Counselor Buddy is the head counselor of Camp Jellyjam in the thirty-third Goosebumps book, The Horror at Camp Jellyjam.
History[]
Buddy finds Wendy and Elliot stranded in their crashed trailer, so he suggests that they stay at Camp Jellyjam until the counselors find their parents. Wendy notices something suspicious about Buddy and the other counselors: they always want her to participate in a sport and be the best, like her life depends on it. She then discovers that Buddy and the other counselors are the brainwashed slaves of King Jellyjam. Wendy is able to defeat Jellyjam and rescue everyone under his control. The siblings get to go home, and Buddy visits them, giving Elliot his last king coin.
General information[]
Physical appearance[]
Buddy has blond hair and blue eyes. He is described by Wendy as having "about two thousand teeth." This describes his seemingly-permanent, huge smile.
He is dressed in the Camp Jellyjam's uniform: a white t-shirt tucked into baggy white shorts. Buddy wears a pin on his shirt that says, "ONLY THE BEST" in bold black letters.
In an interview, illustrator Tim Jacobus shared the design requests that Scholastic had sent him for The Horror at Camp Jellyjam prior to the book's release; the message mentions that Buddy is about 17 to 18 years old.[1]
Personality[]
Buddy, when introduced, is shown to be a friendly person and a helpful guide. However, when Wendy tries to lead the enslaved children out of King Jellyjam's cave, Buddy becomes aggressive. He sprints toward the children, but is stopped dead in his tracks by a police officer's whistle, which snaps him out of his hypnosis. He is unsure of his own identity and where he is. It is unclear if Buddy ever recovers much of his memories. Buddy later apologizes to Wendy and Elliot for his earlier actions.
Buddy is also very resilient physically (at least while under hypnosis), at one point taking a full force blow to the ribs by a baseball bat by Wendy and feeling no pain.