James

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"James, come on, sweetie; you can't hide in the car forever," my mom prompted from the driver's seat as I kept my head tucked between my knees, trying to block out my surroundings.

"I don't want to go to summer camp. Why are you forcing me?" I asked without bothering to lift my head, not caring if my words were audible or not.

"Because you need to make some actual friends. You're almost ten years old," said my fourteen-year-old sister, Lizzie, as she checked her reflection in a side mirror vainly.

The car went silent for a minute.

I glanced out my window to see more and more children arriving at camp. There were people my age and people older than me walking up to the registration desk alongside their parents.

My anxiousness reached a new height when I noticed a familiar mop of curly blonde hair in the back of the line.

I tried not to worry about it, even though I already knew exactly who it was and exactly what would happen once I was in his sights.

Swallowing my terror, I finally shot back at my sister, hoping to wipe the smug look off her face.

"I have friends," I declared, folding my arms and lifting my head from its resting place.

"Oh, you mean those invisible, imaginary ones, hanging out with you in the back seat?" Lizzie laughed.

"They are NOT imaginary," I rose my voice as tears threatened to make their way into my eyes.

"Okay. Okay. Enough, you two," Mom reprimanded.

Her scolding was enough to stop the fight, but not my sobs.

I knew I was too old for tantrums but didn't care.

This would be worse than attending public school for the first time last school year. I'd been lucky enough to be home-schooled for the majority of my elementary school years by my mother, but come my fourth-grade year, she got a job, so that changed. I was enrolled in public school for the first time ever.

My parents thought it would be an opportunity for me to make some friends.

Oh, how wrong they were.

All school had for me were people that hated me or people that didn't know I existed.

But summer camp still seemed far worse to me.

At least after school, you had the chance to go home.

But not here.

Here you had to spend all day and night around other people.

It was a nightmare.

A nightmare come true.