Camp Little Roar - Chapter Two

Luke rolled over in his bunk, the light was just starting to creep through the window, it made the cabin start to feel warm and colored it a light yellow. Luke pulled his sleeping bag off of him and got up and quietly headed to the cabin washroom. The washroom was a small room with a sink with various shelves, a mirror and a toilet. There was a small window above the toilet which let light in so he could see. Luke rubbed his eyes trying to wake up and looked in the mirror, for a moment he was surprised to see his tiger face staring back at him. Luke took a deep breath remembering that he was now the tiger mascot of cabin three for the rest of the summer. He brushed his teeth and tried to wash his face, scrubbing harder than usual even though it didn’t change the effect of the tattoo pens. Luke rinsed off his face and took another deep breath, making faces at himself in the mirror. Eventually he tugged at the tiger costume, he was sewn into it and couldn’t take it off, he undid the snaps at the bottom and awkwardly repositioned his underwear until he could go. Luke took longer than he thought but finally finished up, washed his hands and opened the washroom door.

When Luke looked around some of the others were lying in their bunk, Simon and Alex were already awake.

Alex jumped down from the top bunk with a loud thump waking the rest of the cabin up. “Okay, let’s get started on today’s activity!” Alex was holding the envelope Marcus had given him yesterday, it had already been opened. “Today is a simple canoe race, each cabin get’s two canoes and we are only going to the other side of this lake and back. It’s not a really far canoe ride but it’s about the overall score, when a canoe reaches the finish line you get placed, the lowest overall score wins.” Alex pulled out a map of the lake and put it on the table. “We can lower our overall score by showing team spirit and standing out among the crowd.” Alex explained the rest of the rules.

“Okay so we need to have three people in one canoe and two in the other, if that’s the case we pretty much guarantee the three person canoe will be slower.” Simon was thinking out loud and he looked at the group. “Luke, have you ever canoed before?” Simon asked.

“Only a couple times with Alex.” Luke answered.

“Hmm, that means whoever is with Luke should be experienced, he should also be in a three person canoe since he is the lightest, probably in the middle as well.” Phil suggested.

“Alex is probably the most experienced since he has been coming here an extra year.” Greg added.

“Okay let’s do Simon, Luke and myself in one. Then Phil and Greg will take the other one since you two work well together?” Alex suggested. The group nodded since the plan made sense and needed to be divided up anyway. “We also get to do a coin toss with the owl cabin for the first pick of canoes, as long as we aren’t last it’s really fine.”

Alex opened up a wardrobe to reveal five matching outfits, brown shorts and a brown T-Shirt with the cabin number on it. There were also four scarves and four hats to go with them, Luke noticed this is where his hat and scarf came from yesterday. The group changed into their outfit while Luke tied his scarf and put on his hat, the group looked pretty good together.

“Okay let’s grab something to eat before the event, breakfast should be starting soon so let’s head over to the kitchen.” Simon suggested.

The five of them headed out of the cabin and made their way to the kitchen hall. Luke felt weird seeing all the other campers in matching outfits while he still looked like a tiger. “Hello cabin three welcome to the kitchen hall” Erica said to the group. “I see you still have your tiger proudly representing your team spirit. Grab a tray and get some breakfast.”

The five of them collected their breakfast, just some eggs with toast and some juice. The Kitchen hall had many long tables inside with cabins sitting beside each other. “Luke, go sit with the mascot’s they are over in the corner. I am going to sit at the leader’s table.” Alex said to Luke.

“Oh, okay.” Luke replied and headed for the mascot’s table. At the table were only three other kids, the girl who is from the lion cabin wearing her ears on her hat. The boy who was dressed as a monkey who also had ears on his head and lastly was the owl boy, today he opted for only an owl wing cape, which he wasn’t wearing yesterday. Luke sat down at the table and the three of them stared at him.

“Hello everyone, I’m Luke.” Luke said timidly, he felt a little more at ease with the other mascots, even if he was overdressed.

“I see the tiger cabin is still up to their tricks, you guys have been going all out for a couple years now. But you’re new this year aren’t you?” The girl from the lion cabin said. “My name is Karly.”

“I’m not sure what you mean, I’m new to all of this.” Luke replied

“Tiger has been bringing the competition since the prank war a couple years ago.” The boy from the mankey cabin said. “I’m Grant, nice to meet you Luke”

“Well we all know who won that war, don’t we?” The boy from cabin six, the owl cabin, said. “My name is Zack, I was in the tiger cabin in my first year with Alex.”

“You and Alex were in the same cabin? I thought they put you back with the same team?” Luke said.

“Well they made an exception, you see Alex and I got into a pretty big prank war with each other. That war created the concept of mascots for the camp to begin with. In fact it looks like what you're wearing is just the start of this year’s fun. Is Alex even letting you wear normal clothes?” Zack looked at him and smiled. “I think he just might have a few new tricks this year.”

“Well, no not yet, you see he made this from scratch and it’s not easy to take off.” Luke told the group.

The three of them giggled at Luke’s misfortune, Luke was getting a little shy but he wanted to know more about why mascot’s were added to the camp.

“We know Alex is behind Luke’s getup here, he would win most of the mascot points, if it weren’t for Zack. Luckily he is the only ten year old in his cabin so we have an edge. We all know the only other physical competition in their group is Simon.” Karly told the group.

“Hey Cabin Three is great, don’t underestimate us!” Luke retorted loudly, just because his cabin is going all out on his silly outfit didn’t mean he was going to let the other cabin’s trash talk his.

“I see Cabin Three have themselves a cute spunky tiger cub!” Zack said loudly and grinned at him, standing up and looking down at Luke. “The Owl cabin has three ten year olds, do you really think you can beat us in the canoe race!.”

Luke stood up from his seat and looked up, he was getting excited. “Absolutely! We will win in all categories!” Luke exclaimed, Luke noticed most of the Kitchen Hall were staring at them. He heard some whispers from others. Luke not wanting to wait addressed the crowd. He had been feeling uneasy about arriving at camp and trying to fit in, but Alex crushed those ambitions by dressing him up as a cartoon tiger. “Cabin Three will beat all other cabins today! We have the best team at camp and everyone else better step up their game!”. The crowd started laughing at him, he didn’t look intimidating at all in his cute tiger outfit. “Cabin Three, let’s go.” Simon, Greg, Phil and Alex all stood up and headed for the door, Alex was grinning ear to ear like his plan was working perfectly. Just as they walked out Luke stuck his head back inside and shouted “ROAR!!”. That set the Kitchen hall into a frenzy of laughter, Luke spun back around and met up with his cabin mates.

“Luke, what was that!” Phil asked in an excited tone.

“That, my friends, is exactly why Luke is our mascot!” Alex said proudly. “He is one of the most competitive kids I know, he has never backed down when someone challenges him.”

Luke, now outside the hall, felt very embarrassed. “I can’t believe I just roared at them.” The four others laughed at the once confident and spunky lion cub turned shy and sullen.

“The other cabins will be out for us now though, what is our actual plan to win?” Greg asked.

“Same as before, it’s the best setup for the canoes.” Alex replied.

Luke, now recovering from his embarrassment, finally asked. “How many points do we get for team spirit in this event?”

“Well it’s like another rank, the team who shows that most ranks 1 - 6, like the race placing whoever comes in first gets the least amount added to their total.” Alex explained.

“Then I have an idea, let’s go back to the cabin!” Luke then led the group back.