Ann and Elise have always been the best of friends, which is why when their parents asked them if they wanted to go to a summer camp in Canada together, they didn’t even hesitate to say yes.  Their junior year quickly came to a close, and the two best friends were headed north, marking the beginning of their once in a lifetime journey that neither of them would ever forget.
Ensuing their arrival, Ann and Elise hurriedly unpacked their things in their rustic cabin, but were careful not to waste any time. Elise, being the more outgoing and social able of the two, quickly became engulfed in conversation with their fellow campers. Meanwhile, Ann, spent time organizing and cleaning their cabin. Both of the girls spent the day relaxing and enjoying making new friends; life at camp seemed perfect, like nothing could possibly go wrong to sour their soaring delight.
As night approached, the camp leaders called a meeting to go over the ground rules. The girls listened intently, but as time went on, they became distracted by the breathtaking nature that surrounded them.  When the sun began to set, buzz of a secret party down by the lake that night swirled throughout the camp. When Elise got wind of it she immediately ran over to Ann and told her of the great news. Ann recalled from the meeting that the lake was strictly off limits at night and not sneaking out of the cabins was one of the first rules the counselors went over, but she thought that if they only went for a little while there could be no harm; after all it was only spontaneous summer fun.
When darkness finally covered the camp, Ann and Elise checked for any counselors and silently hopped out of their cabin window. They stealthily ran down to the lake, secretly fearing they would be spotted, but too scared to say anything about it to each other.  Nearly half of the camp was down by the lake, everyone clearly living their first night at camp to its fullest. The girls stayed a while and quickly lost track of time. By the time Ann realized the fate of their camp life was being in jeopardy with each passing minute, it was almost too late. She was able to grab Elise and run up to the cabin before the counselors ran down, but failed to check if Elise had remembered to bring up all of her belongings. Elise shouted, “My shoes Ann, I left them by the water, if a counselor finds them they’ll know I was down there!”
Ann tried to convince her that there was no way they would be able to know the shoes were hers and that she could just borrow one of her pairs, but Elise was persistent. She brushed past Ann and rushed back down to the beach. Ann was furious but also sick to her stomach, fearful of her best friend being stopped by the counselors. To Ann’s immense chagrin, Elise did not return to their cabin that night.
A vicious pounding on her cabin door made Ann shoot right out of bed the following morning. A fuming counselor burst through the entryway and stumbled towards the trembling girl. “Grab your things, you’re done here” was all that she could muster to shout at Ann, she was clearly too angry to think of anything lighter to say.
Ann, distraught and confused, was dragged down to the main cabin of the camp to find a solemn Elise sitting by the window. Elise mouths, “I’m sorry”, but Ann was whisked away by the head counselor before she could acknowledge her friend.  Ann was confronted with the shocking news that her dear friend had turned her in, which was something that she never could have ever seen coming.
“Elise, how could you do this to me when I tried to stop you from going down to grab your shoes! Our summer is ruined, they’re sending us home!”
Elise reputed, “I had no choice, I was stuck in the middle, they never would have believed me that it was a coincidence I had left my sneakers down there the same night there had been a party”.
“You knew it was risky to run back down there, why couldn’t you have just listened to me and borrowed my sneakers?” argued Ann.
“I don’t know Ann, the situation easily could have been reversed”
“I suppose you’re right, it was both of our faults to sneak out of the cabin anyways”, Ann confessed.
The girls left the camp the following day, leaving their mistakes behind them. They vowed to never put their happiness at risk again, and went on to live an exciting, but more careful summer. Their time at camp may have only been a short weekend, but its impact lasted a lifetime.