Camp Guilty

My mother always told me that I had "one of those faces" that always made me look guilty - even when I hadn't done anything. I didn't really get into a lot of trouble growing up, but I sure had my moments; when I went out, I went out with a bang, bang, bangity bang ba-bang!*

In grade 8, there were two fairly major trips that we looked forward to: the Quebec trip and the camping trip. Every grade 8 class for decades had been going to the camp that our school district owned; it was the traditional 4-days and 3-nights 'right of passage'.

We all arrived excited and ready to do all the camping-oriented activities... but what was really the best part? The nights by the camp fire, or more specifically, cozy co-ed nights by the fire. It was a huge deal for most hormonal pre-teens, such as ourselves.

The first day when off without a hitch.

We did crafts.
We orienteered.
We went rowing.
We did lame-ass group trust exercises.
We sung songs around the campfire - awe, so snugly.

Of course, the only guy I wanted to snuggle with on that trip was the counselor, who was 21 and mighty fine. What can I say? I had good taste. What's 8 years difference anyway? When he's 48, I would be 40 - no problem! I guess I didn't win him over with my 13 year old feminine wiles; which in hindsight is probably a good thing, because that would have made him officially a pedophile... but I digress.

Time for bed; lights out.
There was only one rule: Girls stay in their cabin; boys stay in their cabin.

I still don't know who had the Jason mask or how the hell I got a hold of it, but about 1/2 an hour after "lights out", I put on the glow-in-the-dark mask and left the girls' cabin. I crept up to the windows of the boys' cabin like a lioness approaching her prey and then I jumped up and in my scariest voice, I yelled:

"ALL YOU MOTHER FUCKERS, GET READY TO DIE!" 

OK. So, as you can well imagine, they all went berserk; I was a god damn legend that night. My shit-disturbing antics then caused them to open their back emergency door, leading to the girls' adjacent emergency door... which was then, of course, also opened. It rapidly escalated into a complete free-for-all.

Pure unsupervised pubescent chaos.

The next morning, the teachers gathered us all together and we were told we were getting sent home; the entire class. In the past, they had had to send specific students home, but NEVER the entire class.

Not once in over 30 years.

The best part? For some miraculous reason, I was never busted or ratted out as being the main instigator. I guess on that particular morning, my guilty face blended in nicely with everyone else's.

* Bang Bang Bangity Bang Ba-bang is from How I Met Your Mother - watch the song here - so damn funny.