Month: March 2015

When Ava Mack woke up on that December morning, there was only one thing on her mind: New Moon Girls magazine. All other facets of reality eluded her. She was totally unconcerned with the lovely way in which the moonlight was pouring in through the glass panes of her room like milk. She was even less impressed by the new layer of snow that sparkled boastfully on her front lawn. Every square foot of space in her mind was occupied by the heavy knowledge that the independent bookstore down the road now carried the first edition issue of New Moon Girls magazine.

“Ava. Ava!”

Ava looked up from her coffee to meet the gaze of her brother, Ryan. Ryan was a year older and thought he was far superior to his sister in terms of maturity. He wore a flannel shirt with a picture of a teddy bear on it as proof.

“What are you doing up at four o’clock in the morning?”

Disinterested, Ava took another gulp from her mug.

“Flanagan’s opens at six,” she said, shrugging. “Jennifer and Ginger are already waiting for me outside.”

Ryan, who had just finished reading The Catcher in the Rye for school, rolled his eyes in the most dramatic way possible.

“You used to do things that matter,” he said, mournfully. “You used to cry on carousels.”

“I’ll see you later,” Ava said.

Jennifer and Ginger lingered on the front porch, hands balled in their pockets, kicking up snow with the tips of their combat boots.

“It’s about time,” Ginger said.

The three girls walked in a line down the road. They walked in the street, since nobody would be coming by anyway, heads slightly bowed from the wind.

“Watch Angela and Christine and Pete already be there,” said Jennifer, caustic. Ava and Ginger didn’t answer. Ginger’s chapped lips trembled in the cold.

Sure enough, Angela and Christine and Pete were already there, standing in a line on the sidewalk, in front of the little brick shop.

Some time ago, Ava was friends with Pete Daly. Christine Sisler, too. It was Christine, actually, who had introduced Ava to New Moon Girls magazine. That was before Christine dyed her hair its signature red hue.

“We were here, first,” Angela said as the girls approached.

“So what?” said Ginger, “We’re not getting in line.”

“But – “

“Hey,” Christine said, “Let’s get in a line. But, like, a horizontal line. On the sidewalk. Let’s make it fair.”

They all fell into place. Ava found herself in the center, next to Christine, a foot away from the front door. The shoulders of their peacoats were touching. Soon the only sound to be heard was their quiet breaths, blowing clouds of white vapor into the air.

They all looked up at the two windows on the second floor of the store. One window had turned yellow with artificial light. They all knew that Liza Flanagan was in there, probably still in her pajamas, drifting sleepily through the tiny rooms, like a dream. Oblivious to the soldiers lined up outside. Suddenly, her shadow made an inkblot in the saturated yellow, and the soldiers all held their breaths.

The shadow disappeared at once. The soldiers leaned forward on their toes, not daring to touch the door until Liza opened it for them.

“She’s coming down the stairs,” Pete whispered. “If you listen closely, you can hear her footsteps. She should be out any second.”

Pete’s prediction rang true as the door to the bookstore opened with a loud creak. Ava began to take a step forward, but Jennifer held her back. Ava watched as the figure of Liza Flanagan appeared in the doorway, wearing a robe and slippers.

“Usually no one comes until at least nine o’clock,” Liza muttered under her breath, yawning. “But I never turn away customers. Come on in, kids.”

One by one, the anxious readers stepped into the bookstore. Ava was too excited to appreciate the way the warped hardwood floor under her feet creaked softly, or the monstrous silhouettes of creatures that were created by the dark shadows of bookshelves. Liza let each reader in, closed the door behind her, and flicked on a light. At once the store was illuminated, and Ava looked about, searching for the magazine.

“Are you here for anything in particular? Usually there’s a big book release when kids come this early, but I don’t know of any blockbuster that just came out…” Liza rambled, crossing her arms and shuffling her feet. Ava nodded, still looking for the magazine.

To her right, Christine gasped. Ava watched as she ran to a display in the corner of the room. Angela and Pete followed close behind.

“Come on, Ava! We can’t let them get there first!” Ginger grabbed Ava’s hand and pulled her along, Jennifer at their feet. The three girls ran to the display. Ava couldn’t believe it – she was going to get the first edition copy. She would read it voraciously, and rub it in Ryan’s face when she got home.

The three girls reached the display, but not fast enough. Angela, Christine, and Pete were already there, grabbing at the thin stack of magazines as quickly as they could. Ava’s heart sank as she saw that the display was now empty. How had that happened? She’d done all she could to get the magazine, and now her efforts would be futile.

“Hey! You don’t need two copies!” Ginger stole a copy from Angela’s hands, hiding it behind her back. “And Christine, you don’t need three! Give us some of them, would you?”

“Give that back!” Angela shrieked, reaching behind Ginger and snatching the copy from her hands. She held both copies tightly. “My little sister wanted one.”

“I told my cousin I’d get her a copy, too.” Christine said, shrugging. “And one for my aunt.”

Ava crossed her arms. She wanted to speak, but her thoughts were jumbled. They would never listen to her. Christine had changed since they’d been friends. Pete only had one copy. And Angela had never gotten along with Ava.

“Please, guys,” Jennifer began. “We all love this magazine, right? We should each get a copy. Your family can get the magazine somewhere else. But we’re here, right now.”

“Jennifer’s right,” Ava said, suddenly finding the right words. “We’re all fans. I bet the writers of New Moon Girls would be upset, if they knew we were fighting instead of reading it together. Remember how we used to recite the articles by heart, Christine? How we used to cut out the pictures and make collages?”

Christine nodded solemnly. She loosened her grip on the magazines, let the hand holding them fall to her side.

“Pete – you never liked reading magazines, until we showed you this one. And Angela, we might not get along all the time, but we both love this magazine. So I think we should each get a copy and read them together. Like we used to.”

Pete nodded. He nudged Angela on the shoulder.

“I guess you’re right,” Angela said, beginning to smile. “It’s not really a competition. Take this one.” Angela handed Ava her second copy. Ava grinned. She could tell a new connection had formed between her and Angela – one that would continue to grow.

“Here’s one for you, Jennifer. And one for Ginger,” Christine handed the girls her extra copies. They thanked her with a smile.

“Got what you came for?” Liza Flanagan appeared behind Ava, peering into the circle of kids. “New Moon Girls Magazine! Great choice. Now, come pay before you run home.”

Ava followed Liza to the register, clutching her copy of the magazine to her chest. Her friends followed behind her, flipping through the pages and whispering excitedly. Ava looked down at her magazine as satisfaction filled her with joy. She couldn’t wait to get home and start reading.

 

Evergreen was a typical girl, until the day she got into a car accident.From then on, she  could only say long words, because the part of her brain that keeps her shorter words got damaged.  Will Evergreen find a way to communicate to her friends without using long words, or will  she be stuck like this forever?

It was a normal day in July, and me and my family were driving to a water park.  I was singing along to the radio, and my brother Chase was looking at his baseball cards.  I gasped, speechless.  Behind us, a car was speeding, and coming closer.  This time, I had to save myself from being in danger, not my mom, not my dad, not Chase.

“Mom, pull over, now!” I yelled to her.  She was the one driving.

“Darling, do you need to throw up?”  Mom asked, extending her arm out, holding a paper bag.

“Mom, no! I need you to pull over! That car is coming!”  Mom looked in her mirror, but before she could see it, the car hit the back of our car, which made our car go skidding forward.  We hit into the next car and then halted to a stop, and I veered forward. The windshield had broken, and the whole back of their car had fallen off.  I was crying, and Chase was stroking my back.  I pushed him away, and my head started to ache.  I sat up, but fell back down.  That was all I remembered before everything went black.

I woke up in the emergency room.  Machines were beeping.  Tubes were stuck into my arm.  Everything seemed to be moving around, and I could not see a clear image of anything.

A doctor and a nurse walked over to my mom to tell her either good or bad news.  “Your child has a brain injury, which has affected the communication with one part of her brain.  Unfortunately, your child will be very hard to understand, because she has lost all  memory of every short word she has ever learned.  She will only talk with complex words.”

“Dear relative, am I afflicted with an illness?  If so, you may call the hospital wagon and escort me to my mattress for a pleasant nap or short rest that will put me at ease.”  I said.

“No, darling,” said mother, leaning over me. “You are already in bed.”

“What will take effect in my future of important educational results and school work?” I asked mom.

“Well, Honey Buns, you will be placed in a 1st grade class.”  My mom still calls me stupid nicknames, even though I’m 10.

“Well, mother when does this exclusive gathering of children happen to start?”  I asked.

“Tomorrow.” she said.

Then I went back to sleep.  It was a great dream that I had that night.  It was about transporting to time’s base, and the rest of it is really confusing!  I woke up the next morning in my bed at home.  My mom knocked on the door and I let her in.

“Honey, the doctors told us that we could bring you home last night, so we did.”  Mom said.

“Did the internal medicine physicians disclose the results from the test?”  I asked.

“Yes, Honey, and the results were positive!” Mom squealed.

My mom gets really excited over really little things.  I jumped and hollered like I was a monkey who had just finished two bananas.  I got out of bed and ran down stairs to get a bowl of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies and raspberries.  I ran back upstairs so that I could get my laptop to type while eating breakfast.  I love to write and tell the stories of the untold.

This time, I was writing a story about the time when the Earth was created.  It is called Starting It Up.  I have been writing it since I was five years old, and I am so interested in researching.  It’s not just to know what information to add to the story, but to know how I came to life.  Not many people know about this topic, so only about two pages of results came up when I googled it.

“Let’s go get you a new dictionary,” exclaimed Mom.

“Tell the cause, mother.”  I rolled my eyes.

“For the new class, Honey.  It starts today.” Mom told me.

We hopped into mom’s Acura and we were off to the pharmacy.  I walked down the aisles.  I saw my old friend Ruby.  She was talking with all the other popular girls.

“Greetings, and holy blessings, Ruby.”  I remarked.

They all laughed at me as I sighed and ran around the corner to hide.  I  heard the giggling stop, so I walked back around the corner but they were still there.  I began to run, and they chased me while saying, “Evergreen, the first grader, what a little little girl!  Evergreen, the first grader, what a little little girl!”  They repeatedly chanted.

Luckily, I am fast, so I reached two aisles before they saw me.   I hid behind my mother like a four-year-old.

“What’s wrong?”  Mother asked.

“Shield me from the other kids, Mother!  It’s for safety!” I hid behind my mother as she handed the food to the cashier.

When she was done we bolted out of the store.  My mom laughed at me.  She was laughing so hard, she fell over on the ground.  I picked up Mom because a car was heading toward us.

“CEASE driving the car!”  I yelled as I held up my hand to stop the car.

The car rushed to a stop.  My mom stood up, and gathered her bag and sweatshirt.  We ran back to the car and got inside.

Mom drove me to school, where I was about two feet taller than some of the first graders.

“Salutations and best wishes for the oncoming day.”  I said softly.

The teacher gave me a nervous glance and let out a small giggle.   Why was she laughing at me?  I was only a 10-year-old in a first grade class.  That’s when I realized how stupid that sounded.  I was suddenly embarrassed.

First was math where we did one-digit addition and subtraction, and I was done with the whole paper when some of the first graders had not even started the first problem.  Next was grammar and spelling.

We learned lots of stuff, this is a reenactment of what really happened today in class.

“Children, please turn to page 10 in your dictionaries.”  The teacher said.

I raised my hand.

“Yes, Evergreen?”  The teacher pointed to me.

“What does the word is mean?”  I asked, pointing to ‘is’ on page 10.

“Oh, Evergreen darling, ‘is’ means that you are doing something or one of your dear first grade friends is doing something.” the teacher said.

She was wearing a teal tunic with a tight black skirt, and her hair pulled back into a braided bun.  I would say that she was about 30 years old, and she refused to tell anyone her name, so we always called her “Teacher.”

It was finally late in the afternoon and I still had not made any friends yet.  I was walking in the hall to the front entrance, where the helping teachers would escort everyone to the buses.

I spotted a girl, and she walked over to me.  She seemed pretty friendly.

“Naomi.” She shook my hand.  “Fourth grade.” she said.

I was supposed to be in fourth grade.

“Evergreen, it is a dear love to meet you, Naomi.” I shook her hand firmly, as she had shaken mine.  “First of the grades of elementary.”  I said.

“Really?” she said, a surprised look on her face.

We slowed down so that I could tell her what had happened with me and the first grade.

“I got in a car accident, and I had brain damage which has completely ruined my use of some words.”  I sighed.

“Nice meeting you.” Naomi said, and she ran to her bus.

I ran to my bus since it was pulling out of the school lot.

When I got home, my mom was sitting at the counter reading one of those gossip magazines.  She would not show her face.  I was confused.

“How was your day, Evergreen?”  She sniffled, as if she had been crying.

“What is the need of help for your issue, Mother?”  I asked.

“Darling, I don’t know how to say this, but you are getting brain surgery.  Tomorrow.” Mom sniffled again, tears dripping down her face. I started to cry.

That night, I went to bed with my back slumped and my hands  crossed over my chest.  I knew that I had to awaken the next morning and go to the hospital.  But I had to be brave and push through.  So I went to sleep that night and dreamed that the surgery went horribly and I had died.  When I got out of bed the next morning, I ran to my mom’s room to wake her up.

She wasn’t there. I ran to the workout room, and there she was. We were ready to go.

We got in the car, and I wore a simple button down shirt so that I could easily change into a hospital gown.

 

When I arrived, they asked me to write down all of this weird information.  I was soon in the operation room.

“We are going to give you a medicine so that you will fall asleep and you won’t feel anything.” said one doctor.

 

FAST FORWARD TO AFTER THE SURGERY

 

“Good news,” the doctor stated, “The surgery is helping your brain.” “What does that information mean?”  I asked.

“You will get some memory back in your brain.” said the man.

That was all I had to hear before I knew that I was healthy again.

 

THE END

 

Chapter 1: Camp

I opened my eyes. I was in some sort of toy room that preschoolers would use for fun. I looked around. Then, I saw something. I looked closely at it. It turned out to be a video game. It was what I had asked for my whole life. I walked towards it slowly. Odd, it seemed. The video game I wanted forever was sitting on a bookshelf. I reached for it and grabbed it. Suddenly, an alarm went off. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

“What is it?” I heard a preschooler ask.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, child.” said a lady. “I’ll go check on it!” She busted down the door with a rake in her hand. I was nervous. The janitor busted through another door with a mop.

“Shame on you!” yelled the lady. “Stealing toys from little kids, you rotten thief! Attack!” Preschoolers swarmed into the room like bees. Then they charged at me. Let me tell you, it was not easy. I was in seventh grade, but there were about three hundred of them punching and kicking me. I felt like I was going to die. That woman was the criminal.

“That’s fifteen years in jail for you!” she said angrily. Then, I heard something. I couldn’t quite make it out. Then I heard music. It was this terrible song called “Chair.” I closed my eyes. Then opened them again. I was in my bed and my alarm clock was flashing 8:30.

“Okay!” I yelled. “Who messed with my alarm clock?!”

My older brother David entered the room. “You better get up or you’ll be late for school again, Jake.”

I grumbled. Of course it was him. it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. There was one advantage, though. Today was the last day of school. I, however, was scared because we were getting our report cards back today. It was not the most fun thing in the world, or at least for some people.

Dad drove me to school. “Jake,” he said, “what are you planning to do this summer?”

“I’m making a list of thing I want to do. It’s not complete yet, but here’s the incomplete version: rock climbing, sky diving, jaywalking, bungee jumping, video game playing, food eating, soda drinking, more video game playing, swimming, shark taming, daring, rocket shooting, –”

“Or,” interrupted Dad, “you could go to camp.”

“Fire breathing,” I continued, “giant slaying, kidnapping, drunk driving, evil plotting, ninja slicing, window breaking, jaw slinging, decorating, ball playing, water fighting, vandalizing, computer hacking,–

“No.” said Dad. “I’m serious. I went to a camp called Camp Zelo. It’s named after Erik Zelo, the discoverer of the land. It’s been in their family for generations. It’s full of adventure and discovery and the family really liked me. I was one of the best campers and…you’re not even listening.”

“Modeling,” I said. “ Dabbling, more video game playing, garden destroying, rock throwing, door slamming, soccer playing, and that’s it. Happy?” I got out of the car and went to school. I got my report card sixth period. My grades were not bad, but they weren’t the highest in the class. My highest score was a 92% and my lowest was an 81%. There was this one girl who was really smart and got 100% in every subject. During lunch, I talked to my best friend Toko.

“What are you doing this summer?” asked Toko. “I’m going to a camp called Camp Zelo. I’ve been going there for about five years now.”

“No, wait, really?”

“Yeah. Five years. It’s really fun.”

“Well,” I said. “my list is quite long and I haven’t yet finished it.” My day didn’t get any better after I went home. Dad signed me up for camp.

“Hey, sport.” said Dad. He sounded extra cheerful. Anytime my dad sounded cheerful, you knew he was planning something. “You excited for camp on Monday?” I froze. He signed me up for camp.

“Yeah.” said my dad. “I signed you up for Camp Zelo.” My whole summer was ruined. This meant that on Monday, I had to go to some stupid camp. No jaywalking. No skydiving. No vandalizing.

“You what!?” I almost yelled.

“It’s fine,” Dad said. “You know, I’ll go with you. We’ll have a great time. Go hiking, roast some marshmallows, tell scary stories, play games, swim, climb trees…”

Hiking, swimming? What about jaywalking and giant slaying? What about fire breathing, what about skydiving? I was ready to throw Dad’s computer out the window.

“You sent Jake to camp?” asked my mom. “Why? Why would you do that? Jake just wants to stay home and hang out with his friends and play video games. Why can’t you just let him enjoy his summer?”

“Because,” said my dad. He always, always answered a question with a ‘because’ and said something that would start a fight. “He needs to learn responsibility. When he comes home, he’ll be a man. He’ll know how to tie knots, swim, pitch up tents, and survive in the wilderness. Plus, I’ll go with him. It’ll just be us, and the rest of the camp on an adventure. No TV, no video games.”

I went outside to enjoy two days of summer before going to that awful camp.

Chapter 2: Zelo Time

 

Believe it or not, Dad actually won that argument and convinced my mom to send me to this dumb place. We drove to camp on Monday morning with a whole bunch of lame camping stuff. It took a whole hour to get there. My dad had his stupid radio on the whole time.

“You know, son, Christopher Zelo was my best friend every single summer. His dad was the leader of the camp, and now it’s being passed down to him. How awesome is that?”

“Whatever.” I sighed, looking out the window. My dad was not like the others– he was a bit embarrassing to be around. Suddenly, I passed what I thought was the campground.

“ Dad?” I asked. “Is that the campground? It’s so awesome! It has a beach, and a free snack bar, and a dinner spot, and a recliner, and an entire lake. Wow.”

“Of course not.” said Dad. “Where you’re going is way better. That’s Camp Awesomeness. The lame camp.” We finally arrived at camp.

We first unpacked and then went to our camp spot. I was in the older group because I was in eighth grade. Dad took me to my camp director and got me to my group.

“Hey, Will.” said Christopher. “How’s the family? It’s good to see you again. You wanna sign up your son?” I immediately knew that they really had a lot in common. Dad spent fifteen minutes chatting up with him before they got serious again. Then, they spent another fifteen minutes doing form stuff.

“Spot 7,” said Christopher.  We walked all the way over there. It took ten minutes. After that, we set up our tent. It took twenty minutes to set up the tent, and then we met each other.

“Hey.” said a guy. “Can you pass me that wrench?” I saw a toolbox next to my foot.

“Sure.” I said. “But why do you need a wrench?” I gave him the wrench. The kid looked up.

“Hey,” he said. “I’ve never seen you here before. Are you new here?” I saw he was using the wrench to tighten a bolt.

“Uh, yeah.” I said nervously. “I’ve never been to this place before and my dad said this was Camp Zelo.”

“Well, you’re right about that.” he said. “My name is Gale Zelo. My dad’s the camp  director. Let me introduce you to the gang. Apparently, I’m their leader. No counselors, just us. So, over there is Jack, Tom and Pom are right over here, and there’s Steeler, Josh, Kate, Larry, that’s Girl, Gabby, Zipline, Yoko, Hags, and over there is Millie. I think she likes me.”

“Okay, okay.” I said. “I’m Jake, and that’s my dad over there. Your dad obviously knows him. So what do we do here?

“Sadly, my dad says that we don’t have enough money to do all that stuff we did last year.” Gale said. “Last year, we entered something called the Campetition. We haven’t actually qualified for a spot in the Campetition this year, but it was one heck of a ride.”

“Okaaaayyyy…” I said slowly. “I’m going to find my dad now because I didn’t even have breakfast yet.”

I walked over to my tent and found my dad.

“Dad?” I asked. “Can I have my breakfast now?”

“Uh…” mumbled Dad.

“You ate my breakfast!?” I shot.

“Sorry.” said Dad. “Mom ate my breakfast this morning. I was hungry. I had to eat something.” I knew this was not true because there were two bags sticking out of the bag with both of our eaten breakfasts in there.

“You’re lame,” I said. “Now can I have my 3DS?”

“Sorry,” said Dad. “Christopher took it because he has a strict rule about electronics on campgrounds. So he’ll be keeping it for the rest of the summer.” This was not going to be fun.

Of course, it wasn’t. Camp today was awful for the first half of the day. We went hiking, ziplining…all that lame stuff. Until lunch, I didn’t have a bite to eat. Without my 3DS, my life was completely over. So I decided to sneak into the main house and take it back. The problem was, I didn’t have one clue where it was. I searched for fifteen minutes and then I saw it. The Main House was atop a few steps. I walked up them and opened the door. Luckily, nobody noticed me. They were busy discussing this lame problem.

“Apparently, we owe about $100,000 in debt to some lame studying camp where all you do is math and boring stuff.” said Christopher. “It says that if we don’t pay by the end of the summer, they will take our camp away!” I saw my 3DS next to the camp director. I really hated that guy.

“What is going on here?” asked his wife. “They don’t own us!” I suddenly came up with a brilliant plan.

“Apparently, they do,” said Christopher. I burst in.

“Hey,” I said. “Where is the bathroom? I really have to go.” They were quick to answer that one because they probably knew I was here for another reason.

“Uh, there’s a Porta-Potty near every group site,” said another counselor. “Now scram, kid!” I quickly fled the scene, scared and with anger of failing. I could still hear what they were saying about their stupid debt.

“How do we pull a $100,000 move off this time, Chrisie?” said Gale. “Let me guess, we can enter the Campetition again. The first match starts this Friday night. If you can sign us up tonight, we’re all set to go.”

I did not like that idea. I heard that we lost the first match every single time. I returned to lunch with the bad news.

“Bad news, guys,” I said. “We’re entering this Campetition thing. Also, I failed to get my 3DS back.” Everyone cheered.

 

Chapter 3: A Spark of Luck

 

To make a long story short, Christopher Zelo signed us up for the Campetiton. We lacked skill, preparation,  and many other things. We were playing a pretty decent camp in a relay race. It was a long one too.

“Okay.” said Gale. “I’ll go last. Who wants to go first?”

“I will.” said Yoko. “It’s not a bad start-off, is it?”

“Okay,” said the Ref. “First competitors to the starting line. 3, 2, 1, GO!” Yoko and the other first competitor dashed along the obstacle course. I had to admit, I was pretty impressed with how he was handling all of this. He had dodged every single hurdle and started taking the lead. He slid under a few hurdles and grabbed hold of a rope vine hanging over a giant mud puddle. After reaching the halfway point, he turned around and made it back seconds before the other person. He tagged Zipline’s hand and he ran. Now, these guys were very average, no offense, but before I knew it, it was my turn. I was the second to last one, but they were already on their last. Hags tagged my hand and I was off!

“Okay.” I said. “This is it!” Suddenly, I hit a hurdle and fell down. The last guy zipped past me.

“Get up!” said Christopher. I slowly used the hurdle to stand. After that, I wasn’t very fast with the hurdles. I was cautious but inept with fear. Then came the mud rope. I stopped to get a good jump. Then I tried to grab the rope, but missed and fell in the mud. It was quick mud to be exact. I tried to get out.

“Come on!” yelled Gabby. “Don’t you have the strength to get out of mud?”

“No,” I said. “I can’t even do a pull up.” But I was able to save myself from possible death! I grabbed onto a rock sticking out of the ground and hauled myself up. It took every single ounce of muscle to do that. I crawled out of the quick mud and somehow stood up. It was  painful. I was able to trudge on, and crawled under a few hurdles and found my way to the halfway point. The problem was that the other guy was very close to home. I turned around and got up. I took five seconds to heal and then crawled under the hurdles again. This time, I actually managed to grab the rope dangling over the mud. I tried to swing back and forth, but it was useless. I jumped off of the rope and hit solid ground. I picked myself up and ran, only to hit a hurdle. Then, I heard cheering.

“Camp Awesome wins!” said the announcer. “This means that they get to go to the second round!” With sadness, I crawled back to the starting line.

“Did we win?” I asked sarcastically.

“Attention, all audiences!” said the announcer. “There have been some changes to the score! Camp Awesome has been disqualified. They were caught shooting rocks at Camp Zelo.”

Everyone but me cheered. I was bruised. We may have gotten off easily this time, but it will never happen again. Luck is never something that you can count on for long.

 

 

Chapter 4: A Walk in the Woods

 

I woke up in a prison. I was being sentenced for 15 years of time for trying to steal a video game. I had no idea what just happened. I had to find a way out of this place. the problem was, I didn’t know who my family was. In fact, I didn’t know if I even had a family. I was all alone in prison. I had an urge to jog. It’s like this place was controlling me. Suddenly a cop came up to me.

“Trying to escape?” he said. “Escapers shall answer to the horn.”

“What’s so scary about a stupid horn?” I asked. I heard a huge horn noise that almost made me go deaf. I opened my eyes.

“WAKE UP!” yelled someone. Christopher burst into my tent with a chocolate covered donut and a jug of milk. “What do you think you’re doing!? It’s fifteen minutes past wake up time! How am I supposed to run a camp with a stupid kid who doesn’t follow rules!”

“What are you talking about?’ I asked. “It’s 4:30 in the morning!” I set an alarm for 8:00 am.”

“Didn’t I tell you we were going for a hike!? Everyone’s ready to go already! Who do you think I am!? Your butler!? I’ll give you 5 minutes before we leave!”

“Okay.” I said. I got out of bed and put on my hiking clothes. That guy was super annoying. This was a summer camp! It was not the marines! Thank god that my dad had packed everything the night before. the hike took two whole hours. We finally arrived at a training place in the forest that we were going to stay for a couple of days. However, we soon found that it was already taken

“What are you doing here?” asked a grown up. Christopher quickly shot back.

“We’re here to train for our second campetition match.” he said.

“Well get out!” he screamed. “This place is for good camps only.” I quickly realized that this was the camp that they owed $100,000.00 to.

“And don’t forget the $100,000.00 you owe us!” See, I told you.

“This,” said Christopher “is a bad man. he’s a selfish jerk who wants to expand his studying camp.”

“Indeed.” said Gale.

“Okay.”I said. “We should leave.”

“Yeah!” said another kid from the other camp. “Now get lost! And give Mr.Beasly his money! Studying is the future of summer!”

“No.” said Yoko. “I think we should play them in a game of kickball to see who gets to use the turf.”

“Yay!” said everyone but me. See, kickball was the next event of the campetition. However, we were sent back to camp on our two hour walk.

“This is so unfair!.” screamed Millie. “Why do we have to leave? I think they cheated.

“I know it’s harsh.” said Gale. “However, life’s not fair at all.”

“We can find another training site.” said my dad. “There are a ton of places we can go.”

“There’s a kickball field in our town.” I said. “We can go there. Wait. Do we all know how to play kickball?”

“What do you think?” asked Gabby. “Do we look like we were born yesterday?”

“I don’t know.” I said. “That field though is an hour away. We have to drive.”

“Are you crazy?” asked Gale. “A Zelo never drives. He hikes.”

It was a three hour hike to my town. Christopher actually made us bring our tents there.

“Zelos don’t sleep in hotels or houses!” he yelled at me. ‘We’re camping out on the baseball field.”

“That jerk!” I told my dad. “He runs this camp like a prison! It’s not enough that he made me get up at 4:30 two days ago, now we have to sleep in the baseball field!”

“Just deal with it son.” he said. “I know this will pay off sometime.” I couldn’t believe that that was the best advice he could give me. I know this is a camp, but it was like living in the wild. When we got there, it was 5:30 in the afternoon, and pouring rain. Then, we realized something. We didn’t have a kickball.

“I’ll get it!” I said. “My house is only two miles from here.” Luckily, my dad trusted me. I raced off until nobody could see me. Then I slowly walked to my house. It looked like heaven from where I was. Jake was getting a bowl of warm soup. I rushed into the house and got a blast of heat. I was definitely planning on staying. I got a bowl of soup and watched an episode of “Good and Bad”. After what I had just been through, I deserved it, no matter what everyone else said. Halfway through the episode, I dozed off. I fell asleep for a bit only to find out it had been a whole night. I woke up to a sunny day with the rain drying up.

“Hey,” said mom. “We have hot chocolate for breakfast. David’s going out to play baseball at the baseball field.  I was wondering if you’d like to join him and his friends.”

“What!?” I asked. I raced out of the house after grabbing the kickball. It took half an hour to run to the baseball field. David was already there. So were the others.

“You are still resisting the path of camp.” said Gale. “F.”

 

Chapter 5: The Big Ballgame

 

Thank god David was willing to train us, or those guys would’ve  teared me limb from limb from limb.David’s not the type of brother who’s always there for me. I don’t blame him though. Alot of brothers are like that. Big and little.

“Alright you turkeys!” yelled one of David’s friends. “Kickball isn’t for wimps! Line up in groups of two and make it snappy! Wait, no! You’re all one team, vs us. If you can’t beat us, you can’t beat nobody! Now move it!” I saw that this guy was no different than that camp director person what’s his name.

Let’s say for the record, we sucked. We played better at that match two days ago. The pitcher was out of shape, the game was an overall score of 1234567890 to 4, a grand slam scored by Gale.

“Wow, said my dad.”  “We really, truly, extremely, especially suck.” The worst part was that the match was tomorrow night.

“Okay.” said David. “Let’s see what we have here. Puny strength, slow running ability, zero sense of direction, with all that lameness, do you really think you can defeat them in battle?”

“Let’s teach them a couple of things.” said Mark. “It’s not like we’re mean people or anything.” Just by what he said, I knew he was being sarcastic.

“OK!” said David. “We’ll help them. Now see here kids. This round red thing, is a ball. You are supposed to kick it with your foot. Also, that white thing, is a base after you kick the ball, you are supposed to run to every base, and home. See this thing attached to my arm, that is called a hand. You use the hand to catch the ball when kicked. You also use it to throw the ball to basemen before the opponent gets there. Got it?” We all nodded, but with little question. They prepared us for the rest of the day, and tomorrow night, we clashed in a match with a camp called Best Camp Ever.”

“Okay.” said Christopher. “If you lose this game, you lose everything, and shall be subjected to labor for 10s of thousands of millions of centuries. Now get out there and win this thing or I will!”

“Yes, Chrissie.” said Girl. I laughed along with her only to earn a disapproving glare from my dad.

We were first up at kick. Steeler went first. He ran up to the ball and kicked it with all his might. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t go the way he wanted it to. But, just like my brother said, he took off after the kick. It was close, but he made it to first base. He gave the thumbs up, but it made Chris mad at him. Iand a couple of other kids gave him the thumbs up back. Next up, was MIllie.

“Kick the ball with all your might and then run, or you’ll get out just like the last turkey who didn’t listen to me.

“Don’t be such a jerk, dad.” said Gale. I rolled my eyes at and focused the other way. Millie kicked the ball.

I saw steeler slide under the arm of an opponent of someone who tried to push him. The pitcher picked the ball up and threw it to first base. Luckily, the guy dropped it allowing Steeleter and Millie to advance another base. Larry kicked the ball into the pitcher’s hand.

“Yer out!” said the ref. “Tough luck kid.” The game went on like that until the score was 78 – 79. The score was to 80. I was up to bat, and there was only one person on 1st base. I’d have to score a home run to make this work, because this was our second out this inning. I closed my eyes. The camp director was yelling at me, the team had 0 faith in me. I ran up, and kicked the ball with the inside of my foot, and it went to the pitcher. Wow! I didn’t care. I ran to first, and the first baseman dropped the ball and I slid under him to first. The others were going for Gabby, so I dashed to second base.

“C’mon.” said Christopher. “You have got to be kidding me with that kid.” Gabby made it to home, but I had stopped.

“GO!” yelled everyone. I didn’t know what I was doing, so I charged to the third. The ball was thrown at me, so I jumped over it and made it there. No sooner than I got there, I made a sharp turn for home. I almost slipped, but I ended up ducking under the ball. Putting this thing before my own safety, I slid for home. I rolled over and made it there. The whole team looked down at me.

“Did we win?” I asked again.

“Camp Zelo has won!” said the ref. The entire group cheered. But there, in the audience, I saw Beasley walk away. He was up to no good.

 

Chapter 6: Really Real Training

 

We went back to celebrate at the campgrounds; by having a campfire. We never, ever get to have campfires here. At least not that I’ve heard. We gathered around the campfire to roast marshmallows and tell stories. Christopher made announcement.

“This week, you guys have really shown improvement.” he said. “I’m proud of each and everyone of you. Even you, Steeler.”

“Say.” said Tom. “Where is Steeler? He’s supposed to be eating marshmallows right now.”

“Cut him some slack.” said Gale. “He’s been distant all night.” I suggested we tell some more stories tonight.

“No.” said Christopher. “It’s time for bed tonight. Although, we could dance.” Every single person sprang up, including me.

“Who’s ready to drop some beats?” asked Zipline. People started dancing. I went over to Steeler.

“Hey.” I said. “You wanna come over and dance with us? Even I’ve gotta admit it’s fun.” I saw a depressing look on his face. I suddenly knew what it was about.

“Look.” I said. “You don’t need to beat yourself up over the fact that you kicked the ball the wrong way. If Chris doesn’t appreciate your score, than that’s his fault. He did say he was proud of you.” He smiled as I turned to leave for my tent. Tomorrow was a big day.

That however, was not a good day. I awoke to find out that a video about my dad’s camp was being posted online. I busted through the doors of the main house to see what was up. Every single member was crowding around my DS.

“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?” yelled Christopher. He was really mad, yet even more embaressed. The other campers tried not to keep from laughing hysterically. I went over to my 3DS and took a look at the video on YouTube.

“You have to believe me.” I said. “I’m not behind any of this!” It was clear that they already knew that, thank god.

“Something tells me, we’re going for a ride.” said Gale. “Right after lunch.”

We did our activities up to lunch. On Saturdays, our group has Ziplining, hiking, and swimming. After lunch, we went to the domain of Mr. Beasley, the evil camp person. That studying camp was called Camp Core, where they enslave kids with studying.

“Hey!” said a kid. “You don’t go to Camp Core!”

“Yeah, we don’t.” said Zipline. “We’re too awesome to waste our summer like that.”

“Quiet prisoner!” he yelled. “Follow me to your camp director. This camp looked like a paradise from the outside, and a school on the inside. More like a jail.

“Look at this place!” said Gale. “It’s abominable. it looks like the inside of a landfill.”

“I said QUIET!” he yelled. “The boss is in that door. I should get back to my digging. Oh, and did you see that hilarious youtube video about you?” We burst into the door.

“I see you’re here about the video. said Mr. Beasley. “Now into the studying prison. And give me my money or else. It’s no use for you, because that video is already making me money. NOW GET ME THAT HOSE SO I CAN USE IT ON YOU!”

“Now! said Zipline. Before you criticize me on what I did next, please keep in mind that… It was their fault. I picked up a chair and slammed his computer. Then I slammed his foot.

“OW!” he yelled. We ran away with the chair and threatened to use it on anyone who we passed.

“That was intense.” said Gale. “It was like a maze.”

“Doesn’t matter.” said Steeler. “We couldn’t take the video off of the internet! Now our reputation is ruined forever!” We went back to camp to start training for our next event, which was a mountain race. We had to climb up a mountain before the other team.

“Okay!” said Christopher. “In order to win, we must climb a mountain before they do. Let’s start at two hours.” Each of us climbed the mountain at our own pace. I used every edge I could. It wasn’t easy, but I made it up there in 12 hours, which was thirty seven minutes after Hags who was surprisingly unfit at that time.

“What was that!?’ asked Chris.

“But dad,” said Gale. “I made it up in 3 hours. C’mon. At first, you don’t succeed.”

“I’m not talking about you!” he yelled. “It’s everyone else I hate!” It took about a week, but I finally made it up in 2 hours after drinking milk and doing pushups.

“Now we go to one hour!” he said. Later, it was thirty minutes, and he was done.”

“Alright.” he said. “Now you are ready. You worked real hard, so go to bed. Campetition’s tomorrow night.”

 

Chapter 7: A Dream Based event

I woke up in prison again. I was eating gruel and watching the news. Apparently, a terrible accident had taken place. There was an ambulence. I saw Yoko and Gale.

“Hey guys!” I said. They didn’t seem to hear me. I saw the face of the injured guy on TV. It was … Christopher Zelo. It said that he was injured by who knows what? I turned right and saw Steeler and Zipline.

“You’re supposed to be carrying the police cheif.” said Zipline. “GET BACK TO YOUR POST OR I WILL!”

“But.” I asked.

“Butts are for pooping! said Steeler. “You are stuck with this job forever. You have no other choice.

“I uh..” I said. Suddenly, I woke up. I was in my tent. Tonight was the mountain climbing challenge. I just had to prepare for this. I spent the afternoon doing sit – ups and jumping jacks.

“Hey!” said Yoko. “What are you doing?” I paid no attention to him. I just walked away. You may think that was rude of me, but ever since I came to this camp, he’s been giving me the cold shoulder.

As I said, we were at the campetition that night. We were about to climb a mountain. I looked up into the night sky and noticed a helicopter in the distance. I first thought it was to help anyone who fell off, but then, I heard the sound of someone being tied up with duck tape over their mouth.

“Ready!” yelled the Ref. “Set! GO!” I jumped onto the first rock. I managed to grab it, but almost slipped. That’s when I Realized the rock was unstable. I grabbed the rock with my other hand. I couldn’t believe that Gale was over half a mile up in the air. I pulled myself up onto the next rock with my feet on the first. I was already out of breath.

“Come on.” I said. “Now? Of all times you legs.” I put one leg over the other. and put my hands on the fourth rock. I had a rope. I took it out, and threw it onto the eigth rock. I tried to climb up, but my body didn’t budge. It was already 9:30.

“Alright.” I said. “I’ll rest, but only for a minute. I rested for five minutes and gale seemed to be at the top. I also noticed that my rope hadd ripped and was more useless than my money when I got in trouble at school for slipping on a wet floor. I climbed up onto the seventh rock and looked up. Millie was at the top.

I jumped up and managed to grab the tenth rock. I climbed for another five minutes until I got to the thirtieth rock. My arms and legs were ready to kill me for abusing them through mountain climbing. But now, I had a whole new problem to deal with. The wall was litterally going in and out and I had to scale those. By the time I made it to the last lock, I was exhausted to no end. I reached for the the rock, but something else hit it first and I fell off the mountain.

Not to worry, I handed back first on a big concrete rock which looked like a hand. The opponent jumped ahead of me, scaling rocks like nobody’s business. Then, I was ambushed by a rock slide.

“Somebody get me off of this stupid thing!” I yelled.

“Dumb kid.” I heard Christopher say. “Hold on, I’m coming up here.” I was hit in the face with a pebble.

“Ow.” I said. Luckily, I dodged a bigger rock that came my way. Chris was jumping up on the rocks. Now, I was in for a real attack. A few rocks pushed me off of the ledge, but I was able to grab onto it. However, nobody could hear me, because I was under the rocks, but I had heard three missiles being shot at me. When they hit the rocks, I fell… right into the hands of Christopher, who was hanging on the rock below.

“Ready?” he said

“Ready for what?” I asked suspiciously. Christopher drew me back, and he threw me over the rockslide. Let me tell you, that he had a really good arm. I passed the competitor and reached for the top yet again, but this time, I caught it and tried to hoist myself up. The other guy jumped for the top. Luckily, Gale, Zipline, and Gabby grabbed by hand and pulled me up. We had won!

That however, was not our concern when Christopher climbed down the mountain. A missile hit the rock he was on. Chris let go and grabbed onto a rock much below. This time, the missile hit the rock that was underneath him which his foot was on.

“He’ll never survive!” said Hags. And he was right. Chris fell off of his rock down onto the floor below. I saw Mr. Beasly in the helicopter flying away. He was evil now. The I saw Christopher. he wasn’t even dead! He was just badly injured. They put him in the hospital van just like they did on the TV.

“Wait.” I said. “If my dream about Chistopher getting injured came true, then that means that… Oh no.”

 

Chapter 8: Look to the Leader

 

We returned to camp devastated. I just never knew something like this could happen so quickly. It was just blind flashing. Tonight was also the ending of our first semester. I went to sleep with  my 3DS, but that mattered to none. Next morning, I returned home to my unpainful lifestyle full of videogames and stuff and whatever.

“Do you think that he’s going to be OK and what not?” I asked. I don’t know I had mentioned this before, but dad and I made a deal that I’d only go to camp for one semester.

“I don’t know.” he said. “All we can do is hope.” he said. “And I could open up a can of beer for you.

“Your advice is making less sense than David’s at this point. Can’t their family pay for the damage done to him? I feel like it’s my fault. He almost died. He almost died to save me. Someone who if fell of of that clive would not live.”

“They would pay for his well being if their summer family buisness wasn’t in critical jeapordy.” said my dad. “It’s already going to take a miracle to get them out of that situation. The only way to do that would be to win next weekend’s final round which is an all camp capture the flag. But you’re not going.”

“I know i’m not, but now I feel like I should have signed up for two semesters, or even no semesters, because I was more of drag on the team than a help. I turned on the TV to watch the news. And there it was. I saw every thing that had happened that night. It was exactly as I’d viewed in jail.

“Dad.” I said. “Sign me up.” Just then, the police knocked on the door. I heard David opening it. I dove under the TV. All you could see were my eyes. Then I heard something.

“Oh yes.” said my mom. “Jake is here. JAKE!”

“Yeah?.’ I asked with my heart beating rapidly and my bladder thinking about contracting.

“Can you come up here? A police man wants to talk to you.”I ran up the stairs to get this over with. I looked suspicious because there was really nothing to get in jail for.

“May I help you?” I asked.

“Yes.” he said sternly. “I want to know if you were involved in Christopher Zelo’s injury. Did you do it on purpose?”

“No.” I said. “But I was there.” I told him the whole story of the mountain climbing incident and the helicopter that shot him.

“Let me get this straight.” he said “A helicopter shot him down while he was climbing a mountain?”

“Yes.” I replied. “He did it trying to save my life. I’m surprised he didn’t die.”

“Looks like you are off of the hook.” he said.  I wanted to sign up for camp again. When I told dad this, he of course said yes, but on one condition. I had to win the Campetition and get the money. I thought about it for a few minutes, and said yes. I had to train for it so hard. my Dad went to the camp with me a day early though.

“Can we help you guys with anything?” said my dad. “With your dad gone, you probably need all of the help you can get.

“You’re going to have to talk to my older brother.” said Mac Zelo. My father and I went over to Gale who was in a meeting with Millie and one of her friends.

“Let me just say that I’m so,so,so,so,so sorry that your father was killed.” said Gabby. “All of us, we all look to you.”

“Yeah.” said Millie. “I just know, we can win this Friday’s Campetition. We trust you so much. We know you won’t let us down.” said Millie.

“I agree.” said Gale. I know I have a lot of pressure on me, but we’ll get by. We did it before. I walked in.

“Hey guys.” I said. “My dad and I want to know what we can do to help. With your dad gone, I’m sure you need all the help you can get.”

“Oh, hey Jake.” said Gale. “Very interesting you should show up here. Does this look familiar to you?” He held up a newspaper saying “Jake, you..”.

“Oh yeah.” I said. “If my memory serves me correctly, I’d say those were the two words he said to me before he hit the ground.”

“I knew it.” said gabby. “You killed him. My eyeballs sprang open.

“WHAT!!!???”I yelled. It was the type of yelling that would make crows fly away.

“Arrest him now, officers!” said Millie. She was always so demanding. I mean like c’mon. Anyway, I was led away with handcuffs and had stones heaved at me. My dad was shocked at what he thought I had done. At least I thought that, because my dad was demanding evidence of my crime.

Ok, so I’ve been in prison for 4 days, and let me tell you, it was a tremendous travesty. I think that the cops purposely put stuff in that greul to make you sick. I hated it. On Thursday, I was having dinner, which was a shoe and a piece of meat fat. Then, I looked up at the news. It was Christopher and his accident. Could he really be dead? I know I couldn’t have been reliving my vision because I didn’t see Gale or Yoko being framed for this either, but then it occurred to me. Gale was being such a jerk. i knew others would be in here too. Plus, I was right. I saw Steeler and Zipline and went over to talk to them.

“Guys.” I said. “We have to get out of here! Now!” Zipline held me down.

“You’re supposed to be carrying the police cheif!” he yelled. “GET BACK TO YOUR POST OR I WILL!”. I didn’t want to hear what would come next, so I walked back to the police cheif. Someone however, stopped me in my tracks.

“I have come to help you, boy. Your father was my best friend until he didn’t turn in his homework. He was a bad man. But you, you’re different. You can still be a good person. I will het you out of jail, if you join my camp and help me win the Campetition tomorrow. So is it a deal?”

“Wait a minute.” I said. “You were the one who killed Christopher Zelo weren’t you.

“Yes.” he said. “Yes I was. Now, what I’m about to tell you is really important. HELP! HE’S TRYING TO ESCAPE!!!!” Cops surrounded me.

“UH oh.” I said. ‘Time to go.”

 

Chapter 9: A Fight Not to Lose

 

 

I ran and grabbed a prison cart. Riding it, I picked up Steeler and Zipline.

“You again!” said Steeler. “Will you please tell me what’s going on?”

“Yes.” I said. “We’re getting out of here. I made a left turn for a dark hallway with prisoners. Guards were chasing us. “Wow.’ said Steeler. “I guess since we’ve been in here for so long, we’ve lost our sense of freedom. Hit that button!”

“Yes sir.” said Zipline. He took a hammer and hit a button that said “Prison Release. All of the prisoners ran out of their cells. “That should hold them off.” Three minutes later, we busted out through the prison’s main doors.

“We did it!” said Steeler.

“I knew we could!” said Zipline. “ But now what do we do?”

“We should go to the hospital where Christopher Zelo is.” I said. “If there’s anyone who could help us at all, it would be him.’

“Perfect!” said Zipline. “We go to the hospital and ask for him to help us. He knows we didn’t kill him.”

“Don’t mean to be such a debbie day downer or whatever, but we are 60 miles from the hospital that he’s in, and he’s dead.” said Steeler. “Even if he does wake up, what chance do we have of getting there before tomorrow night and making sure that our camp wins the money. We have quite a reputation.” Suddenly, a van pulled up.

“I will.” said David. “I can tell, you three didn’t kill the guy.’ All three of us ran into the van.

“Start the car!” yelled Zipline. Suddenly, two cops came out.

“Come out with your hands up!” they said.

“Sorry.’ I replied. “We’re very innocent. And it’s a van, Zipline.” David immediately took off. Let me tell you, it didn’t take a short amount of time to reach the hospital. David took a major scenic route. In fact, we spent the night sleeping at a gas station and painted ou van black, so the cops wouldn’t recognize us. David has a red van to have people stop to look at it when he goes by. In the morning, we bought some food for breakfast. It tasted like heaven because of the food I’d been eating for the last four days. Finally, we arrived at the hospital. It was not fun. A cop spotted us.

“Hey you!” he said. “Get back in your jail.

“RUN!” said David. “Run for your lives!” The cop chased us. We grabbed a map of the hospital and followed the direction for his room. When we made it there, we went in and locked the door.

“Barricade all of the doors and windows.” said Steeler. “I’ll find Christopher and revive him with a shot.”

“Where did you get the shot” asked Zipline.

“Found it at the crime scene.” Steeler said. We barricaded all the doors while Steeler looked under the covers of the bed.

“He’s not there!” said Steeler. “You led us to the wrong spot!” The cops banged on the door.

“No I didn’t.” I said. “There is a duct leading to the dying room, which he’s in. We’ll wake him up from there.” I pointed at the duct. I opened it, and all four of us climbed into it. we closed it seconds before the cops burst in. I locked it too. We climbed down a few floors and ended up in the dying room. I opened the duct and we ran over to Christopher.

“On one, two, three, NOW!” yelled Steeler. He injected the shot into Chris and woke him up from a dreamless sleep, though he was in pain.

“Need to defeat Mr. Beasley and get him arrested for this.” said Christopher.

“Could you explain it in a full sentence this time?” asked Jake.

“Fine.’ He replied. “Jake, you need to stop Mr. Beasley, for causing my possible death. he is a cruel man.

“That was what you were going to say to me?” I asked. “Yes! I knew it! We have proof that we’re not behind your injury. And you’re alive!”

“Don’t mean to be such a Debbie day downer or anything, but who’s going to rescue us now?” asked Steeler.

“I will.” said a mysterious voice. “That would be me.” He walked across the tiled floor and arrived at Chris.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I,” he replied. “Am your long lost father.” Chris’s eyes shot open. He had been told that his father had been killed in a car crash many years ago. His father piloted a chopper for a living (and still does, even at his old age).

“I can rescue you 4 and take you someplace far away.” he said.

“That’d be great, but we need to go to the Campetition to save your son’s camp and pay for his injury.

“Fine.” he said. “It’s an hour away, but I can manage it. We’ve got to go right now.’

All of us jumped through the window and into the helicopter. Our battle was about to begin

 

 

Chapter 10: This is it!

 

Some time passed.

“Okay.” I said. “Drop the three of us on the night field so we can get the flag. make it be in the middle. David and you can wait in the audience.” In 15 minutes, we were half a mile over what looked like a battlefield.

“Drop the ladder down now.” said Zipline. He dropped in down, and we climbed down it and jumped onto the battlefield looking Capture the Football game.

“Okay.” I said. “We are going to get the football and bring it back to our side. Steeler tagged a few intruders.

“And let that be a lesson to you!” he said.

“Maybe we should just try to have fun and show camp spirit.” said Zipline. Steeler was already running to get the flag.

“I think we should do the same.” I said.

“Fine.” he replied. “I’ll catch up with you in a minute. someone’s trying to steal the flag.” Then, I came face to face with Girl.

“Oh hey.” I said. “How’s it going?”

“I’m calling the cops!” she yelled. “You’re here to hurt us aren’t you.”

“No I didn’t kill him.” I replied. “In fact, they’re stealing the pin.” She turned around and tagged the guy, but I was gone. I eventually caught up with Steeler, but not before being spotted by 100 kids.

“GET HIM NOW!” said one of them. I thought I had seen his face before. I ran away from the m just in time, but it required me run up a ramp to get away from them. I met Steeler over by a tree.

“Look!” he yelled. “Gale’s in trouble! We have to rescue him before he gets destroyed!” I agreed with him, but also knew this. Gale is always the one who always wants to be a hero and get a girlfriend. I knew he  was trying to save Millie, but he now was about to die. I ran over to him, but then I saw, that it was not some kid who was  trying to get him it was…

“Mr. Beasley wait!” said Steeler. “Aren’t kids the only ones who can play? And please don’t use a staff to tag him.”

“Actually, Camp Directors are allowed to play!” he said. “Maybe you should bring yours. Oh, you don’t have one!” He went back to destroying Gale. Just  then, I grabbed him and rolled both of us out of the way. He missed.

“You’re back!” said Gale. “You three didn’t try to kill my father did you?”

“Come back here you little…” he yelled. Mr. Beasley put his staff in the ground again. In this time Zipline flew to the prison to rescue the captives using a pair of glider wings he found in the helicopter.

“You’re free to go people.”  he said.

“You didn’t kill our camp director did you.” he said.

“Of course not.’ He replied, “ This camp is love and life.”  He tried to fly away, but when he did, a  kid shot his wings.

“That’s not fair.” said Steeler.

“C’mon Zipline.’ said Gale. “I wanted to rescue Millie.”

“We’ll that’s sweet of you.” we heard her saying.

“Let’s get the pin and outta here!” I said. We ran to get it.

“Oh no you don’t!’ yelled Beasley. He threw the staff at my leg. I knew it still didn’t count as an out, luckily, but  my leg killed me. I had to drag myself. right before I was tagged, I painfully jumped to my feet I ducked my head to avoid a kids hand.

“Help!” I yelled. Zipline and Yoko ran over to me and picked me up to my feet. They dragged me back.

“I knew you to didn’t kill Gale’s father.” said Yoko.

“Gale’s dad is alive.” replied Zipline. Gale grabbed the pin and dodged like 5 hands in a row. In capture the football, you could throw the pin to get it back to your side. Steeler knew too.

“Throw it here!” said Steeler. Gale threw it and Steeler caught it. Steeler ran a few yards, and  then threw it to Girl, who sneered at me. She ran 6 yards and threw it to Zipline, who caught it. My leg was feeling better now so I let go.

“Somebody stop this madness right now!” yelled Beasley. Zipline threw it to Hags. Hags threw it to Tom. Tom threw it to Pom. The other team had trouble, but got smart.

“Everyone get someone to run after!” said one of them. This forced us to move. Yoko caught it. He  ran 9 yards and threw it but was pushed to the ground which made his throw go off.

Mr. Beasley laughed. Then, the words echoed in my head. “Jake, you must  defeat Mr. Beasley.” Of course. He knew I could win this, he knew Steeler would wake him up. I stopped standing around and ran up the same ramp I did before. This time, I jumped in front of the pin, about  to touch the ground, and did something remarkable. I kicked it up in the air, keeping it off of the ground with my still injured leg, which hurt a lot more. I fell to the ground and closed my eyes  tightly because of the throbbing pain I was in. I still heard what was going on. The ball was flying onto my side with Millie all set to catch it  and be the hero. Gale was putting it all on her. His dad, his camp, and his future. It was all in Millie’s hands. I opened my eyes. Millie had her hands out and…… she …… missed!

“That was all you could do!?” asked  Mr. Beasley. He was evilly happy and angry. He loaded  my friends up into the team jail mat.

“ATTACK!” he yelled again, causing crows to fly away. Campers busted onto our side like a swarm of bees.

“Get that flag!” he yelled. We were hopeless.

“It still going!” said one of our campers. It indeed looked like it. Now, it  was on Gabby. The pin was 5 inches away from the ground. Campers attacked her, but out of all odds …… she …… caught the pin.

“We did it!” yelled Gale. “We WON!” We Were cheering like crazy. It was done.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” yelled Mr. Beasley. Suddenly, the cops came in.

“Nobody move!” one yelled. I suddenly jumped up and ran.

“You’re all right kid.” he said. “All three of you are off of the hook. Of course, I’m ignoring the fact that you started a mass breakout, but we caught em all.”

“The cops grabbed Mr. Beasley and dragged him away.

“What are you doing?” he said. “Take your hands off me this minute. I hate you dumb kids. You will pay for this!” The crowd booed him out of the ring, and we won the money.

“I can’t believe it!” said Millie. “I knew Gabby would have my back!” The good thing was,since badguy was arrested, we owed nothing to their awful, awful, awful, awful camp. We spent the money on the well being of Gale’s father. Dad came.

“Are you okay?” asked.

“Never better.” I said. “Just one thing. can we do this camp like every summer?”

“Yes!” he said.

“Yes!” I screamed in joy.

Epilouge:

 

So, my summer turned out pretty great. I made a lot of friends and David had a good time at the camp reception. Gale’s dad recovered within a couple of weeks. Millie ended up hanging out with Gale a lot more. Finally, when I went to my list at the end of summer, I didn’t follow my ideal list, but I completed a greater one. One I could say, I had a perfect summer with them. They were like family to me.