Cabin 15

1 Erica

June 10th

     I was riding home on the bus, reading a book involving some sort of murder mystery/thriller- as I always do- and about thirty kids around me chatted (screamed over each other so they could be heard) about what they were doing this summer.

     "Ellie!" A boy in the grade above me called in my direction. I groaned, I only had five pages left in the chapter. "It's Erica, not Ellie." I closed my book reluctantly and set it on my lap. Thank goodness the confrontation scene between the sister and main character had yet to begin. I, and I'm sure many others would agree, hate having to leave off on a cliffhanger.

     "Oh yeah." The boy's name was Ben and he still hadn't gotten my name right in his head after three years of us knowing of each other. "What are you doing this summer?" He chuckled and glanced back at his friends.

     I couldn't ignore him since I had already corrected him on my name so I answered. "Nothing much." I said simply and gave him a half-hearted smile before returning to my latest read.

     "I'm going to camp! It's very expensive so I probably won't see anyone from our school there." I suddenly remembered why I hated this guy so much.

     "Great." I said and turned the page as the bus lurched to a stop and a trio of squealing girls exited the bus. As they were tripping over each other and gossiping quite loudly, I noticed that we were no where near my house. Oh darn it, I'd read past my stop AGAIN.

     "Um, excuse me." I peeked over the top of the duct-taped bus seat and tried to catch the attention of the bus driver. I didn't know her name so I usually just called her 'miss' in these situations. "Miss, I believe that we drove past my stop.

      The bus driver with graying hair and green eyes glanced up and the creases in her forehead scrunched together. She scowled slightly and then hollered, "Hold on kids!" She jerked the steering wheel to the right and took the sharpest turn on a bus that I've ever seen. This came with many annoyed remarks and the consequential stumbling as the kids who were standing in the aisle tumbled into the seats beside them. I gave an apologetic smile at the reflection of the bus driver as she sped back to my street and saw that she had a small smirk on her face. Ben had fallen on his face and a handful of what must have been chocolate covered raisins smeared on his forehead. The bus driver spoke over the ruckus, "Next time stay in your seat, Ben!" I suppose that she didn't like him that much either.

     I waved to the bus driver and walked home the half mile to the end of the neighborhood. When I got home my mom came rushing out of the shower in a towel and went to give me a hug. "Mom, you'll get me all wet!" I said as I backed away.

     "You're my little sophomore, now!" She was alwyas one for overexadgerating things. 

     "It's not that big a deal." I said and dropped my ten ton book bag on the ground.

     "It is! You're not little anymore! Soon you'll have a job, be driving around town, and off to college!" Despite my protests, my mom hugged me and then scurried to the kitchen. "What would you like for dinner tonight?"

     "Um, I don't know..."

"You can have anything you want! You graduated today!"

     "From freshman year. I'm going to the same school." I said.

     "What, oh, yes you graduated from freshman to sophomore. But that's still a big deal!" I thought for a minute and then it came to me.

     "An order of fried dumplings, an order of steamed dumplings, egg drop soup, beef sticks, three egg rolls, a side of rice, and can we get pie after?" My mom looked at me for a moment, her face slightly disgusted, but nodded slowly. "Cherry or rhubarb is good." I added.