Hi guys... Please don't kill me for not having updated in so long...
Exams.
Anyways, I'll make up for it by telling you that this gets VERY fluffy later in this chapter.
Au revoir!
PS. just to tell you, I wrote the sonnet at the end of the chapter...
I chew on my pencil. I'm sitting at a table in Nottingham public library, waiting for the damn internet to load.
Robin's computer has a wireless card, and even though the computer is archaic, its internet is decent. He gets his connection from the wireless tower near the camp. He hacked into it and got a free connection, and I guess I got used to the fast connection. Now google is being stubborn, and the bottom of the web keeps on saying '1 more item-loading'. When it finally finishes, all I can do is wonder where to begin my research.
"... I know, it's soo horrible."
I listen to the chatter between two middle aged women. They seem to be talking about Camp Sherwood, and what they're saying isn't pretty.
"Why does our town have to deal with demented children?"
"It's supported by John Plantagenet..."
"I know, but what does it matter? We don't want them defacing us?"
"I heard there are homo-sexuals at that place."
They both shudder in horror. I feel my fists clench in Will's defense.
"That camp is no good. They have all sorts of children there, and none of them actually benefit our society."
"I heard they take these vagabonds off the street. Some are drug addicts, some are going to die in a few months, robbers, retards, murderers..."
"Murderers?"
"Well that's what I've heard..."
I gnash my teeth.
"And the worst thing is they're using the Abbey of St. Mary's Hospital to house the camp."
"But... they might... they might..."
"No, the campers aren't even told of the existence of a hospital above them. And you know the Abbey is only used for half the patients..."
"The ones who aren't going to get better..."
I decide to ignore the rest of their conversation.
I type words into the googlesearch, pretending to be working, as I force myself to ignore their judgmental prattle.
'John Plantagenet.'
'Did you mean: King John?' is written across the top of the webpage. I scroll down, and the second website is "President John Plantagenet, Leader of the Free World and Best President We've Ever Had."
That's disgusting.
I click on the link anyways, and force myself to read all of the patriotic gunk written there.
I return to my dorm in Camp Sherwood close to two hours later. Robin's nowhere to be seen. I sit on my bed and close my eyes, tired from gazing at the screen for so long.
My eyes also hurt from all the crap I've been reading.
I flop backwards onto the bed, and recount all the information I've found today.
John was born in a small town in California. He was a nerdy little kid, while his brother was a member of the football team, a popular writer in the school newspaper, elected president of school council, and an A student all the while.
It would be enough to make anyone jealous...
The door opens, and Robin, looking exhausted, enters and flops facedown on his bed. From the tangle of blankets, Robin asks me how my day went. I tell him alright and ask him the same.
"Terrible." he replies in a monotone voice.
"Why?" I ask, "What happened?"
"I had to go back to the hospital." He murmurs almost inaudibly.
I get up and sit on his bed. "What happened?"
"Just a checkup." He turns his face towards me, "I hate the doctors. I hate nurses. I hate needles. I hate everything about hospitals."
I touch his shoulder, and that strange electricity flows up my arm and into my chest cavity, making my heart flutter.
He rolls over and looks up at me with his emerald eyes. "Mara..." he whispers, and reaches up to my cheek and touches it.
We meet Will and Joan in the mess hall. There is a new addition to our table... Allan Adale. He sits next to Will, and they keep stealing furtive glances at each other. Robin and I smile at each other... it seems another romance is budding besides our own.
Robin tucks into his salad. I do the same to my melted cheese sandwich. I notice Robin take something from his pocket.
"Howdy, campers!" the sheriff shouts into his microphone, forcing all conversation to grind to a halt. "We're gonna have campfire tonight! And what are we goin' ta do?"
"Have some fun!" shouts the population of the camp under the age of thirteen. At sixteen, and fifteen in Allan's case, we sit at our table and do our best to ignore the sheriff's ramblings.
"And tonight, do we have a campfire for you or what?! So hurry up and eat, so y'all can go outside ta eat some marshmallows!"
"Yum." Joan whispers sarcastically. We finish our dinner and traipse outside, all grumbling about the running of the camp.
"Buuuuut the cat caaame back, they thought he was a goner, but the cat came back, he just wouldn't staaaay away-ay-ay-ay."
After the fifth chorus of that song, one tends to get a little irritated.
Especially with about fifty tune-deaf eight year olds all singing along.
"The Cat Came Back is really quite a violent song." Robin whispers to me, "This psychopath keeps finding ways to murder his poor little kitty."
"Perhaps the cat deserved it." I whisper back,
"Let's leave." I murmur after another rousing chorus.
"Where to?" he asks.
"The lake."
He grins conspiratorially, "If we're caught..."
"Oh come on..." I whisper into his perfect ear, "You're a notorious criminal, whose work has devastated some of the most powerful in America, and you're afraid of a little escaping?"
He grins and catches my wrist in his slender, elflike fingers. We move to the outskirts of the firelight, and when no one is looking, we move into the darkness, furtively snaking between the trees. We reach the outskirts of the woods, and find the boathouse.
"It's pretty here, with the moonlight..." Robin says quietly, "but it would be prettier over there." He gestures to the island near the center of the lake.
I grab a two-person canoe and drag it towards the stony beach.
"What are you doing, Mara?" he calls from the boathouse.
"Get two paddles." I order, ignoring the question.
He obliges, and with a crunch, we're off into the lake. The pale sliver- moon hangs over us, making Robin's hair silver in the light. Robin paddles diligently from the front of the canoe, splashing me playfully from time to time.
"I'm usually afraid of water." he confides, "I can't hold my breath for more than a few seconds, so swimming is difficult... but somehow..."
He looks at me with his extraordinary eyes, "Somehow... tonight is different... magical." He stops paddling, and maneuvers himself onto the floor of the canoe. I join him and our hands lace together, his graceful fingers caressing mine.
Clouds cover the moon, plunging us almost into darkness. Rain arrives, the plops on the water reminding us of its existence. I can barely feel it.
I wrap my arms around his neck.
Our lips meet.
Our kiss dissolves the rain, dissolves the lake, and the only thing in the universe is me and Robin. Together. His mouth tastes like chocolate.
The day was new, and Mara felt invigorated. She bid farewell to her hung- over mother, and set out for a day in the park.
She was at an idealistic fourteen, just fourteen last week, and she was read to complete her English homework.
It was Poetry that semester. They had covered haikus, couplets, ballads, and now they had started sonnets. Mara loved sonnets. The order they needed, the precision. Her life was so disorganized, so misplaced, that Mara found a solace in the sonnet that was strange for a girl of her age. When they had worked in pairs, Mara had ignored her jock-partner's lame cries to be included. She had whipped off a sonnet in just over twenty minutes, while it had taken the rest of the class two days to complete. And now they had to write a sonnet about love.
Her pen scratched away at the paper for her bench at the park, and the poem came to her. It was perfect by the second hour of editing.
She had a crush. On a boy who didn't know of her exsistance, but she still intended to slip the poem into his locker. She ripped the completed sonnet out of her notebook and read it over one last time...
"Your name, your voice, the things you do and say,
All make my lovesick heart just skip a beat
And since I love you, come what as it may,
Without you I would never be complete.
I sing your name before I go to sleep,
And dream of you all hours of the night,
I never knew my love could be so deep
Just seeing you fills all my world with light.
I do not know your feelings about me,
If maybe I am just a friend to you,
But in my dreams if we are meant to be,
Then perhaps in the real world we are too.
And so, dear friend, my sonnet to you ends,
And my heart on your sweet reply depends."
Perfect. She raced home to put it in her schoolbag.