Snipe hunting

For girls camp this year we were not allowed to do any pranks whatsoever on anybody. Of course I was mad and I did whatever I could without it being called a prank. On the second day I was about to go insane because some of the girls were really bothering me and they needed a little bit of a scream. I called all the YCLs together to have a meeting. We all desperately wanted to go snipe hunting but even the first years knew what that was. We decided to keep the same idea but give it a different name. We flipped through our camp books and found pictures of the western rattlesnake and the poisonous sumac. We called it the western sumac. We wanted to go snake hunting but some of the girls were terrified of snakes... too bad. After we made a name we decided on what it is. We decided: it is a gray bird that can't fly because its wings are too stubby for its body weight and it runs slowly because of its body weight. It is a late night early morning bird because it is afraid of the light, which gave us the reason to have the girls keep their flashlights down so they don't poke around in the bushes where I would be hiding. There is a YCL named Caci Hunter and she is freakin' hilarious. She has such funny facial expressions that convinced us to choose her as the huntress. The next problem was sneaking out. The leaders would never condone that behavior except for one of them. We went to my mother (she's the best!) and she helped us plan our escape! We all kicked the girls outside to go on a hike with Emilea and the rest of us got really busy. The main problem was that the girls were all on the top in the loft and the leaders slept right under us. The cabin wasn't very nicely built and everywhere you stepped the floor and the stairs it would creak really loudly. We picked out places where we would all sleep and the direct paths we would all take. Then we went to the stairs and it was a lot easier to map out. We just had to stay on the far left side right against the wall and put our weight on the balls of our feet. Then we had to decide the paths we would take outside. There were two paths that ran from the cabin to the meadow and the one that was really long and slightly inclined was the one the girls would go on. Since they had flashlights they wouldn't trip or anything on the rocks. Another YCL named Emilea came with me down the very rocky and very steep hill to race to the meadow and into the bushes before anybody else arrives in the meadow. My dad let me borrow a cow elk horn to use as the sound. I know that sounds a little obnoxious, but when you pressed the horn lightly it made a squeak and we decided it was perfect. We waited in the bush for about 5-10 minutes and then we saw the first flashlights. During those 5-10 minutes in the bush I was freaking out. Earlier that day one of the Priesthood people said he saw 4 poisonous snakes right beside the pond and at first I thought he was lying. But a few minutes after he told me I saw one myself. That is a good explanation as to why I was a little spastic. We also saw a bear but I wasn't too worried about that because it wouldn't come in the middle of a bush. I started making the 'western sumac' noises and then Caci came over and Emilea shoved the stuffed animal into her pillow case. I forgot to tell Caci earlier that day that somebody put logs in front of the bush and apparently she didn't notice them. When she got it she tried to make it look like she was wrestling it and she totally tripped on the logs. That somehow made it look so much more realistic. I kept honking the horn to make it sound like the bird was now in distress. When the other YCLs called us out of the bush I saw three of the girls crying. I couldn't help but laugh, even though I knew it was incredibly rude. One of the girls that was crying took all her friends and raced to the cabin. They went upstairs and starting planning ways to get us back and to physically hurt us (which was a stupid idea because then we had proof to show the leaders that they played a prank on us) but it was all just big words. Those girls got all mad at us and it woke one of the women up. This lady wasn't a leader but she definitely acted like she was. She came up and started yelling at us (I was surprised none of the other leaders woke up) and we didn't tell her anything. Then she went to the other girls (the ones that were mad at us) and they totally spilled the beans. The lady came back to us and started threatening us. What a jerkwad. Then she went back to bed and let us get some sleep. I went downstairs to report to my mother. She said that the jerkwad was totally waiting up for us. She did that the night before as well but then she stayed in the living room. This time she went into the bedroom, which had a fan in the window and it muffled our steps. Good thing she didn't notice this. But I went back upstairs to go to bed (by the way, we left to go snipe hunting at 1 and it took about 30 minutes, then I stayed outside another 30 minutes looking at the stars. They were amazing!!) So it was about 3:30 when we all finally fell asleep. And of course the next morning we woke up to the mean lady telling all the leaders on us. She was telling them they needed to punish us for sneaking out and not behaving. Then the camp director came upstairs to me and her daughter (the girl I was sleeping next to) and she asked us the story. I tried to comfort her and said that we made sure that nobody got hurt and snipe hunting was just for fun. It is tradition. Amazingly that made her feel better! And then we accidentally said that some of the girls cried. Then we had to explain that only one of them was mad at us (the other two were actually happy we went hunting! They said it was a good experience!) and that made her feel better. That was the only fun thing about camp and it almost made it totally worthwhile!