When I awoke the next morning, it was raining.
Some of the hardest, harshest rain I'd ever seen in my life came pouring down on the hotel with reckless abandon as I sat by the window, fascinated by the sights and sounds of a full-on rainstorm. It was a nice distraction from the long day that I knew was ahead of me.
Today was the day I had been looking forward to, dreading, replaying in my head for over 5 months. It was the first day of the camp that was supposed to change my life. I didn't know if it would do that much, but I was sure that whatever I learned there was going to help me in my careeer to be a writer.
I was taking a college-level Creative Writing class for three weeks as a high school sophmore. Impressive, I guess, but what I was really worried about was that I wasn't going to be good enough. Who knew what kind of kids would be there?
After sitting by the window for a few more minutes, I got up, grunting, and walked over to the bathroom to shower. My family was still asleep, except for my father, who had gotten up early to go to the hotel gym.
I locked the door and sat on the floor, unlocking my phone and opening Twitter. I knew I wouldn't have much time to be on today-or for the next month, for that matter.
HI GUYS OMG THE DAY IS FINALLY HERE IM SO ASJGFAWGAJSDGS IDK.
SO I MIGHT NOT BE ON MUCH FOR THE NEXT THREE WEEKS WHAT WITH THERE BEING NO WIFI AT THE COLLEGE BUT I'LL TRY TO BE ON AS MUCH AS I CAN.
OK OK ILY SEE YA LATER M8S.
I sighed and posted the tweet. I then changed my profile name to MADELYN~INACTIVE.
I stood from the cold tile floor and pushed back the shower curtain. Revealed to me was a basket filled to the top with mini shampoo and conditioner bottles, and another one filled with slightly bigger bottles of body soap. I turned the knob to the hottest setting and stripped my clothes. Stepping in, I let the scalding water loosen my muscles and clear my cluttered mind. My worries slipped away along with the water down the drain as I washed and prepared myself for the day.
So what if the others didn't like me or find me interesting? It's not like I was there to make friends. Yes, I'd just avoid everyone else as much as possible. Which was pretty much what I did all the time, anyway.
Little did I know, that would be impossible.
***
I was just getting my suitcase out of the hotel elevator when my mother tapped my back.
"Yeah?", I asked, turning to her.
"I just wanted to give this to you", she said, handing me a small white envelope, "it"s your debit card."
"Wow. You...didn't have to...", I stuttered. I wasn't good at thank-yous.
"Well, your father and I thought you could use some extra money. It's got $100", she replied, smiling.
I smiled and hugged her. My parents really did too much for me. I surveyed the outside as I walked towards the automatic sliding doors. It wasn't raining as hard as it was before, but water was still coming down at a pretty constant rate. My father had already pulled the car up to the front, so I wouldn't be getting too wet, which was good, because I had spent about half of my time getting ready doing my hair.
I pushed my suitcase into the trunk and got in the backseat, next to my little brother and sister. My mother followed suit after talking to the lady at the front desk for a few minutes.
Before pulling out of the hotel parking lot, my dad looked back at me and smiled that nervous-excited-for-you dad smile.
Way to help with the nerves, dad.
Austin College was exactly six minutes from La Quinta Inn. Those six minutes seemed to be the shortest in my life. In no time, we were driving into the main parking lot. It wasn't long before we found a sign that directed us to the check-in center. By then, the rain had gone down to a light sprinkle. We parked our car in the parking lot behind a building called Dean Hall.
"This must be where you'll be staying!", my mother sang in excitement.
It was a pretty large building, four stories high and about 50 yards long. There were windows in neat rows along the building, and there was a windowless part in the middle seemed to jutt out a bit.
I hadn't seen the front of the building yet, but the back was the most picturesque thing I had ever seen. There was an enormous green lawn that stretched between the parking lot and the building. There was a volleyball pit filled with fresh sand to the left, and a large gazeebo to the right with a pathway leading to the back door of the building.
My father was out of the car in record speed, surveying the place with his hands on his hips, noticeably trying to look like he had some sort of authority in the foreign place. My mother and I shared a laugh and got out ourselves.
