Underneath The (Sur)Face

The begining (3/4)

"Yess!" Everyone shouted in union enthusiastically. Adam clapped his hands and rubbed them on his pants before speaking.

"So, this first game will mainly depend on how well you can work together as a team. But before we get into it, is anyone here afraid of the dark?" he asked with raised eyebrows while scanning the raised hands, which included Saskia's hand.

"But are you ready to get rid of your fear with your friends and try to win for your team?!" he asked more tensely as he spread his arms wide dramatically.

Most of them agreed, but some of them looked unsure, just like Saskia, who was now firmly holding Katja's arm with wide eyes.

"You don't have to worry! You won't be in complete darkness, but this game will take place in the forest and there won't be as much light as here. And to ease your fear a little, this game will be over before the sun goes down because you're all such a smart grown kids and you'll do it excellently!" many children beamed at what Adam said and it was felt that the atmosphere in the air became more relaxed and happy.

"I can't wait! I have never played a game in the forest before. Sounds interesting, don't you think?"Savannah said excitedly, clapping her hands while looking at the three of us.

"Yes, and I believe that we will win!" I added, throwing my hands up in the air in a winning stance. Katja agreed and Saskia said nothing.

"From now on each of you sticks to your team.Now follow me!" Adam said and started walking towards the forest between the two cabins and everyone followed.

"I can't wait! What are we going to play?" Savannah chirped and turned to Rosana with a questionable expression.

"I can't spoil the surprise." Rosana replied with a smile on her face and looked to see if everyone from our team was following her before turning back towards the forest.

Then Savannah and I started teasing each other by pinching each other in the stomach and other parts of the body while Katja tried to convince Saskia that there is no alien in the forest who could abduct her to another planet. I really don't know where she got the idea that aliens could be here but I didn't really care.

After a few minutes we stopped in front of two trees that had various decorations on them such as glitter, colored ribbons and simple drawings. Both trees are connected by twine on which there is a poster with the inscription "Search for a Squirrel" and it was also embellished with nice lettering and drawings.

"Are we going to look for squirrels?!" Saskia said looking at Katja in awe as she waited for her answer.

"That would be too hard. I guess we'll be looking for stuffed squirrels in the forest." over what Katja said, Saskia lowered her head in sadness. She is a big animal lover. She wanted to take her lizard to this camp as well, but our parents didn't let her, luckily.

I leaned towards Katja and put my hands on each side of my mouth and when I got close enough to her ear I whispered. "If you told her that we were going to look for real squirrels, she would voluntarily go to the forest. Now she will be afraid."

Katja just shook her head on my statement. "Do you rather want her to be disappointed then that we're not actually going to look for live squirrels?"

"Fair enough." I spat back even though she had a logical way of thinking. Adam suddenly stood between the two decorated trees with some kind of bag in his hand and everyone turned their attention to him.

"So now that we are all here we can start our first game! You can tell from the game name that we are going to look for squirrels. And now be careful, we don't go looking for live squirrels because we would be here until morning." a few disappointed sights were heard from a few kids and Adam continued.