There will be a competition of physical challenges that pits the poor underdog campers against the rich arrogant campers, which the underdog camp will win, or take down to the wire, thanks to a combination of what they learned over the summer and their own unique talents that they thought made them weird outcasts. If the camp is co-ed, the kids will all wind up with crushes on each other that serve as an object lesson in how Love Makes You Dumb (and nobody ever manages to hook up).ĭespite all this though, the students and counselors will always band together at the end of the summer to take on their hated rivals: the affluent summer camp across the lake. The only fun they have is messing with each other, leading to an Escalating War in no time (and brutal hazing if some of the kids are new). Usually, boredom drives all the campers to insanity (if they weren't that way to begin with, as the hero's bunk-mate always seems to be). Usually, though, there's at least one counselor who tries to make some of the awkward kids feel better. The teenage counselors are either awesomely stupid and actually take the 'camp spirit' and 'camp traditions' seriously (often bordering on Pointy-Haired Boss), or treat the camp as their own personal vacation spot with the campers' welfare as an afterthought, or in some cases are out-and-out bullies who sadistically terrorize their younger charges. The bathrooms are outhouses that require a full nature hike to reach. Arts and crafts are so boring you want to be back in school.

In sports, there's a handful of super-jocks who treat it as Serious Business and reduce everyone else to terror.

The environment seems to be sentient and out to get you (mosquitoes chase you across camp, perfectly-timed inconvenient rain, etc.). Summer camps in fiction are usually run like the company from Dilbert. Allan Sherman, 'Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter from Camp)'

Camp Camp by Roger Bennett