Mina bounced along in the back of the family car, driving down the bumpy gravel road, on the verge of tears. 

Wrong. This was all just so, so wrong. 

Up until this very moment, she had spent every summer in the fourteen years of her life doing two things: taking Kumon tutoring lessons, and extra ballet classes. And why not? She was a good, studious girl. She liked how her classmate's parents always told her how good of a daughter she was. She got good grades, and she even had a hobby, ballet. It was a classy, good girl hobby. It took up all the time in her life that wasn't occupied by school. 

Maybe when she was a little girl she resented not being able to play with the other kids during summertime. But she was a good girl, who did what her parents were told, so when they told her she had to do tutoring and ballet class in the summer, she didn't make a fuss. So by now, she was used to it. 

Which was why all of this was, just, wrong. 

When her parents had announced to Mina that she'd be spending a month of her summer at an outdoors-oriented summer camp, she had laughed at their seemingly elaborate joke. But it hadn't been a joke. And now she was here, in the middle of nowhere, already able to tell her freshman year geometry class and ballet flexibility were leaving her. 

"Honey, are you crying?" Her mother asked

"N-no," Mina stuttered shakily. "I'm fine." 

Her parents shared a look and her father turned back to her. "Aren't you happy that you have a break from tutoring and ballet?" 

"When I get home, won't I have fallen behind?" 

Another look. Mina cringed. 

"Just a month isn't going to make a difference. Anyways...this will be fun! You'll get to make some friends! Every young girl needs some girl friends," her mother spoke comfortingly. 

"Plus there aren't any boys at this camp, so that should make things less awkward," her father added. 

And...the car stopped. 

Oh no. 

Mina just sat there, terrified to open the car door, when her father let her out instead. 

"Come on honey," her mother spoke, warning in her voice. Mina swallowed and got out of the car, her mother handing her the luggage. 

Both her parents hugged her tightly and Mina back her tears. It would be nice to have a break from nagging about grades and ballet progress, but she knew she would miss them a lot. 

"We'll miss you. But you're going to have the best time ever." 

"A little sun will do you good," her father added. "Fuel for your sophomore year." 

Mina managed a smile. "Okay. Goodbye." 

Her parents got back into the car and waved back to her. Mina waited to leave until the car was completely out of eyesight. Then, with a deep breath, she walked into the camp. 

It was just like out of those summer camp movies Mina saw when she was a kid. Woodchip paths, run-down buildings, college-age counselors cheering with too loud and too high voices. She noticed a stand labeled CHECK IN HERE! in bright pink paint, and she slowly walked up to it. 

"Hi! My name is Sunny and welcome to Camp Pink! Are you soooo excited for this summer?!"

Mina gave her the absolute barest of nods. 

"Great!" Sunny answered. "Now, what's your name, gorgeous?!"

"M-Mina. Myoui Mina." 

"Oh my gosh Mina, so nice to meet you! You're fourteen, right?!"

"Y-yeah...." Mina stared pointedly at the woodchips. 

"Awesome! You're going to be in Cabin E2, down at the far end of the path to your left! It'll say E2 on it! Go put your stuff down, then come to the dining hall! It's on the end of the path to your right! Then we can get started on your best summer ever!" 

"Th-thanks," Mina said, looking everywhere but at the counselor girl (Sunny was a very fitting name), and headed left on the path. 

Mina took another deep breath, trying to remember her pre-test strategies. This was definitely the most difficult test she'd ever taken. The deep breaths continued and she took in the summery, tree-scented air. It smelled nice, actually. It was fresh and it reminded her of when she was little, on a field trip out in nature. Maybe if she could be alone here, like she was now, she would have a few good times this summer.

But when she reached the cabin, her heart plummeted. 

There were five beds in the room, four with luggage already on them. Five beds. That meant she would have to sleep in a room with four other girls. What if they wanted to talk all night, like at those movie sleepovers? Mina liked to go to bed early. 

The cabin was probably about ten degrees hotter than the air outside, with wooden walls and a tarp roof and door. There was a shelf in the corner with five slots, four already taken up with stuff, and two sets of bunk beds in each of the back corners furthest from the door. A solo bed also sat in the corner across from the shelf. Sadly, that bed already had stuff on it. 

The only bed without stuff was the bottom bunk in the right corner so with a sigh, Mina set her stuff, and herself, down. 

She hummed. Maybe she should skip the dining hall thing. Just hide out here until the other girls came back, then pretend to be asleep. She smiled to herself before she sat up straight in a panic. 

No slouching, she thought. Also, they'll probably know you skipped. And then you'll get in trouble. 

With a sigh, she stood back up. There was no way she was going to get in trouble on her first day of camp. Plus, seeing as how all her cabinmates had already set their stuff down, she was probably running late. 

Crap. 

She ran out of the cabin as fast as her legs would take her, running all the way back down the path to the other end of camp, with the dining hall in clear view. She could hear loud chatter coming from inside, and she almost cried again, but steeled herself. 

Another deep breath, and she stepped inside. 

Packed. The huge hall was packed with girls, from kindergartens to teenagers older than herself to counselors flitting around everywhere. Each of the tables had a little label on them, clearly designating the ages of those who sat there. The 13-15s were tucked in the left-hand corner, and with yet another excessively deep breath, Mina walked over to them. 

"Um...c-can I sit here?" 

"I think you have to sit here," a girl with a short haircut and baggy clothes answered. Another girl, wearing a wolfcut and patterned maxi skirt, scooted to the side and gave her a smile. Her eyes were so big and, Mina couldn't help but think, pretty. 

"Yeah, you can sit here." 

Managing a smile back, Mina took a seat next to her and looked around at the other girls. It made sense that they were thirteen to fifteen, except some of the girls looked a lot older than her. Everyone looked pretty different too; other than the maxi skirt girl, none of them seemed like the summer camp types. At least nobody seemed to know each other already. 

"Is that everyone?" A different girl with big eyes asked authoritatively. 

"There were no more empty beds in my cabin when I came down here," one of the older-looking girls answered. 

"Y-yeah, I-I was the last one in my cabin," Mina managed to add. 

"Yay! We are all here!" A girl with dyed blonde hair and a super bright smile answered. Mina tried not to let anyone know she was disappointed there was another girl as cheery as the counselor she'd met earlier. "We should introduce ourselves! Like, say our names, and our ages, and, I dunno, a hobby or something!" 

Mina could hear a few people at the table groan, and one girl a few seats to her right snorted, but nobody else seemed to have a better idea. 

The girl who just spoke giggled. "Okay cool!"

"I'll go first," another girl piped up, putting her huge sunglasses on the top of her head. "To get it over with." She was wearing a full face of makeup, bright pink lip gloss, a tiny purse, playboy bunny earrings, and a tube top. Mina was immediately intimidated, looking at the ugly yellow vinyl tablecloth. "I'm Nayeon. I'm fifteen and I like shopping." 

Mina looked up, and the girl beside her with the short hair and baggy clothes rolled her eyes. "Alright. I'm Jeongyeon, I'm fifteen, and uh...my dad owns a motorcycle shop, and I like helping him fix the bikes." 

Jeongyeon, too, was intimidating, in a completely different way. But Mina still noticed Nayeon roll her eyes at Jeongyeon. 

"O-okay, me next," the older-looking girl spoke uncomfortably, eyeing Nayeon and Jeongyeon. "I'm Momo, I'm fifteen, and I like dancing." 

All of the girls had been stunning so far, but Momo was especially so. And she was a dancer- there was something about non ballet dancers that made Mina feel like she was...uptight. But there was a shyness about her that made Mina less nervous around her. 

"Me next!" The blonde girl who thought of this whole thing spoke up. "I'm Sana! I'm fifteen too, and I like shopping and dancing and I've never tried fixing a motorcycle before but that probably would be super fun too!" Sana was practically bouncing in her seat, but Mina still couldn't help but smile. 

"Hey guys, I'm Jihyo, I'm fourteen, and I like singing." Mina breathed a sigh of relief, she was hoping she wouldn't be the only fourteen year old here. She was wearing those business casual shorts, and Mina hoped she would be in the same cabin as her. She didn't seem like the type to allow late night giggling. 

"I'm Dahyun," the next girl spoke. She seemed nothing more than mildly enthused by this entire thing. "I'm thirteen. I like playing piano." She made an awkward face, and everyone at the table laughed. It felt good to acknowledge how...weird this whole thing was. 

There was a long pause before anyone else spoke. "Um...I'm Tzuyu. I'm thirteen and... I like playing with my pets." She spoke so quietly Mina could hardly hear her, but Mina smiled to herself. Tzuyu seemed like she could be Mina's ally in avoiding everyone else. 

"Hey, I'm Chaeyoung," the girl who'd invited Mina to set next to her spoke. She smiled at Mina before speaking again, and something about it made Mina so flustered that she looked down at her lap. "I'm thirteen and I like to draw." 

Something about her was intimidating too, for reasons Mina couldn't place, but her presence made a bit of the anxiety burning in her tummy go away. Just a little. 

And, oh no. It was her turn. She kept her eyes on her lap. 

"I'm Mina. I'm fourteen, and I, um, like ballet." 

"Ballet?" Momo asked in surprise. 

"Isn't that, like, really hard and strict?" Nayeon asked. Jeongyeon grimaced at her.

"Ballet's hard," Momo mumbled. 

Mina flushed; she didn't think ballet would get this kind of attention. Maybe she should've said something else. 

"I...I dunno..." 

"Listen up everyone!" The nine girls all looked up to find one of the counselors standing on top of a table. Mina smiled slightly; saved by the bell. "Welcome to Camp Pink! My name is Taeyeon and I am the camp director this year. In just a few moments your age group counselors will coming around to introduce yourselves and lay down some ground rules, okay? Then the fun can get started!" 

The little girls, older teens, and Sana cheered, but Mina and the rest of her age group just looked around uncomfortably. 

"Get ready, go!" 

The counselors all dispersed to the different tables, but try as Mina might, she didn't see anyone coming their way. Until a few minutes later, Taeyeon sheepishly walked over to them. 

"Hey ladies," she said, fake cheery. Mina could tell she was uncomfortable. "So...due to a last minute drop out, from a, uh, potential counselor..." 

"Girl drama," another counselor whispered to them as she passed by, and Taeyeon cleared pointedly. 

"You girls are currently without a counselor. Now, I promise we are looking for a replacement as we speak but for now...you girls will just have to make it on your own. We are very sorry. The older teens counselor Hyoyeon and the preteens counselor Sooyoung are going to try and bring you all along to any activities that make sense, but...I'm afraid that's the best we can do for now. Okay, great talk! Now gotta go!" 

And Taeyeon dashed away as quickly as she could, embarrassment obvious on her cheeks. 

"Thank god. Now we can, like, really party," Nayeon said. 

"Dude, we at ing summer camp," Jeongyeon answered. The girls eyed each other in what Mina could tell was a bad way.

"But then what are we gonna do all day?" Sana asked.

Mina wasn't sure whether she should be relieved...or terrified.