Summer Days: Jewish Teen Style

Chapter 1

Sunday: June 1, 2014 9:00 a.m

I woke up this morning from my mom flickering the lights on and off. "Good Morning J! Today is the day of your first CIT summer. Ooh, I'm so excited for you, honey!" "Mhm" I mumble back in reply. "Okay, I'm going to go make you breakfast for the road, just finish your packing and get dressed." She shuts the door briskly. I throw on my favorite pair of jean shorts and a pink t-shirt, slip on my favorite cotton-candy pink converse and put some mascara and eyeliner on, and grab my phone and phone charger. I don't understand why she wants me to go to this summer. I mean I've heard the stories about how she met Dad during her CIT summer- they both talk about it nonstop- but I like the guys at my school even if they aren't Jewish. I don't think I would ever marry any guys from my school either. I don't believe it's possible to meet the love of your life at age 14- but then again anything is possible at summer camp.

"Jamie get out of your room, we need to leave the house right now so we can get to the camp with enough time for you to make your bed." I grab the last of my bags and run down the hall, practically trip down the stairs, but I get up and start running again. I'm running so fast you could've almost said I was flying. My mom is sitting in the car waiting to start the engine until I get in. I get in my seat, click my seat belt in and the rumble of the car engine is all I hear, as my eyes slowly droop closed. 

Sunday June 1, 2014 12:00pm

"JAMIE! JAMIE! JAMIE! Wake Up!" My mom is shaking me and flicking my forehead. I would've thought it was my younger sister Brittany waking me up on her birthday, just to tell me it was her birthday. I open my eyes and see my mom's head over mine. She is smiling with so much excitement. I sit up, unbuckle my seat belt and get out of the car to stretch. My mom is already handing me my bags. "J, here are some of your bags. Go check-in to your cabin, put your stuff down and I will meet you at the bottom of "killer hill" with the rest of your stuff. I'm going to park." "Okay,mom. See you in a bit." I grab the bags from her and start walking to the door to the CIT registration building, I can still hear my mom squealing like a pig behind me. The registration building is buzzing with people around me. I walk in and it is so loud with all the voices of friends reconnecting and new people like me asking questions. I see a desk that says "Check-in Here for the best summer ever!" I'm guessing, considering everything I've heard from Lina my camp counselor from last year, that's where I am supposed to check-in.

I start to walk over to the desk until I hear my name being yelled by someone. "Jamie!" "Jamie!" It's Lina, I'm so glad to see a familiar face now. She walks over to me, and starts to tell me "Lina's Story of the Day"- I haven't heard one of these since last summer. It's about how her flat-iron broke while she was straightening her hair and she went and bought a new one in her pajamas, and she spilled her coffee on her shirt, and had to quickly turn her car around and change shirts. Sounded like a "Lina Day" to me. As she's finishing her story she walks me over to the desk to check-in. She stops what she's saying and tells the ladies my name and they hand me an envelope. I look inside, there is a lanyard, itinerary booklet, and some papers. Lina looks at me, "Jamie, this lanyard is SUPER-DUPER important, you have to be wearing it at all times. This is your cabin number, and this is the schedule for where your campers will be 24/7." I nod my head in response. She puts the lanyard around my neck and walks me to the door. "I will see you in the auditorium for the meeting, ask if you can't find it and remember your cabin number is 25, and Girls camp, Well of course, is Adamah. I will see you later, make some new friends and Julian and Emma are already here so you can go sit with them." Julian and Emma -I swear they are soulmates, except they broke up for the third time on Friday- they are my closest friends from camp. I'm so glad I will have some people I already know, so if I can't find any new friends. I also don't necessarily want to spend a lot of time with them, because I'm sure they aren't talking to each other anyway and I don't want to get in the middle.