Nooses

My feet slap the rough path, irregular beats resounding in the large space. I have a goal in mind. The bike shed. It holds what I need: Rope. I'm terribly behind schedule. When one of our allied cabins fell back on their promise to supply rope, we had to take matters into our own hands. We couldn't use the ropes shed; it was swarming with the enemy cabins.  

They were preparing to leave on their overnight trip. This is our only chance to strike first and start the prank war. They wanted to prank us on our trip, but they hesitated. I know why now. We have around half an hour to complete the prank, in and out of the cabin soundlessly. It sounded impossible even before we couldn't find rope.

I swing the key from its chain. The key glints in the gentle glow of moonlight. That key took hours of me talking, convincing and persuading the head bike staff it was a good idea to give an irresponsible kid like me the bike shed key for a few minutes alone at night. The ridged piece of metal is the most important item in my life for now. 

I hear other slapping sounds coming from behind me. I turn.

"Charlie?" I inquire to the darkness.

"I figured another pair of hands couldn't hurt," my cabinmate responds. We're jogging now, passing the volleyball courts. The bright lights stand out from the dark plane, adding colourless hues to the woods behind us. Charlie's curly mane of hair looks jet black in shadow, and his face is a smooth collection of white and shadowed skin. I'm sure I look the same. He passes me without effort. I trundle forward with the grace of a rhinoceros in high heels. Thanks so much, flip flops, for breaking after a day's use. Giving up, I take off the mangled shoes and run barefoot, trying my hardest to ignore the pain of rocks, earth and sticks grazing my feet. We unlock the shed. There it is, wrapped up in coils. We run back to the cabin, my feet protesting the whole way. I enter with Charlie, holding the rope like a prized kill I brought home. I hear shouts of "Finally!" and a stray cheer.

We get to work immediately. Charlie and Max know how to tie regular nooses, but making multiple nooses on only one rope is something new.

Within about five minutes, Charlie and Max have it figured out, and they start teaching others. I gathered two of our cabinmates to go out front and look out for any person of authority, and another group to make KD from a hot pot plugged into the bathroom wall. I go with the group sneaking through the village to the girl's cabin. We get there, and count the teddy bears without getting caught. Perfect. Seventeen cuddly bundles of fur lie on various beds, innocent and unaware of what would happen. We come back and tell the Noose Tiers our numbers. I'm running from spot to spot, brimming with adrenaline and nervous energy trying to organize people at the top of my lungs.

Miraculously, things come together. The Noose Tiers finish attaching the teddy bears, and I start working with Charlie to organize people into Hangers, Flashlights, and Lookouts. Nobody wanted to be a Flashlight, so I dropped my position and offered to be one. All we had to do next was talk to our staff in for the night. Arye, our staff in tonight, bunks under me. He doesn't speak much. We tell him we will only be gone for five minutes. He considers for a second, but he gives us the green ticket. And now we wait. The offending campers are gone on their trip. They're probably asleep by now in their tents across the lake. Their staff will leave at 10:30 for a mandatory staff meeting. That's when we strike.

We run all together, taking a side path. The stomp of our feet is reduced to a muffled hush in the grass. We're all dressed in black, an unlikely unit. We are brothers of war. Light bounces off the gravel, turning our path to victory into glittering diamonds. I breathe in. The air is cool, refreshing, invigorating. I'm taken by the crystalline scene. We stand on a hill above the cabin. I'm staring out towards the lake carrying moonlight over its cresting waves. Trees reach out from the ground and hug the vista, not wanting to let go of the beauty. Shadows engulf everything, accenting and highlighting. I'm so caught in my world of sparkles and darkness; I barely noticed I was falling behind. I run to my teammates.

Inside, things run smoothly. The lookouts position themselves. The light rolling in the windows doesn't provide enough illumination, as expected. People on Flashlights pull out their miniscule floodlights, and within seconds, the cabin is lit up by intercrossing bars of light. Each Flashlight follows a Hanger. The Hangers hold sections of the nooses and move their way up towards the rafters. They fly, weaving through the rafters. Jumping, diving, swinging; it's a rare sight of wonder. I look around the cabin, making sure everyone knows what they're doing.

When the rope with the noosed teddy bears is weaved across the rafters, I pull out the sign. It's a large sheet of paper, with "K5" splayed across. We attach it to the rope, and then we cheer and give the scene a once over.

We call our Lookouts, and run outside again. We follow the same path, a little more unhinged and fluid, but still together. The achievement knit us together a little more. We get back and throw aside our black hoodies. I check the time. We completed the prank in three minutes and twenty-five seconds.

Not bad.

A/N: Everything in this story is true (or at least pretty close to it). My cabin, K5, engaged in a prank war with another cabin, K4. They intended on starting the war (whoever starts a prank war gets imaginary bonus points), but failed to do so. The "Nooses" prank we pulled off was talked about all over camp the next day, with people thinking it was both hilarious and horrific. K4 and K5 continued the war for the rest of the summer, although they never could top "Nooses". Charlie, Max, and Jackson were some of my fellow cabinmates and currently go to St. Andrews. Nobody was hurt in any way, shape, or form because of any of the pranks, although some of the teddy bears needed weeks of psychotherapy to help them recover from the ordeal.