Sound Off! by James Ponti Page A

mean I’m not looking forward to it,” Mitchie said as she tried to pry the covers back out of Caitlyn’s white-knuckled grip. “It’s just that if I’m well rested, I can get into it more. Besides, the first event isn’t until nine. I don’t need three hours to get ready for a potato-sack race.”
    â€œFirst of all,” Caitlyn replied. “It’s not a potato-sack race. Any camp can have a potato-sack race. This is Camp Rock. It has to be FM/AM. We’re having the Hip-Hop, Hippity-Hop Hip-Hop in a Sack Race. And, that’s not even the first event. The first event is the Disco Duck Walk. No wait, we changed that last night. Now it’s the Hard-Rock Rock Climb.”
    Mitchie stared at her friend. This was a lot to absorb so early in the morning, but she could tell there was no stopping Caitlyn. It looked like going back to sleep was definitely out of the question.
    â€œ And , you can’t just roll out of bed and compete,” Caitlyn continued. “You’ve got to meet with your team and figure out who’s doing which events. You need to come up with a game plan. You need to eat a healthy breakfast and give it time to digest. And you should stretch properly. It’s a whole day’s worth of events. You don’t want to start cramping up around the Reggae Row Off.”
    â€œAnd I don’t want to fall asleep in the middle of the hippity-hop thing, either,” Mitchie added.
    Caitlyn took a calming breath and relaxed. “I know,” she said. “I guess I’m a little excited about this.”
    â€œYou don’t say,” Mitchie remarked with a laugh.
    â€œIt’s just that I want it to go well,” she admitted. “Sound Off is one of my favorite things about Camp Rock, and if it doesn’t go well this year, it will be all my fault.”
    â€œDon’t worry,” Mitchie assured her. “It’s going to be off-the-charts great. I know it!”
    â€œYou think so?” Caitlyn asked. “Because it hasn’t seemed like you’ve been looking forward to this.”
    Mitchie felt a little guilty. In all honesty, she wasn’t excited about Sound Off at all, but she had hoped her roommate hadn’t picked up on it. “If that’s the case,” Mitchie said, “it’s only because I won’t be on a team with you. That would be way more fun.”
    â€œThat is a bummer,” Caitlyn agreed.
    Normally they would have been on the same team because campers competed by cabin. But since Caitlyn, Peggy, and Shane were organizing the day, they weren’t partaking in the actual events. Instead, Mitchie had taken Peggy’s spot on the girls from Vibe Cabin’s team. That meant that she was going to be on the same team as Tess Tyler.
    Tess and Mitchie had been through a lot of ups and downs at Camp Rock. Originally, they had been friends, but they had had a big falling out and become sort-of enemies for a while. Now they were finding a middle ground, but a day of crazy competition might be more than their budding friendship—and Mitchie’s patience—could handle.
    â€œBesides,” Caitlyn added, “Vibe Cabin needs all the help it can get.”
    â€œWhat do you mean by that?” Mitchie asked.
    â€œBy what?” Caitlyn answered, suddenly coy.
    â€œWhy does Vibe Cabin need all the help it can get?”
    â€œYou know, it is early,” Caitlyn said, completely ignoring the question. “Maybe you should go back to sleep for a little bit.”
    â€œYou still haven’t answered me,” Mitchie pointed out. “Why does Vibe need help?”
    â€œDidn’t I tell you?” Caitlyn asked. “I totally thought I mentioned it. It’s not a big deal.”
    â€œYou told me that Sound Off was fun and exciting and the best day all summer,” Mitchie said, mimicking Caitlyn’s enthusiasm. “But you didn’t say anything