AN: I want to thank everyone for the support on my story. I need to give a HUGE shout out to CeeCee333, she gave me all the sports knowledge I needed for this story. You are so amazing for helping me. Thank you! And a thank you to evgrrl09 for encouraging me with this story.
Please enjoy chapter two of It Happened One Summer.
Emily jumped off the top bunk so she could sit closer to Penelope as she moved herself into the cabin. Penelope was placing her books onto her nightstand and putting her clothes in her designated foot-trunk, desperately trying to find some sort of solace about her situation. She sighed when she pulled out her cell phone charger.
"Why'd ya bring that?" Emily asked, taking the charger from her hand to examine it.
"I didn't mean to. I guess it was out of habit for me to pack it." She took back the cord from Emily's hand and sat on the bed next to her, "I'm a technology geek," Penelope started to explain. Most people her age thought she was weird when it came to her obsession with all things technology, but she hoped Emily would look past it. "I teach myself how to code and hack into systems."
"Really?" Emily's eyes widened with excitement, "That's so neat! You can hack into stuff, like what? The government, and shit?"
Penelope gave her a slight smile, "Not the government… well, not yet. I'm working up to that. Right now, I've been able to hack into school records and easy stuff, without being detected."
"Badass," Emily said, looking rather impressed with her new friend, "So what made you come to camp?"
Penelope hopped off the bed to put the charger in her foot-trunk, "My lovely parents decided I needed to become a social butterfly like my brothers." She turned to Emily, whom was now cross-legged on the bottom bunk, listening to her, "In other words, they want me to leave the technology and books alone and make friends," she continued, sarcastically.
"Well, you're well on your way," Emily gave her a smile, "You've made one friend here," she continued, pointing at herself.
Penelope gave her another smile. Maybe her mom was right, and she could make life long friends here. Emily seemed like a great girl, and she has been far more welcoming than she thought anyone would have been here.
"Come on Penelope…" Emily trailed off, "Hey, what's your last name?" she said, hopping of the bed, heading towards the door.
"Garcia. It's my step father's," Penelope explained, "So no, I don't know Spanish and that's why I don't look anything of Spanish decent, I burn walking from my front door to the mail box,"
Emily chuckled at her explanation, "Alright, PG, we gotta head to the mess hall, so we can get our assignments."
"Assignments?" Penelope asked, looking at her new friend like she had multiple heads.
"Yeah, we all have assignments here or jobs. Last year I was in charge of recreational equipment. But if you do anything against the rules, or piss off the wrong people, you'll get reassigned to camp laundry or the kitchen." Emily shuddered. "Been there, done that. Do not want to do it again."
"We have jobs to do, like we also need to clean and crap?" Penelope asked again for understanding. Now, she really hated this place. Not only was she going to have to live outdoors she was going to have to clean it too? The first moment she got, she was going to write her parents a rather descriptive letter regarding her feelings about Camp Gogiayeli.
"Yeah, it kind of sucks. But hey, maybe we'll get lucky and we'll have the same assignment or we can switch and both be in charge of Recreation Equipment." Emily started to explain as they walked to the mess hall. "It was a lot of fun actually. It made me feel like I was God, and if I didn't like the person I'd give them the shitty stuff. Like there was this one girl Cassandra, I hate that bitch. She thinks she is better than any of us here. Anyway, she needed to be assigned a canoe for her and her posy for the canoe race," Emily gave her an evil look, "I made sure they got the one that had a hole in it."
Penelope laughed at her new friend, "You didn't! What happened?"
Emily held open the door for Penelope to walk in, "They got halfway through the race when they realized they were taking on water. You should have heard her scream when she ended up ruining her perfect hair.
"I think you're right,Emily. You and I are going to be great friends." Penelope said, walking in to find a seat to wait for their assignments.
"What's up first?" Andy asked Derek as they were looking over the sports line up, trying to decide how they wanted to spend their first day at camp.
It was a pretty straightforward athletic camp. There were sign up sheets for the sports you were interested in that were held at different times of the day. To be apart of the camp you have to participate in at least two scrimmages per sport a week, and have mandatory training, that consisted of running, and weight training. There were three coaches assigned to each sport. Most of the coaches were retired athletes or coaches. It wasn't always athletic games, even though that was the main goal of the camp. The camp coaches also set up camp games and outings every once and a while. There is an annual relay race, swimming in the lake, and even a dance at the end of the summer that the girls camp across the way invited them to.
The older boys were always the captains, which made it fun for them. A lot of times Andy and Derek would be pit against each other. Whoever won the most games at the end of the summer had ultimate bragging rights.
Andy and Derek, had the same goals, so they instantly became friends the first time they met four years ago. They were both very proficient in sports; they opted to play baseball and football, alternating the two sports every other day. Derek preferred baseball over football, but he knew the recruiters favored football, so he made time to be well rounded in that as well.
"Baseball, 2:30," Derek said, with a wide smile. "Just what I want to be up."
"You just say that, cause this year you're the ace," Andy rolled his eyes, as he gathered his baseball gear to head to the diamond.
"Don't be jealous you're not the starting pitcher." Derek gave a wide smile, knowing he was the best pitcher in the camp and this year nothing was going to stop him from his goals.
"Yeah right, Morgan," Andy called over his shoulder as he walked out of their cabin, "My speed is ten times faster than yours."
"But your accuracy sucks ass." Derek jogged up to his friend. "And you only got like a five mile per hour difference on me."
"That's still faster than you," Andy smiled.
"It's not about how fast you throw it, it's all about how you do it." Derek joked, as they walked onto the field.
"Derek, Andy! Welcome back!" one of the coaches hollered, running up to greet the two, "I'm glad you decided to hit baseball practice first. We need a good arm to start the summer off right," he looked right at Derek.
"That's why I'm here," Derek tossed the baseball he had in his hand above his head to catch it, to emphasize his talent.
"Go warm up, you two. First scrimmage starts in thirty minutes. Also, this year we increased the mandatory weight training time, for pitchers. Just a heads up," the coach said, as he started to jog away over to some newer kids making their way onto the field.
"Come on Derek, I'll warm up with you," Andy said, as he grabbed his glove and jogged a little ways away to toss the ball with Derek.
The two started tossing the ball back and fourth close to the pitchers mound waiting for the coach to call the game.
"So you gonna see if Cassandra is at the girls camp?" Andy asked tossing the ball towards the left of Derek making him run for it.
"Can you at least try to toss the ball where it needs to go?" Derek hollered as he jumped up grabbing the ball with his glove. Derek cocked the ball backwards and tossed it right into Andy's glove, "And no. Well, not at first. I want to see who's there first. There might be someone better."
"I'm pretty sure over the last four years, you've had your way with almost everyone in the camp," Andy tossed the ball back at Derek, this time throwing it right over his head, making Derek jump straight up to catch it.
"You just wish you had my swag," Derek caught the ball, immediately tossing it back towards Andy.
"That's what you call it?" Andy joked, tossing the ball back to Derek.
"Yeah, I got the moves you wish you had," Derek caught the ball again . "You wanna head over there tonight? See who we can find?" he asked, giving Andy a cheeky smile.
Andy looked around to make sure no one could hear them, "Yeah, might as well scout out the new meat and make our picks for the summer. I wonder if Emily is going to be there."
"You still hung up on her?" Derek asked, cocking his eyebrow, "I thought her punching you in the face last year was a deterrent."
"Nah, it's all a show," Andy gave a smile, "She wants me."
Derek couldn't hold back the laugh at his friends ignorance.
"You guys ready?" the coach asked, jogging up to them, "You're up Derek. It's the first scrimmage of the summer, and some of the campers have no idea what they are getting themselves into, so go easy on them. Let them hit a few, alright? Give it a couple of days before you kick their ass."
Derek smiled, as he looked at all the new faces, Yep, this is going to be an awesome summer, he thought.
"Let's play ball!" Andy hollered making his way to the bullpen.
"See, PG, this is perfect," Emily said, taking her assignment in hand, "We're both doing the same thing I did last year."
"Uh, okay." Penelope said, still not convinced. She decided to follow Emily outside the mess hall and towards the lake anyway. She was at least glad she'd be working with Emily and not in the kitchen, but she wasn't so sure about being in charge of recreational gear. "What do we need to do exactly?"
Emily continued her walk towards the equipment area, "Well, we need to inventory everything in the morning and at night, to make sure nothing is missing and everything is in working order. We also are the ones who have to check out anything the other campers want to use." Emily gave her a smile, "It's like we are equipment Gods."
"Yeah, sure," Penelope said, walking into the equipment room with Emily still not positive this was going to be a good thing, "So you come here every year right? My mom said she used to come here when she was my age."
"Really? My mom did, too," Emily tossed a Frisbee over to Penelope, who instead of catching it screamed and threw up her hands trying to shield herself.
"Really, Pen?" Emily cocked her eyebrow at her.
"I don't do anything that involves outside, including any and everything that has to do with sports." Penelope explained, handing the Frisbee back to Emily to put it back on the shelf.
"You're not a fan of the jocks I take it?" Emily asked with a smile. If she didn't like jocks, she knew Penelope was in for the time of her life when the boys from across the way start making their nightly trips over to their camp.
"Hell no!" Penelope shouted, "If they are anything like the jocks at my school, I want nothing to do with them."
Emily laughed as she started her inventory, "If you don't like jocks, you're gonna wanna stay away from the lake at night," Emily rolled her eyes, "That's the only thing I hate about our bunk. We are by where the boys sneak over at night."
"What are you talking about?" Penelope cocked her eyebrow in confusion. She liked Emily, but the more she talked about this camp the more she hated it.
"The athletic camp, you know the one across the way?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, my mom said we have a dance with them at the end of the summer."
"Oh yeah, that stupid dance." Emily shook her head; "Anyway, the guys over there sneak over here at night. And the place they dock is right next to our bunk so we hear them. They are so fucking annoying," Emily rolled her eyes. "They come over here to get it on with the skanky girls like, Cassandra and her posy."
"How do they even get over here?" Penelope asked, "They have to get across the lake."
"They have a boat that they use to come over, it's pathetic," Emily got up to walk over to where Penelope was sitting, counting the volleyballs. "And what's worse is the whores that fall for their moves. It's absolutely appalling."
"You sound like you don't like jocks, too?" Penelope smiled.
"It's not that I don't like jocks, there are just a few of them that are real assholes. Like this jackass named Andy."
"What's wrong with him?"
"What isn't wrong with him? He and his best friend, Derek are the worst of the camp. They come over here just to get in girls pants. One night I was outside our bunk writing a letter to my mom and Andy and his annoying friend thought I was waiting to have a good time with them." Emily explained.
"A what?"
"A good time," Emily stated, "So Andy, tried to make his move on me while his friend Derek waited for Cassandra and her friends,"
"What'd you do?"
"I punched him in the face," Emily said matter of fact.
"You didn't!"
"I did, and I'd do it again if I need too." Emily moved to start inventory on some other items, "I still can't believe he thought just because I was outside, I'd drop my pants for him." She turned back to Penelope, "Not to worry though, he got the picture. Him and Derek ended up leaving that night right after I hit him in the nose."
"What the hell have I gotten myself into?" Penelope asked, shaking her head. More and more things were stacking up against her.
"Hey, as long as we stay away from the boys, we'll have a good time. It's actually a lot of fun here if you give it a chance." Emily explained, "I know it's a lot of bonding shit, but we really do have fun. We can hike, and go canoeing."
"I don't canoe," Penelope stated, "I won't get into that lake, no way. There are things living in there."
"PG, it's not that bad. Once you get past the whole outside thing and the fact that you were forced here, it's rather quite fun." Emily remarked, squeezing Penelope's shoulder.
"So far I'm unimpressed, I have to be outside, clean up a camp, and work." Penelope scrunched her face.
"Yeah, that stuff sucks, but we do fun stuff too. Come on give it a chance. Tomorrow we'll canoe, and then there is a campfire. It's all about trust and bonding here."
"You're not selling me on this place, Emily," Penelope said as she looked at her,."And I am not getting into a canoe."
"Pen, you'll have fun, and I'll be your partner."
Penelope still didn't look impressed with the situation.
"Hey at least you got me right? And as long as we stay away from the assholes from across the way, we'll be fine."
Penelope nodded her head. Emily was right, she did have her. And while she was forced to be here she might as well make something of it and have a good time. They continued their work assignments, while Emily gave her the whole rundown of the camp and who to hang around and who to avoid.
Penelope was sure of one thing though, there was no way in hell she was getting into a canoe tomorrow.
AN: Just a heads up, they will be meeting next chapter. :) Please, let me know what you think of this story.