AN 1: Here's the second chapter of Signal Fire. I know, I know...it's been a long time since I uploaded. Life just seems to be getting busier and busier, but I promise that I haven't forgotten this story. Hopefully I can post another chapter soon, but I'm not for sure on how soon it will be yet. Thank you to anyone who has reviewed, favorited, or followed this story.


Chapter 2: The Start of Something New, Part 1


The first thing that I heard when I entered the dining room that night for dinner was a vaguely familiar voice calling my name. Suppressing a yawn and turning my head, I was completely surprised to see Alex waving to me from the other side of the dining room. I grinned and headed towards the table that she was seated at, noticing that both Olivia's and Devon's backpacks were there too. "Hey," Alex said, flashing me a wide smile as I set my backpack down and took the seat across from her.

"Hey," I replied, grabbing a cup from the stack next to me and filling it with water from the pitcher next to the cups. "So…mind if I'm your water pourer tonight?" I asked, setting the plastic cup in front of her and reaching for another one. The way that meal times at camp were set up was unlike anything else that I had seen elsewhere, although I was fairly certain that all camps had a similar approach. Each table was meant to be headed by one counselor or staff member, who would serve the food to the campers. The other end of the table had a pitcher and water cups on it, where a counselor-in-training or another staff member would pour water. This was meant to ensure that everyone at the table got an equal serving of food, and since everyone was expected to drink at least one glass of water at every meal, it allowed for someone to monitor the water intake of the campers as well. Counselors-in-training were given this spot in order to see how different counselors would interact with the kids at their table, as well as help out the younger kids if necessary. The counselor had two kids from their cabin help them by bringing the food when it was ready, as well as fetching more water or seconds if needed. I assumed that because Alex's cabin was so small, Devon and Olivia both stayed with their cabin unless another table needed a staff member at it.

Alex picked up her cup and took a long drink. "Yeah," she said casually after she had drained half of the glass. "I think you'll do." She smirked at me, letting me get a glimpse of the mischievous side of her that I hadn't been sure existed and causing me to smile back at her. Usually it took me a long time to warm up to new people, but Alex seemed to defy the normal approach I take when it comes to meeting new people: don't get friendly with them. At sixteen, I had already decided that people were typically a gigantic waste of my time. Most would either disappoint you or hurt you, and I was not looking to give people any reasons to be interested in me enough to do either.

"Hey, knock it off you two," Ashley said, taking a seat next to me and bumping my shoulder in a friendly manner. "You shouldn't be so cute together. People might start wondering things."

I looked at her incredulously. "'Wondering things'," I said mockingly, turning so that I could talk to both her and Alex at the same time. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Alex laughed lightly. "I think the only one here who would even talk about 'wondering things' here is Ashley." As she spoke, she trailed her finger through some water that had condensed onto the table and flicked it towards the other girl's direction.

Ashley flinched as the water landed on her face. "Yeah, whatever," she said, laughing and wiping her face on my shoulder, causing me to wince internally at the contact. I also had a thing against people I didn't really know touching me, for various reasons, but I forced myself to stay quiet and appear unbothered by her actions. Saying anything would just cause questions that I'd rather not answer to be asked. "But when you guys grow up and are getting married, I'm gonna be there to tell you I told you so."

"Oh, go sit where you're supposed to," Alex said, laughing at her ridiculous statement and motioning for her to go sit on the other end of the table, across from Devon, who had finally taken her seat. Ashley gave both of us a final "I know what's best" look before getting up and moving to the other end of the table. "Sorry about that," Alex said after she had moved, brushing her bangs out of her face and taking another sip of water as she did so. "She's a little weird."

"It's okay," I replied, grabbing her cup and refilling it as I did so. As I was filling the cup, my hand slipped, causing me to spill water all over the lower half of my shorts. "Sh – crap," I muttered, embarrassed of what had happened but mindful enough of camp rules to not curse in front of a camper. Even if the camper was one of the older ones, we were still supposed to be mindful of what we said, and even saying a fairly insignificant cuss word like "shit" wouldn't have been appropriate. I had been told this rule several times already in my time as a counselor-in-training, since usually I didn't really stop to think of who I was around when I dropped cuss words into a conversation.

Alex started to giggle as I reached for the napkin dispenser. "I think I take back what I said about you being a good water pourer," she said, handing me her napkin as well. "Are you always so clumsy? I know you tripped over a paint can earlier today too."

I sighed and gathered all of the wet napkins together into one ball. "You have no idea," I said, looking down at my wet shorts. "Unfortunately I was born a klutz and never grew out of it." She took the napkins from my hand and started to stand up. "Hey," I said, reaching out for the napkins again and ignoring the shock of how the feeling of her hand on mine didn't make me want to flinch at all, despite me hardly knowing this girl. "I can throw those away myself."

She shook her head and pulled the ball of wet napkins out of my reach. "I got it. I need to go up to the front and refill the water pitcher anyways," she said, also grabbing the aforementioned pitcher. "And besides, you might want to let that water mark dry a little bit before you get up." Her eyes flicked towards my shorts, and the smile playing around her mouth told me that despite what she had said, she was really just amused with me. Before I could come up with a suitable retort, Alex had already walked away, her long legs carrying her towards the kitchen quickly.

After Alex returned to the table, it was time for the campers who hadn't been helping get ready for dinner to join us. Soon, the rest of our table was filled with girls of various ages. The youngest girl was seven. I did not envy Ashley and Alex. They not only had to help set up the table, but also clean it after the meal was done, and for whatever reason, almost all of the younger campers here seemed to think that filling a bowl with shredded cheese and ranch from the salad bar was a gourmet meal. Personally, I found the whole thing gross – not only did it just sound unappetizing, but it also looked somewhat disgusting when you saw it too. I was always really thankful that I didn't have to clean up in times like this.

I managed to distribute the rest of the water without making a fool of myself again, causing Alex to flash me a quick thumbs up, to which I promptly stuck out my tongue. She laughed and simply took another sip of her water. "So," she said casually, setting the cup down and picking her fork up again. "You go to Booker T., and you play guitar, and you like the soccer team. What else do I need to know about you?"

I glanced down at my lap, and tugged at the bandana encircling my wrist once again. "I don't just like the soccer team at Booker T.," I said, meeting her eyes and smiling slightly. "I'm on the team. I'm typically a forward player, but I also goalkeep if our usual keeper can't make it. My dad made sure that I could play all of the positions growing up, too."

She looked impressed. "That's awesome," she said, taking a bite of the mashed potatoes on her plate. "I don't really go to the soccer games, but now that I know you're on the Booker T. team, I'll at least show up for that game. It'd be nice to see a friendly face."

I laughed. "You mean before or after our teams play? Because I think the amount of friendliness depends on how the game goes." Even as I spoke, I found myself thinking that if I actually did see her at a game, I wouldn't mind that at all. In fact, I might even enjoy it.

She lifted her shoulder up in a half-shrug, the smile never leaving her face. "I think you'd be friendly either way."

"What makes you think that?" I asked, intrigued by the answer. Not many people thought of me as a friendly person; I was known for keeping to myself as much as possible at school. That is not to say that I didn't have friends – my friends all thought of me as a sweetheart, much to my confusion – but I certainly wasn't the most popular kid at my school. It just took me a long time to be able to open up to people long enough for me to really begin to befriend them. I was guarded like that.

Alex shrugged again and pushed her bangs out of her eyes once more. "It's just a feeling," she said, looking straight into my eyes as she did so. After a couple of seconds, her eyes fell to her plate once more. "Anything else you want to tell me about yourself?"

I considered telling her a lot of things that under normal circumstances I would've just kept to myself, but instead I decided to ask her a question in return. "Nah, I'm good," I said, finishing my glass of water. "But why don't you tell me some about yourself instead? All I know about you is that you go to Waverly and you make an awesome quadropus."

A small, almost unnoticeable, guarded look flickered over her face before she responded. "I don't really do sports," she said, smiling at me again. The guarded look was gone as quickly as it came. I didn't really have much time to process what that could possibly mean though, because I was more absorbed in actually listening to what she was saying. "I have a both a younger and older brother. We're all at Waverly, which can sometimes be annoying, especially when teachers expect me to be as smart as my older brother, Justin. I'm dyslexic, so reading is sometimes a real challenge, but I love it. Oh…and I really dislike my middle name."

By this time we had finished dinner and had moved on to dessert. A sly smile had appeared on my face the moment she had mentioned her middle name. "So…what's your middle name?" I asked, casually picking up my spoon and digging into my chocolate pudding.

"Don't ask, don't tell," she said lightly, mimicking my motions.

"I thought that only applied to the military?"

"No, it applies to whatever works. Including and especially when it pertains to my middle name."

I gave a long suffering sigh. "How rude. Here I was, just wanting to get to know you better. But I suppose it's fair; I don't tell anybody my middle name either."

She rolled her eyes, then smiled mischievously. "Well, then I'll make you a deal. If you tell me your middle name, I'll tell you mine."

I laughed. "No way."

"Come on," she said, finishing her pudding as she did so. "I'll never tell anyone."

"Well," I said, our eyes locking once more. "Neither will I."

"Mitch," a familiar voice called out from behind me. I turned to see Caitlyn walking towards me, her backpack slung over her shoulder and a slightly impatient look on her features.

"Hey, man. What's up?" I said as she came up beside me.

"It's time to go out and run Singing Porch," she replied, grabbing my spoon from me as I went to take another bite of pudding. I did my best not to groan at the mention of Singing Porch. While the counselors and the campers who were picked to help them cleaned the dining room, all of the counselors-in-training and the rest of the camp population went out onto the large elevated porch area just outside the dining room and sang a variety of camp songs until the dining room was cleaned. While I generally enjoyed camp songs, Singing Porch was always a pain in the ass because all of the older campers tried to get out of it in a variety of ways and the younger kids always wandered further away from the group than they should. She scooped up the last of my dessert and popped it in her mouth as I finished my internal grumblings. "That is good stuff," she said, ignoring the fake look of anger that I sent her way and handing me my backpack instead. "Finish up your water and let's go. I don't want to have to go out there by myself."

"Yes, mother," I said mockingly, standing up and draining the rest of my cup as I did so. My shorts had thankfully dried in the time that it took for us to eat. I shouldered my backpack and readjusted the bandana around my wrist once more, tightening it enough so that it wouldn't slip around anymore.

Alex smiled at me as I did all of this, standing up so that she could start helping Devon and Ashley clean the table. "It was nice talking to you, Mitchie," she said softly, stacking my plate on top of hers as she did so.

"It was nice talking to you too," I replied, surprised to find that instead of just saying it to be polite, I had actually meant it.

The buzz of the dining room, which had faded out for me the second that Alex and I started talking, suddenly came back to me full force as Caitlyn and I headed out to the porch. "What was that about?" she asked me as we discarded our backpacks and waited for the kids to start showing up.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were actually friendly to someone instead of just sitting there semi-awkwardly like you always are," she said, setting out a crate full of old and weathered songbooks in front of where we were standing.

"Shut up," I said, punching her arm lightly as I did so. Yes, I was an awkward person usually, but I was actually a lot better at camp than I was out in the real world. Camp was my home. I was always more relaxed here. Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize just how accurate Caitlyn was with her analysis at the time. No one else had ever gotten me to start talking about simple facts about me as quickly as Alex had. The girl had started to get under my skin without me even realizing that she had done it.


AN 2: And there is the end of chapter 2. Please let me know what you all think. It really means a lot to me. Favorites and Follows are also excepted :). Darklighter out.