Waking up today was probably the most frightening feeling I have experienced.
I was woken by my mom shaking me out of bed and throwing piles of clothes into a suitcase.
She smiled at me. "Breakfast is in the kitchen and once you've finished eating I want you to get dressed." she explained.
I ate little because of the nervousness corrupting my stomach of space for food.
Then after I brushed my teeth and managed to partially control my hair I put on my camp t-shirt printed with blocky green letters spelling
"Camp Grenson Junior Counselor"
And walked back into my room to help finish packing.
"Four weeks seems like a long time but trust me it will be over before you know it." My mom reassures.
28 days and it's over.
The drive to the camp was filled with silence besides the car radio blaring some overplayed pop song. We pulled down a long dirt road after about an hour and soon saw a big orange sign the read
"Welcome to Camp Grenson"
There were counselors that told my mom where to park and then they took my bag to a truck that would drop it off at my cabin.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye for now." My mom said pretending to seem sad.
"Yeah, see you in four weeks." I wrote finally.
She got into her car and pulled back down the dirt road. A counselor walked over and greeted me.
"Hello, I am Greta. I'm guessing you're one of the new junior counselors?"
I nod.
"Ok, what's your name?"
I sigh softly and pull out my dry erase board. I scribble and show her the board.
She pretends that she knew I was mute and try's not to let her voice squeak.
"Oh...well ok Lane, let's see here..." she pulled out her clip board and scanned it slowly. "Ah, you're with the cabin Zepher" she states pointing down a path through the woods.
I nod again and walk down the path. It opened to a clearing with four cabins in a circle surrounded by the kids, counselors and junior counselors of each cabin.
I find the cabin that says Zepher and walk inside.
"Hey, are you the junior counselor for this cabin?" A tall man asks. I nod. "Ok good, I was looking for you.
I'm Jason, I'm the counselor for Zepher."
I pull out the whiteboard and he doesn't seem startled, I'm guessing they already told him about me.
"Cool, I like the name Lane, it's original. Your bunk is the bottom bunk in the left corner." he says pointing.
I go back outside and see that the truck has dumped a pile of luggage in the center of the cabins.
I find my bag and go back into the cabin to unpack.
I finish unpacking and Jason calls all Zepher kids to come and unpack their stuff.
Five kids stumble in with their over weight luggage and walk to a bed.
"Everyone, this is the J.C. for Zepher, his name is Lane." Jason says.
They all mumble hellos.
"Lane, this is Cam, Gorden, Mikey, Peter and Hayden."
I wave at them.
Jason and I help the kids unpack their stuff and everything starts to seem actually really cool, I almost start to think I'm going to have fun.
Almost.
"Hey, why can't you talk?" Gorden asks.
I hate Gorden.
I shrug.
"We all got a letter home saying our j.c. was special and we need to treat you different because you can't talk." he adds.
I get furious. I scribble on my white board and shove it in his face.
"It's not my fault I can't talk. You don't have to treat me different than anyone else, ever. I am no different than anyone else."
Gorden hands the white board back and shrugs. "Sorry." he mutters.
I didn't realize everyone else was just standing there watching this all horrified at what Gorden said and horrified at what I would do.
I sit down in my bed and just stare at the wall until Jason tells the boys to head down to the Cafeteria with cabin West.
"Dude, kids are cruel." he says.
I pull out my white board and write slowly so he doesn't think I'm mad.
"I don't care, I just don't want people to treat me different because I'm not."
"Ok, you have a valid point but what happened happened and now everyone knows you aren't different so do you want to pretend this never happened and make camp fun?"
I nod but I know that they will still treat me different. That's not going to change. I just need to ignore them because I am still stuck here for 28 more days.
Then it will all be over.