Poison Ivy

"Poison Ivy" is the ninth short story in More Tales to Give You Goosebumps.

Plot
Matt is sent to a sleepaway camp called Camp Wilbur, even though he doesn't want to go. Matt is assigned to a cabin with three bunkmates: Vinny, Mike, and Brad. Vinny and Mike are fine, but Brad is hard to deal with. Brad brings three trunks with him and wears pungent aftershave. Shortly after meeting his bunkmates, Matt decides to leave and join a softball game. A boy named David tells Matt that he can play in left field, and another camper tells Matt to look out for poison ivy.

Later that night, Matt is awoken by a scratching sound. Matt leaves his cabin in search of the noise's source. The closer he gets to the baseball field, the louder the noise gets. While Matt is busy guessing where the sound is coming from, he stumbles across a patch of poison ivy. As Matt soon discovers, the small patch of poison ivy is alive and writhing around. Matt runs back to his cabin to warn his bunkmates, but none of them believe his story.

The next morning, the baseball field is overrun by poison ivy. All the kids assume that the new plants can't be poison ivy because they grew so fast. Everyone plays around in the piles of ivy, and they all end up getting rashes. Two of the camp counselors, armed with weed whackers, try to get rid of the ivy. Both counselors disappear. Later that night, Matt and his bunkmates are awoken by scratching. They learn that poison ivy has covered their cabin while they slept. The boys in Matt's cabin have to fight off the ivy to prevent it from entering their cabin. The boys discover that the poison ivy hates the smell of Brad's aftershave. The plants retreat whenever they are close to it.

The boys decide to spray the aftershave everywhere. The living plants recoil and slither away. After the plants are gone, everyone at Camp Wilbur begins to cheer for Matt and his friends. Their celebrations are cut short when they see something that looks like a tornado. Brad's aftershave attracted a giant swarm of mosquitoes.

Trivia

 * This story references Coke, also known as Coca-Cola.
 * One of the counselors is named Larry. There was previously a camp counselor named Larry in Welcome to Camp Nightmare.
 * An issue of the UK FBX magazine includes a comic strip adaptation of this story.