Bailey Chapter 10 By Rory M.
Bailey sat at the edge of his bed counting pairs of socks and throwing them into a duffle bag. So far he was half way down his checklist that the camp had sent both him and Shane, which wasn't so bad except for the fact that Karen added another page and a half. It read along the lines of thick socks, ankle socks, formal socks, boxers and briefs (5 pairs of each), shampoo, conditioner, two tubes of toothpaste, floss, mouth wash, facial wash, blemish controller, deodorant, toilet-seat covers, moist towelettes, razor, shaving cream, etc. etc. And this was only a segment of the list that Karen had edited.
Bailey sat, slumped against the headboard of his bed, pondering on whether he even used half of the stuff that his mother listed. He didn't even know what toilet seat covers were. Frustrated with a list of supplies that he didn't think necessary, he scrapped the list into the garbage pail by the door and started packing what he thought he needed. One tube of toothpaste and brush, deodorant, some other listed toiletries, about a dozen t-shirts, 4 button downs, 7 pairs of boxers (he figured for each day of the week) 2 dress shirts, 8 pairs of shorts, 3 pairs of jeans, 2 pair of khaki's, and a pair of dress shoes and pants for whatever reason they were needed. Now all he had to do is make sure his mother didn't inspect.
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"Bailey, you don't have sun screen in here, and where is your hat? At least take the visor you got for Christmas." he cringed as he watched his mother's inspection of the oversized duffle bag, "Ok, this will have to do, not half bad after Shane's, he had a t-shirt and two pairs of underwear," she ruffled his hair as he turned around to load the bag into the explorer.
"You almost ready, kiddo?" Collin said as he hoisted it into the back of the vehicle.
"Can't I just go to church every day? At least I'll be sleeping in a sanitary environment with decent food."
"As much as your grandmother would love that...no. Now get in the car, we're stopping for lunch on the way down."
"Great..." Bailey's sardonic tone got him a glare from his father as he got into the back seat of the car.
Shane jogged out in front of his mother and grandparents to the back of the car and then hopped in next to Bailey, a little too exuberant for the elder's taste. The boys' grandparent's said their goodbyes from the windows of the vehicle before they all buckled in for the ride down to Camp Georgian. Bailey pulled his navy blue addidas cap over his eyes and settled in for a nap. Though he wasn't sleeping, he didn't feel like talking to his family that much.
For the past few weeks Bailey had been walking a very rocky path. Off most of his medications his sleep regained some normalcy, but his moods were erratic at best, especially when it came to seeing Dr. Lavine. His temper was short fused, especially with Shane, which wasn't helping the brothers' situation with coming to terms with each other.
Bailey's relationship with Rich was growing, which made him happy that he finally had someone he could call a true friend, yet angered that he wouldn't see him for most of the summer. Rich had helped him come out of his shyness at the F&T meetings and branch out to some of his other friends that were introduced. Rich found a confidant that truly understood the emotions that he had gone through without the sympathy, and Bailey found a person that he could do the same with, and a best friend, which he so desperately needed.
After catching a pizza and saying their goodbyes the night before, Bailey had nothing left but to grow apathetic and withdrawn. Nothing was left to look forward to in his opinion. He started the day with an overwhelming feeling of dread, which only grew more apparent to him as they drove nearer to their destination.
Shane had since come to look forward to getting away from his parents and Princeton. He was excited to meet more people, especially girls. For some unknown reason the now 14 year old thought that the cabins would be co-ed. He was sadly in for a disappointment, but it didn't hinder him too long.
Bailey, unlike Shane, would be staying in a lodge, that was co-ed, at least in respects. The camp split the campers into four different groups by age. The 10-11 year olds were together, 12-13, 14-15, and 16-17 were each grouped together and stayed in different areas of the camp, although they all ate together at the large lodge by the lakeside. Each group had a different focus and program, although all the campers had similar schedules during the day.
Bailey's group, the 16 to 17 year olds, had one of the three lodges on the property. Hardly glamorous, it served as a crude dorm. There were girls' rooms on one side, boys on the other, 2 to a room and a living area in the middle. A twin bed also rested along the far wall so that a councilor slept to make sure there was no swapping of sides, that position was shared by all councilors at least once every two weeks. The youngest group also had the same arrangement, while the two others had an assortment of cabins in the woods near by. The third lodge was used by the staff, which consisted of mostly college students and the director and his family, the nurses and the cooking staff. The lodges themselves could fit over 100 people each, with 25 small rooms lining each side and then the bathrooms, but no more than 40 were usually in them.
Though even the fact that he would be sleeping in doors didn't please Bailey that much. He didn't like the idea of a roommate, a public bathroom, and communal dining as something to look foreword to. He also didn't like the idea of having to be walked to a nurse's cabin to take medication every day. Self-medicating would apparently get you kicked out. Bailey pondered this closely.
"Bail... Bail do you want to eat or not?" Karen nudged his knee from the front seat of the SUV.
"Umm...yeah, where are we?"
"At Lay Monte's diner. We're about 45 minutes away from camp."
"Come on, ass. I'm hungry," Shane hopped out of his side of the vehicle and walked with his father up to the restaurant ahead of the other two.
"Come on, Bailey. Cheer up a little. Give something new a chance. Now come in or you're not getting my fries," Karen squeezed his knee before getting out of the vehicle as well. This time, however, Bailey followed. He just made a note to himself that sulking about it wasn't going to help the situation, especially if he ever wanted sympathy from his parents to let him come home.
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"ATTENTION, ATTENTION. ALL CAMPERS MUST REGISTER AT THE MAIN HALL, AND ALL NEW CAMPERS MUST GO DOWN TO FLEDGE LODGE FOR THE NEW ARRIVAL'S MEETING WITH YOUR PARENTS. BY THE WAY, WELCOME TO CAMP GEORGIAN!!!!" the booming voice from the megaphone stopped and the energetic councilor jumped off the picnic table she was standing on. There were councilors (most young college students and a few foreign internees) throughout the large clearing, scurrying from one family to another taking down names and directing them where to go. There were maybe 200 people in the large clearing. All were unloading cars and saying goodbyes as the camp employees rounded up the campers and disbursed them to where they needed to be. The whole scene was dizzying to Bailey, and he hadn't really met anyone yet.
After an hour of being shuffled around from building to building, from orientation to orientation, the boys were tired and sour from having to carry their bags, sleeping bags, and the supplies the camp gave them. The group they were in was made up of about 40 kids and their parents; most of them younger, considering this was the group of first year campers. By Four O-clock that afternoon, however, it was time for the McCorristins to say goodbye to their sons.
Shane had already made a few acquaintances while waiting around in lines and in the orientation meetings. With a quick kiss and a hug he was off to his cabin with two other campers, already acclimating himself to the camper's lifestyle. Bailey on the other hand was on the verge of an anxiety attack. He saw where he would be sleeping, bathing, eating, who he would be staying with and what he would be doing on a daily basis and hated it. He hated the smell of muskiness and dirt that every building had; he hated the fact that he had swimming lessons for an hour a day, exercise (some sort of sport) for an afternoon and then group for god knows how long in the evening. The restrictive activity schedule and the forced group participation turned him off like a Bruce Willis movie and he felt sick to his stomach. More importantly, he was afraid of being outed. He wasn't sure if Shane would think before he spoke or if he would even come off as gay to other people. The conservative environment already made him uneasy, he didn't want to think of what could happen if others in the camp knew.
"Mom... please," Karen knew that tone well enough. IT was meek and somewhere between a whimper and a beg. Looking into his face she could see the tears welling up and the fear he had. It was silly to her, but for a moment she pondered on just taking him home. She knew this was scary to him, that it would be a hard adjustment for Bailey, but she also knew that there was a reason for bringing him there, and that he needed it as well.
"Listen, kiddo," Collin spoke before Karen could process her thoughts, "You have to give it a chance. You have to have an optimistic outlook on this or you're going to make it worse for yourself."
"I've tried, Dad!! I really have!" a tear rolled down his cheek as a family near by turned to see what the screaming was about.
"Alright, that's enough. Bailey, we're not having this discussion again. It's not going to bring you home. Your attitude right now needs an adjustment, and I hope it happens before we come to pick you up in August," Collin punctuated his last remarks with jabbing his finger into the air at Bailey. He regretted immediately losing his temper, but what was said had to be said. Bailey, on the other hand, did not feel the same way. He picked up his bag from next to him on the ground and darted towards the lodge he would be spending the rest of the summer.
"Bailey!! Bailey, wait," both parents called out to him, Karen twice, but it was no use, he didn't even turn back. In a moment he turned up the trail that led to the seniors' lodge and was out of site.
"Just let him go, he'll come around. Let's get back on the road, it's gonna take a good hour to get out of this place," Collin resigned.
"But we shouldn't leave him like this..."
"We're leaving him," and with that, the McCorristins walked back down the clearing to their explorer and started a very quiet ride home."
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"Bailey... McCorristin, cool name, kiddo. You're in room 4 with Drew Smith, I think he's already in there," the councilor said with a smile to Bailey, who ignored the man's politeness and shuffled his belongings passed other campers to his room. Within it stood a well-built teenager unpacking a suitcase onto the bed that he selected. He was much larger than Bailey's 5'1 frame, and intimidating to him at first glance. The teenager turned to see Bailey walk through the door to see who would be joining him. With a quick up and down glance he let out a humorous grunt and turned to ignore Bailey again as he threw some boxers into a drawer. Inside Bailey was already feeling the rejection that he was sure all of his fellow campers would feel for him.
For 45 minutes he busied himself with unpacking his bag and making the small bed that would be his for the next two months. Within that time he had introduced himself to Drew, his roommate, but there was little other conversation after that. He didn't mind so much, though. At that point he was too busy thinking up a sob story to write home with so that his parent's would break him out of the prison that he was being kept in. At least that was his mindset at the time.
After unpacking, he quickly left the room and entered the large living area of the lodge. There were several old couches around the room as well as a few coffee tables, numerous magazines and board games stacked in one corner and probably about three decks of cards on each table. Several campers were already well into a game of rummy while others sat around and chatted. In all, the 'seniors group', which Bailey was in, had 37 (19 guys and 18 girls) 16 to 17 year olds in it and 3 councilors, two males and one female, who were all college students. Bailey spotted an empty couch along the back window of the lodge and huddled himself into the corner of it and picked up an old Cosmo that was sitting on the side table closest to him. Though he really wasn't interested in the magazine, it made him look busy.
No one approached him for a half hour except for one of the other new campers that also felt left out in the group, but she just sat at the other end of the couch and stared out at the busy room. He worked up enough stamina to try to talk to her, but Jerry, the female councilor, cut him off before he got off his first word.
"Alright Seniors, if I could have your attention please!!" she screamed out over the commotion in the room. When it quieted, she continued, "Welcome to Seniors lodge! Many of you have known each other for a few years or at least a summer, but we've got a few new campers that don't know anyone right now. So, since we've got an hour before we've got to get to the dining hall, we're gonna do some 'getting to know you' activities. If everyone can come out of the rooms and find a seat please!" There were a few moans and groans but everyone did as they were told. Another guy and a girl join Bailey and the other new girl on the couch that he was sitting on. The impending doom of all eyes on him surfaced in his mind and for a few moments he wanted to run from the room.
"Alright. SO, we're gonna start with you guys just introducing yourselves to the people around you. After a few minutes we're gonna start a little game."
With that, the now 7 people who were around Bailey started to greet each other and mockingly introduce themselves. It was obvious that they had all known each other and had done this very activity for years. Bailey just curled his knees up into his chest(as he often did) and watched in silence. For a few minutes he was ignored as one of the girls, by the name of Jenna, started to give a run down about how her and her previous boyfriend broke up after camp last year and how he wouldn't be returning for their last year at Georgian. After a few laughs and some obvious inside jokes one of the boys turned his attention to Bailey.
"Hey, I'm Travis. Sorry for completely not seeing you there. This is Jenna, Mary, Zack, and Trish," after Bailey said a meager 'hello' to those five, the girl on the end introduced herself as Amy and another boy introduced himself as Brandon. Small talk pursued as to where he was from and where he lived and went to school. He received some condemnation when a few members of the group found he was from Princeton, but it didn't hinder most because they either didn't know where it was or didn't care.
People moved around the room every five minutes or so doing the same thing.
Bailey felt more at ease with some than others. It was clear to see that there were cliques that were long forged and yet others who seemed to float around or those that were floated to. His roommate, Drew, seemed to be in the preppy/ jock kind of crowd. A few were very nice to him but the guys, including his roommate, wanted little to do with him. Partly because he was from a very affluent area of the state, but more importantly because a few of the girls in the group had already commented on how cute he was. Things looked rough for Bailey so far.
After an hour had passed the group had become reacquainted and introduced with name games, socialization activities and a little getting to know the new people. Bailey didn't say much when his turn came around. He was still brooding about being there and was definitely sheltering himself from the group.
The dining hall was uneventful by far. It was basically an oversized cafeteria with a lakeside view. Bailey sat near the end of the table at which his group sat with Amy, who he seemed most comfortable around and a few others who were still going over the introductions process. He saw Shane momentarily when his rambunctious group walked in, but true to Shane's appearance he didn't even glance twice at his older brother. Bailey ate his meal quietly, listening more closely to the conversations around him. He laughed a few times at some jokes and wise cracks, but never got into the conversation much.
The group that had sat next to him was quite amusing to him. What Bailey didn't realize is that they sat next to him and Amy to get to know the new kids, which they made a point to do every year for the past few. Some were good friends that didn't return and others drifted into other cliques or graduated out of the camp. Now all that was left were two girls and one guy, who's obnoxious banter set both Bailey and Amy at ease. Halfway through the meal Bailey knew their names and had joined into (though not entirely) some of the conversation. They were all from the central jersey area, and Trina (one of the girls) was from a town not to far away from Bailey. Jared seemed to be a pervert, not that it bothered Bailey, and Liz was the loudest of the group. Her humor was off the wall and she always had a wise crack for everyone, she reminded Bailey of Veronica from the First and Third meetings. For most of the meal the banter was of the previous summer and other things, Bailey realized Jared seemed to like Trina, for it was obvious to everyone at the table and many jokes were said about it.
Before the meal was over, Trina abruptly sat up from the table and ran towards the door of the very crowded hall. She half jogged up to a camper who had obviously just arrived as he made his way to the table. Bailey didn't make much of it; most of the people here knew each other already and already had their bonds. What did catch his attention was how cute the guy was.
Trina and the new arrival made there way back to the table and took seats. A greeting was given from others at the table, many of them laughing that he was late. Apparently some weren't surprised.
"I thought you weren't coming back this year? Something about getting a life?" Jared cracked as he smacked palms with his late friend.
"I wasn't going to, but then I realized I'd have to stay home with my parents... I decided you guys would be a better punishment."
"Cal, this is Bailey and Amy. You guys, this is Caleb Davids, the camp troubadour. He's usually a little late," Trina cracked.
"Yeah, where is the guitar, I'm surprised to see you without it," Liz didn't look up from building something with her green beans.
"It's back at the lodge. I feel safe enough to leave it there, no animals are going to drag it into the woods this year," Bailey looked at him quizzically. Caleb laughed at him, but before he could continue the director of the camp asked everyone to be quiet before he started his welcome speech. Within 15 minutes the group was on it's way to 'free time' before evening bomb fire. Bailey retreated back to the lodge to play cards with Amy and Jared and Trina and Caleb went for a walk down by the large dock that the camp had on their side of the lake. They say with there feet in the water and chucked rocks out into Lake pollen scum (as the campers referred to it).
"So really, why did you come back?" Trina asked as she nudged her long time friend in the arm.
"I missed you guys terribly," there was a long pause before both of them started laughing hysterically, "I had to, my mother wouldn't hear it. Besides, certain people didn't come back, so maybe it won't be so bad."
"THANK GOD. Last summer sucked for you, but we're glad you came back."
"Thanks, I just hope no one will give me shit anymore. Besides, we're seniors now, it's time to kick some grunts around," they again both laughed.
"So, who's the new kid?"
"Which one, Bailey?"
"Yeah, he didn't talk at all, is he weird or something?"
"I don't know, I think he's just shy. He doesn't seem to want to be here. Plus, he shows no interest in Liz, so obviously he's not good group material," Caleb rolled his eyes, "He is cute, though."
"Yeah, I noticed. That's hard to come by in these parts," Caleb threw another stone into the water.
"Don't sell yourself short, hot stuff," She flicked his ear and jumped up onto the deck before he could retaliate.
"You bitch!!" he chased her around mockingly before they made it back to the lodge.