Cabin Nine [Original]

2

I wake up at five the day we leave for camp. I'm so excited. Jack's last letter came yesterday. I didn't write anything back because I'm sure I'll see him today.

My heart pounds the entire drive to the church. Because my whole youth group is going this year, the church bought a van to transport us every year. I think they're taking a big risk with that, but they seem to like it. I guess it can be used for other things.

It takes a full hour for everyone to get into the van. There isn't enough room, so some parents have to take a few kids. There are twenty-three of us and fifteen seats in the van. I guess they didn't plan this out too well.

The whole drive there is infuriating. I'm in the back of the van with two guys that are best friends. They made me sit in the middle seat and they're constantly ramming their shoulders into mine. I'm basically swaying the whole time and my shoulders hurt when we stop for lunch.

After a quick lunch, the youth pastor makes sure that I'm not sitting between them anymore. Sow now they're verbally abusing me. Ryan may have a good ability to preach, but he's not particularly good at dealing with people like Klein and Mark. I kind of hate them. I asked them to shut up and now they won't stop calling me gay. I just ignore them for the rest of the drive.

I hurry through registration and find my counselor. It's Hunter again. Two boys from my church are in my cabin and I have to wait for them before we can go. Hunter refuses to tell me if Jack is in our cabin.

I practically drag Hunter all the way there. He can go a lot faster than that. He's tall and athletic. I think he's being slow just to mess with me. The other two boys, Blaine and Freddie, seem to get a kick out of my frustration.

It's the same room as last year. I walk in and Jack is on the top bunk in the corner of the room. The bottom one is empty. He looks over and falls off the bed. I jump forward to see if he's okay, but he is. We do our handshake we made up last year and spend an hour just talking. I help him make his bed again. He still seems hopeless. I'm so excited about seeing him again that I can barely talk correctly.

We only leave the room an hour before dinner because Hunter wants us to play a name game with the cabin. I only know Jack, Blaine, and Freddie. The others have names that fly right out of my head. I don't even really care. It's not like I'll talk to anyone but Jack.

Dinner is pretty much the exact same as last year. Jack retains everyone's name and shouts as they enter the dining hall. I join him this year. Hunter already looks exhausted. I don't think it helps when Jack takes it upon himself to prank him later that night.

Hunter has a habit of plopping onto his bed like a dropped apple, so Jack put baby powder in his sheets. It was everywhere. Jack doesn't get in trouble until it's all cleaned up and Hunter wants revenge.

Jack spends the night without a blanket. It's not really a big deal because it's somewhere around 87 degrees all night. I kick my blanket off sometime during the night and wake up to Jack folding it and setting it on my bed. I don't let him know that I'm awake. I don't know what to do with that. I didn't know he could fold so well. I'm honestly impressed.

I can't stop thinking about that all day. I think Jack knows I saw him. He hasn't brought it up, but he keeps looking at me weird. I don't know. It's just all blue. I need it to be red before I bring it up, but I don't think that'll happen.

Tuesday is completely boring. The game is inside because it rains, but it's all dry by the time we get out of lunch and instead of having free time inside, it's all humid and gross outside. Jack and I do stuff anyway. He drags me to play nine square with a bunch of other insane people, but they get mad and he has to explain it to me.