The Great Pickle War

    "Brad!" I yelled accusingly to the blonde surfer dude sitting at the table across from me. We were in the packed Dining Hall, eating our lunches of pulled pork sandwiches.

     "What?" he responded innocently.

     "You pickled me didn't you?" I looked over at my shoulder, and sure enough, he had. Sitting there on my shoulder were three dill pickle slices. I slowly lifted my head to where he was sitting. Knowing him, he wanted to laugh, but he held his poker face. I waited until he started eating again to lean over and put the pickles on his shoulder. He looked at his shoulder and then at me, with laughter shining in his eyes.

       "You put pickles on my Bob Ross shirt."

       "So did you." I responded. We were both wearing our Bob Ross shirts, so in this regard, we were equally guilty.

      "I don't want these pickles," he said trying and failing to put the pickles back on my shoulder.

      " I don't either." I said pushing both him and the pickles away again. I guess he gave up, because he finally tossed them to me. "Hey! What was that for?" I exclaimed with mock rage.

     "I told you I didn't want the pickles."

     "Me neither!" I said with the same mock rage, tossing the pickle slices back at him. Looks like we got involved in a pickle war. Again. Oops.

     "Hey Tia, what's with the pickles?" A girl, Lara, asked, jolting me back to reality.

    "It's a running joke from staff training." I replied, slightly embarrassed that I had been involved in a food fight. With Brad. In front of my group. I'm such a bad role model.

    I heard a chorus of "Oh"s from around the table of girls. I'm also pretty sure I heard one girl whisper yell "Ship!" , but I don't know who. All of the other counselors already ship Brad and me. That's what I get for playing Truth or Dare. Ugh.

   I sat back down after my little pickle war with Brad and finished my lunch. The girls started cleaning up our table and I promised that I would wipe down the table.

   "Hey guys! Meet back at home in 20. Make sure you have your bible, full water bottles, and empty bladders." I announced to my group of teenagers.

    The girls walked past me saying "Ok" and "Thanks T," as they hurried to get to their cabin. I watched the last of our group walk out of the Dining Hall and started toward the counselor's cabin.

    "Hey T, what's next?" I heard Brad ask as he rushed over to where I was, so that he could walk with me.

    "I think we are scheduled for the platform team building thing."

    "Oh. I knew that."

    "What should our story be?" I asked, honestly not having any creative ideas.

    "Well, we are wearing our Bob Ross t-shirts," he said with a mischievous glint in his eye.

     "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

     "Yeah. We should save Bob Ross."

     "And his happy little trees."

     "Yam!"

     "Yam!!!" I said, high-fiving my best friend. We were going to "save" my favorite artist and do our job. I was ready for an afternoon, and a week of changing lives at the best place in the world. Camp Eagle.