Whoops, I wasn't going to post another story while I still had two going. Clearly I'm good at doing what I am supposed to…
Give it a go and let me know if I should continue? (And don't worry I'm still working on my other fics. I know I said end of week for Learning Curve, but my friends keep insisting I be social, the nerve. It's on the top of my queue to do – honest.)
As always, thank you for reading.
I don't own Skins or anything of its nature.
Intro: Naomi Campbell arrived at the dock and scanned the crowd for that bright red hair. She could have sworn she said she was coming back. How she ended up a camp counselor at an all girls camp in the middle of America she still wasn't too sure. The one thing she was sure of, it was definitely going to be an interesting summer.
Summer Skin
Chapter I
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Naomi tapped her finger on the wooden table. Where was she? She thought. It was the same thought she had had since she got to the dock, since she had lugged her stuff for the summer onto the boat, since she allowed her friends to hug her in greeting, since the boat took off for the island, since she half listened to her friends idle chat as she watched the water and breathed the fresh crisp air.
The mess hall was cool with its lights off. The nurses were part way through their basic safety lecture. It was the same lecture every year. She watched Panda jab the practice EPI needle that was being passed around into a less enthusiastic Effy's leg. The last time they had spoken, she said she was coming back this summer. But she wasn't here. Naomi's stomach dropped at the thought of her summer without her here.
It was currently prep week, the afternoon of day two of prep week to be more precise. Every summer consisted of nine weeks. The first was prep week where all the staff arrived and set up camp. The following eight weeks were broken up into four different quarters where campers could choose to stay anywhere from one to all four.
It was all quite American, really. When she was eight, her mum's boyfriend had suggested Naomi try camp as a way to make friends. Naomi was suspicious he just wanted her snarky eight year old self out of the way. Despite Naomi's impressive debate skills Gina had eaten up his whole "new life experiences" pitch and off she was sent.
A whole month in America at some rutty girls camp in New Hampshire, wherever the hell that was. To everyone's surprise, and no ones more than Naomi's, she had loved it. The antisocial, snarky, frowning English lass had loved the loud, singsong, happy sunny place despite her best efforts.
And here she was a whopping fifteen years later, back again. That boyfriend of Gina's was long gone by now, but Naomi had continued to come back ever since.
Now she sat in a staff meeting with the rest of the counselors. But the fellow counselor she was most interested in, the one she was most concerned with, was absent. Well, two were missing really, but she only cared about the one.
"Stop," Grace said, her hand stilling Naomi's bouncing leg. "You're shaking the whole damn bench."
"Sorry," Naomi whispered back, her hand twirling the gold ring on her middle finger, taking up where her restless leg had left off.
"Oh my god," Grace sighed, "Stop. She'll be here."
"Sorry?" Naomi said again snapping her attention back, her movements finally stilled.
"You're worried Emily's not coming back," Grace said matter-of-factly. "I know, I want her to get here too. But don't worry, she'll be here. I talked to her last night."
"What? How?" Naomi asked.
"It's called a phone," Grace teased, "I think you've got them back across that big ol' pond of yours, the term 'mobile device' ring any bells?"
Naomi rolled her eyes.
"Well anyway, what makes you think I'm not looking for Katie?" Even as she said it, she couldn't keep her face composed.
Grace shot her a knowing smirk. It was no secret her and Katie weren't exactly what you'd call friends. Somewhat tolerant of each other was a better way of putting it.
Grace was a few years younger than Naomi. The two had become friends in Naomi's last year as a camper, Naomi fifteen at the time, Grace only twelve. Naomi had never heard a negative thing said about Grace, but she was just one of those beautiful sort of people.
She heard them before she saw them. Katie's disruptive voice cut through the quiet meeting, quickly followed by the creaking of a screen door. A moment later the two girls came into view.
Squeals of excitement and waves in greetings erupted throughout the staff filled tables as friends saw each other for the first time in days or months. Naomi knew she had a stupid goofy smile on her face the moment her and Emily caught each other's eye.
"Alright, alright," Cheryl, one of the nurses, said trying to restore order to the meeting. "You can all catch up later, we've got to get through everything before three."
Katie sat in the space Panda had cleared for her at the next table over as Emily appeared by Naomi's side.
"Got any room?"
"Yeah, sure," Naomi said scooting closer to Grace and clearing the end of the bench for Emily.
The two girls smiled at each other.
"Hi," Emily whispered once Cheryl had resumed speaking.
Naomi turned to see Emily staring at her intently. Naomi's face broke out into another smile, "Hi."
Naomi was suddenly aware it was silent again. She looked up to see Cheryl staring at them expectantly.
"Sorry."
"Sorry."
After a last warning glare, Cheryl continued on. Naomi flipped to a blank page in her notebook (she hadn't been taking notes, her and Grace had been playing hangman before). They both knew the lecture front to end at this point. She scrawled a quick note on the paper and nudged it to her right.
Way to be fashionably late.
Emily read the note and narrowed her eyes at the blonde with a smile.
I was not "fashionably late" I had to go to James's stupid graduation.
Naomi smirked.
Sure, sure.
Emily rolled her eyes.
Wait. Are you 'taking a piss'?
Naomi let out a burst of laughter that she was able to turn into a halfway convincing cough.
If you mean taking the piss, then yes. But no, I am not currently peeing.
Naomi found it adorable when Emily would try and toss out British slang. The girl was from California after all.
Naomi twirled the pen in her hand as the meeting dwindled on, debating. She kept thinking back to last summer. After seemingly countless pep talks Naomi reached for the paper again as a few choice memories from the previous summer replayed in her head.
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She couldn't believe she agreed to this. Well, she could solely due to the other participant but still, this was so completely against her nature. They were breaking so many rules. It was thrilling.
Naomi hit the end of her torch with her hand again. It was a miracle the batteries hadn't died yet, a miracle she expected to end at any moment.
"Here, let me," Emily said holding out her hand for the flashlight. "You keep shaking it and I can't see the path." At least she'd remembered one, Naomi thought to herself as she handed her torch over to the other girl.
Emily skipped a head slightly then shined the dim light back for Naomi to follow. "Better?"
"Yeah, thanks," Naomi said as she limped up to the redhead. It was slow going, Naomi having twisted her ankle in a pick up "soccer" game with a few of her campers earlier in the week. Though it would have been much more laborious without a torch, better her dying one than none at all.
"Does it usually take this long?" Emily voiced the question that had been repeatedly flashing in Naomi's mind the past maybe ten minutes. It wasn't that far of a walk past camp property. Everything looked different once the sun went down. Night had a weird way of throwing shadows and bending light in the woods. It wasn't hard to get lost in the dark.
"We've got to be almost there," Naomi answered, trying to quell both of their concerns about choosing the 'quicker' path through the woods, instead of the sure path by the water's edge.
"Oh my god!" Emily exclaimed suddenly, in a hushed sort of way. She was a few paces ahead of Naomi. They had reached a semi productive routine of Emily using the light herself a few paces, stopping, then turning back and shining the light for Naomi to follow. "Don't follow me….I seem to have stumbled into a marsh or something…" Emily yucked.
"Shine the light back this way," Naomi asked, as she attempted to inspect the ground around herself for the safest route.
She heard the sound of Emily's trainers squelching in the mud with each step.
"Oh my god, we're both surrounded," Emily observe jumping onto a rock as means of escape as Naomi saw the mud accumulated on her own shoes. Emily's had faired much worse a head of her. "I think we took a wrong turn somewhere a bit back," she added from her dry perch.
It had taken twice the usual time to get there with many unintended side adventures along the way.
"Next time I'm driving," Naomi teased from her seat on the plank wood floor of the tree fort next to Emily.
"Hey! It's not my fault your flashlight sucks."
"At least I brought one."
"I was attempting to be stealth, not draw attention to us," Emily defended.
"So stealth even we wouldn't have been able to find ourselves."
"Whatever, next time I'm totes bringing my own," Emily said. Naomi smiled at the implication of a next time. "But this is so exciting, isn't it? Coming here at night."
"We're breaking a lot of rules," Naomi commented.
"That's the best part," Emily enthused.
"And here I was thinking it was my company, how silly of me," Naomi deadpanned.
"Oh shush, you," Emily said through a laugh, giving the blonde a playful shove.
It was so different, up in their abandoned tree fort by night. It was shaped like a pentagon supported between three giant pine trees with waist high walls and no roof. Naomi found all of her morning walks and adventures with Emily enjoyable but the added risk of sneaking out and the intimacy of night put a whole new delicious edge to it.
"Are you cold?" Emily asked. They were sitting next to one another, shoulders pressed together leaning against one of the sides of the tree fort.
"Not really, no," Naomi shrugged. "Why are you? You can have my jumper if you like," she offered, shifting a bit to take it off. Naomi was generally a warm person anyway. And Emily being so petite, it was a wonder she wasn't always cold.
"No Nai, it's fine," Emily said putting her hand on Naomi's arm to stop her. "I've a better idea. Come here."
Naomi missed the contact as Emily's hand disappeared from her arm but that feeling in her stomach started to compress in on itself when that same hand patted the floor between her legs.
"Pardon?"
Emily rolled her eyes, "Come here and keep me warm."
Naomi couldn't help the smirk that slid across her face then. She was grateful it was dark out. She was also surprised her stomach hadn't fallen out of the tree, with how hard it had dropped.
She shuffled herself and settled, a bit awkwardly, sitting between Emily's legs. Her back to Emily's front.
"I don't bite," Emily laughed wrapping her arms around the tense blonde and pulling her back flush against her front.
Naomi laughed, relaxing a bit more into Emily.
"See?" Emily said, "Much better."
Naomi could hear the smile in her voice.
She felt her chin on her shoulder and her breath in her ear. They just sat for a bit, soaking up each other's presence and transferring heat in the cool night. Naomi let out a contented sigh and leaned her head back on Emily's shoulder. Emily slowly started sliding her hands up and down Naomi's arms. Tracing invisible patterns whenever her fingertips found skin. Naomi did the same with the exposed legs that surrounded her.
"Your hair still smells like whatever product you had in it," Emily observed. It had rained earlier during a cabin program, which in hindsight had probably caused the marsh like conditions they trekked through. The inclement weather had forced Naomi and her co-staff to improvise as the activity they had planned was outdoors. Her co-staff suggested a fashion show and as desperate times called for desperate measures, Naomi agreed to it. Naomi had let her campers Mohawk her hair, having pulled punk as her theme, to which a very amused looking Emily had discovered at supper. Unlike before the meal, Naomi had luckily found time to shower the approximate half bottle of gel out of her hair. "It smells nice."
"Thanks," Naomi said, somewhat awkwardly. She wasn't the best with compliments.
"I wish we could just stay like this all night," Emily breathed. Naomi shut her eyes, feeling Emily's breath in her ear. They were so close. All she had to do was turn her head a few inches at most and their lips would be together. It would require the smallest of movements, really.
"Are you warm?" Naomi asked in the soft tone the quiet woods seemed to warrant.
"I'm perfect."
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Naomi wrote down what she had been debating with herself for the last fifteen minutes of the meeting. Fuck it, she thought as she nudged the piece of paper toward the redhead.
She focused all of her attention ahead as Nurse Ellen took over and went over common food allergies and best preventative practices.
Naomi only pulled her attention away when she felt an elbow in her side. She looked over, following the brown set of eyes as they trailed from her down to the table. The drumming her heart had been making since she slid the paper over became a racket of smashing kits and symbols.
Emily had that mischievous glint in her eye.
Naomi glanced at the piece of paper, a smirk playing on her lips.
She had written a question, one word:
Adventures?
Followed by two boxes, one with a yes over it the other a no.
There was a large X ticked through the yes box.
Naomi's smirk grew. This girl was trouble and it was definitely going to be an interesting summer.