In very unlike Serena fashion, the two did not end up swapping shifts Friday. The verbal agreement dissolved the moment Morgan had lured her cousin from the water that night. She probably wouldn't be able to get another favor out of her for the rest of the summer. If they were both still here, she thought sourly. Which left her to the will of Kayden the Terrible when it came down the schedule.
Her annoyance spilled into all her actions that morning. From being clumsy at breakfast, to squeezing too much sunscreen into her hand (and having to find someone to rub the excess onto. Maddie to the rescue!). She rifled through her bag looking for the water shoes she needed at the lake. The damn lake. An ugly sigh escaped her lips and she caught Rae peering back at her through her reflection in the mirror across the room.
"Everything alright over there?"
Morgan huffed, finally pulling the shoes out. "Yeah." She was sure her reply was far from believable, especially to the skeptical Rae, who knew her pretty well. Morgan couldn't chance anyone getting suspicious now that she knew what was going on behind all their noses. "That jerk signed me up for the lake shift, that's all."
Rae finished putting in her earring and turned to face her. "I thought you were going to try and switch."
Morgan shrugged, and began shoving things back into her bag unceremoniously. "Didn't work out."
"That's too bad. I know you hate the lake. I'll see if my group can make it out after the stables and archery. I'll keep you company for a while."
Morgan smiled. "Can I yell at your campers?"
"Absolutely not."
"Darn. See you later, Pyro!" Morgan blew a quick kiss into the air and left, fairly confident she'd played that well enough to avoid any suspicion. Slipping on her bright red sunglasses, she started walking down the path to the office to pick up the keys for the sheds down by the water. Not only did Sir Frowns-A-Lot give her the lake shift, he gave her the opening shift. Jerk.
She entered the air conditioned office, basking in the pleasantly cool air for a moment before she spotted ebony hair behind the desk.
Darien.
She briefly cursed the universe and closed the door behind her, closing the distance between her and the desk in a few strides.
He looked up to her, nothing but a cup of hot black coffee and laptop on the desk. "Good morning, how-" he paused and slowed, seemingly realizing who she was in that moment. "How can I help you?" His tone never left being polite, but there was something awkward there she couldn't place.
"I need the keys to the lake sheds." He turned around in his chair to search for them in the drawers behind him. "They should have an orange lanyard," she offered when it seemed he couldn't immediately find them.
An "ah ha" escaped his lips as he found them and turned back around. "Thanks. I'm still learning the ins and outs around here."
Morgan resisted the urge to tell him to re-read the code of conduct section of the employee handbook, and instead offered some words of encouragement. "You'll catch on. Give it time." She took the keys, after signing them out on the clipboard hanging from the wall adjacent to the desk, and bid him a good day.
She would certainly not be having one. Her help was late, which left her to try and set up all by herself. She scraped her leg trying to move things around inside the shed. A plastic crate fell down, knocking her sunglasses from her head, crushing them as it all hit the floor. They were cheap, and not worth anything, but they were her favorite, and it pissed her off. She managed, after some effort, to pull everything out and drag all the inflatable tubes out on the shore, but hooking up the air pump to the compressor turned out to be trickier than she thought. She'd seen it done before, but she just couldn't quite figure it out. She wasn't even going to attempt to try and drag out the giant inflatable climbing thing they had. And the kayaks? Those kids were just going to have to wait. This was too much for one person.
Morgan wasn't one to admit defeat, but the universe was hardcore not on her side today. Swallowing her pride, she pulled out her walkie from her bag and got a hold of Kayden.
"Hey, can you send someone down here to help?"
There was a pause. Probably checking his clipboard, she thought. "Brad was supposed to be there nearly an hour ago."
"I am aware."
She imagined his grumpy face scowling as he thought of what to do. "I'll get someone down. And, I'll delay the first group to give you time to finish."
"Thanks." Kayden was surprisingly helpful, she thought, and didn't sound at all annoyed.
"Call sooner next time."
There it was, Morgan thought. There was no time to shoot back a witty response; the radio went silent. Are you kidding me?! Her body tensed with anger as she stared at the silent device and fought the urge to throw the stupid thing into the lake, resigning instead to throw it down into the grainy sand below her. It wasn't quite as satisfying, but if she got caught in a lecture about respecting camp property today she might actually snap. Morgan inhaled a deep breath, and sharply exhaled, letting the tension leave her. At least help was on the way, she supposed. Deciding to be productive, she began trying to figure out the air hoses again. Maybe she was just flustered before and sabotaged herself? Wishful thinking, most likely, but she tried again anyway.
"Need some help?"
Morgan turned to the male voice behind her, expecting to find the help she was promised. However, about ten feet away stood a tanned, platinum blonde, stupidly gorgeous face that she'd never seen before. She guessed he was about her age, and definitely not a staff member, his clothes were too nice. He was decked out in Hurley gear, head to toe, shell necklace tucked neatly under his collar. "Uh…" was all she managed to say while dusting off and standing up. "Not unless you know how to mess with this compressor hose." He grinned and took a few strides her way, and she lost herself staring for a moment. "Did, uh, Kayden send you?"
He laughed. "No."
She echoed his laugh. "I didn't think you looked familiar. I just thought maybe you were some new staff member I hadn't met or something." She stuck her hand out to shake his, but regretted it, feeling dumb for being so formal. "I'm Morgan."
He smiled warmly and took her hand in his, raising it to his lips for a quick peck, causing her face to flush a warm pink color. "I'm Aaron. It's nice to meet you, Morgan."
Morgan's mouth went dry, his eyes so intense and so close. Her palms suddenly felt sweaty, and she nervously pulled her hand back and tucked some stray hair behind her ears.
He tilted his head and grinned mischievously. "You act like no one's ever given you a proper greeting before."
Her face was now red with embarrassment.
"Well, that's a shame." Aaron turned to the sound of a golf cart coming down the path to the beach entrance. "Well, that's my cue. I should get out of here before I get you in trouble." With a wink, he jogged towards the opposite path.
Morgan watched in wonder as he ran off into the trees, completely oblivious that the golf cart had arrived and its passenger was nearly next to her.
"Hey there!" the driver greeted, causing her to finally snap back to reality and turn around. "Kay says you needed some help?" Before her stood a smiling mess of wavy chestnut hair attached to an imposing amount of muscle mass. Morgan recognized him as one of the maintenance crew, but she couldn't for the life of her put a name to his face.
"Oh! Yes. Yes, I do."
"Well, your chariot has arrived. What can I do for ya?"
Morgan smiled, now out of her trance and looked for a nametag. "Well, Nate, I can't hook up the compressor, and I need to get the floating climbing wall out on the water."
He flexed his muscles, stretching his shirt nearly to its limit, reminding her very much of Gaston from the popular Disney film. "I've got this. Lead the way."
Nate made quick work of getting the inflatable set up, and got the air compressor set up for the tubes. Morgan took care of those while he effortlessly got the kayak rack pulled out and ready.
"Heads up!" she called out as she tossed a bottle of water his way and got one for herself. He caught it and made his way back over to the shed. "Thanks for all your help."
"Hey, no problem. And that's quite the arm you've got. I'm hosting a little tournament tonight down at the archery range. You ever thrown axes? Prize is twenty bucks."
She laughed at his wiggling eyebrows. "I'll come take your money."
He roared with deep laughter. "A confident squirt. I like it. And I won't go easy on ya. Be there around eight." With that, he waved goodbye and hopped back in his golf cart. Maybe her day wouldn't be a total crapshoot after all, she thought.
Her relief finally showed, absolutely apologetic as he could possibly be, and their shift ended without much of a hitch. Rae never made it down to the lake, but Morgan decided she'd ask her to come along later. If it was a partner's game, she wanted someone she knew to team up with. Besides, Rae was a badass archer, and how hard could axes be? Honestly, Morgan wasn't even really sure who was coming, and because of that, she definitely wanted a familiar face around. Morgan wasn't one to be careless like that. Camp was safe, but boys were dumb.
Unfortunately for Morgan, Rae was taking her group to a 7pm showing of Harry Potter in the auditorium, and wouldn't be back in time. Amy furiously shook her head no, and Molly and Serena were nowhere to be found, not that Serena would have been a viable option. They were still not speaking.
"Soo… Maddie," Morgan began smoothly, sliding to sit next to the much taller girl, who was sitting on her bunk, book in hand.
Maddie, the incredibly patient saint she was, looked over to the blonde sweetly. "Yes?"
"How does upstaging some muscle heads and taking their money sound to you?" A quizzical look was her response. "Guys down at the stables are doing some axe-throwing thing, which can't be that hard, and I got invited earlier, and I don't want to go alone. So… come with me, pleeease?" she finished quickly.
Maddie laughed and placed a bookmark in her book. "That's what those idiots were planning? No wonder they got quiet when I asked. Let's go take that money!"
Morgan's face lit up with excitement. "Yessss. I love you! Let's go!"
-.-.-.-.-.-
The two girls arrived at the stables promptly at 8pm. It was still relatively light outside, but the sun had fallen behind the trees and lightning bugs had made their appearance, softly and gracefully shining their lights off and on, dancing in the air. Someone had strung up some cheap Christmas lights, and a flood light lit up the axe throwing area, which was a few sheets of plywood propped up against the archery targets with crude red bullseyes painting on them.
Morgan found the whole thing charming. There were some voices inside the stable, laughing and talking, and she spotted someone starting a fire off to the side in a clearing. As they got close enough, she started to look for Nate, but only saw a few people she assumed worked over on this side of camp, as Maddie gave quick passing greetings. It was a minute later they were all taken by surprise as "We Are the Champions" blared from a stereo speaker being carried by Nate himself into the throwing area. All he needed was a smoke machine, Morgan found herself thinking. When he reached his mark, he tossed a beat up baseball cap down in front of him.
"Alright. Pony up! Winner takes the pot!"
Morgan's face flashed in surprise. He didn't say anything about bringing money. "Hey!" she shouted in protest.
Maddie rested her hand on Morgan's shoulder. "I see he forgot to mention that. Stupid game he plays to get you to try and embarrass yourself. If you don't have cash, you do a dare. But don't worry about it. I've got ya." With that, Maddie winked at her bunkmate and strode up to the hat, smirking when Nate noticed her. "Surprised to see me? Trying to win what you owe me?"
Nate huffed. "You playing or not?"
Maddie dropped a few bucks in the hat. "That's for me and Blondie over there. Shame on you, by the way. She's too nice for you to prank."
"I thought you found my games charming."
"In your dreams!" she teased. "Now, count the money I'm sure to win."
"Har har. Away with you. Next!"
Maddie flipped her ponytail as she walked back over. "A scoundrel, that one."
Morgan bit her bottom lip. "He was so nice earlier. It's weird."
"Ah, well, there's Work Nate, and there is Competitive Nate. You met Work Nate, who is goofy and charming. Competitive Nate needs a kick in the gnads."
Morgan snorted and the two gathered with the other participants who'd lined up.
"Alrighty, then!" Nate's voice boomed. "Everyone gets two practice throws to warm up. Then, it's best of three with your opponent. We'll do this round robin style. Last two throw for the pot. Any questions?"
Everyone in the group agreed in some form, a nod, a cheer, a "let's go!" and Morgan suddenly found herself feeling a little nervous. She'd never actually thrown an axe. Would two throws be enough practice? She was naturally good at most physical feats, but not always right away. And it wasn't even her money. What if she lost Maddie's cash?
Maddie must have sensed her apprehension. She gave Morgan a good-natured slap on the shoulder. "You'll be fine. We'll put you at the end of the line. Just watch everyone else and take notes."
And so she did.
Nate went first. He made it look easy. All five of his throws hit the red center of his board. He definitely could have skipped the warmup. His opponent kept his near the center, but Nate was clearly the winner.
Morgan watched the next groups of guys compete and tried to study when they released their grips.
Maddie was in the third group, the last group before Morgan. She threw as well as Nate, and clearly won against the other girl.
Morgan steeled herself and decided to throw first. It was better to just get it over with, she felt. She tested the weight of the axe in her hands, and did a practice swing to see where it felt most natural to let go.
"Alright, Miss Lifeguard, you're up!" Nate announced.
Her first practice throw landed in the center of the board, but near the ground and definitely no where near the circle. She needed to throw with more force. The crowd went "oooh" in disappointment. She relaxed her shoulders and got ready for her second, and last, practice shot. It landed above the first, still in the center, and much closer to the bullseye. "Closer!" someone yelled in encouragement. She was as ready as she'd ever be. Biting her lower lip, she hurled the weapon forward, lodging the tip just at the bottom of the red center.
Maddie cheered for her, as someone else yelled out "beginner's luck!" It was the best of her three, but it was enough to advance.
Morgan didn't make it past the second round, but she was satisfied with her performance. The competition ended with a tense battle between Nate and Maddie, both hitting the center of their targets more than three times each. Nate ended up being the first to miss, and Maddie declared victory.
"Pay up, pretty boy!"
"I'm pretty now?" he teased, handing over the money from the hat.
"Don't press your luck," she said as she accepted the cash, poking him in the chest with her other hand. Then, she swiftly snatched the hat. "This is mine, too!"
"Hey!" he reached for the hat, but not before Maddie placed it on top of her head and dodged out of the way. "Get back here!"
Morgan watched as her friend led the burly handyman on a chase around the stables and out to the fire. When she finally turned around, her laughter finally ended, a familiar, and unwelcome, set of steel grey eyes and light hair caught her attention. "What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise, her anger from earlier slowly building back up the longer she looked at him.
"I could ask you the same. This isn't your normal crowd. Where's that cousin of yours?"
She paused. Did he know about Serena and Darien? Had Serena blown it already? The way Kayden asked, she couldn't tell. There was a chance he was just asking to be nosy. 'Nothing goes on around this camp without my knowing,' she imagined him saying. "I'm not her babysitter. And I for one enjoy expanding my friend circle. What's your excuse? What brings you out of your lair?"
It was his turn to pause. She wondered if he was trying to think of a reason she couldn't be here, or to hold something over her head for later, or make her leave. She was having fun, and he just couldn't stand it, she thought. He continued after a moment, "I was looking for Darien. I thought he might've gotten pulled into Nate's shenanigans when I didn't see him after dinner."
Darien? Maybe he was getting suspicious. Morgan needed to throw him off somehow so he'd stop asking about Serena. "Aww," she teased. "Can't find your boyfriend?" When he gave no response, she smirked victoriously, and grabbed the recently-returned Maddie's arm from behind, gaining her attention. "Nice win! Hey, weren't you telling me about the horse you board here earlier?"
Maddie's face lit up like a proud parent. "Rosebud?! Ooh, do you wanna go meet her?"
"Would I?" she looped arms with Maddie, shooting a smug look behind her, and took off, leaving Kayden without a chance at a comeback.
-.-.-.-.-.-
Hanging out with Maddie was fun, but being a bit of an outsider to the group left Morgan missing her cousin. It'd only been a few days, but she missed Serena. She wanted to tell her about the hot guy from the lake, about how dumb Brad was, and how Nate came to the rescue, and how much of a badass Maddie was. She wanted to complain about stupid Kayden.
But she couldn't.
The lights were out when she got back to the cabin. Serena was asleep in her bunk when Morgan got back from changing clothes and brushing her teeth. Morgan couldn't help herself, and she found herself crawling into the small one-person bed, wrapping her arms around the sleeping girl, snuggling close, like they did when they were younger.
It didn't take long before Serena opened her eyes and sleepily began asking questions. "Wha-what you want? Why're you in my bed? I'm tired."
Morgan smiled and brushed a hair out of her cousin's face. "I missed you, dummy." Serena rolled her eyes and tossed her body over so she wouldn't have to look at her. "Sere…" Morgan managed to wrap her arms back around her and pressed her head onto Serena's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sere. I know you're mad. I was just… scared," she admitted. "Scared that our summer would be over. And I'd have to go back home. But, I want you to know your secret is safe with me. Okay? I mean it. I'd never betray you like that. Can we not be mad anymore?"
Serena didn't say anything, but she squeezed Morgan's hand, which was all that had to be said.