I’ve been looking for this day for over a month, and it’s almost here, Labor Day weekend. This day is going to be here in less than twenty-four hours. I try to think about what I should do first, go visit with my family, go to the playground with my little cousins, or go down to the docks and look at all the boats. As I’m thinking about this, I find myself slowly drifting asleep.

The next morning I make sure everything is packed and ready to go. I only need to go to school half-a-day until my dad picks me up. My first few classes go by as slowly as ever, it’s not until I’m sitting in the lunchroom with my friends, that I see my dad pull-up in his Suburban pulling my Uncle’s boat, the S.S. Minnow.

"Have fun Marie!" shouted my friends as I was leaving the cafeteria. I wave at them and smile and turn back around.

I find my brother Wayne and leave school, and Brookfield, to go camping. It is about a two-hour drive to the Wisconsin Dells, but I manage to find myself some entertainment. I play some applications on my phone, read a book, and figure out when my other cousins are going to arrive at the Dells.

My brother and I quickly get excited when we see the first sign that reads ‘Welcome to the Wisconsin Dells’
“Hey Marie, do you know if May and Layne are there yet?” My dad asks me.
“May told me that she is almost there, and Layne has been there for a while.” I replied.

“How much longer until we get there?” Wayne calls from the backseat, “We should be pulling in any minute, now.” Said Dad "Good because I really need to use the bathroom." said Wayne. I threw my pillow at him and told him not to wet himself in the car.

A little while after my dad said that, we see the sign that reads, ‘River Bay’. It was the name of the camping sight that we go to every year. I quickly send a text to Layne saying that we were here and to meet us at the office. As soon as we pull in I start to remember this place from the last time I’ve seen it. The office looks the same, except the displays have been moved around a little bit.

I put on my wristband and take off running to search for Layne. I see her camper is already set up, so I go check for her at the playground. I see her on a swing and she was on her phone. She suddenly looks up and runs toward me.

“Hey Marie, I haven’t seen you since March!” She says
“I know, and I can’t wait until May gets here then it will be great.” I reply


Her phone suddenly goes off, and I say, “Who are you texting?”

She says, “My friend Bobby, he’s so weird. I know that he’s going to be coming camping.” “Okay cool.” I reply “Later you, him and I should hang out.” She says “Sure, I don’t have anything else planned.” I say

Layne talked me into coming with her to look around for Bobby. I thought that he was going to be a nerd that actually was weird. We found him in his camper with his sister. It was dark in there, and I couldn’t even see what he looked like.

“Bobby, do you want to meet us in my camper in about an hour?” she asked him. “Sure.” He replied “Awesome see you later.” She said “Okay bye.” He said

We headed to the playground and we sat down on the swings. I was wondering about what we would do in the camper with Bobby. Layne suddenly broke my train of thought.

“There’s karaoke tonight at the bar by the pier want to go?”

“Sure wait but aren’t we going to your camper with Bobby?” I asked

“Oh yeah, I guess we can go to that afterwards.” She said


After a while of talking Layne and I decided to go back to her camper and wait for Bobby to come by. We were about to get something to eat, but there was a knock on the door.
“Wow Bobby is really early.” She said.

We both walked to the door to find that it was our cousin May instead of Bobby.
“May!” We both yelled in stereo.

All three of us ended up in one big hug, right in front of the door. We stopped hugging when we heard laughing coming from the other side of the door. It was Bobby. Layne started laughing when she opened the door. We all started laughing when we saw it was him instead of our parents.

When we all stopped laughing Layne said, “I almost forgot. Bobby, this is Marie. Marie, this is Bobby.”
“Hi.” I managed to say.

I was in some sort of trance when I saw his face, I’ve never been in love before and I had no idea what it was like. I’ve always heard people talking about something called love at first sight, but I didn’t believe in it until now.

“…Marie, Marie, Marie!” I heard Layne yelling “What? Huh?” I said snapping back to reality. “Are you okay? You started staring off into space.” She replied.

I looked at Bobby and it looked like he was lost and completely out of it as well. Layne snapped her fingers in front of his face a few times and he slowly came back to reality. He shook his head a few times until he was completely back.

I don’t know what Layne was talking about when she said he was weird. He seemed like the average good-looking guy, or over-average, good-looking guy. I didn’t realize that I was still smiling until I looked up and saw that Bobby was looking at me. Quickly, I averted my eyes and so did he.

"I should go by my Dad and help him set up the tent." I said "Oh, okay I'll be at your tent in an hour to get ready for karaoke." Replied Layne.

I didn't really need to go help my dad with our tent that we would be staying in for the week. He can manage by himself, so I walked over to the pool.

There wasn't anybody at the pool, but the gate was open. I took my shoes and socks off and I put my feet in the water. Water always helps me think and the sound soothes me.

I took my phone out of my pocket and checked if I had any new messages. Only one message was there, and it was from Layne. She was making sure that I had brought all of my makeup, my curling iron and straightener. My fingers flew across the keyboard to reassure her I had everything. I placed my phone into my shoes and laid back and closed my eyes, but didn't fall asleep.

I was thinking about Bobby, and about our encounter with Layne. Layne said that he was weird, but I didn't get how she thought that.
Bobby was very good looking, and by the look of him, he seemed like he played sports. I couldn't get him out of my head even if I tried. I'm not even sure if I wanted to. I knew then that he would be in my life in some form.

But, I didn't know what that form would be. I made up a fantasy about us. We would be married and have two kids, Zac and Bella. We would live on a huge house on the lake. This fantasy felt so perfect and I hoped it would come true.

It felt like I was out there for only minutes, but it was close to an hour. I needed to quickly get to my tent to meet Lanye to get ready. I was getting ready to leave the pool when I heard a voice behind me.

"You know if you leave your feet in there too long, your feel will be white." said the voice. I jumped and fell into the pool, I didn't realize until then that i previously had my feet in the deep end of the pool.

When I looked up, I saw a boy's face and tried to resurface as quickly as possible. I gasped for air and realized it was Bobby.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." he said as he was helping me out of the water.
"It's fine, I didn't know you were there and I was thinking." I replied "About what?" he questioned "Nothing important." I said He replied with a smirk and said "Oh, well, you should probably go and change into some dry clothes. I don't think you want to go to karaoke in wet clothes and I wouldn't want to slip in any puddles of water."
"Wait, you mean you’re going?" I asked surprised
"Of course." Quickly changing the subject. "Do you want my jacket? You’re shaking a little bit"

I opened my mouth to say that I was fine, but before I could he was already taking his jacket off.

"Thanks." I said. He nodded and walked off towards his camper. I quickly slipped on my shoes and ran back to my tent, a different way that Bobby went back.

Layne was sitting at the picnic table on my campsite. She hopped up and walked over by me.
"What happened? Why are you soaking wet." She asked

I quickly thought of a lie that she would actually believe. "Wayne dragged me to the pool and pushed me in while I was coming back here." I lied "Why does that not surprise me at all? I am surprised that Wayne gave you his jacket to make up for it. Is it new?" She said "Yes, my mom got it for him last weekend." I lied again

I didn't think that she would actually believe me, but I'm glad she did. I didn't want to tell her that I was there with Bobby, and that it was his jacket.
I wanted to avoid lying to her anymore, so I walked into my tent to change clothes and grab my makeup. On the walk to her camper, she was talking about a lot of things. I only said something when she asked a question and I only replied with simple responses. I wasn't really into talking, mostly because I was thinking about Bobby again.

I was going to tell her what happened, but right when I opened my mouth something jumped onto Layne. We both screamed until I saw that it was only May that jumped onto her. "Don't ever do that again!" Shouted Layne. May and I couldn't help but laugh, and Layne started laughing along too. "Come on let's go get ready for karaoke!" I said "Okay" They both replied. "You guys can get started with your makeup, I'm going to get changed first." They weren't even paying attention because they were already starting their makeup. I grabbed my favorite skirt and tank top and headed to the bathroom.

When I returned the tent was empty, they took all of my makeup and went to Layne's camper already. I started walking to Layne's camper and when I was almost there I could see their shoes. I walked in and the first thing I heard was "Will you stop blinking?" Lanye asked more annoyed each time she said it. "Will you stop stabbing me in the eye with the mascara?" May asked mimicking Layne. I couldn't help but crack a smile at them. Any person that didn't know what they were doing wouldn't have known we were doing makeup.

The camper was a disaster. My makeup was spread all over the table, pillows and blankets everywhere. Empty soda cans and chips bags all around the TV. But, they barely noticed, Layne and May were doing each other's makeup because I already did my own and I was thinking about Bobby– again.
When we were sitting by the pool I realized exactly what color hair and eyes he has. His eyes are chocolate brown with golden-brown flecks around the rims and his hair is a perfect shade of light-brown.

"Marie, Marie, MARIE!" shouted Layne

"What?" I asked confused "Why were you starring off into space and smiling?" asked May with a huge grin on her face "What are you talking about?" I asked

"Forget it, so are you excited for karaoke, May? Because I know Marie is." Said Layne with her grin still on her face

"Remind me to get you later for that one." I said while lightly punching her arm.

"Well anyways we should get going." said May

The next thing I knew we all ran outside and got onto our bikes and pedaled as fast as we could to the bar. There were three bikes already on the bike rack, but I only recognized two of them. One was Layne's little brother's bike and the other was his friend's bike.

Layne, May and I ran through the doors to our usual seats right by the guy that runs karaoke. We flip though the song book and go right to Taylor Swift. All three of us love her and her music. Layne and I do most of the songs, and May only does some with us.

We sent in all of the songs we wanted to do and waited for them to call our names. As we were waiting, I heard somebody say, "Is this seat taken?"

I looked up and saw the most gorgeous eyes and I smiled when I realized it was Bobby. I was trying to manage to say something but all I could force out was "Hi"

He sat down next to me and Layne started smiling at me. I was just about to start a conversation with him, but our names were called to sing. All three of us stood up and went up to sing.



I looked at the screen to see the first song was the song we sing first every year, which was "Teardrops On My Guitar" by Taylor Swift. I looked over at Bobby to see him smiling at me, and I felt like there were butterflies in my stomach.


My knees were shaking a little, but by about the chorus I was feeling better. Layne and I have the same vocal range so we were able to hold the last note out the longest. We all sat down and heard our entire family cheering.

"You were really great!" Said Bobby. I could feel my face heating up and I said "Thanks."
"When you're done here do you want to meet me by the playground? Because in a little bit I have to go and watch my baby sister?"
"Sure I'll meet you there. Can I have your number? I can text you when were done here."