A/N: I'M BACK! (sorry this is so late at night) So I was in disney world for a week, which was amazing, and then I've had school since Thursday, so I apologize for not updating sooner but I had a ton of back to school tests and I was at my mom's this weekend. If you haven't seen this yet, go check out my schedule on my profile! (I meant to update yesterday but things got in the way…)This story will be updated on Mondays and Fridays, and I've got two new projects out soon!

Chapter 10

Tuesday, July 1

Four

Stupid. I was lost in thought, caught up in the moment. Didn't think about what was coming out of my damn mouth. "You're so beautiful," I almost said to her. It's the truth, not some empty compliment you pay someone who's having a bad day. I meant it, wholly, but I'm astonished at how inappropriate I can be in the blink of an eye when I let my control go away.

We went swimming with the campers, well, Tris did while I sat on the beach and made small talk with Uriah, who's group was swimming with ours. I need to keep my distance from her, as much as possible this week. I'm becoming careless, and letting my emotions get in the way of my work. It's not like I don't like her, because I clearly do, but too much. I'm leaving this state, maybe this whole country, soon, as soon as possible, after this summer. The more distance I keep from people, the less damage I'll do when I leave.

We eat a quick lunch, Tris sits on the other side of the table and I can tell I've hurt her, somehow. Her eyes meet mine and I ignore the punch in the gut that comes with her confused look and quick retreat to the bathroom. We take them to the lake again, when everyone's done, for water sports. Everyone's already in their bathing suits, so we split up in half, and with kids this age it ends up being boys and girls separate. I lead the boys to the logs to sit down and watch, much to their dismay, the girls will go first with Tris.

She comes over to me, a change in her whole demeanor – right down to her walk, which is more timid than it was hours before, before I messed up – and sets down her towel next to me. "I'll go out first, with the girls, then you'll take the boys?"

"Yeah," I say, swallowing hard. "Listen, Tris-"

She takes of her shoes and shirt, leaving her in a flattering one-piece. "It's fine, Four. Nothing even happened," she says with a flippant wave of her hand. She tries to act nonchalant about how I've been acting around her since this morning, but the crack in her voice and the hurt behind her eyes when they break away from mine are obvious giveaways that she's not completely okay.

I sigh, running a hand through my hair. She turns to go, but I call out to her, "Tris! Can we talk later?" She nods, and relief floods through my body. At least I didn't completely screw this thing up, whatever it is.

I watch as she rounds up the girls, after they take off their cover ups and get life vests, and get in the large boat with the lifeguard. After taking a vote we decided that we'd only be tubing today, and save the water skiing for another time. They hook up two tubes to the back of the boat, making sure they're secure. Two girls hop in to them, getting on their stomachs and holding tight onto the handles. After they give the thumbs up, the boat goes out on the lake.

It rounds the corner, going out of view, and comes back seconds later, rapidly picking up speed. The girls' laughter floats across the lake, and my eyes search for Tris in the crowded boat. I find her in the back, talking – more like yelling - to the girls currently tubing. Her hair is whipping behind her in the wind, and she has a carefree smile on her lips.

They go for a few more trips around the lake, giving all the girls a turn. The last two to go are Tris and one of the redheads, since there are odd numbers one of them has to go with their counselor. The boat comes back to shallow water, so they can switch off, and Tris gets in.

I find myself getting nervous when I see them pick up speed. It's not a very dangerous thing to do, sure, with live vests and all, but the thought of Tris getting hurt sends a pang through my heart.

I'm being completely ridiculous, because I've only known this girl for a day and I'm far too attached. I make myself talk with some of the boys, so I don't look at her anymore, but I catch a piece of her joyful laugh when the boat swings by us, and I impulsively look out at the lake.

She's bumping over the crests behind the boat, and flying up in the air for a few seconds at a time. It's the happiest I've seen her since she's been here. Not that she's been sad, just a little bit closed off and very stolid.

When they come in for the last time, I go over to help the girls get off after warning the boys to stay put and behave. Tris is in the front of the boat, taking life vests off each of the girls before they get off the boat. I wade into the water, and help them down if they need it.

Tris sets the life vests down and jumps off, making water spray on my chest and neck. I give her an incredulous look, and I'm about to make a remark when she seemingly trips on something underwater.

I catch her right before she falls completely, and my skin lights on fire when I come in contact with her shoulders and arms. I hold on to her for way to long after helping her stand.

She gives me a sheepish smile, "Thanks. There was, uh, a rock," she explains awkwardly.

"It's fine, no problem," I say, and try my best to give her a warm smile. She's making me bipolar, but I can't help do things like that when I'm in her presence.

She smiles in return, her cheeks turning pink. She starts to walk to shore, and I quickly scoop up water with my hands and throw it on her head. She's mostly wet from tubing, but she was starting to dry off a bit.

She turns around and gives me a devious glare, and before I know it we're both splashing water on each other. I kneel down and put my hands deep underwater, and push up with so much force that a whole sheet of water breaks on her body. She kicks the water rapidly, constantly peppering me with little droplets.

Her smile ignites a fire inside of me, and I could go on forever just having a water fight with her on a beautiful day, but I hear a shrill whistle and look to my right.

Lauren, the life guard driving the boat, is motioning for us to go back to the beach and get going again. I realize that we left 14 kids unattended while we splashed each other, and got soaking wet.

I give Tris a quick embarrassed glance, a murmured 'sorry,' and after apologizing more thoroughly to Lauren I go and organize the boys. Thankfully, most of the campers were not paying attention to our little display.

After the boys and I go tubing, we clean up and go back to our campsite. We elected to cook in tonight, so we'll be making dinner instead of going to the dining hall. I much prefer eating out here, but we can't do that every night because we don't have that much food.

I get the fire started while Tris sits the campers down and takes dinner orders. We're making burritos, and I'll cook the meat separately over the fire and then they'll put in all the other good stuff they want.

"Alright, so raise your hand if you want chicken on your burrito," Tris tells them, for the third time. About half raise their hands. "Okay, so who wants beef?" A few more raise their hands. "Is there anyone who does not want meat?" Two girls raise their hands, and Tris takes the notes on her clipboard. She goes over them with the campers, and after verifying, she tells them to go hang out in their lean-to's for a while and do their leisure activities – reading, writing to family, anything they want – and comes over to me.

"Okay, so that's seven for chicken and five for beef. So, two packages of each?" She sits down on a log opposite me as I tend the growing flames.

"Sounds about right. What do you want?" I ask after blowing on the embers.

"Oh, right. I'll have chicken, please." I nod in response, still blowing on the embers. "Do you need help?" she asks with a quiet laugh, after observing my fire, if you could call it that. I set it up perfectly, after years of experience, but the wood is a bit damp so it will be harder to get it going.

"I have it under control," I say, a corner of my mouth tugging up.

"I have no doubts you do, because your fire is so small," she says and gets down on her knees to start blowing. We blow in synch, and after a few tries I let out a hearty laugh at the situation. Even with two of us, the flame is only getting smaller.

"Fire starter?" She asks with a smile, after dusting off.

"Fire starter," I confirm.

I get it going right away after setting off the fire starter, and Tris brings over two pans filled with meat and sets them on the rack. "I'll go set up the rest of the food," she says and then hurries to the pavilion to get the other burrito fillings set up. We have cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, rice, and sour cream. We also have foil to wrap them in, so it's a little bit less messy.

I cook the meat quickly, albeit unevenly. I bring it over to Tris and line it up in her little buffet line. "Do you want me to get the campers?"

She nods, "Yeah. Not all at once, though."

"Right. You're really good at this, you know," I compliment as I walk away, not waiting to hear her most likely self-deprecating reaction. I don't lie, often, she really is good at this job. We've quickly become more like a team rather than me leading her. Which is perfectly fine, because she knows what she's doing.

I start on the right, and go up to the outer lean-to. It's full of girls who are doing a variety of activities one might expect tweens to partake in. Two are painting each others nails while reading from the tabloid, and the other two are writing to their parents.

"You guys can go and get dinner now, and if your letters are ready I'll take them," I say. They all scramble up and get out of their mosquito nets. I get two letters as they pass by me, and I fold them over, careful not to read them.

I wait a few minutes before going to the next lean-to and doing the same thing. Since this one is full of boys, it's not surprising that I get no letters. I do this for all of the lean-to's, and I bring back five letters when they're all set and eating.

Tris is just starting to make hers, and I see that most of the fillings are gone. "Sorry," she says when she notices the look I give her, "I told them to take fair amounts but I don't think all of them did."

"It's fine, I just really wanted that sour cream."

"Agh! So did I! It's not a true burrito without it," Tris agrees. We both put all the available things in, which ends up just being cheese and a shred of lettuce or two.

"We get dibs on dessert," Tris says once we've sat down at a table. We're sittings separately from the campers, for now, since we're just starting to eat and most of them are already done.

"Lava cakes, right?" she nods, "Yes, I completely agree." We carry on a light conversation while we eat, and I find myself feeling more relaxed around her. It's as if my little mistake earlier today doesn't even matter, and I don't really think we need to talk about it, unless she wants to. Then, I either have to tell her that I think she's beautiful or make up a lie, neither of which I want to do. Yet.

"Alright, you guys can hang out here or go spend time in your lean-to's again, whichever you want." Most of the kids go back to do leisure activities, but some of the girls stay seated, and three boys go and get a soccer ball and pass it around.

Tris and I pull out the materials for dessert. "Um, Four?"

"Yeah?"

"We don't have any eggs," Tris says, rifling through the crate.

"What? I specifically said 'four eggs' on the order sheet," I say. I stand next to her and sift through the crate to find the order sheet, and sure enough it says eggs.

"Well, I guess they forgot to give us some. We can't make a cake without eggs."

"It doesn't have to be a cake, per se," I say, an idea forming in my mind.

Tris cocks an eyebrow, and I smile at how adorable she is, then scold myself for thinking that. "We could just mix the other ingredients together and see what happens! With cake mix, water, oil, and chocolate we can make something."

"What if it's a disaster?"

"We'll just have to eat it," I grin at her.

She relents, "Okay."

We work together to mix the batter, only occasionally 'spilling' something on the other. It's all mixed together evenly rather quickly, but it will take a while to cook.

Tris goes off and makes friendship bracelets with a group of girls, so I toss around a football with a few of the boys. I keep flitting my eyes over to where they're sitting and talking quietly, and I see Tris smile a lot and look like she's really bonding with the girls.

The boys don't really care for talking, so we throw the ball around a lot until I tell them they have to go to their lean-tos or to the tables in the middle. They choose to go back to their lean-to, and I go and sit down next to Tris and the girls.

They all squeal quietly, thinking I can't hear them, when I sit down. Tris taps me on the shoulder and opens her mouth to say something, her face apologetic, when one of the girls bursts out "Tris thinks you're hot!"

My mouth hangs open, stunned, and I think she might actually have feelings for me before I come to my senses. Twelve year old girls take any comment into a romantic compliment, and I can't trust anything they say. And Tris would never like anyone like me, anyways.

Her cheeks are bright red, and the girls giggle across from us. "I don't – I didn't say that," she says hastily.

"It's alright, Tris, I believe you," I turn my attention to the girls across from me, "Don't go starting anything now. Tris will have to decide if she likes me for herself," I say with a big smile, so they know I'm joking, well, only partially.

She puts her head in her hands, and shakes her head. I put my hand on her shoulder and feel her shaking with laughter, "Let's check on the cake?"

She sits up and nods. We go to the fire to find that the 'cake' is much more like a goo. It didn't harden in the least, and it just looks like thick melted chocolate.

"Well…we can call it pudding?"

"Lava pudding, that way it sounds a bit more appealing. Plus it's more accurate, considering that thing is probably a thousand degrees," I joke as I take it off the fire using a rag to protect my hand. We bring it over to the tables, and tell the kids who have gathered that it didn't work so well, but if they want we can scoop some on their plates like pudding.

They all go for that idea, and this time we make sure to leave more than enough for ourselves to eat. I hold up the scoop for Tris's plate, but she says with audible distress, "There aren't any more plates!"

"This is not our day," I chuckle. "Would you care if we just ate it out of the pot?"

She takes a huge spoonful in her mouth, "That would be wonderful. Mmm, this is really good!"

I grab a spoon and dig in. It does taste wonderful, just like cake but in liquid-ish form.

I look up to see that Tris has chocolate all over her face, and I can't conceal my smile. "What?" she asks.

"You have a little something," I gesture to her whole face, "Right there."

She tries to lick it off with her tongue, but some of it is out of reach. "Did I get it?"

I shake my head and hand her a napkin, "Nope." She wipes most of it off, but there's still a tiny dot at the corner of her mouth. Without thinking, I reach up with my thumb and wipe it off. She doesn't react badly to my touch, which I suppose is a good thing.

"Thanks," she says, gratefully.

"No problem," I say, projecting happiness. On the inside, I wish she would have shown some sign of emotion when I touched her, but it's ridiculous to think that these feelings I have would be reciprocated.

A/N: Sorry that kinda sucked! Lots of Fourtris, and we get deeper into Four's insecurities and other parts of his mind. Please review, and thanks for reading!