When I first walked into the main room, my jaw dropped wide open at the sight of what I saw. The scene was so bad, that I can still remember it, and its been about 5 years. The 8th graders were using paper to make spit wads and attack the 1st graders with them. The 10th graders were giving wedgies to the kindergarteners. Various 2nd and 3rd graders were being pushed to the ground by the 9th graders. The fighting was like the relationship between cat and mice; the younger kids were the mice and the older kids were cats. As I walked in, I headed to the adults in the room, the so called "instructors" who supervised the kids, even though some of the campers were legally adults.

"Hi, my name is Amanda." The instructors took a look at their attendance sheet.

"Oh yes. Amanda Pennington, adopted daughter of Gary and Kelly Hendrickson. I know your parents. They're very nice people." Not knowing how to respond, I nodded politely. Then the instructor called out to the whole room, "Everyone head to the carpet. We have a new camper." Everyone stopped what they were doing (or not doing, since the older kids were bullying the younger and they couldn't do anything about that) and headed over to where I was. "Now, Amanda will introduce herself." She gave me a warm look, but the look I gave back to her wasn't.

In a soft voice, I started to talk. "My name is Amanda Pennington. Um, I live in Tampa." With that sentence, a bunch of snickers and laughs followed. Of course I live in Tampa, what was I thinking saying that? I could feel the blooding rising in my cheeks and my face getting red. "I live with, um, Mr. and Mrs. Hendrickson, and was adopted by them about a week ago." Then I hear someone in the crowd ask "What happened to your parents?" Hearing this, tears started welling up in my eyes. Surely, the bullies are going to tease me for this.

Then, the instructor saves me by saying "Okay Amanda, that's enough. Everyone go back to their normal activities." By normal activities, I'm guessing she means the bullying and the chaos. I gave her a look that says thank you, even though she was the one who started it in the first place. I then took a seat with a paper and a pencil and started sketching. I started to draw one of my favorite memories; when I went to the beach with my mom for the last time. We had been to the beach twice in my life; once when I was 4, and the other when I was 6. I was only 7 at the time, but I was still not bad at drawing. Drawing has always been there for me when no one else was. Anyways, when we went to the beach, my mom would always look out to sea, as if she was waiting for something to come. She loves the beach, but she had a melancholy face on her when we went. I love the beach. The dry, rough, loose sand in the middle, and the soft, squishy, and compact sand by the water. When the tide comes out, I like to wade in it. Every once in a while, the rip current sweeps someone off their feet. When I went when I was 6, I almost got swept to sea by the rip current. From where we live now, the beach is a short walking distance, so I could simply walk to the beach, but I doubt I would be able to go, with Kelly and Gary being so busy all the time.

A scream broke through my reverie. When I turned and looked to see where it was coming from, I see two large, burly teens bullying a young girl in about 2nd grade. I mean, there was plenty of bullying occurring at that moment, but these bullies were shoving her and teasing her so much that it was making her cry. Plus, I feel like she was more important because she was another girl my age. Then I made the stupidest decision of my life. I don't know where the heroic impulse came from, but I jumped right in between them.

"You can't hurt her! She's a human being like the rest of us! How would you feel if someone did that to you?" That statement sounded exactly like what a goody two shoes second grader would say, and I did not want to be known as goody two shoes.

At first, the two bullies were too stunned to speak. The room was quiet. A puny little 2nd grader couldn't tell them what to do. Then, the bullies started laughing so hard. Soon, their laughing turned into shouting.

"You can't tell us what to do newbie. 'How would you feel?' You're so pathetic, newbie. Isn't she, Gavin?" One boy said to the other.

"Yeah Jackson. She's the sorriest excuse for a girl."

Then Jackson turns to the girl. "You can go Ella. Let's see how the brave little girl feels. She won't be so brave after I'm done with her." Jackson and Gavin started to head towards me.

I immediately regretted what I had done. Now, I was about to become history. I wanted to go and run in a corner. I wanted to tell the instructors (who, by the way, are sitting in a corner and reading magazines), but I couldn't run now. Almost everyone had crowded around us. What could I do now. So, instead of showing how scared I was, I pretended I wasn't afraid of them at all.

"Oh yeah! You want a fight?" I said in my squeaky little 2nd grader voice. "Bring it on, you cowards!" In the room, one a wave of "oohs" and "ahhs" came. I even heard a few gasps. Jackson and Gavin looked infuriated. Crap, I thought, these guys were going to kill me. They look like they are already criminals, so who's to say they won't do something again. I needed to think of something and fast. Too busy thinking, I didn't see Jackson and Gavin approach me. Just as I see them coming after me, Gavin pushed me to the ground and Jackson punched me right in the face. Ouch. Anyways, isn't it illegal to hit a girl? I put my hand to my face and when I look back at it, I see that my hand was covered in blood. I had a horrible feeling that my nose was bleeding. I could also taste blood in my mouth, but I wasn't sure if that was from my nose or if my lip was busted open.

I wasn't going to let these two beat me up so easily, so I got up. I felt so weak, and I was staggering a bit, but I managed to walk straight up to Gavin, and give him a good blow to the head. He wasn't prepared for a 7 year old girl to hit him, one of the most feared bullies in the room. He staggered from the impact of the blow and toppled on top of Jackson.

"Gavin, you idiot! You're getting beaten up by a 7 year old!" Jackson screamed at Gavin.

"Actually," I say, "You both are getting beat up cause both of you are on the ground and I'm still standing." Being the sxtupid idiots they are, it takes them a moment to acknowledge that fact, and glared at me with a really angry look. I actually started to feel a bit sorry for them, so I apologized.

"I'm really sorry for doing that. Any chance you could forgive me?"

JI get the answer I was expecting. "Are you kidding? I will never forgive you!" Gavin shouted at me.

"You'd be better off if you got off the planet. Otherwise, I will kill you the first chance I get." Jackson said.

Well, earlier I said I apologized. I really should have said that I tried to apologize. So there I was, first day and I already messed it up by making an enemy. Could I remind you that this entire time, the "instructors" were just sitting in a corner, reading magazines. I also could have sworn that they had ear buds on. For the rest of the time I was here, I sat in the corner, thinking about my actions and waiting for Kelly or Gary to pick me up.


Author's Note

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