Writer's Workshop: This Is Why You Don't Take Girl Scouts To Spend The Night In A Gym!

It's Thursday, and Writer's Workshop is once again upon us! Head on over to Mama Kat's and link up!
It's fun! I love the Writer's Workshop. Today I have chosen the prompt Tell us about that scar...And indeed, I will.

Let's go back to Ocotober of 1996. I was 13. I was in 7th grade. I was in the Girl Scouts. My troop was working on a fitness badge. For some reason, my troop leader thought, "Fitness badge. Well HELL, let's round up a very rowdy group of 13 year old girls and spend the night in a 24 hour gym!" She actually convinced two other troop leaders in our area that this was a FABULOUS idea, and on a Friday night, my grandma dropped me off, gym bag in hand, at my best friend's house to take part in this craziness.

At 7PM, we headed over to meet the rest of our troop, her mother chatting excitedly about how much fun we would have. My 13 year old brain was thinking, OH YEAH..AN ALL NIGHTER!! WITH GYM EQUIPMENT! RAQUETS AND TENNIS BALLS!! YESSSSS!!! One glance at my friend and I knew she was thinking the same thing. Come on..We were 13. What the hell did these people expect? Her mom dropped us off and away we headed with the rest of our troop to the gym.

Now, I can't remember the name of this gym. All I remember is it was 24 hours and we were supposed to be sleeping in one of the aerobics rooms. After we'd put our things in the room we were going to be "sleeping" in, the manager gave us a rundown of fitness and gym equipment and health and blah blah blah. Then, he told us we would be served things for free from the gym bar. You know what a gym bar has? Energy enducing snacks and drinks. Sorry buddy, that was so wrong of you. You just gave a group of 13 year old girls kindling. Nice job.

After a few snacks and energy drinks, my friend and I went swimming, went for a steam (though at 13, we didn't really know what the hell that was) and sat in a hot tub. We had more engery filled snacks. We went to the Raquet ball court, where we bounced balls around the room just to see if we could make them bounce off the walls or glass and hit us. We ran laps around the track. Then, at 7AM, 30 minutes before we were scheduled to leave, we found the creme de la creme. The treadmills.

Now, if OK Go! had had their video back in the day, we might have been trying to mimic it. However, it wasn't. When we saw them, our eyes lit up. We looked at each other with that YESSS!! look in our eyes. We turned on the machines side by side and started a mild jog. We were jabbering and happy. Then, she had the best (aka WORST) idea ever: I should try and jump on her treadmill with her. I was all, "OK." You'd think I would have thought about this, but Noooooo. I got off my treadmill, stood behind hers, and jumped. I ran one, two, three steps as I fell sideways to the right. My right thigh hit the treadmill, and I was thrown against the glass doors of one of the raquetball courts. The guy on the treadmill next to us said, "See, that's why you don't play with treadmills." Uh, welcome to 30 seconds ago. My friend giggled, I giggled and then I was all, "Man, my leg burns..(look)..Man, my leg burns and it's BLEEDING!" We went to our leader, who bandaged me up in time for us to pack up and peace out.

Lesson here: Don't jump on a moving treadmill. Don't take girl scouts to stay the night in a gym. Don't give a group of forty 13 year old girl scouts a night of free energy drinks and energy bars.