"Did anybody remember the top to the tent?" said Coach Kelly about 5 minutes after we had left the school parking lot.
It was Saturday 11th of October, and we were headed to the city on an hour and a half bus ride to run at an invitational in the Bronx.
The team assembled groggily at 8:15 at the back of the school where the bus was supposed to meet us. The bus was running late. I sat in my mom’s navy blue Volkswagen bug, watching team members gather under a small portion of the roof of the school that jutted out and provided protection from the rain.
It would rain all day, so the possibly-forgotten tent top sparked fear in a few of us. I sat in the blue bug and wondered why everyone wanted to get out of their warm car to stand in the wet cold rain. Had their moms or dads pushed them out, eager to get home and go back to sleep? I stayed in the car until the last person came out of the last car on standby, when I resigned to standing with the team to wait for the bus. Coach Kelly made a remark about how I was lucky the bus is late because I would've been left behind. I guess he didn't notice my dark blue bug had been sitting in the parking lot since 8:06, even before he had gotten to the school.
The bus came about 20 minutes late, at around 8:35 and we all hurried on bus 131 and found our own seats. We got a big bus this time. Everyone settled down, put their bags on the ground and pulled their blankets over them.
There was a beautiful sound of silence alongside a little drowsy chatter as people ate their bacon egg and cheese sandwiches and Reese's Puffs. The bus smelled like breakfast and I regretted eating oatmeal an hour earlier and wished I had gotten myself a warm sandwich at Quick Stop before I left. I picked at the various snacks I'd brought along but reminded myself to ration them.
As people woke up from their drowsy states of mind, the noise of laughing and joking got louder, but I could still hear the background noise of the bus on the highway and the wheels on wet pavement zipping by. They had a sort of calming effect.
Before long, Coach Kelly yelled to get our stuff together and take it all with us as we would be arriving soon.
The bus stopped just long enough for us to hurry off. We stepped out into the rain and began looking for a place for our tent. Thousands of kids wandered the big park, all there for the same reason. We settled into our unsupportive tent (we had remembered the top after all), preparing for the long and stressful day ahead.
— Andra Sullivan, Class of 2017