As a first year teenager, in 8^th grade, my friends and many peers of mine went to Sunday River with our middle school. It was a time where I got to know and love the people I am currently best friends with now. It started the moment we were guaranteed to go; from that second, we had been counting down the days and, at some point, the hours as well. I remember rooming with a group of girls with whom I hadn’t been greatly familiar at the time. We, including the rest of the students and faculty, stayed on the ground floor of a motel. The instant the key card opened our door we squeezed between and around our luggage, into our spacious new, two day, home. Seeing two separate queen size beds, each of us immediately claimed which bed and which side of it we wanted; as if we were really going to sleep a whole lot. Soon after, we all began to get ourselves set up in the room, personalizing it with some stuffed bears and our own feathered pillows. Taking a second to gather all that was going on, I realized that it was all simply amazing! A group of friends having a double sleep over and no parents to control our “wild” behavior was possibly the best thing anybody could ask for at the time!

Before we started to empty out our unbelievably jam-packed suitcases - since we obviously had to bring every possible clothing item we owned for the many “just in case” times we’d experience in less than three days -- we all pooled every single food and snack item that we brought and shoved them into two large drawers in between our two beds. God knows that not even a third of it would be eaten, or even touched, by the end of the trip, but of course, we had to bring it all anyway.

Once things had finally become organized, we were actually able to lie down and relax on our beds; this recuperation lasted a good three minutes before we got bored and started to pig out on massive food supplies. It was just so brilliant! I mean, we gathered all sorts of variety: some chips, cookies (of course), a box of cupcakes, ramen noodles, peanut butter, and some apples. We could have honestly begun vending some of these things for a good profit.

Time flew that night. It seemed as though we’d arrived only an hour ago, but instead it was a solid 1 o’clock in the morning - way past the “lights-out” hour. You’d think we would start heading off to sleep, right?  Nah, course not; it just wasn’t allowed in our book. Instead, we decided that we, somehow, weren’t satisfied with our food supply, so we called up one of our fellow group neighbors and began ourselves a mini bartering business with them: a couple cupcakes for some muffins; a box of ramen for three donuts.

Once decisions had been finalized, the biggest question now was how we were to obtain these food items, since: a) we weren’t allowed out of our rooms, and b) we were supposed to be sleeping. Being the rebellious girls we were, my roommate and I snuck out of the door (the one leading to the back parking lot) and met half way to the other room to make our sneaky trade. When we got out of the cozy room, I remembered how cold and especially quiet it was. As we walked, we were whispering between each other about how cool and nervous we were. For each step I took my heart beat twice. As we continued to try to hold the ramen noodles and frosting-topped cupcakes, and walk at the same time, we looked up and saw a man in the distance looking at us, wondering why two girls were carrying food and looking so cautious. Our hearts stopped and we froze, thinking it was a school chaperone, until we realized he was just a janitor for the motel. We then kept walking and looking in between each crack of curtains, inside each bedroom. Suddenly,  my friend and I heard some voices, skipping another beat in our hearts. We noticed it was our trading buddies and we quickly jogged over to each other and got our ½ box of Yodels and four chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. We quickly whispered “goodnight” and scurried into opposite directions back to our rooms.

Once we returned, still safe and not caught, we felt just so cool to break the rules for once! I remember telling myself to make sure to mention this adventure with my other friends back at home.