The zipper moves in forced jerks down the side of the duffel bag. I could barely stuff everything I need for camp in there. Most of it I probably won't wear, but I like to play it safe and bring a verbose amount of clothes.
When I finally get the zipper to make it, I let out a cheer. I lift it off my cotton sheets- though try to lift it is probably more accurate. It falls on the floor, landing with an overwhelmingly loud thud on the hardwood floor. I step back, my hand covering my mouth.
"Everything okay?" My dad shouts up the stairs, as usual when something falls.
"Yeah!" I holler. "Dropped my suitcase."
"Oh, I thought it was a five ton elephant," my little brother, Jimmy, says, smirking. His curly blond hair and innocent eyes may make him seem sweet but if you think that, well, I regret to inform you that you're sorely mistaken. "Sounds like it anyways."
"Ha, ha." I say, sarcasm drenching my words. "Leave."
He rolls his eyes, but swivels on his heels and walks back down the hallway.
We have a phenomenal house, in my opinion anyways. Three stories, if you count the basement, which is a fully functional party pad, with carpeting, heating, a pool table, a television with cable, couches and a mini fridge. It's one of the best designed rooms in our modern house. The first floor is insanely well lit, with tons of windows that let the light dapple in. The kitchen is sleek and huge, which my dad loves. He's a baker, and the counter space is great for his constant baking and cooking.
The living room has a white shag rug and red leather couches, and a large television over the cobblestoned fireplace. Jimmy's favorite, since he can lie around. Dad can see him from the kitchen but he's too soft hearted to tell him to move his lazy ass and do something other than watching crap television shows.
Upstairs is the bedrooms. Jimmy's is a messy black hole. His blinds are always down which just adds to the dark factor. My parents' room is neat; the bed has green covers and light green walls. Nice for them but boring. I love my room to death:, the walls are light turquoise, like the ocean water during summer when it's warm out. My bed sheets are blue and white striped, with a white comforter on the top. I have some white bookshelves, crammed with books and drawing pads. My mom claims I've inherited my dad's artistic talent, but unfortunately left with little athletic abilities.
I manage to get the duffel bag down the stairs with minimal crashes. I have to leave in ten minutes if I want to make it to the bus on time.
"Guys I'm going!" I scream to no one in particular. No one says anything in reply. "Hello?"
My brother comes down the stairs and glances at me before going into the kitchen to make himself breakfast. I roll my eyes and go into the large backyard where my mom and dad are reading the paper and drinking coffee.
"I need a ride. And I need to leave now." I say blatantly. They look up, and smile.
"Okay, I'll drive you," my mom says. I thank her, and they come inside to say goodbye.
There's a lot of hugging involved in goodbyes at the Mellark household. My dad is a very emotional person when it comes to leaving someone, which sucks because seeing one of your parents cry is one of the worst things ever. Jimmy just offers me a spoonful of Cheerio's before going back upstairs. My mom yells at him to get back down here young man and say goodbye to your sister. He does ever so reluctantly, giving my dad the bowl and me a stiff hug. I pat his head, and he takes his cereal and goes upstairs. I roll my eyes at him.
`My dad picks up my duffel bag to take to the car and makes a face. "Is there a body in here or something? A typewriter? A hippo?" I laugh. I'm gonna miss his cheesy humor.
My mom settles into the driver's seat of our SUV. I hug my dad on last time, and exchange I love you's. Then we're off! It'll take about ten minutes to get to the place where the buses take us all to camp, and the buses leave in a half hour.
"Know any cute boys who are going?" My mom asks, her voice a couple octaves higher than usual. Ugh. I hate when she asks about guys.
"I dunno." I say quietly. "I only know Acacia'a going."
Acacia is the daughter of my mom's childhood best friend, Gale. We pretty much grew up together, we're like sisters. She's gorgeous, blonde hair like her mom and gray eyes like her dad. I'm pretty sure every guy in our whole school has liked her at at least one point. And why wouldn't they? My hair's elbow length, dark like my mom's, and it gets curly in the rain. Or after a shower. Or after swimming. Pretty much anything. I usually have it pulled away from my face. Right now it's in a messy braid I had put in the night before and never redone. My eyes are pretty though, not to toot my own horn but toot toot, they're one of my favorite parts of me. Clear blue, like my dad.
The ride is a comfortable quiet, and when we get there, my mom hugs me and tears up a little. "I'll only be gone for a month, Mom," I say, trying to be comforting. It doesn't work too well.
"I know, I know." She wipes the tears and hands me the duffel bag. It pulls my arm down. I should've packed lighter.
"Aubrey!" I hear Acacia's voice, and drop my duffel bag. I turn around and she's right there. We hug and exchange squeals of excitement.
"Oh my God, I can't wait!" She says excitedly.
"Me neither!" I say happily.
"I'm gonna go now, Aubrey." My mom says. I turn back to her and hug her one last time. "Have a great time at camp, don't hook up with anyone, no swearing, don't fart in front of people-"
"Mom stop."
"I love you Aubrey."
"Love you, too."
We break apart and I kiss her cheek before she gets in the car. Acacia and I wave as she drives off. A lump wells in my throat as I watch the car move away from me slowly. Fortunately with Acacia there's no such thing as sadness.
She grabs my duffel bag for me and frowns. "Damn girl... What did you pack?" I laugh and take the duffel bag, wincing and limping after her. We stop at her bag, a rolling suitcase. I should've brought one of those. I wouldn't have to lug this god-awful bag everywhere.
I'm surveying the place when I come face to face with some very familiar eyes. I back away from him a little. "Cooper!" I half shriek. We hug tightly, and I let go. "You got so tall! And tan! Oh my God!"
He laughs, the same heh-heh-heh laugh as usual, not varying like his body. Damn. Since when was he hot? Robust, tall, tan. I haven't seen him since a party right before school let out. "Yeah, we went to Africa again." No surprise there.
"That's so cool!" I exclaim. "Hey, this is my friend Acacia! This is Cooper." I motion to each of them. She's got this ruddy blush on her cheeks, and she blinks a bunch. I raise an eyebrow, thinking that she probably thinks he's cute. I decide to help.
"Why don't you two hug and I'll be right back!" I say, squatting to my duffel bag. I pull out a camera, a cheap one you can buy at any drugstore. I like these cameras cause they're convenient but you can't see the picture you took which sucks. I stand up, and see that they're sneaking glances at each other. How cute. I move so that they're next to each other and put my arm around them both.
"Smile!" I say, through smiling teeth.
Cooper groans. "It's too early for this, Aubrey." He smiles anyways.
I sigh.
Getting my duffel on the bus is a hassle. There are these little doors that open on the side of the bus, underneath all the seats and stuff, where campers put everything, and even for the adults it's difficult to pick it up. I should've packed lighter.
When we all get on the bus, I let Acacia sit next to Cooper. They start talking small talk and will, hopefully, get on track with a real conversation. I sit alone in the window seat, which is perfect for me. I get the window seat and a place for my feet when I want to sleep.
"Mind if I sit here?" I hear the smooth voice and look up. My breath hitches in my throat. I've never seen such a gorgeous boy in my entire life. His skin is tan, a different tan than Cooper though. More like he's been in the sun his whole life and always remembers sunscreen. His cheekbones are actually perfect, and his eyes are this amazing sea foam color and they entrance me. I shake my head in a daze, and he grins at me with straight white teeth, but it's a bit of a crooked smile. Not all glossy and Hollywood. Perfect anyways though.
He sits down and introduces himself. "I'm Eli Odair." He holds out his hand and I have to look at it to register that he wants me to shake it. When our fingers touch, I swear I can see a blush on his cheeks.
"Aubrey Mellark." I smile at him tentatively. "Wait... Odair? Are you Finnick's son?"
He nods. "Yup. And you're Peeta's daughter, right?"
I smile and bob my head up and down.
"Yeah. Cool, we already kinda know each other."
"Yup," he says, popping the p. "Do you know what cabin you're in? And which group?"
"I'm in cabin eleven, and I think my group is called Ravine." My voice shakes a little. I wonder what it's like to be so attractive that people get nervous talking to you.
"Me too! And I'm in cabin ten!" He exclaims, his green eyes bright. Goddamn, he's hot.
"Do you know who your roommate is?" I ask.
Eli pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from his backpack, which is under the seat. I can see his shoulder blades adjusting from under his t-shirt when he leans down. He has this adorable look on his face when he reads the name. "Cooper."
"Yeah?" Cooper's head perks out from across the aisle.
"Roommates!" Eli announces, smiling at Cooper.
Cooper returns the grin. "Great!"
"Me and Acacia specially requested to share a cabin," I say, smirking. Then I laugh, "She didn't want to get out in a cabin with some random girl."
The rest of my three hour bus ride is spent sleeping, drawing, and laughing with Eli. He's quite easy to talk to once you get past the stuttering-blushing-knees-are-jelly feeling. He can make any conversation interesting- from school, to social networks, to annoying girls (which I can especially relate to). It's easy to get to know the basics of him- he hates science but likes math, his favorite sport is basketball, he's been to camp three years in a row (this is his fourth), he's a pretty nice singer even if he's just singing to make fun of a song or something. It's easy to get lost in his words, watch the way his face changes when he talks, the way his eyes brighten and his little dimple comes out when he smiles. His voice is smooth and easy, he's good at getting you all wrapped up in the things he says.
When we finally arrive at the camp, I'm almost upset that I have to leave my warm little heaven until I remember that we're in the same group, and I will see plenty of him. I stand and stretch my stiff arms and legs, yawning a little. The trees and dry grass and gravel are all familiar, loaded with people who aren't. I wait in the long line of people filing out of the bus, and we're all handed our things. It's pretty chaotic for the kids who don't know where they need to be, but Acacia and I just walk down to our cabin.
The cabins at camp are great. There are four bunks per cabin, each with fresh sheets stacked on a comfy mattress, and one solitary, unclothed pillow. That's fine since I know to bring a pillowcase and another pillow. I can't sleep with just one pillow and especially not one without a pillowcase which I learned the hard way the first year I came. There's two big dressers with six drawers each, three for each person. Right as you walk in to the room, if you do a 180 and look to the walls on your left and right directly in front of you, that's where the dressers are.
Our cabin mates aren't here yet, so Acacia makes her bed and I put away my clothes on the right side dressers. I separate pants, skirts, and shorts in one drawer, shirts in another, and underwear, bras, socks and swimsuits in the last one. I throw my bag on the top bunk on the right side of the cabin and decide to make my bed later.
"Hey, if you sort through my stuff and put it away for me, I'll make your bed," says Acacia. I smile and thank her.
She's got really cute clothes. "Can we share? All your stuff is super cool," I ask.
She nods. "Yeah, sure. As long as I can borrow that purple bikini top and your vans."
We get the cabin ready, and by the time I'm setting the last shirt into a drawer, our roommates thrust open the door, laughing loudly and clunking around heavy looking suitcases.
"Oh." One of them, a girl with pretty dark hair in a glossy yet messy yet nice looking ponytail looks a little surprised to see us, but she smiles with white teeth. She's really gorgeous. "Hi! I'm Marina."
"I'm Ava," says the other girl, with dark brown eyes and tan skin. Her hair is almost white blond, making her eyes and skin stand out. "Well my full name's Avaline, but don't call me that please cause I might punch you in the face on accident."
Marina looks at her disapprovingly, like a mother who's caught her child eating cookies before dinner. "She's joking."
"Not really." Ava mutters.
"Anyways, who are you guys?" Marina exclaims cheerfully, lightening the mood.
"I'm Acacia."
"I'm Aubrey. Nice to meet you guys!"
We all smile at each other, at ease. I can tell they're nice girls and we'll get along. Well, Ava might be a little bit scary…