Dear diary,"Brey and Pru showed me what it was like to have friends that you hug and never want to let go of."

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The three of us had to brush our teeth in the main girl's bathroom. ( That was a trip. It took almost ten minutes just to get to a sink because it was so crowded. There were blow-dryers going and girls yelling over the noise to their friends. So I skipped brushing my teeth and waited in the dorm room for Brey and Pru to get back. )

Brey, Pru and I, still in our pajamas, headed downstairs to the lobby where Jordan had told us to meet the day of orientation. It didn't matter that we were still in our sleeping clothes; everyone else was too. Pru had on a pair of boy's boxers and a sweat shirt. She would close her eyes for a second before I'd tell her to wake up. She insisted she was just resting, but soon I would hear snoring; I had never know anyone who could sleep standing up before.

Jordan stood in the middle of the lobby with everyone crowding around him so that they could see better. The three of us had been pushed to the back and Brey threatened to beat everyone out of our way with her color guard flag.

"Come on," she insisted, "all I'd have to do is give one a little tap and they'd all go down like dominoes."

"Every morning for breakfast, you will report to the dining hall, get your food, then you may take it wherever you want to eat it; just not any where that students are not allowed. Right, Trip?" Jordan asked loudly. A boy with shaggy black hair in flannel red pajama pants held up his drum stick acknowledging that he had heard. Brey and Pru laughed but I didn't because I hadn't been here before and didn't know the inside joke.

Jordan continued. "You have until eight thirty to eat your food, then you have to report back to your dorm rooms for inspection by your camp counselor. I'll be assigning them today to each instrument section. From there, I'll let them tell you what to do next. Eventually at the end of the day, say around six forty-five, the whole band will get together for practice. And..I think that's it." Jordan looked towards a counselor holding a notepad and she nodded. "Okay. Go get your breakfast then and have a good first day of camp."

There was a sudden commotion as kids all fought to get to the door first. But Pru, being the band camp expertise that she is, grabbed my arm to stop me.

"It's better to stand back and let them go ahead, otherwise you'll end up getting stepped on or maimed. Want to see my battle wounds?" She raised her sweat shirt up and revealed a white scar on her stomach.

"Sorry again about that, kiddo." Brey stated nervously, backing away. "I didn't know it still bothered you. I didn't know my flag had a mind of its own! I promise!"

"Well isn't it a bit of a coincidence that that day you had been mad at me because you found out Trip liked me?" Pru pulled her shirt back down and put her hands on her hips.

"Trip liked you? Really?" Brey asked with a false look of surprise on her face. "How come you never told me?"

"My bad." Pru said, grabbing my arm and leading me away.

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"I hope they're still serving banana waffles." Pru whined, standing up on her tippy toes to try and see over the line. We were at the very back. There had to be over five hundred kids. The kid in front of me was a bit on the heavy side, and he stepped on my toe. My eyes started to water from the pain.

"Oh sweetie, don't worry, I'm sure there will be some left." Pru stroked my hair. I stared at her through blurry eyes.

"Have you seen Keetan yet? What if she didn't come this year?" Brey asked. "I mean, last year she told us that band camp was starting to lose its luster." Pru shook her head and held up a finger.

"Yes I remember but didn't she also say that her grandma makes her come every year? And oh my gosh! Ahh I think I see her! Keetan, we're over here!" Pru started jumping up and down and waving her arms. The girl she was yelling at turned around and I stared at her.

She had a unibrow and had orange juice dribbling down her chins.

"Oh- you're not Keetan! You can go back to your orange juice!" The girl shrugged and walked away. Pru and Brey laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh too.

"Don't make fun. Keetan probably went through puberty since last year and has developed facial hair and extra chins." Brey stated matter-of-factly, nodding.

"I don't know about the facial hair, but you can't blame me for having spare chins, you never know when one will go out on ya." Said a voice from behind us. We all turned around. It was Keetan.

"Ahhh!" Pru and Brey both screamed and went at her for a hug at the same time. In result, they bonked heads. It sounded like two coconuts hitting each other.

"One at a time now, girls. Hugging is risky business." Keetan gave each girl a hug then started talking about her summer and how everyone was doing. My mind began to wander, and soon I found myself looking into a pair of large eyes almost hidden by a mop of black hair. One was blue, and the other was brown.

"Hey, I've been asking you if you are going to use that syrup any time soon, but all you've done is stare at me. Hellooo? Is there someone in there?" He shook me. It was Trip. I blinked really hard and came back to reality. Was I holding syrup? I looked and there it was in my hand. Why was I holding syrup?

"Sure, syrup's all yours." I handed it to him. He smiled, said thanks, and walked away.

"Man, we were starting to worry about you. You had been pouring syrup onto your waffle for almost five minutes. At first we made a point that maybe you just like syrup. What were you doing, Wendy?"

I looked and we must have made it to the front of the line because I was beside a counter, and on that counter was a plate with a single waffle on it. Only you couldn't tell it was a waffle because it was just a plate of syrup-soup. I opened and closed my mouth, not sure what to say. "Uh..buh...erm.."

"Great, now she's talking to herself. Anyway, Wendy, this is Keetan Pripson. She's been our friend since the first day of camp here. She plays the tuba." Pru introduced her to me and I shook Keetan's hand. Keetan was almost model-like. She was probably about six feet tall and skinny as a bean pole.

"Nice to make your acquaintance, Wendy."

"And it's nice to see you have two eyebrows." I replied.