Chapter 2

When the last camper arrived, everyone was instructed to go into the Rec Hall for attendance.

"Alright everyone! First of all, the staff and I would like to give you all a huge welcome to Camp Riverwalk!" An older lady standing in the middle of the room said. Everyone clapped and cheered, stomping their feet. About ten counselors went around checking each camper's head for lice.

"Mess up my hair and I swear, I will make your life a living-" Gabby began as she looked up at the counselor checking her hair. Sylvie elbowed her. Once everyone was checked, counselors paired off into groups of two. This meant that there would be two counselors in charge of each cabin. One person in each of the counselor groups had a clipboard in hand. Two stepped forward.

"Hi everyone! I'm Ms. Lopez and this is Ms. Danforth. We're in charge of the Deer Beach cabin. We will be reading off the names of who will be in our cabin." She flipped the page over on the clipboard she was holding.

"Alright, so we have Leslie Shay, Gabriela Dawson, Erin Lindsay, Sylvie Brett, Julie Whilhite..." and after the rest of the names were called and only one remained. The girls all held hands in anticipation.

"And Kim Burgess."

"Yay!" The girls hugged and high fived. When they were instructed to, the girls grabbed their duffles and made a beeline for the cabin.

"I get the top bunk!" Kim yelled as her and Leslie dove into the cabin.

"Deal. Just don't wake me up by throwing a pillow at me in the morning." Leslie said, throwing one of her duffles on the bunk below Kim's. Kim was having some trouble with one of her bags, so a blonde haired girl came walking over and helped her.

"Julie Whilhite." She smiled and shook Kim's hand.

"Kim." She smiled back.

"Nice to meet you. Is this your first year?"

"Yeah, how about you?"

"This is my second. Trust me, you are going to love this place."

"What kinds of things do you guys do here?"

"Well we have lots of sports like soccer, tennis, swimming, things like that. We have movie nights, campfires, hiking trips, there's a ropes course and a ton more."

All that sounded like fun to Kim, but she didn't want to admit it. Erin was sitting on the floor next to her bunk with a big container of beads, string and other tools to make bracelets. She was laying out some beads for a bracelet.

"Whatcha doing there?" Gabby asked her.

"Making bracelets. You guys want to join?" Erin asked.

"Sure!" All the girls replied. Kim just climbed up to her bunk and took out a book from her backpack. As she laid down to read it, Sylvie climbed halfway up the ladder that led to the bunk.

"Come on Kim, join us. Erin has thousands of beads and plenty of supplies."

"No, that's for you guys." Kim said, sadly.

"Hey, you're our friend too. Come on." Sylvie said, to encourage her.

"You guys are friends, I'm not your friend." She looked away.

A few seconds later, Leslie popped up next to her on the ladder.

"What are you talking about? Of course you're our friend! Come join us!"

Kim hopped down next to them and Erin gave her a pile of beads and some string. She was looking at everyone's bracelets and they had their names on them.

"How about we make friendship bracelets?" Julie suggested.

"Great idea!" They all said in unison.

While they were making them, they could hear a man's voice outside on the porch talking to Ms. Lopez and Ms. Danforth. When they were done talking, the three of them walked in.

"Everyone, this is Mr. McHolland. He's been a counselor here for five years now. He's also the activity coordinator." All the girls said hello to him and shook his hand. When Gabby shook his hand, he asked her if she had a brother.

"Yeah, Antonio's my brother." She rolled her eyes.

"Thought so." He laughed. "Well, I just want to come and personally welcome you all to the camp and I hope you enjoy your time here."

The rest of the afternoon was spent unpacking, playing get to know you games and setting the cabins up. As Leslie was working on a poster, the dinner bell rang.

"Alright girls! There's twenty minutes until dinner, so put away your things and get your shoes on. Leslie, you better get down to the mess hall." Leslie was part of a group who set the tables up for all the meals and cleaned up after they were done. She threw her flip flops on and headed down to the mess hall. Adam was a table boy. When she spotted him, she made a face and headed into the mess hall kitchen to gather up silverware, cups and plates. He was close behind her.

"Adam, quit breathing down my neck before I whack you with that wooden spoon over there." She said as she reached up on the shelf for some cups.

"I know you like me. Just admit it." He scoffed.

"Ew gross. Not happening. Nope. Never in a million years. You're like the annoying older brother that I never wanted." She tossed him the evil eye as she headed back out to the mess hall to set the table up. Kim walked in a couple minutes later, she was a table girl along with Leslie. Adam got a big grin on his face and then it was quickly wiped away when he realized who it was.

"What? Not happy to see me? Are you going to apologize now?" She uttered. Leslie's mouth dropped and she tried her hardest not to burst out laughing.

"Not even close." He disappeared back into the kitchen and Kim stuck her tongue out at him.

"You have a better chance of me hitting a home run in softball before that butthead apologizes." Leslie said as she began setting the table.

At dinner, Adam snuck over to Kim's table and sat next to her.

"Sorry, but I don't talk to morons." She said as she took a bite of pasta.

"What's wrong with trying to make friends?" He laughed.

"This." Kim shoved him so hard that he fell off the bench. Everyone at the table laughed and Erin high fived her. Leslie and Sylvie started clapping while trying not choke on their dinner because they were laughing so hard. He just sat there, in shock.

"That's what you get, bub." She gave him a taunting smile before turning back to Gabby. He walked back over to the table he was sitting at.

"Man Antonio, your sister has some brats for friends." He huffed, sitting down.

"I don't really care. She's a brat herself." He told Adam as he took a sip from his cup.

"Sounds to me like someone has a crush on little Kimmy over there." Mr. McHolland joked. The whole table erupted in an "OOOHHH!" moment.

"I do NOT! She's annoying." Adam rolled his eyes.

"If she's annoying, why do you keep looking at her?" Peter Mills asked him.

"Shut up Peter." He scowled.