Chapter 2

For some reason, I felt as if I could see all the beauty in life in one simple shine off a peice of metal, or in drop of dew on a flowers petal. And it's not that things become clearer, it's that things become less important as they drift away from my mind. I can't help but think of simpler things like the way the pollon blows in the dry afternoon air, or how the sound of the water cascading off the falls of the lake seem more like a tune I've yet to discover. It's as is nothing else matters, and everything else is beautiful.

 

I had taken a seat on a old rusted swing, one foot gently rocking me back and forth as I stared out at the scenery before me, when suddenly a group of kids my age turned the arm of the road. They laughed and time seemed to stop as I gazed at their perfect smiles. It was like a scene from a movie when all the kids lived happily ever after, but in this story, it was only the beginning.

 

I caught their eyes and one by one they began to stare, and some of their smiles began to fade. Especially a pretty girl with wavy brown hair and a pearly white teeth seemed to glare at me like I was unworthy to be looking back. Though I felt most of them wanted me to look away, I continued to eye them, a soft smile on my face hoping they'd think of me as a nice girl, someone to become friends with. Eventually after just a moment, another girl with straight chesnut colored hair smiled brightly at me along with a tall boy with brown shaggy hair and the most stunning blue green eyes.

 

Then just as I began to feel a connection, they turned the next corner and were out of sight. Hopefully they will remember me, and wish to talk to me as much as I wish to speak to them. Returning to the now glistening lake before me, I sighed happily watching to light dance upon it's waters and decided to set up camp.

 

So the rules are "No sharing tents with the opposite sex, No swimming in undesignated area, No wandering around after dark, and No electionics, animals, or food and drink items allowed in camp sight." The woman had said earlier after receiving all my information. "If you can not follow these simpole instructions, you will be immediatly thrown out of camp and your parents will be contacted. Understand?" I shook my head yes and she led me to the tent grounds. "You may set up here, and if you would like to start a fire, we sell matches at the cabin, and they must be put out before you go to sleep."

 

I replied with a "yes ma'm." and smiled as she walked back to the cabin to tend to whatever it is camp managers do.

 

So now after I set up my tent I began to light a fire, using my own matches I had packed along with newspaper to help get it going. It soon burned brightly, tips of the flames flicking the cold night air. Sitting on a blanket I had set out I began to warm myself, staring at the billions of stars above, thinking of the kids I had seen just alittle earlier. I wondereded if they thought about me, and hoped they would come ask me for matches, or help setting up their camp.

 

They didn't though and that night I slept quietly after putting out the fire and eating the perfect smore.

 

The next morning around six though, the sun began to rise and I with it. I rubbed the sleep from my tired eyes and stepped out into the fresh morning air. I could see where the many other kids in the camp had set up along the shaded trees, there had to be atleast forty other campers here.

 

Oddly though, I was the only one camping alone. Others came with groups of friends or school mates, but I was alone, happily taking in the nature, despite I secretly I did wish I had brought someone.

 

That's when I remembered my friends, and why I had come alone. It was my friends that forced me to come here. I needed to get away from them, I needed to free myself of the strings I had attached. The bittersweat thing is that until now I hadn't thought of them once, yet already I felt like I wanted to meet new friends and reattach those strings to someone new. This wasn't a good idea.

 

That was the reason I came here, to not be attached to anyone person or group of people. I want to be free and that's what this camp is about. It's about summer and independence and nature.

 

But will it become more than that? This is the thought that frightened me.