One Last Summer

This is it. The end that leads to the beginning. I’ve always found it odd that people put so much emphasis on your high school graduation versus graduating from college. Maybe because college is a choice? That still doesn’t make sense. You’re choosing to torture yourself through more schooling. It damn sure better be a party when you finish a version of hell you paid to put yourself through. I disliked school, as most teenagers do, but I tried. Okay, I could have tried harder, noted, but I wasn’t competing for valedictorian so what was the point? Mediocracy has always been my thing. I did enough to not be considered a slacker, yet I’m not shooting for the stars and always coming up short either. That’s a constant let down and I don’t want to feel like a failure every day.

So here I am, riding out and living my best life while I can before the real world weighs on my shoulders. I know high school doesn’t always prepare you but I have a pretty supportive family to fall back on so, I really just need to get my shit together and figure out what I want to do with my life. Some of my classmates knew exactly what they wanted to do post-high school, then there was us that wanted to be successful but had no clue where to start, and then you had the percentage of those that had no ambitions whatsoever. I always felt bad for those people yet, they never felt bad for themselves. They were the ones living life by the edge chanting “YOLO” which apparently means you only live once. I don’t know. I wasn’t buying any of that shit. I think they needed to get their crap together yet, look who’s talking. Kind of the pot calling the kettle black if you ask me so, I just stayed in my lane and shared my thoughts with my small group of friends.

Every year, since I was born, my mom brought my sister and I to visit her family in South Dakota. My dad is from Florida so I live the best of both worlds. I get the hot Florida sun for ten months, then the hot days and cool nights of the South Dakota summer for two months. It seems weird not knowing what an actual Florida summer feels like. I’ve heard it’s rugged with its daily afternoon rains that send the humidity levels through the roof on top of the temperatures being nothing cooler than ninety degrees. South Dakota summers are tolerable. There’s not a single percent of humidity you’ll hear me complain about and I love how you need a sweater in the evenings when the sun goes down.

So this is it, the highlight of my year and the highlight of my summer, a week of camping with my entire family, minus my dad. He works too much. As I lay back in the plush grass, the sun peeking through the trees casting glimpses of its brightness across my face, I am content. I open my eyes and see a couple of seagulls flying overhead. I chuckle at the sight of them every summer because they seem so out of place when they’re not snatching Cheetos from beach-goers. Even at midday, the air is cool and crisp in the shade and the heat is always tolerable, unlike Florida’s heat you can find three-quarters of the year. I love how the breeze is endless here. If there is a weather condition I love most, it’s the wind!

I close my eyes again and listen to the sound the wind makes blowing through the trees above me. My cousins are yelling at each other as usual while they fight over the floats in the lake. Our family is loud no matter where we are or what we are doing. There’s so many of us in one place at the same time that you have to be loud to be heard over everyone else. Even with their playing and commotion at a volume that could justify a noise ordinance, it’s still so serene here. Their squeals are quickly carried off across the lake and the sounds of the rushing creek near-by remind me of all the crazy adventures it holds.

“What should we do tonight?” Eve says. “Cody and Kyle told us to meet them back here at the lake at dark. They said, ‘us’ so you’re coming, you don’t have a choice.” She adds, turning on her side towards me, I almost forgot she was lying next to me.

Eve is two years younger than me and the second oldest cousin in our family following me. We have always been super close. We’re the type of best friends that goes ten months out of the year barely speaking to each other while I am back in my home state of Florida, to almost murdering each other the minute we reconnect with the most violent hug you’ve ever seen. It just works for us. Plus, we practically live together the entire summer so it gives us plenty to talk about. A lot can happen in ten months if you’re Eve. She is definitely the wilder one of us both. She is the boy-crazy, always down to party, lets-play-truth-or-dare type and then there’s me...wanting to partake in the crazy antics Eve tries to pull yet, cautious and more guarded. I don’t find it to be a bad trait, I just sometimes wish I was on her level of bravery and boldness.

“I don’t know. The lake on the first night here, with Cody and Kyle? I don’t know about y’all sometimes.” Damnit. I let that one slip. I’m sure I’ll catch hell for that later.

The sides of Eve’s mouth begin to raise into that devilish smile she wears so well and I know what she is going to say before she even says it. In her best, exaggerated southern drawl she mocks, “Well Y’ALL can sit there on that picnic table with a couple of cans of Busch Lite and talk about what Y’ALL are gonna do since high school is over or...”

“Shut up you idiot! I haven’t adjusted yet.” I interrupt her as I shove her as hard as I can onto her back. My family has known me my whole life yet they still can’t get used to my occasional southern drawl slip-up. I’m usually really good about covering up my “accent.” I personally don’t think I carry any bit of an accent but I’m quickly reminded of how wrong I am when I forget my half-bred Yankee ways and let a “y’all” or the word “soda” come out of my mouth.

Eve laughs and grabs a handful of grass and throws it at me. “You know I always have to give you shit about that. If I don’t set you straight, Cody and Kyle will never let you live it down.”

Her confidence annoys me. Not really. I admire it more than anything but still. She makes me want to punch her in the eye to give those guys something to tease her about. I seem to always be the topic of laughter around the three of them and sometimes others when our little campground group of misfits grows from four to ten. I let out a sigh and close my eyes again trying to go back to that serene place of solace before she barged her ass right in.

I wonder what these guys have planned for tonight. Oh, wait...nothing. This isn’t my first rodeo so I’m not sure why I expect them to have a plan. I’ve gotten myself into some sketchy situation with these three. Some I saw my life flash before my eyes and some that I’m too embarrassed to even tell. Those will go to all four of our graves, I hope. I’m down for a good, clean adventure. I want to laugh until my stomach feels like it’s going to split in two. I’m okay to even get the shit scared out of me as long as no one gets hurt. I’m definitely the mother of the group and they make sure I don’t forget it. It’s not my fault they don’t have a responsible bone in their bodies.

“Mack, Aunt Shayna called and said that supper is almost ready! It’s time to head back!” Spencer yells from the dock that extends out into the lake near the creek.

She is my younger sister by four years but, you wouldn’t guess that by just meeting her. She is tall, thin, and developed for her age with a personality that makes you question your very existence. She means well; it’s just her. It’s what I love most about her actually. She isn’t like me in that sense. She couldn’t care less what anyone thinks about her and she doesn’t have a problem letting you know it either. Spencer and I get along great as sisters. We’re different, yes, but it’s a good balance for us.

“Why are you being so boring and what are you thinking about?” Eve says, reminding me that once again, I am not as alone as I would like to be.

“Nothing” I smile as I sit up and rub my hands over the grass. It’s so green and plush and the tiny white flowers scattered throughout it are the little things that make me feel at home. I yell to the rest of our crew to get out of the water and I make a bet with myself at how many times I’m going to have to call them to actually get all six of them out of the water.

Spencer and her boyfriend, Clay, are walking towards us from the dock now. I finish packing up all of the beach blankets, packs of sunflower seeds, bottles of pop, and sand toys. Surprisingly, all six kids come racing towards us to grab their towels and get on their bikes and ride. That was for you, Freddie Mercury, and I clearly lost that bet with myself.

Spencer and Clay head towards the road to take the long walk back to camp while Eve grabs the wagon handle and we start down the much shorter, grassy path back to camp. The freedom here is my favorite. There’s so much safety within this place. Everyone looks out for everyone else’s kids and knows who they belong to. Kids on bikes and scooters of all ages fly around these camp roads like it’s their own big backyard. It’s peaceful. As you turn into the campground’s main entrance, I swear you can actually feel your worries slam into a wall and wait right there until your stay has come to an end.

“So what are the plans for tonight?” I ask Eve as we cross through the back of someone’s campsite and give them a friendly wave. They already have their campfire lit and it reminds me of how long the sun stays lit here. It has to be close to nine o’clock already.

“Cody said they were sneaking a few beers out of their parents cooler and would meet us at the lake after dark. That’s all he told me.” Eve replies.

No plan with the three amigos and me, their keeper, makes me a tad nervous. These guys are the most creative in a terrible way and now my brain is in overdrive. My mom passed down this trait my sister and I like to call “worst-case-scenario-brain.” So basically all I see now are red and blue flashing lights, three different park rangers, parents crying, and us four sitting on the picnic table talking to several deputies with the smell of firecracker smoke dissipating throughout the night air. That scene quickly fades to us four sitting in one of those holding tank jail cells you see on TV. You know, the ones where you are patiently waiting for your parents to come, apologize profusely to the deputy and bail you out while that one weird creepy guy sitting in the corner stares at you? Why do I do this to myself? I end this travesty in my brain with the image of Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday as her daughter Anna is trapped in her body, looking at me saying, “fun-sucker.”

“You know I get nervous when there is no plan!” I reply, downplaying my dramatic, previous thoughts.

“Mack, forget the plans! Let’s just be teenagers and hang. It’s been a year since we’ve seen them. I’m sure we all have crazy stories to catch up on that went down over the past year.” She whines, clearly annoyed with my overthinking.

I roll my eyes as we approach our family’s camper village. We take up a fourth of this park alone with just our campers. My uncle is standing by the grill pulling the last bit of chicken from it as the best smelling smoke rolls into the air. My mom and aunts, “the sisters” as we like to call them, are bringing the rest of the food to the picnic tables.

“Come on! Let’s eat! I’m not going to say it again!” My mom yells. She is definitely the bossiest out of everyone here and I’m sure the rest of my family chooses to bite their tongues when she come back home.

I stop at the edge of our campsite and turn towards Eve. “I’ll go, but under one condition.” I say.

“What’s that?” Eve replies, rolling her eyes.

“No truth-or-dare.”