My name is Milo Parker. I am in fifth grade and I am going to Cecily Elementary School, and in my second semester. I am a very quiet and invisible guy. I never like to play outside. I only like to stay indoors, read books, read comic books, and play video games.
Today is Monday, and I have to go to school. I take the bus and wait in the classroom. It’s 8:55, and people are starting to come in. Our school starts at 9:00. Once all the students arrive, we start our class. Math, science, and all of that stuff we do. At the last subject, reading, we read a book called Holes. The book was pretty fun, but it was kind of embarrassing for me to read out loud. Finally the day ended at 2:30.
On Friday, my Mom tells me there is this camp on Saturday, where you do activities and sleep for one night in Nogport camping ground. I don’t want to go but I have to so I start packing for the trip.
The next day my mom drops me off at the camping ground where I meet some of the camp directors. “Ah, hi Milo” says one of the directors whose name is Maddie. “You are going to be in dorm C. Let me bring you there,” she says. I slowly follow her to the dorm where I will be sleeping with other people. Inside I see 4 kids playing UNO. And to my absolute surprise they are all my classmates! These kids’ names are Tom, Jesse, Kat, and Pat. I am not friends with them and do not talk to them so I am shy. Maddie tells us she is our dorm director and will be our leader for the next 2 days.
Later, all the kids gather at the main ground of the camp with all of the other kids gathered. Our first activity is to make the tallest building with marshmallows and toothpicks. I am too shy, so I stay back and watch the others build. Suddenly our building crashes down to the floor. With no other choice, I offer Tom, Jesse, Kat, and Pat my help. I show them a sketch of what the structure should look like to be the strongest. After we finish building, judges look around to see who wins. To my astonishment, we win second place. Thanks to my sketch. Wow, you were great,” Jessie tells me as we start cleaning up. “That was so cool, and I can’t believe we got second place. You did such a nice job.” “Thanks” I say shyly.
After we eat lunch, we go to the lake and swim. It’s pretty fun, and I’m kind of getting to know the other kids, Tom, Jesse, Kat, and Pat.
After the lake, we head back to our dorms where we shower and get ready to go to sleep. Before we sleep and after everybody showers, the other kids start to play a game of UNO. But suddenly, Pat asks if I want to join. Sure, I say happily, “That would be great!” After a fun game of UNO, Maddie says we have to sleep so we go to bed.
The next morning, we go to breakfast, and suddenly Tom asks if I want to sit with them to eat breakfast, which is eggs and bacon. I am so happy I smile and say yes. In school, I had no friends, and I was always the person to stay at home. But now, I’m feeling like I’m striking up a friendship.
After we eat breakfast, all the kids gather around so the directors can tell us our next activity. The next activity is a scavenger hunt. The directors and the staff have hidden one golden egg, and the first team to find it wins.
“Get set, ready, go!” says one of the staff coordinating the scavenger hunt. We all dash off into the woods to find the golden egg. We first started looking near the lake where we swam yesterday, but we can’t find it. “We should try looking in the woods,” Tom says. So we head there next. Once we’re in the woods, we look around to find the golden egg. The map the staff gave to all the kids that hints to the location of the egg sits in my pocket. I decide to take a look at it, see that the map indicates the egg is somewhere in the woods.
The map shows that the egg is near the statue of the founder of this camp. “The egg is near the statue.” I yell excitedly at the other kids. “Really?” Kat asks. “Yeah, it’s on the map, see?” Kat looks at my map and shows the others. “Let’s go there” I yell. And I am so happy I don’t think about being shy. We run to the statue and see other kids scrambling around to find the golden egg. Suddenly, I see the egg sticking out of the statue’s hand. I quickly snatch the golden egg out of the statue’s hand and yell for the others to come and see what I found. I show them the golden egg, and they all excitedly tell me I did a great job. We happily scramble back to Maddie and tell her we found the egg. We win the activity, and we get chocolate as our prize.
That was the last activity. So I pack up my stuff and wait for my mom to arrive. She arrives and picks me up, and we go home.
On Monday I arrive at school to see Tom, Jesse, Kat, and Pat sitting at their desks. They call me over and tell me that it was super fun to be with me during camp. I smile. During the next few weeks, we quickly grow close and start playing together during recess time. I can’t believe that camp made me have friends when I used to be such a quiet boy.
Word Count: 1017