Welcome To Straight Camp

Harry plopped himself down onto a plastic chair, the grass tickled his ankles as he had rolled up the ends of his trousers. The girl who sat opposite him sported a monstrous crop of wild curly hair, the way he would imagine himself if he were to be female. She wore a shy smile, and harry couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. She was obviously nervous about being there, and so was he.

Harry hadn’t stopped thinking about his family ever since he left their home the day before. Why were they doing this to him? It just wasn’t fair. Sure he made friends with the boys as soon as they had arrived, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, they were trying to fix him and that was not okay with him!

“I’m Harry.” He introduced, extending his hand, only to feel her already grabbing his hand firmly. She smiled, looking him in the eye her eyes were wide with fear, or maybe it was happiness he couldn’t quite tell.

“Danielle,” She said with her smile still fresh on her face. Harry handed her the folder Caroline had given them, he was instructed not to open it until he was with his partner but of course he peaked. She should know better than to tell a teenage boy not to peak at something. It was just too big of a temptation.

“So is your supervisor male? Ours is a chick.” Harry asked, her face fell as she nodded her head. He hadn’t meant to make her feel uncomfortable but somehow he had already stuffed up.

“Um yeah, he’s straight. I don’t think it should be allowed. We get changed in there ya know? It’s just disgusting!” She had tears in her eyes, and Harry felt bad for her.

“I’m sorry for bringing it up, we’re meant to be bonding happily.” He chuckled, causing a small smile to crack across her lips. A stray tear fell down her lips which he caught with the end of his finger. He didn’t want her upset, he didn’t like it when girls cried.

“It’s fine, I just don’t really trust him ya know?” Harry nodded, he didn’t really feel threatened by Caroline so of course he didn’t know what she was talking about but he could imagine it clearly. If his sister had been in the same situation he would have been majorly pissed.

“I guess we should get out our heterosexual hand manuals now.” He squeaked in an annoying high pitched tone, sounding surprisingly a lot like that cranky woman from the bus. Danielle couldn’t help herself but start giggling. She lightly patted his knee platonically, smiling up at him.

“Maybe this won’t be so bad.” She whispered, and he had to agree there. He thought for sure they were going to be great friends, he could use some kind of female influence in his life right?

“Exercise one.” Harry started to read. “Tell your partner ten things about yourself.” He looked at her and frowned. “Okay so are we meant to be partners, or are they trying to match us up for dates?” He laughed at how stupid the activity sounded. He hadn’t signed up for camp dating, and he knew his parents wouldn’t approve of the idea either. He chewed on the end of the pen nervously, thinking through his messed up thoughts for facts, for anything to tell this girl about himself because hell he assumed they would be tested on this at some stage and he was not going to let them punish him for something so simple.

“Oh golly I have no idea what to say.” She sighed, doing the same thing as Harry, what the hell did you tell a stranger that you had no attraction to? Harry hadn’t read that manual, usually he only ever revealed himself to people he wanted to date, or people he was flirting with. What the hell was he meant to tell a girl?

“Okay, okay I will start.” He finally spoke up after a few minutes of awkward silence. “You want to write this down or is your memory good?” He asked watching her carefully. A small shrug of her shoulders indicated that she didn’t mind whichever way.

He leaned forward, ready to open up to her. “Okay so when I was five years old, I used to sleep in my parents bed.” He said with a smirk, as if he had finally come to terms with how embarrassing that must have sounded but he didn’t care any longer. She nodded her head, that was simple right? Maybe she could do it too.

“Wow Harry, that’s cute yet very weird.” She told him with a light giggle. He nodded his head, agreeing with her.

“Well it’s your turn now babe.”

She stiffened, not usually letting anybody call her that. “Um, yeah okay, I had my first kiss in preschool his name was Ben, and he had long red hair, and the more I think back to that memory the more I want throw up.” She giggled as Harry started cracking up.

“Ben the ginger, nice work Danielle.” He teased, whacking her with the folder.

“I was five, I didn’t know the power of the pussy yet” She winked, causing him to laugh even harder.

“Next fact.” He coughed, trying to stop himself from laughing. “Okay, well I am still scared of the dark.” He announced.

“My mum caught me smoking weed.”

“My sister caught me with my boyfriends hands in strange places.”

“I secretly still like watching Sesame Street.”

“I sing on the toilet.”

“I really hate the colour orange.”

“I sometimes curl my hair to make it look better”

“I wanted to be in the spice girls until I was 9”

“I used to put on concerts for my family and all our cats.”

“I kissed my teacher”

“I am a cat whisperer”

“I can’t stand being naked.”

“I sometimes wish I were normal.”

“I want to get married and have babies”

“I can’t stand the backstreet boys”

“I hate manicures.”

“I want to go home.”

“My step dad raped me.”