Hope

CHAPTER 2

Camp

"Kaitlynn time for lunch!" my mom yells to me. I get out of the water and run up the hill. I sit down and my mom puts a plate in front of me.

I start eating and then my mom exclaims "Oh Kaitlynn, your shoulders and back are bright red!" I look back and see that she is right. I reach back and touch one of my shoulders, the pain is excruciating.

"Ooww!!" I yell. Tears sting in my eyes. School on Tuesday is going to be terrible.

. . .

MONDAY NIGHT

I can not fall asleep. I have to sleep on my stomach because it hurts so much. Once I do fall asleep though, I wake up constantly throughout the night from pain.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

I wake up to my alarm ringing. I put on a tank top that I hope will not irritate my sunburn.

. . .

I walk into English class and sit at my seat next to Sierra and Jess. Sierra see's my shoulders and says

"Oh my gosh, what happened?"

"While I was at camp I got a 3rd degree sunburn," I answer. I see Lynn walk in and walk by me, before she passes though, she slaps me on the shoulder and says

"Have fun at camp?" But then she leans in and whispers "Nice shoulders, hope it hurts." I bite at the inside of my cheeks trying to keep the tears from spilling over.

"Miss Smith, may I go to the bathroom?" I croak.

"Sure." She must have seen me trying not to cry, she doesn't usually allow kids going to the bathroom during class. I walk down the hall and enter the bathroom. There is another girl in there with dark brown hair, she must have seen the tears about to spill out of my eyes because she looks down at the floor avoiding eye contact and rushes out. As soon as the door closes, the tears spill over my lashes. Cool tears that I wish would fall on my shoulders and soothe my burning skin. Instead of tears though, I take a paper towel and drench it in freezing water and rub it on my raw shoulders. Then I splash cold water on my blotchy face. I pull my shirt over my eyes, drying the tears.

As I walk back into the classroom Miss Smith calls me over,

"Kaitlynn can you come here for a second?" I walk over to her cluttered desk. "Do your shoulders hurt? Do you need to go to the nurse?"

"No thank you, I'm alright," I tell her. I am lying straight through my teeth, and to the teacher! As I walk back to my desk though, Jess speaks up.

"No, Lynn came over and slapped Kaitlynn on the shoulders. Then she whispered something in her ear."

"Ok, Lynn Anders come here. The rest of the class take out your silent reading books."

After Miss Smith finishes talking to Lynn she hands her a green slip of paper. As she sits down at her desk, her glare switches from me over to Jess. He should not have done that. We're both gonna get it now.