrugged. “I don’t get it? My older sister leaves me alone fine.”

Leo eyes squinted at Mark in an annoyed fashion. “Um, that’s probably because your sister is sixteen! My sister is eleven. That’s a huge difference! Anyway, I've got a plan: let’s do something that’s so boring, that she’ll have to leave us alone. Anyone got anything?”

The Club thought for a minute, then Virgil suddenly clicked his fingers.
“I got it. Let’s make an acorn storage out of a stump for the squirrels!” The boys were about to object when they remembered it wasn’t supposed to be for fun. So they started gathering acorns. By the time Julia had had gotten through the forest, the boys had filled half the stump.

“Hey guys, that’s no fair! Why didn’t you wait for me?” Julia whined. Leo shrugged carelessly. “We didn’t know you wanted to help.”

Julia growled. “Ugh!” Julia stomped away into forest, kicking leaves everywhere.

“Oh come, guys,” Horace said a few minutes later. Horace was always fond of Julia (for some strange reason) which made him persuade the Club to let her in their affairs. “We should let her help.”

Virgil snickered. “Of course you would,” he mocked, “Mr. Lover-Boy.”

Horace turned red. “I am not a ‘Lover-Boy!’ Cut it out! Unlike Mark I don’t think about girls ever time I breathe.”

“AHHHH!”

“RROOOOOOOOAR!” Suddenly, there was a high screech and a LOUD roar coming from the other end of the forest.
Leo stopped.

“Oh no.”

It was Julia.