Day 2:Glasses

When I woke up that morning I remember hearing voices and feeling the cold bite my shoulder. When I sat up clutching the thin blanket over me I saw four kids huddled around the door of the cabin calling out for Lenni Rowley. Around me, other kids woke up as well and were watching the commotion. The door to the cabin was to my right. It seemed so far way stretching down the aisle.

I was already awake so I grabbed the blanket on my bed and walked over to them.

"What's going on? Who's Lenni?" It was three girls and one boy who snapped their heads facing me. The girl who was opening the door, let go to put her finger over her mouth and shush me.

I explained how everyone was awake and asked them to be quiet at least. The girls were polite but the boy snapped at me, he said there 'no way in hell that we're going to be quiet! Someone is missing!'

There was an audible gasp in the room, although I'm not sure if it was from the boy saying hell or because someone was missing. The whole cabin sat in silence. For me, this is when the fear would start sinking in. This was the moment I not only became the cry baby of the cabin but also when I would stop sleeping well at night.

Finally, someone from one end of the cabin yelled: 'let's go find her!' then more shoutings like 'yeah', 'no way', and 'we should tell someone'. Of course, the invisible rule of fifth grade was: If a student can get away with it, then don't tell. This is why we were found around 8:00 am that day on a hiking trail looking for Lennie Rowley.

I feel bad for the camp leaders though, they found nine innocent kids in the forest, alone, and in their pajamas all because they wanted to find the missing girl. But if I'm being honest, it might've been the worst idea ever. Second worst. No third worst.

So after we were found, the camp counselors had a long talk with us and asked a bunch of questions. They found out that Lennie Rowley was missing, and asked more questions. After, we heard them whispering throughout the day. During lunch, the camp leaders explained how a girl went missing and they were going to do their absolute best to find her.

I feel like if that was true then we would have found her by now.

It wasn't until around 10:00 that day when some of the camp leaders started to begin the planned activities for us. I think the idea was so that we would be distracted, but it didn't work. Through gossip and the people that knew Lennie, I figured out that Lennie was a girl with tan skin, short brown hair, and wore clothes too big for her. I was told that she was a 'hippie girl'. I heard a lot of bad things about her, but for Lennie's sake, I'm only going to say the good things.

Lennie for the most part was nice, and she had two older siblings. They were twins and the three always got along. Lennie had a dog named spice, sugar passed when Lennie was in third grade. Lennie once made a flower crown during P.E, it made her look like a princess. One time Lennie found twenty bucks but turned it into the school office, she got an award for doing that.

I wish I could have met her before she disappeared. Lennie's friend, Izabella Hering, told me that Lennie would have loved to do the archery practice we did that day. Izabella explained how Lennie loved sports and games.

It wasn't until the end of the day walking back to our cabins when we noticed the police. At the time we thought they were police, but they were just park rangers. Our whole cabin group stopped when we saw them, and soon more whispering followed. They had a little golf car parked by the road that we took to get to Camp Crescent Moon.

'Is she gone?', 'maybe a bear ate her', 'who got in trouble?', 'someone's going to be arrested', 'I hope it's not me', 'do you think her parents know?'. That was the question that made us scratch our heads.

But we had little time to think, Parker, our camp leader tried his best to hurry us along and stop staring. This caught the attention of one of the rangers, while he walking up someone pointed and we all became quiet.

I remember how the ranger tipped his hat to Parker and asked if he could speak to us. Parker agreed and before you know it the ranger was on one knee explaining the dangers of exploring at night.

"Even if you want to, don't go out at night. You could lose your way and night be able to find your way back. If you have to use the restroom ask someone to go with you or ask an adult to help you. What happened to your guy's friend is a very important lesson alright. Please, no one go out at night. Go on and enjoy the rest of your day." He then stood up and walked back to his partner.

Little did he know we only paid attention to the fact that his name was Terry. Terry Ball, printed on a shiny pin on his uniform. He would end up in a lot of trouble later for not doing much to help find Lennie Rowley or the other two who went missing.

A boy whispered that 'Terry Ball' sounded like a 'cherry ball' and passed along through the group. We all thought that was funny. When we were all settling in that night, one of the kids pointed out how Lennie's toothbrush was still in the bathroom. We knew because her name was printed on the side in sharpie, Lenny R.

At night before we went to bed some of the kids talked up how and why Lennie disappeared. I had a conversation with Juan-Pablo Sutton. He was had golden-brown skin and had thick glasses, they were a special kind that protected your eyes and could be used as sunglasses. He was telling me about them the night he disappeared.

When he took them off, Juan-Pablo's eyes looked smaller than they appeared behind his glasses. I laughed a little and he told me it was embarrassing how he looked without them. I told Juan-Pablo back that he would look fine either way. He smiled and placed his glasses on the floor under his bunk before burying himself under the covers. That was the last time I'd see him. Him and his glasses.

"You'd look fine without them"

Those words will forever echo through my mind. I wish I could have been friends with Juan-Pablo Sutton.