For a summer camp the attendance was rather limited. Beside the driver only four people were inside the bus. Which made sense considering it wasn't a summer camp but rather a special program camp, one of those that parents sent their kids to "treat" their problems for them instead.
We had Anthony, a troublemaker all around, D average student, a bully in class whenever he felt like it and a delinquent outside. But nothing major he did lived in the suburbs after all. It was a blessed genetics that gave him a prodigious body. His reputation among the girls was well known, and envied by the other guys.
On the back pouting like hell was Tyler, he was a heir to the Rockwell family, as such he had what people call now a days afluenza. Basically that he was too rich to know any better, so after trashing his parents mansion on a party they sat him on the bus with the threat of cutting down his trustfund, he'd rather die than let his baby sister get any of his money.
On the otherside sat Carl, he was a straight A student, a model of sophistication and of being a stick in the mud, which rubbed the wrong way with his parents. Although he was a model student, his physique was rather scrawny and lacking, his confidence was a strong as a brittle stick and overall a far cry the son his former varsity player father expected him to be.
And finally Ethan, your average kid who's overacting parents caught doing a very fatal albeit small mistake. He was found to be dealing pot in a small scale, he was found out and labelled a troublemaker, in truth except for that he was really nothing to write about, he was not tall, not small, not fat, not lean, not muscular, not scrawny, with messy dark brown hair.
Today these four boys will enter the camp.
"Welcome to the Camp Excellenta." said the man who seemed to be camp director, it was big man, corpulent, not very old but his hair had started to grey. "I'm Counceler James, you may call me that. Now, I know you are not here out of your own choice, but that doesn't mean you cannot enjoy yourselves while we work to... better some aspects of yourselves."
"On this piece of shit farm in the middle of nowhere?" said Anthony.
"Yes, this place is a bit of a fixer-upper, but that's part of the program. In the good old days kids used to help their families to take care of the household, so on the next few weeks we'll go go on a trip to the past and relive those days, and you'll become as a family."
"As if. Look James, maybe we can settle this some other way..."
"Mr. Rockwell, I'm sure you expect me to call you, not a chance Ty... beside you are a bit short of cash at the moment. Am I right?"
"It's Tyler. I hate when people call me Ty."
"Ohohohoh... ok."
"Uhm... Mr. James." said shyly Carl.
"Yes, you must be Carl."
"Look you seem reasonable, I don't belong here, my father insisted but whatever he told you I'm not a bad kid, you can call my school, I'd planned to go to Space Camp, I even managed to gather enough to pay it for myself, please sir, if you let me go now..."
"Sorry bud, but it ain't gonna happen. Look I now your situation is kinda different, but that doesn't mean you don't belong here. As far as I can tell you need to unload a bit and give some love to your body. Being of sound mind and body right, just because you are here on the wrong reasons, doesn't mean you shouldn't do right by yourself... and then we got Ethan, aren't you going to speak up too?"
"What for, let's just get this over with..."
"Wow pretty somber, but ok. Now boys leave your bags for now, first I'm gonna give you a tour of the compound."
The camp grounds weren't to big, the main house that was supposed for camp management, and therefore out of limits for campers. The mess hall, where they'll be getting their meals. A small cottage, mean for one-on-one councelling, the bast extension of farmland that they'll be working, the outhouse, the chicken coop, and others, the tour ended at the barn where the a few cows were kept. "And this is were you are gonna be sleeping."
"The barn? Like some animal!" jumped Tyler.
"Like a farmhand, which you are from now on. But it's not all grim, come let me show you. He guided them to a path behind the barn, after a few minutes. they came to a pond. "Isn't it beautiful? You can come here to swim after you do your work of the day. After a long day of work this waters feel heavenly on the body. In fact why don't you all go ahead and try it out?"
"That does sounds good, just a problem, we left our swimming trunks in our bags."
"Augh... kids these days, all pampered out. I told you we are going back in time, when boys were boys..."
"Are you suggesting...?" pondered Carl with dread.
"Your first bonding experience. Skinny dipping."
"What? I'm not taking my clothes off for some perv." shouted Anthony.
"To get naked in the river like some redneck?" irked Tyler.
"If they are not doing it, neither I am." added Ethan.
"Boy, you really are not enthusiastic... so let me tell you a secret. You are working on a demerit system. It's almost impossible for someone having fun to fail, but a bunch of sourpusses like yourselves would find that a bit more extreme. So let me tell you what's going to happen if you fail, first off Tony, your officer is working on this camp instead of juvie, guess what happens if you fail, same with you Ty, you can say bye bye to your trustfund, as for you two, well let's say that the camp doesn't work JUST summer, it usually does, but it can last much, much longer."
The speech hit the right buttons, neither of them wanted any of that to happen, so reluctantly each of them began to disrobe.