A/N: this one is a long one, and nothing extremely important happens.. but bear with me !
I do not own the Gallagher girls or the Blackthorne boys… but don't we all wish we owned Zach Goode ? *swoon*
4. The First Night
"How's everything going so far, kiddo?" my mother asked me hours later while my classmates, the boys, and I all sat around a few different bonfires.
I shrugged, knowing that today wouldn't be the weirdest day of the field trip now that boys were involved. "Fine, I guess."
My mom smiled a warm, gentle, all-knowing smile that she's perfected through the years as a mom. It was a smile that said everything-is-going-to-be-alright. A smile that hasn't been wrong yet.
"Cam," she sighed, still smiling. "This isn't going to ruin your class trip. It might actually add some value to it."
Without looking at her, I could feel her smile grow bigger, probably remembering a time when her and my dad might've gone camping—a story I've only heard such few details about, like all the rest.
"Promise me one thing," she added before standing up. She stood between me and the fire, blocking the light and the warmth momentarily. She became a shadow, and although I couldn't see her mouth move, I could hear her words. "You'll make an effort to embrace the collaborative nature of this exchange experience."
It sounded easy enough. Promise to try and have fun while camping with the boys. But even as I promised her, I knew it would be more difficult than that.
Not only will their guys be all over our girls, but by looking around the campfires I could already see that our girls might be all over their guys as well.
"Cammie, isn't this exciting?" Liz asked, prancing over and sitting down beside me. "We get to spend the next few weeks with actual boys!"
Before I could answer, one of these incredible creatures walked by, causing Liz to jump up quickly and reach out to grab his arm.
"Oh, Cam! This is Jonas. He's really into science," she said, swooning a bit.
"Um… hi," he said, shifting from one foot to the other.
"Hi, Jonas," I said, feeling just as uncomfortable.
"Jonas is going to show me how to calculate the speed of light using marshmallows!" Liz exclaimed with such enthusiasm that only Liz could muster up for a voluntary science experiment.
They walked away, Liz hanging on Jonas's arm, leaving me to sit on the log by the fire. Alone.
Well, I thought I was alone.
"So, we meet again, Gallagher Girl," said a familiar voice. Although, technically, we didn't actually meet back in the woods because he never introduced himself.
However, that didn't stop me from finding it out. It seems that when a guy is extremely attractive (which I guess this one wasn't unattractive), people tend to talk about him more. And by people, I mean girls. And by more, I mean all the time.
So it didn't take long to find out that the boy from the woods was the unattainable, mysterious, and oh-so-ever charming Zachary Goode.
And although I did tell him my name, he made no effort to remember it. Yeah, he was charming alright.
"Indeed we do, Zachary," I replied, not entirely excited about his sudden presence. Although, he did smell a lot better than the burning wood, so that was a plus.
A small spark of mockery flashed across his face as he smirked once again and leaned back, stretching his arms back behind his head. "Oh, so you found out my name, huh? What, did you go around asking about me?" This time he smiled, silently laughing, and probably thinking that he caught me obsessing over him like every other girl.
I rolled my eyes. "Please." I scooted closer to him, pointing in the direction of a Brad Pitt look-alike who was at the far firepit talking to my British friend. "That guy told me your name. Yeah, he said something about how he could lift, like, twice as much as you could cause he's a real man." Now, it was my turn to smirk.
"You think you're real funny, don't you, Gallagher Girl?" he asked, standing up and holding out his hand for me. When I didn't take it, he raised an eye brow with a questioning look. "What? You don't get treated like a lady back in Roseville?"
"Oh, is that what you call being hit on by strangers?"
He chuckled, shaking his head. "You know, I heard you were like this. Stubborn and independent." He spoke in a way that I couldn't tell if he was joking or if he was serious, even if there was a big smile painted on his face.
I stood up myself and followed him over to where the s'mores supplies were being held, suddenly remembering how starved I was. "You've heard of me?" I asked as I took the marshmallow stick he was handing me, followed by a fluffy marshmallow.
"Sure," he said without glancing up from the table where he was grabbing himself a marshmallow. "You're the famous Cammie Morgan—daughter of the beautiful Headmistress Morgan, and best friends with the 'it-girls' of the Gallagher Academy, Rebecca Baxter, Elizabeth Sutton, and Macey McHenry."
"You've done some research, I see," I replied, sitting back down on my log and leaning over to hold my marshmallow in the fire.
"I'm not done," he stated as he sat down right beside me, even closer this time. Not only could I smell the soap he used this morning, but I could actually recognize the scent—Axe Gold Temptation. Although I made a note that it smelt better on him than anyone else to ever wear it, I tried to ignore it as he continued talking. "You're really good at going unnoticed and flying under the radar, which often keeps you out of trouble…even when you should've been caught." He glanced at me momentarily, and for a second I thought I saw something new in his eyes. Something that said I-know-a-secret-and-it's-about-you. But before I could double check, it was gone. "And lastly, you stay with your grandparents during school breaks. The grandparents on your dad's side, who had passed away years ago."
That was it. Everything everyone ever knew about me, Zach now knew. I didn't know whether to be impressed, or slightly frightened. "Okay. So you did a lot of research," I corrected myself.
He shrugged, as if to say it's no big deal, but the smile spreading across his face told me that he felt proud of what he accomplished. He managed to find out more about me than I thought people actually knew, and all without speaking to me to do it. I take back what I said earlier. I was definitely impressed.
"So tell me about yourself now, Zach," I said as I removed my marshmallow from the fire and squeezed it between my two fingers testing to see if it was soft enough to eat yet. When there was no response, I turned to look at him. Instead of a face full of marshmallow like I was expecting, I saw that he was staring past me with that annoying smirk of his. I turned around to see what was so interesting and I found a group of girls standing in a little huddle staring at Zach and giggling.
"Wow," I said, turning back to the boy who moments earlier I was trying to ignore any attraction for, and now was disgusted by. "Unbelievable."
His eyes shifted back to me, and an entertained smile broke out across his face. "What?"
I rolled my eyes. "I was trying to get to know you as a person and you're ignoring me to make a pass at a few girls."
Raising an eye brow and maintaining that stupid smirk, he asked, "Jealous?"
"Of what? Some bimbo girls that didn't even notice you just hit on all five of them at once?"
Laughing, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his hands together. "So is that the kind of guy you think I am?" He bit his bottom lip and stared at me, waiting for me to answer.
Truth was, I kinda hoped he wasn't that kind of guy. I realized that subconsciously, I was a bit upset that he acknowledged those girls not because I was jealous, but because I hoped he wasn't the stereotypical bad boy player type. But that hope was starting to dwindle. "Is this the part where you deny it?"
Still biting his lip, he shook his head. Looking me dead in the eyes, he said, "No. It's the part where I let you find out for yourself. Let you get to know the real me." He smiled as if that was supposed to mean something to me. As if getting to know the real Zachary Goode was some sort of prize and I should be honored that he offered to let me see behind the walls.
But that was nothing like how I felt. Getting to know the real Zachary Goode was not something I wanted to stick around for.
So I stood up, shook my head, and sighed. "Sorry, Zach, but I already tried."
And I walked away.
After all the excitement that went on that day, I was ready for bed. I had struggled trying to keep my eyes open on the walk back to my cabin, which is really saying something considering how creepy the woods were. All I planned on doing once inside my warm cabin was laying down and going to sleep.
My roommates had a different plan.
"Cammie, aren't the boys so nice? Jonas said I was the best lab partner he's ever had," Liz said, still swooning over how scientifically perfect Jonas was.
"Grant thinks I'm intriguing," Bex said from her bed, smiling slyly. "And he calls me his British Bombshell."
"So, Cam," Macey started, folding her legs Indian-style on top of her bed. "Tell us about Zach." She grabbed her pillow, laying it across her lap and leaning forward as if she was expecting some elaborate story and she was on the edge of her seat in anticipation.
"What about him?" I asked, laying down and closing my eyes. I had had enough of boys for one night, and I was slightly concerned that my roommates hadn't. From the sound of it, they were preparing to stay up all night swapping boy stories.
"Come on, Cammie," Bex groaned. "Every girl was practically drooling all over him and he spent the entire night trying to get your attention."
"Was he? I didn't notice," I said with my eyes still closed. I hoped that if I seemed too tired to talk, that they would let me go to sleep peacefully. But I knew my roommates, and when they were rejuvenated with so much to talk about, there was no peaceful sleep.
I could already tell that with the boys being here and the staying up all night listening to my roommates talk about their wonderful encounters, tomorrow was going to be a whole new kind of difficult. Especially if what Bex said was true; that Zach really was trying to get my attention.
And even more especially that I secretly hoped he was.
Sorry for it being long ! Unfortunately I like to write a lot, so it probably won't be the longest chapter… again, sorry ! Also, I realized after I wrote it that there wasn't a big event that happened… I should probably get on that and get one rolling huh ?
Special shout outs to those who reviewed my last chapter !
Believe514: I'm sorry that it sometimes takes me so long to update. I write a little bit every day, and sometimes it takes forever for me to be satisfied with what I have. Unfortunately, I don't feel like this is my best chapter, but I didn't want to keep everyone waiting again lol. But I'm super glad you enjoy my story (:
Greeneyedsmirker: love the name by they way ;) and thank you ! I hope you find this chapter amazing too lol
Liela54352: I sometimes feel like whoever I'm dreaming about is secretly Zach... so you're not alone there lol and there definitely will be some Zammie action, however, it's not exactly right way.. so stay tuned (:
Miaadventure: I don't know if there will be any of that stuff, but I feel like it's almost a necessity when writing this kind of story, right ? lol and thanks for being so supportive and responding to my most-likely-annoying messages… I owe you one (:
A big thank you to everyone who reads my story even if you don't leave a review ! Hope you're all enjoying it (: