‘Twas a Dark and Stormy Night
Squish, squish, squish. I was trudging along the dim, muddy pathway to the campfire, when I heard some camper say that it was going to rain heavily during tonight’s campfire. The rain, a vicious army of piercing droplets, plummeting towards the earth at violent speeds, didn’t sound like a picnic to me. My fears clawed at my stomach as we crept closer and closer to the campfire. As my soles padded along the ground, I felt moisture creep around in the already messy dirt. I ignored it, hoping it was nothing, but as the campfire started to burn and I took a seat on a wooden bench, I felt a small raindrop splash on my clean laces. Oh no! The torture is about to begin, isn’t it? I’m just a harmless pair of tennis shoes, don’t do this! As I was thinking about how the clouds might be plotting out their evil plan, I suddenly noticed how everyone raised their hands for who-knows-why. The whole amphitheater quieted down and all the whispers of how excited all the seventh and eighth graders were to see the ninth graders, faded away.
At this point, it started drizzling and suddenly, Mr. Hamilton started talking about how they were going to start the group cheers. He started calling out groups, one by one, to perform a short skit or song specific to their group. After all the groups finished their cheers, Mr. Hamilton randomly screamed, “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here…” Everyone in the amphitheater then chimed in, which was when the lyrics got jumbled up and messy, and I eventually stopped trying to follow along.
Once they finished that horrifyingly loud song, they sang another one dedicated to a place called “Camp Hamilton”, which I assumed was the place I was in. They sang a few more songs, apparently about both a rare, ratlin’ bog and a moose. Some guy named Bill Grogan who apparently owns a goat (not a chicken but a goat) was also part of this anthem, I’m guessing. These humans, coming up with the craziest things they call, “entertainment.” As the dawn clouds set, and the sky faded from sapphire blue to navy blue, I decided to take a step back under Alexa’s bench to protect myself from the pouring rain. The campfire songs gradually required less involvement, for all the students were becoming tired, and their shoes didn’t have enough energy to stand up for every song, just like me. Finally, it’s the first good thing that’s happened to me and all the other exhausted shoes and kids today! I thought. I decided that once I went back to Seattle, I would treat myself to a luxurious massage. After all, I have worked extremely hard this week to get Alexa to all her activities around Camp Hamilton. Not to mention, the tremendously long walk to the Mess Hall, which is what the kids call the place where they eat breakfast/dinner, and the tiring walk to the beach, where all the students gather for Morning Reflection before they start their daily activities. The campfire, crackling and burning, roared under the starry, cold night. The songs that the teachers were singing towards the end of the campfire started to sound like lullabies. They were soothing, and helped tame my immense, bursting anger, that I’m not in the cabin sleeping in a dry place. Just as I was about to doze off, the water started to seep through my wooden bench shelter, leaving no chance of me getting back to the cabin dry. For a second, I peeked outside the bench and looked up at the sky, and then witnessed one of the scariest, most dreadful things on Earth. The rain, plummeting from the dark clouds above, splashed violently upon the earth’s surface. At this point, I started wondering if there was going to be… lightning. Eek! Thunder and lightning are my biggest fears ever! I’ve only seen lightning once before, but when I saw it, I scrunched up into a tiny ball (Alexa couldn’t loosen my laces), and fainted. As I was pondering over this thought, a loud noise suddenly caught my attention. I peeked outside the bench once more to see what all the ruckus was about. Screaming, whining, and weeping, all at the same time, my friend Backpack was immensely suffering, and drenching wet, may I add.
I asked Backpack what happened, and then to my surprise, she started screaming on the top of her lungs. “I’m SOOOORYYYY! I’ll do anything!! Just make it stop! Make the rain stop!!!!” backpack shouted. And then, “BOOM!” Lightning flashed across the sky while thunder echoed through as far as we could see. I fainted. As I woke with a jolt from my friend, Rain Pants, who was shaking me awake, my friends and I – Rain-Pants, Rain-Jacket, Headlamp, and Water-Bottle, were all momentarily paralyzed from the experience. My heart was beating rapidly, and I could barely breathe as I tried to tell my friends, all I wanted to do is go back to the cabin, is that too much to ask?? Suddenly, another lightning bolt shot across the sky. Mind racing, anxiety overtaking, I peered once more at the sky, and wondered when we would be dismissed from campfire and be able to head back to the cabin, warm and comfy, where I would finally be able to get cleaned up and fall asleep. That was when Mr. Rose gave us a metric minute, which is apparently one-hundred seconds, and asked how we helped today, what we’re grateful for, and what we learned today. I’m grateful for being able to go back to the cabin soon! I thought, and that’s what we did. After he randomly called on a few worn-out and exhausted students, he started dismissing certain groups of students. Once Alexa’s group was dismissed, I practically sprinted to the cabin, using all the energy I had left, and immediately drifted into a deep sleep on my warm wooden bed.