Camp Canoa // Luke Hemmings

The One With the Foolproof Plan

Winning over the love of your life is harder than it sounds. Although my plan was easily thought up, there was still the matter to money to be sorted in order to complete it. But no matter how many methods of persuasion I used, I wasn't getting this money from my parents anytime soon.

"Please Mum, you know how much I love those bands." I pleaded, doing my best attempt at puppy dog eyes.

"No Grace, you know we don't have that kind of money, you're just going to have to earn it yourself." She replied simply, glancing towards my Dad for some kind of back up, but his nose was buried in today's paper.

"But it's over £300!" I squeaked. There were so many concerts I wanted to attend, and I was trying to save up for a car at the same time. It's like my parents don't want me to ever find love.

"So get a job." She said, sipping her tea out of a red spotty mug.

"It's not that easy Mum. There are no jobs going for 17 year olds." I sulked, slouching in my seat.

"You know, my old school friend Amelia has started a Summer Camp in America for kids, and it's been running for the last few years." She said, delicately tapping the side of her egg with a teaspoon.

"Mum I'm not going to some depressing summer camp for the whole summer!" I whined.

"I meant that you could work there." She sighed. "I can email her later for you if you want."

"I don't want to go to America by myself for the whole summer Mum." I said, stirring sugar into my tea.

"Well you could ask Nora to go with you? I'm sure she wouldn't mind earning some money over the summer. Didn't you say that she was going to go to these concerts with you anyway?" She suggested. I contemplated it for a second. I suppose Nora would come with me. "Dad could pay for your flights seeing as he has so many air miles on his passport from travelling so much for work." Mum said, smiling at how I was coming around.

This might not be such a bad idea after all. A whole summer in America with my best friend and earning money at the same time. There couldn't be any plan more fool proof to gain the affection of one Sam Peters. I had told him that I would get us these concert tickets for the next year after summer and I had forgotten how much they were. We were going to go to the festivals and concerts and we were going to hang out more and then eventually we would fall in love and get married and have children. It was completely fool proof. It was clear what I had to do. I needed this money.

"Okay." I conceded. "Can you email Amelia later? I'll message Nora now." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and unlocked it to message her.

Nora Nunnington

My mum has hooked us up with a summer job in America please come with me it's gonna be awesome pay
Seen 10:38am
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Sure that sounds good, I asked my mum and she's basically planning a whole summer in Italy with her italian boyfriend anyway. Tell your mum thanks

This summer was turning out to be a good one. My exams finished yesterday and now I had the whole summer to put my whole Sam Peters plan into action. With my best friend as well.

"Mum, where is this summer camp going to be?" I ask, fiddling with the leather bracelets on my arm.

"Texas I think, along the coast. It's really beautiful." She said, tapping out an email to Amelia, her nails clicking out a slow rhythm on the keys. This whole plan just got even better. Even though Nora and I were two of the palest people in existence and I knew we would both burn immediately after stepping into the hot Texas sun, it was going to be like a beach holiday for the whole summer. The whole American summer, so 10 weeks. I was willing to wait that long for Sam Peters and his gorgeous dark hair and deep blue eyes. I just knew that we were going to end up getting married. This is a mission for love.