Water Balloon Competition
"Come on! We're going to be late for the annual camp water-balloon toss!" Megan cried.
"Oh imagine that, late for the water balloon toss, what a tragedy that would be," Alec said snidely.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun!"
"I'm ecstatic," Alec muttered dryly.
"Surely you don't want to pass up the chance to prove to the other cabins that we're superior?" Megan asked slyly with a slight eyebrow raise.
"I can't wait." This time Alec's voice held a tiny bit of interest.
Megan grinned. "Let's do this."
Katie's fingers twitched in anticipation. She watched as Mr. D, Chiron and Rachel each climbed into a special box seat, looking down into the arena. Then Mr. D began giving the rules.
"Alright," Mr. D announced in a not-too-thrilled voice. "The annual water balloon toss is today. Now, personally I wanted the cancel it but Chiron insisted we still have it. So let me just give you the rules so we can get on with it. First, two people from different cabins will start of with the water balloon. The objective of the game is to make sure you don't drop the balloon, because if it breaks on your side, your cabin is out and someone from another cabin will take your place. Once every cabin has sent one person in, we will see who the winner is." Dionysus pulled two pieces of paper out of a hat. "Now, the first two cabins that will be participating are the Nemesis cabin and the Hermes cabin."
Katie walked forward since her cabin had nominated her to be the player. "I'm going wipe the floor with the Nemesis camper," she muttered. Despite the fact that this was just a water balloon toss, it got very intense. For the campers it wasn't just a water balloon toss, it was a chance to prove that your cabin was the best.
Katie crouched into position as the Nemesis camper threw the balloon towards her. She caught it with ease and threw it back.
"Take two paces back," Mr. D said, as he took a sip from his diet coke.
Katie caught the balloon again. "Is that all you've got?" she taunted and lobbed the object back.
"Oh, I'll show you what I've got," the Nemesis camper hissed as they took two more paces back. She flung it with a little more power but Katie easily caught it and sent it back before the Nemesis camper could regain her balance. The water balloon broke on the ground. A few shrieks arose from the Aphrodite cabin, even though the water was nowhere near them.
"You are so gonna pay for that!" cried the soaked Nemesis camper.
"Do your worst!" said Katie, but she instantly realized that she would regret it.
"Nemesis cabin is out!" Mr. D announced. He drew another name out of the hat. "Next up is the Ares cabin."
Katie cracked her knuckles loudly as a rather large camper took his place across from her. "Let's do this."
Katie got to start off with the balloon so she gave it a gentle toss, just to test the Ares camper. He caught it easily, and with a grin threw it back. It sailed over Katie's head and she was forced to sprint backwards. She rolled, and was just able to catch it before it hit the ground. The Hermes cabin erupted in cheers.
"Watch your throws," Mr. D warned the Ares camper without much enthusiasm. "If the balloon had broken, you would have been out, not her."
"Yeah, watch your throws," Katie grumbled, and threw the balloon back.
The Ares cabin caught it again. Katie expected him to throw another far one, but instead he threw it with all his might (which was a lot) right in front of her. Katie was caught by surprise and tried to dive for the balloon but it broke on the ground and she got soaked.
"Hermes cabin is out!"
Boos came from the Hermes cabin, some protested that it was an unfair throw, but the competition continued on.
"Next up is the Aphrodite cabin," Mr. D said.
All the Aphrodite campers started shoving each other towards the line, none of them wanting to participate. Eventually one was forced up to the line, but as soon as the Ares camper threw the balloon she shrieked and ran away, not even attempting to catch it.
"Aphrodite cabin is out!"
The Aphrodite campers all crowded around the one camper and sympathized about her ruined hair and make-up, even though absolutely no water had been spilled on her.
"Aphrodite campers. They're so amusing," Crystal chuckled to Katie. "Oh, by the way, nice job. Even though you got out, that Ares camper totally threw a cheap shot."
"Yeah, I know," Katie rubbed the back of her neck and gave a sly grin. "He's totally going to get ice in his bed tonight."
The next camper up was from the Poseidon cabin, and Katie and Crystal watched as he won ten rounds against campers from Demeter, Dionysus, Hecate, Iris and some other minor god cabins. Eventually everyone began grumbling, so Mr. D pulled the Poseidon camper and announced that the water balloon toss would continue without him and then at the end whoever was winning would go against him.
"Next up we'll have the Hades cabin and the Hephaestus cabin."
Megan elbowed her half-brother. "Come on, Alec, I did it last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that, and the year before that. It's your turn."
Alec grumbled, but eventually stepped up to the line. "Let's just get this over with."
Chants of "go Isaac!" arose from the Hephaestus cabin as a tall, dark brown-haired camper stepped up across from Alec.
"Game on!"
Alec started and gave the balloon an unenthusiastic toss, which Isaac easily caught. They threw it back and forth a bit until they were ten paces apart. Then Isaac gave it a powerful toss. The Hades camper disappeared in a globe of darkness and then appeared where the balloon was falling, catching it easily. Angry cries came from the other campers.
Mr. D gave an annoyed I-couldn't-care-less sigh. "Alfred, you have just cheated."
"It's Alec, Sir, and you never specified that we couldn't use our powers," Alec replied.
"You know it's in the rules Arthur, don't pretend to be unaware. You can't just cheat," Mr. D responded. "Hades cabin is out! Next is the Athena cabin."
"Alright, Micaela!" Katie and Crystal cheered as their friend stepped up to the line.
Isaac tossed the balloon to Micaela, which she effortlessly caught. Then she gently threw it back, which was easily caught by her opponent.
"You can do better," Isaac grunted.
"I can," Micaela responded coolly, "I was just testing you." She caught his throw with ease and then held the balloon for a few precious moments. "Now, if I throw it at a seventy-five degree angle . . ." she muttered to herself, her voice trailing off. "Alright!" She gave the balloon a fancy toss and it wobbled a few times before coming down just out of Isaac's grasp. The balloon broke on the ground, followed by more shrieks from the Aphrodite cabin.
"Hephaestus cabin is out!"
"Nice throw," Isaac said.
"Thanks," Micaela grinned. "I am an expert."
"Next is the Apollo cabin!" Mr. D boomed.
"Go get her!" Katie whispered to Crystal as she stepped up to the line.
"No hard feelings, but I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're my friend," Micaela stated. "No offence, but I want to win."
"I want to win too, so don't expect me to drop the balloon just so you can win," Crystal replied with an indignant sniff. Then she grinned.
Micaela started the toss. Each time Crystal threw the balloon back she tried it a different way, but Micaela seemed to anticipate her every throw. Then it was Micaela's turn and she threw it expertly. Crystal barely caught it, but it broke in her hands.
"Apollo cabin is out!"
"I knew that you'd catch it that way," Micaela grinned, "so I knew that if I threw it in a particular way it would break when you caught it. No hard feelings."
Crystal gave a half grin. "Well now you have to win, because you got me out."
"I'll do my best." Micaela gave Crystal a firm handshake before stepping back to the line. Her next opponent was a brown-skinned camper from the Zeus cabin.
Micaela caught all of his throws easily, and for five tosses he was barely able to catch all her throws.
The Zeus cabin began chanting, "Dilhan! Dilhan!"
"What a pity your fellow cabin members are going to see you lose," Micaela taunted. Usually she wasn't that mean, but this was different. She was competitive. She caught the camper's next throw effortlessly and even gave a yawn. "Really, this is too easy. Is that your best shot?" She threw the balloon back and he caught it by the neck, nearly dropping it.
"Not by a long shot," Dilhan murmured. A slight crackling came from his fingers. He threw it back and Micaela caught it, but she could feel energy within it readying it to break. She quickly threw it back. It exploded in mid-air with a crackle of energy directly above Dilhan, soaking him completely.
"What? That was so unfair!" Dilhan cried. "That was supposed to hit you!"
Micaela scoffed indignantly. "You totally just cheated! You electrocuted that balloon!"
"I did not!" he protested.
"You so did! I saw you do it!"
"I would like to point out that the Poseidon cabin has been cheating this entire time," Alec said unemotionally from where he stood watching.
The campers of the Poseidon cabin were conveniently all retying their shoelaces and whistling.
"You have no proof!" one camper protested.
"Hello! Water balloons? Of course they've been cheating! How else could they win every single year we've had this event?" Alec pointed out.
"That has nothing to do with it!" A Poseidon camper protested. Suddenly another group fight was starting.
Dionysus gave an annoyed sigh that seemed to say 'why do I waste my time with these stupid kids?' and threw his hands up. "Alright, have a large water balloon fight for all I care, but if I have to come down there you'll all be sorry," he said.
"WATER BALLOON FIGHT!" cried the campers and instantly ran to their cabins, where they had hidden a bunch of extra water balloons in case of this very event.
The Poseidon cabin managed to get their hands on the stock of water balloons first and flung some towards the Apollo cabin.
"Bows!" the lead Apollo camper commanded, and the Apollo cabin un-slung their bows and pointed them towards the sky. "Aim, loose!" The Apollo campers shot off their arrows with expert aim and pierced all the balloons before they even got close to them. The water splashed down on the Aphrodite campers, who all screamed and cried about their ruined designer shirts and then scuffled away.
The Apollo campers where just in the process of congratulating each other when suddenly the Poseidon cabin caused the water on the ground to turn into a wave and soaked them all.
Alec stepped back and summoned some skeletons. "Soak the Hephaestus cabin," he commanded. The skeletons each armed themselves with a water balloon and flung them towards the campers.
Suddenly shields started spiraling out of the Hephaestus campers' watches, wristbands and bracelets. The campers raised their shields and formed a perfect tortoise formation, causing the balloons to break on their shields without getting a single person wet.
"Whoa," Crystal whistled, totally transfixed by the Hephaestus cabin's impressive display. She was so oblivious to everything else that she didn't notice Katie sneaking up behind her until she broke a water balloon over her head.
"Bombs away!" Katie laughed. "Sorry, I couldn't help it! You were just staring and it was the perfect opportunity." She flinched as the Apollo campers turned towards her. "Don't soak me! The Hermes and Apollo cabins should work together! We could get you all the balloons you guys need and attach them to your arrows."
"Fine, but be quick about it!" Crystal said. Katie smiled and sprinted towards her cabin.
The Demeter cabin shielded themselves with vines as the Hecate campers used their magical abilities to constantly pelt them with balloons.
The Athena campers each threw a balloon with precise aim, however the Ares cabin didn't even flinch as the balloons broke against them. The campers then returned fire, along with the Nemesis cabin, forcing the Athena campers to scatter.
Katie and her siblings sprinted back towards the Apollo campers. "These are all the balloons left," she reported. "We checked every cabin's supply and only found eleven. Here, we attached them to your arrows."
"Thanks," Crystal smiled. "Apollo cabin, prepare to hit the Zeus cabin with a barrage! Loose!" A little too top-heavy, the water balloon arrows wobbled in the air, but still managed to make to the Zeus campers. The Zeus cabin didn't dare use electricity for fear of frying themselves. They scattered in all directions.
Soon the word spread that all the water balloons had been used up. The campers started laughing and talking together.
"And that concludes our annual water balloon event!" announced Dionysus, from his box seat. "Now all of you back to your cabins. In case you had forgotten, you're still being punished."
The campers grumbled to themselves as they dispersed, but no one dared to argue with Mr. D. He was a god, after all.