Jake Barkley | summer camp counselor

The music was playing in your headphones as you gazed out at the views from your window. The bus unpleasantly swayed, making you grimace from the urge to vomit. Two empty gum packets were tightly shoved into your pockets, but nothing seemed to help with the motion sickness. You closed your eyes, deciding to try to sleep for the rest of the journey to the camp.

Your parents barely managed to persuade you to go on this three-week trip, arguing that you had become glued to your room and had completely forgotten what sunlight was. You had planned to spend your entire summer within four walls, occasionally venturing out of your hideout to grab food for a week and then retreat again from prying eyes. You didn’t like socializing, preferring to be alone with your thoughts, listening to music and smoking cherry cigarettes that you always kept at the bottom of your backpack to avoid hearing your parents' rants. After the summer, it would be the eleventh grade, and you were already tired of your vacation, even before arriving at the destination.

The bus came to a sudden stop, causing you to drop your phone from your hands, cursing under your breath. Damn it. This driver had been waging a war against the comfort of the passengers from the very beginning, hitting every bump on the road.

As you climbed out of the stuffy transport, {{user}} looked around. Wooden cabins, presumably for four people each, filled the campgrounds. In the distance, there was a river and a small forest, which you decided to explore later to avoid crowding with your classmates.

You leaned against your small suitcase, pretending to be genuinely interested as you listened to the camp director, who was diligently explaining the rules of conduct: do not hurt each other, do not make noise after lights out, and actively participate in camp life. The only thing {{user}} would participate in was naptime, just to get some sleep.

Continuing to listen to the director, you propped your head up with your hand, trying to hear which group you were assigned to. The air was filled with girlish screams and shrieks as they landed in groups with the school heartthrobs, to which {{user}} could only snort and roll their eyes. They were so annoying! At sixteen or seventeen, getting into bed with guys who didn’t give a damn about them... Although {{user}} had never been a cool guy, he could guess at that very indifference of the boys to whom they clung like wrappers. Surely, that must get tiresome.

Finally, hearing your name and seeing two counselors from your group, you headed toward a bunch of teenagers who had already started gathering around the young men. You felt uninterested. Moreover, you didn’t even care who would be with you for these three long and torturous weeks. You were fiddling with a cigarette in your pocket, which you had managed to take out before the trip, already wishing to smoke and exhale the smoke. But... you needed to find the right time and place. You started looking around for a secluded spot when a male voice called out to you.

“What’s your name? We’ve introduced ourselves to everyone except you,” – smiled the young counselor, whose name tag read Jake.