camp dinner

Paige and Lily slowly rounded up the kids and started the walk to dinner. The mess hall was actually way further then Paige thought. She figured she had come from a different direction earlier. They passed the bathroom and Paige waved at Lilly to get her attention.

"Hey! Can I meet you at the mess hall?" she said, motioning towards the bathrooms.

"Sure. I got them covered," lilly said, referring to the kids. Paige ran off towards the bathroom. As she opened the door. she heard crying. Oh boy, she thought. She peeked around the edge of the wall and saw the sinks. Next to the furthest sink, she gasped, was Cal. Paige almost didn't recognize her. Like most people here, everyone looked so different. Cal looked tall now. She had been the shortest when they were kids. She seemed to be crying. Paige didn't want to be creepy so before Cal saw her she ducked out of sight and out of the bathroom. She decided she would just use the bathroom near the mess hall. Well, so much for avoiding Cal. But then again, she was bound to see her at some point anyway. I wonder what she was crying about, she thought. "Hey Paige! Over here!" she heard a voice say. She turned. It was Noah, "Hey! Where's your cabin? Did they ditch you?" he laughed.

"Nah, I ditched them," she joked back.

"Well, come on. I'll walk you to the mess hall."

"Alright." She smiled at him. They chatted until they got to dinner.

"See ya later." He waved, heading towards his table. She noticed him sit down next to the counselor named Arson.

She looked around the mess hall and it was one of the only things that was the same as she remembered from being here as a kid. There were big tables that fit the whole cabin and benches all around so everyone could sit. The platform stage at the center front of the mess hall was still the same. In the back were the kitchens with openings so you could watch the counselors cook. She could smell some kind of meat and definitely mashed potatoes and rolls. Yum, her stomach growled. The coffee cake was not enough. She walked down the little aisle, seeing all the different counselors around her. Some were familiar from childhood but a lot looked new. She saw Cal sitting in the far corner at her family's table and she was sitting alone. Paige felt bad for her for a split second

but the empathy passed. Where's Lilly she thought. She looked around the huge building, walked down towards the back, and all the way on the right side of the building. She finally found her table as Lilly waved vigorously.

Paige sat down, and turned her attention toward the center of the room where there was a wood platform for announcements.

"Ahem, welcome everybody!" someone said into the microphone. She tried to recognize who it was and realized it was the head of kitchen staff. "I'm Mrs. Marco or you can just call me Marco," she continued. "We have a special camp tradition. Our teams are Blue and White, the Wolves and the Eagles." She continued to explain the team rivalry and how you earn points by doing activities well. And there would also be special competitions throughout the summer. The new campers and counselors alike will be placed on one of the two teams. The winning team at the end of summer gets a prize and the prizes are different every year. When Paige was a camper she won a few years. Some of the prizes were fun trips off campgrounds for the whole winning team. One year there was a new pool dedicated to the blue team and they always got bragging rights. She was actually excited this year. Even though she didn't get to compete as a camper, counselors still had chances to rack up points and got to share the rewards. Since she was a CIT she would be able to participate in some of the activities with the campers.

After the announcement, Mr Price came back up on the stage and just gave some more boring information. She wasn't paying much attention but when she did glance up at him he seemed super stressed. She wondered if this had to do with Cal crying in the bathroom. She shrugged it off, not her job to pry. They were probably having family problems.

"Sooo boring," she heard a camper say to another.

"The food will be out very soon," she said in as chipper of a voice as she could. She was also hungry and just hoped the food would actually be out soon. Luckily for everyone the food came out a few minutes later and Mr Price stepped down from the platform, saying goodnight to everyone. There was one more announcement while they ate. A third speaker went up onto the platform. She was very tall; she looked to be about 6 foot tall. "Hello everyone. As Mr Price has announced we will have teams. So you newcomers must be wondering what team you're on!" she smiled a

sly smile. "Well then, just after dinner we are going to have our official opening night games!"

Paige tuned her out. She was so excited of course. She already had her team. But it was so fun to participate in the games and have everyone appointed to their team. Paige had been on Blue team as a kid so she would be the same now. The opening night was one of the most eventful nights of camp, along with the closing games and winning team announcement.

On opening night,. the teams all gather in the middle of the field with the Blue and White team on either side. One counselor representative from each picks their teammates. Once the person was picked they ran back to their chosen teams on either side. They run through a human archway and at the end and join to welcome the next person. then they basically just played mini games, switching around the stations with their cabin and another cabin

Paige ate quickly since she was both hungry and excited. She mushed up her mashed potatoes then ate them making conversation with Lilly and some of the campers. "So how'd you like Grey and Noah" Lily started with a hopeful smile.

"Oh, they were cool. I think we had a lot of fun," Paige responded.

"Great. I think we had fun too!" They joked about Noah and his horse fixation until Mr. Price got back up onto the stage.

"Alright everybody!" he shouted with pep. He explained how they were going outside to the flagpole. And they had to run up a little hill to get to the field. It was an unofficial race and was not worth points; just a fun little warm up. Then they would join their teams in the indicated area. "Are you ready?" shouted Mr. Price.

"Ready!" the whole camp shouted back. Mr. Price kept repeating, "are you ready?" until he was happy with the loudness of the response. "Alright then, let's get this started." Everybody cheered. All the counselors escorted their campers outside to the flagpole in front of the mess hall. Next to the flagpole was a big field. There was a little hill going up to the field where stations for games had been set up. There were also many designated blue and white team banners and huge spray painted circles on the grass. They gathered around the flagpole in the front of the mess hall, ready to race up the hill to join their teams. Adrenaline pumped through Paige. She was ready to sprint. She looked

at Lilly. Lilly smiled and pulled out her white team necklace from under her shirt.

"Game on, Paige." Before Paige could reply, Mr. Price clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.

"Let's do this! On my count of three, you will follow your counselors up the hill." Everyone clapped in anticipation. He paused before saying, "1...2...3 gooo!" Paige and Lilly looked at each other, racing up the hill. Paige remembered to check the campers who were luckily following. Paige guided the blue team members to their circle while Lilly ran off with the rest of them. She waved with a grin. She turned around to see Arson standing behind her talking to one of his campers. When the camper scampered off paige went to say hi.

"Hey Arson," she said with a smirk.

"Thats me." He rolled his eyes at her facial expression. "So, what's up?"

"Ah, nothing much. Thanks for the coffee cake, by the way. Sorry I was so awkward."

"It's alright. I barely noticed, he winked." They joked about the camp experience and he told her all about the cafe and how he works there as community service to the camp. She asked him what he had done and he shrugged, putting a finger to his lips in a shush-ing motion.

"It's a secret," he whispered in her ear. He explained how when he was younger he met the cat, Ash,a stray that lives around camp. She visits him regularly, as he has basically adopted her as his own. She used to sleep in the barns and the camp directors appreciated the help with mice. Paige told him how much she loved cats but her parents did not.

"Well glad to be on your team," arson said, high fiving her.

"Same here," she smiled, glad she had some more friends here. She also remembered how he was in Noah's cabin. She was about to ask him about Noah when she realized it was time for the new camper's human archway "thing". Both teams put their arms up in the air touching the person across from them making an arch people could duck through. The person would run through then make another part of the arch longer. One of the camp head counselors, someone new Paige didn't recognize, got up in the front and used a microphone to talk to everyone.

"Alright, alright, alright everyone we will call your name and assign your team. Then you will run to your team and go through the arch." Paige looked over at the teams. There were mostly small children. The camp's

age requirement was to be seven when the camp starts. She noticed one or two people who looked to be counselors. She also saw the little girl from her cabin, the one who had been super shy. She didn't think this would go over well with her. "Adaline Inez. The wolves." Adaline, one of the seven year olds, got up. She was clutching her teddy bear tightly as she timidly ran over to the blue wolves team. Wow were these children all shy paige thought.

"Margaret Owens. Eagles." Paige took back what she had just thought. This girl was not shy at all she sauntered up and ran through the arch smiling the whole way not a single look of embarrassment like the first girl. Paige barely remembered when she got her team for the first time. Actually she had never got to be sorted into her team since her mom and mr price had gone to camp together both her cal and zoe got their teams the same as their parents. Cal and Zoe on the white team while Paige got her moms team the blue team. More people got called up paige zoned out this was the boring part. The fun would come soon though it seemed there were only two more people left the counselors "kehlani lee wolves" a dark haired girl stood up her hair was super pretty and she had brown eyes to match her hair. She ran through the arch and went on the end Paige smiled at her and Kehlani smiled back the last person was a girl she looked nice she was fiddling with her bracelet. She definitely had a bookish vibe as she was wearing jeans and of course had a big thick book next to her she was reading. She almost didn't notice when they called her name "selene myers the eagles" she stopped reading carefully putting a bookmark in her book and jogging through the archway. After she went through everyone clapped for the new people and they were handed their t-shirts for the competitions later. The archways dispersed and people mingled around talking waiting for the games to begin. "Hey" Paige said, finding Kehlani standing alone "hi im kehlani" her mood immediately brightened. "Paige, so how do you like the camp?" paige inquired "oh I love it the sceneries excellent" Kehlani started "but I did not enjoy walking my bags so far" she laughed "yess same omg dont get me started" paige smiled she liked kelani so far "so which cabin are you in?" kehlani asked "oh cabin four with lilly" "oh nice i'm with a girl named amelia" paige froze she didn't know if she should be happy or worried about what amelia was like now she decided she would be neither she probably still wouldn't see her anyway and it's not like they'd be friends again after all these years. She really didn't want to get her hopes up so many things had happened and honestly she had already met so many nice people here. Whatever happened happened she decided. She continued talking with kehlani wondering what was taking so long to start the games when she spotted cal and mr price in the shade by one of the big trees at the edge of the field cal seemed to be crying again. And where was zoe she had seen cal now three times and zoe nowhere she figured zoe was at home or she could even be with her mom. Whatever why she was caring about them. Mr price walked away seeming to also be upset he put on a smiled before he got closer whispering to one of the staff he left and the staff member seemed to pass the message on to the camp head who had spoken earlier paige stopped paying attention so she didn't seem like she was spying on them or intruding on their conversation. The camp head went up to the front and into the microphone he had a bright smile on his face like there had been no whispering before so Paige figured it was nothing serious. He tapped on the microphone to make sure it was still working. He spoke into the microphone in a loud voice"let the games begin!"