"Camp Redain, 5 miles east" I read on the sign as I'm riding in the car.
"Alright, Annie! Almost there!" My mom says.
"After two hours." I mumble to myself. I grab my blue drawstring bag and put my book next to my flashlight, camera, and sketch book (not to mention the amount of colored pencils I have...)
"Yup, first year as a teen, Kiddo!" My dad says.
Every time I go off to summer camp my mom always talks to me about being safe and being careful who I talk to and crap like that. Half the time (along with my dad) I just dose off into space just nodding and agreeing with her, having no idea what she's saying. Then we would get out of the car and she gives me giant bear hugs and kisses me. She acts like I'm going away for a year.
Once we're on the camp grounds we all get out of the car. My dad picks me up and hugs me and says "Love ya, pumpkin!"
Then my mom hugs me until the blood stops rushing to my brain.
"Alright, mom. Love ya, bye." I say.
"Love you! Have fun, Annie!" My parents say as they're getting in the car. I grab my black suitcase and my blue bag and walk to the cabin. I remember last year I left my camera, book, and sketch book at home, and that was defiantly not a good week...
This year I'm in cabin 13. That's how old I am. This is my sixth year at Camp Redain. I know where everything is and all the camp counselors names and which cabin they're usually in. Some kids and counselors have come and gone, and moved cabins but favorite counselor is Karen. I was so glad to see her this week in my cabin. She was a counselor in training in cabin 10. My best friend is Lillie. The first week we were already best friends. We would text and call at home but never see each other in real life until Camp Redain because the camp is right between our houses, so it would take me three and a half hours to get to her house. She would always draw with me during snack outside, and pass weird drawings at night. She's the only one I see every year besides the counselors.
"Hey, Annie! Nice to see you here!" Said Karen.
"What's up, Annie!" Said Lillie. I looked up from my suitcase and saw Karen at the picnic table on the porch doodling out her name on a bright green piece of paper sitting next to Lillie.
"Hi, Karen! Hey, Lillie!" I say, walking past to the cabin. I see Lillie's Hello Kitty blanket she brings every year on the bottom bunk beside the back wall. I see if anyone's already taken the bottom bunk right next to Lillie's. Yes! I think to myself. I always get the bed next to her's so we can secretly pass notes at night. I plop my stuff down on the bed and open my black suitcase. I place my pool things and my flip flops on the shelf next to me. I take my toiletries on the shelf in the bathroom and slide the rest of my clothes in my suitcase under the bed, then walk back outside.
Uh oh. It's Sam. She hates everyone, and everything about this summer camp. She's not the typical summer camp girl, she's more dark and gloomy... And doesn't give a crap about anything, no one knows why, but she might just be a sad person. The only reason she comes here is because her parents are rich and go on cruses every summer. We've been in the same cabin two times already. I'm sick of her. She's probably sick of me too.
I sit down across from Lillie and grab a white piece of paper along with some markers. "Annie" in big letters with all sorts of animals and nature stuff. I tape the paper to the pillar at the end of my bunk. I look around to see who else is here. "Lillie", "Karen", "Amy", "Bree". I grab my sketch book with my colored pencils and sit down outside.
This is gonna be a great week. I can't believe this is my sixth year. I love it here. Everything we do, all the people I meet. The only bad this about this place is the bees and yellow jackets. I've had pretty bad experience with those nasty bugs. Every day at snack, they just love my cabin the most. One time at snack, maybe two or three years ago, a girl in my cabin was eating a Popsicle and it was melting all over her clothes and face. A yellow jacket came and crawled just from her bellybutton to her nose very slowly. We kept snapping and clapping for it to go away until it got all the goodie off her shirt, it flew away after five whole minutes. The girl was almost gonna have a heart attack but she stayed completely still till it left and she was lucky enough for it not to sting her. Man would I have hated to be that girl. I'm not too terribly afraid of them, but when they come to me, I freak out. The first year I was having soda one day and a bee landed on my drink. I slowly placed if down and ran inside and stayed there until snack time was done. I don't know why I was so spooked but I was too spooked because the counselors had to tell me a million times to come back inside. I really hope they got rid of those nasty bugs this year.
Before I know it, the cabin is filled with suitcases and clothes all over the room and it's time for swimming tests.
