Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2023 14:26:43 +0000 From: Wyatt L Subject: Church Camp Boys - Chapter 1 2004 The first week of June at Horace Mann middle school marked the last few days of the school year. In the wind-down period of the year, there was not the usual agenda written on the whiteboard in Ms. Cohen's English class and the overhead lights stayed off all day, as if to give the classroom a break from the hot weather outside. It wasn't unusual for Ms. Cohen to put a movie on or to just spend the class period asking students about their summer plans. Billy usually dreaded the summer plans conversation. His family never struggled to put food on the table, but being spendthrift immigrants from China, they tried to save as much money as possible and didn't see any value in spending money on vacations anywhere but back home to Guangzhou. During the school year, it was easy enough for Billy to hide his poor family background with all of the free clubs and activities that his school offered, but most of that went away in the summer. This summer would be different though: he had a scholarship to attend a Christian sleep-away camp in New Hampshire for the first 2 weeks of July. The 6th graders were slow to enter Ms. Cohen's cool dark classroom as the impending end to the school year combined with the oppressive New England summer heat seemed to affect even the movements of the 11-and-12 year olds. Everyone was taking it really slow. Ms. Cohen took a black whiteboard marker and started to write a prompt on the board: "What are you most excited about this summer? Tell the people at your table." By the time Billy had arrived to his English class where the desks were combined to form small pods of 4 desks, most of the seats had already been taken. He was neither popular nor uncool. Able to make friends with most people, he would've felt comfortable taking almost any available seat, but he decided to sit across from Tyler. He has always felt friendly with Tyler, but lately, Billy has been going through some changes and now he was starting to feel a different kind of feeling. Earlier this year, after much begging and pleading, his family finally bought their first PC with DSL Internet access. His parents didn't speak much English and worked a lot, so Billy had unrestricted computer access. As soon as he got home from school, he would plant himself in front of the computer, which was conveniently located in his bedroom, for hours at a time. His parents did not seem to care what he did when he would spend all his time after school before bed glued to a screen, but rather they only demanded that he wear his glasses to "protect his eyes". When his mom would call him down for dinner, she would open the his bedroom door to reveal a skinny 11 year old Chinese American boy in his pajamas and dorky wire frame glasses, standing just barely 5'0 tall with spiky black hair styled with gel in the front sitting cross-legged in a black faux-leather office chair with deep cracks in the fabric from years of use. Some of the older neighborhood boys would talk about looking at pictures of naked girls on their computers. When Billy took a look for himself, he started with girls but it didn't make him feel much. It wasn't until he discovered videos depicting sex between a woman and a man did he realize what kept his attention. Men were hard and firm, and he knew he wanted them. Being socially savvy, he kept his preferences secret, not telling anyone else and hardly even admitting it to himself. So when he was confronted with the decision to sit across from Tyler, he approached with caution. Tyler also stood at just around 5'0, with short-almost-buzzed blond hair. He was pale with deep blue eyes and pink lips that rested in a Cupid bow's shape on his round face. Billy knew all this because he's spent many English classes staring at and observing his crush from afar. Tyler has a quiet demeanor, and since they only share one class and no mutual friends, it was easy for Billy to keep his distance for he feared he would be found out. But today, it being the end of the school year and all, Billy sat down across from Tyler. "Hi" he managed to squeak out. "Hi," Tyler responded timidly slightly smiling. The two boys looked at each other, finally talking face to face for what feels like the first time ever. The way Tyler looked at Billy made him question why he had ever avoided him in the first place. With such friendly eyes, Tyler's smile was infectious and made him look even cuter than his usual stoic self. Billy couldn't recall any other time he'd seen Tyler smile like this and that made him really happy. "Ok well let's get to the question guys. I can go first!" Lexi, the third person in their pod, started to recount her upcoming plans. "Well first, my family is going down to our cape house with our cousins for a week. That's starting this Saturday and I am sooo excited. My mom still won't let me wear a bikini even though the other girls in our class started doing that this year..." As Lexi droned on, Tyler was staring intently at his deskmate Billy. He wasn't exactly sure why he was feeling so excited, but it had something to do with the way Billy was staring at him right back. Even though Lexi was considered one of the prettiest girls in their grade who had even tried to hold his hand at lunch last week, Tyler's never felt much excitement towards girls. This moment, the staring contest with Billy, seemed to confirm what Tyler had also been suspecting about himself. "...and then at the end of July we're going on a vacation to Florida to visit my grandparents! Have you guys ever been there?" Lexi directed her question to both of them. "Yeah, I've been there but we drove so it took forever." Tyler offered. "We've only driven as far as Washington DC and that was like 8 hours in the car. I had to pee so badly but there weren't any rest stops so I had to go on the side of the road!" Billy said with a devilish smile. "Ew! That's so gross. Why don't you guys just fly to these places?" Lexi asked incredulously. Tyler and Billy looked at each other and said in unison "Well..." and both trailed off and started to laugh. "So enough about me, what about you guys? What are you both doing this summer?" Lexi asked. "Not much, I'm going to this Christian sleep-away camp in New Hampshire for a couple weeks, I guess" Tyler stated plainly. Billy's eyes widened. The two boys then discovered were that they were going to the same camp during the same two weeks. It would be both of their first time going to sleep-away camp and both considered it to be their most anticipated event of the summer. English was their last class of the day and Tyler and Billy grabbed their backpacks and walked out of the classroom together. "Do you live near school?" Tyler asked Billy as they walked in sync down the hallway towards the main entrance. "Yeah, about 25 minutes away walking. I live over the bridge by the bus depot. My mom takes the bus to work so it's convenient to live over there." "Oh! I live pretty close to there...across the bridge but closer to the town square on Chestnut St." "Are you allowed to walk home by yourself?" Billy probed, curious about his new friend. "Yes, I can walk home alone...although I usually just take the school bus." Tyler loved the certainty of the school bus. It would always pick him up from across the street at the same time every morning, and it left at the same time every afternoon. It's not that he didn't want to walk, he just has never had a reason to walk. So it wasn't a matter of permission but rather of habit. In fact, the idea of walking home with his new friend excited him. "Well we should walk so we can talk about camp!" Billy said with a smile. "Ok! Let's do it." Tyler's parents were fairly lax; as long as Tyler was staying out of trouble and getting A's and B's, he would be granted a great deal of freedom. As a nurse, his mom worked odd hours and was usually not even home until around bedtime. His dad was more of the quiet type, and while he loved his family very much, he was far from nurturing and mostly kept to himself. Tyler had started to cook simple meals for himself and sometimes for his family, who all ate at different times. Tyler actually preferred eating on his own terms, choosing to make mac and cheese from the box or canned soup as soon as he got home. He would prepare his meals with a remarkable level of precision for someone his age, measuring out each ingredient and adding them precisely based on the recipe's instructions. It brought him a great deal of pleasure to cook and even to clean. It was Tuesday at 1:30 PM and the hallways of the school buzzed with almost-summer mania. Friends were signing yearbooks, teachers stood in the threshold of their classrooms grateful for the end of another school year. The two boys stepped out of their English class together for the first time and all the other students, too wrapped up in their yearbook signing and the first of many goodbyes, did not even seem to notice that Billy and Tyler were intent on leaving school. The boys walked side by side, their motions starting to mirror one another's as they picked up the pace, their footwork moving in step-by-step sync. They were walking toward the bridge, about a 20 minute walk. In a safe suburb known for its good schools, kids were completely safe to walk without worry regardless of the time of day. It was a beautiful walk, particularly this time of year when the afternoon sun shone low in the sky casting shadows through the spaces between leaves on the trees. There were other students walking home too. They strolled along the well-worn sidewalks in their small groups, spread out enough that you couldn't really make out distinct conversations but close enough to enjoy the occasional eruption of laughter or playground chanting. Tyler and Billy walked on the sidewalk on the shady side to find some respite from the June heat. Billy wasn't sure why, but he felt nervous around Tyler, maybe not nervous but something else. Excited, but comfortable. The boys hardly knew each other but they both knew they had to spend this time together. "Do you have any siblings?" Tyler asked Billy "Yes, I have one brother but he is a lot younger. He's only 3, so my parents give him a lot of attention." "Oh, I'm an only child. I wonder what it would be like to have a sibling sometimes." "You're not missing much. At least my brother just cries a lot and messes up my room and stuff." "That would be sooo annoying! Other people with siblings closer in age seem to have a lot of fun together. Or at least mostly fun." "Yeah! I'm also interested in knowing what that's like. Or maybe having a twin!" "I've always wondered what it would be like to have a twin! I bet twins can read each others' minds!" Billy was quick to react his signature, cute chuckle at this, flashing his big smile at his new friend Tyler. Tyler, not even intending on making a joke, blushed a little and started laughing along too. Their giggles were infectious and the boys forgot what was even funny in the first place as the sound of their laughter cut through the otherwise calm backdrop of cicadas and birds. "Ok Tyler, what if you and me were secretly twins?" Billy retorted with a devilish smile. While the boys were clearly of different races, one Asian and one white, they did share a similar slim build, both average height for their grade, still wore shoes from the kids section as they hadn't yet experienced their preteen growth spurt. Though visually different, they both had round eyes and round faces with skin as smooth as glass. Their families were used to hearing about how beautiful each of their sons was, taking it for granted whenever a perfect stranger offered yet another offhand compliment. "Ok well... if we were twins then you would know what I was thinking right now!" Tyler smirked, challenging Billy. Billy paused in thought, staring into Tyler's deep blue eyes for a little longer than a passing moment as Tyler began to blush again a little, not understanding exactly why that kept happening. "I know what you're thinking. I bet you're thinking you can actually beat me in a race to the bridge!" Billy's devilish smile was back as his pace quickened. "Hey!" Tyler shouted, as Billy burst into an all-out sprint. As each foot met the pavement in front of him one step at a time, Billy's calves flexed and his mesh basketball shorts threatened to slide off his tiny waist. His parents always bought him clothes he could grow into, much to his chagrin. In this moment though, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Tyler was catching up. Billy looked back at his new friend and saw Tyler's face flushed pink with determination as he pumped his lanky arms back and forth to propel him forward. Tyler was fast and competitive, not allowing himself to be beat. The two boys ran side by side, their backpacks flying in the air behind them. When there were kids walking in front of them, they simply ran onto the manicured lawns of the houses that lined the street. They boys sweat glistened as they breathed hard and ran fast. The sight of the bridge seemed to provide them with a final burst of energy as they charged toward the goalpost. Tyler beat Billy by a hair when he was the first one to touch the lamppost that stood before the bridge. Out of breath and exhausted, the boys collapsed, rather dramatically, side by side, spread eagle onto the grass next to the lamppost. The grass was damp but not soaking wet. While taking heaving breaths, the boys looked up first at the sky and eventually at each other. Tyler looked over and this time it was Billy with flushed cheeks, the sweat making his hair look like a spiky black hedgehog. BIlly's little chest heaved up and down rhythmically and Tyler subconsciously matched his tempo. Billy didn't feel disappointed that his new friend had been faster than him. Moreover, it was a sense of satisfaction. "Beat you." Tyler finally managed to say, in between breaths. "I knew you would say that," Billy replied, smiling, "doesn't that make us twins or something?" The boys remained stationary on the grass for another few minutes, while the other groups of kids walking home continued to pass them by. None of the passersby seemed to even notice them as the sun continued to filter through the tree leaves onto their flushed faces.