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Shelly Y.

Olympics

I was on Pink and eleven other kids were too. It’s a nice, soft color, but not my favorite for victory. Wouldn’t gold be better? I had no choice but to stay on Pink because I was one of the captains. Maybe this bright, symbol of love, would bring my team a win this year. Or, it would be a day of miserable events at the New England Music Camp Olympics.

When one hears "Olympics" they often think of the huge sports events held every two years where teams from all over the world gather together to compete for the gold, silver, and bronze. New England Music Camp (NEMC) holds its own Olympics every year. However, these events are not quite the same as the real Olympic events.

I skimmed through the list of my teammates to see who would be my co-captain. It was one of my best friends, Kevin! Kevin is an optimistic, funny guy who made the campers love the NEMC Olympics. Nevertheless, to win the NEMC Olympics, I would have to be lucky with a really committed team.

The day of the Olympics arrived. Each team had to dress up in its color as much as possible to win spirit points. As a result, everyone ran around their cabins in the morning to find various clothes items to add to their team spirit. As a girl on team Pink, it was no problem. But on the boys’ side, there were some issues. I looked for as much pink clothing for the boys to wear as I could and I later realized that the spirit was in their clothing, but was absent in their minds. My team consisted of misbehaving boys and immature girls. The destiny of our victory was going to be a mystery.

To begin the competition, each team had a flag. My team’s was a plain, pink towel strapped to a mop stick. The captains lined up by color on one side of the camp to get ready for the Olympic procession. As we ran through the camp waving to our teammates, the Olympics theme song was blasted from the loud speakers. There were lots of cheering as the American Flag was raised and as we filed into the lodge for breakfast.

As breakfast concluded, I received my schedule of events. Kevin and I gathered our team together to have our first pep talk of the day.

"Team Pink, are you ready?" Kevin and I yelled with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, I guess so," they replied dully.

Then Kevin added, "You can’t have that attitude! If we want to win we need lots of energy and teamwork, Ok? We can beat the other teams if we work together and knock down the events one by one. What do you say?"

"This is a dumb event. It’s going to be so boring," Carl told his friends, who nodded in agreement. We hadn’t even started the competition and my teammates were already unhappy. The day was going to be a total disaster and I was going to have some trouble leading my group to victory.

Our first event was waterballoon volleyball with a linen sheet against team green. As we held the sheet, we had the first throw.

"Slacken the sheet! It's too tight. Ok, let's aim for the right corner. On the count of three, pull the sheet really tight. One, two, three!" Was green going to be able to migrate to that corner to catch the balloon? NO! My team won the point! We continued to play for fifteen minutes. By the end, our team won the event despite the awful attitude because of their willingness to try and give us a win.

My spirits were beginning to rise but then they dropped when we arrived at the Canoe-Tug-Of-War. None of my teammates weighed more than 140 pounds. Our opponent however, team Orange, had strong boys and girls. We sent Jon and Alex to canoe and as the whistle went off, the two teams canoed as hard as they could to pull the other canoe onto their side. The whistle blew again. Kevin jumped on me as I stood there staring at the winners. I could not believe that Pink won. We were 3 for 3, and we could come home with the gold! Well, more like a free ice cream.

We had won every event that day completely unexpectedly, however Team Clash was not far behind. Jello Wrestling was the last event of the day and Kevin and I were nervous. For each team, a girl and a boy would wrestle in a baby pool filled with water, ice, and red jello. The competition was separated by gender and whoever could get the other person to touch a part of their body outside the pool first, won the match. My team chose Kevin and me to be the wrestlers. Kevin, who was about 140 pounds, was first to go, and he had to wrestle a 200 pound camper. I was scared, but surprisingly, he managed to get his opponent to touch his hand on the grass. Kevin came in second place for the boys, and I came in third for the girls. Team clash had a first and second place. Was that going to bump my team from the gold?

For the rest of the night, my anxiety was building up for the results of the day. As I paced back and forth nervously, the awards ceremony was on its way and the announcer slowed his words when the top three were to be called.

"In third place, with thirty-seven points…team WSOI!" Cheers for the team filled the building. My heart was racing at 100mph to find out if my team got first place. If I had calculated correctly, Pink should have had forty-five points.

The announcer continued, "In second place with forty-five points… team…" Well, it was over for us. My team did great and I could not have been more proud that they rose to the top even though they did not want to work together. They never gave up to give us those victories. Nevertheless, I was upset and tried to disregard the appoaching cheers from team Clash with their first place finish.

The announcer repeated, "In second place, with forty-five points… team Clash!" There were cheers from my team and team Clash. Why couldn’t team Clash wait to be called to first place to cheer? But, then Kevin said to me, "Shelly, we won the Olympics! We get the gold! I mean, free ice cream!" I was so confused until the announcer called, "And in first place, with forty-six points, team PINK!" I sprung up from the ground and gave Kevin and my teammates a huge hug. We won the free ice cream and the day was not as miserable as I had expected.

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