Day 2 (II): Cooking, Being Cooked

The torch was lit. Bright orange fire surrounded the end of the torch instantly. Half of the face of the bonfire lighter was clearly lit, the other half remained in the shadow. Li Meng marched briskly with the torch in hand. The fire tore through the darkness like a meteor. This was a hide-and-seek between light and shadow.

He stabbed down the torch so it contacted with the gasoline soaked fire wood. No good, however. That bundle of wood did not produce a bonfire. What was more, the combination of the malevolent spirits of heat and light was climbing up the torch and soon it could lick Li Meng’s hand. One of the teacher in-charge, Mrs Lim, took the torch and brought it up. When the danger was dismissed, the torch was brought down once again and was rolled against the wood. A bonfire was born, which was dancing wildly, and was reflected in pupils of every HC members. At the same moment, their hearts were burning by excitement and joy.

“I announce the HC camp fire night is now open.” She said sweetly with arms wide open. We all cheered. I was staring at the fire, which puffed sparkling ashes continuously. R. L. Stine had described bonfire camps for so many times in his famous Goosebumps series, including Welcome to Camp Nightmare, Ghost Camp and The Horror at Camp Jellyjam. Starting a bonfire seemed to be so easy, and the campers could eat toasted hot dogs around the bonfire. But I disagreed with it now. (I shall discuss Goosebumps another time. Somebody said it is scary. Maybe as scary as Roald Dahl’s series. You get my point? Just like Anthony Horowitz has written in one of his short stories, a school principle banned Goosebumps because it was too scary. Okay, Mr. Horowitz has a weird sense of humor.) Okay, digressed. To prepare for the night, we all had put in tremendous effort.

For our camp fire team, we had to carry benches from the high up Sport Complex. For cooking team, we had to ensure good presentation and hygiene of the food. And obviously Alpha did not meet Ji Teng IC’s standard. He told us that we must clean the mess tin before cooking the next dish. Otherwise the residue of the previous dish would become carbon. “Seriously, do not eat it. It is inedible, and it could lead to cancer.” He said in a formal manner, with a slight British accent. I suddenly realised the one who instructed us during night walk the day before should be him too. Although the food was cooked in a rush, all of us enjoyed the meal. I especially liked the cheese wrapped hot dog. The corn grains were nice too. The rest liked Tang Yuan (Rice Ball) a lot.

Lastly, we were asked to clean up. Ji Teng IC “did not want to see any sign of human existence”. But this Delta Vice-Captain (Sports) decided not to punish us for the wastage of food as we cooked too much for the judges.

The night was not going to end this way. After a CSI in the college which lasted until midnight, we started our Night Physical Training. We were stormed by rough shouts once again. The unity of the 16th House Committee was challenged once more.

I am not going to say the politically correct statements in this entry because they are also politically well-known as well. But we certainly failed to abide to these principles under such great pressure. For the monkey bar assignment, we managed to pull through. But not so lucky for the rest of the tasks. For the dragon push ups, I have to say, my seniors were really nice. They kept lowering the standards, from making a circle to a straight line, and then, as we still had difficulties about doing it, they separated the boys and girls. We were scolded for both overestimation and underestimation though it was such a paradox. But this unorthodox way of training did have effects on us. It made us realise how teamwork was of vital importance, and how hard to make a team work as well. Demoralised slightly, we proceeded to the next task, which was – disastrous…

Day 2 (III): Silent Pact is coming soon…