Camp River Rat

• Torren Curtis, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

I stared down at my food…
It stared back…
First day at camp and I already want to go home.
Over the school holidays mum booked me into a “fitness camp”. “But mum I don't want to go” I said. “It'll be good for you” she said, “I’m sure you'll love it.” And the next thing I knew I was standing in front of Camp River Rat.
The day started off fairly dull with just a few boring ice breaker activities, such fun games like pass the ball to a random person and they say their name, say a word that rhymes or alliterates with your name and the best one…sitting in a circle and saying something about yourself! After what seemed a week, we finally had lunch and all of us were introduced to the lovely meal schedule:
Day 1:
Lunch: ham and cheese toasties
Dinner: fish head surprise!
Day 2:
Breakfast: deep fried toadfish filets and egg sandwiches
Lunch: fruit and vegetable salad
Dinner: boiled turnip soup and carrots.
I couldn't keep reading otherwise I would throw up, but I thought it was just a joke so I didn't think too much about it.
After lunch we were shown to our prison cells, I mean “cabins”, they consisted of bunk beds with flat hard mattresses with thin sheets and a weird toilet/shower hybrid in the corner with a curtain strung around it.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful but then dinner came along…and when my dinner was staring at me that night I thought to myself ‘Maybe I might go vegetarian.’