Amy is still not finished packing all the things she needs for her school camping trip. This is her first time going camping and she has no idea what it will be like. She is excited though. She starts to imagine sleeping in a tent, bathing in the river, starting a campfire, cooking with firewood, catching her fish, and toasting a marshmallow on the fire...

"Amy, Amy". She heard her mother calling. "Your bus will come in another 3 hours. Have you finished packing all the things on the list I gave you?"

"Oh No". Amy replies to her mother. "Almost done Mom". She answered while she heard footsteps coming near her bedroom.

"This is what you called almost done?" She is standing at her bedroom door, walking inside, and helping her to finish packing. "Go and take a bath, prepare yourself" and Amy does as her mother says.

By the time she finishes preparing herself for the trip, her mother puts all her bags in the living room and waits for her at the dining table. "Eat some before you go," she said and Amy did. An hour later, the bus comes and Amy bids her mother farewell.
Amy sat with her best friend, June. It will be for three hours on the bus before they reach their destination. The teachers are busy counting heads and making sure that everyone is safe and sound on the bus while distributing a card to each of the students. They will need to wear that card for the whole camping trip. The student's name is written in front and their emergency contact numbers and addresses are written behind the card.

June is not given a card and when Amy asks, the teachers wrinkle their foreheads and tell her that it will be given later.

Amy is the last one to be picked up so the teachers are making sure that everything is ready before they go.

Amy and June are busy chatting and taking photographs using their smartphones and once they are tired, they sleep. The other students kept looking at them but they ignored it.

There are two stops for bathroom breaks along the way.

It was a beautiful day and the air was fresh. They can only listen to the sound of birds chirping and the whispers of the tree when it is blown by the wind. Amy likes what she sees and June is too.

The first thing that they did as they were each there was build their tent after being divided into groups. There are only 16 of them, therefore there are three groups of five students each and another group has an extra person. Two groups of girls only and the last one is the boy's group only.

It was almost noon after they finished setting up their camping ground. The other students keep on whispering behind Amy and June. Both of them did not care what they were talking about. They are busy with their own stories.

June said to Amy, "BFF, remember our promise?"

"Of course I do" Amy answered her. We will be doing that tonight and June smiles.

Each group is then asked to build up their campfire as one of the group activities, cook lunch with one teacher's supervision, treasure hunt, fishing competition, and do a lot more activities.

They finished all the activities by evening and they were allowed to take a bath in the shallow part of the river and not allowed to cross the line that the teachers had set earlier.

By night, they build the main campfire and sit around it.

After singing a few campfire songs, dinner, and a few ghost stories, they were asked to prepare for bed but Amy and June had their plan in mind for that night. While preparing for the sleepover, June asked Amy a question that was a bit shocking for her.

June said," Amy, if I were to die and leave you behind would you be angry?"

"Why do you ask such a question?" Amy replied.

"Well.." June said. "I know that we had made a lot of promises for our future but I might not be able to fulfill all my promises to you. If I died early, could you promise me that you will never give up on that dream? She pauses for a while. "I know it is a lot to ask but I do not want to see you crying on your bed all the time. Remember the time when we got separated because of my father's job? your mother told me that you cried because I was not able to reply to your message for the whole day."

"Yes, I remember that," Amy said. "That was when we were in primary one" Please do not remind me of that" She blushed a bit. "You are here now. You are not going to leave me forever right?"

June said, "It is time. Let us go."

The other student have been asleep by that time and they sneak out from their tent to go up to the nearby hills. They are planning to do star gazing there. Some said that there is the best place to do so. They did not notice that two of the teachers followed them behind quietly.

Reaching on top of the hills, they were amazed to see the view of the sky. It is as what people said. It is the most beautiful view they ever seen in their whole life.

"Amy" June called her to break the silence. "Yes," said Amy almost whispering.

"Thank you for being my best friend. I need to go now. The teachers will accompany you back." As June's body is slowly becoming transparent. Amy is shocked and tears flow down her cheek.

"June," She said. "I know, thank you to you too." And June disappeared from her sight with a smile on her face.

"Amy" one of the teachers called out to her as she was standing almost too near to the Clift. "Get back, come to me"

Amy walked to the teacher and fainted on her arm.

The truth is, she already knew that June had passed away because of brain cancer the day they went on their trip. She is shocked to see June on the bus but she makes herself brave for her best friend. She is happy that she can see her one last time and to know how much June cares for her until the day she leaves the world. Amy kept her promise to June as a memoir of their friendship.

© heartbeat1515

*I wrote this story on read.cash platform and transferred it here.*
#healing