Flickers of light came through the car window as they drove through the hills towards the lake. Tyler continued to make exaggerated adjustments to his seating in a silent protest to the glare on his phone and the frustration of leaving home behind for the weekend.

“What’s the point of all this anyways? Why can’t I say with Max or something? There is nothing out here and it’s so boring!”

“Son, I know it may not seem like it but there is a lot out here and beleive it or not, grandpa used to take me camping out here every summer.”

“Listen to your father, we planned this to spend time together.”

Tyler clenched his fists in his irritation of the situation and let out a final grunt of protest.

—————————-

The sun brightly lit their campsite under the awning of the trees. A slight breeze added comfort to the late summer morning. They were setting up the campsite near a fire pit that overlooked the still lake.

“And there! That’ll do it”

Tyler’s father tightened down the rain fly for their tent.

“See, not so hard”

Tyler tightened his lips with a slight roll of his eyes. He didn’t expect a relaxing camping trip to include so much work. Just then, a familiar car pulled up to interrupt his pessimism.

“Alex!”, Tyler exclaimed

Alex was Tyler’s cousin, the closest thing he had to a brother and friend in his whole family. As the two families exchanged greeting of excitement, Alex’s father opened the rear of their hatchback.

“Boys!”, he called “I have a task for the two of you.”

Their joy seemed to melt away as they trudged over.

“Catch dinner!” He shouted as he pulled out some fishing rods and a tackle box from the back of the car. Alex jumped with excitement.

“Awesome, let’s go!”

Tyler never was much for outdoors and was baffled by Alex’s enthusiasm.

“Don’t worry, it’s fun! I’ll show you!”

The two boys walked down to the edge of the lake and set up their fishing spot in what Alex called “prime real estate”.

As the time began to pass, Tyler’s mind began to be distracted by boredom and heat from the afternoon sun.

“This is ridiculous.. how is this even fun? Do you think there are even fish in this lake?”

Just as Tyler began to shuffle his feet in anticipation to go back to the shaded campsite, a sharp tug pulled at Tyler’s rod.

“You got one!”, Alex humped up and started shouting. The words seemed to deafen behind Tyler’s excitement and concentration. Not quite knowing what he was doing right or wrong, he just kept reeling and reeling. As a large bass burst through the surface of the water, the world seemed to stop. Tyler had never seen a fish that big in real life and he was about to have it caught. As Alex grabbed the fish, Tyler’s heart was still pounding and he couldn’t help but to think of what possibilities the rest of their trip may hold.