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Sunday
"Smile at the camera!"There was still an hour before the picnic was officially scheduled to start, yet there were already people trickling in. This was, of course anticipated, so everything was already set up. Right on schedule. It has been a busy day for the Student Council. Although there were already picnic tables set up in the large, grassy field, there was still a lot to do. There were the easy tasks, like covering all of the table with tablecloths and laying out picnic blankets, and then there were the harder ones, like sneaking a large dunk tank into the school grounds without being seen by the teachers--it was supposed to be a surprise!--but they managed, because hey, anything is possible when you're a student at Caelbury!
Speaking of dunk tanks, this year's picnic featured a lot of water-based activities like launching water balloons, and a large variety of water guns. This was due to the particularly hot weather, despite the rapidly approaching fall. The weather forecast predicted that the temperature would fluctuate between the upper 90's and lower 100's. (about 35 degrees Celsius for you non-Americans). Even the modest Acacia was showing more skin than usual as she wore short shorts and a tank top in response to the high temperature.
There were plenty of other activities to enjoy too, outside of the water-activities. There were flags available for Capture the Flag, various types of balls including footballs, soccer balls, and volleyballs. And of course, the point of a picnic was to consume food, and it was a potluck, so nobody ever really knew what assortment of food there will be, but the basics were laid out. There were plastic silverware and cups, paper plates and napkins... And of course, everything necessary for a barbecue was present as well, including charcoal, the meats and vegetables, seasoning... Everything was ready.
After everything was ready, Acacia returned to her dorm to bring out her final contribution to the picnic: 2.5 dozen cupcakes! A fourth of them were vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting, 6 of them were chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting, a half dozen were vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting, another grouping of 6 were chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, with the remainder being simple, plain cupcakes. All the cupcakes had various smiley faces drawn upon them in pink icing.
No school year would begin without the picnic! It would be a great day. She just knew it.