Camp Little Willow

Chapter 18

     Monday is a disaster from the start.

     When I get to the girl's cabin in the morning Zoe's eyes are blood shot and most of the girls are refusing to get out of bed. Normally by the time I get to the cabin, they've been up for an hour or so and are ready for the day ahead.

     "It's been the worst night," Zoe tells me as she rubs her eyes. "I couldn't get any of them to sleep until gone eleven, I think letting them have a second s'more last night was a bad idea."

     "Why don't you go back to our cabin and have a nap? We'll be fine with the girls," I say to Zoe as Tabitha and Aisling try to wrestle the blanket away from Annie and Daisy.

     "No, I'll be fine," she yawns. "I'll power through and then have one hell of a sleep tonight." Even now Zoe seems to have energy in her.

     "OK, last one out of bed will have to spend the day with Jen and not doing our awesome activities!" As soon as the words leave my mouth, the girls are springing out of their beds and rushing to the bathroom. They may not want to get out of bed, but they definitely don't want to be left out of our activities.

     "Nice, Cass." Zoe nods her head approvingly and then runs her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten it out.

     By the end of breakfast the littles seem to have more energy in them, but they also seem to have some new found attitudes.

     "This game sucks," Annie grumbles after Zack finishes explaining the rules of tag rugby.

     "You haven't even tried it yet, Annie." I roll my eyes beside her, she's been difficult about everything so far today. She didn't want to wear any of her clothes, not even the ones Daisy suggested. She didn't like any of the breakfast choices, despite eating them all the past two weeks.

     "Don't need to try it to know," she mutters back.

     "OK, well you can sit out until you're ready to join in then," Zack tells her in a firm voice. From what I heard at breakfast, the boys were no better for him last night and he definitely doesn't have the energy for anymore arguments.

     "That's so unfair!" Annie folds her arms across her body before stomping to a log from last night's campfire. She gives all the counsellors evils as she stews on the log.

     The rest of the littles watch the exchange, eyes wide and mouths open. We haven't needed to discipline anyone up until now; it's a first for all of us, but it seems to make the littles pay more attention to Zack as he splits them into teams.

     We've used sticks to mark out a large rectangle on the beach and Jonah managed to find a bag of coloured vests you can stick the velcro tags to. We explain the rules one last time, Jonah and me demonstrating, before Zack places the rugby ball in the middle of the pitch and yells, "On your marks, get set. . . Go!"

     The older littles show no mercy, pulling tags from the younger ones before they can comprehend what to do when they catch the ball. It's actually a lot harder to watch than I was expecting. One by one the younger littles collapse into a fit of tears, their lack of sleep catching up with them.

     Zack calls a break after ten minutes and gathers the counsellors together.

      "Cass, can you talk to Annie?" I nod my head. "Thanks. Everyone else choose a little and try to get them to stop crying."

     I sit down beside Annie who has been pretending not to watch the game. I don't say anything, I can sense that she wants to speak and if I start then she might just ignore me.