Silver Lining Summer

Chapter 4: Welcome to Camp Phoenix!

"Toothbrush!" my mom yells out.

"Check!" I yell back.

"Toothpaste!" she yells again.

"Yup!" I yell back.

"Underwear!" she yells while giving a small chuckle after what she just said out loud.

"Mom!" I yell back to her kind of annoyed she just yelled that out loud. Thankfully I don't have any siblings or that would have been even more embarrassing.

"Check," I add.

It's already been a week since school has ended and that means today is the day. I head off to Camp Phoenix for twelve weeks starting today. My parents woke me up extra early considering camp is nearly a two hour drive away from where we live. At least they didn't wake me up too early or else there would have been some complaining from me. My mom is currently helping me check off my check list I made for things I need to bring to camp. Surprisingly, there's a lot of things you need. I thought you'd only need a few essentials and a couple of shirts. Boy was I wrong! I basically have, or at least what it seems like, half my room packed into one big suitcase and a backpack. I'm guessing this is very close to what packing for college is like. I bet camp is going to be very similar to it as well. Having a roommate, communal showers, one big dining hall. Oh god, I don't even want to think about college yet. That's still two years away but yet again, two years can fly by really quickly. Let's not hope it does though. I'm trying to get through junior and senior year still. Sophomore year sucked to say the least but hey, I made it. I'm officially a junior now so that's something to be excited about.

"Okay. I think you're all packed," my mom says happily while checking off the last item on my list.

"Are you sure I didn't over pack?" I ask her as I sit on top of my suitcase to try and get it to zipper close. My mom notices my struggle and quickly comes to my rescue. She zippers it with ease as I sit on top of the suitcase still, a bit shocked we even got it to close.

"If it could shut that easily, I would say you under packed," she says laughing while giving me a tap on my nose signaling that everything is just perfect.

'Under packed', I thought. There's no way. I wonder how much they use to pack when they went to camp.

"Hey, mom," I ask obtaining her attention right at the door of my bedroom.

"Yes sweetie?" she asks.

"If you think I under packed, how much did you use to bring when you went to camp?" I asked giving her a confused look on my face.

"Well...I don't want to tell you my camp packing experience because that would take all day but long story short, way more that that," she says giving a chuckle while also making air circles around my suitcase and backpack with her pointer finger.

"Let's get these down to the car so we can head out," she adds while grabbing my backpack like it was light as a feather and heads out of my bedroom.

She grabbed it with such ease that I was honestly amazed. I lift my suitcase up onto it's wheels and start pushing it out of my room and to the top of the stairs. I should have grabbed my backpack before my mom did cause this suitcase is very difficult to push across the carpet considering how heavy it is. Pulling would be more effective but let me tell you, if I pulled I probably wouldn't have made it very far. I'm normally good at lifting and pulling decently heavy things. I've pulled my dog Lucky around in a wagon before, she is pretty big not going to lie about that. This suitcase was another challenge though. I kind of want to push it down the stairs but that won't really work, it'll probably dent the wall at the bottom of the stairs and I don't need mom or dad mad at me before I leave. However, if I pull it down the stairs then there's a chance it could take me out. I really don't need to be pushed down the stairs by a heavy suitcase right before I leave. Luckily, my dad was rounding the corner to come up the stairs when he saw me.