Jack sat in the car, his face leaning, pressing against the glass window.  Next to him in the driver’s seat was his mother, who kept peering toward him with concerned stares.  Jack felt his cheeks grow warm against the cool glass.  His stomach ached, but he wasn’t hungry nor full - it just ached. His heart beat in his ears, slow yet loud and forceful.  Everything was blurred.  Days upon days, Jack had spent hours worrying about today, thinking about today, dreading today.  Days of thought and fear had left him in a mild state, for today no thought entered his head.  The car veered off the main road onto a dirt path.  The car began shaking as it traveled over the rocky surface, and Jack took his head away from the window.  Trees surrounded the path, a path that seemed endless.  Abruptly, the trees opened up, the road became grass, and the car hissed to a stop.  They were here.  Day one of camp.
Jack had never been to camp before.  In fact, he had never been anywhere far from his parents before.  Both Jack and his parents have had multiple arguments and discussions about going to camp, but in the end the parents had won; Jack was going regardless of what he wanted.  In the car, his slow heartbeat has risen to a quickened tempo.  They slowly inched out of the car - Jack’s mom went to the lodge to check in and Jack carried his bag to his cabin.
Once he arrived at the rotting exterior of his cabin, Jack placed his luggage down on the ground, unsure whether to knock or to just go in.  He gradually peered inside where there were three boys his age.  Two of them were on the ground wrestling; the other was lounging on his bed, obviously a veteran here at camp.  Jack inched the door open: “Uh... Hello.  My name is Jack.  I am in your cabin.”  His voice trailed off.
The boy placed down the magazine he was reading.  He looked at me with unexcited eyes: “My name is James”  I nodded.  “I’ve been going here for as long as I could remember”  Jack gave a strange frightened look that followed an immediate reply from James “What are you looking at?” James got up and left the cabin, leaving Jack wondering who are his friends?
Soon after, Jack’s mom returned from the lodge, and after making his bed, kissing him goodbye, and holding back strained tears, she was gone. Peering around the now empty cabin, he was alone, completely, utterly alone.
The rest of the day there were many activities around camp - hockey on the basketball court, volleyball in the sand pit, archery up at the archery range, chess in the shade.  After viewing the options, Jack decided to play soccer on the field; he made his A team at home, and today his skills definitely got some people to talk to him.  That night was the opening ceremony - a night full of songs, campfire, skits, and speeches about camp.  Counselors danced and introduced themselves, past campers did funny skits, and chants were chanted around the fire and echoed across the lake.  It wasn’t until the end of the night, when James appeared up in front, a guitar in hand.  He strummed the guitar and began singing a Bob Dylan song; the camp sat, mesmerized by his smooth voice and the quiet night.  After the ceremony was over, Jack found James.
Jack explained his amazement to James, and James, who at first seemed defensive and hostile, slowly produced a large smile - the first Jack had seen on him since he arrived.  That night, after lights out, Jack and James talked.  They talked about their home lives, about Cat’s experience at camp in years past, about Jack’s soccer team and Cat’s singing, about everything.  They kept talking and talking until they slowly fell asleep to their mumbled stories.  Jack’s smile evinced his happiness; he started to understand that camp could have been a good idea.  He was glad he had met James, and now - not even 24 hours in - he wished camp would never end.
But it did end.  Days filled with sports and meeting new people, filled with eating nasty food and smelling pretty bad, filled learning about the outdoors and learning to love nature, had all gone by far too quickly. 
It was the last night of camp; Jack’s parents were coming tomorrow, and he was dreading it.  The day had to come; it was evident.  That last night, Jack and James snuck out of their cabin and headed down to the lake.  They walked out of the dock, frightful of being caught but giddy with rebellion.  The two laid down on the dock and looked up at the sky.  There must have been something in the air that night because there was not a single cloud in the sky, only millions of stars.  The two looked at the stars in longing, not daring to see the look of despair that camp was coming to a close on each other’s face.  Instead of talking about camp or their lives at home like they usually did, they sat in silence.  James eventually broke it.
“Jack, I’ve been at this camp since I was like really young, and you are one of the chillest guys here.”  Jack smiled; he had taught James the word “chill” and was pleased he finally used it in the right context.  Jack replied.
“If you would have asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to come to camp, I would have said no, but now.... It’s not the activities that I will miss; it’s all the people that in such a short time have become some of my closest friends.”  James and Jack didn’t talk much that night.  They just laid on the flowing dock that creaked over the black lake and under the infinite stars above them.