It was our first year with upward bound. There was meetings and tutoring. The one thing we all looked forward to was the summer program. Our first trip was camping. I was late getting there. As I opened the car door I heard a roar of voices. A cold breeze swept by me. The ground was still wet from the rain. I quickly rolled up my pant legs and walked up the muddy path to the camping area. It was starting to get dark and the glow of the fire kept getting brighter. I greeted all my friends and sat with the other big group around the camp fire.

As the night of fun began we decided to play a game. Nikki grabbed the marshmallows and four people stood around the edge of the group. Scott(the head director), Megan, Taylor, and Jessie began grabbing as many marshmallows as they could and stuffed the in there mouth. There cheeks puffed up like a squirrels as they tried to close there lips. Everyone began laughing as three people couldn’t hold any more marshmallows in there mouth. A big ball of white chewed up marshmallow shot out of there mouths leaving Scott as the winner. I began giggling as I turned my head to smile at Nikki. Next to her was a boy. He was a little older than me , a junior so to say. He had short brown hair, bright shining blue eyes. As I looked at him I noticed how the light from the fire gave warmth to his face. The glow of the light almost made it seem as if he was perfect in every way. She turned his head looking at me and smiled. I quickly turned my head. I thought “ well that was embarrassing, I wounder if he noticed?”

after the warm light of the fire dimmed down we all said our goodbyes and went off to bed. I laid there quietly in my sleeping bag with my headphones in. I wondered what his name was. I had only seen him once before at our meetings. As all these thoughts ran threw my head I slowly dozed off.

The sun was just rising as I rolled over and slowly opened my eyes. It was still as quite as a mouse. I could hear nothing but the sound of rain drops tapping on the tent walls as they fell from the trees. “tip,tap,tip,tap” I slithered down in to my sleeping bag covering my head. It was to cold to get out of bed yet. As everyone began to wake things got noisier. Everyone was up getting ready for the day and grabbing breakfast. I sat up and got dressed the went by the fire to warm up. “alright everyone lets pack up and get everything in the vans, then we will walk down to the river after that.” everyone packed up there things and tents and shoved the into the vans hoping it would all fit. We all grabbed ponchos and a jacket and began marching down to the river.

We had finally arrived to big open muddy area. After a brief safety overview we all grabbed life vest and eagerly waited to see who we had gotten paired with. I stood there with butterflies in my tummy. My eyes curiously locked on Scot’s clip board.

“first group is Megan and Chris, then Nikki and Cody, then Tina and Jacob”

he continued n with the list put my mind had wondered somewhere else. Who is Jacob? It sounded vaguely familiar. As I turned around a boy stood there waiting to greet me.

”hi my name is Jacob are you Tina?”

“ yeah I am Tina I guess we are canoe buddies right” I giggled

we began heading towards the edge of the river. I starred a my shoes as I walked. As we arrived at our canoe Jacob sat in back and I sat in front. My hands were shaking as I grabbed my paddle.

“have you ever been canoeing before?”

“no I am actually a little nervous.”

“alright well just paddle on the left side and I will take right”

as we paddled on down the windy river gusts of wind gave me goose bumps. As I began to think of how his dark blue eyes sparkled in the sun light I noticed we had drifted into the big open area of water. As I put my paddle on the sand to hold us in place Jacob and I began to have a interesting conversation.

“so .. what are your hobbies?”

“ I enjoy dance and photography , how about you “
as I looked at him with a smile. His smile greeted me back as I starred into his dark blue eyes. His hands held onto the paddle all fingers rapped around the handle as the divined muscles in his arms showed from trying to hold the canoe in place.

“i play guitar and sing. i taught myself how”

“ wow that’s cool you should play for me sometime.”

“ sure I wouldn’t mind I play at my church sometimes its a lot of fun.”

our conversation went on for hours. Laughing at the little moments of our lives and explain our deepest thoughts. As we began to get into the curvy part of the river trees sprouted up everywhere. Bugs began to appear as I began to struggle paddling up river. As I quickly turned around I saw him swinging his paddle threw the air.

“ watch out there a lot of mosquito, a huge swarm”

“ stop being a baby, you should help me paddle its a little hard doing this by myself “

as we reached the shore to get our canoe out of the water everyone had already started getting there lunch. Me and Nikki ran over towards the mouth of the river. It was still cold and rainy but we quickly undresses into our bathing suites and ran in. as the water hit my skin in tingly like when you foot falls asleep. I lost my breath. Jumping up out of the water I was gasping for air. My teeth chattered together as I put my cloths back on. Me and Jacob sat in the grass field eating our turkey sandwiches and apples. Our conversation continued as I realized that I had really liked him.