Camp YouTent

The Beginning

The summer air was already thick with heat and the sun was shining overhead. The gravel parking lot crunched under Drew's feet as he got out of the car. Camp YouTent. He couldn't believe he was already back for another summer of goofs and adventures. Well, he wasn't quite there yet. The camp was set up deep in the woods a few miles from the drop off point and they'd have to take the un-air conditioned bus the rest of the way. But Drew didn't mind, that was just more time he got to catch up with his friends. Speaking of...

"Drew!" he hears Danny shout from across the parking lot. "Danny!" Drew yells. His face lights up in excitement when he sees the face of his old friend. He runs across the parking lot. "How's it going, man?" Danny asks as he pulls his friend into a hug. Drew grunts from the powerful hug before he says, "I'm so happy to see you! I've been looking forward to this all year!" "Me too!" Danny says.

Danny pulls away and says, "Man, it's already sweltering out here." He unzips his backpack and grabs a water bottle. As he does, Drew catches a glint of something heavy at the bottom of the bag. "Are those the binoculars you told me about in your letters?" "Yeah, the ones I found in my attic!" replied Danny. Drew could tell they were old - there was a rust spot around the adjustment dial and a few scratches in the paint - but they still looked really cool.

"So I was thinking, remember that family of blue jays we were watching last summer and how they always flew across the river and we would lose sight of them? Now we'll finally be able to see where they go!" Danny says. "Dude, Kurtis is going to love this!" Drew says.

A new wave of excitement washed over him as he thought about him and his two best friends in the whole world finally being back together. They'd been going to Camp YouTent together every summer for over a decade. They were there when it first started. Back then it had just been for a few weeks but now that it had grown to last the whole summer the number of campers exploded. But Drew, Danny, and Kurtis had always stuck together, sharing the same cabin and going on adventures summer after summer. It was the best part of Drew's year. If only the bus would get here so Kurtis could join them and everything could be perfect.

"I brought us something too!" Drew says, slinging his backpack around so he can reach the zipper. He pulls out three walkie talkies. "Drew, these are amazing!" Danny says. Drew's face lights up in a smile. "You really think so?" he asks. "Totally!" Danny picks one up and looks at it. "These look kind of expensive."

"Yeah, I had to work at Wendy's to save up for them. But it was worth it to make this summer even more awesome," Drew says. "I think these are the coolest things you've brought. Though I didn't even know they sold knock off Golden Girls merchandise, let alone walkie talkies with fan art of them as Power Rangers," Danny replied. Drew got a little nervous. "Uh, they were the only ones left at the store, but anyways your binoculars are pretty awesome too. I'm glad your mom left them in your attic before she died," he says. "Yeah cancer sucks. Anyways, I wonder what Kurtis brought?" Danny says.

Just then the camp bus pulls up. They can already see a few campers through the windows that got picked up at the previous drop off point a little further north.

Drew and Danny step onto the bus and immediately spot a pile of curly locks towards the back. "Kurtis!," they both shout before rushing towards their friend. Kurtis stands and hugs his friends as they all laugh.

"Sit Down!!" the bus driver, Tyler Oakly, yells. Kurtis quickly sits back down, his knees still in the aisle, while Danny slides into the seat in front of Kurtis. Drew follows suit, kicking Danny's backpack to the side to make room for his own, before Danny and Drew turn, flinging their arms over the backrest, their knees where their butts should go, to face their friend. "Oh! By the way, this is my friend Nick. He's going to be joining us at camp this year," Kurtis says while gesturing to the person next to him. Nick is a lanky guy with thin glasses and is hunched over, as if to make himself as small as possible. He looks up and says with a shy smile, "Hey guys! Nice to meet you! I hope we can all be friends." Drew thinks it's a little odd Kurtis had found time to write multiple letters detailing what he called 'the descent into moral bankruptcy' of his town's local petting zoo, but hadn't once mentioned something as important as Nick coming to camp. But before he could think about it too much, Danny says "of course!" Drew agrees before turning back to Kurtis.

"So, what did you bring?" He asks.

Kurtis grimaches for a moment, his eyes wide, before fixing his face into a wide grin. "You guys are going to be so stoked, this is really cool." He turns and reaches into his bag, pausing to say "Are you ready... for.....".

He quickly pulls out his object and shoves it into their face.

"Ta-da!" He shouts.

The book he holds up to their face is worn, the spine cracked in places and the paper cover wrinkled from use. The title, partially covered by the discount sticker, reads Mysteries and Mythologies of Mohan Lake, and other such tales of Wojcicki Woods.

"A book?" Drew says, clearly disappointed.

"No guys, it's really cool. It's about the lake and old stories about the woods where camp is and ... Ok it's lame" Kurtis drops his arms and sighs. "I wasn't lying about working at Starbucks all year but I accidentally, maybe spent all of my cash on minecraft and a gaming setup. This is all I could find for less than five bucks at the gas station my mom stopped at on the way here." Drew and Danny groan, upset but not surprised at Kurtis' excuses.

"I know! I'm sorry guys!! Look, I promise I'll make it up to you. I'll clean our bathroom! And I'll uh... Do your laundry for a month!" Drew and Danny glance at each other. They both smile. "Deal," they say in unison.

The next forty five minutes flew by as they talked about what they did for the year they were apart. Sure they'd already told each other this in their letters they sent back and forth, but it was better in person.

As they file off the bus, a counselor stands off to the side yelling above the clamor of conversation, "Welcome, campers! Be sure to check the bulletin board outside the cafeteria for your cabin assignments!"

"Okay, I'll see you at the camp meeting later, Nick," Kurtis says. "You're not checking your cabin assignment?" Nick asks. "No. Since we've been here so long, the three of us always get assigned to the same cabin," Kurtis says. "It's down there at the end," Danny says pointing to it. "That little one?" Nick asks, squinting. "Yeah they started renovating the cabins a few years ago but they haven't gotten to that one yet. Since it's so small no one really wants it but there's only three of us so we don't mind," Drew says. "Okay. Well I'll see you guys later," Nick says, scratching the back of his neck and looking at the group of campers huddling around the bulletin board. "See you later!" Kurtis says.

Turning to his friends he says "Race you there," and takes off in a mad dash towards the cabin. The other two follow in quick pursuit, laughing in anticipation.

Danny slams open the cabin door as they all rush inside and throw their stuff in the direction of the beds they unofficially assigned themselves.

"Wow, it still smells the same!" Danny says.

"Wow, you say that every year!" Drew retorts.

Danny turns back to playfully glare at his friend before returning to admiring the cabin. The cabin is lit only by the sunlight that leaks through the water stained windows, illuminating the two bunk beds pushed up against opposite sides of the room. Each boy instinctively goes to a different part of the room as if to make sure the familiar cabin was just how they left it.

"Dude, there's still a stain on the ground from when I threw up!" Kurtis shouts, standing over a dark splattered stain in the corner of the room. "Gross!!" Danny and Drew reply in unison as they rush over to admire the tarnished wood. "I still can't believe you ate that sandwich, it was so old I could see mold growing on it" Drew said to Kurtis as he exaggerated a shudder. They all laugh before once again breaking up to start putting their stuff away.

Drew skips over to the bunk he'd come to know so well over the last decade. He flops onto the old mattress, probably as old as his friendship with Kurtis and Danny, not even bothering to roll out his sleeping bag first. The initial adrenaline rush of excitement was starting to wear off and the full strength of his exhaustion from the already oppressive heat of the camp was starting to creep up on him.

His eyes float to the planks of wood that supported the mattress on the bunk above him, the bunk Danny had chosen all those years ago. "DG" was still carved in the plank directly in Drew's line of vision. It was worn down a little now but it was still legible. It would always be there, Drew thinks.

He glances across the room to the other bunk. Kurtis had sprawled out on the bottom bed. No one had ever slept in the bed above him. They always joked that Danny got half of the cabin to himself, though it was just the top half so he couldn't do much with it. Drew looks back up at the planks and smiles. Yeah. This was summer. Just how it should be.