It's Summertime Again [Open;; All]

[Ryan Katz-Mason]

As the bus slowly rumbled to a stop on the long gravel driveway into camp, Ryan was startled awake as his body was shoved against the window gently by gravity. He opened his eyes quickly, then began to stretch out his arms and shoulders. He'd been sitting in the same seat on the bus for three hours, and normally he would've spent the whole time being his usual loud, obnoxious, joking self, but the ride had begun at five in the morning, and it was only eight in the morning now. It was abnormally early for Ryan, so he'd slept the entire way. He had fallen asleep almost the instant he sat down in his seat.

The campers around him on the coach bus were also starting to awaken, and it was almost a surreal feeling as Ryan observed the scene around him. Everyone seemed to be in a dream-like state as they woke up and slowly registered that they were here, they were finally home - their home away from home, that is. It was the same scene every year when the bus pulled up, and it was still one of Ryan's favorite feelings, even though this was the seventh time he was experiencing it. He'd been coming to Camp Lohikan longer than most of his friends there, and his parents were the ones who had encouraged all their high school friends to send their kids there with him.

Not only was Ryan surrounded by the people he'd met at camp years ago, but this year he was joined by a few of his closest friends from home, and more than a few girls he had his eye on. This year would be a challenge that Ryan was more than willing to accept, being with so many girls at once and keeping them none the wiser to each other. It was practically his favorite pastime. He certainly didn't enjoy the aftermath when they found out he was sleeping with other girls if they thought otherwise, but Ryan figured it was all give and take anyway.

Joining the line of sleepy campers who were gaining consciousness along with the excitement of finally getting to camp, Ryan slowly filed off the bus with them. He stepped onto the ground of the Grassy Knoll and it all hit him like a powerful gust of wind. He could smell camp, it was a distinctive smell that came home with him and lasted in his clothes and camp sheets for weeks and weeks; it had no other name but 'camp.' It was the smell of the lake, the trees, the fields, the beach, the cabins; the smell of it all blending together and settling comfortably in everyone's belongings to serve as a reminder of their summer memories long after school had begun.

All the campers' luggage was stuffed into the bottom compartment of the coach bus, and as they did every year, all the campers lined up dutifully to retrieve their suitcases from their storage place. Ryan waited patiently for his suitcase to be thrown onto the grass by one of the counselors. He looked around him and recognized nearly every face. This was so much better than being home already, and they'd only just gotten here. His two matching navy blue suitcases landed with a thud, perfectly aligned with each other by chance, only a few feet away from where Ryan stood. He picked them up and lugged them to a clear spot on the grass, away from everyone else's so they wouldn't be confused.

He didn't want to carry them to his cabin just yet though. Everyone was quickly getting into their euphoric state of arrival, and there were plenty of people to say hi to. Ryan stood with his arms folded across his chest and surveyed his surroundings. It was all so familiar. From where he stood in the grassy knoll he could see the rec field, the dining hall, and the very start of both the girls' side and the boys' side of camp, but nothing past the bathrooms on each side. He took a deep breath and let that camp smell fill his nose and lungs; he could feel it settling into his clothes already and he loved every second of it.

[noelle ♥ talyors]

"Bye daddy." Noelle said, smiling softly as she hugged her father. She waved at him as she got onto the Coach bus. She had already packed the suitcase in the lower compartment. Sitting in an empty seat, Noel looked around for Jadon, but didn't see him... So she took her ipod out and put the ear buds into her ears, leaned against the window, and got ready for a long, long ride.

Noel glanced up as the bus stopped at the camp. She practically jumped as it lurched to a stop. Standing up with the other campers, she followed them out of the bus, thumbs in the belt loops of her faded jeans. She took one hand out and ran it through her light colored hair. She got her luggage with everyone else, walking slowly over to the space where most of them were sitting. She sighed, let her suitcase fall to the ground, and sat on it, head in her hands.

She was slightly sad at the moment, since her mother would use to drive her here before she passed away. Biting her lip, she glanced around. No Jadon, and none of her best friends from camp. But they would be here, hopefully. She had talked to Jadon about what weeks he would go, and called the rest of her friends. Jadon, luckily, lived in the town next to Noelle's, so they had been together for a year... ish. They got together the last day of camp last year, and hadn't broken up since.

[MORGAN roberts™]

Morgan had gotten onto the bus totally exhausted from the red eye flight she had taken before getting on the bus. The three hours seemed like an eternity after being woken up a few times when her head hit the window. Needless to say, be the end of the ride she was irritated and just wanted to sleep, even if it was the first day back. She'd known most of the other kids for a while and seeing half of them wasn't high on her priority list.

Ryan Katz-Mason was one of the ones she really didn't want to even look at right now. He annoyed her more than most people at camp, even though she was kind of friend with him and they did flirt once in a while when Morgan was in a very good mood. He had been sitting behind her on the bus, sleeping the whole way to camp. At least he hadn't tried to make conversation was about the only positive thing Morgan could gather from the situation.

Finally the bus was stopped and the campers began filing off in an orderly fashion. Morgan got up and walked lazily off the bus, still wearing her Jimmy Choo's, True Religion jeans and Black cami. It wasn't exactly camp attire but a girl needs to look good even in the woods right? Morgan spotted her luggage on the ground and went over to get them before pulling them out of the way of the others who were still getting their things.

Morgan looked around the familiar camp, sighing to herself in relief. It was good to be back. A few months away from the big city with some of her closest friends sounded like the ingredients for a perfect summer. Hopefully this year would be the best, since it would most likely be her last.

[Serafina Finn]

Serafina watched carefully as her luggage was picked up by some man she wasn’t quite sure she knew. “Hi…yes, excuse me, sorry.” She started, not entirely sure why he was touching her things, she was pretty sure it was the bus driver, the bus driver would have no idea how much that suitcase had cost. “I’m sure you are very good at your profession…bus driving is it? But that is my luggage, and well, I’d prefer if you would just leave it there, I don’t really want it to get dirty.” She smiled her usual OCD Serafina smile. But Bus-Driver just looked at her and blinked, and tossed her suitcase down, letting it land with a thud mere inches away from Serafina’s ‘sensible camp shoes’ 94 inch Manolo Blanhiks) She flinched and frowned as Bus Driver walked away, muttering something to himself.

“How bizarre,” Serafina thought out loud, while attempting to heave her bags closer to her. They were all ridiculously heavy, and her mother had pointed that fact out to her before she left. Admittedly, she was not dressed for bag heaving or luggage hauling; she was more dressed for a day of shopping or coffee. But that was how Serafina always dressed, there was nothing odd about that to her. She sighed, chewing on her bottom lip as she contemplated getting all of her stuff into her cabin. It was stressing her out a little bit, not too much, but it was enough to make her start to count things again.

There were 46 yellow polka dots on that girl’s shirt. There were 4 boys with forest green shirts on. 11 red suitcases. Serafina squeezed her eyes shut, breathing. She needed a distraction, something interesting and fun. Not something, she needed someone. She had spent the entire bus ride sleeping, she had talked to maybe two people tops, and one of those times was just to ask them to move their backpack. It had been in the way, and also, there was this odd little keychain hanging off it that rattled. The noise was giving Serafina a headache. She was actually really polite about asking the girl to move the blasted thing, she simply told them to move it or she would accidentally throw it out of the window.

The grass muted the sound of her heel tapping, and with each tap, she slowly drove the heel deeper and deeper into the earth until it took a good deal of effort of yank it out, causing her to stumble a little. She hopped for a few seconds trying to get the dirt off her heel without touching it, but eventually gave up. Serafina looked around the group again, trying desperately to find someone to talk to, someone that didn’t make her want to kill herself. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Morgan and began to shuffle, 4 suitcases in tow, in her general direction; making sure to keep her skirt from blowing up, or her heels from sinking back into the ground. Truth-be-told, she looked a little weird, shuffling along with 250 lbs of stuff dragging behind her. It was all just part of Serafina’s charms. 'Home, Sweet Home.' she thought on her way, glad she was away from New York, and much more importantly, her mother.

[Tryst VonBielefeld-Delaflote]

Tryst had murmured a less than heart felt goodbye to his father,or one of his father rather, Everett before he boarded the bus. He wasn't trying to be rude or particularly cruel it was just to early to have a good talk about anything. Everett had recognized that and not pushed Tryst into talking or saying a long goodbye. The two hugged briefly and Tryst boarded the bus like he'd done the previous year. It just so happens he was very tired, much like the previous year.

Sleeping in moving vehicles had never gone over well with Tryst, because he always seemed to rest his head against the window. And that could only lead to one thing. A headache from all the times he woke up because his head had slammed violently against the window. That seemed to happen approximately every 15 minutes or so, though Tryst wasn't exactly keeping track.

As the bus slowed to a halt Tryst's head tipped forward and bumped against some kind of handle. Looking down at it be saw through eyes blurred by his exhaustion the words 'emergency handle.' at this point he would have given anything for the ability to rip the emergency handle from the side and beat the designer of the bus over the head with it. However, at the time that didn't really look like an option. so he wearily disembarked.

As he stumbled off the bus Tryst caught a glimpse of campers lining up to retrieve there belongings from bags packed far beyond their intended capacity. Shuffling over to the other Campers Tryst waited his turn. when asked by the bus driver what his bags looked like he mumbled something that could have been mistaken for a language long dead then caught sight of his two camouflage duffel bags. Heaving one onto each shoulder Tryst blinked the sleep out of his eyes and finally took a good look around.

His mood lightened a bit to find that nothing had really changed. It seemed as thoughgh the camp was almost untouched by the rest of the world, a small haven of it's own that was saved each year eagerly awaiting the arrival of the campers. God he was glad to be here, though ..not this early.

[Chris Antonelli]

The first thing Chris did when he stepped off the bus was take in a deep, long breath of the sweet air. It stung his lungs with purity, it was such an addicting taste. Good ol' Camp Lohikan. Chris missed the fresh air, the quite screams of the forest and most of all, the people. He made his way around the crowd of eager campers, searching for his bright green bag that he figured would stick out so well in all the luggage. It was Camp Lohikan, though. Everyone's bag was colorful, mostly designer bags.
Under his breath, he cursed the wealthy families that wanted to espace from their children and sent them off. He didn't realize how hypocritical he sounded. Finally, behind a huge Louis Vuiton roller suitcase, he spotted his lime green bag. Sure, it was ugly, but it was pretty damn heafty. He locked his fingers around it and threw it over his shoulder. Something hard penetrated his lower back and he winced in pain, wishing he hadn't over packed.
It wasn't his fault, anyway. His mom kept adding more and more things to bring to camp. Honestly, when would he need toilet paper? There was plenty in the utility closests and the nasty, grimey camp stalls. She was so overprotective, it killed him. Two days ago, Chris was coughing up a storm and she started freaking out, threatening to keep him home because she was afraid it would turn into something horrible. They argued for about an hour, which got Chris riled up and made his cough worse. Now, he was stuck with an adjectating cough.
He coughed once.
He coughed twice.
"Fucking mother," he muttered and glanced around. Suddenly the cough came back. He thought it would be contained in two seconds flat. Soon, it began to beuild up and he felt like he was coughing his lungs out. Maybe his mom was right, maybe he should've stayed home. In that second, he decided he would go home for the day and come back when he felt better, which was, hopefully, soon. And right there, in the middle of the rocky path, he dropped his luggage and headed for the Health Lodge, coughing the whole way.

[Sara Marzetti]

Sara went through a quick and dull goodbye to her parents before getting onto the bus which would lead her out of this depressing place she called home. The only thing she could think about was getting out..and sleep. Now that the first part was pretty much being taken care of, she slouched back into a seat and ignored the groaning sound of the leather as she sat.

She got little ear pieces, commonly used as a pathetic attempt of real headphones, stuck them in her ear and listened to the sounds of Disturbed from her ipod. Awkward to most people but normal to Sara- the loud angry rock played like a lulliby and she rolled her head back onto her seat and drifted to sleep.

As the bus made its way over random bumps on the road, it finally stopped at the camp. Sara's eyes pealed open and she tiredly sat up causing an ear piece to fall, its weight to bring down the other other one as well. After untangling the two wires that had caught around her messanger bag, Sara was able to stand up and eventually make her way off of the bus. But she was too tired and lost in memories of camp to notice her friends get off the bus, or that they were even on the bus to begin with.

As her feet touched the warm earth below her, it was the first time in what seemed like forever that she felt at home. Camp was the only place she could really escape..escape the two strangers she knew best as her parents, escape the everyday faces and objects that reminded her of her life. But mostly, she wasn't just escaping..she was going somewhere.

Sara walked around the groups of familiar and unfamiliar faces to where she finally got her luggage. Upon recieing her things, she stood in the grass awaiting to see a friend or someone she really knew. With her bags on the ground, she absent mindedly messed with a belt loop on her jeans, that weren't given to much highclass style while being worn with a black tank top and black and orange checkerboard print flip flops.

[Olivia Peters]

Olivia pushed her Dior sunglasses up and rubbed her eyes. She stretched out, running a hand through her blonde wavy hair before finally taking a look out of the window at her surroundings. Blue sky, green grass- everything was so...bright. Nothing like the cold greys and blacks of the cityscape. She pushed her sunglasses back down to shield herself from all the color.

She cautiously stepped off the bus and into the muted version of nature that camp is. She already felt her throat tightening at the fresh country air that she was breathing in. She made her way to where the luggage was piled looking for familiar faces along the way. She saw several people she grew up with, including her half-sister. She was tempted to go over and say hi to her, but decided against it. She had a feeling Serafina didn't want anything to do with her.

She found her three suitcases and two duffel bags, and attempted to pick up all five at once- which resulted in dainty Olivia crashing to the floor. Noticing the stares her apparent collapse got from her fellow camp-goers, Olivia embarassedly stood up proclaiming, "I'm all right...don't worry, everyone, I'm all right," before continuing on her way.

'No wonder my half-sibilings don't want anything to do with me,' she thought. 'I'm an embarassment.'