The Camp for Troubled Teens

Chapter 1: Justin's POV

It all started when this jackass, Chris Hobbs started harassing me. I ignored it for about a month but then it started getting worse. We kept getting into fights and my parents eventually found out. They kept getting called into the school and the first time they came in, they found out I was gay. Everything went downhill from there. My father disowned me and my mother barely talked to me. They took me to some stupid therapist. My father tried to make me change. Everything eventually got to me and I started going out late, staying out all night, drinking very heavily, doing a lot of drugs. I tricked a lot. I was always fucking the tricks. I NEVER let anyone fuck me. One night, my parents found me somehow and I'm guessing that crossed the line for them. From what I remember that night, my father practically physically picked me up, put me in the car and drove somewhere. It felt like hours when they stopped the car. My dad opened the car door, grabbed me and practically dragged me inside some place. It looked like some kind of camp. The next thing I know, my dad left and I was standing in what looked like a cabin.

Which is why, I'm now sitting here, out in the middle of fucking nowhere with a bunch of strangers sitting around me. I just keep my head down, using a stick to draw random lines in the dirt. Apparently, this is some type of school for "troubled teens." I can't fucking believe I'm here. My parents think I'm troubled? God, what a joke. I hate this place. I hate my parents. I hate everything and everyone. I hate the whole fucking world!

There's some other new "students" than just me. There are 6 new girls. I'm not listening to what the head camp counselor or whatever the fuck he is. I know what he's doing; I just don't give a fuck. He's "sorting" the new "students" with their cabin or counselor or whatever. I'm not listening and I don't even hear him when he calls my name. "Justin Taylor!" I hear him yell. I look up. "What?" I asked aggravated.

"You are with Counselor Kinney Cabin 9." He says, after looking at his clipboard. "Which is the black team." Teams? The cabins are teams? God! Get this get anymore shitty? I look back down, and I don't listen to what he's saying. When I hear what sounds like people leaving, I look up and sure enough, everyone is leaving. The new students have to go with their counselor and get shown around the stupid camp. I stand up and someone walks over to me. He's wearing a black shirt, and he looks about in his late twenties, so I'm guessing he's Counselor Kinney. He's carrying a clipboard, and there's a pencil tucked behind his ear and a cowry shell bracelet on his right wrist. "Justin Taylor I presume?" He asks me.

"Who's asking?" I ask him in my aggravated voice.

"Don't talk to your counselor that way. Just answer the question without an attitude."

"Yes. I'm Justin Taylor."

"I'm counselor Kinney. I'm going to introduce you to the rest of the boys in the cabin then show you around. Okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Follow me." I cross my arms over my chest and follow him. It takes about five minutes to get to the cabin. I follow him inside. The inside is way different from the outside. The outside looks like a plain, boring cabin. But the inside looks...fun. It's colorful; there are drawings on the wall. They're really good too. The cabin walls are painted in colorful colors. I'm actually surprised. "Boys." Counselor Kinney says. They all look up at him. There are about 14 other boys in the cabin. They all say hi to him. "This is Justin Taylor. He's new here so make him feel welcome." He smiles at them. They all say hi to me. I think I'm starting to like it here. I decide to un-cross my arms and put them down at my side and make my face softer looking. "Go on. Go talk to them." Counselor Kinney whispers to me. I walk further into the cabin. It feels like they're all looking at me. I know they're giving me glances. I'm not sure if I should talk to them. They probably don't want to talk to me. After all, this is a camp for troubled teens, so they must've done something bad that got them here. "Justin?" I hear someone say. I turn toward the voice and see a red haired boy looking at me.

"Yeah?"

"Want to come sit over here with us?" He asks. There are four other guys over there, and they're all sitting in a circle. I walk over to them and sit down, where they opened a spot for me to sit. "I'm Brett." The red-haired kid told me. He pointed to his right and said, "This is Keith." He has brown hair. Brett points to his left. "This is Dave." He also has brown hair. He then points to next to Dave. "This is Aaron." He has dark blonde hair. "And this is Alex." He has black hair.

"Hi." I tell them.

"If you don't mind me asking, what got you here?"Keith asked.

"Well...I...um...one of my class mates harassed me and I ignored it for a month then it got worse and we had fist fights. The first fist fight, my parents were called in to the school and found out that I'm..." I didn't know what they would think.

"You're what?"

"Gay," I whispered.

"Really? That's so cool." Dave said.

"It is?"

"Yeah. I've never known anyone...gay before."

"Well, um, anyway, after that, my mother wouldn't talk to me much and my father tried to make me change and I just started drinking, tricking, and drugging. My parents found me somehow outside of a gay club, and they dragged me here."

"Damn! That's got to be hard. We've been friends even before we came here. We all met in elementary school." Brett explained. "We all dressed in black and acted the same as each other and we started talking to one another and became good friends. We've all been cutting and drinking, and our parents put us here. We've been here four years."

"That means you would have been...no...it can't be...really? You would have been 12 coming here."

"Yep, that's right." Dave said.

"What was it like when you first came here?" I asked.

"At first we hated it, but when we saw the cabin and started talking to the other boys, we became comfortable and started to like it. But some things we just don't like. Like the stupid counseling sessions. There are single sessions and there are group sessions. The group sessions aren't that bad." Aaron explained. "There are tests they make us do at the end of every week. They're related to what our 'problem' is. Then, there are the usual camp activities." He continued.

"Justin, would you like to see the camp?" Counselor Kinney asked me.

"Yeah." I stood up, and when I did that, I felt something on my butt. I turned as best I could to see, and I saw a spider. I started screaming and freaking out. I absolutely hate spiders. They creep me out so much.

"Hold still Justin." Counselor Kinney told me. I tried as best I could to stay as still as possible. He brushed it off, and I was relieved, but embarrassed. I felt my face go hot, my cheeks turn red, and I ran out of the cabin. I heard footsteps running behind me. "Justin! Justin, stop!" It was counselor Kinney. I just couldn't stop. I was so embarrassed. They footsteps got closer and closer to me. "Justin!" Counselor Kinney caught up to me and grabbed my arm, but I couldn't look at him. "I know you're embarrassed. There's no reason to be. So you freaked out because a spider was on you. Many people would. No one thinks any less of you. You want to go look around the camp?" He asked me. I didn't want to talk at all. I still felt so embarrassed. When I'm embarrassed, I just bring out my aggravated side. I cross my arms over my chest, and make it look like I'm pissed off. I looked at him and said, "Yeah, whatever."

"Don't give me that attitude. I know why you act the way you do. I used to act exactly the same. You're embarrassed so you brush it off and bring out the attitude. If you just brush it off and don't bring out the attitude, it would be easier. Come on. Let's go walk around the camp and then we'll go meet up with the rest of the boys and have lunch." I nodded and followed him.