Camp Koradel

As Sophie and Scott climbed up the stone wall, Erin whispered, “I’m sorry, guys, but Galvin came back here, searching for Sophie. I had to tell him she went to the bathroom.”

As Scott pulled Sophie up the last few feet, he smiled at Erin. “Don’t worry about it; we understand.” He looked around for a moment before taking a seat next to Paige, and then Sophie took a seat in between him and Erin.

“Okay, everyone,” Galvin’s voice projected in their direction through the mouth of a megaphone, and everyone turned to look at him, though half of them couldn’t see over the wall. “Come down; we have a challenge.”

Paige and Sabrina exchanged a look, probably said something that included the word “like,” and Scott and Erin both glanced at Sophie. “Looks like he’s starting things early,” Erin said to him.

He nodded and told Sophie, “This is a normal Wednesday night. We don’t usually train much on Wednesday; instead, Fridays are the hard days. They’re the worst, but you’ll get used to it.” He smiled. “Usually, they give us a ton of water balloons at the end of these challenges.” At this, she laughed and they climbed back down the stone wall, this time on the cabin’s side. Galvin and Madame Rosette were standing in the middle of the huge yard behind the cabin, so that’s where the group of teenagers went. Around them, there were many obstacles, including a few ropes, some bars, and a few balance beams over a small pond. Once there, each person put arms’ length between them and the person next to them before Galvin explained everything.

“Okay, everyone pick a partner of your own gender.”

Charley groaned melodramatically, and Galvin grinned at her. Instead of pairing up with Charles, she walked over to Anna. All of the girls paired up with their roommates: Sophie and Erin, Mary and Kasie, and Paige and Sabrina. The guys were paired up as follows: Scott and Brad, Roy and Kyle, and Charles and Travis.

“Okay, now that everyone has a battle buddy, let’s get started.” He went on to explain the absurd equipment in the huge yard, and Sophie’s eyes widened with each task beheld.

First was the mud pit, where each pair had to race through the mud, jumping over and ducking under walls in order to get through. After that, there were balance beams over the pond with chunks removed so that they would have to jump to get over the pond. Once they were there, only the first five pairs went on to the beams. Following the pond, there was a maze in which only four pairs went through, and whoever got to the middle first won a “special” prize. A couple of the campers pumped their fists in the air at this and a few shouted, and Galvin said, “Most of you know what the prize is, but Sophie and Erin haven’t been here for this prize, so don’t spoil it for them. Trust me, though,” he said, looking at the two of them, “it’s very worthwhile.”

With that as their motivation, Erin and Sophie nodded to each other in a silent agreement that they were going to give this their all. Then he added in an extra twist: partners were handcuffed to each other. Erin took one look at Sophie’s raw left arm and said, “My left, your right.” She smiled a silent thank you, and they cuffed themselves together, ready to go.

“Remember: bad sportsmanship as a winner can cause you to lose the prize, and nastiness towards the winners can lead to you not participating in next week’s challenge.” A few people nodded respectively, taking their stances for the beginning or the race. “Is everyone ready?”

Hooting and hollering was the answer to this question, and Galvin yelled “Go!” through the megaphone. The first thing they realized was that running normally wasn’t going to work. Instead of slinging their arms around as they ran, they kept their cuffed hands stiff at their sides. As they reached the mud pit, the first wall was eight feet tall with a small, one foot opening under it. They found that sliding on their bellies underneath it actually wasn’t as hard as it seemed. Luckily, they were both skinny girls; then they found the wall they had to jump over. Instead of running and trying to hurl themselves over it, they searched for a spot that they could catch the toe of their shoes on. Soon, they thought they had found a very uncomfortable way to get over it: Erin leaned down so that Sophie could reach her foot, and she launched her up to where she could comfortably grip the wall. As she steadied herself over the wall, Sophie kept her cuffed arm in the air so Erin didn’t have to lean down so much.

Now it was Sophie’s turn; she placed her hands on top of the six-foot tall wall, and jumped as high as she possibly could, grasping the top of the wall as she did. Her face turned red from the strain, and she failed the first time. The second time, though, she could see Scott and Brad ahead at the next wall. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. Then, suddenly, she jumped higher than before and pulled harder, and she made it up so fast that she pushed Erin off. This, of course, sent both of them tumbling to the ground, and luckily, Sophie only barely landed on Erin’s foot. For a second they laughed, but since they were behind, they had to move. Charles and Travis jumped over that wall just as they had landed, and they didn’t hit the ground stealthily either. Quickly, the girls slid under two more walls, now drenched in wet, thick mud.

Scott and Brad were stepping on the balance beams as Sophie and Erin stood from the mud. Seeing them, they realized this would be even more difficult than it looked. Not only would they have to step over big gaps, their beams weren’t just a foot or two apart, they were closer to 4 feet apart. As they stepped onto the beams, Erin said, “We can’t go too fast through this.”

Sophie nodded, and they began walking, placing one foot in front of the other and keeping their arms outstretched between them. They came to the first gap, which was only one foot wide, and as Sophie stepped over it, she realized Erin didn’t have one there, but she had one a few feet ahead. Well that will be interesting in the bigger gaps, she thought. Erin noticed it too as their gaps grew and grew. When Sophie had a big gap, Erin would hurry ahead a little bit so that they wouldn’t be too far apart when Sophie jumped.

Splash! The girls glanced over at Scott and Brad, who were now in the pond, soaked. They laughed for a moment, but went back to focusing. Glancing over her shoulder, Sophie noticed that Charles and Roy were on one pair of balance beams, and Charley and Anna were on the other set. Just exiting the mud pit were Mary and Kasie.

Erin’s next gap was five feet wide, and she took a deep breath before hopping gracefully over it. Excited that they had reached the end, they sped up a little and made it out of the pond. Charles and Roy weren’t very far behind, though, and now they had to enter the corn maze. As they jogged through the maze, Sophie began to feel jealousy towards Scott and Brad; she wanted to dive in the water.

Sighing, she knew she had to stop thinking like that; she could jump in the pond later, after they won. Smiling triumphantly at Erin, she said, “We’ve got this.”

She laughed, breathing heavily. “Let’s slow down a bit. We can still fast-walk, but no running, please.”

Nodding, Sophie slowed down, and they tried to think through which way to go, but there really was no way to know. As they ran into a dead end, Erin groaned and they couldn’t remember which way they had come. Aggravated, the two girls continued without running into anyone else for a while.

Eventually, they found a plum tree in the middle of the corn field, and they grabbed a few, enjoying the lush juiciness and burst of flavor. “Maybe the prize will be fruit.”

Erin laughed again, louder this time. “No way, no one would really fight as hard for that. I wish I knew, though. It has to be good, since everyone else is trying so hard.”

Sophie nodded, sucking the juice out of her third plum.

“You did amazing on that wall back there; I never could have done that.”

She grinned. “Thanks, Erin.”

“No problem,” she said, and then they heard another voice.

“I don’t know, Roy. How the hell am I supposed to remember which way we just came from?” Charles and Roy stepped out right in front of them on their left side, and turned so that they were going the same direction. “Well, hey there, ladies,” Charles said with a southern accent. “Would you two happen to know where we are?”

They both grinned and shook their heads. As they walked together for about half a minute, Erin seemed uncomfortable; Sophie decided she’d leave it alone for the moment. When they came to the end of the path they were walking on, it split in two directions. The girls went left; the boys went right.

Soon enough, Sophie and Erin became bored. The next time they heard voices, it was Scott and Brad. Before the two boys could see them, they jumped in the corn stalks, hidden from sight. As they passed, Sophie and Erin jumped out and screamed, making them jump about 10 feet in the air.

“Hey,” Sophie said while laughing, “you jumped so high I bet you could see the middle of the maze. Which way is it?”

The boys glared at her, and Erin laughed. Scott smiled then, but they soon continued on their way, and Erin and Sophie went the opposite, turning into a section that the boys had passed. This turned out to be the right way; they found themselves in a big square with a table in the middle. On the table was a little ticket, which Erin grabbed and stuffed into the pocket of her sweat pants. “Now we have to get out of here!” Erin shouted, exasperated.

“It’s fine; we won. Let’s go before someone else gets here and sees that we have the ticket.” They ran then. Excited, they tried to get back as quickly as possible, but they hit so many dead ends that they soon had to walk again.

Finally, there was an opening, and they stepped out from the maze. “Show me the ticket!” They flinched at Galvin’s voice in the megaphone, and saw the rest of the teenagers swimming in the pond. Erin held up the ticket as they walked towards him, and he took it and shouted, “Kids in the maze—get out as fast as possible! We have a winner!”

Mary and Kasie were in the pond with everyone else, so that meant Charley and Anna were the other two in the maze. Erin and Sophie glanced at each other and took off for the pond. They splashed into the water at the same time; a few people laughed while some groaned at the water in their faces. It was cold, but on her hot skin it felt amazing to Sophie. She could’ve sworn she was a fish in some past life.

“I don’t know what we won,” Erin said, “but I’m glad we did.” She held up her hand, squinting in the sunlight, and Sophie high-fived her, grinning and then falling back under the water.