camp walden | the little girls
Mom and Cal and Eli and Nora all took us to the parking lot at the very front of the camp, but only Lily and Rebel and I got on the school bus to go back to the camp. As we approached, we saw the “Camp Walden” sign and everyone started screaming. This was a boy-girl camp. That meant we had activities for just boys, activities for just girls, and activities for all of us. Lily and Rebel sat next to each other on the seat behind me, and I sat with all of our bags. I was on my knees, turned around talking to them the entire time and all of us couldn’t stop laughing. They really liked their headbands and we were all wearing them. We were also all in the same cabin. I was so excited - and I thought they were too.
We got off the bus with our things and some older girls and boys waved at us as we did. We were supposed to find our camp counselor. Ours was named Magnolia, but that wasn’t her real name. That was a camp name. All of the counselors picked out names that weren’t real that we could call them. There was Magnolia, Lollipop, Cheeto (he was really cute), Trailmix, Peanut, and a couple others that I hadn’t learned yet. Magnolia lead us to our cabin, and it was already all decorated. We got to pick our beds, but we also had name signs to hang on them so no one got confused. I picked a bottom bunk and started unpacking.
Magnolia gave us a few minutes to get comfortable in the cabin, but she said that we were going to go to the mess hall for a snack and to be ready to go, outside in fifteen minutes. I sat down on my bed and smiled at some of the other girls in our group. “I hope these girls are nice to us,” I said. There, no one knew that we were weird sorta-foster kids living in a giant house. Unless they watched the TLC show, but no one had looked at us weird yet. “Did you see on the schedule that we get to pick one of our own activities to do each day? I think we should all plan to do the same one. I was thinking we could do art tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I vote art for sure, but one day hasss to be the ropes courses too! I heard Cheeto say he takes his boy campers there a lot,” I smirked, thinking of the older, floppy-haired, tanned counselor we’d met when we first got off the bus. I was so excited to finally be settled into my top bunk at Camp Walden and away from the house for a little while. As much as I loved Eli and thought he was a great father figure and all, he was also kinda a big, fat liar. Earlier, we’d packed Grandma’s car full to the prim with my bags, Rebel’s bags and Mina’s too and as soon as Cal walked out of the house and took the shotgun seat, practically shooting bullet with his eyes at Eli, Eli backed out.
“Hey Lil... forgot I wanted to take my car,” He said just to me, trying to not make anything uncomfortable or obvious, “I heard a noise in it and wanted to drive it again to see if I have to take it to get fixed or not.”
Disappointed, I mumbled something under my breath about the car being unsafe, but then hopped into his backseat, watching Mina, Rebel, Colbie, Cal and Grandma all drive away. Though Eli let me have the aux cord, it didn’t make up for it. It bugged me that he thought we didn’t know what was going on. We did. We ALL did. And while he was a chill ass dad to Sailor and I, and one who always told us to trust him no matter what, it was kinda hard to trust or even believe Eli when he was lying to us. I tried to shake the thought of it, but I couldn’t. Thankfully, Magnolia bust through the doors with a smile that I couldn’t really quite read as genuine or not, and gathered us all to go to the mess hall.
I jumped down from my top bunk, bumping Rebel playfully with my shoulder. I had on jean shorts, a baggy blue t-shirt I’d stolen from the house Lost & Found pile, white sneakers, and of course the blue headband Mina had gifted me earlier in the day. I was lucky to grow up in a hectic house that gave me more siblings. I’d always wanted a sister and now I had like a hundred. I intertwined my left arm with one of Rebel’s and my right arm with one of Mina’s so we were all joined together, and we walked out into the warm, summer air. Luckily, it wasn’t too hot or rainy or anything yet, and it just felt perfect. I was almost so happy I could cry, but I didn’t. Instead, someone instantly caught my eyes and I yipped to the girls, “There he is! There he is!” He walked past us in aviators with a trail of boys behind him, “Cheeeeeto.”
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