The Summer at Camazotz

Nine

I don't even realize how lost I am in our conversation until I hear Jordan's voice say, "Missing something?"

I turn my head and watch as he walks closer, Timothy's hand in his.

"Or someone?"

I bite my tongue to keep myself from making any snide comments in front of Timothy. I kneel down so I'm eye level with Timothy who, of course, has a huge smile plastered across his face and is tugging at Jordan's arm.

"Timmy, you running off on me now? You know I'm better than Jordan, don't you?" I don't even have to look up to know Jordan rolled his eyes at me. I smile.

Timothy lets go of Jordan's hand and practically throws himself at me. I reach under his arms and lift him in the air, spinning him in a circle, before putting him down and running a hand through his hair. "You ready to play?"

"Yes!" He's beaming. "What are we playing?"

Before I can tell him that I don't even know, Caleb blows his whistle and all eyes turn to him.

"Coyote and Wolf Cabins listen up! You will all be playing predator and prey. We will be splitting you up into prey and predator. There will be more prey than there are predators to make the game more fair. Your counsellors will choose two of you from each cabin and they will also join you in the game, acting as natural disasters. If a predator tags you, you will be out and will follow the trail back out here and wait until the game is over. The same goes for if you are hit with a ball by Carter or Tammy. And no, they don't hurt. If you are a predator we will give you a bandanna to tie around your wrist to indicate to everyone else that you are one." Caleb looks around, probably searching for any confused faces. "Good?"

The kids nod and squeal with excitement.

Until they realize that they all want to be a predator and all I can hear is "Pick me!" from every direction.

Tammy chooses Vanessa and Sarah from her cabin. I choose Mason and Ethan.

The four campers go to Caleb for their bandannas and I almost forget that Jordan is still standing behind me. I turn around and face him. "Don't you have campers to be watching?" It comes out more sarcastic than harsh, but Jordan isn't bothered.

Jordan laughs. "Damn. Secrecy changes you, huh?"

I shrug. "Well if you told me—"

He walks backwards as he says, "Not happening Carter, but nice try." With that he turns around and jogs back to his kids, leaving me just as clueless as before he showed up.

☼ ☼ ☼

I may have hated running in octopus, but now I'm more scared than anything else to run in predator and prey. Sounds dumb, I know, but for real—there are tree stumps and roots everywhere. It feels like a game of hopscotch that I am failing at miserably.

And I don't even have to run from anyone.

Tammy and I split up a few minutes ago deciding that divide and conquer would be our best strategy. I'm not sure if Tammy understands that we're playing with kids though. She is set on taking out every last camper. The last thing she said before we split up was, "Whoever takes out more kids gets dibs at dinner. Loser eats one food of winner's choice."

It seems like a lame bet, but it's not one of the. . . better meals tonight. For one thing, they're serving chilli. And I know Tammy will make me eat that chilli on account of my reaction earlier.

Basically I have to knock out more kids than she does.

What did I think? Easy peasy. Except these kids are like mini Houdinis and it's been about five or ten minutes and I haven't thrown a ball at anyone.