Journey of the Creek(Austin Yu) Journey of the Creek

(Note: Almost all the parts in the story are completely true life narrative, but one or two parts have been modified to add more interest to the story.)

Monday
I arrived at camp. I was told this place would be very fun by the website and by my sister. The line to registration was very long. My friend, Tim, who was two years younger than me, got in line. I got in line and waited for a few minutes. After what seemed like forever, Tim and I along with our moms got to the front while hauling luggage. Since I had peanut allergies and asthma, I was told that I had to go into the allergies line as well. The staff noted my allergy and we went to wait. I was told that this was an overnight camp and that Tim and I would be staying five days here. I was also informed that the program was specifically for 4th to 6th graders.
Everyone who already signed up was waiting on a hill, there was a group of annoying kids talking about Fortnite. Then a group of cabin leaders come and start introducing their code names in a song. How are they going to put us into our cabins? Then the parents said goodbye and the cabin leaders spread out. Apparently, we just get with two cabin leaders and a few other cabinmates. Tim and I walked farther down the hill and a few cabin leaders started to organize cabin groups based on the number of people. In the end, my cabinmates were now some guys with names of Zach, John Luca, Henry, Phineas, Cayden, Xander, Andre, Dayton, Brogan, John, and Tim. My cabin leaders went by the names of Magikarp and Toester. They made us take a group picture afterward.
My cabin leaders led the group down a small trail in the woods. The trail seemed easy to walk through, but since everyone was carrying luggage, the trail seemed to take longer to walk through. After making it out of the woods, I saw a bunch of cabins.
“Now these are the boys' cabins,” Toester said. I saw a range of 8 - 9 small identical cabins creating some sort of half circle and small hills. My cabin followed the cabin leaders to one cabin. Inside the cabin were five bunk beds with one in the back middle, two on the sides, and two in the back on the side. My cabinmates started calling top bunks. I noticed that the ones that got the top were the annoying people that were talking about Fortnite earlier, their names were John Luca and Zach. Tim and I decided to take a bunk and I let him take top bunk even though we didn’t really care. John Luca and Zach came up to Tim and me.
“Are you guys brothers or something?” John Luca asked.
“No, why would we be brothers?” Tim responded.
“Well you guys look like brothers,” Zach answered.
“That’s kinda racist,” I said.
“How is that racist?” John Luca questioned in a tone that sounded like I messed up on something.
“You think we look the same,” I answered him. “It’s like me asking if you two are brothers, which you’re clearly not.” I started to dislike John Luca and Zach after that, as well as their obnoxious talking about Fortnite.
“Alright, we’re getting ready to go to lunch!” Magikarp announced. We all went out the door to see the other cabins have also settled down. My group walked down a different path and I took notice of a swimming pool and a small park. We arrived at a restaurant-like place, except instead of sitting indoors, like most of the other cabin groups, we sat outdoors. I sat myself down with the other cabin mates and I seated myself away from John Luca. The meal ended being the mini pizzas that were sometimes on sale at Costco, except they were cut in half. I assumed they did this so there was enough for everyone. I ate three halves of the mini pizzas. My cabinmates were still hungry so they went inside for pizza, they came out with… Another brand. The new pizza looked like shredded cheese sprinkled onto pasta sauce on top of white bread. Everyone stopped eating the “pizzas'' after that. Then every cabin group gathered into a field where the registration line was. We were sorted into cabin groups, then lined up and had to sit down. While waiting, Dayton and I noticed some kid eating the grass.
“That’s gross,” he said to the kid eating the grass. The kid didn’t say anything back and continued to do weird stuff.
“Yeah, that’s kinda disgusting,” I cringed while he continued to do weird things.
Once everyone finished it, we headed back to our cabins and told that we would go to the pool and would have free time. Magikarp told everyone to go to their bunks to stay there and not to talk for 15 minutes with the lights off. This is called Flat out Bunk. After 10 minutes of waiting, John Luca asked how many minutes were left. Magikarp, then increased the time by 15 minutes. After a few more minutes, Brogan asked another question that was related to Flat Out Bunk. Toester added 15 more minutes to the timer and everyone groaned.
“The next person to make a noise doubles the time in here,” Magikarp announced. John Luca decided to start a conversation with Dayton out of boredom and doubled the time. Then, after 10 minutes have passed, Andre, who had been reading a large stash of newspaper comics, asks if we could ask questions related to F.O.B (Flat Out Bunk). It was a clear no when the cabin leaders increased the timer.
After what seemed like forever, Magikarp and Toester let everyone out. By this time, the pool had been given to the girls to use. So my cabin split off to find something to do. Tim and I discovered the game of Gaga Ball. I thought the name was pretty hilarious, but the players took it pretty competitively. The objective is to not let the ball touch your legs, or you’re out. You can only touch it once except when it’s a one on one. I tried a few rounds and found it to be a pretty fun game. Then I went to buy some food from the Snack Shack at Trout Creek. My cabinmates got Mountain Dew. I was thinking about getting it when I saw the bottle held around 80 grams of sugar depending on the type. I settled on a bottle of water and an ice cream sandwich. Tim bought candy. Everyone was rounded for dinner. But I had to go to the nurse’s cabin because of my peanut allergy. I also discovered that I would get a different dessert than the rest of my cabin mates even though I ate the food before.
Next, everyone got into the field and was told that we would play big group games. We started by being paired with other groups to be one group for the team games. Then we created an absurd team name from the weird name requirements, and our team color ended up being blue. We played a few games, then we went to the campfire. At the campfire, we sang songs and watched skits. After the event at the campfire finished, everyone went back to their cabins. I asked about brushing teeth and showers.
“You can brush your teeth right now and you can go to shower right now or in the morning,” Magikarp responded. So my cabinmates and I traveled to the shower house to brush our teeth. I saw how many people were in the showers, so I decided to take a shower in the morning. After brushing my teeth, I had to go back to the nurse’s cabin one last time to take my inhaler.
Once everyone finished getting ready for bed, Magikarp turned off the light. I laid awake in my bed. I tried to sleep, but I had wheezing coughs. I tried to cough as quietly as possible to not disturb my cabinmates. I eventually close my eyes.

Tuesday
I wake up to find Magikarp gone. My cabinmates were beginning to wake up, so I gave them time to fully wake.
“Where did Magikarp go?” I asked them.
“I don’t know,” Henry responded
“Yeah, where did Magikarp go?” Andre asked. Toester was still in bed, so we asked him.
“Toester, where did Magikarp go?” We asked him.
“Magikarp...has other things to do,” Toester answered.
I walked down the trail to the shower house and found that there were people at this time in the showers. I took my shower and went back to the cabin to drop off my clothes and to pick up my toothbrush and toothpaste. Once everyone finished brushing their teeth, it was Cabin Cleanup time. This was a daily event where cabins had to make their cabin look as clean as possible and make it stand out. Then staff would come along to review it while we were gone. Everyone began this by straightening their bunk, then they helped to do other things. Andre helped by sweeping the floor with a broom and some of us cleaned under the bunks. Once they finished tidying their bunk, John Luca, Zach and Dayton went on to blabber about battle royale or something.
“Fortnite sucks!!” Andre shouted to them.
“How do you know it sucks?” Zach responded.
“How do you know if you haven’t tried it?” John Luca countered.
“I’ve tried it before, and it’s bad,” Andre said. While the trio and Andre argued, Phineas got the idea to put his stuffed animal on the bench. The others thought this was a fabulous idea and put their plushies onto the bench. I had brought along a Pokemon Totodile plush, but I didn’t bring it out, because I thought I would be made fun of. So I brought it out and placed it alongside the others. John Luca, then tries to rearrange the plushies. I grab my plushie before he can grab it.
“You are not getting your hands on my Totodile.” I snarled.
“I was just going to rearrange the plushies to look good,” he complained.
“Yeah right, I don’t trust you with them,” I muttered.
“We’re going to the chapel!” Toester announced. So our cabin group had to walk up the trail, to the chapel. Once reaching the chapel, Magikarp joined us and all the cabin groups gathered around the flagpole. Everyone pledged their right arm to their chest except Tim and me. We looked at each other weirdly, then awkwardly pledged our right arm to our chest as the American Flag went up. After that everyone went to eat breakfast.
We finished breakfast and were brought back to the field. Now it was club time. For Club Time, the staff explained how each club was doing something different every day and how you could swap clubs. There was a go-kart club that you had to pay extra for before the program. Tim and I got into a club where they shot bb guns for today. The club leader counted everyone and walked us to an area where there were five bibi guns and five target practices. The host said that there were 10 people in total so we would need to rotate out and that we would need to put on goggles to protect our eyes. Everyone put on the goggles and I went up first, I found the gun very hard to load because I wasn’t strong enough. A cabin leader had to help me load the gun several times and my aim was off because the gun was heavy.
Once everyone finished their clubs, everyone was rounded to the dining hall for lunch. I received a different dessert yet again even though I knew I could eat it and it said nothing on peanut allergies on the back. Everyone headed back to their cabins again. My cabin knew that it was almost time for Flat Out Bunk. This time we were prepared to not talk for the 15 minutes of the duration. Our cabin silently cheered when the 15-minute timer rang and got to go to the pool. There were two pools, and both had their differences. The left side had a water slide, two polo hoops, and a few diving boards. The right side also had diving boards, but it also had pool noodles and less people. Apparently I couldn’t leave my clothes in a locker, I had to leave them outside where they might be stolen. Before going into the pool, everyone had to take a swim test, those who passed got a bracelet to show they could go into the pool. I played around with the noodles on the right side with my cabinmates and sometimes went on the water slide.
After swimming, we got to have free time. Tim and I went to the gaga ball pits to play. Everyone was too competitive about it and there were too many people, so we left for the swings. Andre and Cayden were here as well. We talked about the camp and how we thought of it so far. Once free time was over, we were gathered to the dining hall for dinner. Once again, I got a different dessert due to my allergy even though I knew I could eat the food. The winners for the Cabin Cleanup were announced, unfortunately, we didn’t win.
Everyone finished dinner and went back to their cabins. In my cabin, everyone was dropping off items they didn’t need for games.
“Isn’t magikarp a pokemon?” Dayton asked.
“Yeah, magikarp is a pokemon,” Magikarp answered from the outside window.
“Yeah, but magikarp is really weak,” Tim pointed out. I played Pokemon and I thought magikarp was a weak pokemon, I also had a nickname for it.
“Magikarp, more like magicrap,” I said to them. Immediately, I got backlash for making fun of Magikarp’s name. But I was making fun of the pokemon, magikarp, and not the Cabin Leader Magikarp.
“How would you like it if I called your name something bad?” Dayton scolded.
“I didn’t know he would be that sensitive,” I snapped. John Luca and his crew ranted about something else, but I ignored their words and rolled my eyes.
At the field, everyone had to score points for their team by getting bean bags into their basket. You also couldn’t move if you had a bean bag, so you had to rely on teammates. This also allowed for other teams to steal them and for the game to be more interesting. You could also steal bags from other teams’ baskets. The game began and I teamed up with Tim, Andre, and a few other cabinmates to pass the bags. In the end, the green team and red team scored the most points. After that, we all went to the campfire and watched a few skits and sang songs. During that time, I realized that I was wheezing from my asthma and how I had to run a lot. Then I went to the shower house to brush my teeth, and I went to bed. Before going to bed, John Luca and his crew were talking about staying up until 1:00 a.m. The lights went off. I blinked, wondering why I haven’t gone to sleep yet. I wheeze coughed quietly since I figured that everyone was sleeping by now. I eventually fall asleep.

Wednesday
I woke up, the lights were turned on and most of my cabinmates were already awake. I told Toester about my sleeping problem.
“If that happens again, wake me up and tell me, okay?” He advised. I nodded. I heard my cabinmates talking about things going on at the camp.
“Wait, Austin stayed up until 1:00?” John Luca asked.
“ It wasn’t his fault,” Toester responded.
“I heard the girls get to sleep in the Chapel tonight!” Xavier claimed.
“Magikarp is leaving today!!” Zach exclaimed.
“Is he really leaving?” I asked Tim.
“I don’t know,” Tim shrugged. I assumed that the rumors were fake and went to brush my teeth and shower before returning back to the cabin.
Back inside the cabin, Andre, John Luca, and Henry were arguing about Fortnite while cleaning up for Cabin Cleanup. Then Tim joined in the argument.
“Yeah, Fortnite does kinda suck,” he said. Now that he had brought himself into the argument, John Luca started to target his attacks toward Tim. Tim couldn’t answer the “Have you tried it before” question and had to back down. The cabin crew headed for the dining hall for breakfast. I had to take my inhaler at the nurse’s cabin before I did. Everyone in our cabin was still wondering about the rumors. The most popular one was Magikarp’s departure.
“Are you really leaving?” Brogan asked Magikarp.
“Yes, I won’t be here on Thursday and Friday,” Magikarp confirmed. He was pestered with more questions about what he was doing.
We all finished breakfast and went up to the flagpole, there, the flag was put up and the cabin leaders hummed the American Anthem while my cabinmates looked at each other awkwardly. Then it was club time again. Tim and I decided to go to a different club this time to see what else there was to do. We settled on a club playing with legos. I followed the club host to the Chapel where there was a tub of legos on the left corner in the back. One of my other cabinmates was here, his name was Cayden. We both looked at each other's lego creations and complimented them. After club time, we all met at the dining hall for lunch. Again, we didn’t win Cabin Cleanup time.
After lunch, we all groaned when it was time for Flat Out Bunk. This time, John Luca and his squad thought he could handle it. But instead, they give us double the amount. We had more free time than on Monday but less free time than on Tuesday. So my cabin decided to use some time at the pool. During this time, Magikarp said that he would reveal his real name to the cabin before we went to bed. Once we were done swimming in the pool, the cabin split off. Most of the cabin went to the Snack Shack to get some food. I had to use my money resourcefully, I had come with $20, and I was planning on using $5 to drive go-karts. I bought a soda and Laffy Taffy sticks because they were cheap. Then Tim and I went to the play structure with a giant tire swing. We had to wait for two to three people to get off before getting to swing. Then Andre and Cayden came along to the play structure to use the giant tire swing. Then we went down the slide and experimented with what we could do using it.
Then it was game time. This time we teamed up with a green team to throw aluminum foil-wrapped pinecones into an old-fashioned train. The train, however, was guarded by yellow and red teams and if they tagged you, you would have to sit down. You could be rescued by a teammate and you both could go back to the border without being tagged. So our teams needed to run into the zone where they could tag us and get it onto the train. I joined Tim, Andre, and Cayden. We also assigned ourselves roles, Andre would get the pinecones on the train, Cayden would distract the guards, Tim would pretend to lunge forward then would step back to get the guards’ attention, and I would run through the guards to throw them off. Andre and I burst through the zone, guards were pursuing us, we had already been identified by the guards. I zigzagged through them and diverted their attention from Andre. Someone stuck a hand in front of me and I had to swerve to the left. Unfortunately, the plan failed as soon as Andre was caught and had to sit down where he was, and I was caught by a cabin leader and had to sit down. After a few minutes of waiting, Tim dodged a few guards and rescued me. We all decided to try out the tactic again.
“So here’s the plan,” I explained, “ Cayden and I distract the guards while Andre and Tim try to throw the foil-wrapped pinecones onto the train.”
“Got it,” Andre replied. I started the plan off by dashing right into the guards, I zipped through the guards’ reach and didn’t look back. I outran a few guards into an open area, I saw that Tim, Andre, and Cayden were sitting down with guards around them. I was wheezing from my asthma. Why wasn’t I wheezing as much back at home? I pulled myself to run from behind the guards to catch them by surprise, then I tagged Tim and rescued him. Running back to the safety zone, Tim and I decided to rescue Andre and Cayden to pull off one last plan. We successfully rescued them and all agreed to freestyle it. My plan was to do the same from last time, except I threw in a pinecone as well. The group separated and I saw Tim run back to the safe zone. This time, I saw that some guards had been expecting me, so dodged to the side and ran. I got in close to the train and tried to throw it, I failed and was caught. Time was over for our side and we had to swap roles. While playing guard I caught almost all people who passed me, but some people played the role that I did: Distracting. I couldn’t catch up to them due to my legs growing tired.
After the games, we went to the campfire and they announced game scores, the other teams had won. We sang songs and watched skits. Then I brushed my teeth and went back to the cabin.
“My name is Zack,” Magikarp told everyone.
“Another person called Zach,” Tim exclaimed. We ask what he was doing on Thursday and Friday. Some thought that he was going to Disneyland.
“I’m going to college to do some stuff there,” Magikarp explained. Then we all went to bed.

Thursday
I woke up and looked at Magikarp’s bed, I saw no one sleeping there. He’s gone. My other cabinmates noticed the same thing. I went to the shower house to shower and brush my teeth. After that, everyone went to the dining hall to eat breakfast, then we hung the flag on the pole. Then we went back to the cabin for Cabin Cleanup, and I felt bad for Toester, because he had to handle 12 elementary school boys. During Cabin Cleanup, Phineas wanted to do the stuff animal project again to make it stand out. So we put our plushies together and organized them. I kept an eye on John Luca not to touch my Totodile plush.
It was club time, there was a club that was doing Nine Square. I thought it would be fun because I had been playing Nine Square in school. So Tim and I followed the club host to the gym. Then I saw the squares in the air. So I hadn’t been informed that this would be Nine Square in the air. So I had to put my small array of skills from volleyball to use. I got into square five and the game began. The ball bounced into different areas, the ball eventually picked its prey and fell onto square three. Next, the ball went up again, now it was landing in my square, I used the pass technique from volleyball to bring the ball back to the server. The server and I decided to start a rally and bounce the ball back and forth, then the server brought the ball to their right and the ball went around the field before landing on square eight. The game went like this until I tried to get the ball but it landed behind me. I went to the back of the line and waited until I got back in. Once I got back into the court, I played a little bit more competitively. I got out after two rounds, however, and had to wait in line again. Once again, getting back to the court, I hit the ball downwards to another person’s square and got them out. Suddenly, the ball went up and a cabin leader sprang forward and slammed his hand onto the ball, the ball collided with my face and I went down. Everyone stayed in their square but asked if I was okay.
“Jordan!” Another cabin leader scolded the cabin leader.
“Yeah, I’m fine. My face still hurts though,” I answered. The cabin leader who hit me went by Rio. Up until now, I thought he was a cool-looking person because he looked athletic and fun.
“Sorry,” Rio apologized. “Do you need to sit this one out?”
“I think I’m good,” I replied. We played a few more rounds until club time was over. I wasn’t wheezing at the time. Everyone gathered in the dining hall to have lunch, and we still didn’t win Cabin Cleanup when they announced it. At lunch, they said that Flat Out Bunk would be skipped for Safari. Safari was a game where there were many different animals and teams could kill them. You could capture animals and could score points with them through stations. Animals take a certain amount of people to take down. After an animal’s been caught several times, it becomes unkillable and it can wipe points using a pool noodle to hit you. We were led to the chapel where the rules were told and during this time, everyone noticed the cabin leaders getting ready to be animals. The staff let us go down a road to where the animals and stations were. Our cabin split off in groups, John Luca and his friends would be a group. Xavier, Brogan, Phineas, and Henry would be a group. And Andre, Cayden, Tim, and I would be a group. The game began and my group traveled to a bridge where several other groups were already on the trail. I spotted a group bringing a giraffe to a station. The bridge had hippos on both sides throwing buckets of water. My group split apart in this process and I couldn’t capture any big animals without them. I successfully crossed the bridge while getting my crocs wet. I walked down the path to another bridge. This one had elephants on both sides shooting river water at students. Unfortunately, the river water was kind of muddy. One of the elephants, Toester, recognized me.
“This is my guy! Let’s shoot him!” Toester shouted. I backed away as multiple lines of water were fired in my direction. I headed back to the stations to find anyone from the blue team to capture any animals. All the other teams were asking the same thing, unfortunately, they had a lot more people grouped up than I imagined. That meant that some were liars or they didn’t spread out more. My eyes scanned my surroundings for any sign of cabinmates, I couldn’t recognize anyone. I went down the same path again, there were two girls asking for anyone on the blue team.
“I am,” I called.
“Alright, then let’s go,” they replied. Suddenly, a cabin leader with weird markings and a pool noodle jumped out, I backed away from him and in doing so, lost two more teammates. A kid snatched the noodle from the cabin leader, I took advantage of it and bolted past him. I came across the hippos, they were throwing water at the students trying to get them. I tried to cross the bridge, but then a splash of water came right in front of me so I stopped. I was now trapped with hippos throwing water behind and in front of me. A splash of water soaked the right part of my T-shirt and I sprinted to the other side of the bridge. Once again, I walked down the path leading to the bridge where the elephants stayed. I encountered Cayden there.
“Where were you during the hippo bridge?” I asked.
“I went back up to the stations,” he replied. In the distance, there were now people attempting to capture an elephant, but it was repelled with water from the elephants. I easily crossed the path and found no one on the other side of the bridge except a road leading to a big barn. I figured that there was no one here, so I turned back and crossed both bridges easily. I lost track of Cayden again, so I ran into the cabin leader with the pool noodle, unfortunately, he had backup with another cabin leader with weird markings and wielding a pool noodle.
“RAW!!” One of them roared as the other one spun 360 degrees with the pool noodle. I quickly strategized, there were a bunch of people against two cabin leaders with pool noodles, I could use the other people as distraction while I crossed safely. Suddenly, the cabin leaders started whacking people on the head and those who tried to cross them. I sprinted to the other side of them, and one of them bonked me on the head.
“Ha! I didn’t score any points so you can’t do anything,” I taunted him. He frowned and went back to hitting people with his pool noodle. I came back to the stations and found Xavier and Brogan there.
“Guys, I lost my team and I need help scoring points,” I panted to them.
“Oh yeah, we scored some points for the team,” Xavier replied.
“Yeah, I think we got a monkey or a giraffe,” Brogan said.
“We’re waiting for Phineas to come back from changing,” Xavier explained.
“Are you still going to help me with capturing animals? There’s some hippos and elephants down the bridge,” I told them.
“Nah, we’re not leaving Phineas,” Brogan said. After the conversation, I traveled to the stations to look at the points, and the red team scored the most points. I saw Andre there.
“Where were you?” I questioned him.
“I was hunting animals and looking for you, where were you?” he asked back.
“I was doing the same thing,” I answered. I left him at the station in search of Tim and Cayden. The game was about to end in 10 minutes, I came across Tim near the stations. I asked him the same question. He had also had the same answer and question, except he went on the bridges at a different time than I did. I tried going to the shower house to get rid of the mud on my crocs, unfortunately, there was a giant bulldozer moving slowly and the staff commanded us not to go into the path of the bulldozer. I knew that our team was going to lose just by looking at the points scored at the station. The game finally ended and everyone went to clean themselves in the shower house. I saw one kid who was completely covered in mud from face to feet. Apparently, he was trying to rescue another kid who needed help. I cleaned off my crocs and my cabin group traveled back to the cabin to rest and relax.
After the short break, everyone had an hour of free time. I decided the kids at the gaga ball court were too competitive and were just tryhards, so Tim and I decided to go to the play structure. After playing around with a tire swing and the slide for a while, free time was over. Everyone gathered in the dining hall to eat dinner, and after that, it was game time.
This game involved getting pieces of candy to the other side of the zone. If you were caught, the person who tagged you got to eat the candy. The problem was that the candy was located at the shower house and it seemed like a long walk down there. The good thing was that my team and green team were guarding. The game began, the opposing side disappeared down the trail. Suddenly, a massive amount of red and yellow bandanas flooded up the hill. They stood at the border like we did, they scanned surroundings for areas to run through, we tracked their every movement. One red guy made a move and ran for it, in doing this, more people made a run for it. Some stayed at the border to keep an eye on the others waiting, I ran toward one red guy who was dodging people, he was a bit faster than me, so I pushed myself and used my energy to run faster than him and tagged him. While running, it triggered my asthma and I started wheezing. I recharged at the border while keeping an eye on the opponents. Out of nowhere, staff started extending the territory of the other side, some kids asked why.
“It’s because they don’t have enough territory,” they responded. I thought they had plenty of room. Now our opponents went to the side, so some of my team went over there. After guarding for a few minutes, the roles were reversed and we got to score candy. The trip to the shower house didn’t seem that far, but it would be annoying to go down and back just to score a few pieces of candy. Just like last time, I decided to distract the guards. I gave my piece of candy to Andre so that when they caught me, they wouldn’t have any candy to eat. Tim decided to distract the guards as well, and gave his piece of candy to Andre. We readied ourselves at the border and looked for passages between the guards. Then, Andre bolted past the guards and into the enemy territory. Tim and I ran after him, I dodged a few people before beginning to wheeze again. A few guards went after Tim and he backed off into our zone. Andre successfully got the pieces of candy into the enemy territory. I, however, was caught by one guard.
“Give me your candy,” he demanded.
“I don’t have a piece of candy,” I smiled as I raised my empty hands. He dragged me back to the border. We all decided that the strategy was a good one and we tried it again. Once again, Andre bolted past the guards and Tim and I chased after him. Several people were already chasing after Andre, so I went in front of them to keep them from tagging Andre. They tagged me and I showed them my empty hands. They grumbled and I went back to the border.
“Tim, I got an idea,” I said to him.
“Ooh, tell me. What is it?” he asked.
“Go up to a guard and ask them for a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors,” I told him. He went up to a guard and challenged them. I took advantage of the distracted guard and ran past them. The guard immediately quit the match and bolted after me, I outran them, but I ran into a cabin leader that tagged me. After a few more attempts, the game ended and it was time for Campfire. After a few skits and songs, it was said that all the boys had to sleep outside on the field. I didn’t want to sleep outside for multiple reasons, it was cold, I didn’t want my pillow to be dirty, there were bugs, etc. Campfire finished and everyone headed to their cabins to get ready to move their sleeping bags to the field.
“Hey, Toester. Can I not sleep in the field tonight?” I asked.
“Sorry man, I can’t leave you in here alone” he responded.
“But I can take care of myself, and the field is dirty.” I pleaded.
“Sorry man, I didn’t decide these rules,” he apologized. My other cabinmates didn’t seem to care about the downsides. In fact, they were kind of the opposite.
“Yeah, we get to sleep outside!!” Dayton shouted.
“Yay!!” Another cabin mate shouted. Then I noticed John Luca and Zach going from bed to bed through the top bunk. The other cabinmates were not okay with it and started complaining.
“Get off my bunk!!” Phineas complained. Then John Luca made his way to Tim’s bunk above mine.
“Stop invading other people’s privacy,” I shouted to him. Toester, Tim, and a few others were still at the shower house. I thought about going up the bunk and pushing John Luca off. When Tim finally did arrive, John Luca was already off the bed and I told him that John Luca had gotten on his bed.
“John Luca, get off my bed!!” Tim shouted to him. Then he whispered to me. “ I hate that guy, why does he have to be such a jerk?”
“Guys, we’re going to the field. Bring your sleeping bags and your pillow.” Toester announced. I reluctantly carried my sleeping bag, pillow, sweater, flashlight, and bug spray up the trail to the field. I settled myself with Tim and Cayden. The cabin leaders put on a long skit that didn’t make much sense. I just want to get some sleep for once.
“I’m going to Dayton," Cayden said as he carried his bag to Dayton. I thought Dayton was going to be a nice person, but he turned mean and rude during the past two days, so I was kind of unhappy with his decision. Tim and I discovered bugs near our sleeping bags and had to bug spray the hole that they came out of. I tried to fit my pillow in the sleeping bag cushion, but it was too big. I improvised and put my sweater on the dirt, and put my pillow on top of it. Finally, the cabin leaders stopped their skit and everyone went to sleep. It was hard sleeping because of immature boys who kept being annoying, they eventually stopped. I stared into the starry night sky and wondered if I was going to survive Friday with the conditions at this camp. I closed my eyes and didn’t open them until the morning.

Friday
I wake up with my head on a wet pillow. It rained last night, I told them we shouldn’t have slept outside!! Everyone else was also beginning to wake up. I waited until Tim woke up to tell him about my wet pillow.
“It rained?” He questioned. Then he felt his pillow, “oh geez, it did really rain.” We all went back to our cabin.
“Guys, it rained last night,” I told them.
“What? No, it was dew,” Zach and my other cabinmates corrected me. Are they talking about Mountain Dew? They’ve been drinking it for the past four days with about 90 grams of sugar in one bottle. I didn’t know what dew was so I ignored what they said and went to the shower house to shower and brush my teeth. After everyone brushed their teeth, it was Cabin Cleanup time. Phineas decided to do the stuffed animals again. This time, he wanted to add a note that made it look like the plushies wrote it for the staff to give us points. I thought a note was pretty cool, but when Phineas wrote it, it was sloppy and messy. John Luca didn’t want to do a note at all. He and Phineas started arguing about what they should do. The note is cool and all, but I don’t want it to be messy so that the reviewers can’t read it. John Luca was also trying to control what to do with the plushies, even though they weren’t his.
“We should do it like this!!” John Luca complained.
“No, we should do it like this!! And it’s my stuffed animal, so I get to do what I want with it!!” Phineas shouted back.
“Technically, it’s his stuffed animal, so he gets to do what he wants with it,” I reasoned. After more arguing, Toester had to step in and John Luca backed down. After Cabin Cleanup, everyone went down to the dining hall for breakfast.
After breakfast was Club Time. Normally, Tim and I would have gone to a different club, but the club that we went to on Tuesday was hosting archery. So we followed the club hosts to the archery grounds, where there were five target circles, a bench with an overhead, and a shed full of archery equipment. There were 10 of us, so we paired off. Once we fired all the arrows we had, we would rotate with the person we were paired up with. Tim went first and fired all his arrows. I went to where the bow and arrows were, I grabbed it, it felt easy to use and aim. I hit four of my arrows and missed one. I walked up to the target and picked up the arrows and put the bow and arrows back on the shooting area. Repeating the process for 20 more minutes, I got a pretty decent score compared to other scores. We went down a trail and I saw a paintball course.
We all gathered at the dining hall for lunch. And after lunch, Zach started to feel homesick and started crying. Toester let him and John Luca phone their parents. Following lunch was Flat Out Bunk, and it went smoothly with no interruptions.
With Flat Out Bunk out of the way, Toester was asking if anyone wanted to go drive go-karts, Tim and I had been wanting to drive a go-kart ever since we got here, so we said yes. John Luca and his friends didn’t want to go because they already went to the go-kart club that their parents already signed them up for. We walked down a road and crossed the two bridges that the hippos and elephants occupied during Safari. I saw the big barn that I came across earlier, there were already go-karts driving around the track. We walked into the big barn to escape the burning sun that was scorching the grass dry. Toester asked those who wanted to go. Only six people raised their hands including me. We had to pair off and had to wear these plastic things that the lunch servers at my school wore. Do we really have to wear these? I don’t like them covering my head, and it makes me look dumb. It also looks like it’s going to be sweaty.
“Why do we have to wear these plastic things?” I asked.
“You wear the hairnets to cover your hair,” Zach answered.
“From what?” Tim asked.
“From lice getting on your head,” a person holding multiple flags answered. I reluctantly wore one and put on a helmet that the other group finished using. The staff explained the rules and the flags. I felt that I wasn’t confident with driving around yet and wanted to look at others driving first. So I let my chosen partner, Cayden, drive first. There were three go-karts, all of them looked old, worn-down, and covered in dirt. We didn’t know how to get in, the flag-waver had to open the doors for us and had to start our go-kart engine for us. Cayden stretched on the driver’s seat, and I felt the excitement surge through my body. The flag-bearer raised the starting flag and Cayden’s feet slammed onto the pedals. The go-karts rolled down a hill and turned right, Cayden accidentally turned a little bit too far and our go-kart went off-road by a little bit.
“Dude, you crashed,” I said to him. Cayden didn’t respond. He adjusted the go-kart, turned left on the steering wheel, and put his foot down on the pedals again. We drove on the path and followed the other go-karts, we were behind by a little bit because of the go-kart going off-road. After the incident, Cayden drove pretty well for the rest of the round. Then the black-white checkered flag went up and the go-karts stopped. Cayden and I swapped sides, now, I was driving the go-kart. After seeing Cayden drive, I was confident that I would do the same as well.
The flag-bearer raised the flag and I pressed on the pedals. The go-kart started moving pretty slowly, so I pushed harder on the pedals. The go-kart sped up and I rolled down the hill and turned right. I went too fast and everything seemed to go in slow motion, the go-kart went off-road toward a fence and my face went into shock as I looked down and stomped on the brakes. The go-kart hit the fence, I felt my pounding heart to see if it was still there. I got out of the go-kart.
“I crashed a go-kart!!” I shouted to Cayden.
“I know,” he responded with surprise. “That was insane.”
We walked back to the barn to the flag bearer.
“I crashed a go-kart,” I told them. While the flag bearer talked to two other people in the barn, Cayden and I were talking to Zach and my other cabinmates waiting in the barn.
“I crashed a go-kart,” I told them.
“I know,” Zach said. “That was epic.”
“Yo, that was insane,” exclaimed Brogan. I noticed one of the staff driving the go-kart back to the go-kart station. Then the other staff member that the flag-waver was talking to told me and Cayden to go with him. We walked a few feet and arrived at a small circle track with a go-kart. Wait, I’m supposed to drive that?
We got into the go-kart, and the guy watching over us gave us permission to start. I started to drive around in the small circular track and my supervisor started to read a book while sitting on a stool.
After what seemed like forever driving around the track, I saw the flag-bearer raise the black-white checkered flag. The guy watching over me stopped reading his book and told me to stop the go-kart. I went back to the stations where my cabinmates were getting out of their go-karts.
“Guys, I crashed a go-kart,” I told them. I sounded part excited and part tired.
“Oh yeah,” Tim responded. “I saw you crashing the go-kart and getting out of it.”
“We’ve been going on the slide,” John Luca looked to a steep-looking metal slide from the second floor of the barn.
“Ooh,” Tim and I exclaimed. I was reluctant to go on it because of its height, but I went down the slide twice before waiting for the others to stop.
We went back to the gym and gaga ball pits. Suddenly, a ping pong ball fell from the stairs and bounced between me and Tim. A cabin leader ran down the stairs and grabbed the ball.
“Wait,” I asked. “There’s ping pong here?”
“Yep, there’s ping pong up here,” the cabin leader answered. What? There was ping pong up here the whole time?!! Why didn’t anyone tell me about this? I could have spent my time playing ping pong instead of playing with a bunch of sweaty and try-hard kids in a gaga ball pit.
“They had ping pong here this whole time,” I said to Tim. “Why didn’t anyone tell us about this?”
“I know, right,” Tim responded. “They had ping pong here and they didn’t tell us about it.”
Break time ended and we had to gather at the dining hall. We finished dinner and went to the field to play big group games. Apparently, there was a water balloon stealing game with the blue and yellow teams against the green and red teams. This time, I wasn’t abandoned by teammates and we defended one trail that was popular for invaders for being a backdoor entrance. One kid hurt me and I called him out but he didn’t seem to hear. He did it again, so I called him out again and he ended up hearing and apologizing. We ended up losing and everyone was drenching wet.
After everyone dried off, we went to the campfire to sing songs and watch skits. They also announced the winners of the team games. The Red team had won and my team came in third place. After the campfire, everyone returned to their respective cabins to get ready for bed. After everyone went to sleep, I stayed awake, wheezing from asthma and allergies. Toester told me to wake him up if I was wheezing.
“Toester,” I whispered to him. “I’m wheezing again.”
He got up with a half-asleep face.
“Alright,” he told me. “Let’s go to the nurse’s cabin.”
Then he looked at the rest of my cabinmates.
“You guys, no talking and fooling around,” he told them. “I’m getting some other cabin leaders to watch over you. Austin, let’s go.”
I grabbed my flashlight and followed Toester out the door, I started toward the nurse’s cabin, but Toester went to another cabin where there were four cabin leaders outside.
“Hey man,” one told Toester. “What do you need to come over?”
“Can you guys watch over my cabin while I’m bringing Austin to the nurse’s cabin?” Toester asked them.
“Sure,” another one answered.
“Why do you need to go to the nurse’s cabin?” A third cabin leader asked me.
“Asthma,” I answered him.
“Alright Austin,” Toester told me. “Let’s go now.”
We walked off the porch off the cabin and walked to the nurse’s cabin.
“Hey Toester,” I asked him. “Should I have my flashlight cover a big area or have a small area with a lot of light?”
“Uh, I think you should go with a small area,” he replied.
I used my hand to push the flashlight’s screen forward. It shrunk from a big area to a small area. Suddenly, two firetrucks ran down the road a few feet in front of us. I ignored it and focused on getting my inhaler. We got inside the nurse’s cabin and I took my inhalers. Toester and I walked back to our cabin where there were two cabin leaders outside the cabin while talking to my cabinmates.
“Thanks for looking out for these guys,” Toester thanked them.
“No problem,” one responded. Everyone went back to bed and went to sleep after my asthma problem.

Saturday
I get up with Totodile besides me. I looked around to find my cabinmates already awake and the lights turned on. So today’s the last day, huh. Toester told us to pack up our sleeping gear. I stuff all my items into my daypack and struggle to fold my sleeping bag to fit into the plastic case it arrived in. Toester ended up helping me fit my sleeping bag into the plastic case.
“Alright, bring your bags to the gym!!” Toester commanded us. We walked to the gym and set our bags there.
Afterwards, we went to eat breakfast and went to the chapel to watch a video of the past five days. It featured a lot of people. After the video played, a few songs were played by a band. One of the lines was “Take take take it all”, so I started fake punching Cayden as in taking all the punches. But he interpreted it as taking all my stuff. So he started grabbing and pulling at my neon-green sweater. Then the parents started arriving, we had to wait in the chapel until our parents came. My cabinmates started leaving and I said goodbye to all of them. Then my mom and Tim’s mom came to pick us up, we said goodbye to the other cabinmates, as well as Andre and Cayden. We walked to the gym where there were signs of the cabin leader’s group. We found our bags in a pile of bags with a picture of the pokemon Magikarp and words saying “Magikarp”. While we were leaving, we walked past John Luca.
“Bye guys,” he said to us.
“Bye,” we responded back.
We packed into the car, and left Trout Creek. We drove past the tire swing and the play structure. We drove out of the forest area and into the roads.
“Hey Tim,” I asked him. “Remember the time I crashed a go-kart?”
“Remember when we had to sleep outside with bugs and dirt,” he responded.
We recapped our whole experience during the car ride back.

Epilogue
After three weeks of the events at the camp, I found a postcard with my address and name. It was mailed to me from the camp. The front had a picture of my cabinmates and cabin leaders lined up. The first day of camp where they made us take that picture. I flipped to the back where Toester had written a message to me in sloppy but readable handwriting.

Austin! What’s up dude! I had such a fun time at camp this week and hope you did too! I really enjoyed swimming and hanging out with you, sorry you had a different dessert than the others. As summer comes to an end, remember what we learned in bible study.


The End

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