Fic: Summer Camp
Title: Summer Camp
Author: Oni
Rating: G
Genre: Feel-good fluff
Warnings: None
Word Count: 5,211
Summary: Sam's first time away from home, at a summer sports camp in Texas.
Author's Notes: I am not entirely sure that it's even possible for me to write something any further from my own personal range of taste and interest. This was a commissioned fic for a Fiverr client, who wanted a first person POV story about a ten-year-old boy at a summer sports camp in Texas. I've decided to post it here as my week three submission because, even though I've already submitted it to the commissioner, I'd still like some practical advice; for I HATE writing in first person, and I am apparently incapable of sounding like a ten-year-old child. And that's potentially a problem, since one of the central characters in the novel I'm working on is a child. So please, rip it to shreds. I clearly need help.
Also, it's the only thing I've had time to write all week. XD
"Looks like we're here, Sammy," Mom announced from the front passenger seat, turning around and smiling at me. I swallowed hard, toying with the strap of my duffel bag, but I didn't want her to know that I was nervous.
"I know, Mom," I sighed, rolling my eyes. And I did know; I had been counting down the miles on the billboard signs ever since we'd left the McDonald's parking lot. Twenty miles according to the advertisement with the bright yellow sailboat; fifteen on the sign with the horses; then a bold number '5' painted in the sky over a soccer field. And now Dad was pulling the van under a big 'WELCOME' banner, parking in a crowded lot between a big pickup truck and a little red car.
"This place must be huge!" Dad said when we all tumbled out of the van, the sunlight glinting off of his glasses and the balding spot on top of his head. I already had my 'Camp Victoria' t-shirt on, the one they had sent in the mail with the glossy brochure after Mom and Dad had signed me up, and I could see a bunch of other kids did, too. Dad pointed out the small army of white 'registration' signs marching their way up the hill, but we could just as easily have followed the stream of over-excited, blue-clad kids toting backpacks and duffle bags. Seeing them made me feel a little better, though I still wished Mike or Steve were there with me. Mike was really good at soccer, and Steve's parents owned a bunch of horses; they would have made sure I was never picked last for any of the teams, or that I didn't fall too far behind. Even though I was only going to be here for a week, I felt strange -- like maybe I would never see them again.
The registration table was manned by a girl with sun-bleached blonde hair pulled into a ponytail high on her head. The corners of her blue eyes crinkled when she smiled at us, and the heels of her white sneakers scuffed over the sidewalk when she dragged her long legs under her chair. "You're in Cabin Seven," she explained, handing me an orange folder with my name written across the front. I had thought she'd give it to Mom or Dad, but when she spoke she talked to me directly. Hugging the folder to my chest, I decided that I liked her. "Eric's your counselor. You can drop your stuff off at the cabin when you're ready. Eric will tell you where to go next."
We found the cabin -- a genuine cabin, made of logs and everything -- a little further up the hill. There were twelve cabins all together, arranged in a sort of semi-circle around a concrete pavilion. Their numbers had been neatly painted on their wooden sides in bold, white strokes. There was a young man standing on the porch of number seven, balancing a clipboard against his hip while he chatted with a small group of adults. "That must be it," Mom said, as though she were reading my thoughts. "Do you want us to go in with you?"
I kind of did, but she asked in that tone of voice that meant I was supposed to be responsible and take care of something myself. "Nah, that's okay," I told her reluctantly, shifting my bag to my other shoulder. Mom and Dad exchanged a look over top of my head. Then Mom kissed my cheek, and after I looked around to make sure no one had seen it, Dad gave me a quick hug.
I watched them until they vanished out of sight behind the hill, feeling kind of cheated when they never looked back.
Eric was still talking to the other adults when I slowly shuffled up the cabin, but he broke off his conversation to greet me. "Go on inside and pick a bunk," he instructed. He was tall, with dark hair and friendly eyes, like the boys my sister went to the movies with sometimes on the weekends. He wore the same camp t-shirt I did, though his had a badge with the word 'Counselor' and his name written on it. "You can leave your bag in there. Then come on back out and have a seat at the pavilion." He shook my hand, like people did when they met my Dad for the first time, and I decided that I liked him, too.
There were two other boys inside the cabin, one swinging his feet from a top bunk while he talked to the other boy, who was stuffing his backpack beneath the bottom bed. They stopped talking abruptly when the screen door banged shut behind me, and we all looked at one another for a long, awkward moment. "That bed's free," the kid in the top bunk said finally, pointing to the top bed next to his. He rubbed the knuckle of his first finger against the bridge of his freckled nose. "I'm Jack. That's Tommy, my brother." Tommy gave me a little wave, and I realized then that they were identical twins. Looking back and forth between them made me feel sort of dizzy, but they looked friendly enough.
"Thanks. I'm Sam." I slung my bag up onto the bed Jack had pointed to, and then we resumed staring at one another uncertainly. "Um. Eric said we should go to the pavilion when we're done in here, so ..." I gestured vaguely towards the door. Neither boy said anything, but they both followed when I pushed the screen aside and ducked back into the sunlight.
The rest of the day was pretty much just more of the same. All the kids from all twelve cabins eventually clustered beneath the overhang of the pavilion, sitting in nervous little groups with their friends or, when that wasn’t possible, with their cabin mates. I stuck close to the twins and another boy named Aaron, who wore glasses and two different colored socks and, it turned out later, had claimed the bed beneath mine. Eric and the other counselors introduced themselves, and then we had dinner. They explained that we’d normally eat in the big mess hall behind the cabins, but since a few latecomers were still straggling in, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches wrapped in cellophane instead.
There was a camp fire that night, too, though not the kind of camp fire you normally see in movies and on TV. No one had a guitar or roasted marshmallows or anything. We just lined up the picnic table benches around the fire pit once we’d finished eating, and then the counselors took turns telling stories about sports teams and the summer camps they had gone to when they were kids.
Then we were herded into the cabins and told that it was ‘lights out’. A few spiders had snuck inside and hung from the ceiling, and after the sun set everything started to smell a little damp and stale. One of the boys in the bunk closest to the door cried a little, but no one made fun of him for it; I think we all felt homesick. Me, I was starting to wish I hadn’t come to camp at all, and had just gone to the pool all summer with Steve and Mike instead. But then Jack leaned over and whispered, “Want to see something cool? My older brother taught me.” He had snuck a flashlight under his covers when Eric had come in to tell us to go to sleep, and while I watched he shone the little beam of light directly onto a Daddy Long Legs. The spider didn’t skitter away from the beam like I thought he would; instead, he started to bob up and down, like he was dancing or something. I started to laugh. It looked so ridiculous that it wasn’t scary any more. Jack grinned at me as he shone the light on another, both of us smothering our giggles against our pillow cases.
I thought then that maybe camp wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“Handball! Penalty kick, red team!”
I pushed my sweaty bangs out of my eyes, tugging my blue mesh over-shirt back into place and wincing in sympathy as Tommy’s face fell. I thought the other kids might harass him a little about it - we were tied 4-4 with Cabin Ten, which was a pretty awful time for a penalty kick - but they just groaned. “I would have done the same thing,” I whispered to him encouragingly as we stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the goal cage. He and Jack were my friends now, and Tommy and I were both wing defenders for our soccer team; I wanted to prove my loyalty. And anyway, I would have done the same thing. Kids like Tommy and me weren’t like my buddy Mike. It was a little scary to have a ball flying directly at your head.
Tommy just smiled weakly at me, readjusting the awkward plastic goggles they made him wear to protect his glasses. I could see a thin red line above his right eye from where the plastic had dug into his skin, and thought it was probably a really good thing that he had held up his hands to block the ball.
Cabin Ten’s kicker was a big kid named Sean. He was really good; I think he must have played on a junior league team or something back home, wherever ‘home’ was for him. He had a gap-toothed smile from where his front baby teeth had fallen out, and every time I looked at him I couldn’t help but touch the tip of my tongue to my own loose tooth. I was wiggling it back and forth when he stepped up to the ball, watching the way his broad face creased in concentration. I thought maybe it wasn’t really fair, Cabin Ten having a real soccer player on their team and all, but then I remembered that Jack had said he was really good at swimming. And I was pretty good at baseball, or at least that’s what my friends always told me. So maybe everybody had to be good at something.
It was a little hard to remember that, though, when Sean gave the ball a really good kick and sent it sailing way over our heads. It made a swishing sound when it charged right into the goal net, barely brushing the tips of our goalie’s fingers on the way past. We all hung our heads in disappointment when Cabin Ten started to cheer, and then Eric blew his whistle and announced that it was time to break for lunch.
The losers of the match had to serve the winners ice cream in the mess hall after everyone had finished eating. I thought it would be embarrassing and annoying, but we actually had a lot of fun doing it. The counselors spread a bunch of Styrofoam dishes out over a long table, each one filled with different kinds of toppings, and then they gave us white aprons and silly white hats to wear. The kids from Cabin Ten lined up along the other side of the table and gave us their orders. At first we were really careful, making sure not to drop any ice cream on the floor when we scooped it out of the big containers, especially since the giant metal spoons they gave us were soon really cold and slippery between our fingers. But then Juan got a really weird order from one of the boys, who wanted three scoops of vanilla ice cream with only two M&Ms. Those of us close enough to hear on both sides of the table started giggling, but Juan’s kind of artistic and he really had a good time with it. He made a snowman with the three scoops of vanilla, using two green M&Ms for the eyes. The boy who had requested it was really impressed, showing it around so much that it was half-melted before he even had a chance to eat it, and after that we all competed to see what kind of ice cream sculptures we could make. Juan made another one later that was my favorite: a bunny, with a chocolate body and vanilla ears and a little bit of strawberry for his nose. He gave it to one of the other counselors, Chad, who showed it to everyone just like the kid with the snowman had.
By the time all the kids from Cabin Ten had been served and we’d dished out our own ice cream, we were all laughing so hard we didn’t even remember that we’d lost the game. There was one big picnic table reserved for us and one reserved for them, but everyone kept getting up to show off their ice cream sculptures and we ended up all mixed together. But the counselors were laughing pretty hard, too, and no one seemed to mind.
After lunch, Eric lined us up and led us across the camp to the basketball courts. We’d been paired up with Cabin Ten for the whole day, so they came along, too. The soccer game had been sort of awkward, since we didn’t really know each other and everyone felt a little self-conscious about whether they were good or not, but it was easier this time. Chad gave us all some really good pointers on dunking, and then Eric had us practice dribbling balls around a bunch of orange safety cones. My ball got away from me sometimes and I had to chase it across the court, but a lot of the other kids were doing the same thing so I didn’t feel bad about it. When it was time to actually play the game, the kids sitting on the benches cheered for every basket, no matter which side scored. We all wanted to win, but we weren’t afraid of losing anymore. I think this made Chad and Eric happy. I guess that was sort of the point of camp. Grownups don’t think we get that kind of thing, but we do.
Our team ended up winning the game, by the way, but that wasn’t even the best part. While Eric was giving us a speech about teamwork and sportsmanship, and how proud he was of us, Chad dragged a huge bucket out from behind the benches. It turned out that there were water balloons inside of it, and he smashed a big red one right over Eric’s head while he was talking! Jack burst out laughing before remembering himself and clamping a hand over his mouth; but then Eric started chasing Chad across the court, bits of red rubber caught in his wet hair, and we all jumped up to grab our own balloons and start hurling them at each other. I caught Sean in the shoulder with a big yellow one, and he tried to get me back; but his balloon just bounced on the pavement without breaking, which made us all laugh again. The big finale was when Eric dumped the water left in the bucket over Chad’s head while his back was turned.
Cleaning up all the broken balloon pieces wasn’t quite as much fun, but it gave us time to dry off before dinner. My t-shirt was so wet, I could wring it out between my hands and leave puddles on the ground! It had been really hot on the basketball court, but we were nice and cooled off now. One of the other boys started singing the theme song to Phineas and Ferb, and we all knew the lyrics - even the counselors! I think we surprised the other kids when we all came charging into the dining hall, singing crazily at the top of our lungs.
That night, we were all too tired to play games with our flashlights. No one cried because they were homesick, and everyone fall asleep really fast as soon as the lights went out.
“This, my good men, is the much-sought after crown of Sherwood!”
We all stared skeptically, first at Eric, then at the cardboard Burger King crown he had in his hand. The kids from our cabin stood in a line next to the kids from Cabin Two. There were bright orange archery bows lying at each of our feet, but we’d been ordered not to touch them until we were told to.
Eric, meanwhile, wasn’t bothered by our reluctance; he held the crown up in the sun like it was something really special, its cheap spray paint glittering faintly in a weak imitation of gold. “Whoever proves himself to be the best archer shall be our Robin Hood for the day, crowned King of Sherwood!” he announced cheerfully. We exchanged glances. None of us had known what ‘Sherwood’ was, but we had heard of Robin Hood. “Our king will be addressed as ‘your highness’ for the rest of the day, and will have the honor of leading the group through the forest on this afternoon’s hike.”
“Will he have to wear that silly crown, too?” one of the kids from the other group asked. We all giggled, but I think we all secretly wanted the crown now. I know I sure did.
“Of course! How else will his band of merry men know that he’s king?”
“And there’s one more thing,” Phil, the counselor from Cabin Two, spoke up. He stepped forward holding a blonde wig and a really pink tutu. “We’ll add up all your archery scores during this morning’s contest, and the counselor of the cabin with the least amount of points will have to be our Robin Hood’s Maid Marian for the afternoon.” Both Phil and Eric made an exaggerated expression of horror, and everyone started laughing again. I tried to picture both of them dressed up like girls, but it just made me laugh harder.
“Men, do your poor leader proud!” Eric pleaded, and then he set aside the crown and collected our arrows from a box at his feet. We each had a metal stand stuck into the ground next to us called a ‘quiver,’ and Eric placed four arrows into each one. Like most of the other boys, I had never actually held a bow before; the only ones I’d ever seen were in movies or on TV. But Eric turned out to be really good at archery, and he was patient with us as we struggled to get the hang of it. The hardest part for me was drawing back the arrow. It’s so hard! You have to pull with all your strength just to make the bow bend, and the whole time you’re doing that you have to be careful that the arrow doesn’t fall off the string. Everyone had to wear plastic wrist guards to keep the string from stinging their skin when the arrow was released; Phil said it could really leave a mark if we didn’t, so we put up with them, even though they were sweaty and itchy to wear.
It took a long time until I finally managed to hit the target, especially since I only had four arrows. We got to shoot all four, and then we had to wait until everyone was finished and one of the counselors blew the ‘all clear’ whistle. Then we had to go get our arrows. This actually took the most time, because often the arrows would fly over the target and land in the weeds somewhere. The tall grass made our legs itch and the twins sneeze something terrible, who said they were allergic. Once, when I reached down to pick up my arrow, a huge grasshopper jumped up near my face and scared me half to death. The actual shooting was fun, though. I tried to imagine I was one of the forest outlaws, like in the Robin Hood TV show I had watched with my sister last year. Bet those outlaws didn’t have to go chasing after their own arrows in the weeds, though.
Everybody was pretty bad at it, and no one scoured many points - but Cabin Two still beat us. By one point! A boy with sandy blonde hair and bright green eyes in their group was chosen to be Robin Hood, and everyone clapped when Phil placed the crown on his head. I think we were all disappointed that we didn’t get to wear the crown ourselves, but it was sort of fun pretending to be his ‘merry men’ during the hike after lunch.
The best part was when Eric came into the mess hall dressed in the wig and tutu! He made an elaborate curtsy to our ‘Robin Hood,’ and then Chad came over to inspect his outfit and wouldn’t let us all leave until he’d taken pictures. “Blackmail!” he called it. I’m not really sure what that means, but it made everyone laugh again. We all filed out of the hall behind our ‘leaders’, who walked arm-in-arm and led us off towards the woods. The mosquitoes were pretty bad, even though Phil had sprayed everyone with bug repellant on their way out the door, but we were so busy pretending to hunt deer and run away from the sheriff’s men that we hardly noticed. Jack and Tommy didn’t know much about Robin Hood, so I got to explain everything to them while we walked. The other kids seemed impressed that I knew so much, and I was really glad my sister had made me watch that TV show. Phil and Eric let us crash around in the underbrush, firing imaginary arrows at each other, so long as we didn’t wander too far away from the path.
There weren’t any real animals in the woods, just pretend ones and a few birds up in the tree branches above us. But by the time we got to the lake, we had come up with an awesome story that had us all running away from a man-eating tiger named Seth, who had already bitten off Robin Hood’s hand and eaten one of Maid Marian’s pink slippers. It was really cool, though I think we scared some of the other kids who were already at the lake when we all came out of the forest, running as fast as we could and screaming our heads off about the tiger chasing us …
Anyway, the main point of the hike had been to get us to the lake. There was a little wooden dock there, and some kids were using it for a diving board; but Phil and Eric told us that we would be kayaking that afternoon instead of swimming. Mom and Dad had let my sister and me go kayaking last year when we visited our grandparents in Virginia, so I knew a little bit about it already - more than I had known about archery, anyway. When Eric found out that I had done it before, he asked me to help teach the others how to use the oars without tipping their boats over and falling into the water. Everybody had to watch while I got in a kayak and paddled around the dock, and then it was their turn to try. Phil told us that the older kids got to take their boats out on the river, but since we didn’t really know what we were doing yet we had to stay in the little lake, close to the dock. If you could prove to the counselors that you were doing okay, they would tap the prow of your kayak with their paddle, signaling that you were allowed to go off towards the opposite shore if you wanted to. I was the first one to be tapped, and then ‘Robin Hood’ was tapped soon after. We had a race and I beat him by a little bit, so he told me I could be his lieutenant for the rest of the day.
Part of Eric’s demonstrations included what to do if your kayak tipped over. He dunked himself to show what it would be like, but he forgot he was wearing the wig! It floated out to the middle of the lake, and Phil had to go out and get it for him. He made Eric put it back on after he got it back, even though it was dripping wet; it looked like a pile of dark blonde seaweed on top of his head!
I guess we all should have been really tired after that, but once we’d all taken turns getting a shower in the bathhouse we complained to Eric that we weren’t sleepy enough to go to bed. So he let us stay up for a while longer, chasing each other through the dark around the cabins and playing Flashlight Tag. It’s a really hard game, because sometimes you’re not sure whether you’ve been tagged or not, and a couple of boys got into an argument about it. But I thought it was fun sneaking around in the dark. Tommy, Jack and I pretended to be secret agents looking for a missing jewel until Eric blew his little whistle again and we all had to get ready for bed.
The next morning, we got up extra early to meet Cabin Five at the stables on the other side of the camp. Everything smelled very strongly of hay and horse, and you had to be careful where you stepped. I could tell some of the other boys were nervous because the horses were really big, but Steve’s parents had let me ride their horses before and I wasn’t worried. There were only five horses in the stables, so we all had to take turns. Eric gave each boy a sugar cube to feed his horse before mounting to make everyone more relaxed; I showed Tommy and Jack how to keep your palm flat so that the horse wouldn’t accidently bite your fingers. We were only allowed to walk the horses around in circles, but the counselors kept it from being boring by making up a story involving knights and a jousting tournament. After everyone had a chance to get used to riding, we took turns guiding our horses through a mini obstacle course. There were clothespins clipped to a bucket set on top of a barrel, and you had to carefully reach out and unclip them. There were also a bunch of brightly colored rings that you had to try and toss onto a pole while your horse was walking past it. It wasn’t much like the jousting tournaments they taught us about in school, but everyone who could complete the challenges got to wear a ‘royal standard’ ribbon pinned to their t-shirt for the rest of the day.
Later in the afternoon, Eric took us all to the rock climbing wall. That was the hardest part of camp! Some of the kids were sore from the horseback riding, and others were afraid of heights. I had a few callouses on my fingers from archery which hadn’t gone away the night before, and it made gripping the rocks sort of hard. But the counselors were nice about it. They encouraged everyone to try, but didn’t make anyone go further up than they wanted to go. Jack made it all the way to the top and pretended to be Tarzan on his way back down, but I stopped about half-way up. The kids who were afraid of heights didn’t make it very far off the ground at all. We were all a little sunburnt and bitten up from mosquitoes, and I felt kind of tired. I don’t know if it was planned or not, but the counselors let us off the hook after dinner. We played a game of dodge ball with Cabin Two behind the pavilion, but it was easy for the kids who were really tired to get themselves tagged early. They spent the rest of the game watching from the shade of the nearby trees. I stuck it out until the end, but I fell asleep faster that night than I ever have before.
And then it was Friday; the last day of camp.
It was easy not to think about that during the morning, because Eric took us swimming with Cabin Eight in the lake. The water was really cold, but it felt good against my sore arms and all the mosquito bites I had accidently scratched open at night. In a pool we probably would have had to swim laps or something, like they made us do in gym class at school, but in the lake we were allowed to just play and goof around as long as we didn’t go past the rope near the dock. Some of the other kids were having their turn at kayaking, and we were instructed to be extra careful and not get in their way.
After lunch, though, we all had to go back to our cabins and pack up our things. Everybody was sort of quiet, and I couldn’t tell if that was because they were really tired or because they didn’t really want to go home. Tommy, Jack and I all promised to ‘friend’ each other on Facebook, and when we asked him to, Eric gave us all his email address.
Once everyone had finished packing and the cabin was all cleaned up, Eric let us go outside and join our friends from the other cabins in a huge game of Capture the Flag. It was a lot of fun, and even the counselors joined in; but it was hard to remember who was on which side, especially since kids kept ‘disappearing’ when their parents showed up to take them home. I stuck close to my cabin mates so that none of us could leave without saying goodbye to each other.
“Did you have fun, Sammy?” Mom asked when I jogged across the field towards her. Dad already had my duffel bag slung over his shoulder, and Eric was waiting to check my name off of the list on his clipboard. He was wearing his ‘Camp Victoria’ t-shirt and he shook my hand again when I said goodbye, just like he had on the first day when I’d said hello. The feeling of déjà vu made me a little dizzy again.
It’s fall now, and school’s started, but I still think about camp a lot. My friends and I talk online all the time, but it isn’t quite the same as riding horses and playing Flashlight Tag together. I can’t believe I was so nervous at the thought of going! Mom and Dad said I could go again next year, and Jack and Tommy’s parents said the same thing. Maybe I can talk Mike and Steve into coming, too. I’ve told them all about it, and they’re sorry they missed out on all the fun.
Grownups think we don’t understand these sorts of things, but we do: I know camp will be awesome next year, but I also know that nothing beats your first week away from home.
Author: Oni
Rating: G
Genre: Feel-good fluff
Warnings: None
Word Count: 5,211
Summary: Sam's first time away from home, at a summer sports camp in Texas.
Author's Notes: I am not entirely sure that it's even possible for me to write something any further from my own personal range of taste and interest. This was a commissioned fic for a Fiverr client, who wanted a first person POV story about a ten-year-old boy at a summer sports camp in Texas. I've decided to post it here as my week three submission because, even though I've already submitted it to the commissioner, I'd still like some practical advice; for I HATE writing in first person, and I am apparently incapable of sounding like a ten-year-old child. And that's potentially a problem, since one of the central characters in the novel I'm working on is a child. So please, rip it to shreds. I clearly need help.
Also, it's the only thing I've had time to write all week. XD
"Looks like we're here, Sammy," Mom announced from the front passenger seat, turning around and smiling at me. I swallowed hard, toying with the strap of my duffel bag, but I didn't want her to know that I was nervous.
"I know, Mom," I sighed, rolling my eyes. And I did know; I had been counting down the miles on the billboard signs ever since we'd left the McDonald's parking lot. Twenty miles according to the advertisement with the bright yellow sailboat; fifteen on the sign with the horses; then a bold number '5' painted in the sky over a soccer field. And now Dad was pulling the van under a big 'WELCOME' banner, parking in a crowded lot between a big pickup truck and a little red car.
"This place must be huge!" Dad said when we all tumbled out of the van, the sunlight glinting off of his glasses and the balding spot on top of his head. I already had my 'Camp Victoria' t-shirt on, the one they had sent in the mail with the glossy brochure after Mom and Dad had signed me up, and I could see a bunch of other kids did, too. Dad pointed out the small army of white 'registration' signs marching their way up the hill, but we could just as easily have followed the stream of over-excited, blue-clad kids toting backpacks and duffle bags. Seeing them made me feel a little better, though I still wished Mike or Steve were there with me. Mike was really good at soccer, and Steve's parents owned a bunch of horses; they would have made sure I was never picked last for any of the teams, or that I didn't fall too far behind. Even though I was only going to be here for a week, I felt strange -- like maybe I would never see them again.
The registration table was manned by a girl with sun-bleached blonde hair pulled into a ponytail high on her head. The corners of her blue eyes crinkled when she smiled at us, and the heels of her white sneakers scuffed over the sidewalk when she dragged her long legs under her chair. "You're in Cabin Seven," she explained, handing me an orange folder with my name written across the front. I had thought she'd give it to Mom or Dad, but when she spoke she talked to me directly. Hugging the folder to my chest, I decided that I liked her. "Eric's your counselor. You can drop your stuff off at the cabin when you're ready. Eric will tell you where to go next."
We found the cabin -- a genuine cabin, made of logs and everything -- a little further up the hill. There were twelve cabins all together, arranged in a sort of semi-circle around a concrete pavilion. Their numbers had been neatly painted on their wooden sides in bold, white strokes. There was a young man standing on the porch of number seven, balancing a clipboard against his hip while he chatted with a small group of adults. "That must be it," Mom said, as though she were reading my thoughts. "Do you want us to go in with you?"
I kind of did, but she asked in that tone of voice that meant I was supposed to be responsible and take care of something myself. "Nah, that's okay," I told her reluctantly, shifting my bag to my other shoulder. Mom and Dad exchanged a look over top of my head. Then Mom kissed my cheek, and after I looked around to make sure no one had seen it, Dad gave me a quick hug.
I watched them until they vanished out of sight behind the hill, feeling kind of cheated when they never looked back.
Eric was still talking to the other adults when I slowly shuffled up the cabin, but he broke off his conversation to greet me. "Go on inside and pick a bunk," he instructed. He was tall, with dark hair and friendly eyes, like the boys my sister went to the movies with sometimes on the weekends. He wore the same camp t-shirt I did, though his had a badge with the word 'Counselor' and his name written on it. "You can leave your bag in there. Then come on back out and have a seat at the pavilion." He shook my hand, like people did when they met my Dad for the first time, and I decided that I liked him, too.
There were two other boys inside the cabin, one swinging his feet from a top bunk while he talked to the other boy, who was stuffing his backpack beneath the bottom bed. They stopped talking abruptly when the screen door banged shut behind me, and we all looked at one another for a long, awkward moment. "That bed's free," the kid in the top bunk said finally, pointing to the top bed next to his. He rubbed the knuckle of his first finger against the bridge of his freckled nose. "I'm Jack. That's Tommy, my brother." Tommy gave me a little wave, and I realized then that they were identical twins. Looking back and forth between them made me feel sort of dizzy, but they looked friendly enough.
"Thanks. I'm Sam." I slung my bag up onto the bed Jack had pointed to, and then we resumed staring at one another uncertainly. "Um. Eric said we should go to the pavilion when we're done in here, so ..." I gestured vaguely towards the door. Neither boy said anything, but they both followed when I pushed the screen aside and ducked back into the sunlight.
The rest of the day was pretty much just more of the same. All the kids from all twelve cabins eventually clustered beneath the overhang of the pavilion, sitting in nervous little groups with their friends or, when that wasn’t possible, with their cabin mates. I stuck close to the twins and another boy named Aaron, who wore glasses and two different colored socks and, it turned out later, had claimed the bed beneath mine. Eric and the other counselors introduced themselves, and then we had dinner. They explained that we’d normally eat in the big mess hall behind the cabins, but since a few latecomers were still straggling in, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches wrapped in cellophane instead.
There was a camp fire that night, too, though not the kind of camp fire you normally see in movies and on TV. No one had a guitar or roasted marshmallows or anything. We just lined up the picnic table benches around the fire pit once we’d finished eating, and then the counselors took turns telling stories about sports teams and the summer camps they had gone to when they were kids.
Then we were herded into the cabins and told that it was ‘lights out’. A few spiders had snuck inside and hung from the ceiling, and after the sun set everything started to smell a little damp and stale. One of the boys in the bunk closest to the door cried a little, but no one made fun of him for it; I think we all felt homesick. Me, I was starting to wish I hadn’t come to camp at all, and had just gone to the pool all summer with Steve and Mike instead. But then Jack leaned over and whispered, “Want to see something cool? My older brother taught me.” He had snuck a flashlight under his covers when Eric had come in to tell us to go to sleep, and while I watched he shone the little beam of light directly onto a Daddy Long Legs. The spider didn’t skitter away from the beam like I thought he would; instead, he started to bob up and down, like he was dancing or something. I started to laugh. It looked so ridiculous that it wasn’t scary any more. Jack grinned at me as he shone the light on another, both of us smothering our giggles against our pillow cases.
I thought then that maybe camp wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“Handball! Penalty kick, red team!”
I pushed my sweaty bangs out of my eyes, tugging my blue mesh over-shirt back into place and wincing in sympathy as Tommy’s face fell. I thought the other kids might harass him a little about it - we were tied 4-4 with Cabin Ten, which was a pretty awful time for a penalty kick - but they just groaned. “I would have done the same thing,” I whispered to him encouragingly as we stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the goal cage. He and Jack were my friends now, and Tommy and I were both wing defenders for our soccer team; I wanted to prove my loyalty. And anyway, I would have done the same thing. Kids like Tommy and me weren’t like my buddy Mike. It was a little scary to have a ball flying directly at your head.
Tommy just smiled weakly at me, readjusting the awkward plastic goggles they made him wear to protect his glasses. I could see a thin red line above his right eye from where the plastic had dug into his skin, and thought it was probably a really good thing that he had held up his hands to block the ball.
Cabin Ten’s kicker was a big kid named Sean. He was really good; I think he must have played on a junior league team or something back home, wherever ‘home’ was for him. He had a gap-toothed smile from where his front baby teeth had fallen out, and every time I looked at him I couldn’t help but touch the tip of my tongue to my own loose tooth. I was wiggling it back and forth when he stepped up to the ball, watching the way his broad face creased in concentration. I thought maybe it wasn’t really fair, Cabin Ten having a real soccer player on their team and all, but then I remembered that Jack had said he was really good at swimming. And I was pretty good at baseball, or at least that’s what my friends always told me. So maybe everybody had to be good at something.
It was a little hard to remember that, though, when Sean gave the ball a really good kick and sent it sailing way over our heads. It made a swishing sound when it charged right into the goal net, barely brushing the tips of our goalie’s fingers on the way past. We all hung our heads in disappointment when Cabin Ten started to cheer, and then Eric blew his whistle and announced that it was time to break for lunch.
The losers of the match had to serve the winners ice cream in the mess hall after everyone had finished eating. I thought it would be embarrassing and annoying, but we actually had a lot of fun doing it. The counselors spread a bunch of Styrofoam dishes out over a long table, each one filled with different kinds of toppings, and then they gave us white aprons and silly white hats to wear. The kids from Cabin Ten lined up along the other side of the table and gave us their orders. At first we were really careful, making sure not to drop any ice cream on the floor when we scooped it out of the big containers, especially since the giant metal spoons they gave us were soon really cold and slippery between our fingers. But then Juan got a really weird order from one of the boys, who wanted three scoops of vanilla ice cream with only two M&Ms. Those of us close enough to hear on both sides of the table started giggling, but Juan’s kind of artistic and he really had a good time with it. He made a snowman with the three scoops of vanilla, using two green M&Ms for the eyes. The boy who had requested it was really impressed, showing it around so much that it was half-melted before he even had a chance to eat it, and after that we all competed to see what kind of ice cream sculptures we could make. Juan made another one later that was my favorite: a bunny, with a chocolate body and vanilla ears and a little bit of strawberry for his nose. He gave it to one of the other counselors, Chad, who showed it to everyone just like the kid with the snowman had.
By the time all the kids from Cabin Ten had been served and we’d dished out our own ice cream, we were all laughing so hard we didn’t even remember that we’d lost the game. There was one big picnic table reserved for us and one reserved for them, but everyone kept getting up to show off their ice cream sculptures and we ended up all mixed together. But the counselors were laughing pretty hard, too, and no one seemed to mind.
After lunch, Eric lined us up and led us across the camp to the basketball courts. We’d been paired up with Cabin Ten for the whole day, so they came along, too. The soccer game had been sort of awkward, since we didn’t really know each other and everyone felt a little self-conscious about whether they were good or not, but it was easier this time. Chad gave us all some really good pointers on dunking, and then Eric had us practice dribbling balls around a bunch of orange safety cones. My ball got away from me sometimes and I had to chase it across the court, but a lot of the other kids were doing the same thing so I didn’t feel bad about it. When it was time to actually play the game, the kids sitting on the benches cheered for every basket, no matter which side scored. We all wanted to win, but we weren’t afraid of losing anymore. I think this made Chad and Eric happy. I guess that was sort of the point of camp. Grownups don’t think we get that kind of thing, but we do.
Our team ended up winning the game, by the way, but that wasn’t even the best part. While Eric was giving us a speech about teamwork and sportsmanship, and how proud he was of us, Chad dragged a huge bucket out from behind the benches. It turned out that there were water balloons inside of it, and he smashed a big red one right over Eric’s head while he was talking! Jack burst out laughing before remembering himself and clamping a hand over his mouth; but then Eric started chasing Chad across the court, bits of red rubber caught in his wet hair, and we all jumped up to grab our own balloons and start hurling them at each other. I caught Sean in the shoulder with a big yellow one, and he tried to get me back; but his balloon just bounced on the pavement without breaking, which made us all laugh again. The big finale was when Eric dumped the water left in the bucket over Chad’s head while his back was turned.
Cleaning up all the broken balloon pieces wasn’t quite as much fun, but it gave us time to dry off before dinner. My t-shirt was so wet, I could wring it out between my hands and leave puddles on the ground! It had been really hot on the basketball court, but we were nice and cooled off now. One of the other boys started singing the theme song to Phineas and Ferb, and we all knew the lyrics - even the counselors! I think we surprised the other kids when we all came charging into the dining hall, singing crazily at the top of our lungs.
That night, we were all too tired to play games with our flashlights. No one cried because they were homesick, and everyone fall asleep really fast as soon as the lights went out.
“This, my good men, is the much-sought after crown of Sherwood!”
We all stared skeptically, first at Eric, then at the cardboard Burger King crown he had in his hand. The kids from our cabin stood in a line next to the kids from Cabin Two. There were bright orange archery bows lying at each of our feet, but we’d been ordered not to touch them until we were told to.
Eric, meanwhile, wasn’t bothered by our reluctance; he held the crown up in the sun like it was something really special, its cheap spray paint glittering faintly in a weak imitation of gold. “Whoever proves himself to be the best archer shall be our Robin Hood for the day, crowned King of Sherwood!” he announced cheerfully. We exchanged glances. None of us had known what ‘Sherwood’ was, but we had heard of Robin Hood. “Our king will be addressed as ‘your highness’ for the rest of the day, and will have the honor of leading the group through the forest on this afternoon’s hike.”
“Will he have to wear that silly crown, too?” one of the kids from the other group asked. We all giggled, but I think we all secretly wanted the crown now. I know I sure did.
“Of course! How else will his band of merry men know that he’s king?”
“And there’s one more thing,” Phil, the counselor from Cabin Two, spoke up. He stepped forward holding a blonde wig and a really pink tutu. “We’ll add up all your archery scores during this morning’s contest, and the counselor of the cabin with the least amount of points will have to be our Robin Hood’s Maid Marian for the afternoon.” Both Phil and Eric made an exaggerated expression of horror, and everyone started laughing again. I tried to picture both of them dressed up like girls, but it just made me laugh harder.
“Men, do your poor leader proud!” Eric pleaded, and then he set aside the crown and collected our arrows from a box at his feet. We each had a metal stand stuck into the ground next to us called a ‘quiver,’ and Eric placed four arrows into each one. Like most of the other boys, I had never actually held a bow before; the only ones I’d ever seen were in movies or on TV. But Eric turned out to be really good at archery, and he was patient with us as we struggled to get the hang of it. The hardest part for me was drawing back the arrow. It’s so hard! You have to pull with all your strength just to make the bow bend, and the whole time you’re doing that you have to be careful that the arrow doesn’t fall off the string. Everyone had to wear plastic wrist guards to keep the string from stinging their skin when the arrow was released; Phil said it could really leave a mark if we didn’t, so we put up with them, even though they were sweaty and itchy to wear.
It took a long time until I finally managed to hit the target, especially since I only had four arrows. We got to shoot all four, and then we had to wait until everyone was finished and one of the counselors blew the ‘all clear’ whistle. Then we had to go get our arrows. This actually took the most time, because often the arrows would fly over the target and land in the weeds somewhere. The tall grass made our legs itch and the twins sneeze something terrible, who said they were allergic. Once, when I reached down to pick up my arrow, a huge grasshopper jumped up near my face and scared me half to death. The actual shooting was fun, though. I tried to imagine I was one of the forest outlaws, like in the Robin Hood TV show I had watched with my sister last year. Bet those outlaws didn’t have to go chasing after their own arrows in the weeds, though.
Everybody was pretty bad at it, and no one scoured many points - but Cabin Two still beat us. By one point! A boy with sandy blonde hair and bright green eyes in their group was chosen to be Robin Hood, and everyone clapped when Phil placed the crown on his head. I think we were all disappointed that we didn’t get to wear the crown ourselves, but it was sort of fun pretending to be his ‘merry men’ during the hike after lunch.
The best part was when Eric came into the mess hall dressed in the wig and tutu! He made an elaborate curtsy to our ‘Robin Hood,’ and then Chad came over to inspect his outfit and wouldn’t let us all leave until he’d taken pictures. “Blackmail!” he called it. I’m not really sure what that means, but it made everyone laugh again. We all filed out of the hall behind our ‘leaders’, who walked arm-in-arm and led us off towards the woods. The mosquitoes were pretty bad, even though Phil had sprayed everyone with bug repellant on their way out the door, but we were so busy pretending to hunt deer and run away from the sheriff’s men that we hardly noticed. Jack and Tommy didn’t know much about Robin Hood, so I got to explain everything to them while we walked. The other kids seemed impressed that I knew so much, and I was really glad my sister had made me watch that TV show. Phil and Eric let us crash around in the underbrush, firing imaginary arrows at each other, so long as we didn’t wander too far away from the path.
There weren’t any real animals in the woods, just pretend ones and a few birds up in the tree branches above us. But by the time we got to the lake, we had come up with an awesome story that had us all running away from a man-eating tiger named Seth, who had already bitten off Robin Hood’s hand and eaten one of Maid Marian’s pink slippers. It was really cool, though I think we scared some of the other kids who were already at the lake when we all came out of the forest, running as fast as we could and screaming our heads off about the tiger chasing us …
Anyway, the main point of the hike had been to get us to the lake. There was a little wooden dock there, and some kids were using it for a diving board; but Phil and Eric told us that we would be kayaking that afternoon instead of swimming. Mom and Dad had let my sister and me go kayaking last year when we visited our grandparents in Virginia, so I knew a little bit about it already - more than I had known about archery, anyway. When Eric found out that I had done it before, he asked me to help teach the others how to use the oars without tipping their boats over and falling into the water. Everybody had to watch while I got in a kayak and paddled around the dock, and then it was their turn to try. Phil told us that the older kids got to take their boats out on the river, but since we didn’t really know what we were doing yet we had to stay in the little lake, close to the dock. If you could prove to the counselors that you were doing okay, they would tap the prow of your kayak with their paddle, signaling that you were allowed to go off towards the opposite shore if you wanted to. I was the first one to be tapped, and then ‘Robin Hood’ was tapped soon after. We had a race and I beat him by a little bit, so he told me I could be his lieutenant for the rest of the day.
Part of Eric’s demonstrations included what to do if your kayak tipped over. He dunked himself to show what it would be like, but he forgot he was wearing the wig! It floated out to the middle of the lake, and Phil had to go out and get it for him. He made Eric put it back on after he got it back, even though it was dripping wet; it looked like a pile of dark blonde seaweed on top of his head!
I guess we all should have been really tired after that, but once we’d all taken turns getting a shower in the bathhouse we complained to Eric that we weren’t sleepy enough to go to bed. So he let us stay up for a while longer, chasing each other through the dark around the cabins and playing Flashlight Tag. It’s a really hard game, because sometimes you’re not sure whether you’ve been tagged or not, and a couple of boys got into an argument about it. But I thought it was fun sneaking around in the dark. Tommy, Jack and I pretended to be secret agents looking for a missing jewel until Eric blew his little whistle again and we all had to get ready for bed.
The next morning, we got up extra early to meet Cabin Five at the stables on the other side of the camp. Everything smelled very strongly of hay and horse, and you had to be careful where you stepped. I could tell some of the other boys were nervous because the horses were really big, but Steve’s parents had let me ride their horses before and I wasn’t worried. There were only five horses in the stables, so we all had to take turns. Eric gave each boy a sugar cube to feed his horse before mounting to make everyone more relaxed; I showed Tommy and Jack how to keep your palm flat so that the horse wouldn’t accidently bite your fingers. We were only allowed to walk the horses around in circles, but the counselors kept it from being boring by making up a story involving knights and a jousting tournament. After everyone had a chance to get used to riding, we took turns guiding our horses through a mini obstacle course. There were clothespins clipped to a bucket set on top of a barrel, and you had to carefully reach out and unclip them. There were also a bunch of brightly colored rings that you had to try and toss onto a pole while your horse was walking past it. It wasn’t much like the jousting tournaments they taught us about in school, but everyone who could complete the challenges got to wear a ‘royal standard’ ribbon pinned to their t-shirt for the rest of the day.
Later in the afternoon, Eric took us all to the rock climbing wall. That was the hardest part of camp! Some of the kids were sore from the horseback riding, and others were afraid of heights. I had a few callouses on my fingers from archery which hadn’t gone away the night before, and it made gripping the rocks sort of hard. But the counselors were nice about it. They encouraged everyone to try, but didn’t make anyone go further up than they wanted to go. Jack made it all the way to the top and pretended to be Tarzan on his way back down, but I stopped about half-way up. The kids who were afraid of heights didn’t make it very far off the ground at all. We were all a little sunburnt and bitten up from mosquitoes, and I felt kind of tired. I don’t know if it was planned or not, but the counselors let us off the hook after dinner. We played a game of dodge ball with Cabin Two behind the pavilion, but it was easy for the kids who were really tired to get themselves tagged early. They spent the rest of the game watching from the shade of the nearby trees. I stuck it out until the end, but I fell asleep faster that night than I ever have before.
And then it was Friday; the last day of camp.
It was easy not to think about that during the morning, because Eric took us swimming with Cabin Eight in the lake. The water was really cold, but it felt good against my sore arms and all the mosquito bites I had accidently scratched open at night. In a pool we probably would have had to swim laps or something, like they made us do in gym class at school, but in the lake we were allowed to just play and goof around as long as we didn’t go past the rope near the dock. Some of the other kids were having their turn at kayaking, and we were instructed to be extra careful and not get in their way.
After lunch, though, we all had to go back to our cabins and pack up our things. Everybody was sort of quiet, and I couldn’t tell if that was because they were really tired or because they didn’t really want to go home. Tommy, Jack and I all promised to ‘friend’ each other on Facebook, and when we asked him to, Eric gave us all his email address.
Once everyone had finished packing and the cabin was all cleaned up, Eric let us go outside and join our friends from the other cabins in a huge game of Capture the Flag. It was a lot of fun, and even the counselors joined in; but it was hard to remember who was on which side, especially since kids kept ‘disappearing’ when their parents showed up to take them home. I stuck close to my cabin mates so that none of us could leave without saying goodbye to each other.
“Did you have fun, Sammy?” Mom asked when I jogged across the field towards her. Dad already had my duffel bag slung over his shoulder, and Eric was waiting to check my name off of the list on his clipboard. He was wearing his ‘Camp Victoria’ t-shirt and he shook my hand again when I said goodbye, just like he had on the first day when I’d said hello. The feeling of déjà vu made me a little dizzy again.
It’s fall now, and school’s started, but I still think about camp a lot. My friends and I talk online all the time, but it isn’t quite the same as riding horses and playing Flashlight Tag together. I can’t believe I was so nervous at the thought of going! Mom and Dad said I could go again next year, and Jack and Tommy’s parents said the same thing. Maybe I can talk Mike and Steve into coming, too. I’ve told them all about it, and they’re sorry they missed out on all the fun.
Grownups think we don’t understand these sorts of things, but we do: I know camp will be awesome next year, but I also know that nothing beats your first week away from home.