Moments of Magic

In the Wild

A little more than a week after my first cross country meet, the middle school staff called all of us to a meeting.

"It is tradition for the middle school students of this school to go on an overnight camping trip with some staff members." Ms. H, the Vice Principal, said. Ms. H was a stout woman who often wore pencil skirts and heels. The meeting went on as several faculty members gave us tips on packing for our overnight camping trip.

An overnight camping trip! I've never spent a night away from my family before, let alone a sleepover. My mom was very overprotective. On top of that, I've never been camping before. So this was going to be fun.

When I went home that day, I told my brother, Theodore, about my overnight camping trip. Since my mom was in California for a few days, Theo was the one in charge.

"Oh, really? Then, you better start packing, Mia. Mom said you could borrow her UVA duffel bag." Theo noted as he brought out a medium sized blue and orange duffel bag with the UVA logo on it. My mom had bought it in Charlottesville when she went to visit my older brother, who was then a senior in college.

So I spent the whole weekend packing. Monday morning came, and I was dragged out of bed by Theo at 6:30 a.m. He then drove me to school, where the others were preparing for departure. Ms. H then had all the middle school students get on the bus. Afterwards, the bus left.

It was a two hour drive, and normally, I would sit in the car and wait and wait and wait...but that was when my mom was driving to Charlottesville. This time, however, I was sitting next to Kate, a fellow seventh grader. She strongly resembled Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. I spent the whole ride gabbing with her. We eventually arrived at our destination, which was a farm that took up loads of space. There also was a cornfield, which we weren't allowed to go through.

During the entire morning, the chaperones had us participate in team building activities, which wasn't really fun. After lunch, we had to set up our own tents. I was to be rooming with Mikayla and Kate. Before long, evening came, and I found myself in the midst of a wild and wacky capture the flag game...or, that's what the chaperones called it. It was so dark, I couldn't see my own hand.

"You need any help?" A voice behind me asked. A sixth grade boy named Tom shone his flashlight at me. He had really blonde hair and was wearing sports clothes. What else is new?

"Hey, Tom, I could really use your help." I said.

"Okay, let's go."

"I don't have a flashlight, though."

"I might have a spare, but it's in my tent. C'mon." Tom and I then went back to the camp. The adults were huddled together, attempting to start a campfire. A minute later, Tom then tossed me his spare flashlight. We then proceeded to capture the flag.

Along the way, we met two other sixth grade boys, Jack and Andy. Andy had blonde hair just like Tom, and Jack had dark brown hair. They too were wearing sporty clothes.

"I think I found something!" Andy cried and went ahead, along with Jack.

"Really?" I followed Andy and Jack with Tom trailing behind. We found ourselves in front of a wooden bench. There was nothing on it except for a blue pool noodle.

"Darn it!" Andy groaned. My team was supposed to be looking for the red and yellow pool noodles.

"Well, we've gotta keep searching." I shrugged. Before long, it was time for s'mores. I had a really hard but fun time roasting my marshmallow and making my own s'mores. After s'mores, all of us played a few campfire games. After that, Ms. H had us all retreat to our tents for bedtime. As I was heading back to my tent, I saw Kate run up to me.