It was a dark, scary, spooky and special day. I was at a sleep-away camp called Eagle Fern Bible Camp, and everyone was gathered in the chapel talking and laughing. The camp director came up onto the stage and announced that we were going to play a night game. Everyone was so hyped up. 

“The game we are going to play is called Mission Impossible!” shouted to director to get the kids even more hyped. Once he said that, all I could hear was a ring of kids yelling and screaming. After about 10 seconds of screaming, the director quieted everyone.

“The way the game is played,” explained the camp director, “is that the campers are going against the counselors! You guys have to grab a popsicle stick from the lodge, and then go to one of these locations.” 

While the director was explaining the locations, I secretly was getting super excited.

“Once you deliver the popsicle sticks to the location of your choice, you have to retreat back to the lodge. But! you have to retreat back without getting caught by the enemies, who are your counselors. If you get tagged by them, you have to give them your popsicle stick, and that is minus one point for your team and plus one for the counselors!”

This sounded like a lot of fun! The director dismissed everyone to go to the lodge and get their popsicle sticks. Everyone ran outside excitedly. 

Once outside and with a popsicle stick in my hand, I got together with a guy named Ethan and his brother Preston.

“Let’s do this boys!” exclaimed Ethan enthusiastically.

We decided to give our first sticks to the challenge course people. 

Now, before we continue this story, I must tell you about this overgrown trail that led to the lodge. There is a hill behind the zipline waiting area, which is basically like a box, and at the end of the trail, is sharp, scaley gravel. This trail is very secret and not many people know about it. So remember the description that I’ve told you about.

We hurriedly ran up the big hill that led to the challenge course. While we were on the hill, we encountered one spooky counselor. He charged at us and tagged Ethan but Preston and I dodged the counselor and got up the rest of the hill and made it to the challenge course. Once we gave our sticks to the guy, we ran back down to the lodge to get more sticks.

When we had our sticks, Ethan decided that we should go to the zipline. So we dashed to the hill hoping we wouldn’t see, or get caught by one of the counselors. But, sadly, our hopes were crushed when we saw an enemy on the hill. We tried to get around him, but he was too fast. Ethan, Preston and I all handed over our sticks to the counselor and went back to the lodge to acquire more popsicle sticks. Once we acquired them, we decided to try again and go to the zipline. This time, Ethan had to go to the bathroom, so it was just Preston and I. We trudged up the hill as fast as we could, luckily there were no enemies, and we got to the zipline place. We turned in our sticks and, of course, we celebrated. Then it was time to go get more sticks. But instead of going back down the hill and risking being caught, I had a different idea. I remembered the secret overgrown trail that led to the main gravel road. It would save us time, plus, there were absolutely no counselors on the trail. So we decided to take the trail. It was very steep, and we had to take our time. When we were about halfway down the hill, I was feeling great. The smell of pine cones were in the air, the sharp prickles of the branches on the trail were scratching me. I decided to start going a little faster down the trail. Preston was hot on my tail. Apparently he was feeling great too. When we got about ten feet away from the gravel road, I spotted a counselor. He was lurking by the big hill, waiting for kids to come down that way. From what I could see, he was kind of a big guy and didn’t look to be in very good shape. 

“I think that we should just sprint past him and outrun him,” whispered Preston.

“Ok, that sounds like a good idea,” I replied.

We moved closer towards the gravel road until we were about five feet away from it. I whispered, “Now!” but before we take two steps, I tripped.

I could feel the cool wind on my face as I plummeted down onto the sharp, small rocks that made up the gravel road. I braced for impact and then, CRACK, I was on the ground. I felt a throbbing in my knee and when I reached to touch it, I felt a divot in my knee surrounded by flesh. Then I heard someone crying. But before I could look around to see who it was, I realized that it was me who was crying.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay?” I heard a counselor shout as he ran over to me. I couldn’t answer, I just layed there crying. My thoughts were jumbled. Where was Preston? Had he seen what had happened? What happened to my knee? Is it broken? 

My thoughts were interrupted when I saw a figure standing over me. I realized that it was the big counselor that Preston and I had seen guarding the hill. He picked me up and started carrying me. When we were halfway to the nurses office, he was panting and had to set me down to rest. Fortunately, my counselor, Mitch, arrived and carried me the rest of the way to the nurses office. 

Once we got there, the nurses checked my knee out. After they were done cleaning it, they decided that I was going to need stitches. The news crushed me. It was Thursday night and Friday was the best day because we got do the challenge course. The nurse called my mom and she said that she would be here tomorrow morning and take me to the doctor. I was so sad. Why had I ran down the trail? Why was I so stupid? I shouldn’t have done that! 

Mitch carried me up to our cabin and I hopped over to my bunk. About ten minutes later, the rest of my cabin came. They were all hyped up and exhausted from the game. Ethan and Preston came in and saw me. They came over to my bunk and asked if I was okay. I said that I was and that I would leave tomorrow to go get stitches. They seemed sad also. 

Not only did I have to leave tomorrow, but I would also miss the pillow fight and dance party in our cabin. It was our cabin versus another cabin. I decided to watch it happen. Everyone looked like they were having the time of their lives. Except me. I felt like a boulder had just landed on my knee. That was all that I could think about. The pillow fight went on for another ten more minutes until the other cabin left. I wanted to go to bed. Reluctantly, so did everyone else. I crawled into bed, waiting for the morning to come.

I was awoken by loud music playing. “Classic Mitch,” I thought. “Always waking us up with loud music.” I got dressed and hopped on my good leg down with the cabin to breakfast. The breakfast was pancakes and sausages. I ate my until I was full and that’s when I saw my mom driving into the parking lot. I was relieved to see her. When she saw me she exclaimed, “Wow, Aidan, that is a nice cut.” I was helped in the car and before we left, the camp director prayed for me. It felt really good. While I was helped into the car I was thinking about what happened. I decided that I had been foolish and had led my pridefulness get the best of me. Mom talked to me while she sped off to the doctor.

I learned that I should be more careful when it is dark. I was letting my pride get the best of me and it ended up with me getting stitches.
My knee healed up nicely and after two years, I still have a big scar, and am always reminded of when I learned my lesson why being foolish can lead to bad things.

                                                             THE END