Alex's Challenge

Author:Melissa J. Morgan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2010-02-28T16:00:00+00:00

The Color War meeting was the best. At least Alex thought so. The whole camp—hundreds of kids of all ages—arrived for the meeting after dinner. There was a small campfire burning near the flagpole. Dr. Steve stood behind the fire, creating a stage for himself, as if he were presenting the Oscar nominations or something. Every kid sat with his or her bunk, excited, knowing that the “enemy” could be sitting right beside you. Once they got their assignments, bunkmate would compete against bunkmate for the victory.

But before that happened, everyone sang silly songs like “Green and Yeller” and “Who Stole My Tree?” to get pumped up. Then Dr. Steve made everyone hold hands and meditate (Alex couldn’t believe he added meditation to his weirdness this summer) as a show of solidarity before giving his speech.

Dr. Steve went on for twenty whole minutes, just like he did every year, about sportsmanship and no pranks and healthy competition and team pride and camp rivalry and even went on a tangent about how Color War could teach every person about world peace.

“The leaders of our world should come to Camp Lakeview!” he yelled, waving his fishing hat in the air. The kids only clapped a little bit—mostly, just the counselors cheered because he was, after all, their eccentric boss. Alex and Valerie couldn’t help but giggle.

“Oh my dog,” Valerie said, rolling her eyes and nudging Alex in the side. “He’s not even kidding!”

“Oh yes, he means every word,” Alex added.

Then, amid hundreds of hushed, anxious campers, the envelopes were handed out. That was something different they were doing this year. Every camper was getting a sealed letter with his or her team assignment on it. For some reason, Dr. Steve thought it would be good for each camper to try to keep his or her team assignment a secret until breakfast the next morning. Then, after breakfast, the competition lists would be posted outside of each cabin.

Color War took place over two days and consisted of a mix of group events and division events. Group events—where kids of all ages competed together in games like singdown and potato-sack race—were worth fifty points for the winners. Division events—where kids competed for their teams against their own age group during games like Scrabble and tug-o-war—were worth twenty-five points for the winners. There were four group events, two per day of Color War, and several division events. The counselors had to do a lot of planning!

Alex couldn’t get on board with the secret thing. How was she going to get to bed that night without somehow letting it slip?

“The point is to absolutely torture us, which clearly he considers to be great fun,” Valerie said.

But Alex suspected another reason they were doing it this way. Last year, the Blues stayed up all night making confetti that they threw in the mess hall oatmeal. Maybe he was trying to keep night-before pranks to a minimum. Or maybe this was just another “camp challenge.”

Julie handed Alex her envelope, and she tore it open.

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