Chapter One: Who Doesn't Love Band Camp?
Today was the day, and I was super exited. I was pulling up to the High School, and I was so anxious and jumpy, I thought that I'd faint. My dad unlocked the car door and I jumped out, grabbing my backpack and slinging it onto my shoulder. This would be my second year and I knew exactly what I was doing. My dad got out of the car and looked around.
"See anyone you know?" He asked. I shook my head. I hadn't seen anyone yet. "I'll go check you in."
"LAURYN!" I heard someone call, and I turned around, spotting my friend Laura. She plays the saxophone, but she's still one of my very best friends. I grinned, and we hugged.
"I can't wait!" I said, "and I brought the QuoteBook!" Laura looked absolutely elated at this proclamation, and I laughed. A second later, I felt arms around my waist, and I turned to see Sophie, one of my 10th grade friends, standing there. I squealed.
"Sophiee!" I said, laughing, and then I was suddenly blinded by an eclipse of black hair. "Joanne-" I choked, "your- hair- is- choking- me!"
"Sorry," Joanne replied, but she was laughing. I saw my dad walk out of the school, and I waved him over, flinching slightly as he pulled out a digital camera.
"Can I get a group picture?" He asked, and I didn't have the heart to say no, so the group- Me, Laura, Joanne, Sophie, Kelly, Baiqiao, Lucy, Addie, Brian, Danielle, Kerry, Jonathan, and Grace (along with a few more people) squeezed together and grinned at my dad, who, thank God, wasn't the only parent taking pictures.
After that was finished, I bade dad good-bye and turned to Laura, doing a double-take as a shiny Volvo pulled up to the curb. As we watched, several people got out of the car, and we both were entranced by how beautiful they all were. One of them, a boy with blonde hair and amber eyes, walked up to Laura and myself and a very beautiful girl with brown hair and amber eyes followed him.
"Hello," the boy said, and I couldn't help but notice how velvety his voice was. "I'm Edward, and this is Bella." He paused and took the girl- Bella's- hand before he continued. "What are your names?"
"Um," I said, "I'm Lauryn, and this is Laura."
"Yeah," Laura said. I could tell from her tone that she thought Edward was nothing but a useless pretty-boy. I hoped Edward couldn't tell, but judging by the look on his face, he could.
"Anyway," I said, as four more people came up beside Edward and Bella, "who're you?"
"I'm Alice," the smaller of the two girls said cheerily. She was very cute, but something about her said that you couldn't mess with her.
"I'm Jasper." The boy next to her said, putting his arm around her waist.
"I'm Rose." The blonde girl said.
"And I'm Emmett." The boy next to her said.
Suddenly, Alice gave Edward a look, and his head moved a fraction of an inch, showing that he understood something, maybe? A second after this silent exchange, another car pulled up and another guy came out.
"Bella!" The boy said, and his face was smiling as he walked over to her and they embraced.
"Oh, this is Jacob." She said, turning back to Laura and I. I saw Laura's face, and I could just tell that she was, like, in love with him already. Oh, jeez, I thought, here we go…
Edward snickered and I tossed a questioning look at him. He arranged his face in an innocent look.
"Lauryn!" Joanne called. "We need to get seats on the bus so we have somewhere to sit!"
"Okay!" I answered, grabbing Laura and dragging her over to Joanne, tossing a 'bye' at Edward.
Laura put her saxophone in the trailer attached to the bus and then we ascended the bus stairs, surveying the seats to find empty space. The only occupied seats were in the back- there was a boy with black hair and a funny shaped scar on his forehead sitting next to a redheaded girl, a set of two redhead boys who looked like twins, and a younger boy (you guessed it), who was also a redhead, sitting with a pretty girl who had brown, bushy hair and rather large front teeth. In another seat, two girls sat together- an Asian girl with sleek black hair, and a light blonde girl with a bottle-cap necklace. She looked a little eccentric, but pretty at the same time.
"Hello," I said to the group, and the bushy-haired girl spoke up first.
"Hello," she said, "I'm Hermione Granger. This is Ron-" she continued, pointing to her seat companion- "that's Harry"- she pointed to the boy with the scar- "and that's-"
"Hi, I'm Ginny." The redhead girl on Harry's right side said. "Sorry about Hermione." She grinned.
"Well, I'm Lauryn, and this is Laura." I said, pointing to Laura. "And Joanne." I added, and Joanne smiled.
"It's nice to meet you." Harry said. He had green eyes, I noticed. I smiled, and sat in the seat in front of him.
"Is no one going to introduce us?" One of the twins said.
"What kind of friends are you?" The other one chimed in. "Not even remembering us!"
I laughed. "I'm sorry," I said as Laura sat down next to me, "who are you two?"
"Thank you for asking." The first one said, winking at me. "I'm George."
"And I'm Fred."
"I'm Lauryn, and this is Laura." I repeated, and there was a second of awkward silence before we all burst out laughing.
"What am I missing out on?" A new voice said. "You can't have a party without me!"
"Hey, Kerry," I said cheerfully, and everyone introduced themselves. When they were finished, I asked, "Where's Joanne?"
"She went to get the others." Kerry said. I was about to say something when I heard someone talking to me. I groaned and stood up, facing the front of the bus, where he was sitting.
"What do you want, Joe?" I asked, sounding bored.
"How was your summer?" He answered, and I hesitated before answering.
"Good… why?"
"I just wanted to know, since I haven't seen you for a long time."
"Shove off, Joe," I said, "you don't give a damn about me."
"Why are you so mean to me?" He asked, pretending to be hurt. "What did I do to you?"
"If you don't know, first of all, then you're even stupider than you look," I sneered, "and, in fact, compared to some people, I treat you like a freaking king."
Joe had nothing to say (at least, nothing intelligent), so he just sat back down in his seat.
"Was he bothering you?" Someone said, and I turned around, only to find myself face-to-face with a really cute, really tall, and really blonde guy. "I'm Sean, by the way." He said, and I smiled.
"Lauryn." I said, and Laura got up. She winked at me.
"Here, Sean, you can have my seat." She said.
Sean grinned and sat down, but Laura had no other place to sit- the bus had filled. Sean saw the issue and gently lifted me onto his lap, so Laura had a place to sit.
Laura's look was gleeful enough to light up a Christmas tree. I stuck my tongue out at her when Sean wasn't looking. She grinned back at me.
As the bus lurched forward, everyone was talking excitedly about how much fun they were going to have. Laura and I were discussing music, and it was getting quite heated.
"I'm telling you," I said, "you need to listen to some good music!"
"And I'm telling you I do!" Laura backfired, sticking her tongue out at me.
"Young lady, I will not have any of your back-sass." I pretended to scold, and she and Sean laughed.
"What's so funny?" Joanne whined at us; she had turned around in her seat to look at the three of us. "I wanna know!"
"Sorry, Jojo," I said, using her nickname, "but it's an inside joke." I tapped her on the nose with my index finger. She pretended to bite it, and Laura laughed.
"I hate you all," Joanne said, "go shove your ass in your face." At this remark, Laura, Sean, everyone else who had heard, and I burst into laughter. Even Joanne joined in after a second.
After the laughter had pretty much stopped, I reached into my backpack and shuffled around for a moment before I found what I was looking for; the QuoteBook. I scribbled what Joanne had said down and replaced the book, my pencil, and my eraser back into my backpack, yawning.
"Tired?" Sean whispered in my ear. I nodded. Laura was absorbed in something else, so I simply twisted around a bit, put my head on Sean's shoulder, and fell asleep, comported by the warm weight of his arms around my waist.
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A while later, I was awakened by someone poking me. I thought it was very rude.
"Omm," I mumbled, "go away."
"Wake up!" Laura said. "We're here!"
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A/N: Yes, I do love band camp. I had a lot of fun with this chapter. Please review!!
Lauryn.