Summer Camp Sweethearts

Chapter 3

Point Lookout Summer Camp.

Those words are on the big sign as the bus turns down the gravel road. Large pine trees blur past as I look out the window. The bus pulls up beside a big wooden building that is in the middle of the woods. I stared out the window, mesmerized by the beautiful place on the other side. I make my way off the bus, shoving past people still situated in their seats, and grab my bags stored in one of the compartments under the bus.

The place is surrounded by beautiful green trees, a significant activity center, and a big lake glistering far away.

I hear yelling coming from the bus. I whip my head around and see the entire team, excluding Oliver, passs by me toward the lake.

"What the hell, guys! Are you insane!?" I shout at them, laughing. My head shakes in disbelief.

"Melissa, that's their problem now. Not ours." Sofia whispers in my ear. Sometimes I am glad Sofia is my best friend. We have been since I moved to Westwood early this year with my family. My mother is an Archaeologist, which means a new job almost every year, and we always need to relocate to a different city. Sofia is here because she needs the extra credit. She is not the sharpest person at the school, so she needs this.

As I walk in the direction of the big wooden building, our principal, Mrs. Pierson, can be seen running past me in her high-heeled shoes while the rest of the students in front of me make way for the angry teacher heading after the boys. I am not sure why she is dressed in heels. Camping is not made for heels. Even I know that.

"Guys! Come back!" Mrs. Pierson shouts as all the students laugh at how she runs. She has one of those iconic penguin runs.

The football team stops before jumping into the lake, and Mrs. Pierson shouts at them. They laugh at her and, what I assume, apologize, and just a few seconds later, they are being ranted at by her. Kyle walks back in my direction with a big smile plastered on his face.

"Did you need to do that?" I ask Kyle as he joins me, draping his arm over my shoulder.

"Not necessarily, but it was worth a shot," he commented, wrapping his other arm around my waist, and giving me a quick peck on the lips. I shake my head, still not believing my boyfriend is such a hooligan.

"You guys are going to get us in trouble," I whisper.

"We'll just have to deal with it later," he whispers back, leaning his head against mine and looking at me with a smile. "I'm glad you're here."

"Me too," I reply, giving him a quick kiss. "Let's go find out what is happening this summer." Kyle and I walk through the camp together to the administration building. It is so quiet here at night that you can hear a pin drop if it falls into the lake. The rest of the school, led by the principal, walks in front of us.

"Hi, we are Westwood High." Mrs. Pierson told the receptionist when she arrived back at the group. The receptionist nicely greets her and shows us where the activity center is. Everyone squeezes and pushes past each other; they only want to get to the activity center to see how it looks inside.

The activity hall is packed with students from different schools. In front of the hall is a big stage with a table right in the middle. In the corner, on a chair, sits a small woman with thin glasses on her sharp-pointed nose. She has a black suit with awhite T-shirt on underneath. A strange flag with varying colors was positioned in from of the stage.

"I hope we stay in the same cabin," I say to Sofia through the buzz in the activity hall.

"Me too." Sofia answers.

The woman sitting in the stage corner walked forward to the front of the stage, microphone in hand.

"Attention all! My name is Rita, and I am the manager here at Point Lookout. I hope you guys enjoy your three-week stay at our camp." She starts.

"Every school has a counselor. I will now read the names of the school and who their counselor will be. Small South High is with Aaron Erickson. Westwood High, you are with Mr. Stuart Newman..." She reads the names until the last school is read. "If you have any questions regarding anything, please ask your counselor. All schools can now proceed to the football field and meet your school's Counsellor there. There they will divide you into your different cabins."

***

"Oh, I can't wait to meet our counselor," Sofia says.

"Me too," I say.

"I hope he's as nice as Mr. Johnston was," Sofia said as we walked towards the football field where our counselors were waiting for us. Sofia had been to this camp before and talked about Mr. Johnston regularly when she returned.

A man, not much older than us, was giving instructions in the center of the field. He has brown hair with thin wire glasses framing his eyes. With the microphone in his hands, he's giving out instructions to students who are arriving. He clears his throat and taps on the microphone to ensure it is on and working.

"All right! You're all here! Let's get this show on the road!" he says.

We hurried to where the rest of the students were standing.

"Alright, everybody! Listen up!" a man shouts from afar. "I am Mr. Newman, and I will be your camp counselor." Mr. Newman starts again. The entire school greets him in unison.

"You will be divided into groups of four, and you will each go to your cabins where you will be staying for the next two weeks." He announces, repeating what Rita said earlier. He reveals more essential things like curfew and general rules of the camp. Once finished, he makes his way to a table not far from where he stood.

"I'm in a group with Sofia," I say as we walk toward Mr. Newman. The table has folders with our names written on them. He hands us one folder each and then asks us what cabin we would like to be in.

"So, what cabin do you want?" I ask Sofia as I walk toward her.

"I don't know," she says, looking at her folder in confusion.

"I think I want to be in cabin 12," I say, "but it doesn't matter." The counselor looks at us and nods his head. He scrambles through some more papers on the table and hands them to us when he finds what he is looking for. We smile at him and walk toward the path that leads to our cabins. The trees are tall, and we can see a lake on the other side. It's beautiful! As we walk, we hear some students talking about how they will have their counselors come with them, so they don't get lost in the woods. We finally reach our cabins. The doors of the cabins are all bright red and have a small porch in front.

"Hello," I say to the people outside our cabin, "I'm Melissa, and this is Sofiya."

"Hi! My name is Abby." The girl standing in front introduces herself.

"My name is Sandra!" We walk inside our cabin, which has a big table and chairs. There's a small couch on one side of the room, and two doors leading to other rooms, which I assume are the bedrooms.

"I'm going to go getmy stuff," I say. Sofia and Samantha nod their heads in agreement. As Iwalk out of the cabin, I see two cabins. One is empty, and one has a girlstanding outside it with her friends. They're all talking about how they willbe spending their first night at camp.