Be careful who you send to represent you

It was a first for the Auburn United Methodist Church; they were going to send their first group of kids to church camp. The congregation was all a twitter. These four young people were joining 125+ others for a week at the ocean. They were so proud. They had great expectations for these two teenage boys and two teenage girls. This was the congregations opportunity to impress the Western Washington Greater Church Council. It was a heady experience. They should have given a little more thought about their choice of representatives.

The church campgrounds, the counselors, their fellow campers, and the general camping program would never be the same.

It all started innocently enough. It was the second day of camp. The four Auburn kids had settled in well. Sure, Tim the big boisterous one was totally tone deaf and insisted on singing as loud as possible. The counselors just switched from playing guitars to the piano in the hopes of drowning him out. Matt seemed a little shy but boy could that kid draw. They only wished he would stop drawing charactures’ of Jesus doing weird and strange things. The girls, Sandy and Michele, seemed nice enough. It was hoped that Sandy would stop wearing really short shorts and halter tops since the all the boys were getting distracted. The boys were probably hoping that that halter top would lose its battle with staying tied. Michele got along well with everyone. Maybe just a little too well.

They just didn’t prepare counselors for what happened that afternoon.

“Where are Tim and Matt?” Sandy said to Michele while they were sitting on the back porch of their cabin. It was free time. Aka, “let’s give the counselors time to organize the next function.

“They went to take a shower”, a devilish gleam lighting her eyes. Sandy knew that look. She and Michele had been friends for two thirds of their 15 years.That look meant things were going to get interesting real quick.

“Bummer, I’m bored”.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I’ve got an idea.” Michele was the idea gal. Dragging her friends into adventures should have been her middle name. She really wished it was because she hated her middle name. Sandy knew that whatever Michele had thought up this time would have the potential of eliminating her boredom.

“I hope it doesn’t involve going to the beach. I just got sand out of places I don’t even want to think about.”

“No, it doesn’t involve the beach. It involves Tim and Matt.”

“They are in the shower.”

“That’s the good part. Let’s sneak in and take all their stuff. Clothes, towels, the works.” Michele said excitedly. She was warming to her topic. “This will be great fun.”

Sandy looked a little dubious, “How will they get to their cabin for more clothes it is all the way across the camp?”

“That’s the great part. We will tell all the girls that we can find that we are taking the guys'stuff. When Tim and Matt peak their heads out a bunch of girls will be watching. We’ll give them their stuff back then”. (Or not Michele thought). This sounded like one of Michele’s better plans. It was jam packed with entertainment value. Sandy was all in.

The girls tiptoed into the boy’s bathroom/shower room very mindful that either Tim or Matt would catch them. Overcame their queasiness about the grossness that is a boys bathroom while gathering up all the the boy's things, clean and dirty, tossed the boy’s towels over their shoulders and made their way out of the building.

By this time the few girls that Michele and Sandy relayed their plan to had gathered their own crowd. There is nothing like the possible embarrassment of boys to spread like wildfire through a camp.

Michele and Sandy took their places on the back porch of their cabin because it faced the shower and waited. The shouting was the first indication that they had that Tim and Matt had discovered their clothes missing. The quick peek out the door by Tim was the second. What occurred next Sandy could not have foreseen. Michele, pretty much counted on it.

Tim and Matt streaked out of the shower building buck naked. They ran across the whole campground heading straight for their cabin. Stunning the audience of 15 to 18 year old girls, the boys who happened to wonder why all the girls were standing around near the shower, the camp counselors and the minister who had just gotten out of their meeting.

Breaking the stunned silence was the sound of two girls laughing their heads off.

Sandy was not in the least bit surprised by the choice Matt and Tim had made. This was just like them and Michele would have known it.

Love

M