Free Carnelian by B. Kristin McMichael Page A

microphone. Thankfully I could turn my
attention to him instead of Seth. The guy didn’t look that old and
actually seemed a bit out of place. He looked more like a
California surfer with his sun-bleached hair, than a Minnesota
college student.
    “I’m Tim, this year’s CRUSH president,” he
explained to the crowd. People around us cheered for him. “We have
quite a few contestants, as always, and I think we need to get
started if we want to finish by party time. If everyone can stop at
the sign-in table for a minute, I’ll explain this year’s
competition for house teams.” At his command the tables were all
quiet and everyone on the commons’ lawn was facing Tim. It was
strange to see such concentration from college students, especially
those that seemed a bit hung over from the night before.
    “The rules first. This is an obstacle course
race with six stops. You’re ranked based on how quickly you do each
leg of the race. When you’re ready, come up to this table and take
a clipboard. Fill out your name and number. Choose two people to be
timers. Choose one person from your house and one person not. They
will be your official timers. You will earn points for how quickly
you do each leg of the race and how quickly you finish overall.
Does that all make sense?” Tim paused and ran his hands through his
blond hair. Cheers went up all around me from the other students
ready to compete. This was sounding less and less like fun.
    “The six courses are set up around the
college. Don’t worry about moving between courses as we just time
the course itself. First course is the balloon carry over by
Stradley Hall. Carry two balloons from one end of the course to the
other end. Second is by Merry Hall, the ball toss. There are seven
balls from seven different sports. Throw them in their right
containers, such as shoot the basketball through the basketball
hoop. Third is the ROTC course. Run one lap. Easy enough?” Cheers
were all around. I really didn’t even know what a ROTC course was,
but I guessed I was going to find out. “Fourth and fifth are at the
swim center. In the large pools is the fourth. There are bags at
the bottom of the pool. Dive in and get three bags all of the same
color. Bring them back out and put the puzzle together. Fifth is at
the shallow pools. There are logs to cross the pool. Just make it
from one side to the other. Last is the bike race in the commons’
parking lot. Once around the track, just never let the bike seat
leave your butt or you have to start over. And with that, let’s
begin our greatest CRUSH year ever.”
    Cheers erupted around me. I wasn’t sure what
everyone was happy about. I barely caught everything he had said.
Students rushed the stage and grabbed all the boards to begin. It
would be awhile before we would get a chance, and that would give
me time to see what each course was. I hated doing anything
unprepared. I turned to find that Sim and Ty were already excitedly
talking. Seth bumped his arm to mine again, sending tingles down my
arm.
    “Do you need any advice?” Seth asked. I
couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not, but I didn’t get the chance
to ask him as someone stuck a board into his hands.
    I could feel the eyes of all the girls
around us staring at Seth. Some even moved to position themselves
better in his line of sight. I didn’t realize why until I saw the
two dangling timers in his hands now. He needed to choose people to
time him since somehow someone dropped a clipboard into his hands.
I bet every girl around us wanted to be chosen by him. I held back
a laugh. What girls would do for a pretty face, well that and a
nice body.
    “Dee,” Seth called to his brother who was
talking to another pretty girl. “Do me the favor?”
    “No problem.” Dee caught the timer as Seth
flipped it to him.
    Before I saw which girl Seth was choosing, I
turned to find him placing the timer loop over my head. I was about
to say something when he added.
    “What?