Lil' Savages

From Tahiti we moved to Moorea the distant mountain blocking the sunset from Papeete harbor.  It was only a day sail and we got in in time to have drinks on shore and play around with friends while watching half-naked polynesian fire throwers.  Apparently this was the evening celebration of the puddle-jumpers regata, wich had taken place that day.  We ran around played with glowing party toys late into the and discovered an olympic type event tomorrow in wich anyone over 12 could participate in teams, paddling conoes, husking coconuts, running with weights and a game of tug-o-war.  Eagerly Cassedy, Travis, Beau and I, the only kids over 12, signed up, naming our team the Lil' Savages.  Although the four of us were the only kids old enough to actually compete in the games, there were many other kids in the harbor so we had plenty of cheerleaders and supporters.

The next day at a little before 10:00, we all drove over to the hotel that was hosting the games, my team mates were there and we drew markings on our faces like savages, now we looked the part.  We waited for our time and gathered fans and sponsors (virtual sponsors of course), all the other teams were adults around our parents age so we were by far the youngest people out there, so naturally we gained a lot of support.

At last it was time for us to get into our outrigger and prepare for the race, obviously the leader of the celebration sympathized with us because he gave us a little bit of a headstart so we could afford to lose a little bit of time when we started, but it turned out we didn't need it we won easily and smoothly, with out crashing flipping or cheating, encouraged we cheered and clapped along with our gigantic crowd of fans.

We didn't race again for a little while but we watched our dads get there butts kicked when they raced against a couple of other adult teams, we booed along with the crowd as they came in third, disqualified from the next conoe races, we teased them about losing badly to a bunch of teenagers then rushed to pick the best canoe with the best drivers, last time winners.  This time we didn't get a headstart because we had obviously proven ourselves last race.

We won and won, but in the last and final race, the one determining the winners, we got second place and not first.  It was still a very good score, but we were all disappointed just a little, but not too much!