Sadie (she/her/hers) has written many short stories such as Camp Bugs and The Super Team. She lives in San Francisco and attends SFS (or the San Francisco School). She is an avid reader which helps her with her writing. Some reads that have influenced her writing include Divergent, Heroes of Olympus, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and Keepers of the Lost Cities. One of her all time favorite books is Matilda by Roald Dahl. Sadie is a self-proclaimed mythology “nerd” and enjoys learning about Greek myth as well as Norse myth. She hopes to continue writing in the future. 

I see all

No matter the droplets so small

I see the stories they hold

I see all

See the words that 

Haven’t been spoken

Yet somehow fill the air

And it's still not enough knowing such

My words still trip

My steps still stutter 

As everything could ever change

I see all

The sidelong glances made between friends

The drama only I seem to notice and watch

Yet I remain a devoted watcher

I see all 

No matter how small

I see all

Until I can’t stand the repetition of words I already know

I know what you said earlier, I remember

I heard you tell a friend that story

I saw you going to the nurse

But for whatever reason

You didn’t know I was there

Didn’t hear me

Didn’ t see me

As I heard, saw, and knew

Before I turned away 

I see all 

Weather or not I please

So, you may be wondering why the Maidu cabin bathroom has smelled like vinegar for the last few summers and what on earth is the "curse of the Maidudes." Well I should start by telling you that Maidudes is just a nickname that someone gave to the Maidu cabin. Now that that's covered let me tell you about the curse. 

Well, it all started when I went to a sleep away camp called Meadow Mountain Ranch. It feels as if, when they were naming that camp, they put a bunch of nature themed words in a hat and pulled three out, but I suppose that's rather off topic. The first year I was in the Apache cabin. I went with two of my friends and when they decided to bunk together I didn’t know what to do. Then came Lila .

“Hi, I’m Lila ,” she said. Lila had reddish brown hair and freckles. She had already started unpacking on the bottom bunk.

“Nice to meet you Lila,” I said then introduced myself, fidgeting with the cuff of my sleeve. I couldn’t help thinking that I had found the person I would be friends with at camp. 

Later that evening after everyone had dinner and was settled the counselor told us to circle up inside our cabin. 

“It’s time to assign chores,” Our counselor, who had short wavy brown hair and a brow piercing, said. She began reading through a list of chores. Vacuuming the cabin floor, mopping the bathroom floor, cleaning the mirrors, cleaning the showers, etc. She went through the list and as my cabin mates volunteered for some of the “good” jobs (i.e not completely disgusting jobs) I was left with the less than pleasant ones. I’m not completely sure what I was thinking but I volunteered to mop the bathroom floor… 

“Okay you can clean the bathroom floor. We need one more person for this job,” the counselor looked around. When I saw that nobody else had raised their hand, I realized then that the job I had thought wouldn’t be too hard or disgusting may be both of those things. 

“Great! Lila, you can help mop the floors.” But I had volunteered and so had Lila. 

A few days later during a break betweens activities and lunch, I went into the cabin to grab a book, my friends, Amy and May, close behind me. Lila was also inside with a girl named Ariel. Ariel had light blond hair and blue eyes. I grabbed my book, Orphan Island, and headed back to the door. We weren’t supposed to be in the cabin for too long without a counselor so I was in a hurry to get out of there. But, my friends became interested in a conversation between Lila and Ariel, leaning in to hear. 

“Guys, we shouldn’t stay in the cabin for too long,” I told them.

“It's fine. We’re not going to get caught,” they argued. I wasn’t worried about getting caught, it just made me nervous to break the rules. 

Now I would go on to tell you what they started saying to each other, but I don’t want to sully my writing with those words. I also left before things fully escalated and asked my friends for details later. Like I said, I don’t like to break the rules. According to Amy the insults started about simple things like how they dressed and ended with Lila threatening Ariel. At the time I didn’t know what really happened, just that something did. 

I headed down to the lunch line and met up with one of my cabin mates, Icey. She was nicknamed Icey because she sat in a freezing cold river on one of the out-trips. An out-trip is a field trip campers can sign up to go on. We stood in line together talking about who knows what when I saw Lila sulking in the back of the line.

“We should invite Lila to stand in line with us. Something happened in the cabin earlier and she looks sad,” I told Icey.

“Okay.” We beckoned for Lila to stand with us. Then we stood there, talking. We really loved talking about who knows what. Then the camp director, Kym, came up to us.

“Lila, could I talk to you?” she asked, rather sternly.

“Could it wait,” Lila responded, saying it more like a statement than a question, hence the lack of a question mark.

“No, It can’t,” Kym replied, annoyance creeping into her tone.

“Yes it can!” I was surprised Lila kept arguing. Though eventually she did end up having to go with Kym. She didn’t come back in line after that. 

I learned later that it was Amy and May who told Kym what had happened.

After afternoon activities, we had lagoon time. May and I wanted to go on a kayak ride but Amy didn’t. She told us to go ahead and while she went up to the cabin to get a book. May and I didn’t end up going on a kayak ride but that's beside the point. 

I wasn’t there when this next part happened. This is my recreation based on what Amy told me. Amy started walking up the hill to our cabin when she saw that Lila just went into the cabin. Amy, knowing what had happened earlier, wasn't sure if she should go inside and…

“Are you lost?” Director Kym asked. I personally find that an odd question considering Amy was standing a few yards away from the cabin, but I digress.

“No… I was just trying to get a book from the cabin but then I saw Lila was there…” Amy tried.

“Yeah, Lila will be leaving camp, she was just packing up. We’ll make an announcement to your cabin after dinner. So until then don’t tell anyone,” Kym told her. I find it rather unusual that Director Kym expected a camper to keep a secret like that even for a short time, but Amy didn’t tell anyone. If Kym had told most others the news may have gotten out. 

“Okay… I’ll head back to the lagoon,” Amy said, turning back. After that Amy, May, and I met up and played exploding kittens. But I remember May and I could tell Amy was hiding something and we wouldn’t stop pestering Amy about what happened. 

“Please! You can trust us! We’re your friends,” we would plead.

“I’m not supposed to tell anyone, you’ll know soon enough,” After a while of going back and forth we were forced to relent. 

Just as promised, that night before bed, Director Kym came by our cabin and told us to circle up. Then she explained that Lila had left camp and that they couldn't give us more information. What was really awful about this whole ordeal was that now I had to mop the bathroom floors alone and they were gross even before the toilets started overflowing. 

That was only the first part of the story. Something unlikely but plausible occurred. The next part is what makes it a curse.

Next year I went back with my friends Amy and May. I was in Maidu which–thank the universe–had better bathrooms (though this time I had enough wisdom/common sense to volunteer to vacuum rather than mop the bathroom floor). Lila did not come back, though I can’t say I was surprised. Ariel did come back. 

I’m even less sure about what happened this time but, here goes nothing. There were a few more girls in my cabin I haven’t mentioned–by a few I mean tenish–one of which was Maddie. She had wavy–almost curly–dark brown hair, light skin, and, if memory serves (and lets just face it, memory is not my most faithful servant), brown eyes. I doubt there is a way to make this as long as the other story so I will just outright say what happened. Ariel put cleaning fluid in Maddie’s mascara. Why she did that I’m not sure. Why Maddie brought mascara to a two week sleepaway camp is even more befuddling. I remember Kym coming to our cabin to tell us the news. She gave us a spiel about how she couldn’t say more about why she left to respect privacy and we couldn’t talk about it. I remember her saying something like: We will not be discussing this, especially outside of this cabin. Yet here I am writing about this nonsense. Because we weren’t supposed to talk about it I didn’t ask my friends about it until after camp. I remember they made us switch to vinegar instead of cleaning fluid. Now I mostly understand why. If we asked the counselors why though, they said the Directors wanted a more earthy smell, and believe me, the cabin was very fragrant after we switched to vinegar.

So that, my classmates, is the end of my essay, as well as why the cabin bathroom smells like vinegar and more importantly that's the curse of the Maidudes. One camper leaves camp for a threat and the next year the threatened camper leaves. Who will be next?