Summer Soundtrack

1- Palm Beach Camp

"Hayden, are you packing?" My mom yelled from downstairs. I replied quickly with a "yes!". I was packing for camp because my parents were leaving on this big trip to Paris. It was for some business thing so I had to go to Palm Beach Camp for the whole summer. Even though I wasn't happy about this, my parents had been there when they were my age so at least they remebered camp was fun.

I was leaving on the bus at 8:00 tomorrow morning so I had to pack quickly. Apparently, most of the camp was along the beach and a lot of surfers went to the camp for a little extra training. I was NOT going to surf. I was not going to put myself on little board and practically feed myself to a shark. That was saved for the crazy Californians. I was from a small town in southern Washington so I had a long drive ahead of me. Aproximately, fifteen hours and fifty seven minutes.

When I was finished packing I went downstairs only to be welcomed by the smell of chicken curry, my favorite food ever. 

"Surpise! I thought you would like your favorite food for a little going away dinner." My dad said as he hugged me and kissed me on the forehead. My mom was setting the table and putting the fresh and steaming curry on the plates. It smelled so good and for the first time I thought about missing my parents. I never got homesickness and didn't really know why but this moment with the sun setting behind the table and my mom smiling her usual smile. It was just like any other night but I really liked it. 

After dinner I stuffed a couple more things in my Roxy bacpack for the bus ride: phone, video camera, books, iPod, headphones, and my notebook. I brought my video camera every where. I pretty much tried to make a film out of every minute of my life. I loved acting, producing, filming, and pretty much anything to do with movies. My notebook had scripts, journal entries and anything in between.

In the morning I loaded my stuff into the car and my parents drove me to where the camp bus for Oregon and Washington campers were. When we arrived at the bus station my mom hugged me so tightly I felt like all my guts were going to come out. She probably felt a litttle bad like any parent would if they left their kid at a camp and went to France. Even though I had wanted to go with them I was happy my parents got to go even if it was for work. I said goodbye and looked back at my teary eyed parents as they climbed into the car. As I got closer to the bus a girl, who didn't look much older than me, came over and said "Are you Hayden?" I quickly replied with yes. "Hi I'm your groups Junior Counsler. All of the other people in your group are your age and they are over there."

"Thanks" I walked over to where she pointed and stood with 3 other people who were supposedly from the Oregon/Washington area. A smiley girl came over and introduced herself as Ellie. She told me she was from Portland and just wanted to get out of the rain for a little while. After a minute of me awkwardly standing there I decided to start the conversation again. "How many times have you been to camp?" I asked as I noticed the several Palm Beach tags on her bag.

"Oh this is my fifth year. I'm assuming it's your 1st year? I haven't seen you around."

"Yeah but my parents came here when they were 13-18."

"Nice." Ellie seemed to say everything with a ton of enthusiasm or a "let me get back to my Twitter feed please" voice.

We got on the bus and Ellie motioned me to go sit with her. I seemed to be making a friend but I was surprised Ellie didn't have any friends from previous years of camp, or she just wasn't sitting with them. I pulled out my book as Ellie got her iPod out and opened up Twitter. I called it. After 3 hours, Ellie and I were both bored so I tried to make conversation. "So do you like to act?" 

"Yeah actually. I've done a couple plays but nothing big. I'm also a swimmer."

"Cool. I act, as you probably assumed and I like to play soccer."

The drive continued and I fell asleep half way through. I woke up to "Hayden? Haden?! HAYDEN! We're here!" Ellie was definitley entusiastic, especially while waking a sleeping person. "Ok ok I'm up. I said as I barely opened my eyes. Ellie was standing in the aisle of the bus unloading her backpack and luggage from overhead racks. I stood up and grabbed my stuff too. I followed Ellie off the bus and over to a table that had a large sign: Group Assignments and Camp Schedules Here! 

"Hello ladies." A woman sitting at the table said. "Both of you are in Group 126. They are right over there." She pointed to where I saw the kids from our bus station in Washinton and several new people  standing. We walked over and the counsler introduced himself to us as Jeff, Jeff the Counsler Man! He literally said that. Probably another one of those super cheery "love nature" counslers. I didn't mind though cause counslers can get a lot worse than that. Like the time I went to day camp in 6th grade, the counsler insisted on yelling at us in French! Who knows why? 

As we waited for more people to show up, Jeff told us more about camp. "Okay campers, we just happened to be the lucky group cause we were assigned the best campsite in all of Palm Beach. Its right next to the water but still tucked away in the trees for privacy. Were also the closest to the best surf spot so I know a lot of people will like that." Great... I thought to myself. This should be good.

When everyone had arrived Jeff led our group to our campsite. As we walked Ellie told me that her friends from previous years had joined different camps or were in different groups; answering my question from earlier. After 20 minutes of hiking in the heat, I was not used to, we stopped at a small meadow with 15 2-person tents set up. The waves were splashing against the beach to our left and it was to hard not to want to get in that water. Maybe I would  reconsider a little surfing. Jeff read of our tent assignments and pointed to which ones were the girls' tents and which were the boys'. I was supposedly with a girl named Grace. I said bye to Ellie and walked over to the tent under the palm tree. I set my stuff down inside just to notice a girl walking over. She was carrying a guitar and seemed to have that surf style. 

"Hi? Are you Hayden?" she said

"Yep! That's me."

"Cool. I think were tent mates.

"Yeah I just set my stuff down inside. Nice to meet you by the way."

I started to walk away from our tent and admire the crystal water when "ah!" I ran in to a boy who's tent was a few feet away from mine. He was leaning over but then quickly looked up adjusting his beanie. "S-sorry..." I said realizing I was staring at an incredibly attractive guy who I hadn't noticed before. 

"Oh no it's ok." Staring right back at me. "I'm Luke."

"Hi....I'm....Hayden."