Chapter 1
Camp AlpineCHAPTER 1
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Summer vacation. It’s a time when you don’t have to worry about school, which means no worrying about the work or dealing with the same idiots everyday. Summer is freedom. It’s the freedom to stay up until three in the morning and sleep until one in the afternoon. It’s the freedom to laze for days upon the couch with your laptop and watch a marathon of your favorite TV show all at the same time. Summer is about unlimited ice cream. It’s about hanging out with your friends at the local pool and gossiping about the lifeguard’s totally hot bod. Summer is the thing I look forward to the most every year. But this year was different. One simple, unwanted conversation and my summer was lost.
It all started the night I invited my friend Minhee over for a sleep over. We were in the kitchen making ice cream sundaes when my mom walked in. She decided to strike up a conversation with my friend. I always hate it when she does that. It embarrasses the hell out of me. Most of the time the conversations start with “when I was your age” and last for an hour. This time she just asked Minhee about her summer plans. No harm in that, right? No. Wrong. Very wrong. It was that question that wronged me the most.
“Well, Mrs. Kim, I’m actually leaving next week to go to summer camp for 6 weeks,” Minhee answered with a hint of excitement. “My mom signed me up so I would get out of the house this summer. Our friend June is going too. It’s her second year of going, so at least I wont be totally alone. It was actually her mom that gave mine the idea.”
“That sounds like a wonderful time. I’m going to have to call up Mrs. Choi or your mother to get the information. I should send Jisoo along with you.” My mom looked at me and nodded happily. “It would do you some good to get off of that couch and make some new friends.”
She picked up the phone that night, and that was it. As soon as the phone left the receiver, my summer was over. Arrangements were made, and I was signed up for summer camp. I was so angry that I could have strangled my friend in her sleep, but that would have meant there would be one less person who I knew at the camp.
I was devastated. I had a hard enough time getting along with people at my school, let alone trying to be friends with them. Based on the number of phone calls my mom received from the school office on a weekly basis, she knew that all to well. I don’t know what made her think a dumb camp would be any different.
The morning my mom dropped me off at the bus stop was full of awkward pleading. It wasn’t awkward because I was pleading as if my life depended
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