She was staring at the stuffed suitcase that was laying on her floor when she heard her mom knock, "Gabriella, sweetheart you're going to be late, you about ready?"
"Yeah mom, I'll be down in just a minute. I just have to zip this silly thing." And as she sat on her suitcase, struggling to shut it, her mind was filled with thoughts about what this summer would bring.
Her best friend, Ava, had invited her to summer camp. At first she wasn't convinced with the idea of spending an entire summer at some strange campgrounds, but somehow, Ava had persuaded her to come along.
As she was lugging her suitcases down the steps, her best friend came flying through the front door singing some wacky camp song. She saw Gabriella struggling down the stairs. "Gab, its summer camp, not a beauty pageant."
"I know, I know.." She replied. "But you can never be too prepared." She stuck her tongue out at her best friend, pleased with her keenness of using her best friend's favorite cliché sentence against her. "What do you have in there anyway, Gab?"
"Oh, you know, just the necessities." Ava rolled her eyes and told her to hurry up. When she was done loading her bags into Ava's jeep she ran back inside to see what her friend was up to. Of course she'd found her way into the kitchen. Gabriella found her sitting at the breakfast bar eating a piece of cake that was leftover from her birthday party.
She'd just celebrated her 17th birthday, and Ava had surprised her with a party! She'd planned everything, right down to picking out Gab's dress, which had been surprisingly tasteful. It had been a pool party, and it seemed like everyone she knew had been there. There'd been a DJ, a chocolate fountain, everything Gabriella could have possibly wanted.
Ava was a good friend, her best friend. The best friend, and they were about to spend an entire summer together. So she decided that camp, wouldn't be so bad after all, at least she had her best friend.
Gabriella hugged her mom and dad, said goodbye, "I love you guys!" And they were off. The camp was just a couple hours away, and as they drove they listened to their favorite CD. It was actually a CD they had made together, years ago. It had everything on it, Hanson, NSync, everything they loved when they were kids. They loved to sing to it at the top of their lungs, even if it was terribly.
As they turned the last corner, Ava pointed to a sign "this is it!" Gabriella took in the sight of all these high school students walking around this campus, there was a lake, and a pool, and she was so ecstatic when Ava pointed at what appeared to be a very nice building and said "that's where the girls get to stay, it's not really CAMPING!"
"No way! Ava! I can't believe you tricked me like that!" She said, playfully hitting her friend's shoulder.
"Well, I'm sorry Gab, but at least it was a GOOD surprise. Come on, let's check in."
After both girls checked in, they were walking back to the jeep when Ava heard someone calling her name. She turned around to see her friend from many summer's past running toward her. When he finally reached her, he embraced her in a huge hug, picked her up, twirled her around, and finally placed her very gently back on the ground. "It's so good to see you!" She exclaimed. "This is my best friend, that I somehow managed to convince to come with me. Gabriella, this is Troy."