Ray's Rainbow Camp

Chapter One, Riding The Rainbow Bus To The Rainbow Camp,

Sirena's POV (Point Of View)

I am so excited to get to this Rainbow Camp! With a tiny bit of sleuthing, my brother and I found out this places encourages us, not tries to fix us! Maybe this camp could be the beginning of my love life! Maybe this camp with finally get me to fit in a belong! I drum my fingers on my knee with anticipation and look out of the window of the bus we are on. This bus is packed with all kinds of amazing teens just like me and my brother Luke. I'm lesbian, while my brother is gay, and we support each other as much as we can. Luke has always been more self-conscious about his gayness ever since he got beat up in 8th grade about it, but maybe he will break that act and be happy at this camp. Luke sits next to me, short brown hair, choppy haircut, plain predictable face. He won't let any of his emotions come through anymore, and I worry for him about that. Even when we found out this camp was a safe space, he was skeptical.  He always is skeptical about everything in life, like everything is nerve-racking to him. I, on the other hand, trust everything and everybody. People say this makes me super naive, but I don't really care.  I know everyone has a soul, has something good in them. I just need to find it. Mostly I end up getting tricked and/or scammed with how naive I am, but I firmly believe no one at this camp will do that. My goal with this camp is to find a girlfriend, a girl who loves me for who I am, and not just what I look like. Oh, that would be a dream, to get a girlfriend and love her with all my heart. Back at home, all the girls were straight, never lesbian or bisexual, just straight. Me, I am about as straight as the McDonald's arches. When I get to the camp I am going to do my best to be myself, be free, something I could never do back home.

The bus goes over a pothole and the whole bus jumps. A few people hit their head on the ceiling, but not me. I am super short, which means I will never get my head hit the ceiling of any stupid bus, or lose a game of hide-in-seek. Outside thousands of trees roll past us, all of them holding precious life. Squirrels jump from branch to branch, playing games, birds sing their beautiful tunes and AHHHHHHH! My face slams into the window, apparently the bus driver make a sharp turn. I rub my stinging face and look at my brother. He's playing video games on his 3DS with is headphones in, ignoring the entire world, including me. If only he wasn't so plain, he might actually be fun. The bus starts down a dirt road and scenery doesn't differ, except for a few log cabins here and there. Up ahead I see a bridge, that means there must be a lake or river! That would be so much fun to go swimming in! We pass over the bridge, and I admire the tranquil river that lays beneath it. 

I have my earbuds in, listening to a playlist of my favorite songs. Most of my favorite songs sound happy but have super depressing lyrics, kind of like me. Sea Of Lovers by Cristina Perri comes on and I laugh quietly to myself. I won't be a lover without a ship with this camp! I will be a lover on an amazing boat with an amazing girlfriend, not drowning in the friend zone. I sigh and smile to myself. By the end of this three week overnight camp, I will have a girlfriend. 

Luke's POV

My little sister is delusional. She thinks that in three weeks she can get herself a girlfriend when I have spent six years trying to get myself a boyfriend. Unlike her, I didn't just figure out my sexuality, I knew it since birth. All my life I have been attracted to men and that's it, just men. People say I am going to hell, and I say that I'll see them there. That's just how life is, life is nothing like this camp advertises itself. It goes about telling parents they can fix their kids, but on the teens/kids part of the website, it's all about embracing who you are and what you can do. It's two-faced, like most of my evil middle school. Everyone there hated you for being yourself, and your intelligence was measured in book smarts, not street smarts. In middle school the days where measured in tests dates and in levels of stress, now it's calm in high school when I can take classes I actually want to take. I can't wait till all of this is over and I can go to college, find a cute boyfriend, and waste the rest of my life trying to figure out why I am still living.

The truth is I act calm and stoic, it's why I have my expressionless face. No one ever knows whats truly going on inside my head except for me, and only me. I've got some bad thoughts in my head, and anxiety to go along with it. I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm just here for my sister. I'm here to make sure she is okay and no one shatters her fragile heart into a trillion pieces. One of the main reasons I am alive is because of her. She is my sister and it is my duty to protect her. I love her more then words can say, but I can't tell her what's going on inside my head for a big reason. Our parents want to know every thought we think so they can control it and mold it into how they want it. If I tell Sirena about my problems and our parents ask her, she will tell them everything. She trusts our parents, something she should have learned not to do a long time ago. I don't want to go off to college and leave them alone with her. I can't do that to her. I need to protect her from our parent's conniving ways so she stays herself. So she can stay untouchable, beautiful, brilliant, and innocent.

Sirena doesn't know that I tried to come out to our parents. You know what our parents did to me for it? They beat me. If I ever told Sirena this she would cry herself a river and demand we move out of there house. She wouldn't understand the point that we need them to survive. We can't pay bills yet, I don't even know how. We can't run away either, the police would find us and take us home. I was thinking about when she turns sixteen, that we go to the United Kingdom since you can be legal adults at sixteen there. I don't think we could save up enough money for airplane tickets and find our passports by next year. Anyway, that's just a dream and dreams never come true for me.

My sister taps me on the shoulder and I look up at her. She grins at me but I don't grin back. I am not going to find any true love here whether I like it or not. She points outside the window at a sign proudly welcoming us to Ray's Rainbow Camp. Under the sign was a notice, saying that everyone was welcome and that this camp is to help us be who we are, not change us. The bus came to a stop in front of a small stage with a woman in a yellow dress standing on it. She smiles at us, microphone in hand. I save my game, close my 3DS, shove it and my earbuds in my pocket, grab my stuff, and walk off the bus. My sister, standing next to me as we walk out, smiles her grand smile, looking at all the nature surrounding us. The woman on the platform tells us that behind her is the mess hall and sign in/out station. She tells us we have to go there to get our cabin assignment and schedule. She also said we don't have to follow the schedule if we don't want too, which is great because I don't want too. The woman on the platform has a broadway smile and tells us to be ourselves. I scoff at her and make my way down to the sign in the station, so I can get my cabin, and find a place to read or be alone. Teens surround us and envelop Sirena and me into the huge crowd towards the cabin. I groan at everyone being so close, it's like where a huge mob. I need personal space!

As soon as we get our cabin assignments we find that I and Sirena are in completely different cabins. I am in cabin one while she is cabin thirteen. The cabins are evenly spaced in lines on either side of me. The space between the cabin to my right and to my left is only about three feet. I see my cabin to the left of me, a huge sign that says Cabin One! on it tells me this is my place. I turn to my sister as people once again start to crowd around us. I look into her eyes, and she looks into mine. I give her a big hug, squeezing her against me. We are both startled by the gesture, but she hugs me back anyway.

"Be safe, my little Rena, I love you," I whisper in her ear.

"I love you too Luke, be safe as well," She says and pulls away from the hug.

"Try to be social," She says before running towards her cabin, which is about a quarter mile from this one.

I grin slightly as she runs away, knowing, at least for now, that she is happy.