I wish I could remember the good parts of that summer, but I just can't seem to think of any right now.

There was one time that was almost good, in June, when we planted trees by the river. It was a perfect day, maybe a little hotter than perfect, but that was fine with me. But we were planting the trees for this company who strip mined land, and that made me feel bad. After they took what they needed, they wanted to plant trees to make it look like they put it back to normal. I felt dirty.

A few days later, itchy red bumps spread like a wild fire on my arms. First one, then what felt like a million miserable flames chewed through the tanned skin on my arm. I couldn't stop scratching them. I wanted to cry. And it made me hate that strip mining company some more.

We tried to go to an amusement park in July. We had to drive two hours, which wasn't that bad. By the time we got close enough to see the road signs for it, it was pouring down rain like those giant buckets at water parks, except everywhere. We drove on a road uphill and from the window it looked we were driving a boat upstream on a river. We didn't go to the amusement park, but there was a Dave & Busters nearby. It was pretty fun for a while.

August came soon enough, and then we all went back to school. I really can't remember what else we did that summer.