I yawned loudly after having been shoved awake, and it didn't help that it was still clearly dark outside her windows. Despite how I desperately fought against my sleep, I could see Faith rummaging around me, making sure she had everything she needed.
"Do you think I'll be able to take my laptop or something?" She asked as she crouched over the bag she had packed the night before. "I wasn't sure if it'd be allowed, so I didn't pack it. But, now I'm really wondering if I should take it or not."
Glancing over at her teary-eyed, I answered her question as clearly as I could. "I can't tell you if it's allowed or not, but technically we are going to be camping, right? I think we're fine with just our phones."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She stood back up after zipping her bag shut. "It's only a week anyway, and I'm totes going to have you try out every activity with me, so there probably wouldn't be much time to be on my laptop anyway." She turned over to me to find me still on her bed. "Come on. Get up. We've gotta get going soon. You already brought your toothbrush and stuff, right? You can use my bathroom to brush your teeth. Come on!" She began to shove me out of bed now, and I had no choice but to oblige.
"I don't get how you're so energetic this early in the morning." I told her as I lazily moved and brushed my hand through the back of my hair. "I barely have any energy even when I sleep in."
"It helps when you have something to look forward to." She briefly answered with a small smile before she continued to push me towards her bathroom. "Let's go! Let's go!"
As I had been commanded, I borrowed her bathroom to brush my teeth and do other things like fix and straighten out my hair, but it wasn't long before she was knocking on the door in order to speed up my progress. I was right about done when she knocked, so I only sighed lightly before I opened the door and met her outside.
I watched her continue to fumble about and repeat to herself as she looked through her bags to double-check she had everything she needed. "Toiletries? Check. A week's worth of clothes? Check. Mmm." She suddenly paused and looked over at me. "Think we'll need swimsuits?" She asked.
"I don't think it'd be a bad idea to bring a set along." I told her. I had already packed my own, just in case. "I don't know what the activities will be, but I have a feeling there'll be a lake or something somewhere."
"Okay. Got it." She searched through her drawers and pulled out a familiar top portion of her swimsuit.
She was just about to stuff it in her bag before I stopped her. "Hey, uh…"
"Huh?" She looked at me with a curious yet innocent expression.
"That's…the one that, you know…" I scratched my head and hoped that she'd get the hint before I'd need to tell her directly.
She didn't seem to understand at first until she took a closer look at what she had been holding. "Oh!" She softly yelped and quickly stuffed it back in her dresser and anxiously continued searching as she talked to herself with a flushed face. "…why do I even still have that?" She spent several seconds rummaging through different clothes before pulling out a different set of swimwear. "Thanks for telling me." She said as she bent down to tend to her bag. "After what happened, I made sure to buy a new swimsuit, but I'm in such a rush that I almost didn't even notice."
"Why are you in a rush?" I felt the need to ask. "You did finish packing all your stuff last night, right?"
"I did, but I just want to make sure that I'm not forgetting anything. There was some stuff that I didn't put in my bag because I wasn't sure if I would be needing it. I thought I'd have enough time to do that today, but maybe it would've been better if I just had it all settled from the very beginning."
"You're good on time, Faith." I reminded her, checking the time on my phone.
"Am I?" She stood up and turned to me for a moment before she raised a fist to her mouth and began giggling to herself. "Look at me. I was the one who promised that I'd make sure you wouldn't miss the bus, yet I'm the one who's freaking out about the time."
"That just means you really care about seeing this through." I responded in hopes to provide her some relief. "If you ask me, you've got everything you need, or at the very least, the essentials. We're only going to be there a week, and I'd assume that the activities they have there will take up most of our time."
"Hm. I guess you're right." She thought to herself for a few seconds before she shook her head and bent down to look at the contents of her bag. "In that case, I think I pretty much have everything. Yeah, okay." She zipped up her bag and lifted it up with both of her hands. "Quick. Anything else I might be missing last second?"
"I saw you pack in everything I could think of, so nope." I said.
"Alright." She returned a firm nod and turned over to her doorway. "Let's go see if my mom waiting for us downstairs."
"Sounds good." I answered as I followed her out of her room with my own things. As I watched her fairly large bag sway side-to-side as she began stepping down the stairs, I reached a cautious hand out to her. "Hey, you want me to carry that?"
"I-I'm fine." She responded with a seemingly straining voice. "You've got your own bag to deal with."
"I don't really have much stuff, to begin with." I continued to suggest otherwise as we began walking down the steps. At this rate, it probably wouldn't even matter if she gave me her bag since we just needed to throw them into the back of her mom's car, who, by the way, was kind enough to take us so early in the morning.
"Like I said," She replied as she slightly turned her head towards me, "You spoil me too much. I need to do things myself time to time."
As soon as she said that, her body jerked forward as if she messed a step descending the stairs. I quickly reached my right hand out and held her back. Her body slightly jolted and soon froze for a second. It wasn't until she was no longer at risk of tripping over anymore when I realized my hand had been grabbing the area between her neck and shoulder.
I couldn't figure out why, but things began turning awkward on my end at least. If this was a few months back, I was sure that this wouldn't have been a big deal, but for some reason, it was now. I didn't know how Faith had felt about my rather unintentional intimate gesture, but I decided to completely blow out any awkward gust around us and force myself to move on with something to change the mood.
"You okay?" I asked foremost.
"Y-Yeah, thanks." She responded without looking back before continuing to carefully make her way down the last few remaining steps.
I rubbed the back of my neck and sighed quietly as I followed her. However, I quickly withdrew my hand when I realized it had been the same one I had touched her with.
Stop acting like a freaking kid, Chase. Girls exist. They're a thing. Get over it.
"Good morning!" We heard a cheery greeting come from the kitchen. It was effective in breaking any possible ice between Faith and me.
"Morning, mom." Faith extended a smile as we entered the kitchen.
As usual, we found her mother seeming to prepare a meal for us, but it didn't appear to be one that we'd sit down at the table for.
"I wasn't sure if you were comfortable enough to spend some time eating here, so I decided to make some breakfast sandwiches for you two on the go." She finished placing away some ingredients in the fridge and proceeded to wash and dry her hands. "Going away to camp for an entire week? I'm sure going to miss you."
"I'll miss you too, mom." Faith answered with an appreciative grin. "But, we'll be back before you know it. Although, hearing me say that, it makes me feel a little sad too. Afterward, do you think we can plan a trip to the beach house?"
"We haven't been there this month, so I don't see why not. If it means I get to make up for the lost time while you're away at camp, then I'll be looking forward to it." With a bright smile on her face, she walked over to her daughter and lightly patted her on the head.
To her satisfaction, Faith's body lightly rotated and swayed as she hummed happily with a blush scrawled over her face.
In the meantime, I had witnessed the entire scene. This kind of occurrence was common enough that I didn't feel embarrassed watching it play out, but to this day, I was still unsure of what to do when mother-daughter bonding sessions popped up like this.
I suppose her mother noticed my slight discomfort, so she began inching towards me with a gesturing hand. "What is it, Chase? Want me to pat you on the head too?"
"No, no." I shook both my head and hands as I slowly backed away with a small yet noticeable flushed face. It was hard to tell whether she was joking, serious, or both. "I'm good. Thanks."
"We better get going then." She turned around to grab the breakfast sandwiches she had made and handed them over to us. "You said you needed me to take you to Canterlot High, right? That's where the buses are going to be to take you to that camp?" She confirmed with Faith.
"Yuppies." Faith began to happily unwrap her sandwich and take bites out of it. "I was freaking out a bit about the time earlier, but you don't need to rush. We should still have time to spare by the time we get there."
"I'll go get the car ready then." She answered as she began walking past us. We could hear keys jingle as the front door opened and closed shortly after.
Faith turned to the floor where she had placed her bag and began to reach out with her right hand, but then she froze in motion. She turned her head to her sandwich and then back to her bag. It appeared she had found herself in a predicament, and it was fairly clear why.
"Let me go ahead and get that for you." Keeping the bag hastened by my left shoulder steady, I reached over and picked up her luggage. It was a little heavy but definitely nothing I couldn't handle, especially since all I had to do was take it out to the car that was right outside.
"Oh, no!" I could hear her say with an occupied mouth. "You don't—!" She paused for a second in order to swallow whatever she had been eating and continued to try to stop me from helping out. "I can get it! Let me, um, just finish this really quick."
"It's alright." I faced her, prepared to drop off all of our things in the car before she could shove the rest of the sandwich down her throat. "Don't rush or you'll choke. I'll go ahead and get these in the car."
"Mmm…" She groaned shortly, and I headed outside before she had any chance to stop me.
Each of us spared just a few minutes to make sure we weren't forgetting anything. When we were finally ready to hit the road, Faith jumped onto the seat next to me and offered me something familiar.
"Here."
Realizing it was the breakfast sandwich her mom made me, I immediately accepted it. "Oh, thanks!" I expressed gratefully. I had nearly left it behind in exchange for helping Faith with her bag. Faith smiled softly and pulled the seatbelt over to buckle herself in.
Compared to normally biking my way over to Canterlot High, it was actually a pretty short car ride. In fact, I was so used to the time it took us to get there that the length now felt way too short to be real. Despite that, Faith and I were pulling our things out of the car in the next moment. Her mom stepped out of the driver's seat and joined us for what looked like a temporary goodbye.
"It's going to be a little strange not seeing the both of you at home at the end of the day." She said with her hands on her hips. "I hope you don't decide to end up living at the camp."
"Psh. As if. Whatever food they have there could never be able to live up to your master chef skills." Faith joked along.
A grin rose on her mother's face before she was pulled in for a warm embrace. "You two have a great time at camp, alright? I'll be thinking of you every day."
I noticed Faith roll her gaze towards me for a moment as her cheeks reddened up after the gesture. "We're not going that far, mom. Still, I'll be thinking of you too." She said softly.
Just like earlier this morning, I stood there watching and tried to play it off without being awkward about it. In other words, I felt like I needed to turn my head away and look in the other direction every now and then without making it look like I was intentionally trying to keep myself from witnessing the vulnerable state of the two.
"Come on, Chase. You too." I heard, turning my head back to the sight.
Faith was no longer trapped in her mother's arms. Instead, they were wide open, and it seemed she was expecting me to return the favor. I didn't know how to feel about the situation. It wasn't the first time she had expressed a motherly gesture towards me, but it still felt a little weird. I didn't know if I felt like I'd be betraying my own mother if I accepted it, but I definitely couldn't leave her hanging. Not after the kind of hospitality she's given me from the time I've known her.
"Yeah, okay…" I scratched my cheek a bit before walking within arm's length of her.
Before I could even prepare myself, she wrapped her arms around my back and gave me a tight and firm squeeze. From what I could tell, the kind of hug I had gotten seemed to be a bit different from what I had seen with Faith. It's hard to put into words, but it looked like she had placed more "care" with embracing her daughter. Not to say that she didn't care about me, but I suppose it was just that special "mother and daughter" relationship that you could never replicate with someone else that isn't actually your child. Once she released me, she glanced at the both of us silently for a moment before her warm smile slightly stretched.
"Have fun, you two, okay?"
Faith nodded fervently. "We will. And then we'll take a trip with just the three of us when we come back!"
Her mother returned a nod as well and began waving us goodbye as she stepped into her car. "Keep me updated."
It wasn't long before the door to her vehicle closed, and we ended up watching her drive off. Afterward, each of our eyes had met before Faith closed hers and returned a warm smile my way.
"The bus should be right over here." Faith guided me a short distance around the school until we noticed an ordinary yellow school bus stationed at the empty parking lot.
"Huh." I stopped and observed the school bus for a short moment. "That's weird."
"What?" Faith stopped as well and faced me.
"Isn't Camp Everfree somewhere out of the area in the woods?" I asked. "It's not that far away, but I guess I just find it ironic that we're taking a regular school bus instead of a charter bus like Crystal Prep would for a few-minute drive."
"What? You miss Crystal Prep already?" Faith smirked and teased.
"Are you kidding? In a way, I feel a lot more relieved riding in a regular old school bus than some fancy air-conditioned one. It sort of feels like I'm more at home?"
"Well, it does fit more with the camping lifestyle." She answered before bumping me with her hip. "Come on. We don't want it to leave without us."
There were some students there by the time we caught up, but judging by the small amount, it seemed like we were still pretty early. The doors to the lower compartment of the bus were open, and a few bags had already been stowed away. Faith and I carefully pushed in our luggage before we turned around and got a better look at the area without our baggage dragging us down.
It was no longer totally dark, but day was actually starting to break in on the horizon. It was a nice and cozy sight, but the view wasn't as great as it was back at Faith's "vacation home".
"You're the new students attending Canterlot High, am I right?" We heard a composed voice that was metaphorically coated with a soothing honey speak to us. Our new principal had been standing a few feet away at our left side, and in one hand, she had a clipboard that was momentarily being held like a binder. In the other, she rested a hand on her hip. She was wearing what looked like some scoutmaster's uniform. I supposed it fit her, considering the rest of us were all wearing a Camp Everfree shirt. Studying her a bit, she began to heavily remind me of Dean Cadence back from Crystal Prep. I could only wonder how she was doing lately.
"That's correct, ma'am." Faith answered in a bright-eyed manner. The way she responded made me wonder if she learned a page or two from my book with Principal Cinch.
"Principal…Celestia? Right?" I asked, lightly squeezing my eyes from the slight fear of getting her name wrong and somehow offending her.
"That is correct." Principal Celestia said. "I don't expect the two of you to become familiar with the name right away, but as soon as classes start, I'm sure it'll come to you naturally." She paused and looked at the small groups of students that were surely growing larger by the minute. "I'm glad you two were able to come. It looks like you transferred just in time to be attending this trip with us. Honestly, I think this trip will be a good first impression of what you can expect at Canterlot High School."
I couldn't help but avert my gaze and mutter internally to myself.
I'm pretty sure we already had our first impression at the Friendship Games…
"Have you seen Twilight around?" Faith asked.
"Not yet." She shook her head in response and rubbed her chin carefully as she took a short glance around. "Although, I'm sure she's on her way. I haven't seen Sunset Shimmer and the rest of her friends either, so I'm assuming they're together." She faced back towards us and raised a hand to the bus. "If you'd like, you can take a seat inside the bus already. If not, you can stay outside and wait for them."
"Principal Celestia, could you come over here for a moment?" We heard a call behind her.
"Please, excuse me." Principal Celestia momentarily lifted her index finger before stepping away.
"So, what do you wanna do?" Faith questioned, looking towards me for an answer. "Want to pick out a seat already, or do you want to wait for you-know-who?" She flashed her eyebrows at me as a smirk stretched out on her face.
Ignoring the tempting offer to overreact, I prepared to ignore her button-pushing as subtly as I could with a calm answer. "I guess we could just go inside—"
"You there! Help me, will you, darling?"
Before I could find out who seemingly called out to me, a fairly heavy bag had been planted onto my hands. Not expecting the sudden weight, I nearly fell over in trying to compensate, but I managed to raise my arms in time to keep myself from falling flat on my face. When I was able to get a look at the person responsible, she had already been walking away at a fast pace. I had loads of questions bubbling in my mind, but there was only one that I had enough time to ask.
"What am I supposed to do with this?!"
Truth be told, I just wanted to be rid of the bag as soon as possible.
She turned around and answered me. "What else do you do with the luggage, darling? Place it into the bus! Oh, but do be careful! I don't want anything inside to be broken. When you're done, hurry on back and help me bring in the rest of my things, please?"
She didn't wait to hear my answer. Instead, it seemed she had expected me to accept her request because she just kept walking on afterward.
"Rarity has a lot of bags." Another voice accompanied us.
It was Sunset Shimmer.
"And what do I look like to her? Her pack mule?" I questioned her a bit angrily.
"Think of it this way. She trusts you enough to take care of her things. You two are good friends already." Sunset Shimmer crossed her arms and raised her head in poise.
I couldn't tell whether she was messing around or not, but with a heavy sigh, I decided to follow Rarity's request and carefully place her things inside the empty space underneath the bus. "It's not like I've really talked with her much."
"We're a little different from Crystal Prep students." Sunset Shimmer reminded. "If you're going to be going to CHS from now on, you might want to get used it." She concluded with a wink.
Before I could respond to that, I suddenly felt my arm being jerked back with something wrapped around my wrist, pulling me forcefully. "Don't you know it's rude to keep a lady waiting? Come on!"
"W-Wait!" I struggled to bring things to a halt so I could get a good grip on what was currently going on.
"I'll keep Faith company!" Sunset Shimmer waved towards me as her figure slowly grew smaller.
When I was finally brought to the trunk of a vehicle, I was allowed a brief moment to catch a breath. By my side, I found Rarity bent over as she rummaged through the trunk and pulled on the handles of other pieces of luggage.
"You know, a choice of whether to help or not would have been nice." I returned a frank complaint before I leaned over and got a better look at what was inside the trunk. Remembering what Sunset Shimmer had told me, I began to address that matter with Rarity. "What's with all these? Are these all of the girls' bags?"
"Heavens no. They're all mine."
The way she answered genuinely shocked me. I knew girls were known to bring along more things because of makeup and stuff, but this was way too much! And she acted like this was completely normal to her!
"Are you kidding me?! Why are you bringing all this to a one-week trip?!" I reacted before she held out a couple more bags towards me.
"Oh-ho-ho." She chuckled. "You have much to learn about moi. When it comes to fashion, you can never be too careful." She jiggled her luggage in front of me and continued gazing at me with an innocent smile until I reluctantly held out my hands and carried them for her.
Seriously? I bet you won't even go through more than two bags tops. I'm so glad Faith isn't like this.
Rarity must have understood a smidge of my thoughts because she tacked on a statement of reassurance. "There's no need to give me that pouty look on your face. I'm not going to let you move these bags on your own." She removed another bag and held it out in front of me. "See?"
I found the small size of the one bag she was holding up hardly reassuring.
"Uh-huh…" I answered, my eyelids lowered halfway from a lack of amusement.
I continued walking back and forth to retrieve her luggage and place it in the storage compartment on the bus. Every now and then, I'd get a glance at Faith and notice her return an apologetic look towards me. She didn't have any fault with me carrying Rarity's things, but I suppose she was sorry for being unable to do anything with Sunset Shimmer keeping her busy.
After four or five trips here and back, along with my arms working overtime to carry as much as I possibly could so I could end this charade of being some kind of bellhop to her, I was finally allowed to wipe the sweat off my forehead as I placed the last of her luggage inside the bus.
"There. We're done now, right?"
Rarity firmly nodded her head. "I do appreciate the help."
It's not like you gave me a choice…
"Your assistance won't go unrewarded." She added. "I'll make something spiffy for you to wear."
Great. Can't wait.
"You just finished getting your things on the bus, Rarity? It's almost time to leave!" A girl with rainbow-colored hair joined us, noticing the huge amount of similar-designed luggage right by each other.
"You can't rush beauty, Rainbow Dash." Rarity responded with another piece of her "wisdom".
"I'd like to see that 'beauty' keep the bus from moving. Come on!" She waved her hand over as she began stepping onto the bus.
Seeing as Rarity was apparently the last one to have her things placed in, I closed the remaining opened compartment doors.
"Shall we?" Rarity advised to me before she went on ahead and began boarding the bus.
I felt a hand pat my shoulder a couple of times before Sunset Shimmer walked past me and headed for the bus as well. Faith now reconvened with me and stayed by my side with her arms crossed behind her back. From what I could see, her face looked a little different for some reason. I wasn't sure if it was the lighting or something, but she looked a little redder than usual.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah." She immediately whipped out a beaming grin. "Let's hurry and get on the bus!"
I couldn't argue with her push, so I followed after her as she walked hurriedly to the door of the bus.
Thanks to Rarity heavy-duty request, the bus was already practically filled by the time we finally got on. The only empty seats left were the ones at the back of the bus behind Sunset Shimmer and the rest of our new friends. I suppose it wasn't all bad, but it was still a little annoying to know that we came here early and ended up losing out on our choice of seats in the end. I slumped my shoulders as I walked behind Faith over to the only place we could sit.
"Hey, Chase." I heard as I walked on by.
"Hey…" I unenthusiastically returned until I realized whom I had been speaking to. "Uh! Hey!" I perked up after noticing her push up her glasses.
I could only imagine she was a bit startled and surprised by my reaction because she shortly waved afterward with a small smile. Spike, her dog, only quietly switched glances between the two of us. Before I could make anything worse, I continued walking to the back. I was definitely tempted to keep a conversation going, but the worst part about that was we were in the middle of a bus that was ready to leave. I wouldn't be able to keep a conversation unless I sat down to talk to her. Even if Spike was willing to move out of the way for me to sit, what was I going to say after that? Heavily sighing to myself, I reached the end where Faith was waiting for me and sat by her.
"You'll get a bunch of chances to talk to her." Faith seemed to notice the expression on my face and reassured me.
The last time Twilight was around like this was during the Friendship Games, and at that time, all she ever really cared about was her research and stuff. Now that Twilight was yearning to learn about "friendship", I realized that Faith's words were not longer wishful thinking.
"Yeah, you're right." I agreed.
Faith slightly tilted her head towards me with a smile that was calmer than the one she gave me right before we entered the bus. Next, she dug into her pockets and pulled out her handy phone. After attaching a wire to it, she held up an earbud to me. In addition, she raised her eyebrows as the look of her alluring eyes invited me to accept her silent offer.
Feeling the sour mood I had just a few minutes ago fade away, I carefully grabbed the earbud with my fingers and lifted it up towards my right ear. From there on, we quietly listened to some music as we waited for the wheels on the bus to finally go round and round.
We listened to some music for some time, but I had to admit that the chatter throughout the bus was a disturbance, at least for me. In this case, it would have been beneficial if we had a separate set of earbuds to block out any outside noise as much as possible.
I turned to Faith to see what she thought of the situation, but, instead, I found that her head had been slowly rocking forward. Her eyes twitched softly every now and then, but they remained closed for the most part.
"You sleepy?" I asked.
"Oh?" She lightly shook her head and opened her eyes back up. "Y-Yeah. Now that we're safely on the bus, any of the energy I had just disappeared. I guess I was really more tired than I thought, and now that I'm not worrying about making it to the bus, it's finally showing."
"You can get some sleep, you know." I assured. "It'll be a while before we get there."
"About that..." Faith slowly averted her eyes as a red glow began to surface across her cheeks. "You mind if I borrow your shoulder?"
I nearly froze after having been caught off guard by that request. It especially didn't help that there were so many other students around us, and if any of them saw us like that, they'd surely get the wrong idea. Nevertheless, I couldn't deny her because that would obviously be a jerk move.
I made a subtle glance around with my eyes and realized that we were at the back. No one would really see unless they turned around. Despite the possibility of any unwanted attention, I was probably overthinking things way too much.
She's just using my shoulder for support. So, what?
"Uh, sure." I finally said.
She remained still for a moment, appearing if she was having second thoughts. However, she began slowly scooting closer before leaning against me. I looked away as if I was some patient about to get a shot and tried to busy my mind with something else. Just as I thought that things couldn't become more difficult, I suddenly felt the urge to shift the position my body was in when Faith already settled her head down.
Just settle back and relax, Chase. You're already used to things like this. Just quit worrying about everybody else and soon enough it'll all—
"Stop!" I heard, causing my body to jerk from the scare.
In turn, Faith's head was lifted up and torn from my shoulder.
Both of us quickly looked at the area in front of us to find some kind of commotion going on with Twilight.
"Twilight, wake up!" Spike patted her.
"We can't stop, silly! We're not there yet!" Pinkie Pie stood up from her seat next to Sunset Shimmer and spoke to Twilight.
"Hey, are you okay?" Sunset Shimmer asked as she leaned in and hung her arm over the seat Twilight was in.
"Heh. I'm fine." Twilight answered, sounding as if she was short out of breath.
"We are gonna have so much fun!" Pinkie jumped in a nonchalant yet excited manner. "We're gonna roast marshmallows and eat marshmallows and sleep on marshmallow pillows!"
"Yeah, probably not gonna do that." Rainbow Dash was heard saying back beyond them.
"Maybe you're not." Pinkie Pie held up a bag of marshmallows and squeezed them closely to her face, reminding me of what had happened with Faith and me.
Fortunately, before we could possibly get caught in an awkward moment, our school officials at the front began making an announcement towards all the students currently on the bus.
"Attention, students, we're almost there." Principal Celestia informed us. "But before we arrive, we just wanted to say how proud we are of you for raising enough money to go on this class field trip."
Whoa. They had to raise money to go on this trip? Now, I feel bad for just jumping in all of a sudden…
"When we were your age, we made some of our favorite memories in these woods, and we're sure you will, too." Vice Principal Luna added.
"Now who's excited for Camp Everfree?!" Principal Celestia asked.
Everybody on the bus immediately cheered besides Faith and me. In fact, I began hearing her speak to me once the cheering died down.
"Well, I guess I won't be getting any sleep." She mentioned with a blithe kind of look on her face. She looked troubled that her attempt at sleep had been disturbed, but she was accepting of it despite the circumstances.
"You sure?" I asked.
"You heard the principal. I guess I'll just wait until we get moved in and stuff." Faith then turned her head towards the window and began observing the scenery outside. As for me, I only really slightly slumped against my seat and silently waited for the bus to arrive at some point or another.
Every now and then I'd turn my head towards the window to get a peak of the slow transition from urban life to the "great outdoors". Buildings became more and more scattered about until all there was to be seen was fields of green. It was only a matter of time before we were met with a wall of pine trees. Eventually, that was all we could see around the bus.
A soft gasp sounded beside me, and I could see Faith angling her head around by the window. Afterward, she placed her hands on top of the seat in front of her and straightened her figure off the seat. "I think we're here!" I remained in my seat as she clearly gawked out in excitement, and this seemed to bother her in return. She turned towards me and hooked her arm around mine, forcing me to stand with her. "Look! Doesn't it look amazing?!"
"Sure." I responded calmly and began sitting back down while pulling my arm back.
Despite my lack of excitement, she nearly shoved me as she tried to take a look at the windows on the left side of the bus. By shove, I mean she leaned in a little too close and practically pressed herself against me since I was right in her way. From what I could tell, she was too busy locking eyes onto whatever was outside, and I was starting to think that she didn't even know how dangerously close she was. In fact, she was pretty much obscuring my view of anything else.
It wasn't until she must have felt me in her way where she bothered to look down to find me uncomfortably turning my head away and crossing my arms. Soon enough, she quickly pulled away and sat back in her seat with her arms between her legs. A spark within her cheeks began to ignite a fire that seared all throughout her face. I felt a little guilty for somewhat being the one responsible for ending her short-lived excitement, but in reality, there was nothing I could really do.
Because we sat at the very back, we were the very last ones to get off the bus. I didn't really mind, but it wasn't until I started setting foot outside where I found trouble nearly headfirst.
"Has anyone seen Chase? Is he still on the bus?"
I noticed Rarity's head poking around as she stood in front of the open compartment underneath the bus. My eyes shot open, and I quickly grabbed Faith's wrist and forcefully pulled her around to the other side of the bus before Rarity could find me by the door.
"O-Ow! What was that for?!" Faith exclaimed.
"Sorry…" I released my grip on her, allowing her to retract her hand and slowly massage her wrist. Meanwhile, I had been poking my head out in an attempt to get a good look at what Rarity was doing.
"What are you doing…?" Faith positioned herself near me and tried to get a view of what I had been gawking at. I continued observing Rarity and didn't notice her silence until she spoke once more. "…hold on… Are you looking at Twilight?! Why are you doing it in such a creepy way?"
"Shh!" I placed a finger to my lips and shushed her. "No, I'm not looking at Twilight. I'm watching Rarity."
"Rarity?!" Her voice nearly raised in volume. "W-What? You have a thing for her now?"
"No!" I felt my voice unintentionally begin to raise as well. "I just don't want her to see me. Remember how she had me carry her stuff to the bus? I bet she's looking around for me so I can take her bags out."
"But our bags are in the bus too. How are we supposed to get them if we're hiding back here?" She asked a good question.
"We'll just have to wait for her to leave. I don't know when that'll be, but she has to go sometime, right? Worst case scenario, you can go out and get our bags. If she asks you anything, don't mention that I'm hiding from her."
Faith was rather silent for a decent amount of time. "…okay…but she's going to have to see you sometime. You can't just hide from her during camp the entire time."
"I know. She'll get someone else to help her with her things or actually do the work herself. I don't have to hide then. I just hope she doesn't bother me with more stuff to do."
"You don't think it'd just be easier to help her with her things now? Do you really have to make things so complicated?" She placed a hand on her cocked hip. Taking a glance at her figure, I almost began to believe that she thought I felt the same way when it came to helping her with things.
I sighed lightly and faced my body towards her. "Look. I get what you're saying, but I just don't want to be assigned as 'pack mule' now that we know each other. I'm all to helping others, but not if it becomes a regular and expected thing. Get me?"
She lightly pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows. Nevertheless, she nodded slightly. "I guess.."
A screeching sound suddenly pierced our ears. Just before our ears could recover, we heard a voice come out from what sounded like a fairly old intercom. "Hey, everyone! If you could start heading to the courtyard, that would be rad! It's time to start the best week of camp ever!"
I took another look around the bus and noticed everyone leaving, including Rarity.
"Hey, this is our chance! Let's go!" I immediately began jogging over to the other side and began searching through the storage compartment. Since we had pretty much been the last ones off, it was easy to find our luggage and pull it out. Once Faith and I had our stuff, we headed off in the direction the others went.
We reconvened with everyone else in front of the gazebo just in time to see a chipper-looking woman with a microphone step forth onto the gazebo. By her side was a guy who looked to be around her age. I could only assume that they either worked in the camp time to time or possibly even owned it.
"Hi, everyone!" The woman greeted. "Welcome to Camp Everfree! I'm Gloriosa Daisy, your camp director! Think of me as your friendly camp and nature guide. And this is my brother, Timber Spruce!"
Timber grabbed a hold of the microphone next. "Think of me as that awesome guy..." He paused for a short moment to juggle the microphone a bit. "…who should always be invited to fun things."
Once the microphone was returned to Gloriosa, she resumed her previous speech. "We aim to please, so before we hand out our tent assignments, we'd like to hear from all of you. You're free to do whatever you like here."
"Uh, except hike near the rock quarry. That's off-limits." Timber oddly mentioned a bit suddenly.
Gloriosa looked like she was surprised at the mention herself, but she was able to recuperate nicely. "Y-Yes, but otherwise, your options are wide open. So what activities will make this the very best week of your lives ever?"
As soon as she held the microphone out towards the audience in front her, a brash voice suddenly yelled out.
"Ooh! Rock climbing!"
In front of us, we could see Rainbow Dash stretching her arm out as widely as she could and waving frantically as if there was an emergency.
"Done!" Gloriosa responded.
"Archery!" Rainbow continued excitedly.
"Of course!" Gloriosa obliged.
"Tetherball!"
"Naturally!"
It looked like this could have gone on for forever, but Sunset Shimmer grabbed her wrist and pulled it down before she could go too far. I could imagine she was making a suggestion in giving other people a chance to voice their interests.
"To tell you the truth, I'm really down for anything!" Faith told me as she held her fists up in front of her mouth with determination. "I've always wanted to try rock climbing!"
"Me too, but I'm pretty sure it's way harder than it looks when you watch other people do it." I answered.
"Well, it doesn't matter as long as it's super fun. I totes can't wait to give everything at camp a try here!"
I couldn't help but raise a grin due to her optimistic expression. "Seeing you this excited is getting me a little hyped too. I guess it was a good thing that you're here with me."
"As if I'd be anywhere else!" She winked briefly as she playfully stuck her tongue out at me. However, a second after, she opened her eyes and placed her hands on her hips as she leaned in towards me with a noticeable scowl. "Wait. What do you mean you 'guess' it's a good thing I'm here?"
"Uh… Heh, heh." I defensively placed my hands in front of me as I slightly moved my head back with a cold sweat running down the side of my face. I could only stare back at her puffed face before an announcement from the gazebo grabbed our attention. It was a good thing too. We had been too busy talking with each other that we actually missed all the other requests from everyone in the group.
"I'll be taking requests the rest of the time you're here, so if there's anything you'd like to do, anything you need, just ask." Gloriosa stated.
It seemed we missed our chance to talk, so if Faith and I came up with anything we might want to do, it was a good thing that we'd be able to let her know later.
"What about the camp gift?" Our principal mentioned over at an old-fashioned wooden bench she sat informally on. "That was my favorite Camp Everfree tradition."
"The camp gift! Of course!" Gloriosa recalled. Afterward, she seemed to weirdly exchange inaudible words with her brother, but it was only a brief moment before her voice returned to the microphone. "Every year, campers work together to create something useful. A gift for future campers. Working toward this common goal is key to forming the strong bonds that will last well beyond your time here at camp!" Once more, she pulled away from the microphone near her lips and pushed a few inaudible words through her teeth towards her brother. Her brother only returned a dirty look before she lifted the microphone back up. "This gazebo was a gift from last year's group. Oh, oh, oh, and the totem pole and the sundial were also made by campers!" She presented them as she spoke.
"The sundial was our year's gift!" Principal Celestia proudly acknowledged.
On the other hand, our vice principal coughed oddly for some reason. "Even though 'some people' thought it was a little impractical since the sundial can't be used at night."
It was a similar sight in regards to Gloriosa and her own sibling. However, she was able to move on and divert attention from whatever 'that' really was. "You all seem like a-a really amazing group. So I'm certain you'll come up with something inspiring to leave behind."
After the occasional cheer from everyone else, Timber spoke up with the next few directions we'd be taking.
"Speaking of leaving things behind, now's the time when we give out tent assignments so you can leave your heavy bags behind."
"Uh, girls will be getting their assignments from Timber." Gloriosa instructed as she stepped off the gazebo. "Guys, you're with me."
"Oh, shoot!" I suddenly heard beside me.
"What?" I quickly turned to find Faith clasping her thumb and index finger in front of her mouth worriedly.
"I wasn't expecting that we'd be separating into different tents!"
"W-What'd you think?" I found her response a little embarrassing to hear. "This is a school trip."
"But I don't want to be assigned with someone I don't even know."
Tell me about it… I didn't even know any of the other guys here in our school.
"Well…" I took a look at the students in front of each of our respective camp counselors and found that they were drawing some kind of cards out of a bag. This was a pickle indeed. "Maybe someone's willing to switch cards with us?"
"Then what's the point of drawing cards in the first place?" Faith asked.
"I-I don't know." I had certainly been stumped by Faith. "Let's just go and draw our cards out before we miss our chance. We'll figure out what to do from there."
"Okay…" She anxiously seemed to rub her arm. She appeared reluctant to temporarily separate in order to get our tenting assignments, but inevitabilitly she had no other choice.
For a few minutes, I had to stand behind a bunch of guys I didn't know whatsoever in order to draw my card. To be honest, it felt a little awkward. It wasn't exactly anything new, but knowing that I kind of just hopped onto the CHS bandwagon free of charge, I felt a little out of place.
Once it was finally my turn to stick my hand into the bag, I reached inside, but I actually didn't really feel anything at all at first. It wasn't until my fingers found the edge of something flat when I snapped my fingers shut like a pair of scissors and pulled it out. Being the last one, I guess it wasn't a surprise that I'd only feel one card. Taking a quick deep breath, I flipped the card in front of my face and took notice of the gem on it. It was a kind of pearly white and shiny gem stone.
"Huh? I got…?"
"Oh! You're in the Opal tent!" Gloriosa spotted the gemstone on my card and began to look around. "Let's see… Who else got Opal tent?"
The guys that were hanging around looked at each other, but it was clear that none of them had the matching card. After all, they had already been in pairs, so it seemed that they had already found their roommates.
I pulled up my card and took a second look at it.
Am I really going to be the odd guy out here? Maybe that means I'll have a tent all to myself? In that case, Faith and I could probably still room in together…
"Gloriosa?" I heard another voice join us. It was Timber. "Hey, uh, we have a girl with a card that no other girl has." He pointed a thumb behind him.
I leaned over to find a surprise right behind him.
It was Faith!
"Really? I have someone over here too." Gloriosa responded with a light amount of shock. She turned towards Faith and approached. "What gemstone did you get?"
"Uh…this one." She held up the card towards her.
I was baffled. It was the exact gem that had been on my card. Was this fate?
"Timber… Mind telling me how two of the same cards ended up in different bags?" Gloriosa asked her brother a little bitterly after having been trapped in a silent pause for a short moment at first.
"How am I supposed to know?!" He reacted defensively.
Gloriosa looked like she had more to say, but once she seemed to realize we had still been standing by the both of them, she pulled out the widest grin she could and approached us about the manner. "I'm so sorry for the confusion. I'll get this straightened out right away. I've got this!"
Once Faith caught on to what had been going on after glancing back and forth between all of us, she fervently shook her head. "N-No! There's no problem here!"
"Huh?!" Gloriosa and her brother responded in confusion simultaneously.
Faith eagerly skipped to my side and faced them. "Chase and I are like the bestest friends! We were actually wondering if we could room together in the same tent!"
Faith, you do realize what you're saying, right? This isn't like how it is back home!
I could only believe Gloriosa and Timber were caught off-guard by Faith's request. Reading their nearly blank expressions, I could only imagine that they had no clue on how to handle the situation. They exchanged a silent look with each other before they turned back to us.
"…are you sure about this?" Gloriosa asked.
"Totes!" Faith answered joyfully. "This isn't the first time we had to share a room together."
…Faith…
At this point, Gloriosa and Timber turned their back towards us and appeared to have a conversation of their own. We couldn't hear anything they were saying, leaving us to glance at each other until they finally turned back to us.
"Seeing as everyone else has their tent assignments, I suppose we can have you room together…" Gloriosa stated with the utmost uncertainty in her voice.
"…just let us know if there are any problems, okay? We just…"
It seemed there was a lot more they wanted to say, but for the sake of preserving the good-nature of the innocent look that was plastered over Faith's face, they kept themselves from saying anymore. "Never mind. Go ahead and get ready to put your things away. We've got a lot of stuff planned for everyone at Camp Everfree here."
Sensing the reluctance behind their walk, they began moving towards another part of the area while softly conversing with each other. Before I could wrap my head around what had just happened, Faith suddenly threw her arms around me in a cheerful manner.
"This is great, Chase! We'll be sharing a tent together!"
Realizing that there had still been students around us, I moved in to shush Faith as quickly as I could lest anyone get the wrong idea.
Thankfully, there was a loud blow of a whistle over at the front of the gazebo. "Okay, everyone, go get settled in." Gloriosa announced loudly. "We'll be meeting at the docks in fifteen minutes to go over some camp safety rules. Let me know if you need anything!"
"Come on." I suggested to Faith, hoping to erase the feeling of being in the spotlight as soon as possible. "Let's, uh, go get settled in."
As soon as I was free from her grasp, I immediately slung the straps of my hefty bag over my shoulder and found myself walking rather quickly in the direction other students were heading towards. Once we came across a cul-de-sac of tents, I scanned my eyes over the various pieces of shelter for a moment, taking the gemstones depicted in front of the tents into account.
"Hey, I think this one's ours." Faith faced towards a particular tent as she held up the card she previous acquired from the bag.
I double checked the image on my card before taking note that no one else had really been hanging around the same tent.
"I don't see anyone around it." I told her before walking her towards the open flaps.
Once inside, I immediately noticed the décor that laid before us. In fact, I was a little surprised by the kind of furniture that was already set up and ready to be used. I almost thought we'd be sleeping in sleeping bags for once, but it turned out we had our own beds. The best way to describe it was that our room looked like a hotel room, only every piece of the furniture looked like it was homemade right here in this very camp. On the other hand, seeing how the bed frame looked like it was made of thick twigs and flowers, I wasn't so sure if it was completely safe to sleep on.
"Ooh. This looks cozy." Faith settled her bag down on the wooden floor, sat on the left bed, and roamed her eyes around the room.
"I don't know what I think about the 'naturey' look, but I guess it's alright." I mentioned, removing the weight of my bag off my shoulders and dropping it to the floor.
"This is supposed to be a tent, but it's kind of built like a building." Faith mentioned, noticing the structural wooden beams holding the actual tent up.
"I wonder why they did it like this." I pondered about as I tapped my finger on my chin. "Was it to make it feel more like camping or was it just cheaper to make tents instead of log cabins?"
"As long as it's comfortable, I don't care at all." She carelessly threw the rest of her upright body onto the bed and smiled widely as she stretched out her arms.
"Don't fall asleep just yet." I warned her, remembering that she had been dozing off on the bus. "We've got to go to the docks or something, remember?"
Faith flapped her lips like a deflating balloon and slowly stood up. "Oh, yeah… And I was just ready to fall right asleep too."
"Now who's the one who's having trouble staying up?" I crossed my arms and smirked at her.
"Oh, shut up…" She shyly turned away and stood up from the bed.
I walked over to the opening flaps of the tent and slightly ducked under to make it through before I was suddenly approached by an unexpected figure.
"There you are!"
I immediately jumped at the sight of the grinning girl, but once I was able to realize who it had been, I disapprovingly shook my head. "Rarity?! Why'd you jump out at me like that?!"
"Jump out at you how, darling? I knew it was you I had seen coming to this tent." She stretched out her head and took a long look at the gemstone imprinted on the tent. "Ooh! Did you get Opal? I have a cat named Opal!"
"…you do?" I simply responded with, seeing as I had nothing else to really bring up.
"Oh, yes! She's just the sweetest!" She paused for a short moment and lightly shook her head. "Anyways, I was wondering where you ran off to. I could have used a little help with my luggage."
A little, huh?
"Sorry…" I apologized, unwilling to let her know how I had been actually trying to avoid her for the time being. "I, uh, got caught up in something… Were you able to get your bags out?"
Hearing those last words come out of my own mouth, I almost wanted to slap myself. If she still had bags lying around for me to pick up, I was sure she would drag me along and leave me no chance to slip away.
"Oh, no. I handled that all on my own." She answered.
"H-Huh?!" I softly widened my eyes due to another surprise she slapped me with yet again.
"My bags, darling." She repeated as if I didn't hear her. "I managed to move the luggage by myself."
I couldn't comprehend the words that were coming out of her mouth for a few seconds, jumbling my own words around a bit. "B-But… S-So, why did you need me to move your stuff in the first place?!"
She placed her hands on her cocked hips as she responded. "Is it so wrong to ask for help from a friend time-to-time? Such a gentleman as yourself wouldn't want a lady to hurt herself doing a hazardous amount of heavy lifting, would you?"
I remained silent. I couldn't understand her thought process behind it. Was she just used to having others, especially guys, do that kind of work for her when she's perfectly capable of doing it herself? Either way, I didn't want to pursue it any further. The work she had me help her with was already done. I just wanted to leave it at that.
"Don't forget! We'll be going over a few things at the docks in a few minutes!" I heard the female camp counselor chirp nearby.
"We better get going." Faith stepped by my side and began leading me away from our tent.
"See you later." I slightly waved towards Rarity before sighing reasonably loud when we were far enough. "I really hope she doesn't end up using me for hard labor."
"You're a new friend." Faith reminded. "She's probably just trying to get to know you better through her own way."
As always, Faith tended to share an optimistic way of looking at things when it came to me.
There was already a group of other students waiting by the docks for the "safety rules" talk to get started when we arrived at the designated area.
"Oh. You feel that?" Faith asked, her eyes gleaming with excitement. "That breeze is so nice! I can't wait to get started with camp!"
Digging my hands into my pockets, I was easily aware that we seemed to be on two different wavelengths. "It's hard to understand how you're so excited. I mean, sure, it beats being home, but it's not like we're at an amusement park or something."
"Camp is nature's amusement park. Come on, Chase. What will it take for you?" She leaned towards me and flashed a mischievous smirk. "Oh, I know. I bet I need to bring Twilight in here for you, don't I?"
I didn't have an answer for her right away. In fact, all I could do was turn my cheeks that were slowly heating up away from her as I tried to come up with a satisfactory response. To my surprise, we heard another voice thankfully interject into our conversation. I would've expected it to be Sunset Shimmer, but the voice obviously didn't fit the tone of any girl we knew. It was most definitely a guy's voice, and this puzzled me since I don't remember having any dudes for friends, which was weird enough.
"Faith? Faith, is that you?"
"Huh?" Faith's head diverted away from me. Once she realized who had been speaking to her, she immediately straightened her back and looked oddly nervous. "Oh, hey…um…Flash."
Flash?
I finally joined her in turning in the same direction she was facing at. Someone we hadn't exactly met from Canterlot High seemed to pay particular attention to Faith for some reason. However, he did look somewhat familiar.
"No way!" He nearly yelled out in enthusiasm. "It's really you! I wasn't expecting to see you here!"
"Yeah. Me either…" It didn't seem that Faith could keep her eyes in link with this "Flash" fellow. They'd slowly slide back on over to me.
"You know, you really left a mark on me the last time we saw each other." He mentioned, slowly rubbing his left cheek.
"Hehe…" She appeared to force out an awkward giggle.
Feeling dots connect within my brain, I began piecing together essential events that I had learned from Faith. Finally, I remembered that one guy in particular that Faith hid from during the Friendship Games.
Hold on. This is the guy that Faith had clocked on the jaw? No wonder she's acting so weird right now!
"So, what brings you here?" He asked.
"I, uh, I kind of transferred back here." She answered.
"Seriously?" He reacted with genuine surprise. "You have no idea how much you've missed out on! You wouldn't believe all the stuff that happened ever since you left! First, there was this—"
It looked like Flash was heavily getting into the subject, almost as if he was geeking out about a particular movie or game he was passionately invested in.
"You don't have to tell me." Faith stopped him before he could get too excited. "Sunset Shimmer told me everything."
"Oh, she did? Are you two on good terms now? The last thing I knew was that…well…you know." He paused shortly and finally seemed to notice me when he caught me observing their conversation. "Oh, sorry! I didn't even notice you there. Are you friends with her?"
"'Friend' is a bit of an understatement." Faith seemed to relax a bit when the spotlight was on me now. "We're like ultra-mega super best friends."
"Something like that." I finally answered, coinciding with her definition. "I'm Star Chaser, but you can just call me Chase."
"Oh, you're that guy!" Flash responded wildly for a second, startling me. "Right? The dude that had this fight with the other principal from Crystal Prep? Did you really get expelled? Is that why you're here too?"
I understood why Faith had been avoiding this guy during the Friendship Games due to what happened before, but after talking with him for some time now, I was almost beginning to believe that avoiding him was an overreaction. The guy seemed like a friendly chatterbox, but then again, maybe that was a part of the reason.
"No, I didn't." I answered. "I chose to leave because forget that. You saw how Crystal Prep was during the Friendship Games."
"No, I get you, man. I would leave too if I had to deal with a bunch of people like that every day."
"Listen up, everyone!" A cheerful voice erupted a reasonably short length away from us. "Now that you're all here, I can finally get through the boring but important stuff that you need to know."
"I better get going." Flash decided. "It was nice seeing you, Faith. Oh, I'm Flash Sentry by the way, but you can just call me Flash." He faced me and held a hand out. After shaking it, he began turning to walk in the other direction. "We should catch up later on." He directed to Faith.
"Yeah, sure." Faith agreed to as we watched him give a short wave before walking off. It wasn't long before I heard a long-winded breath escape out from her lips. "Wow. I definitely wasn't expecting that to happen right at this minute. Either way, it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I guess I'm glad that I've got that over with now."
"You were expecting that to happen in the first place?" I asked.
"Well, duh." She answered. "Remember? We're going to the same school as him, much less going to the same camp his school is going to. We were bound to run into him eventually. At least, I was."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
She remained a bit quiet for a moment as she began turning her head away and grabbed her left wrist with her right hand. "…so…what did you think?" She questioned, her cheeks growing noticeably red.
"About him? I can't really see why you were so afraid of him back at the Friendship Games." I voiced my thoughts. "He could probably talk your ear off, but he seems like a harmless guy. Are those the kinds of guys you're actually into?"
"N-No!" She nearly yelled out before covering her lips with her mouth. Her face continued to heat up like a stovetop as she elaborated on her answer. "I mean, I was, but that was just a little crush because of what you see on TV and I stupidly thought it would be like a drama and have one of those sweet little relationships but—"
I hurriedly put my hands on her lips once I realized what had been going on with our surroundings. Faith's nervous outburst had been garnering attention, especially since our camp guide had been explaining those safety rules she had mentioned a while ago at the same time Faith had been slightly freaking out.
"Uh, everything okay over there?" Gloriosa had asked, leaning past the other campers in order to get a look at our situation.
"Yep!" I tried to normally answer.
After a few long seconds, she resumed talking and the attention on us began to die down.
"Lake activities are available every day until sunset, so if you want to canoe, sail, windsurf, or swim, just let me know…"
I sighed, and it took me a moment before I realized how much of a direct feel I had with all the heat that had been currently circulating within Faith's extremely flushed face. I still took a short moment to make sure she had calmed down with the volume of her voice before I slowly removed my hand away from her mouth.
"Sorry…" She apologized softly, looking away in embarrassment.
"It's okay." I returned. "Sorry for making you freak like that…"
"That was always like you, huh?" Another voice intervened. However, this time, it was Sunset Shimmer. She had been staring at us with a quirky smile as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I'm not dating him anymore. You can go for him this time, if you want."
"Oh, shut up!" Faith managed to hold back from yelling and exclaimed through a hush instead.
"You saw him come by here?" I asked Sunset, finding her knowledge of the conversation unexpected.
"Mm-hm." She nodded before her smile transformed into a small frown. "I can't say I still don't feel bad for what I did. After all, I did purposely get in the way of you two." She directed to Faith, most likely talking about Flash and her.
Faith shook her head, the heat in her face seeming to dissipate. "I was super angry too, but now that I think about it, I think it was actually a good thing you did. I probably would have never transferred out of CHS and met Chase." She subtly glanced over at me with her cheeks lightly rising from her smile. "He's the best thing I could ever ask for."
This time, I couldn't lock my eyes with her. Her cheeks had still been a little red from before, and I felt myself breaking our gaze before I knew it.
"Hm." I noticed Sunset Shimmer raise her index finger and thumb to her lips as she seemed to study us for a while. "You guys really are strange…"
Just as I was about to try to get some clarity on that comment, we heard some commotion nearby us. It seemed none of us had even noticed the situation that appeared to have been going on for a while. Our principal and vice principal had gathered around the docks, along with the camp guides, and directed their attention towards something particular at the base of the dock. From what I could see, it looked to be as if large splinters of wood were poking out from a specific spot of the dock, almost as if it had been broken due to old age.
"This is a safety hazard." Our vice principal noticed from the sight. "I suggest we close down the dock for the remainder of the camp."
From what I could see, everyone that had been with us groaned out loudly in response.
"Oh, I'm sure it won't have to be for the remainder of camp." Gloriosa quickly stated, her swift response most likely forming from the disgruntled campers in front of her. "Just needs to be patched up a bit. I've got this!"
Was that thing like hundreds of years old or something?
"No dock?" Faith said to herself. "But, we can still go swimming and stuff, right?"
"Or maybe we do!" A southern accent chimed from the group of unhappy campers. "If you ask me, this whole dock needs to go." We noticed Applejack walking up to the dock and giving it a little kick before one of the pillars of wood supporting a part of the dock unintentionally cracked and fell over, proving her point. "Building a new one could be our camp gift. Sure, it would benefit us, but a nice new dock would benefit future campers, too."
Her idea garnered approval from her classmates, but there was still some doubt lingering by.
"I don't know. It's an awful lot of work." Timber acknowledged. "I wouldn't want you guys to miss out on doing other fun camp stuff because you're so busy building a dock for future campers." He crossed his arms and seemed to eye his sister intensively. She returned the same look for some reason, and I could only assume that they had some kind of family drama that was intentionally cutting in with their work.
"I hear what you're saying, Timber, but we're Canterlot Wondercolts." Despite the sight, Rainbow Dash marched in with a striking aura of confidence emitting from her. "We've got a reputation to uphold! And there was no way we're gonna leave this place without contributing the most awesome camp gift ever! I'm with AJ. Building a new dock is definitely it! What do you guys think?"
After practically everyone else applauded and cheered, the two camp counselors continued to glare at each other with sharp eyes.
"Looks like it's settled, then." Gloriosa mentioned loudly enough to her brother.
"Looks like it." Timber almost shoved through his teeth aggressively.
"That's some tension, all right." Sunset Shimmer said as she bit the nail on her thumb.
"Hm?" Faith wondered about as she turned towards Sunset. She either didn't notice the looks the counselors had been giving each other or she just didn't think too much about it.
"You haven't noticed how angry our camp guides have been with each other?" Sunset asked.
"Eh. As long as it doesn't become the spotlight of this field trip, I don't really care." I interjected into the conversation. "Everybody's got their issues. I'm actually wondering more about this dock that we're apparently going to build now? Do you think every one of us is going to have to help with that?"
"Why? You don't want to?" Faith turned and asked me.
"It's just… One of the things I was looking forward to coming here was taking a break away from home, especially after leaving Crystal Prep. But, ever since this morning, I've been caught doing things I've never really intended to do, like helping Rarity with her bags. Now, we're building a new dock out of nowhere, and it feels like my dad dragging me outside with a bundle of wood in my arms all over again."
"I don't know how it is at home, but come on, it won't be so bad." Sunset Shimmer shared with a smile.
"Everyone's working together." Faith pointed out. "It'll be done in no time."
"Faith's right. Think of it as…bonding time with your friends." Sunset suggested.
I only lightly sighed underneath my breath. Either way, I didn't think I was going to get out of it. I'd feel bad if I just skipped out while everyone else did the work, so I supposed all I could do was just keep tasting a bit of home for a little longer until we were done.
All the guys were pretty much assigned to begin tearing down the old dock. Being a guy myself, it was inevitable that I would join them with the task. I managed to catch a glimpse of Flash Sentry every now and then, but I didn't pay much attention and only focused on tearing out pieces of wood from the dock. Meanwhile, I believed all of the other girls were focusing on designing the dock on paper. Nevertheless, I was surprised when it actually came to building the dock. Some of the girls actually helped in doing some manual labor, but it was mostly Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Since Applejack was a farm girl and Rainbow Dash was an athlete, I guess it was expected of them.
I had just finished bringing in and setting down a stack of wood when I found the two girls nailing a piece of wood together. I sort of just wanted to keep on moving, but I couldn't get this nagging feeling out of my stomach to ask them if they needed help.
"Want some help?" I felt a slightly forced tone come out of my mouth.
Thankfully, they didn't seem to notice it.
"Sure! We could really get this dock finished a lot faster." Applejack answered happily.
"Although, try and get a hammer from the toolbox instead of making one yourself." Rainbow Dash advised weirdly. "It's kind of a waste of time when you can just walk a few steps and pick one up that's ready to be used." She said as she paid particular attention to Applejack.
I glanced over at what had been in her hand and found that she had wrapped some kind of firm stick with a block of stone. I was impressed, but at the same time, I was partially puzzled. There had to be too much weight at the end of her stick. If she was able to properly control the handling of her self-made hammer, she must have been way stronger than she looked.
"Yeah. Sure, thing…" I answered and walked out the end of the dock.
As I came back, I didn't even realize how close the dock was to being finished. After all, it helped when I didn't have a bunch of wood obscuring my vision of it. It was actually looking a lot better than the old one. Despite the sight, Sunset Shimmer was right about the work not being as bad as I thought. As much as I still wanted to keep from doing things I'd do at home, it was at least nice do this kind of work with friends instead. It didn't take much to get started on following the pattern that they had already set, so I began following their lead and nailing the wood down to the studs of the docks.
"You've done this sort of thing before?" I heard Applejack ask me.
"Yeah, kind of." I answered, keeping my eyes on safely hammering the nails. "Never with a dock though. I help my dad build things from time to time. Sometimes, I even help do home renovations and stuff like that."
"Nice to hear you're pretty handy." Applejack responded. "I had to help Rainbow here get the hang of things."
"I play sports, not build stuff." Rainbow Dash looked up with a set of half-lidded eyes. It was almost as if she took Applejack's comment as an insult.
"And you with that hammer?" I mentioned to Applejack. "If you can handle that like a regular hammer, you must be pretty strong."
"What can I say? I love work like this." Applejack proudly admitted before resuming her nailing.
After finishing the nails on the other side of the board facing the ocean, I took a short break and wiped off the sweat that began forming at the top of my forehead. At the same time, I caught a look back at the lakeside and found someone that I had missed among the count of the girls working. While the rest of the girls were mainly working on the décor, I had found Twilight by a particular table. If my eyes weren't failing me, I noticed that she was talking to the camp counselor, Timber Spruce. To tack on something else, it looked like she was pretty interested in whatever conversation she was having with him.
I didn't know how to feel about this. In fact, I believed I was starting to grow a little agitated at the sight, so I rather forcefully turned my head away from whatever it was I saw and went back to hammering nails. "Hmph." I voiced louder than I intended. From my peripheral vision, I believed Applejack may have glanced over my way, but I intentionally ignored her for the time being.
After some more silent hammering and nailing, we were able to finish the base of the dock for the most part before Principal Celestia made an announcement to every one of us.
"All right, now. You've made a lot of progress, but it's going to be getting dark soon. We can pick this up tomorrow between our other camp activities."
I stood up and wiped off any remaining sweat on my forehead. I slipped out a breath of relief, ready to get some kind of moment of relaxation. As mentioned somewhat before, I didn't find all this labor work entertaining, but it was a heck of a lot better doing it with friends than back home.
"Good work, partner." I felt a quick pat on my shoulder before I found Applejack walking past me and towards the end of the dock.
"Everyone, get cleaned up, and we'll gather by the fire pit at eight to share s'mores and scary stories!" Gloriosa announced.
"S'mores!" I could hear Pinkie Pie squeal out in excitement.
I remained standing at the dock for sometime before I turned and had a look at the horizon. The sun was setting, and it was definitely a nice change from the straight daylight I had been underneath. At that moment, I began feeling a warming sensation inside of me. I couldn't quite describe it, but it was the same kind of feeling I'd get back with Faith at the beach house. It was also the same kind of feeling of sitting in front of a fireplace on a snowy winter night and drinking hot cocoa. I guess it was safe to say that I was looking forward to the sharing of scary stories under the stars tonight.
"It's pretty, isn't it?"
I found Faith joining me by my side as she stared out at the setting sun.
"Careful." I warned. "There's no railing, you know."
"You talk to me like I'm an idiot sometimes." She returned a cheery look and giggled lightly. Then, with lowered eyelids, she angled her head towards the wooden floor below us. "Then again, maybe I can be one sometimes."
"No, not really." I answered a little seriously. "Either way, you're fine the way you are, so don't start doubting yourself or anything."
She snickered for a bit and clearly tried to hold it back before she began laughing out loud. "Why are you so serious sometimes? Is something on your mind?"
I began thinking about how Twilight had been making conversation with Timber, and it definitely didn't look like it was about her having any questions about the camp or anything. As I was thinking about this, I was already growing bothered at the fact. I didn't want to become some kind of insanely jealous person, so I decided to swallow it down whole and ignore it as long as I could.
"Nothing, really. Come on. Let's head back." I answered and turned around towards the end of the dock as I dug my hands into my pockets.
"Whoa!"
I quickly turned back as I felt my eyes shoot open. I was expecting to see Faith in some kind of danger, but all I saw was her laughing as she softly pointed at my face.
"I love the look on your face. Hehe!"
My eyelids lowered in annoyance, seeing as I thought Faith was about to fall over.
"Hey, you said it yourself! I'm 'fine the way I am', remember?" Afterward, she began lightly pushing me towards the direction of our tents. "Hurry! Tonight's going to be amazing!"
Just as Gloriosa had advised us, we went and got cleaned up before we gathered around the campfire in a new setting close to camp.
It was a no-brainer that we would be sitting in an area that was practically in the woods. Trees were all around us, and it gave off the appearance that we were nowhere close to a safe and spacious camp. I supposed 'scary stories' wouldn't be as effective if you didn't feel like something from beyond the trees could reach out and grab you at any moment.
As what anyone would expect from a "sharing stories by the campfire" experience, each of us sat on woodened logs or stumps with roasted marshmallows. As for the stories themselves, they weren't that very scary. I couldn't speak for the others, but for me, it was probably because I pretty much assumed they were all fake anyway. Not only that, there were also some stories that were just plain bizarre.
"...And that's when she looked down and realized she was wearing purple socks with a burgundy dress!" Rarity shrieked as she reached the conclusion of her story. To be utterly honest, her screaming was the most frightening part of the story. In fact, she looked terrified of hearing the story herself, even though she was the one telling it.
No one looked scared at all, and this was when I turned over to Faith, who had been sitting next to me and nibbling on her marshmallow. "I don't get it. Is it because they're like the same color or something?" I whispered.
"I dunno." She mumbled through her chewing, staring blankly at Rarity as she continued to freak out.
"Purple and burgundy, darlings!" She explained after noticing everyone's reactions. "The same color family!" She screeched out yet again, but it quickly came to a halt when no one looked amused.
"Maybe she should have said her feet were all black and slimy instead." Faith suggested softly.
"Ahem." Vice Principal Luna cleared her throat, as if to divert attention away from the failed performance. "Anyone else have a spooky story?"
"I have one." Timber raised his hand, immediately turning everyone's heads towards him. "But I'm warning you, you might as well hug a friend now. That's how scary it is!"
"Psh." I rolled my eyes and lightly leaned back, expecting it to be another similar kind of story you could easily find on the internet.
"It's time I told you about the legend of Gaea Everfree." He continued, beginning his narration of his story. "Many years ago, my great-grandparents came to this forest. Seeing its beauty, they decided that it would be the perfect place for a camp. But once they started building, strange things started to happen. One pitch black night, when the wind was howling, a tree branch crashed through the roof of their cabin! They screamed and ran outside, only to see the giant creature rising from the earth! She had wild hair like the roots of a tree. Her mouth had jagged rock teeth and her eyes were pools of black tar. But her aura shimmered like diamonds. Anywhere she went, she left a trail of gem dust in her wake. Trembling, my great-grandparents asked who she was and what she wanted. In a deep and hollow voice, she told them that her name was Gaea Everfree – an ancient spirit who held domain over the forest, and that my great-grandparents were trespassing on her land. They begged her to let them stay and build their camp, to share this wonderful place with others. Gaea Everfree finally agreed but warned them that they would not be able to keep it forever. Someday, she will return and reclaim the forest as her own. So if you see a trail of gem dust, you'll know that it is..." Timber raised his arms and angled his fingers in the form of clams. "Gaea Everfree!" He raised his voice and shouted.
Surprisingly, there was a collective number of screams and gasps, and I had to admit, I jumped a little when I realized what had been behind Timber. It was some kind of shadow, but once it came out into the light of the fire, it was actually just Gloriosa. It was almost like if the two of them had planned this.
"Hey, guys! Sorry, didn't mean to scare you!" she apologized.
"Then why'd you come out of the bushes?" I heard Sunset Shimmer ask.
"I... took the scenic route, because the forest is beautiful at night." She explained. "But no one else should do it without a guide, kay?"
Like anyone would want to walk through the woods by themselves at night…
"All right, everybody, time to head to your tents." She directed.
"Welp. You heard her." I pressed my hands against my knees and stood myself up, ready to hit the sack. However, I was surprised to notice Faith looking out into the woods. She wasn't trembling like some of the others had been, but she was almost deathly quiet, kind of like if she had just seen something scary in the woods. "Hey. You okay?" I asked.
Faith shook her head and stood herself up. "Yeah…"
"You don't actually believe that story, do you?"
"I don't know…" She massaged her left arm and lowered her head with a doubtful kind of look on her face. "Do you remember what happened at the Friendship Games? I wouldn't be surprised if that story was real, and that monster was some magical creature from, what was it again, Equestria?"
"If it is, then the girls can just use their magic and defeat it easy-peasy like last time." I told her that, almost like if all this had been a fantasy. In a way, I still couldn't believe that there was really that so-called "magic". "You'll feel better when you get to sleep."
"Yeah, okay…" She still remained doubtful as we began joining the others in the walk back to our tents. Nevertheless, since we had stayed back a little longer, we were kind of behind everyone. I found the silence from our walk relaxing, but Faith thought otherwise when I felt her slip her hand into mine.
"You seriously think some creature's going to come out and get you?" I asked.
"Just let me do this, please?" She pleaded sincerely.
I sighed but nodded my head. "Alright."
Ironically, I could only hope that no one was near enough to see us like this, especially Gloriosa and Timber. It definitely wouldn't help our case regarding the tents if they saw us holding hands.
Despite her wish to stick close to me, Faith and I had to separate to shower off after today. I was a little uncomfortable because the showers were all in one building. Just like public bathrooms, one section was for the guys, and one was for the girls. Thankfully, each shower had its separate stall, but it was still a little weird that they were so close together.
I felt a lot better after the hot shower though, but Faith had made me promise to wait for her outside the building. So, the "after-shower freshness" was a little ruined doing just like she asked me to. Either way, I was still looking forward to getting under my sheets.
Once she was out and about, she quickly hurried us back to our tent. From there, she immediately zipped close the tent as if it was a sure deal it would keep out any "monsters" lurking out in the woods.
"Oooh. I feel so much better." Faith dropped to her bed.
"Better get some sleep." I suggested as I lifted the covers of my bed and slipped into them. "Don't want Gaea Everfree to come and get you." I had meant that sarcastically, but a noticeable silence surfaced from my roommate. I took a look at her and found her staring absentmindedly at the ceiling of the tent. "I was kidding. There's no Gaea Everfree, Faith." I cleared up with her.
"Y-Yeah…" She slowly slid underneath her blankets.
Finding the light from out the window bothersome, I stretched out my arm and picked up the loose flap to pull it down. The tent was totally shrouded in darkness, which was much more liking to me. Just as I was about to close my eyes, I heard a hushed voice across my bed.
"…it's so dark…" She said worriedly.
"Isn't it always dark like this in your room when you go to sleep?" I asked.
"But it's my room. My room that's safely a part of my house. We may be in a tent, but we're still out in the woods. What if there's a dangerous bear or even some weird creepo hanging around outside?"
Feeling too tired to give her a detailed answer, I kept it simple. "We'll be fine, Faith."
She didn't respond right away for a good moment.
"You'll protect me in case anything happens, right?"
Even though I didn't lie, I also didn't really take her question too seriously. "Yep, I will. Now, get some sleep, okay?"
"…okay."
I heard shuffling over from her bed. It sounded like there was constant tossing and turning ever so often, but it subsided after some point. Just as I felt like I was about to finally fall asleep, I heard her voice whisper over to me one more time.
"…maybe we should bring our beds together."
For a variety of reasons, I didn't answer. Instead, I remained totally quiet and hoped that she'd end up believing I had fallen asleep.
To my surprise, she somehow seemed to catch me in the act some way or another.
"I know you're still awake…meanie…"
Even though she was telling the truth, it was hard to tell if she was bluffing. Despite her call out, continuing to talk to her would only keep the both of us awake.
For her own good, I kept both my eyes and my mouth shut for the rest of the night.
