Summer Surprise

Summer Surprise

Written by Coco Illustrated by Cocoa It is time. Time to wake up.

Ali wakes up and the room that she was in is dark. She thought that she was at home. Isn’t today the first day of summer? Tomorrow is the day where she will go off to summer camp and she has not started packing. She moves around, but this room is not her bedroom. There is no alarm clock. The mirror in the room is large and almost reaches the floor unlike the mirror she has on her desk.

On the desk, she finds a small piece of folded paper. It reads: Go outside and explore. Have fun and there is a surprise for you. Go find it. :)

She is puzzled and thought for a bit. Then, she turns, opens the door, and walks out. She is expecting a short hallway with doors to other rooms, but it is something else. She enters a long hallway. There are cobwebs along with pictures of people she does not recognize. Judging by the sounds of the creaking boards underneath her, she guesses that it has been a while since someone fixed this house. At last, the hallway ends in a door. When she opens it, she accidentally rips it off its hinges. Looking behind, (which is a long dimly lit hallway, with the door that she walks out of not in the distance) she wonders if anyone see that, but of course not. The hallway is quiet. She then exits.

Finally, she reaches the outdoors. She is expecting to see other houses with people, but she steps into a forest. However, she can only hear rustling leaves.

With only a path continuing forward, she follows that path and ignores what is going on in the background. To be heard, she would rather go to the summer camp she herself signs up than rather being in this current situation.

BAM! Because she does not notice where she is going, she steps into a big, black iron gate. She pulls the gate apart. Behind the gate is a regular house, except with doors leading downward into the ground, a path leading to the left of the house, and a path leading to the right side of the house.

Wait, isn’t that the sounds of footsteps behind her? She must act fast before the person following her catches up to her. Without a moment’s hesitation, she runs to the doors leading downward. After climbing in, she closes the door behind her and locks them in place with a bar. Slowly, she walks down into a room and sees… a man sitting in a chair in front of a lot of computers.

At the sounds of her footsteps, the man turns around and smiles at her. “I see that you have walked into the right room. You pass the test. Welcome to summer camp.”

“Wait, that is it? No explosion, no one following me, no crimes to solve?”

“Nope, this is the surprise. A day before the first day of summer camp, we take the people who applied and put them in a different environment. Then, we wait and see if they can come to their senses and come to this place. The test is simple. You must find your way here from the location that we dropped you off, hence, that weird building that you came out of.

You must have a lot of questions. I will answer one of them, these computers are cameras installed around the location that we drop the campers off. I am checking them to keep notes on campers whether they will come to this building. Because you lock the doors behind you, the other campers will go to other rooms in order to finish their test. Well, their first tests. Go through the door to your right and your journey will continue. I know you have not packed yet. At the end, the cabins will be filled with what you need. This will not be the last time we will meet. Good luck.”

Ali walked through the door and the next part was too easy for her, she had to solve puzzles in order to unlock the door to the next room. She passed three rooms before arriving at the last part of the test which was to test her quick-thinking and her flexibility.

The first room is memorizing where the land mines are, and she must avoid stepping on them. The second room contains a moving log. She must time her ducks to avoid being hit by the swinging log. The third and final room has a rope obstacle in which she must cross in order to get the other side of the room.

Once she opens the door, she is greeted by a crowd of people as she walks through the corridor that they make. At the end of the room is a

table piled with food and drinks. Forgetting her nervousness, she starts to eat and enjoy herself.

Someone approaches her. It is the man that she ran into earlier. “Hey, I’m the camp director. Name is Alan. Here is the map of the campground and a key to your cabin. Your cabinmates are eager to meet you.” She finishes her meal, takes what Alan gives her, and walks off.

After walking for four miles, she reaches her cabin. After letting herself in with the key that Alan gives her, a girl with streaks of green in her hair notices her and walks up to her.

“Your bunk is over there with your stuff. Settle in quickly. I heard there is going to be a campfire tonight. I heard that some of the boys here are really hot.” She introduces herself as Allison.

Allison introduces the names of the other girls in the cabin: Mell, Kelly, Alice, and Rose. Everyone nodded when they were introduced, except for Rose who looked up from her book for a quick second before going back to her book.

All of them seem friendly. Ali looks forward to the summer camp which is supposed to train her to become a good sleuth in one and a half months, but she is not happy when one of her cabinmates will always talk about the boys here. How will she concentrate on what she needs to learn if Allison will always talk about boys?

Anyways, she was glad that she knew what the surprise was, it was a series of tests to pass before she entered the camp. She hopes that the summer camp will be a good one and she will enjoy her summer.