"If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be." -- Maya Angelou.

For those who are uncomfortable with foul language, I apologise in advance, but I promise it's not a lot.

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"Sam, ready to go?" Steph asked.

"Yip, let's go," Sam took her phone and checked the time. It read 6:00 am. She took her portable charter from the table and switched the plug off. She would need to charge her phone to contact Ian or if there was an emergency.

It was Tuesday and everyone was ready to go camping. Originally, they had planned to go on Friday morning, but rain showers were expected, so they moved it up two days; on Tuesday morning.

She asked her Uncle if it was okay and he immediately agreed, telling her that she needed a break.

Jay-Jay had also showed up a few minutes after Steph, bringing with him Brand, Mari, George and Natt.

"What about the rest?" she had asked him.

"We're meeting them at their houses," he had replied.

After Sam was set and ready to go, saying bye to Ian, she grabbed her bags and Jay-Jay helped load them into the van. Jay-Jay learned how to drive; his Grandfather had taught him once he was twelve or thirteen.

Whenever they had outings, his Grandfather allowed him to use his van. It was big enough to fit them all and their bags.

Here in Transville, there was only one police station -- just like there was only one of every other shop --, so even though underage kids drive, they're never actually caught.

Sam jumped in behind the driver seat -- where Jay-Jay was sitting -- and Steph got in the passenger eat next to Jay-Jay. Brand, Mari, George and Natt filled in the seats behind her.

They left to pick Carter and Chris up. They were ready when they showed up. It took two minutes to load their bags and they were on their way to pick Paige and her brothers and sisters, all of them were coming, much to Paige and Max's disappointment.

Paige and Max are the only two mature one's from all the children, even though Marianna was a year bigger than them, she still acted like a child. But Sam didn't really mind that, she was just glad that Marianna didn't boss them around.

When they reached the house, everyone was outside besides the twins.

"Hey, guys," Paige said as she came in to sit next to Sam.

"Hey, Paige," Sam greeted and smiled.

The rest of the Summers' filled in and Jay-Jay pulled out of their driveway.

"Guys. Mishka, Sameer and Raj came back from their trip. I told them what we're doing and they said they'll meet us there," Jay-Jay informed them.

After driving for a while, they finally came to Sally's house. Drake was there -- obviously -- and so was Den, Gabs, Liv and Cam.

They lived more by the outskirts of town, which wasn't very far.

Everyone helped to load their bags in and they all jumped in. This was their last stop and they hit the road, driving to their destination.

The van's windows were open, raking fingers through Sam's long hair. Talking and laughter filled the car -- and some screams, too -- as they drove. Sam looked at the scenery as they passed it. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and whipped past her face, leaving a stinging feeling behind. Steph's pin-straight, blonde shoulder length hair, however, was flying all over the place. Sam saw Jake -- who was sitting behind her -- use his hand as a shield. He pulled a scissor out of his pocket and smirked. Sam knew he wouldn't cut her hair off -- all hell will break loose when Steph realises, but he would use it as a threat, definitely --, so she didn't worry about it.

Jay-Jay switched the radio on and his pounding rock music flooded through the car and he sang along -- horribly, she might add -- and Sam had to block her ears to keep them from falling off.

"Jay-Jay, shut that damn music up. Now!" George yelled.

At the same time, Den reached over and switched it off, smacking Jay-Jay in the head pretty hard as she moved back.

"Okay, okay. All you had to do was ask nicely," Jay-Jay said, trying to concentrate on the road and rubbing the back of his head with his left hand.

Den scoffed. "As if."

Steph switched the radio back on and changed the station to something we'd all agree on. Soon, Steph started singing along. Nobody complained; she had a beautiful voice.

Next to her, she saw Paige pull her phone out and she started recording Steph. Sam smirked. For some odd reason, Steph hated being recorded, especially when she was singing.

After a while, Marianna pulled out what looked like four decks of cards and asked, "Anyone wanna play?"

So for the next half an hour or so, all of them, besides Steph and Jay-Jay, played cards.

Sam won three out of four games and everyone complained that she was cheating. Her only reaction to that was putting her hands up and moving out of the game, knowing that she didn't cheat.

The place they always camp at, Forest Hills, was about four hours out of Transville. It was a peaceful area with no noise or disturbances. The city was about a six to seven hour drive from Transville and the countryside wasn't too far off; you could see it in the distance. They passed some farms on their way; the cows were grazing the fields, horses were here and there, hay stacks were all over, a flock of sheep were being lead by a herdsman and some goats were around, too.

Ten minutes later, Jay-Jay stopped at a garage to fill petrol. Everyone else got out, too, when they saw a food area; they were starving, even though they had snacks in the car.

Sam checked her watch and was shocked to see that the time was already 8:30 am. Their morning was already gone. It would be around 10 when they reached Forest Hills.

"Okay, guys. Come on. We got about . . . , " he looked at his watch, "one and a half hours left. Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Jay-Jay said.

Some groaned and they all slowly walked out of the shop.

This time, Sam was pushed into the back seat and was squeezed in between Max and Jake. George and Hazel were sitting together by the window next to Jake. Hazel was half sitting on George and half on the seat.

"Move up! I can't sit here!" she yelled.

That only caused Jake to push against George so that it squeezed Hazel even more.

"You ass, move up!" she yelled louder.

Jay-Jay turned the volume of the radio down and spoke in a fatherly voice, "Young lady, what did I tell out about foul language?"

That caused them all to laugh, but Hazel's face went red and she got even angrier. Just as she was about to say something, George offered her a coke and showed her a picture to which she laughed at.

The rest of the ride was entertaining and full of laughter. Sam soon forgot that she was squeezed like a sardine and laughed along with the others. Before they knew it, they were pulling up at the border of Forest Hills.

Everyone scampered out of the car, some tripping and falling over, and rushed to get their bags out.

Mishka, Sameer and Raj had not shown up yet and they carried on without them, knowing that they'll find them soon.

"Ah, shit. I forgot there's no network here!" George and a few others complained.

Samantha chuckled and hiked her backpack further up on her shoulders, clutching her other two bags in one hand -- one for clothes and the other for her camping stuff. She took a solid stick from the ground and held it, knowing that she'll need it for later.

"Oh, shut it!" Hazel said.

"You can survive without using your phones."

"Come on, guys. Let's go to our spot," Steph suggested, already walking.

"Yeah, let's go," Brand agreed and he and Marissa followed.

Jay-Jay and Sam walked on after them with the twins and their siblings at their heels.

The rest seemed to wake up and stopped complaining about the network and shoved each other out of the way as they walked up the pathway, following the rest.

Just then, they saw a red car pull up and Mishka, Sameer and Raj got out.

The car sped away and they exchanged greetings.

The Sun was shining brightly high up in the sky. Sweat trickled down Sam's forehead and neck, but she didn't have a free hand to wipe it away.

"It's so hot," Steph complained from the front.

"Duh," was the only reply she got.

Five minutes later, they came to a shady spot where they always camped at and set their things down, spreading it out. They set up the tents and other things and put their bags inside.

After ten minutes, everyone was exhausted at having finished their tents and from the heat.

"Let's go down to the waterhole to cool down," Samantha suggested.

Everyone immediately agreed.

The waterhole had a little waterfall at the beginning. Half of the water was in the shade and the other half in the Sun, so they didn't have to worry about getting burnt at this time of the day.

Sam let out a sigh, wiped her forehead and neck again, and sat down on a log with a water bottle in her hand. Steph joined her after a while.

"Remind me why I came again?"

Sam grinned at her and took a sip from the bottle.

"I don't know. Why did you come? We wouldn't have missed you," Sam replied.

Stephanie hit her shoulder, "Oh, please. You wouldn't survive without me," she said.

"Yeah, right," Sam agreed, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Ah! Spider!" they all watched as Sally shot up like a spring, hands waving wildly in the air and her feet carrying her as fast as she could go. Drake held a fake spider in his hand -- maybe it was real, you never know when it comes to Drake -- and was smirking at Sally's running figure.

Everyone laughed.

This camp is just getting started, Sam thought, smiling as she took another sip from her bottle.

- - - - -

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Croc