“What did you eat for breakfast this morning?”

“RaiderQuest.”

“Is the Earth flat?”

“RaiderQuest!”

“If the hypotenuse equals the sum of the square of the other two sides, what is the length of side A?”

“...”

“...”

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEST!!!!!!!!!”

Okay, that was based on what I heard at this month’s Community Crew. It’s RaiderQuest Season!!! And I was involved! To commemorate the occasion, I thought I’d tell you my story of RaiderQuest and how it went!

Prologue

Dare (And do barely anything at all) to Prepare

It all started at Community CREW. I heard a teacher ask, “What’s your favorite color?” And another teacher went, “RAIDERQUEEEEEST!” I was like, “RaiderQuest is not a color.”

The teachers then told the whole school that RaiderQuest was an event where the CREWs compete to see who was the best. It sparked my passion to win, and I wanted to prepare. BADLY.

I was part of Ms. Leath’s “Lakeside Leeches”, and for every Community CREW, we lost a game. EVERY. TIME. IT’S SO TEDIOUS AND FRUSTRATING!!! (I literally wanted to make our motto “We suck! So hard! We’re Leeches! We’re probably charred!” But Ms. Leath said no.) So today, I knew we were going to win!

For one, I wanted my uniform to be cool, but my mom didn’t like it. So I have to wear something that’s BARELY sporty. Buuuuuut I got to do face paint!!! Yay! :)

ANYWAY…

Day 1

Starting Off with a Bang (And bad teamwork)

It was Day 1 of RaiderQuest, and at first, I couldn’t find my teacher, at least for a few minutes. During this time, I saw a broken lei, so I decided to take it, so it could “Increase our CREW’s power tenfold”. When I found my CREW, the games began. The first was a cookie challenge, in which we lost horribly. Next was a reverse Charades game, where our representative kept ERASING the board when their answers were RIGHT!!! Don’t worry. We got some of them right. Afterwards was the Trashketball in the Art room. I BARELY made ANY shots. I forgot if we won that or not. Afterwards, we made our way to the hallways for the Paper Airplane Challenge! We lost again. Then, we went to the dance room where we began the Musical Balloons Challenge! I was doing good at first, but I got out eventually! Then there was the trivia in the theatre, which we lost, for the MILLION BILLIONTH TIME!!!!!!!!!! During the Dodgeball Challenge in the gym, which I got out of after a long time, I was crying so hard. But after I learned that we still won the Musical Balloons Challenge anyway, I took courage! That led to us winning the hole in the tarp challenge, AND the hula hoop challenge! During the marshmallow challenge, I got hungry for germ-infected marshmallows. And Hungry turned to HANGRY. I don’t think we won though.

Day 2

This Means War (And the end of Raider Quest)

Day 2 of RaiderQuest was near, and I was in bed thinking of what would happen if I lost. Would nobody care about me? Would I get bullied? Then I remembered that everyone would cheer on me, and I took courage.

On day 2, we started with the Escape Room, and we had to use 3-4 chromebooks for this, so I asked “politely”, and I got to use it! Yay! And also, I completed the escape room first, meaning we probably won!!! Double Yay!!! But for the Charades thing, we just cheated and acted out the words as quickly as possible, saying we did 10 words. Also, I wanted to use Kleki for the Pictionary, but Ms. Leath INSTEAD used SKETCHPAD!!! I was very not happy.

Afterwards, we made it outside for the Field Challenges. I gripped my ID in my hand, ready for Capture the Flag, the first game for me and my CREW. I took a deep breath…

And ran to the flag. But the guards quickly surrounded me, ready to tag. I felt hopeless. I wanted to quit. Then I remembered that everyone was cheering for me, and I took courage.

I jumped off the ground and hit each guard with my ID, and ran to the safe square.

“You all think you can win, that YOU are going to beat everyone, that YOU are going to be special. But whenever you lose, you cry and whine and envy everyone else.” I walked to where the flag was standing. "I used to be like that. I used to cry and whine and envy others when I didn't get my way. But I've changed now. I’ve trained and worked hard, and I never gave up. I took courage. All the bruises I’ve gotten, and all the hits I’ve taken, and all the losses I’ve had, and all the tears I’ve shed, have all led up to this very moment." I put my hand on the flag, overseeing my hurt enemies.

“It doesn’t matter what came before, or what comes after. All that matters is NOW. And now…” I took the flag off the ground.

“There’s no way I’m gonna lose.”

I ran past the guards, ready to claim victory, but before I could reach the end, I felt something on my back.

It was a finger.

I lost.

That was it.

It was over.

AAAAAANYWAY, the rest of the games went smoothly. Then it was time for the Spirit Challenge. My comeback. The teacher flipped the 8th grade card…

Our name wasn’t on it.

It was someone else.

We lost.

I bawled in sadness and failure, realizing we probably lost the entire thing.

That was it.

It was over.

We lost.

Epilogue

Post-Quest (We're almost done.)

I walked to Ms. Leath’s room, in tears. We didn’t win RaiderQuest, it was all over for us. I then saw a silver trophy, and paused my crying. Ms. Leath’s class had won 2nd place. We still did it. We were still champions. I ran to my friends and hugged them, now crying the happiest tears in my entire life (so far). We didn’t win, but we didn’t lose either…

And at that moment, that was all I cared about.