Day 1: A bright reunion

It was midday, a hot summer day in the last week of august. The car pulled up to the end of the road and I got down and took my bags out of the trunk as my siblings, non identical twin and little sister, did the same. We were the first to arrive at the sailing camp and only a few monitors which we said hi to as our father and our aunt and cousin also arrived.

It was the second week I was going to the camp this year, the first time had gone relatively well. It had been a crazy couple of days, laughing a lot, singing and making jokes all the time. There was even a table tennis tournament organized (which I didn't win). But all that aside there was another reason I wanted to come back this week too.

The bus pulled up and three little girls of about 9 years old got down before my friend got down and got closer to the door. We both smiled at each other before he got into the main patio and we greeted each other - Hey Alex -. I said, giving him my hand. - 'Sup dude -. He answered, shaking mine as he smiled at me like always.

We had a little bit of small talk before meeting the other two guys that had arrived, surprisingly they both worked out at the same center we did, just not the same section so we all instantly became friends and they all started chatting about football. I lost interest mid conversation since I didn't really like football at all and just started roaming around the main patio while I checked my stuff, making sure I had everything I needed for the week.

- Raven! - Hearing someone call my name I turn around smiling, already knowing who It is as I look around and spot them - Aster! - I run to where they are excitedly and hug them tightly and laugh a bit. It had been just a month since we had last seen each other but we were both super excited about the 5 days we were gonna be there.

After some quick introductions from both the kids and the monitors we head to the dining hall. It was arranged a bit differently from what I remembered. Plastic tables and chairs were put to form a long table instead of separate smaller tables like It used to, but then again we were a lot less people that day so It didn't really matter. Sitting next to Aster and in front of my brother and Alex.

They gave us the usual welcome talk, giving us the schedule and rules, organizing the turns to set the table and things like that. Schedule for this week was a bit different since It was the shortest week in the whole summer. We would wake up at 8 each morning, take a walk to one of the lighthouses which takes about 30 minutes and then wait for breakfast. After that we're supposed to take the lifejackets and go to the ocean to do whatever activity there's planned for us. Coming back from finishing that activity we have lunch and have about 2 hours of free time before going back to the sea for another round of activities. When we finish that we get a snack and take about 3 hours of free time at the beach which is next to the decks. After about an hour they'd let us go shower and rest in the main room watching TV or playing table tennis. At about 8 we're supposed to have dinner and right after that we would do a different activity every day before going to bed at about 10 or 11.

Already knowing the schedule we had for the week we had lunch and headed off to pick the rooms and our beds to get them ready for the night. Since we were so little people there were only 2 rooms, a female one and a male one. Sadly Aster and I couldn't be in the same room but It was fine, we got into our rooms and I chose the top of the bunk bed of the left corner further from the door. We were only 6 people in the room, which was weird since there were normally about 3 or 4 rooms of 8 people at camp but It was the last week of summer so It made sense.

We were done choosing our rooms and getting changed for the first activity. Ther gathered us around a paddle board (which was the activity we were supposed to do that afternoon) One of the female monitors started explaining the 3 main positions we were gonna be on the board. On the second one she was on her knees on top of the board explaining when another one said - that's her favorite one! - Without realizing she energetically said - Yeah - before regret filled her eyes when she figured out what he actually meant. - Nooooo haha. - Said Aster while laughing. - See? They get it - The monitor said, chuckling a bunch before making the kids calm down to continue with the explanation.

Once It was done each person took a paddle board with a paddle and we made our way out the decks slowly. When we were in the bay we sped up a bit and started to go into the open sea. Suddenly I heard Aster calling my name from behind. Turning around to look at them almost falling off the board they get closer and throw some water at me with the paddle. - You abandoned me! - They said while chuckling and trying to hold on to me. - Aw come on I thought you were behind me, you didn't have to do that - I say while trying to get the water off my face. - Anyways come on, we're gonna stay behind if we don't. - Pushing them off with my paddle and starting to get away. - Raveeeeen, wait for me! - Sighing while laughing a tad I stop moving and once they're close enough I tie my board to theirs, paddling again slowly making our way to where the group was.

Ending up in a secondary bay with a rock beach the instructors let us take a bath for a while before coming back to the primary one and doing the game they had planned. I slid into the water carefully not to splash since Aster didn't really want to get wet. - Oh shi- - I muttered to myself realizing I hadn't taken off my glasses. Struggling to keep them above the water I swam to the motorboat and left them there before coming back to the boards and hanging on to it as the waves lightly rocked us back and forth. After a while Aster decided to take a bath too and went into the water, careful not to get their hair wet as they lightly swam around and got up laying down on the board again.

After a while of just chilling there I started dragging the boards to the main bay while in the water to get to the place the monitors told us. Once there they explained the rules. We'd start in the water and once they whistled we had to stand on the board as fast as possible. Last one to get up would get eliminated until there was just 1 person left.

And so the first few rounds were pretty easy. Around the third or fourth one I slip and fall through the other side of the board and end up eliminated. It didn't really matter, It was pretty fun even after losing in the first few rounds. Aster had been out since the second one so we talked the whole time and didn't pay much attention to how the others were going.

Coming back and spending some time on the beach we had watermelon as our snack. After showering Aster and I meet up on the couch of the main room and they lay down on my lap as I give them the remote so they could put some music on. While they put on Verbatim by Mother Mother I caress their hair a bit and they sigh a bit. - It's weird you know… I'm usually the one doing that. - They say thinking. - Well someone has to do It to you right? - I ask, smiling at them. Some time passes by and they fall asleep and I start putting on some music too. I specifically remember the song Walkin' n Talkin' by Rare Americans playing as we chilled there..

People eventually started to come back from the beach. Some started playing table tennis (my brother and Alex included (Alex obviously won)) and some sat on one of the three sofas in front of the TV. There was one of the little girls that asked us to put on Red Flags by Tom Cardy and she kept asking us to put on that exact same song during the whole week for some reason.

Right after dinner they took us on a walk to a park which was nearby. It took about 10 minutes to get there and once we finally arrived the sun had already hidden behind the mountains that surrounded the small town the campus was in. As we got there we saw a few kids and their parents who fled once they saw us so we ended up having the park pretty much to ourselves. We ended up being on the swings for a bit before sitting down on a bench along with all the other guys while the little girls played in the park.

After some time we came back to the decks and got ready to go to sleep. Once we were finally changed and in our respective rooms they came in the rooms and turned the lights off. Obviously we didn't go to sleep, we goofed around for a while and ended up going to sleep at about midnight which was pretty late considering the hour we were sent to bed.