I was finally there. I was finally at my dream camp. Finally at the camp that I had been dying to go to since I was a little girl. I was at summer camp, and after the brief car ride to Westwood, I knew I would be greeted by all kinds of campers my age and older.
Everyone there already knew each other. Mateo, my friend who had been here a year prior, quickly left my brother, Alex, and I when he found some of his friends from his last year. I ended up sharing a bus seat with Alex, watching everyone else enjoy themselves around me. Mateo told me to sit with some of the girls in the back of the bus, but they looked older, I thought. They already were having a good time with each other and I would just ruin it. So I played some card games with my brother, and listened in to a few very interesting and complex riddles that were being told by the two kids in front of me.
By the time we got there, I was ready for action and ready to have the best time of my entire life. Despite the events of the awkward bus ride, I hopped off the bus with a smile that was so wide it extended one ear to another. Once I was checked in, there was a huge area in which all the kids could play. There was a bright yellow slip n’ slide, a colossal inflatable slide, a few carnival games, a basketball court, you name it. I was welcomed by the aromas of all of my favorite unhealthy foods, like cheeseburgers, French fries, pizzas. There was even a milkshake station! Me being me, I went straight for the food and tried to fit as many fatty delectables as I could onto my paper plate.
The group of girls that I had encountered on the bus ride were walking in my direction. At first they sat at my table, as if I was not there at all. Then one blonde girl, who I would later know as Emily, casually brought me into the conversation.
I talked with them for longer than I thought I would. With their Free City hoodies and bright red nail polish, I had gotten the sense that I was making friends for once.
This was until I got my cabin group.
I stared at the small, crinkled paper they had given me with my cabin inscribed, finding that none of my new friends were listed. Meanwhile, Emily and her friends were overjoyed at the fact that they all shared a cabin together. I smiled and tried to be happy for them, though a nagging feeling in the back of my mind reminded me that I will have no friends here. No friends but my brother and Mateo.
Getting to my cabin was a hustle. While dragging my over-sized yellow duffle, the girls in my cabin and I had to climb a hill to reach it. I looked over my shoulder and found that Emily and her friends were assigned a cabin nearby the overlook and the cafeteria, getting the advantage of being first in line for meals. I turned my head and sighed.
My cabin instructor, a girl in her mid-twenties with the nickname “Razzle,” noticed my somber state and offered me a drink of water. She told me: “Drink up! It’s all you can do up here to be hydrated. Lack of water will bring on headaches, nausea, and illness.” She held out the bright blue water container to me. I took a couple of gulps of the odd tasting water, and handed the bottle back to her, trying to look grateful.
As soon as we approached the cabin, I sprinted toward the bunkbeds in hopes of obtaining a top bunk. There were three rooms with two bunk beds to a room. I set my heavy bag down on a bunk that I felt satisfied with: a top bunk in the last room, right next to the bathroom.
I laid out my sleeping bag onto the thin mattress on the bunk. As the other girls poured in to reserve their own beds, I felt a sense of pride as I had gotten first pick. Though it did not last too long.
Razzle set her bag down directly under my bunk, and Tangle, not long afterwards, set her bags down on the bunk adjacent to ours. The last girl to enter the cabin was stuck with me and the cabin instructors as room mates.
She looked as unhappy as I did. I knew that if I were in her shoes I would definitely be also. She climbed up to her top bunk above Tangle, and pulled out a pink iPod and earphones. I was surprised. IPods were not permitted at the camp. But there hers was, and right above an instructor’s bunk.
The girl seemed to notice my wonder concerning her iPod and rolled her eyes. She laid down in her sleeping bag, and turned the other way.
But it was not long until Razzle and Tangle told us we needed to get ready for the bonfire. Ugh. My least favorite part of the day. I was not in the mood to attend some petty bonfire. I was exhausted from the bus ride and had to practically drag myself out of my sleeping bag as I was so tired.
I had assumed, it being the middle of July in California, that it would be excruciatingly hot. But I could not have been further from the truth, as I might as well have been dressed in a bathing suit. It was a freezing thirty degrees outside, and I was stuck in my summer shorts and tanktop. Razzle started yelling at me to put on a jacket. I did not pack a jacket though, and once she learned this she gave me a look that suggested I was the most annoying person in the world, and ran back to the cabin get one of her own jackets.
Razzle came back with mustard brownish jacket that was four sizes too large and was covered with unflattering pockets.
Though it was not the most attractive jacket, I could care less at that moment. I was so cold, I would put on anything just to keep warm.
“Hey Gaby!” one of Emily’s friends, Grace, called out to me. I turned around and found her and a girl named Nikki waving at me. I smiled.
“I’ll go up there with you guys-” Just as I was about to head up towards Grace, Nikki, and the others, Razzle’s arm pulled me down almost instantly.
“Can’t do that,” she said casually, though with a stern undertone. “You have to sit with your assigned cabin.” She turned around to face Nikki and Grace, “Sorry!” she called at them. Nikki and Grace gave eachother a look, and awkwardly sat back down in their seats.
The bonfire was just as boring as I expected. A few bad jokes were made, instructors were introduced, and there was the dreadfully long explanation of the rules of the camp.
The iPod girl was sitting next to me, and as the head of the camp, Rocky, was explaining the importance of staying in your cabin after the designated time, I tried to make conversation with her.
“What were you listening to,” I said. “On your iPod?”
She gave me a look. “Why? You gonna turn me in?” She raised her eyebrows. “Go ahead. I’m tired of this camp anyway. Been here for three weeks and hated every minute of it. Maybe if you turn me in I can finally go home.”
“Where do you live?” I asked her quietly so that Razzle and Tangle wouldn’t hear us talking.
“Does it matter? I could live twenty minutes or ten hours away from here, and it still won’t matter. When you’re not home, you’re not home.” She glared at me unimpressed. “Where do you live ‘Little Miss Sunshine’?’’
I looked down at my shirt and saw that I was wearing my Little Miss Sunshine tee shirt. That was ironic considering my hair was going out in all different directions, I already had bags under my eyes from not sleeping even after only one day of camp, and my clothes were stained with all the foods I had eaten earlier that day.
“Does it matter?” I said in the same tone she used. She rolled her eyes. After not speaking for a while, I asked her another question: “What’s your name?”
The girl looked at me, and for the first time, she smiled. “Emma.”
“I’m Gaby, you seem a lot older than the rest of us,” I gestured to the girls in our cabin and myself. “I turned eleven last December. Why aren’t you with the older girls?”
Emma did not take any time to think of her answer. She did not even look at me when she instantly said: “Well I’m thirteen, and guess who got stuck with a cabin full of eleven year old girls?” She pointed her index finger, colored with black nail polish, at herself. “My mom wanted me to spend four weeks at camp. God knows why. There were no other cabins for girls my age who had a bunk space available all four weeks. But lucky for me, there was a slot in the eleven-year old section. Yipee.”
“Girls be quiet!” Razzle snaps at us.
We sat in silence for the remainder of the bonfire. When Rocky finished his presentation, I decided I would go talk to Rocky to see if I could switch cabins.
“No,” he didn’t even hesitate when he answered. “Absolutely not. The cabins are final.”
“But,” I began to say something, but didn’t know what to say.
“But what?” His expression was unchanged.
“But I’m really unhappy with my cabin, and I feel homesick, and it’s only my first year and Ireallywannajoinanothercabin!” I was on the verge of tears. But I swallowed the lump in my throat and dared to look at him straight into his eyes, which were dark and brown.
“I’m sorry, there’s really nothing I can do,” Rocky said sympathetically. “All the cabins are full unless somebody drops out, and then there’s an open spot.”
There was nothing else I could do except accept this.
“Okay. I understand,” I smiled, and tried my best not to look upset over this.
That night I had trouble sleeping. I had forgotten my pillow at home, so I had to use the ugly jacket as my pillow. I woke up with a nasty neck ache, but my back and shoulders also felt strained.
The wait for breakfast was excruciating. The line extended so long, it seemed as if it were endless.
We’ll be here all day, I thought.
Luckily, Tangle knew some people in the middle of the line, and they let our cabin cut. This helped, but not much. On top of waiting in the mile-long line for our meal, some cabins, particularly the younger boy cabins, thought it would be funny to pull pranks on the cabins while they were waiting in line. It was annoying, but I must say, to their credit, a pretty effective way to kill time. Some of the pranks included dumping a five gallons of freezing cold water with ice on somebody’s head. Unfortunately though, that somebody was me.
Emma arrived late, as usual, as we were progressing, finally, toward the front of the line. She was wearing ripped black denim jeans, and a tee shirt with some rock and roll band from the seventies. Her black hair was wavy, and her outfit made her blue eyes pop. She cocked an eyebrow when she saw me.
“What happened to you?” She looks at me up and down.
“What do you think? I got pranked.” I answered back.
“By who?”
I looked around and pointed at the kid who poured the bucket of ice water on top of my head. He was older, had red hair, and lots of acne.
“Oh, Logan” Emma rolled her eyes. It was becoming a trademark thing now. Emma rolling her eyes. Something she did constantly. Pretty much her reaction towards everything really. “That sucks.” Emma looked back at me.
We arrived inside, and my stomach reacted before my brain did. I took a plate and stuffed as many pancakes as I could. I drowned them in whipped cream and sprinkled chocolate sauce over it. I was bursting with temptation to eat my treat, but as soon as I arrived at the table I saw Emily and her friends.
“Hey Emily!”
“Oh, hi Gaby,” she looked at the other Grace as if she was going to laugh. What’s wrong? Did I do something to upset her?
She waved me over to sit with her. Actually, I think the hand movement might have been to shew me away, but I pretended it was a wave. One look from Razzle told me I was not moving to their table though.
“Will you guys meet me afterwards?” I called out.
“Ehm, okay,” She sat back down.
As I sat back down I slammed into a boy, and our trays splattered all over the floor.
“Hey! Watch it!” He sneered at me. I took a look at him. Tall, tanned skin. Cute. It’s funny how people so good looking on the outside can be so rotten on the inside.
“Gaby!” Razzle snapped. “What did you do?”
“I-“ I looked around for the tan boy, but he was nowhere to be found. “I just spilled my food… all over…”
Razzle got more and more frustrated. “Well, stay after breakfast to clean it up. I don’t want them blaming this mess on me.” And with that she walked to the soda machine to get her fourth refill of Dr. Pepper. Gross. Who could drink soda in the morning?
When breakfast ended I was expected to clean up the huge mess, including the shattered glass from both our plates, by myself.
“Hey!” I saw Emily, Grace, and Nikki walk by me. “Would you guys mind helping me? I’ve had the worst day.” I think of how I woke up, the water being poured on my head, getting embarrassed in front of the entire cafeteria.
Emily, Grace, and Nikki exchange a look.
“Uh, we’re kind of busy right now…” Grace put on her jacket.
“Honestly, it’ll only take two seconds. You guys don’t even have to touch anything. I just want someone to talk to so I won’t be alone with the kitchen staff.” I brought up my head to face them, but they were already gone.
Oh.
A few moments later I find Emma has silently appeared beside me, helping me get the syrup off of the floor.
“Oh, hi Emma,” I said. A few other kids came to help me too. A blond boy with dark blue eyes like pools. A girl with black hair and deep grey eyes. I said thank you to every one of them.
“Don’t worry about it,” said the blond boy, smiling.
Emma laughed when I thank her.
“Please,” she giggled. “You should have seen the look on your face when that kid pushed down your plate. Anyone with any empathy would have helped you.”
“But you came,” I said thinking of Emily, Grace, and Nikki who ditched me. “You came and you didn’t have to. So thank you.”
We walked back to our cabin side by side. She talked to me about her personal life, her favorite songs, and who she was secretly hoping would ask her out to prom in her senior year.
“I’m hoping it’s Ryder,” she said dreamily.
“Emma, your prom is five years away.” I said, cocking my eyebrow.
“Well I hope it’s him anyway!”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes.
We listen to her iPod, play games with our flashlights. Emma plucks a few flowers from the garden, and twists them into something she calls a “flower crown.” She insisted that the flowers went well with my skin and hair colors.
We were in the middle of a game of Dare or Dare, a game where we dare each other to do crazy things and are not allowed to back out, when Rocky interrupted us.
“Excuse me ladies,” he wiped his forehead and then turned towards me. “Gaby, may I speak with you for a little bit?”
I look at Emma, she nodded, telling me she was okay. I went with Rocky a few steps beyond where I was with Emma.
“So, Gaby, I have good news for you,” he smiled at me. “We were able to fit you into that cabin! You’ll be all ready to move in by tonight!”
“Yes!” But my voice didn’t sound like my own. It was too high pitched and the word came out uncomfortably.
I walked back to my soon-to-be ex-cabin with Emma in silence.
I should have been excited, over joyed in fact, that I was finally able to switch cabins. I have wanted to be in a different cabin since I first was assigned my cabin.
“So you’re gonna switch?” Emma picked at her fingers. They were the first words she said to me the entire walk up to our cabin.
“Yeah, tonight.” For some reason, I was not able to look her in the eye.
“Look you can do whatever you want but,” Emma sighed. “I don’t know, I may come off as kind of mean and rude. And maybe I even am a little mean and rude. But the truth is, I don’t really have a lot of friends here.” Emma realized how vulnerable she sounded and rebounded straight away. “You guys are all idiots anyway though. But you were nice when I deserved to be treated like a jerk. So I guess I just kind of wanted to say thank you.” We were silent again for a while. “I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but thank you for not ignoring me.”
I tried to say something in reply, but no words came.
“Hey! Gaby! Over here!” Emily waved. She was a long way down from where Emma and I were. But I could still hear her none the less.
“Hi Emily!” I then saw that Nikki appeared beside her.
“Hey!” She called over.
“I might be able to switch into your cabin! Tonight!” I shouted so they could understand my entire speech.
“That’s awesome!” Nikki yelled back.
“Yeah we’ll see you tonight!” And with that our conversation was over
Emily looked ecstatic when I told her I was moving into her cabin. But I could not get over how disgusted she looked when I asked if she could do me a favor and stay with me when I had to clean up the breakfast. She looked as if she were…embarrassed.
I was thinking about all of this as I was packing up my luggage.
Suddenly, I got up and started sprinting towards Rocky’s office.
“Rocky!” I yelled as I went. “Rocky!” I got strange looks from everyone. People looked at me as if I were crazy. But I couldn’t care less.
“Rocky!” I said finally. He turned around confused.
“Shh! What are you doing!” He saw me panting. “Geez. What’s wrong? Have you packed your stuff yet? Ready to go to your new cabin?”
“No! No I don’t want to go. I want to stay in my cabin. I like my cabin. Please let me stay in my cabin.”
“Woah, okay.” He noticed I was still out of breath from running. “Calm down, calm down. Okay, you don’t have to switch cabins. No big deal.”
As soon as he said this, I hugged him. He didn’t seem like a very huggable person, but I did so anyway.
I turned around to retreat to my cabin, and there she was. Emma with a smile so genuine and sweet I could do nothing but show one in return. I embraced her and it may have looked a bit odd, a punk thirteen year old hugging an eleven year old girl with a flower crown and flip flops. But if it mattered to anyone, it certainly did not matter to us.
True friendship can be defined in many ways. A friend can be someone you’ve known since you were a baby, or a stranger who helped you carry your bags to your car on a rainy day. To this day I am still friends with Emma Cartwright, who showed me that humid, cliquey summer, that friendship is being there for somebody no matter what they do. They may be flawed or imperfect but so are you. So you find ways to accept each other for who you and they are. My summer camp experience taught me that there are more to people than what you see on the outside and if you give someone a chance, they can blossom.
