Camp Opal

• Chapter 1 •

     Clothes and other items were being tossed and forced into a small suitcase.  The suitcase was filled to the rim with stuff.  It didn't even look like the suitcase would be able to close.  I was pushing the stuff down in my small suitcase.  The stuff wouldn't even go down much.  Maybe if I folded the clothes neatly into the bag then it would be able to zip shut.  I didn’t even know how to fold clothes.

     I continued to force the stuff down when my mother stepped into the room.

    "Oh honey." my mother, Lola, said as she walks over to me.  She was wearing her usual purple button up top, her long black skirt, and some purple sandals.

     "What did I do?" I ask even though I already knew. "I don't like folding!"

     My mother began to take everything out of the suitcase and set it down beside it on the bed.  "I know, honey, but it makes everything so much easier." she starts to fold the clothes neatly into the suitcase.  "Some of this stuff you don't even need to bring. Your little brother is more organized than this and he is only twelve!”

     I just stand there and watch her fold.  I am quite capable of being organized like my brother.  If I try enough.  "I'm capable of folding, mom." I say out loud.

     Before my mom tells me I can’t fold let me tell you a bit about myself.  I am 16 years old who just had a birthday in March.  I don't have my driver’s license yet but I do have a permit.  That's not a bad thing...is it?

     I have black hair that goes down past my shoulders.  I always like having my hair in different hairstyles everyday because I think it's cool.  My most favorite hairstyle is not the pigtails.  Definitely not the pigtails.  It's wavy.  I love my black hair when it's wavy.  Perhaps you didn't want to know that...

     People say I'm cute.  Not cute like the cute that you think the type of cute I am talking about.  No way.  It's not a problem when a little girl calls you cute like a doll is it? It certainly is.  That's the kind of cute I am talking about.  Cute like a doll.  Cute like a Barbie doll.  And I don't like Barbie dolls.

     I never get a grade higher than D in school.  Yeah, I am that horrible in every class. I don't like studying and I don't like school! 

    "Really?" my mother stares at me.  Her eyes were wide in surprise even though I knew she really wasn’t surprised. "Then you fold these clothes."  She steps back to let me fold.

     Oh great…  I thought. 

     I bite my bottom lip and pick up a shirt.  I begin to fold it in a very complicated way.  It didn't turn out the way I wanted it when I had finished.  It looked like I didn't even fold the shirt at all.  I look at my mother.  Lola just shakes her head at me in disappointment.

      "You see, honey? If I weren't here you'd be here all day trying to fold these clothes," Lola said seriously.  "Go and pack your other things while I fold these, okay?"

     "Okay..." I sigh, feeling hopeless.  Well I can’t do everything.  I walk over to my closet, stepping on trash and other things on the way.  My room was always very messy and I never really bothered to clean it.  It was true that my brother was always much more clean and organized than I was.  But it's not like I had to be clean and organized as well!  I don’t really care!

     I take out my pink Hello Kitty backpack out of the messy closet.  I unzip the bag and dump all of my school supplies out onto the floor.  I almost jumped at my mother's harsh tone of voice.