I was feeling exhausted a couple hours after chapel and games, so I made my way to the bunkhouse. Miranda caught up with me, out of breath. “What happened to you?” I wondered.
“Nothing, let’s just go to bed.”
“Mkay…” I didn't argue.

After climbing up the two flights of stairs that seemed like twenty, I pulled the thick dolphin blanket off of my bed and plopped it in her bed. I sat on the floor Indian style as I took my pill.
“You better take those to the nurse. If someone finds out you’re taking pills without getting them from the nurse, you could get sent home.”
“I really don’t care, we’ll do it tomorrow. Plus you have that Claritin that you’ve been taking. Last time I checked, you didn’t get those from the nurse.”
“Kay let’s go to bed.” She said sort of quietly.
I scooted into her bed and threw three blankets on top of us. I was ready to sweat that cold out.

About 30 minuets later, I woke up to the rush of girls coming into the room.
“Ugh. What a great nap.” I complained. Our bunk row was right in front of the door, and everyone who came in could see that we were trying to sleep, but they didn’t care. Pretty soon the noise died down, and we got back to sleeping.

“You guys are gonna miss electives, come on!”
“What are you talking about?” I asked Miss Terri, who had ripped the blankets off of Miranda and me, and was currently shaking us. “We’ve only been asleep for a few minutes. Electives aren’t for a couple of hours.”
Miranda looked at her phone. “Dude we’ve been asleep for three hours! Let’s go get ready.” She said seriously.
“Naw, hold on I just want a few more minutes.”

A few more minutes turned into a few more hours. I missed electives. I missed chapel. I woke up to a room of silence. Miranda was still asleep next to me. I looked out the window. The sun was setting. I rolled Miranda over and poked her shoulder until she woke up.
“Hmmm… where is everybody?” She grumbled.
“At chapel. Get your Claritin, we’re going to take our medicine to the nurse.”

We walked in our slippers and pajama pants to the nurse’s house. I knocked three times.
“Come in!” She called. I opened the door and padded into the house.
“Hi, we came to give you these pills.”
“When did you arrive at camp?” She asked without looking at me. Miranda nudged me in the side.
“Uhmm, Monday afternoon, Ma’am.”
“Oh, so I’m assuming you just got these meds. You picked them up during chapel?” She glared at me above her glasses that were on the tip of her nose. I shuffled my feet.
“Um, no I got them yesterday, I just didn’t turn them in.” I bit my lip. Of course Miranda just stood there, staring at the floor. To my surprise, the nurse winked at me and took the small red box of pills.
“It’s fine, better late than never, right?”
“Yep,” I said kind of quietly “better late than never.” I sniffled.
She looked up from her page she was writing on. “Do you have a name?”
“Oh, I’m Annalea Schutz, that’s A-N-N-A-L-E-A next word, S-C-H-U-T-Z. Oh and I’m in the bunkhouse.” She took all the info down on a small card that she put in a brown paper bag. She slid the pill box into the bag and put the bag in a cupboard with a lock on it. She stretched some pink tinted rubber gloves over her freshly washed hands.
“Open.” I stood there like an idiot, thinking about when Miranda asked me when the last time I brushed my teeth was.
“Um, you mean my mouth?” I was stalling.
“Yeah, doesn’t your throat hurt?”
“Well, um, yeah.” Miranda just laughed. I glared at her, then opened my mouth. She sprayed some gross blue-green stuff on the back of my throat.
“Yuck!”
“Just wait a minute. It will make your throat numb, and you’ll want more when it wears off.”
“Oh, okay well thanks.”
“Mhm, and be sure to visit me in four hours for your next pill.”
“But wait, four hours from now is 12:00 o’clock. Will you be up?”
“Yep, it’s my job.”
“Well okay, we’ll be off, then.” We started to walk out the door, when I remembered Miranda still had her Claritin.
“Wait! You have allergy meds, Miranda. Better take em’ in.”
“No way, I was embarrassed enough just watching you turn yours in late.”
“So? It’s your turn, buddy.” I winked. She groaned.
“Fine.” She mumbled.
“We walked back into the kitchen.
“Um, excuse me, but my friend still has some Claritin.”
“Ah, thought you could get away with it, huh?” She winked, and took the meds. She went through the same, embarrassing process with Miranda that she did with me. We left the nurse with numb throats and smiling faces. We walked the long way to the bunkhouse, because the nurse said we need more exercise.
“I’m just done being sick. And I’m not skipping chapel anymore. But yeah like, I’m done being sick. I’m DONE.” What I said may not have made any sense, but it pretty much changed my whole camp experience.

We went to chapel the next night, and this was that night that everyone cries. All Christian camps have this night. The night where we all sob and hug random people. I was hugging my newish friend Angela, when this crazy thought hit me. What if I decided not to be sick anymore? It’s my body. I don’t have to be sick, I’m going to be better.

When we got back to the bunkhouse, Ms. Terri was sitting on the floor waiting for us all.
“Hi you guys.” She looked at all of our mascara-streaked faces. “Are you okay?”
We all knew what she meant. I just laughed.
“That was fun. We had a great time. They did my favorite song.” I smiled.
“So I know I’m not your youth leader, but I want to know if God spoke to you tonight, and if he did what did you learn?”
They all shared their stories, until it got to my awkward moment.
“Well, I guess God showed me that I’m not sick anymore.” I started getting a little more confident. “Yeah. I’m not sick. I’m just NOT sick anymore.”
“Good. Keep telling yourself that. You’re only sick if you treat yourself like it.”
A few of the girls in our row started chanting “Annaleas not sick! Annaleas not sick!” The next thing I knew, our whole bunkhouse was chanting! I really wasn’t sick! I didn't have to be! And they all agreed.

A couple hours later, it was lights out time, so we left the bunkhouse and went into the extra room for meetings. I didn’t really know that other girls knew about this room, but apparently they do because when we walked in there they were playing loud reggae music, dancing and eating popsicles. Like what in the world? I quietly laid my blanket on the floor, hoping they wouldn’t notice me.
“Hey, y’all want some crackers? Or some soda? We even got Subway.”
“How in the world do you have Subway?”
“Our leader got it… but just come!”
“Well we don’t even know you guys! It’s fine we can just sit here.”
“Nuh-uh! You’re coming” The girl grabbed my hand and pulled me to the “dance floor”, which was a few blankets all over the floor. The music was so loud; I was surprised I couldn’t hear it in our room! We danced until I thought my legs were about to fall off. Slowly, girls started leaving. I was still so high on sugar, no way was I about to stop!
I looked over my shoulder to call over my friend, who, to my surprise, was standing there with a bloody nose! I ran over to her and she was just standing there with a paper towel on her nose.
“This is the third time today, Katie!”
“You CANNOT tell Ms. Terri. Swear?”
“No! We’re gonna calm down. Drink some water. No more dancing for you.”
And that ended our dancing experience. We sat on the blanket and talked for hours, until she looked at her phone and announced it was 4:00. Girls immediately stared leaving. Soon it was just me, Katie, and two other girls across the room.

“S-L-E-P-E!!! No, wait… yeah S-L-E-P-E!”
“Hahahaha wake up! What are you doing?”
I rolled over.
“Hmm?”
“What were you doing?” A strange face asked me. “Haha! You were snoring!”
“Was I asleep???” I did not want to go to sleep that night.
“Yep. Like a rock. And when we started talking to you, you started spelling things-and wrong, too!”
“I was not snoring. C’mon I don’t snore… do I?” I was mortified. Two girls I had never even seen before were currently bent over top of Katie and I, talking to us.
“Yeah we thought it was a bear! Hahaha!” They cracked up laughing. I was so confused.
“What are you idiots doing?” Katie rolled over slowly.
“I guess we were asleep.” I sat up and pulled my hair back into a hair tie.
“I’m Allie.” The girl with the teal nose ring extended her arm to me. We shook hands and I introduced myself.
“I’m Leah, I’m thirteen; this is my first year.”
“Really? Me, too.”

We chatted until the sun came up. I didn’t feel sick. Because I wasn’t. I didn’t even sneeze. Not once.

These are the memories I have of camp. Nothing else. You can tell me it went nowhere, had no plot, but to me it does. That was my summer. And I can honestly say, it changed me. Because now, I control my body with my mind.