The Worthless Summer

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Written by Kelsey Ethan McIntyre
Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 February 2008 )

The Worthless Summer

By Kelsey Ethan McIntyre

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I had no choice but to shut my alarm clock off, because it was getting annoying only after five seconds.

I looked at the time and it was 7:00, the time my alarm clock is set to. I tried to stay up for a minute but I got tired and went back to bed.

"Shawn, get up!" said my mom.

I looked at my alarm clock again and it was 7:52. Oh my God, I had less than an hour, exactly 38 minutes. So I jumped out of bed and into the shower as fast as I could.

The warm water was relaxing. So I sat down in the tub and fell asleep again. The water suddenly went cold and I woke up. I realized how much time I spent so all I did was wash my hair and got out of there.

After I dressed up, I looked at the wall clock this time and it was 8:04 and my older brother, Scott was sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast.

"It's my last day of school today." I said.

"Yeah, so?" replied Scott.

"No school!"

"Oh."

Scott looked at the wall clock.

"Holy crap I'm late for school!" said Scott. "Why didn't you tell me I was late?"

"I thought school ended for you yesterday." I said.

"They changed it to tomorrow you moron."

I was going to say ‘how was I supposed to know that?' but I didn't want to start an argument, especially this early in the morning.

"Well I gotta get going" said Scott

He picked up his car keys and left. I quickly poured myself a bowl of Rice Krispies, ate it and went on my bike to school.

"I see that you're all eager for the summer holiday" said my grade 8 teacher, Mrs. Johansson.

Mrs. Johansson was an old lady. She must have been in her mid-sixties but she acted like she was thirty-something. She must be having a mid-life-crisis.

My friend Mick who was sitting beside me the whole year leaned over to me and said, "What you're going to do this summer?"

"I don't know. What about you?" I replied.

"I was going to tell you this earlier but I didn't have the chance."

"What is it?"

"My mom wants to move to Toronto and I have to go with her."

"Why does she want to move there?"

"I don't know. She wants to start off new."

"You can't stay here with your dad?"

"I told you, my mom won the custody battle."

Mick's parents' divorce was finalized last week. Mick said it was because Mick's dad was an alcoholic and a gambler, but he was slowly recovering.

"Mr. Parker and Mr. Duncan!" shouted Mrs. Johansson

"Huh?" I (Mr. Parker) said.

"I'm trying to teach a class here but you and Mick are interrupting"

"When are you leaving?" I said.

"I don't know, I think in about a week or so" said Mick.

"Will you be coming back here to visit sometime?"

"Yeah, but it will probably be at Christmas to come visit my dad."

My summer was not going to be good without Mick. I had no other friends. Well I had other friends but not as well as Mick.

After school, I went home, went to my room, shut the curtains, and just laid in my bed until my mom came into my room and said, "Supper's ready".

"I don't feel like it" I said.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm not hungry right now"

"Something's wrong I know."

"Nothing's wrong now just leave me be!"

"Okay fine then, but you'll have to tell me sooner or later."

"Okay then, Mick and his mom are leaving to Toronto!"

"Toronto? Why?"

"His mom wants to start life new."

"Oh, I see. That is too bad."

The next day, I called Mick at his house. I wanted to know exactly when he was leaving.

"Hello?" said Mick's mom

"Is Mick there?" I said

"Just wait, I'll go get him"

In the background, Mick's mom was calling him.

"Hello?" said Mick.

"Hey" I said.

"Hey, Shawn"

"When are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow at 2:30pm"

"Hey you want to come here one last time?"

"Sorry, I can't. I got to pack up all my stuff."

"Can you phone me tomorrow before you leave?"

"I will try."

"Ok, bye"

"Yeah, bye"

Then Mick hung up.

The next day, I woke up and watched TV until the phone rang. I went over and checked the caller I.D. and it was Mick. I picked up the phone.

"Hey Mick" I said

"Yeah, hi" said Mick.

"Can I go over there and say goodbye?"

"Yeah, I'll still be here"

So I went over to Mick's house. There was a U-Haul truck parked outside his house and boxes and furniture on the lawn. The front window was bare and in Mick's room his posters were gone. Then I looked over and saw Mick's mom carrying a box out of the house.

"Hello, Mrs. Duncan" I said.

"Hey Shawn, we were just about to leave because we thought you weren't coming." said Mick's mom.

"It's Ms. Neuman now. No more Mrs. Duncan. It's all through and out the window."

"Where's Mick?" I asked.

"He's inside right now in the basement sweeping. You can go there and say goodbye.

I went downstairs and looked around. Mick wasn't sweeping. Instead he was looking through a box and I could hear him sniffling so he was probably crying.

"Hey man, how's it going?" I said

Mick looked over with his red, teary eyes. I never saw Mick cry so this was a first for me.

"It's not fair that my mom has to go all the way to Toronto just to start things new. Why can't she just stay here?" said Mick.

"That's the crap part about life man. Sometimes you got to give up stuff like your friends. Look on the bright side. There's always a bright side to all bad stuff."

"I know but right now it seems like there is no bright side."

Trying to change the subject, I asked Mick "What are you looking at there?"

"Just some old pictures of me and you in Kindergarten" said Mick, handing me a picture. It was a picture of Mick and me when we were both five years old on our first day of school. It reminded me about how scared I was and how Mick cheered me up by telling me the story about: "The hippo that needed to poop real badly". After Mick had told that story, I began to laugh really hard. He told that story to the Kindergarten teacher, then Mick was sent to the principal on the first day of kindergarten, and ever since then Mr. Sawchuck always was hard on Mick.

I told that to Mick and he started to laugh. I guess I may have cheered him up. When I reached over to give the picture back, Mick told me to keep it.

"Are you going to phone?" I asked.

"For sure" said Mick.

After a short pause, he said "Well I guess this is it"

"Bye Mick"

"Bye Shawn. I'll remember to phone"

Mick got into the U-Haul truck and I watched it go down the street until I couldn't see it anymore. From then on I knew that I was going to have a worthless summer.

For the next two weeks after that, all I did was stay inside and be lazy. I broke my personal record for most days inside, which was five. My mom told me to get out and go somewhere. But I had no place to go since Mick was gone. So behind my back she sent me to a camp where I'll be gone for two weeks. The camp was called "Camp Howard". When I got there by bus, there was at least ten times the amount of the kids as on the full bus I used to get there. It was a very big camp. It had an outdoor pool, a skate park, a climbing wall, and a basketball court. In the sign-up room I got assigned to Cabin #4. I went in there and put my stuff on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed far from the door. There were 4 other boys in there. They were all average stereotypes. The councilor's name was Richard. Richard was a tall black guy who had a short afro.

"I'm going to take attendance. Is Lawrence in here?" said Richard.

"Present!" said this short little nerdy kid with big thick glasses, neatly combed hair and a high voice.

"What about Buford?" said Richard.

"It's Biff!" said this big mean looking kid who was just as tall as Richard. "And don't you forget it!"

"Ok then. No need for anger."

"That wasn't anger! You want to see anger?" said Biff as he pulled out a knife that he had smuggled to camp.

"That's it you're coming with me!" said Richard. Biff stabbed at him but Richard grabbed Biff's hand when the knife was merely a centimeter from his chest. Biff had aimed for his heart. We never saw or heard of Biff again.

I got to know some of the guys in my cabin. There was Jay. Jay brought his guitar. He was really good. He could play anything. We were making lots of requests. I told him to play the Star Wars theme song. Not only did he play the theme song but he played the 20^th Century Fox theme at the beginning too.

Next there was Lawrence. Lawrence was a huge fan of Star Wars. He was just clapping after Jay played The Star Wars theme on the guitar. But he wasn't as nerdy as he looked. He had the appearance of a nerd because he had poor vision and his mom made him wear a tie and always had to comb his hair. He was a boring person who talked about boring stuff.

Then there was Marty. He talked really fast and popped pills every few hours. He drew really well and very fast too. Every time he took those pills, he slowed down for an hour and started going again. It was hard trying to make him sleep. He just kept talking.

The next day we went to the "Mess Hall" to eat. As I was eating, this girl at the other table caught my eye, and we all know how painful that is. Man was she ever hot. She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. I had to talk to her. I didn't know how but I had to.

I came up to her and I greeted her. Either she ignored me or she didn't see me. Let's just hope that she didn't see me.

I went to my cabin and then I heard a trumpet playing that military waking up tune. I guess I had to go to the lake to go canoeing.

You know, the rest of camp is kind of a haze to me. I don't really remember anything. What I do know is that I didn't like it. I don't remember what happened. I don't remember if I ever got a chance to talk to that girl until I looked in my pocket and found a piece of paper with a phone number on it. Oh my god what happened? On the paper, it was a number. The girl's name was Rosalina. I wasn't going to call her. I wondered what happened.

When I got home, my mom told me that I got a letter from Mick. I opened it and this is what it said.

Dear Shawn,

I'm doing fine in my new house. I want to come visit my dad in about a week or so. I hope to see you soon.

Your friend,

Michael Duncan.

Along with the short letter was his number. So I called him

"Hello?" said Mick

"Hey, how's it going buddy?" I said.

"Shawn?"

"Who do you expect, Santa Claus?"

"How's it been man?"

"Not so good, you?"

"Why not good?"

"I was at camp and I don't remember anything and I have a girl's number in my pocket."

"How can you not remember anything?"

"I don't know, it's kind of weird, eh?"

"Just try to think back, do you have any scars or pains?"

"My shoulder has a bruise, my head aches, and also my knee hurts but that's nothing. It always hurts after I run."

"Why were you running?"

"I don't know."

"Were you running from somebody or playing a game?"

"I think that I was running from somebody"

"Why?"

Suddenly, the memory came back to me. I tried to talk to that girl but her boyfriend who's name was Carlton ran up to me before she was going to give me her number and knocked me out. I was unconscious for nearly four hours. I woke up to a beautiful sight. The girl was staring down at me. The nurse said that my parents were notified but I did not want to go home. I was told that Carlton got sent home. At the last day, Rosanna kissed me and gave me her number. Carlton's friends sneaked an attack on me and I was running from them. My left knee started to hurt and it gave up on me. I fell and they ran to me and punched me in the arm. They also punched me in the head. I got a concussion and some temporary memory loss.

I told Mick and he just laughed. He was laughing so loud that I had to hold the phone far from my ear.

I told him that I got his letter and asked him when he was coming back here. He said next week and he also said that he had just sent that letter two days ago. We had nothing else to talk about so I said bye and we hung up.

The days before Mick got back, I just watched a whole lot of movies on TV. One of them was The Shawshank Redemption. It was a very good movie. I heard about it a few times but actually never watched it. It was about these two guys in jail.

The day Mick came to my door I was in the middle of watching the original Planet of the Apes. I was so happy I ran to the door but on my way there, I busted my kneecap. The pain was excruciating!

While I was in the hospital, my mom, dad, my brother Scott and Mick were by my side. I guess my aching knee was worse than I thought. I was discharged from the hospital a day and a half later with a big cast. My mom was so worried that I could probably talk her into getting me a Planet of the Apes DVD. Now I can't swim without a big garbage bag tied around my leg. What a boring summer this was.

Well, after 5 weeks with this horrid smelling cast on my leg, it was finally removed, and just in time too because school was going to start in about a week. Damn.

Oh well. There's my story about my short, wasted summer. If you ever come across anything like this, just wait until the next summer, and never ever go to Camp Howard! They have bad food and the cabins are cold and full of mosquitoes at night.

THE END