Part Two

Kiya and I are on the deck out front of the campers cabin, holding hands. We give each other a quick kiss and let our hands drop from the others grasp. I hear the kid's excited voices through the thin wood door. It's a melting pot of voices and subjects, I hear a few of the campers speculating about the game we're playing tonight while some of the others are talking about their friends and family back home. I open the door as quick as I can to surprise the kids and yell "Who's ready for dinner!?" My voice quickly fills the cabin as the two campers on the bed jump up, obviously frightened by my surprise check up.

I turn around and walk out the cabin before anyone has a chance to respond. This has been the regular greeting since the start of camp so they all understand what's happening. Each one falls into line behind me and starts a mock march. Knees high, chests out, chins up. As the last camper exits the cabin, Kiya falls in behind him finishing up the line. We all walk through the camp chanting our Cabin's initials. "K.B, K.B, K.B!"

We're all greeted by the sounds of the other cabins closing in from behind us, chanting their cabin initials as well. My ears are met with the voices of many hungry campers from three different cabins, D.J, G.J, and E.B. The cabins are named after the governing counselors of the cabin, Cabin Kiya-Brandon, Cabin Danny-J-Rod, Cabin Gabby-Jared, and Cabin Emily-Bailie. Each line of campers makes their way to the center of the camp, marked by the five camp flags, one for each cabin, and a flag for the camp. 

The rest of the counselors and I make our way to our respective flags and stand in front of the pole with our cabins in line directly in front of us. Danny, Jared, Emily, and I slowly walk up and stand together in front of the camp flag. Danny takes a deep breath, preparing for his nightly yell. "Good evening cabins! How are we doing tonight!?" 

A reply of voices answers his call with mixed reactions, good, amazing, and peachy among others.

I step forward and shout to the kids, "For dinner tonight, we're having breakfast! Eggs, and pancakes, and bacon, and orange juice!"

Excited cheers and disgruntled moans come from the large crowd of campers, obvious mixed reactions about tonight's menu.

"And for dessert..." I give the kids a few seconds to get ready for my finishing statement, "we are having Fire-Cakes!" 

Every single camper shouts back a return of excitement and approval. Fire-Cakes are round disks of red velvet cake that the counselors bake over an open flame. The cakes never turn out uniform but they all taste delicious no matter what. It's sort of a camp specialty.

Jared steps forward as I step back in line with the other three counselors. "We have a great activity that everyone will be able to participate in, and I mean everyone, tonight after dinner. Your counselors will come and get you in your cabins when everything is ready. We expect to see each and every one of you there, it'll be a night to remember!" 

Finally, Jared steps back and Emily steps up. She puts her hands around her mouth to try and amplify her small voice, she takes a deep breathe and shouts, "Dinner is open! Everyone into the hall!"

At that command, the kids rush into the mess hall like a wave crashing on the beach. The counselors stick behind to meet up. After we have all assembled outside the hall we get into a group huddle and have a private meeting.
Danny starts. "Good luck tonight guys, gals, may the best cabin win."

"Thanks Danny, but our cabin doesn't need luck, we have pure skill on our side." Interrupts Jared.

"Yeah, just like the time you said you had skill, climbed a tree, and then fell out." Emily replies.

Noticing that we're getting sidetracked I step in. "Alright, we all know the rules, we're going to repeat them to the kids, give them the directions. No help from the counselors, alright?"

I get a mixture of grunts and agreements. We all put our hands in the middle as Danny shouts "1...! 2...! 3...!"

We all answer him by throwing our hands up and yelling "Whoop, whoop, whoop!" It's been our meeting send off for the past two years. After splitting up, we all take our time getting into the mess hall. Kiya and I walk in together and sit down at the end of our table, a look of concern and intensity on our faces. We look at our campers and say in unison, "Bring your A game tonight, we're going to win this."