"HA! Got you guys!" The counselor in the bear costume said.

"What?! That's not funny!" Larry said, standing in front of a trembling Aaron.

"You have seen the look on your faces," The counselor said, taking off the bear mask.

"Don't you have somewhere to be Tyrone?" Ms. Bootcamp asked, clearly unamused.

"The General ordered me to welcome the kids," Tyrone said feigning an innocent smile.

"Suuuree, he told you to scare us too?" Asor asked.

"Not exactly, but no time for chit chat, we have to show you your cabins and give you a tour of our lovely camp," Tyrone announced.

He led the boys to the cabins. The cabins needed a lot of maintenance. Windows, cracked, holes in the roof, and broken door handles with a few rodents.

"Welcome to your new home for the summer!" Tyrone said with an outstretched arm. Coincidentally, the door to the cabin fell apart.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Aaron said. "And that's not just because I really have to pee."

"No one wants to hear about your bladder issues, Aaron," Larry mumbled.

"I bet Mya would care," Aaron replied.

Larry turned towards Aaron with a face of fury. "You little-"

Larry threw himself angrily at Aaron and they pummeled each other with fists and kicks until Tyrone and Asor pulled them apart.

"Guys! You have to stop this!" Asor said.

Tyrone turned towards Aaron. "So, you said you had to use the bathroom?"

Aaron nodded.

"Follow me!" Tyrone said cheerfully.

He led them to the bathroom which was a hole in the ground.

"Uh, where's the bathroom?" Aaron asked.

"Right here. Have at it," Tyrone said, smacking him with a roll of toilet paper.

Before Aaron could respond to the hole in the ground, Larry shoved him into the hole. Aaron fell face-first into the dirt and other substances.

"Dude!" Asor yelled.

"What?"

Asor's eyes shifted back and forth towards Larry and the hole. "dUDE!"

"You saw nothing," Larry whispered whistling away.

Asor pulled Aaron out of the hole. Aaron was covered in "sewage".

"Eww, don't get it on me!" Asor said, wiping his hand.

"Where's Larry?!" Aaron asked. "When I find him I'm going to-"

Tyrone returned to the scene with more rolls of toilet paper. "Hey guys, I brought more-" His eyes fell on Aaron. "You fell in?"

"Something like that," Aaron said, turning a bright shade of pink.

"Uh, that's okay," Tyrone said putting down the rolls of toilet paper. "I'll show you the showers, so you can get cleaned up."

"I didn't bring any clothes, kinda showed up last minute," Aaron said, looking down.

"You can wear some of mine." Asor offered, patting Aaron on the back, then quickly regretting it.

Asor went back to the cabin to grab some clothes for Aaron, while Tyrone led him to the showers.

"Well, here it is!" Tyrone said, holding the door open for Aaron. "Don't mind the frogs."

"Frogs?!" Aaron exclaimed, but Tyrone already closed the door behind him.

Aaron took in a deep breath. "This is going to be a long week."

***

"Welcome to Bootcamp for Boys!" The general announced. "Misbehave and it's off with your heads- I mean.. You will be disciplined, harshly."

The boys started to whisper in a panic. "Are we going to die?" One of them asked fearfully.

"Quiet! No talking of any kind!" The general yelled. "You all will follow my rules, any sign of rebellion will be destroyed immediately."

One boy loudly gulped.

"Understood?" The general asked.

"Yes, sir!" The boys answered.

Back at home, Aaron's parents were very concerned about his random disappearance.

They called a search team to look for him while he was merely away at camp - suffering by exercise and other natural causes. A cop came to their home for a vague description of Aaron.

The cop flipped open his notebook. "Color of his hair? Height? Age?"

"Well, he has blond hair." His mother, Barbara started. "He's about 5'5 and he's fourteen."

The cop wrote her answers. "Hmm, he sounds a lot like this boy who's part of this gang that's been causing havoc in this town."

"Well, I can assure you Aaron takes no part in criminal activity!" Barbara replied, a little offended.

"Sorry about my assumption, we'll find your boy." The cop said.

"Are you sure about this, Tyrone?" Asor asked. He was standing in front of a large obstacle course.

"I'm sure. The general isn't expecting you to finish it but at least to attempt it today." Tyrone explained. "Larry, you're next."

Asor took in a deep breath, prayed a short prayer and sprinted towards the course. He ran towards the tires and tripped over. The general was walking around and saw him trip miserably unto his face.

"C'mon! Move those feet!" The general yelled. "I'm gonna get those chubby legs into form, sooner or later."

Larry and Aaron watched their friend struggle throughout the training course.

"You're not gonna last a second on that course," Larry said.

"Neither are you, you're nothing but bones." Aaron spat back.

"At least I was able to save Mya, something you couldn't do." Larry hissed.

"I was going to! You just had to steal the spotlight!" Aaron replied.

Tyrone blew a whistle. "That's enough, you two!" He motioned to Larry to come over. "You're up."

"Wait, Asor's done already?" Larry asked, confused.

"No, he gave up, they are dragging him away as we speak," Tyrone answered, turning to the group of nurses dragging Asor out of the obstacle course.

"Water! Waterrrr!" Asor yelled as the nurses closed the doors to the infirmary.

Larry turned back to Tyrone. "Uh, I don't know about this."

"You'll be fine, for the most part." Tyrone shrugged. "You have a sixty percent chance of surviving."

"Sixty-" Larry yelled but got pushed towards the obstacle.

"Good luck!" Tyrone said. Larry quaked in his boots. The general blew the whistle, signaling him to start.

Larry got past the tires and crawled under barbwire through the mud. The next obstacle was the swinging axes of doom. Fake axes of course, at least that's what they're told. Larry gulped.

"What are you waiting for, chicken?" Aaron teased.

"Shut up! I got this," Larry said, faking his confidence.

Larry walked up to the axes. He had to wait for it to get far enough away to get past them before they swung back down. He timed his steps, but he was just a second off. The ax came swinging down and chopped off a piece of his hair. Tyrone blew the whistle.

"I think time's up!" Tyrone said, checking his watch.

"Aw come on, it was just getting good!" The general said with a bucket of popcorn.

"It's time for lunch!" Tyrone announced. "Ms. Bootcamp made a big meal using her grandfather's secret recipe, let's go!"

The general, Tyrone and the boys made their way to the cafeteria. As soon as the doors opened, the boys were hit with a putrid smell.

"What's that smell?" Larry asked, pinching his nose.

"It's Ms. Bootcamp's cooking!" Tyrone said, cheerfully. "Smells delicious!"

"Is he delusional?" Asor whispered to Aaron. 

"Maybe, but whatever it is I'll eat it," Aaron shrugged. "I'm starving."

"Take your seats," The general said gesturing towards the broken chairs and tables with graffiti on them. "Now!"

The boys shuffled to their seats. Ms. Bootcamp came over and served them each a bowl of hot soup.

"This looks edible," Larry said.

"It's a trap! Don't eat it!" Asor warned. They turned over to look at  Aaron slurping hungrily away.

"No!" Asor yelled.

"Yes!" Larry said.

"How's it taste...?" Asor asked.

"It's okay," Aaron said.

Larry's eyebrows arched in confusion. "Define 'okay'."

"Okay: plain old good," Aaron said. Larry shrugged and tasted a spoonful.

He immediately spat it out. "Ugh! What is this?!"

Aaron smiled evilly. "Its frog leg soup seasoned with chalk,"

"What?!" Larry grabbed a napkin and wiped at his tongue furiously.

Tyrone came over. "All right, time for the next activity!"

"What's the next activity?" Asor asked pushing away the bowl of soup.

"We will be swimming with sharks!" Tyrone said. "General believes it's good to have experience."

"What?!" Asor screamed.

"Sounds like he just wants us to experience death," Larry said.

"I'm too young to die!" Aaron said.

Throughout the week, the boys almost died about fifty times. Swimming with hungry sharks, being trapped in cages with tigers, getting stuck in a cave and having to dig their way out. The general was impressed, but they still had to go through the final test.

"Listen up, maggots!" The general exclaimed. "You have exceeded my expectations, barely. Usually, we have a few 'incidents' at this point, but you all managed to survive."

The boys let out a sigh of relief. "It's finally over," Larry said.

"You wish!" The general laughed. "There is one last test, a test that will turn you against each other if you don't keep your eye on the prize."

"Enough with the riddles! Explain what's going to kill us this time!" Asor yelled out.

"Fine! Always ruining the fun," The general mumbled. "You will be sent out into the woods to go through obstacles, you have to finish it in twenty minutes or else you have to start this whole program again."

"What?!" A boy shouted. The others started to talk over themselves.

"Quiet! I'm not finished." The general said. "All of you have to make it back. No one can be left behind, not even the weaklings.

All the boys at the camp stood at the starting line. They were each given tools of survival: an arrow, a map, and a harness. Then the whistle was blown. With twenty minutes on the timer, they had to act fast.

"Okay, so according to the map, we have to go left-" Larry started.

"I say we go right!" Aaron countered.

"The finish line is clearly this way. If we go my way, this will all be over fast." Larry said.

"I'm not going your way. In fact, I don't need you at all." Aaron screamed running away.

"Aaron, come back!" Asor screamed.

"It's fine, leave him. We don't need him either." Larry said.

Asor hesitated. Does he follow Larry or Aaron? Then his mind was made up.

"I'm going after Aaron, he'll probably die without me," Asor said.

"What? No, you need to stay with me. We don't need him!" Larry said.

"No, you don't need him. This entire time we've been here, you've been nothing but a jerk. Sure, Aaron's no angel but how you've been acting is wrong. Good luck." Asor said walking away.

Larry stood in the middle of the woods holding his map. He lost everything because of his actions. Now he would have to pay the consequences. He sighed and looked closer at his map.

"I'm going to get there before them, anyway." He mumbled to himself. He made his way towards a river, jumping over the rocks. Larry saw as two other boys made it over with each other's help.

"Man, I couldn't do this without you." A boy said.

"Same bro," The friend replied.

Guilt sunk deeply into Larry's conscience. He needed to find them. Would they even accept his apology?

"Where was it that Aaron was going again?" He asked himself. "Right!"

He quickly turned around and ran in the 'right' direction. There was the wall! Aaron was right after all. If only I listened to him, Larry said inside his head.

He ran towards the wall and saw his friends drowning in quicksand. He had to make a swift decision because their lives depended on him. He glanced down at his watch, 2 minutes left. The wall was right there. Would he have time to make it over or choose his friends instead?

"Help!" Asor screamed.

"No bother, he's the last person that would want to help us," Aaron cried.

The general's words echoed inside his head. No man left behind.

"Actually," Larry said. "You're wrong." Larry cast out a stick and instructed them to hold on. He yanked out his muddy friends. They pulled him into a group hug.

"Guys, I'm so sorry. Especially you Aaron-"

"I hate to break this short but there's a flipping minute left!" Asor screamed. They charged towards the wall running in slow motion.

"AHHHH!" They screamed as the hit the finish line on the dot.

"Time!" Ms. Bootcamp screamed. "Congratulations. You all have completed the course."

The boys threw their hands in the air and bellowed shouts of celebration. As they celebrated, lights of red and blue illuminated the scene.

"We're looking for Aaron Thornton." One cop announced.

"That's him!" Aaron pointed at an innocent boy and took off into the woods.

"We got a runner!!!" The cops yelled into their radios. "Grab the boy he pointed at, he may be an accomplice!"

"Woah, what?" The boy said confused as they put handcuffs on him. "I'm future valedictorian!"

"Yeah, yeah we heard it all before. You have the right to remain silent." The cop said leading the boy into the police car.

"They're after Aaron! Cause a distraction, quick!" Asor commanded. Larry broke the windshield of a cop car.

"Oops?" Larry said, feigning innocence. Asor kicked a cop in the shin. They both took off in opposite directions. Just like that, they were on the run again.

They may have not learned from their criminal actions but they learned the importance of friendship.