My 17th Summer

Chapter Two

"Get up Quinn, we've got a jam packed day for you today!" Dad said while leaning so close to me I could smell his morning breath. I pulled the doona over my face the next morning and rolled over.

"Just a little bit longer please," I groaned.

"No honey we've got work to do," I could tell by mums tone of voice she was getting angry.

"Ever heard of school holidays?" I moaned. "It's a thing when kids have fun. Not work!" This was exactly why I didn't want to come here! Luckily this is my last year spending summer holidays stuck in this suckish place, because I'm going to go to a university in England, Oxford, the best
school. I'm going to be studying to be a Neuroscientist, and shall be leaving for Oxford next year and will 'sadly' miss out on summer camp.

"Come on honey. Have fun! All you ever do is.... Be indoorsy!" My mum complained.

"Indoorsy isn't a word!" I butted in feeling cozy under the covers.

"Well the moral of the story is try to have fun these holidays. Make some friends. Hey! Well we don't start for another hour, why don't you call Grace!" Mum said.

"Grace?" I asked cringing.

"Grace Wilkinson."

"GRACE WILKINSON! You do realise I haven't seen her since 2011! Plus, she ruined camp for me! Plus, I do have 'friends' other than people from camp." I yelled frustrated. I hate Grace! She was evil. And probably still is.

"Well she is coming to be a camp leader today. You may as well catch up before hand." Mum said sweetly, even though she was suggesting the worst thing in the world!

"Um, how about no?" I rolled my eyes. That was so not gonna happen.

"Now Quinn," Mum said in that parenting tone. "That's not the way to treat people."

I scoffed. "Try telling that to Grace!"

Mum sighed. "Well you're going to have to be nice to her as all the camp leaders will be arriving this morning and extra staff the day after that. Now get your butt out of bed and actually help." Mum the left my room shutting the door behind her loudly. I groaned and sat up. Why couldn't I just have normal parents?

I got myself ready, but being my slow and unenthusiastic self, I took an hour so by the time I headed to the camp hall and I opened the door and saw all ten camp leaders lined up with the correct ugly camp leader uniform. Oh yeah, that's another reason I'm not being a camp leader again.

"Quinn." Dad said bluntly from his seat with the rest of the camp crew. "Nice of you to make an appearance."

I smiled shyly with all eyes on me. "Well you know what they say, show up fashionably late." Mum and Dad didn't look entertained. So I quickly sat down with them and Tony and Aunt Jess who were seated looking at the camp leaders.

"Well." Mum said clapping. "Now that we are all here, let's begin."

Dad nodded and looked at the leaders. "We selected you to be a camp leader. A trustworthy and safe leader, who can have fun with these kids, but keep everyone out of danger at the same time. It's your responsibility to keep your kids under control."

"That's right." Mum said nodding. "You'll all have a group of ten kids. That makes one hundred kids coming on this camp in total. That's a lot guys, so make sure you look after your kids and then everyone will be out of trouble."

"And no pranks." Tony interrupted. "I've had my fair share of sticky honey and flour over the buildings, and I do not plan on cleaning off anymore." All the camp leaders nodded furiously.