Camp Little Roar - Chapter Four

Luke and Greg jump out of their canoe, Alex, Phil and Simon were waiting at the shore for them and pulled their canoe in.

“We came in second place, so we aren’t doing the worst.” Alex explained. “We have plenty of time to catch up.”

The five of them sat on the beach waiting for all the other canoes to trickle in, Marcus was then going to go over the rest of the afternoon plan. The last group to come in was the elephant cabin.

Marcus walked up to everyone and addressed the beach. “Great job this morning everyone! This concludes today’s activity. This afternoon you have your choice of activity, however everyone will need to complete some chores for the camp, there is a chore list in the main hall. Lunch is a drop in and pickup meal you can do at your leisure and dinner is at six pm.” He then blew a whistle to dismiss everyone.

“So what is the plan now?” Simon asked.

“I think we can just chill for a bit, we don’t know the next activity and we don’t get points during free time. We should sign up for some of the easier chores though.” Alex said.

“What kind of chores do we need to do?” Luke asked.

“Simple stuff, cleaning the mess hall, setting up activities, collecting firewood. Things like that. The first couple days the counsellors make the meal, after that there will be a rotating schedule and we will need to make it.” Phil explained to Luke.

Luke was surprised, after all the competitions, costumes and games this sounded like normal summer camp activities. “So what type of stuff can we do in our free time?” Luke asked for more details.

“It’s up to us I suppose, we could go swimming, but that’s only during certain times of the day. There are arts and crafts in the main hall, usually all day. We could practice survival skills if we organize it. Or just hang out in the cabin or around the area, someone usually has a game or something they are playing.” Alex told them. “Personally, I’m going to take a nap”

“Well I think Greg and I are going to go to one of the halls to see what there is to do.” Luke said, winking at Greg.

“Okay, then Simon and I will sign us up for some of the chores.” Phil said. “I’ll probably just hang out in the cabin after that.”

The five of them split up, Luke and Greg headed to the building labelled classroom. Greg opened the door, they were the only ones here. The room was like a classroom Luke would have seen at a school, there were enough seats for all the campers, a blackboard at the front and a desk for a teacher. Unlike a school the walls had pictures, art and material from many different years and there were many supplies around the room.

“This room is used to teach campers different skills, we will meet here before different activities that require instruction. Or if the weather is bad we use this room to do arts and crafts since it has enough seating for everyone. In the end there are some books we can reference, it is like a small library.” Greg explained to Luke. Greg walked Luke to a workstation on one of the walls to reveal a sewing machine. “We can use this machine, there should be some fabric around here as well, what should we make?”

Luke took a moment and looked through some of the fabric, he wanted to make something simple to make, but really noticeable. “How about we make everyone a tail? We could then take their shorts and sew them on!” Luke said

“Okay sure!” Greg agreed. He pulled out some tiger print fabric and the two got to work on the tiger tails, they used Luke’s tail as a reference and the two of them got to work making four tails. “Do we really need me to wear one?” Greg asked.

“Well no, but then all five of us will be matching. You should have a white tiger tail though.” Luke insisted.

Suddenly the classroom door opened, Greg and Luke looked over to see Erica the camp counsellor. “I see we have two busy tigers working on some project. I just came here to get some sign up sheets for some lessons we can have this summer. What are you two doing?” Erica asked as she walked over to them.

“Well we thought we would play a little prank on our cabin mates and make them tiger tails.” Greg said sheepishly.

“Well I’m sure Alex will find it funny at the end of the day. He loves pranks afterall.” Erica giggled and so did Greg. Luke felt like he was left out of an inside joke.

“What do you guys mean? I heard Luke and Zack pranked people over the last few years.” Luke asked.

“Give me a second Luke and I’ll show you.” Erica said. Erica went over to a bin full of envelopes and pulled out one. Inside were photographs of previous campers. Erica searched through the pictures until she found the one she was looking for. “Here take a look at this, this was taken last year.”

Luke took a look at the picture and saw Greg, Simon and Phil all smiling. There was also another boy he didn’t recognize. In the centre though was Alex. Alex was wearing a tiger costume. Like Greg had mentioned earlier it was like footie pajamas with paws covering his hands and feet, there was a tail dangling behind him, the tiger costume had a hood that went over half his face to seem like tiger eyes. On top of his head were two tiger ears. Luke noticed that the feet were covered in dirt and dust from wearing it around camp and not wearing any shoes. Despite the embarrassing outfit Alex was holding his hands up and pretending to roar. Luke smiled at the picture and handed it back to Erica. “I’m not surprised he never told me about this, can I get a copy of this picture to take home?” Luke asked.

“Sure, I can make that happen when we print out this years.” Erica told him

Erica collected some papers from a desk and some clipboards. “Remember to sign up for some activities!” She remanded them.

Luke and Greg finished off the tails, they had four of them. Now they just needed to wait until the others were out of the cabin without their shorts. For now they will keep them hidden in Greg’s backpack. The two grabbed some lunch and headed back to the cabin.