“Honey! Have you finished packing?” Sarah’s mom called from the other room.
“No! Next time you tell me that we are going on a camping trip at least tell me that it’s with Aubrey, Mia, and Riley, I mean it’s bad enough I see them at school but now I have to spend three days with them,” replied Sarah with slight anger in her voice. Sarah’s mom had organized a three-day camping trip with her ex-friends, Mia, Riley, and Aubrey, and with all their moms. Mia, Riley, and Aubrey used to all be best friends with Sarah but once they got into high school everything changed.  All of them thought being popular was more important than a friendship that they have since kindergarten. They had all met when their mom’s decided to start a Girls Scout troop.  They used to have all kinds of fun.
“Remember to get the rain tarp. You never know if it's gonna rain in the mountains. It is after all April.” Her mom called pretending to ignore what Sarah had said.
“It’s 92 degrees outside and we live in the Bay Area. Why do we need a rain tarp?” replied Sarah, “ Whatever I’ll bring it.” After a few minutes of last minute packing the headed of to the campsite which was about an hour away from their house in San Jose. Sarah- complaining in the car the whole way their- clearly did not want to go. Her mom on the other hand was very excited. Mia and Riley’s mom's were good friends of hers and she was excited to meet Aubrey’s mom.
Once they got to their campsite Sarah had a minor panic attack. She had seen all of her friends. They had all gotten taller than her and clearly a lot girlier. They all look like they came out of a photo shoot with their hair in fancy styles and their faces covered with makeup. On the other hand Sarah’s hair was in a ponytail and her face makeup free. All of them had long flowy dresses or short crop tops. She started to get worried. But after awhile started to get calmer. Now that she was calmer the real obstacle faced: Talking to them. She started to stutter then finally  when she said “Hello” it came out weak and just sad. It looked as though no one had heard it. She didn’t know how they would respond or even if they would respond.
“Hi” all of them replied at once which sounded short and annoyed. Sarah had gotten the impression that they didn’t like her.  As they walked in Sarah tried to strike up a conversation. She asked them how was life and how their teachers were. Aubrey and Mia both had boyfriends and Riley just blatantly said in a short and snappy way, “You’re annoying. Don’t talk to me. I’m too cool for you.” Sarah, taken back by surprise, didn’t know what to say. 
“Umm, ok,” Sarah said with a tinge of sadness. Finally thinking of a comeback Sarah snapped, “Ok, our parents are having fun and they are taking a break from us. Please! Can we just put up with each other. I know that we don’t like each other but let them have fun.” All of them had a look of awe on their faces. Of all their years they never knew that Sarah had that much courage the snap back. Sarah had always been the nice, shy type, never the one to snapback. Three hours later, and a lot of  getting to know each other, it started to get dark and it was only 5:00. All of them got hungry and decided to start the grill and make the fire. They wanted to make Sarah’s mom’s famous tacos from when they were little but they didn’t know how to and they decided not to ask their moms because they looked like they were having fun. They decided to make Kraft’s Mac & Cheese. While they were working, Sarah had thought she saw Sammy’s, her best friends from school, car pull in but she wasn’t sure. She made a plan to look after they had finished dinner, around 7:00.  They had made enough for the parents to eat. All of them, finished eating, wanted to go on a night hike. Once they stepped out, a look of amazement spread on to their faces.
“Wow!” Riley exclaimed in surprise, “I’ve never seen this many stars in my life.”
“I know right, there are so many of them!” replied Aubrey. For once, there was something that they could all agree on. The stars could keep you occupied for hours at a time. They heard crickets chirping in the distance, coyotes howling, and the birds chirping. Everything looked alive and somewhat dangerous.  When they first arrived everything looked dead. Now everything was gorgeous and very much alive.
After half-an-hour on the hike, Sarah could have sworn that she had seen Sammy’s dad again. Sarah snuck away to look for them. So far no one had noticed that she was gone. They were all too engrossed in their own conversations. While Sarah was on the search, she started to get scared, everything started to look scarier. The once beautiful tree were looking a lot like a monster. She tried to shake the thought from her mind. So far Sarah had not spotted Sammy and she was on the other side of the camp. This side was a lot more illuminated because it had cabins. Sarah had started to think that she wasn’t there.  As if on cue Sammy, had sprung out of nowhere and surprised Sarah. She let out a little shriek and then started playfully slapping her with the arms of her sweatshirt.  Both of them were laughing.  Sarah decided that it was a good time to tell the story of why she was here.   Sammy, being the best friend she is, started to laugh sympathetically. She was so sorry for her.
“Maybe I know them and I can convince them to butt off and try to be nice.”, Sammy suggested.
“I don’t know.”, Sarah mumbled, “ I mean, I want them to be nice to me but it’s not like I want to be best friends with them again, and it’s anyways only for three days.”
“Ohh. Let’s stop by anyways just to say hi to your mom.”
“Ok!” and they were off. It took them a good fifteen minutes to find Sarah’s mom. When they did Sarah's mom had a look of joy on her face. Sarah’s mom loved Sammy because she had gotten the best grade in the class since sixth grade and had gotten on the varsity basketball team in ninth grade. She was also the fastest runner in her division in the county. Sarah also looked up to her because she was also the most popular kid in school while being the most down to earth one. Always making jokes and always having a good sense of humor at the right time and place. As they walked over to Sarah’s campsite, all of the girls turned around to look who was coming. They couldn’t see very well so Riley pointed her flashlight right in Sammy’s face.
After a brief blindness, Sammy said “Hi.” All of the girls quickly surrounded her. They realized that she was Sammy Smith, the most popular girl in school, every girl or boy in school wanted to be friends with her. Even if you had just come into the school you would know Sammy. They suddenly wanted to be best friends with her. They started acting really nice to Sarah, thinking that if they were nice to Sarah, Sammy could think that they were awesome friends.  They invited Sammy to stay over at their campsite without even asking
their parents. Sarah thought, Oh they like Sammy, maybe if she is here they will stop buggin’ me. Before Sammy left, they asked if she wanted to go hiking tomorrow. Sammy didn’t really care about going with them, she just wanted to hang with Sarah. While they were on the hike they could not stop talking to Sammy. Sarah tried to squeeze in but they wouldn’t let her.
After the night, they asked Sammy if she wanted to go on another hike. Once again Sammy didn’t care and just went with it.They hiked for three hours and Sarah could not get a word in. After they didn’t tell Sarah that they were going to skip lunch and go on another hike. Sarah sat at the picnic table for over an hour. She was starting to think that they were pulling Sammy away from her because she was cool.
All of a sudden a lightbulb went off in her head, they are pushing me away just so that they could hang out with Sammy. How could I be so stupid, she thought to herself. She all of a sudden started tearing up. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if Sammy became their best friend. What if they are talking bad stuff about me trying to make her think I’m mean or something, she thought.
By the time they came back, Sarah had broken out into full out tears. Sammy had a look of shock and concern on her face; she had never seen Sarah cry before.
Riley, Aubrey, and Mia were all laughing because of what they saw. Sarah started talking to Sammy telling her what she thought. Sammy had heard them say this. They had said stuff like, “Oh you know that Sarah begged us to come,” or, “Why do you hang out with her, she’s a joke. You should be hanging out with us the cool kids. I mean, she’s a weirdo.” Sammy, furious now, was ready to bite off Aubrey, Mia, and Riley’s heads. She started yelling at them asking them why they would do it. They were all speech-less with fear. Sarah, right then and there knew what to do. She was going to break of the friendship with Aubrey, Riley, and Mia.
“You guys are just plain cruel! Why would you ever think that Sammy or me would hang out with people like that? If you thought so you were wrong. If you ever think that we could rekindle this friendship then you are wrong! I wanted to keep it because of our parents but I was wrong.” All of them didn’t know what to say. Sarah knew that Sammy would never leave her side, even if if the odds were against it. They headed back to Sarah’s campsite laughing about what had happened. Meanwhile Aubrey, Riley, and Mia were dumbstruck with what had just happened.  They would never have a chance to be friends with Sammy Smith, the most popular girl in school. Their parents were furious with them over hearing what they said and thinking that they could never do that. They all left camp Sarah, happy with the friendship that she had with Sammy, and Riley, Aubrey, and Mia, mad with what had happen and their moms even madder.