I - The Trip
 

My Hands tremble underneath my bed. I hope maybe my parents will forget about me. Forget just this once and turn a blind eye to me.
But I know better.
My school year just ended and I am going into the 7th grade after this summer’s pass. We had a 3 month summer break which I planned to spend inside playing video games and watching movies and staying up late. But where my parents were sending me, I knew none of that was waiting for me.
Let me preface this by stating that I’m a good kid mind you. I have a 3.5 average in school and I never really get in trouble that often. But my parents insisted that I go to the dreaded camp over the summer. The camp that no sane person would want to spend their summer at.
It was a camp that would prepare you for your next year of schooling and it would also supposedly help kids get a liking to the outside world of dangerous animals and only god knows what's out there. So it’s basically a school disguised as a cool summer camp. Neat.
I was to spend all 3 months there too my parents told me. This didn’t exactly anger me. I would’ve just prefered to spend my Summer vacation at home like I always do.
My suitcase was already packed and so was my sleeping bag. We were told not to bring electronics to the camp. But I’m not letting that stop me. I put my phone in the deepest crevice of my shorts pocket and I crawled underneath my bed, hoping my parents would forget.

Spoiler: They did not...

“ Abraham, get down here. The bus is here to take you to Camp Westman.” I could hear my mother’s voice downstairs calling to me.
I hear my door open and my father’s voice. “ Hey son it's time to go, where are you?” he continues to walk around my room getting ever so close to the bed. “ You wouldn’t happen to be… Under the Bed!?” He playfully grabs my legs and pulled me out from underneath my bed.
“Dad I don’t want to go to that camp.” I tell him as I sat on my bed.
He sat down right next to me. “Son I know how it is, having to leave your family behind and what not but I assure you, you will enjoy yourself so just try and make the most of it. I’m sure you could probably make new friends if you showed yourself friendly like your mom always says.” He put his hand on my shoulder.
“You really think so?” I ask him.
“Sure I do. Also we already paid over a grand for you to go so you kind of have to now.” We laugh.
I love my dad. Always able to put a cheer on me and my sister’s faces. Although he isn’t around much anymore. He got a new job downtown and it seems like he never comes home on time and he is always gone before I wake up. I miss those days when he’d drive me to school and make me laugh. Am I selfish for thinking that? It doesn’t matter.
He grabbed my bags and shuffled them down the stairs. I follow him as I look down stairs over the balcony. The bus driver was chatting it up with my mom. Amethyst my sister was waiting downstairs. She was excited for the camp and was ready to leave. She is 2 years younger than me and the same program and camp was offered to the 4 graders too.
I come downstairs and kiss and hug my parents goodbye. My dog yearns for one last pet as I say goodbye. I take my sister’s hand and we walk outside to the giant yellow bus housing all the kids from different schools and some kids I knew. I was going to make sure I got a good seat because the drive was over 5 hours long. Conveniently, our house was right on the bus stop corner.
I see my best friend Ben leave his house at the same time. We are neighbors and have been best friends since childhood. I wave to him across the lawn and he answers with a wave and he speed walks over to us in line on the sidewalk.
“These outfits look stupid,” he said arriving to us. He was messing with his ascot trying to make it so it wasn't so tight. “Do you think everyone else is wearing um too?”
“Yeah, they better be. My Mom took forever to get me and my sister all buttered up.” We laugh.
“Whats up Amy?” Ben says greeting her. “Are you ready for our worst Summer ever?”
“Worst? Are you kidding Ben? I’m excited!” She said moving up in line.
My sister and my best friend going on a trip together would be A Okay for me. At Least I have two allies going into this uncharted adventure. They knew each other from the times Ben and I had sleepovers. There was also that one time he defended her when some rotten little girl was bullying her. Thank god he did, because I definitely was not going to do that.
Ben is really loyal and always has your back. He isn’t much taller than me but he sure is stronger than me. He is really smart and knows alot about just about anything. Ben’s hair was brown and his hair always sat on his head as smooth as possible.
We got on the crowded bus and we were one of the last ones on. Of course all the “cool” kids sat in the back of the bus from what I could see. The rows were in seats of three luckily. Amethyst sat at the window because she wanted to see all the wildlife on the way there and Ben sat on the outside because he wanted to talk to this one girl in the row over. So I got stuck in the middle, the worst possible seat ever. You have no room whatsoever and the 2 people at your sides fall asleep on your shoulders.
The bus left our bus stop and we could see our parents waving us off signalling that they still loved us despite sending us here in summer.
“So what do you think we will be doing there?” Amethyst taps my shoulder.
I exit my thoughts. “I wish I knew sis. Probably school work and pointless outside activities. I feel like I’ve seen enough movies and read enough books to know what is about to go down today.”
“You think so? I just hope the pointless activities are fun.”
“Don’t get your hopes too high. It's just going to be a sad grueling 3 month experience.” I say relaxing in the uncomfortable bench.
“3 months?” She said quickly turning away from the window to face me.
“Yah the camp lasts up to the week before we go back to school taking our whole summer away.”
Her face shattered. She looked much sadder than she did before we left. I try to cheer her up.
“Hey at least we got each other. It couldn’t get any worse.”
Her face went back to the window so she could see the other cars on the freeway.
But how wrong were my words that I had just said. ‘It couldn’t get any worse’. Oh how wrong I was.

2 - And it got worse

The bus hauled along like it was going for the world’s slowest vehicle award. Or at least that's how it felt sitting there for 3 hours. I couldn’t even fall asleep because my Mom told me to go to sleep early so we could wake up in time. I look over to Amethyst laying on my shoulder and I brush her hair off her face. I look to Ben and see him reading a book. ‘Genius! Why didn’t I bring a book?’ I thought. He was reading a long book that looked very uninteresting from the title displayed on the spine.
“What's your book about?” I ask him leaning in.
“Shh,” he silences me with his finger to my mouth “I'm at the climax!”
“Why would you bring a book you are almost done with?” I say brushing his book to the side.
“Because I won’t have time for reading when we are there. Only writing.” He says looking at me.
“You are writing? Like a book or something?” My eyebrow raised in disbelief. Writing a book sounded so boring I thought.
“Not exactly a book as much as it being a journal about my time here over the summer. I think it’ll be fun and it’d be a way to recall memories of our exciting moments we’ll have.” he says showing me his notebook.
“Hah,” I chuckle. “You are wasting your time Ben, I can assure nothing exciting will happen over the summer.” And I returned to my mindless looking of the bus window and he returned to his book.
Always the scepticist, I take a look at the world much differently than most others. I’m never slow to shoot down an idea I don’t agree with if it doesn't have proof of action first. Which might be a curse but I think it’s a blessing. Like when every 1st grader believed Mark Adams had cooties because he held hands with a girl. I was curious and went on my dad's computer to look up if that was a real thing. I even got my dad to print out an article to show the kids that cooties wasn’t a thing. Of course they didn’t believe me and that made Mark public enemy #1 but I was still his friend. Poor guy never recovered from that. Until the 3rd grade that is. The boy doesn't even let me sit at the popular table. Shakin my head.
The bus kept rumbling down the mountain side till we came to a flat plateau with little park benches on it. It was an empty sandy lot with rails guarding the cute picnic area. I glance at my watch and it was about time for lunch( but then again when was it not time to eat for me?). The staff quickly escorted everyone off the bus and got us into orderly lines.
I guess the camp was required to feed us since we paid all that money. However what they were serving was obviously not  where the budget went to. PB&J, the sandwich that is too classic that nobody would ever turn their nose up at it. Nobody save my sister. She is allergic to peanuts so the camp might try giving her a turkey sandwich instead but she is also a sworn vegetarian since she loves animals. So more problems for me to solve.
“What do you think they’ll give me?” She looks up at me.
“Nothing.” I say with a smile. But she hits my arm. “what?! They might not have 2 fail saves for people like you who have a pile of excuses.”
“ Well it's not my fault I’m allergic to something and that animals are so cute.” she says crossing her arms.
I turn my attention to look for Ben. He was farther back in line next to that same girl he was talking to earlier.
I nudge Amy. “Hey look, Ben has a crush.”
She turns her head as I move it to see them. “Wow, she is really pretty. She is way out of his league.”
“You think so?” We laugh.
My eyes stay locked on Ben and that girl. He made her laugh a lot which I couldn’t blame her for, Ben’s a funny guy. But he’s not that funny. Her friends are also there and I could see the anger in their eyes. If he wants to be her lover he has to get with her friends and I can see that being a challenge for him...without a wingman.
“Amy hold our spot.” I step out of line to walk back to him.
I was behind him and only the other girls could see me. I wait until he was done talking to the girls before i speak.
“Ben, you weren’t going to introduce me to your new friends,” I say with sarcasm.
“Uhh…” He fumbles trying to grasp the situation.
“Fine allow me to introduce myself, I’m Abraham, but my friends call me Abe.” My tone didn’t match that of a serious one. “I’m Ben’s best friend and longtime pal.” I say putting my arm around his neck.
The girls laughed. Ben quickly thrusts my arm off his shoulder.
“What are you doing over here?”
“Oh i was just in the neighborhood and I - Why do you think I’m here? I figured there had to be something that would make you stray away from me and Amy.” I say once again with a sarcastic tone.
“Can you just let me handle this on my own? I don’t need you here embarrassing me.” He says fake whisper yelling at me.
“You don’t need your wingman? I’m not even embarrassing you.” I say like i’m offended.
“You are hardly a wingman. And who elected you to be my wingman?” Ben continued on.
“Well since we are best bros, it goes without saying you dingus. I’m gonna meet your friends and then be on my way.” I muster him aside and i go to the pretty girl Ben was talking to first.
“Hi,” She says as i walk closer to her. “My name is Esther.” Her voice was sweet and very high pitched. She was about my height and had black hair that could reach her waist. The girl put her hand out for a handshake. I reach in and shake her hand (but not too firmly). “So you must be..?” She gestures for me to speak.
“The name’s Abraham. But you can just call me Abe.” I smile letting go of her hand.
“You already said that.” She giggled. “Thats a nice name. You and Ben are best friends?”
“Yup, I bet he told you so much about me while you guys were on the bus.”
“No not really. I just heard you talking to him over there.” she giggled.
“Oh, well that’s cool,” I say looking at Ben.
It got silent and evidently awkward. I would normally have something to say but she matched my quick wittedness. What could I say that she wouldn’t have a great response to. I look to Ben for assistance, but he gave me a nod that screamed ‘you got this bro’. So I came to the conclusion of complaining because that is a sure fire way to get an audience rolling.
“So what brings you on this trip?” I start the conversation back up. “My parents are sending me here against my will.”
“I volunteered to go here this summer. I want to be a marine biologist someday and this camp happened to be situated by the water and the mountains.” Esther explains.
“You wanted to go here? Do you think you’ll learn anything here then?” I ask.
“I sure hope so. Do you know how much money our parents had to pay just to get us here?”
“You think it’ll be fun? You have to go outside like everyday and go on hikes and stuff.”
“I hope you are kidding me. Nature is my home! I love the smell of the pine and redwood. Why do you not like the outside.?”
“Lets just say it's not my cup of tea. I hate the heat and i hate feeling dirty.”
“Yeah, I guess it is pretty hot out here,” She said adjusting her large hat over her head. “But it’ll get colder the higher we go up in the mountain.”
“And what about the outfits,” I look at her skirt. “Does your outfit feel weird too?”
“Skirts aren’t exactly my thing but luckily we only have to wear the scout cloths for special occasions. If not I’d probably die.” We laugh even though death isn’t funny.
“HEY ABRAHAM!” My sister yelled from across the gathering. She was second in line. She gestures me and Ben to come forward.
“Well I gotta go, but it was a nice chat. I hope we will meet again.”
“We’ll meet again, I’m sure of it.” She does a head gesture i’ve never seen before but it was kind of cute.
I leave to catch up in line with Amethyst. She was watching us this whole time I’m sure.
“What happened over there?” she asked.
“Nothin’ much,” I say putting myself next to her. “I met Ben’s girlfriend or whatever.”
“Was she nice?” she asked.
“Well she is really smart and it's hard to talk to her.” I scratch my head.
“Why, because you are too stupid to talk to her?” She poked.
“Hey! Do you want to know about her or not?!” I snap at her but not angrily. She zips her mouth shut. “As i was saying sis, she actually wanted to be here. She likes nature and to make matters worse she matches my witt and has an army of her girlfriends at the point of a finger.” we step up to the front of the line.
“So…”
“So that means she is way out of Ben’s league. He’ll come back to us once she has lost interest in him.” I say grabbing my food with confidence.
“Are you sure that’ll happen?” she says grabbing fruits and looking over her shoulder at the girls and Ben. “They seem pretty entranced with him. You think he’ll replace us?”
“Not a chance little sis. We are his best friends, there is no way.” I say with less confidence.
Ben was my best friend and i highly doubt he’d trade me for that girl and her cronies. If all this time we’ve spent together means anything to him then he’d stay loyal.
Now that that was over with, now we were tasked with finding a seat in the unorganized barbaric crowd of kids. I grab Amy’s hand and i try to push my way through still searching for a seat. The plateau was like one of those camping ones with guardrails protecting the cliff drop and the road and buses were to the other side pushed up against the mountain that went up and up but without a slope. My sister being who she is wanted to sit by the edge right next to the old guardrails for a view of the valley and small stream below. This was truly awful because as always i fear the worst and if my sister mistakenly falls off a cliff, guess who’s fault it is? So with huge persuasion on her hand, we sit there. I tell her not to go too close to the edge.
The pb and j was actually quite enjoyable to be honest despite all the trash i had talked earlier. Not that it mattered. Ben even after getting his food sat with those girls. Amethyst saw that my gaze was fixed on them.
“You are still staring at um? I thought you were sure of Ben’s so called “loyalty” .” She asks taking a bite out her apple.
“I'm not staring at them, I'm just making my eyes...turn a certain way..” I look to her for approval which she replies with an unconvinced look.
“You know what i think?”
“Nobody cares what you think.”
“I think you are jealo-”
“Don't say it! Don't say that word! Because i certainly am not that word.”
“Now i think you are crazy,” She laughed. “Its okay to be jealous Abe, after all he is like your brother.”
“Yeah whatever…”
“You know how to overcome that jealousy? Being grateful for what you have. You've still got me after all.” She smiled.
“Yeah until you go on and find a boyfriend or something.” We laugh.
Although she was a 4th grader, Amethyst is smarter than what i give her credit for. Whether she gets a ‘boyfriend” or not, i'd like to think it would not bother me. But seeing how much im reacting over Ben could be foreshadowing that i will most definitely. But say what you want i am not and will never be a jealous person.
We had 10 more minutes in our break and me and Amethyst were gonna spend it talking to each other. However that plan would change.
A boy with thick glasses approached our table with a trey of the food he had gotten.
“Excuse me,” he said in a softer voice than what my sister sticks to. “I was wondering if i could accompany your table duo as there are a scarcity of available tables.”
Amethyst looked at me. “You want to sit here?” i ask because i didn't completely understand the sentence he just threw at me.
“...um yes...But only if you will allow it!” he quickly corrected himself even though he wasn't wrong.
“Sure, why not?” I say seizing an opportunity.
“Really?” he said this like it was a surprise, we must not have been the first people he asked.
“What's your name stranger?” Amethyst jumps to ask. “I’m Amethyst, but you can call me Amy.”
“Im Abraham, nice to meet you.” I exercised the good manners mommy had always taught me to use when greeting others,
“My name is Remmy, but you can refer to me as whatever you'd please.” he murmurs while looking down. “Also Amethyst is a delightful name.”
“Thank you, Remmy is a good name too. I don't know why anyone would call you out of it.” Amethyst smiles.
He smiles after looking up.
“So how come you decided to come to the camp?” I ask.
“My parents think this is a good opportunity to meet some new friends… well since im new here and all. Do you guys know if any other schools are offered this camp?”
“Well our school is pretty huge if I’m to be honest, there are some kids I don't know but as far as I’m aware,I think we are the only ones on this particular bus.” I say back to him.
“That's a relief...not that it matters… i just wanted to have a grasp of the people i'm going to meet.” He says looking at his feet.
“I’m sure you’ll fit in dude, it's not hard to find friends. You just gotta approach people like you approached us.” Amethyst smiles a big smile.
He laughs. “If only it were that simple. It took a lot out of me just to ask you guys if i could sit down… not to mention if you guys would have said no. I don't think i could have handled that.”
Remmy’s confidence level was almost nothing. An exact opposite of Ben’s charismatic calm and collected  self. However that's not a bad thing. I bet Remmy will be twice as loyal as that trator Ben.
“How old are you?” Amethyst askes. “Im 10 and im gonna be 11 next month.”
“I am 11 now. I'm going to the 6th grade. My birthday’s in December.” He doesn't make eye contact when saying this. “How old are you Abraham? If you don't mind me asking…”
“Its cool man.” I try to reassure him. “I’m 13. I'm heading to the 7th grade.”
He gasps at my rather old age. I'm not that old. However I am now considered a teenager by definition. Not that it matters but it's still a cool feeling. Heck it was cool turning 10 and becoming double digits.
“How did you guys become friends? You guys are a whole grade apart.” he says trying to calculate how that was possible in his head. I'm glad he didn't come to the conclusion that most do.
“Abe’s my big brother. He’s really nice and is my best pal.” Amy hugs my arm.
“Knock it off pipsqueak,” i laugh petting her head.
Me and Amethyst are unusually close for us being brother and sister. Sure she gets on my nerves a bunch but she’s my sister and the end of the day I’ll never stay mad at her. We have eachothers backs always. That is the kind of bond i thought me and Ben had.
A administrator came over a megaphone and told us to throw away our trash and line back up. We all shuffle on to a bus like some kind of prison chain gang.
Back on the bus, Ben did not sit on the same side as us this time. He instead sat with that girl Esther. But a new spot opened up for Remmy to sit in. And of course I made him sit in the middle because I was not going to have that awful spot for the rest of the commute.
Amethyst and Remmy have good chemistry or at least one of them thinks they do. She can and will talk you down. But I’m glad, she has a new friend to dump all her drama on. Now that I’ve got bigger fish to fry I’ve gotta stay focused.
My digital watch reads 1:32 pm as I awake from my short nap. Remmy was reading a book and Amethyst was asleep on the leaning on the window pain.
“Hey Remmy,” I say tapping him. He jumps and almost has his glasses shaken off his face. “Where are you from anyway?” I want to know about my new friend.
“Oh, me?..I’m from Maine. It’s quite cold there so I’m...adjusting to the heat.”
That would explain his pail skin. I guess moving all the way across the country without any friends is rough.
“Really? That’s crazy. Do you know what you moved?” I ask.
He closes his book. “My father… he got a job at a tech industry here and it would pay him a lot more than the one he had prior. It’s not like I minded moving or anything...as you can tell, I don’t have many friends.” He doesn’t make eye contact once.
“So… do you like it here? Like for the short amount of time you’ve been here.”
“I do very much enjoy it here...but I do miss my old friend I did have back in Maine… I feel awful leaving her.” He looks at his feet and puts his book back in his backpack.
I don’t want to ask him about his old friend. That maybe is reaching as far as our relationship goes. Although this info will be noted.
Not like I could’ve asked him anyway. We had pulled up into the roundabout that was at the front of the camp. We were here at last.