When I was about fourteen my pap' and I went down to Georgia for the summer before freshman year. Being a fourteen year old social outcast, I didn't care for this all that much. Little did I know, I would change in ways I never knew possible that summer...
The day was June 22nd 1942, it was a hot summer day in North Carolina. The sun was out without a cloud in sight. Heck, you could cook an egg on the side walk if you wanted to. There was a heat wave moving out from the inland, and we could already feel it, it was summer. It didn't truly feel like summer, it just felt like another weekend sitting at home, packing my bag, waiting to leave.
Pap' showed up about a half hour later with a Coca Cola in his hand, and a duffel bag in the other, "You ready champ?"
"Sure are pap'!" I wasn't as thrilled as he thought, but I liked it when he was happy, it was nice to see him smile.
From there on out, it was nothing but hot asphalt, and some cold pop in a cooler. It was only about a four and a half hour drive down to Brunswick. Pap' always had stories 'bout Brunswick, whether it was about him catching a huge trout, or just how nice it is to sit back an relax to the sunset on the beach. Of course, pap' did have a house along the shore right up against the beach.
That entire ride down in pap's beat down pickup truck he never stopped singing and smiling. I'd never seen him this happy since mom's death two years ago. Side note, two years ago my mother died in a car crash off of I-95 due to a few high hippies in a Volkswagon. Pap' never truly stopped mourning, none of us did. Surprisingly he was happy as can be, for all I knew then, it hadn't even crossed his mind.
Once we finally hit the Brunswick outskirts, I had no idea what pap' had seen in this place. It was rundown, it smelt horrible, and there were hippies all over the place. I threw the soda pop bottle I had already chugged down on the way here at them. I only hit one of them, it didn't seem to do anything but piss 'em off. After all of that the the city began to clean itself up. Houses were getting cleaner and larger, cars were getting shinier, and the girls, don't start with the girls. I swear I saw Marilyn Monroe.
Now, that we're finally here, and I can see what pap' has been telling me this whole time, I believe him. This is paradise, and I want to stay. There's no bullies, no nerds, just a whole bunch of studs and fems.

I've been here two days, and I've made more friends than people I even knew back in NC. On this night my new buddies and I decided to go down to the fair in town. They said it gets better every year, and that I needed to experience it. Once we pulled up on our Schwinn bicycles, the first thing we saw was the huge Ferris wheel in the middle of the entire fair. None of us had ever seen something so large, other than pictures the size of our palms.
If you ask me, Billy, my closest friend in this town, literally peed himself just looking at it. "So, you think it's really big, or are they just bustin' our butts?" Billy was trying to act tough.
"I think you're bustin' your own butt Billy" John, another friend of ours, always had something to say back.
Instead of just standing there talking, we rushed inside to see for ourselves. None of us were brave enough to tame this monster, so we all pushed Billy on without hesitation. Luckily for us, he got stopped when he was all the way at the top. His pants were soaked when he got off, and we all knew what it was. "It's not piss you idiots, it's just Coke!"
"Sure Billy, sure." John felt bad for the kid, we didn't want to torture him.
Although we felt bad, none of us necessarily helped Billy. We just kinda walked away and he followed in panic trying to hide his stain from all the girls. Everyone had their eyes set on a girl, except for me. I didn't care that much. We just kept walking around, playing games, losing money, and watching Billy make a fool of himself.
Once we got to the House of Mysteries Billy really needed a new pair of pants, and underwear, and socks, and probably shoes too. We all felt like jerks, and didn't make him go inside with us, but he insisted. The House of Mysteries wasn't very scary as it was intimidating. One second your walking down a hallway, the next there's a skeleton right in your face. By then, I think everyone needed new shoes.
We all ran straight to Billy's house across the street, behind the gas station. He has some extra pairs of jeans for us all, except for Luke, seeing his fat ass couldn't even fit into my pap's jeans. Once we got our jeans on, we were right out the door, but we stopped at the gas station to get some bottles of pop before we went back over to the fair. It was free, seeing Billy's parents own the joint.
Once we got back to the fair I was in shock. My eyes were stunned at the sight near the dunktank. My eyes were glued, to her...