The Last July: A New Adult Romance

by Breanna Mounce

  Ben comes by with a stack of mail, handing out a few letters from home to the younger kids and bills to some of the counselors.

  “Here’s one for you,” Ben says and at first I don’t respond because I never get mail here anymore. “Penelope, for you.”

  I turn and take the envelope from him. It’s a big envelope but the return label is from my parents.

  “This is weird and a little embarrassing,” I say, opening the manila envelope.

  Inside is a sticky note from my parents that says to call them with the news and that’s when I see that there’s another envelope in there from Maryville College. I freeze immediately and can’t seem to bring myself to open it.

  Sampson nudges me. “You know what they say about big envelopes…”

  “What do they say?” I ask him quietly.

  “Open it and you’ll find out.”

  I slide my finger and pull apart the opening. There’s a huge stack of papers and the only thing I see is one word in bold lettering.

  Congratulations!

  “I got in…” I whisper, not believing what I’m holding in my hands. I’m up from the bench and so is Sampson, he gives me a hug and then I’m running over to Kelsey.

  “Kelsey! I got into Maryville!”

  We’re both up and jumping around and I hear someone start to dismiss everyone from breakfast. I need to gather up my campers, but I’m too excited.

  I look down at the letter and start reading the rest out loud. “Congratulations! You’ve been accepted to the fall semester at Maryville College! You must attend one of the following orientation dates before August...”

  “That’s so awesome!” Kelsey yells.

  I can hardly contain my emotion. “I thought I sent my application in way too late, I thought I might have to wait until the spring semester to start. Holy crap, this is the best news ever. I need to call my parents,” I say, still slightly frazzled by this news.

  The whole camp has already cleared the dining hall. It’s just me, Kelsey, Sampson left to celebrate. Viv is already outside lining our cabin up, missing Kelsey and calling after her with her shrill voice.

  Viv comes back inside and clears her throat, obviously trying to move things along. Still, she tries to congratulate me in her own backhanded way. “You can use the phone in the kitchen if you want, since service is total crap here. we’ll all wait outside for you.” She emphasizes the all part and looks at Sampson when she says it.

  “I can wait on her,” Sampson chimes in, almost egging her on. “I don’t need anyone from the red team trying to brainwash one of my soldiers. Josh is still out there, have him help with the campers.”

  Viv play smacks him and I have to bite my tongue so I don’t hit her back with much more force. She agrees though, and her and Kelsey leave the dining hall. My friend gives me two thumbs up behind Viv’s back.

  Sampson walks with me to the kitchen and the whole staff is in another room eating their own meal.

  I dial my home number quickly, and my mom picks up on the third ring.

  “Mom, it’s me, Penelope. I got your letter. Maryville accepted me. I start next fall.”

  “That’s so wonderful!” she says and I hear her yell the news to my dad. “We’re so proud of you honey!”

  They’re both together… that must be good news too. I thought with the way I left things this weekend they’d go back to their separate ways.

  “I’m so excited, I can’t believe they accepted me and for the fall already. Looks like I don’t have to be worried about being behind.”

  “Of course, are you still going to finish camp out this summer? You’ll have so much to do, trying to get stuff together for your dorm and getting ready for classes.”

  I look over at Sampson and he smiles back. I never thought about not being able to finish my summer at camp. “Of course I’m going to finish the summer up, you didn’t raise a quitter,” I say and I hear my dad in the background shout something along the lines of ‘that’s my girl’.

  “Besides,” I charge ahead, “finishing my summer out here means I’ll have some pocket change to buy stuff I’ll need for college, like my books and everything. I just need to figure out how to get 25% of my tuition down in August. I don’t think I will be able to swing that on my paychecks.”

  “We’ll figure it out when you get home next time. For now, enjoy your day and remember that we’re very proud of you.”

  “Thanks mom, love you,” I tell her. “Tell dad I love him too. I hope you guys are doing okay.”

  She says ‘I love you’ back and then I hang up. Sampson stands up and gives me another hug.

  “Congrats, again,” he says, holding me tightly.

  “Thanks,” I say back, taking a moment to breathe in his scent. I know this is one of those moments that I’ll be able to look back on and remember the scent, how his arms felt wrapped around my torso, how it felt to put my head against his chest and feel his heart racing.

  He pulls back and without me even thinking, I stand up on my tippy toes and kiss him lightly on the lips. It was an innocent first kiss; it could be regarded as friendly if someone questioned it.

  When I pull back, his face is blank and I feel like an idiot for thinking it was okay to make the first move.

  “Sorry,” I tell him, and then start babbling on like an idiot. “I just didn’t know if I would ever have the chance to kiss you. This might have been my only opportunity.”

  He shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. I… actually wanted you to.”

  And then his lips are back on mine and he is kissing me. I hold onto his tie-dyed shirt and pull him closer, but before I can get a better grip, we hear the dining hall door squeak open.

  “I shouldn’t have done that…” Sampson says, regret in his voice.

  “Sampson, Penelope?” Viv’s voice calls. “You guys ready? The games are starting!”

  She turns the corner and we have just enough time for me to pretend like I’m just now hanging up the phone and for Sampson to smooth his shirt out.

  “Yeah, just hung up with my mom,” I lie. I slide the letter into my backpack for safekeeping and walk past Sampson and Viv. I need air. I walk as quickly as I can to get out of that room, my sneakers squeaking on the floor. Kelsey’s outside the mess hall waiting with the other girls and I grab her arm and pull her along with me, heading for the intramural fields.

  “Come on girls, let’s go meet for the first game,” I say, and they start to follow with Sampson and Viv trailing behind us.

  “What’s up?” she asks in a whisper. I hear Viv and Sampson talking behind us, gravel crunching under all of our shoes.

  “Let’s just say... things got a little more intense. I might have just ruined everything.”

  Both scores are tied up after dinner, and the final score depends on who wins the final event of the day: Capture the Flag. I’ve never been on the winning team in the past, but with how well my day is going, I’m hoping this will be my year. Even though all the campers know everyone wins (according to the camp director who insists it’s not about competition but about team work), the older kids still keep score. You’re all winners, we’re required to say, it’s so cheesy, but most of camp is no different.

  Our blue team splits up into ten groups of five people in order to cover as much ground as possible. There weren’t enough counselors to go around so they stuck the older teens and CITs, with some of the younger kids. I could tell that Sampson didn’t want to split up, we have to talk about what happened, but I couldn’t miss an opportunity like this. I can get the feel of what it’ll be like if I can be a counselor next summer. For me, this is training.

  My group has decided to cover the area around the art building, dining hall and welcome center since I have mostly younger kids. Of course, the flag isn’t going to be around here though, that would be too easy. Everyone knows you hide your flag somewhere near a trail or far away from the starting point of the game. Last year, they hid it in some firewood that we’d
be using for the next fire talk.

  Every year we start at the flagpole, which is right in the middle of camp, and this year was no different.

  I’m wasting time until the rest of our group returns when I feel one of the little girls pull on my shirt.

  “Penel-o-pee?” she says, hardly able to get my name out from all the syllables. “I need to use the bathroom, really, really bad.” She’s standing with her legs crossed and a terrified expression on her face.

  “Okay, let’s all go take a bathroom break,” I announce to the four other younger kids in my group. The girl holds my hand as I lead all of them to the welcome center to use the bathroom. Some of them say they don’t need to go, but I convince them anyways, saying things might get rowdy soon. We don’t want any accidents. I haven’t had to clean any accidents up yet this summer, and I don’t want to start.

  I wait outside the restrooms and look at the pictures of various camp groups that have visited over the years. I find one from the first year I attended and smile at how much I have grown up since then. I must have just been like these younger campers, clinging to the older kids and counselors because I was slightly mortified of being away from home. Now, I can’t wait to move here and start my college courses.

  “Penel-o-pee… someone dropped their cloth in the bathroom,” says the little girl, I believe her name is Sophia. She’s in one of the other cabins.

  I turn and see that she’s holding a small piece of red fabric. I have to take a minute to realize that it’s the other team's flag.

  “Where did you find this?” I kneel down to ask her in my softest voice, trying to cover my excitement.

  “In the bathroom, it was under the sink,” she tells me. “I couldn’t reach the paper towels, so I used that to wipe my hands.”

  I hold the flag between my index finger and thumb, hoping she could at least reach the soap and water, then pull her in for a hug and she squeals with excitement. “Guess what you just did!”

  “What?” she asks with the cutest and biggest grin I have ever seen.

  “You won the game for us, but you can’t tell anyone! We need to go find our team leader and tell them to walkie talkie everyone that we’ve won, but we have to hurry.”

  She agrees and I stuff the flag in my backpack because I know it’s easier for the other team to ‘steal’ a younger player, it happened to me once during my very first year here. I gather up my group and start heading for the old cabin where the main field is, close to Mr. and Mrs. Garreth’s house. I know most of the group will probably be there searching for the flag and I hope I can get everyone to it before our flag is found.

  It’s eerily quiet on the gravel road leading to the cabin, and I consider just turning around, but I continue on. I keep the group together, imagining this as a test before my interview with Camp Arthur.

  Here are four kids, keep them safe and if you do, we’ll hire you. If they die, you die.

  I can so do this.

  I can already see the field and I watch as a few people run around, blue and red mingling, searching hard for a flag, one of which will not be there. As I’m about to round the corner of the old cabin, Ben jumps in front of me. I can’t tell if he’s switched teams, but he quickly pulls out his blue bandana and the little kids cheer and crowd around him to give fist bumps and high fives. Ben is a God amongst these kids, a great role model.

  “Do you have a walkie talkie?” I ask him.

  His eyes get huge. “Yeah, why? Is someone hurt?”

  “We found the other team's flag,” I whisper to him.

  He smiles and presses the button to speak. “Blue team wins! Penelope’s gang found the red flag.”

  Ben claps me on the back and I smile.

  “It wasn’t me,” I tell him. “This little one found it on our bathroom break.”

  He kneels down and gives her a high five. I pull out the red teams flag and give it to her to wave around while we take our victory march back to the flagpole. Ben carries the little girl on his shoulders and some of our team starts coming out of the woods to join us in our celebration, chanting Go Blue as we walk.

  I tear up a little bit, feeling silly for getting so emotional over a camp game. The thing is, even though we separated into teams, we all still worked together to make the memories. And that’s the beauty of camp, it may change, but you’ll always have memories to last a lifetime. It won’t be just me having these great memories, it’ll be all these kids, though they’ll all have a different view of it, we’ll still be connected by our time together.

  “Ten minutes until lights out,” I say as the final evening shower finishes. It’s been a long day. Half of the girls are already drifting asleep in their bunks, exhausted from the camp games. I’m honestly still a bit wired, and my lips still tingle from the kiss. No matter how much I try to clear my mind, my thoughts keep jumping back and forth from Sampson to Maryville and all the preparations I need to make before my first semester.

  I go into the spare room to check my phone for any messages. There’s a missed call and a text from Janine that was sent in five different parts. I don’t read it, but I do unplug my phone and put it in the pocket of my hoodie.

  All the girls have settled into their bunks and Viv is also laying down, flipping through a Cosmo magazine. I shudder at the cover topics. That’s not something any of these kids should see.

  The New Way to Brighten Teeth-- Hint, Your Boyfriend Will be Thrilled.

  Please, let that not be what I think it is.

  “I need to go make a phone call,” I lean down to tell her. “I’ll be back in thirty minutes or so.”

  “Good luck finding enough service to make a call,” Viv says, not taking her eyes off the magazine. “Be quiet when you come back.”

  I head out through the back door, taking the key with me so I can get back in that way. I turn on my small flashlight that hardly lights up the walkway and head toward the picnic shelter where I know for a fact I can get steady phone service.

  Sitting down on the steps of the shelter, I take a deep breath in and find Janine’s number in my phone. Sure enough, she’s up and she answers on the fourth ring.

  “Why haven’t you answered any of my calls?” she demands at once. Her words seem to slur a little. She must be at another party drinking. I sigh. She never did this stuff when we were in high school.

  “I’ve been working,” I say sternly. “I don’t have service half the time and I never carry my phone on me.”

  “It’s been like four days and you haven’t even tried to contact me!”

  “Same goes to you, Janine,” I say. “You could have called or texted. I’ve been going through so much…”

  “I’ve been waiting for you to call and apologize, you left the party--.”

  I cut her off immediately. “You’ve been waiting for an apology? For what? Don’t you remember how you treated me?”

  “You acted like a total narc in front of my friends!” she squeals into the phone. “And then you just left?”

  “Are you kidding me?” I ask. “Janine, the way you behaved that night, I don’t even know who you are anymore. One minute we’re the same person, and the next you’re trying to be this college party girl.”

  “Maybe we don’t know each other at all, you acted like such a prude.”

  “Because I wasn’t going to screw some guy I just met?” I ask, my flashlight shaking in my hand.

  “Maybe It would have done you some good and gotten that stick out of your butt.”

  I take another deep breath in and try to bite my tongue. When did Janine get so hateful?

  “I’m done,” I say simply.

  “Done? What do you mean, done?” she asks.

  “I’m just done with us, Janine. I had the best day ever today, and you were the only person I wanted to share everything with, but I feel like you don’t even care about me anymore. I’m just done.”

  I press the ‘end call’ button on my phone and rest my head on my knees. How can endi
ng a friendship feel like a breakup? I always knew Janine and I were polar opposites, but I thought that’s what made us great friends. It gave us something to always talk about, and we were never bored. Our friendship survived all the other summers while I was at Camp Arthur, why couldn’t it survive this summer?

  “Hey,” a voice comes from in front of me and I jump, my flashlight beam lighting up Sampson’s face. He squints his eyes and raises his hand to cover his eyes.

  I turn the light off. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Currently, trying to regain my eyesight,” he says.

  “Sorry,” I say as I place my flashlight down on the ground next to me.

  He comes over and sits down, turning his off also. “It’s okay. So what are you doing out here?”

  “I asked you first,” I tease.

  “I was sitting outside at my cabin,” he says, nodding toward the cabin. “Saw a flashlight, followed it over. Was making sure you weren’t a camper.”

  “Good call,” I say, bumping my knee against his. Instead of bumping his back like earlier, he scoots an inch or so away from me. “I just needed to make a phone call.”

  “I overheard,” he says softly. “Everything okay?”

  I shake my head and stare down at my feet. “Not really. Janine finally called and I just can’t stand it anymore. She’s a completely different person.”

  “People change,” Sampson says.

  “Yeah, it just sucks.”

  “All part of growing up, I guess.”

  We’re both quiet, I lean back on my elbows and stare at the stars. It’s not the most comfortable position, but I’m relaxing a little now that I’ve got my mind off of Janine.

  “I think we should talk,” Sampson says.

  My heart speeds up and I feel like I’m going to vomit. Nothing good ever comes out of those words, or so I hear. I try to not look visibly shaken, and I thank God that it’s almost pitch black or Sampson would be able to see my shaken face clearly.