"Are you kidding me!" Maya threw up her hands. "They want us to go to school from ten am to three pm? Who wakes up so early during the holidays? Do they even know how cold it is?" The three friends were standing in front of the notice board at school. It was their last day before winter vacations started. Maya had been looking forward to the two-month-long leisure time, but it looked like a study camp was going to ruin her big plans.

Her dramatic outburst made her friends laugh. "I'm sure everyone knows how cold Novembers can get in this part of the country," Sarosh said, trying to control her laughter.

"Oh, don't be too concerned about it, Maya." Sarah smiled at her friend. "We all know you aren't the one to linger in bed; holidays or not, and ten isn't that early, anyway." She was still chuckling as they walked out and headed towards the parking lot.

"True enough. I just like to have the choice, at least." Maya adjusted her backpack and looked towards the overcast sky. "It might rain again," she said in a way of complaining.

"It's no big deal, Maya," Sarosh chimed in. "The camp is only for two weeks. We are still going to get three weeks of uninterrupted sleep."

"That's not the point. I just hate it when they make these things mandatory." As usual, Maya had found something to complain about.

They were driving towards Sarah's house and enjoying their first day of freedom after the midterms.

"Apparently, you hate everything." Sarosh rolled her eyes in mock disgust.

"Hey, I saw that." Maya threw a dirty look at her friend. "And I have a good reason to hate them. We barely get two months of holidays, and they are making us spend fifteen whole days doing silly activities which we don't even need to do."

"She has a point there, Ro," Sarah said, looking at Sarosh. "These study camps are just ridiculous. There won't be any studying, that's for sure. Even teachers don't like them."

"Anyhow, there isn't anything we can do about it." Sarosh pointed out the obvious.

"Who says we can't? Let's start a petition," Maya suggested, smiling mischievously.