Chapter 2

Paige starred out the window and watched as they got closer and closer to the camp. Emily was sound asleep beside her and was resting her head on her shoulder. She had fell asleep an hour and a half into the bus ride. She had intended on getting some sleep also but she found herself just watching Emily sleep for a little while. Paige didn't know why but Emily made her feel strange. She had only felt this way once before and it made her feel panicked.

Since she was fourteen years old she had known that she was attracted to girls. It had all started when she started to have feelings for her best friend; Caitlin Storms. Caitlin and her had been friends since kindergarten. They had been there for each other through everything including Paige's mom's death. Her mom had died a week after her fourteenth birthday. It was a home invasion gone wrong.

Her dad had been away on a business trip and the burglar had thought that no one would be home. Paige had been on at Caitlin's house for a sleepover. She had begged her mother to let her go even though her mom had said that she wanted her home because she didn't like to be home alone. But Paige had been persistent and eventually her mother let her go. That was the day that everything changed. The next morning she had found out that her mother had been killed. The burglar had shot her.

Paige blamed herself. She thought that if she hadn't been so dead set on going to the sleepover then maybe her mother would be alive. From that moment she decided that she would never ever give into 'those feeling' again. She had moved away from her home and never spoke to Caitlin again which had hurt like hell. She knew that it wasn't Caitlin's fault but she just couldn't face her.

And now she knew that she was attracted to Emily but she promised herself that they were just going to be friends. Friends and nothing more besides she was almost certain that Emily was straight.

"Alright campers" yelled a Councillor named Jackie. She was the one Councillor that Paige thought was relatively normal. She wasn't as loud as the others but she was still funny. "We're pulling into the camp now. When we stop I want you all to head into the Mess Hall also know as the cafeteria. You will each be assigned a cabin. You will get your bags and head to your cabins. You have an hour to unpack and then I want you back at the Mess Hall for lunch."

Paige had almost forgotten that Emily was still asleep. She looked at the sleeping girl and smiled. Emily looked adorable when she was sleeping. Paige mentally slapped herself as soon as the thought had come to her head. This was going to be harder than she thought.

"Em..." whispered Paige as she shook Emily lately.

Emily began to stir.

"Are we there yet?" asked Emily her head still resting on Paige's shoulder.

"Yeah." said Paige with a small laugh. She could already tell that Emily wasn't really a morning person. That was going to be tough because they were supposed to wake up at

Emily just nodded and sat up. She was still really tired. She stretched and rubbed her eyes as they adjusted to the light. There was definitely more light in this side of Pennsylvania then in Rosewood. She actually hadn't thought that that was possible but apparently it was.

"So did I miss anything?" asked Emily as they began to pull into the camp grounds. The camp was a lot prettier then Emily had imagined.

There was a circular driveway that connected the Mess Hall to the Infirmary and two side roads that smaller vehicles were used to transport things. In the center of the Entrance was a large pine tree. It was surrounded by Red, orange, and yellow tulips and bright green grass. A large sign that read: Elite Swim Camp stood over one of the smaller roads that lead to the rows of Cabins that were lined along the lake.

"Basically we are going into the Mess Hall and they will give us our cabins. We get our stuff and unpack. We have an hour before we have to meet back up in the Mess Hall for Lunch." explained Paige.

"Okay then I guess I will just follow you since we are going to be in the same cabin anyway." said Emily with a small smile.

Paige nodded and returned the smile. She was nervous about sharing a room with Emily. She knew that there was going to be four other girls with them but still it was nerve wrecking. She hoped that she could push her little crush out of the way and focus on swimming. She had to.

When the bus came to a stop Emily stood up and got her duffel bag from the overhead compartment. Paige handed her her messenger bag and they slowly exited the bus. As they stepped out of the bus Emily looked around again and took in the scene. She could smell the pine from the tree and she had to admit that it was really refreshing.

As everyone Piled into the Mess hall Emily could see that there wasn't as many people as she had originally thought. She knew that there was eighty three other girls besides herself attending the camp but it still looked like a lot less in person.

Everyone was in their school swim cover-ups with their swimsuits under because they had been informed that they were all going to be going strait to the pool when they had arrived. Emily had been some-what happy about that. She did want to just sit back and relax after the long ride but she felt off. She was used to running or doing laps in the morning and she hadn't been able to do that that morning because she had to be at the bus stop so early.

Suddenly a man in a running suit stood up on a table in the front of the Mess Hall. There was no doubt that he was Mr. Henderson; the camp director. He held his clipboard in one hand and had his whistle around his neck as did his two assistants that stood beside him.

He brought his whistle up to his mouth and blew it. Everyone immediately became quiet and looked at him.

"Welcome to the Elite Swim camp." he began with a smile.

Everyone clapped. Emily stood beside Paige and shot her a smile as she began to clap as well. This was something that Emily had been waiting for her whole life. She had always dreamed of swimming in the big leagues and now she was getting her chance. She had worked her way up to the top of her swim team and now she was possibly going to be recruited. It was a dream come true.

"My name is Steven Henderson and I am happy to be here for the fifth year in a row. Now these next two months are going to be fun but they are also going to be grueling. We are going to be pushing you so that by end of this summer you will be at your very best. Now I am going to call names. Each group of six will be rooming together and will be responsible for each other. You will be sitting with these people at lunch today. Make sure that you stick with your buddy. You and your buddy are responsible for making sure that you are on time and working hard." he added.

Paige swallowed hard. She was going to be spending basically all of her time with Emily and she was a little nervous about that. She just hoped that Emily didn't notice anything strange about her. She just wanted to focus on swimming. That's what she was at the camp for; swimming. Yeah right, she thought,I'm screwed.

Mr. Henderson flipped a Page in his clipboard and began to read a group of names.

"Okay Cabin 5. Kaylie Robinson, Samantha Thomson, Emily Fields, Paige McCullers, Andy Watson, and Samara Cook (AN: you know who Samara is. hint hint.)."

When Paige and Emily heard their names they followed the other girls from their cabin outside. After they each collected their luggage they all began to walk to the cabin.

Emily kicked a few rocks as she walked along the trail. She couldn't help but notice that Paige was being quiet but so were the other girls. It had been a really long trip and everyone was really exhausted. They would all be more awake after they were in the pool. That was how she was.

After a few minutes of walking they came to a cabin with the number 5 written on the side. They followed a small rock path and walked up a small flight of stairs. At the top of the stairs was a porch that looked over the lake. It was beautiful. Emily couldn't help but think how amazing the sunrise would look from the porch.

"Remind me to see the sunrise before the summer's over." Emily said to Paige.

Paige looked at Emily and nodded with a small smile. A part of her wanted to ask Emily if she would watch the sunrise with her but she stopped herself. She didn't want to seem like a creep because that was how she was viewing herself at that second. She had just met Emily and she already had a huge crush on her.

Inside the cabin there were six beds; three on either side of the room with dressers in between each bed and shelves above them. At the far end of room was a little hallway that lead to two showers and two stalls. A double sink and full length mirror were on the opposite side. It had a homey feeling to it.

There was a schedule on the wall. Emily read it over:

6 am: wake up call

7:00 am Drill Session 1 (pool)

8:30 am Breakfast

9:00 am Stroke Review (auditorium)

9:30 am Underwater Videotaping (pool)

10:00 am Start and Turn work (pool)

11:00 am Team building exercise (water polo)

11:45 am Campers/Staff walk to lunch together

12:30 pm Mental Toughness Session

1:15 pm Workout time (pool)

2:30 pm Videotape Review with coaches

3:15 pm Team building exercise (land based activity)

4:00 pm Organized Free Time

5:00 pm Dinner

5:45 pm Sports Nutrition Discussion

6:30 pm Drill Session 2 (pool)

8:30 pm Head back to cabins

10:00 pm Lights out!

"It's gonna be a long two months." stated Emily as she took a picture of the schedule with her phone and then picked out her bed.

Emily took the bed closest to the bed on the right side of the room and Paige took the bed that was right beside her gaining a smile from Emily. As they all began to unpack Kaylie took an ipod dock out of her suitcase and placed it on top of one of the shelves.

"Anyone wanna request a song?" asked Kaylie as she connected her ipod to the dock.

At first glance Kaylie seemed a little rough around the edges. She looked like a mini Avril Lavigne almost and from what Emily could see her clothing style was very similar. She was definitely very unique and Emily thought that that was cool. She had always wanted to get a stud on her nose but her mom would kill her.

When no one answered Kaylie she just shrugged and picked a song herself.

"You have got to be kidding me." joked her buddy Samantha as I wanna go by Britney Spears started to play.

"What? I asked you guys what you wanted to hear and no one answered, besides this is a good song." Kaylie stated defensively. When she saw Samantha roll her eyes she picked up her pillow and threw it at her.

Samantha just laughed and said that Kaylie would pay for what she did.

"Aww Sam your just mad because you won't be seeing your boyfriend for two whole months." teased Kaylie. She loved pushing Sam's buttons and Sam made it easy for her.

The other girls were just watching in amusement as Sam and Kaylie went at it with each other. They all knew that the next two months were going to be very interesting if it continued the way it was.

"At least I have a boyfriend." said Sam in return.

"Whatever." said Kaylie before turning to the rest the other girls, "So who else here has a boyfriend?"

Andy raised her hand and smiled.

"Together for six months." she stated proudly.

"Well we already know that miss Samara here plays for the other team." teased Kaylie.

Emily and Paige looked at Samara as soon as they heard the words come out of Kaylie. Never in a million years would they have guessed that Samara was gay. She looked totally straight but then again not every gay person dressed like boys and sported the pixie cut. That was just the stereotype version.

Emily was kind of glad that there was someone else like her. She had thought that she would be the only gay one at the camp. It wasn't like she was going to hide that she was gay, because she wasn't, it was just she knew it would be awkward if she was the only one.

Paige now accepted the fact that she had no gaydar what so ever. People always said that if you were gay it was easier to spot other people like them. They were obviously wrong.

"How about you Emily?" asked Samara trying to take the attention off of her.

Paige didn't know why but the look that Samara was giving Emily was pissing her off. It was almost like she was secretly wishing for Emily to be gay also. She didn't like Samara looking at Emily like that. But she was sure that Emily wasn't gay.

"I'm gay too." said Emily honestly.

Paige could only stand there with her mouth hanging wide open. She was in complete shock. This made everything that she was feeling like fifty times worse. She didn't understand how Emily could be gay but then again she didn't understand how she or Samara for that matter could be gay either.

Paige looked at Samara and saw her crack a smile.

"How about you Paige?" asked Emily.

"Um. No boyfriend." answered Paige simply. She didn't want to lie and say she was straight. She didn't think that she could lie to Emily it was just something about her.

Paige wished that she wasn't such a coward. She wished that she could just be honest with everyone and herself but every time she almost worked up the courage to come out she thought back to her mom. Her mom was dead because of her feelings; or at least that's what she thought. Her being gay only hurt people and she couldn't let anyone else get hurt because of her. She couldn't let Emily get hurt because of her.

After a few minutes of quiet. Paige decided that she couldn't take it anymore. She needed to get some fresh air. She closed her suitcase and decided that she would finish unpacking later. She grabbed her book bag and walked out of the cabin.

Emily couldn't help but think that something was wrong and she decided to grab her bag as well and follow Paige.

"Paige wait" called Emily as she ran to catch up with the other swimmer.

Paige tried to act like she didn't hear Emily. She kept on walking but Emily caught up with her anyway. An awkward silence fell over them. Paige didn't know what to say. She wanted to be alone but she couldn't think of how to explain that to Emily.

"Didn't you hear me calling your name?" asked Emily curiously.

"No. Sorry." apologized Paige.

Emily could tell that there was something definitely wrong with with Paige. She knew that Paige was a somewhat quiet person but Paige wouldn't even look at her. She could only wonder if she had done something to upset Paige. The first thing that came to her mind was that Paige didn't like gay people or didn't feel comfortable around them.

"Is it what I said back there?" asked Emily curiously, "Because. I mean if it is then it's okay. Maybe we could go and see if we could get new buddies or something. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable or anything. I understand if you are against what I am."

Paige couldn't help but feel like a complete jerk. She could hear the pain in Emily's voice. It was obvious that Emily had dealt with people who were homophobic or against her lifestyle before. Hell she knew plenty of people like that and she wasn't even out yet. Her father was one of them. He was actually the worst.

She had never meant to hurt her. And it was crazy for Emily to think that she could have anything against her or who she was. If she only knew, Paige thought.

"Can you say something please?" pleaded Emily. She hated how quiet it was between them. She genuinely liked Paige and she didn't want to wreck any chance of a friendship with her just because of the fact that she was gay but she couldn't change and Paige needed to understand that.

"It's not you. It's personal. I don't really want to talk about it. Maybe someday but not now." said Paige honestly. She didn't know what else to say.

"I understand. You don't have to tell me unless you are ready to talk about it. But Paige when or if you are ready I am a really good listener and I mean we're friends right. You can tell me anything and I promise that I would never tell a soul. Scout's honor." said Emily placing her her over her heart and smiling a little.

Paige smiled and nodded. Maybe it was best if they were friends, even if it wasn't exactly what she wanted. Maybe she would somehow get over her problems and one day be able to tell Emily everything. Maybe.

"Okay." said Paige simply.

"Okay." repeated Emily relieved, "You had me scared there for a second. I really didn't want to have to get a knew buddy. You're pretty cool. So we're cool about the whole me being gay thing?"

"Yes we're cool as long as you don't hit on me." joked Paige even though she secretly wanted the total opposite.

"I will try to restrain myself." Emily joked back before linking her arm with Paige's.

Paige didn't really know where they were going. There was still a little over a half hour until they were supposed to be at the mess hall but she didn't really care. She was with Emily and that was all that mattered.