A/N: This was supposed to be my summer writing project, and considering that I have three weeks of summer left - I thought I'd at least get it started before season thee airs. It wouldn't make sense else wise. This is why my updates on ETC have been - lacking, but don't worry if you like that story - it's far from over. I'll just be working on this too. Anyways, this is set in the summer before Artie and Tina's junior year and it's in Artie's POV. Thanks for reading! (Okay, I have the right document now. That's embarrassing)

It wasn't until three years after the accident that left me paralyzed from the waist down did I finally begin my long journey of self-acceptance. Even as an eight year old I knew I was different compared to the other kids my age, but I felt different – almost inhuman compared to the other boys and girls that could play tag on the playground or skip rope in the streets. Everyday I sat by myself – everyday waiting for someone to look past the chair and make me feel accepted. I waited until my freshman year of high school where Tina Cohen-Chang, the shy girl with a stutter, befriended me; but even she eventually strayed.

However, all of that began to change the year my mother sent me away for half a summer to a retreat program on Lake Eerie for children with disabilities. There I wasn't discriminated against or looked down on as a minority. There everyone was accepted no matter their ability, and there I realized that I wasn't alone – which is why when became old was enough to became a counselor at Camp-Capable, I jumped at the opportunity. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

As my mother steers turns our wheelchair accessible family van onto the main dirt road of the camp, everything starts to come back to me from my childhood. I recognize the sign at the mouth of the campus and that leads me to remembering how anxious I felt the first time mom brought me to camp. I was eleven, extremely shy, victim to being a social outcast on account of my wheelchair, and it was going to be my first time being away from home for an elongated period of time. My expectations were less than high, and they stayed that way until I saw an older girl with long wavy hair in a wheelchair just like mine – a Quickie brand with a red frame. She ended up being my councilor, and from there on I knew I was in the right place.

I watch pine tree after pine tree go by, as we cruise along under twenty miles per hour, until we come into a clearing in the shape of a lumpy kidney. To the right is the shore line of Lake Eerie with a large field of neatly trimmed grass separating the beach from the road, and to the left is a temporary area marked off for parking with a collection of rustic looking cabins shallowly hidden within the forest behind it. A traffic director in orange is unnecessary on account that campers won't be on site for at least twenty-four hours, so mom guides herself to one of the many empty parking spaces. Once at a full stop, she looks back at me and nods an okay for me to unstrap myself from the car floor.

"Do you want help with your stuff? I can stay a bit if you want," she asks once I'm out and onto the hard dirt ground.

"Mom, we talked about this."

"Right, right, I'm sorry," she says, shaking her head and going to open the trunk.

With a wistful sigh, I follow behind my mom to the back of the car where she unloads the contents of the trunk, a large black duffle bag and a bulky green rolled up sleeping bag into my lap.

"Do you have everything?" mom asks with her hands on the trunk lid, hesitant to slam it down.

"If not, there will probably be an arts and crafts class for it."

She rolls her eyes and closes the trunk.

"Do I at least get a kiss?"

I press my lips together into a smile, blink slowly, and nod three times. Swiping my bangs to the side with her hand, mom kisses my forehead with a soft sounding smooch. She continues to stay at my eye level as she combs my hair back into place with her fingers. She's proud of me – I'm not exactly sure what for, but I can see it in her eyes. Maybe it's the fact I've overcome my disability to the point that I'm ready to reach out to others to help them do the same. After all, I'm bigger than my body gives my credit for, as John Mayer would say.

When mom builds up to leaving, I watch the van disappear back into the trees with my back towards the camp. Once it's completely out of sight, I pull hard on my right wheel to turn myself one hundred-eighty degrees to face the mess hall. I keep my hands on the metal of my wheels and scan the campus back and forth with my eyes before smiling and enthusiastically jolting forward towards the building. On the way to the nicely angled ramp next to the stairs, opposed to on the other side of the building in the most inconvenient place like many facilities, I pass a flag pole surrounded by daffodils and the big welcome sign in front of the health building. Inside are people setting up tables and chairs for both meal time and the elaborate process of signing in. At the door, a camper will get a T-shirt and a name tag, then they move on to actually being checked in, selecting a meal plan, and making sure everything's all set for them to have an amazing and safe time at camp.

Because my name is at the top of the list, having a name were both parts start with the letter 'A' will do that do you, the camp director approaches me first with a sky blue polo and a manila folder stuffed with papers. The shirt is to easily differentiate campers and councilors on the first day, but the folder is filled with information about the two weeks ahead, and also with information about my campers themselves. I'm then sent off to find my cabin to settle in before a staff meeting in half an hour out front. More cars have filled the parking lot since my arrival and I could hear another one coming down the road.

The cabins are set back in the woods behind only a few crooked rows of trees – enough to get that wilderness feeling but still an easy distance for campers and councilors alike with mobility issues. The buildings are large and up off the ground with two ramps coming off the sides that lead up to a deck. Each cabin holds two or three groups depending on camper population. Ours is the closest one to main sight on the far left. I trek up the ramp off the left side of the building where my group will be staying and open the door to a medium seized rectangular room. Five empty and identical twin sized beds line the walls – two on the right, two on the left, and one in the center against the smallest wall. As I make my way to the middle bed, the floorboards squeak and rumble underneath my wheels.

I remove my bags from my lap and replace them with the manila folder. On the surface of my bed, I arrange the papers into orderly piles of; information for me, scheduling, and camper information. I have thee – all girls between the ages of eight and eleven with varied mobility. I can barely understand and handle girls my age back home let alone pre-teens, this is going to be interesting. What do young girls like? Rainbows? Butterflies? I wouldn't know where to begin.

Camper information aside, I begin to unpack my belongings and make my bed. On the wall I tack important information up by my pillow along with a picture of my mom and me. If I still had a girlfriend – she'd probably be up there too. Both relationships I've had, I've lost to someone better – see what I mean about not understanding girls? With a sigh, I run my hand along a crease in my sleeping bag and drop my duffel back with the rest of my things onto the floor. Before daring to transfer back into my chair, I check the time, sit back against the wall, and close my eyes with ten minutes until I have to be outside.

As I relax, I hear the councilor next door rummaging around her side of the cabin. At least – I think it's a girl, for I heard her humming to herself, but then again – Kurt sounds like a girl when he sings…in a good way, of course. I'll stop while I'm ahead. The idea of stopping in and introducing myself courses through my mind, but seeing as I'll probably meet her in during the staff meeting, I remain on my side of the cabin.

When I hear the door on the other side of the building slam shut, I figure it's time to go. I open my eyes, adjust my glasses, and pull my wheelchair over before transferring inside. Before leaving, I scan the room to make sure I haven't left anything before exiting onto the deck. As I guide my chair down the ramp – I look out at the girl that just left our building. On her feet are black boots that come up to her ankle with neon green laces double knotted at the top. Black jean shorts hug her curves and a loose dark purple T-shirt hangs over her shoulders. From her head down to the middle of her back drapes dark and shiny hair…with vibrant blue steaks hidden within the layers. Coincidence – definitely a coincidence, I think, but then I look down to the purple and grey plaid messenger bag with an Angry Birds keychain on the front pocket.

Tina Cohen-Chang.

Pushing harder and faster at my wheels, I increase my speed to catch up, but the rough footing makes the task nearly impossible. Instead I give my arms a break and call out at her instead. The girl's head turns before the rest of her body with a complexed look on her face. She squints at me for a second before her eyes widen and her eyebrows rise.

"A-Artie?" she asks, still perplexed.

"So it is you," I mumble under my breath, looking out of the corners of my eyes.

"What are you doing here?" She asks, walking towards me.

"I could ask you the same," I say. "Infidelity isn't considered a disability."

"Oh ha-ha, Artie," she says. "You don't need to have a disability to work here."

"You're working here?" I ask.

"Yeah, I needed a job, so I took it."

"What about Asian Camp?"

"I…um…broke…never mind. It didn't work out."

"Right."

I look around her and see the camp director talking with her hands to the other councilors. "I gotta go," I say, rolling around her.

I push myself away as fast as I can. She doesn't belong here. This is my place – my sanctuary. The last thing I want is my ex-girlfriend running around and having to see her every waking minute. When Tina broke up with me, yeah, I wanted her back. I missed her, I missed her so badly that I went out and slept with another girl to try and forget her. However, then I realized what she did to me. Yeah, okay, I could have been a better boyfriend, but she went out and cheated on me with a perfect able bodied dancer. A dancer. I made myself forget about her, only to be civil and friendly for Glee Club and other school related events – and here she is coming back into my life all over again, and there's nothing I can do about it.