Apparently I find the threat of no power due to a hurricane is motivation to write.
My other stories – I know, I know, I'm working on it.
Guest, Steph81, anon, R3dN0te, sxe fiend, Snatch, frostythesnowgirl3, Born-Backwards95, FrenchKiwi1994, gordonMcphersonSays, and matrix164786aol. Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate you taking the time to review. Always makes my day.
As always, thank you for reading.
I don't own Skins or anything of its nature.
Chapter IV
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Camp was slow and all at once. The director had said the same thing she always did at the last meeting of every prep week, to take a deep breath now because before you know it it'll be over. And she was right.
"Naomi!"
She heard her name being called before her foot hit the dock. It had been nearly a week since camp began and nearly a week since she had gone on any adventures with Emily. For such a slow pace of life, camp was terribly busy.
She returned Cook's salute as he drifted away from the dock to drive the remaining staff onboard to the boy's camp. She was returning from a day off spent with him.
Naomi continued her way to the end of the dock. The moment her foot hit solid ground the air left her lungs with an "oomph" as her campers mob hug attacked her.
"It has been twenty four hours," Naomi said through a laugh, "stop acting like it's been years."
She walked with her campers attentively listening to them chatter on about all the things she had missed since yesterday.
"I hit the bullseye in archery today!"
"Hannah lost a tooth!"
"Effy said I could test into the next level of swim class tomorrow!"
Naomi smirked and gave a small wave as she saw Emily come down the main path from the center of camp. Emily beamed back at her before pointing from herself to Naomi's cabin to let her know she'd be by in a minute. They hadn't seen each other in two days, which was practically two years in camp time. Emily had gone on a day off the day before Naomi.
"What is that noise?" Naomi said as she dropped her rucksack onto her bed to the right of the door.
"Justin Beiber!" Madison said, sitting on the cabin floor. Her and a few other campers were playing cards.
Naomi made a face, "My poor speakers."
"It's been like this for the last twenty four hours," Maude said from her spot at the foot of Naomi's bed, looking up from her notepad. "I think my ears might be bleeding."
Naomi laughed. Liv had done her job raising her sister up on good music.
"You never let us play our music," Abby said. She was sitting on Katie's bed, on the other side of the door as Naomi's, halfway through a friendship bracelet.
"That's because I'm culturing you."
There was a knock on the door and Emily's head appeared.
"Hey," she smiled.
"Hey," Naomi felt herself smirk.
Naomi looked at her watch; they had five minutes until dinner.
"Alright ladies, I've got to drop something off at the office, but five minutes til dinner, so finish up your game and listen out for the bugle."
She walked through the door Emily held for her.
Emily wrapped her arms around Naomi when she had reached the bottom of the stairs.
"I feel like I haven't seen you in forever," Emily said into her neck.
Naomi let out a contented sigh as she reveled in the feeling for a moment. They leaned their faces apart so they could see each other but left bodies close and arms wrapped up. "I know."
The two disentangled themselves after a few more beats.
"What are you doing during program?" Emily asked as they walked together toward the center of camp.
"I'm on duty," Naomi said, "So I will be bored on the mess hall porch watching out for delinquents trying to escape program."
Emily laughed, "Bummer."
Program took place every evening after both dinner and a free period where the canteen was sometimes open and mail handed out. A few different counselors ran it for all the campers each night allowing the rest of the staff some needed free time.
Naomi nodded in agreement.
"Maybe I can stop by, so you'll be less bored? I can tell you about my time off."
That side smirk found its way across Naomi's face, "Yeah."
"And hear about yours?"
Naomi laughed, "Not much to tell, but sure." She smiled.
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Naomi stared out the screen porch of the mess hall surveying the center of camp. She heard the creak of a screen door and Emily appeared.
"Any runaways?" she asked as she dragged a metal folding chair next to Naomi.
"Nothing nearly quite that exciting."
They both looked out screen to watch a camper walk back into the lodge, where most Program was held.
"Hey Campbell," Effy called appearing from the direction of the office. She was outside squinting up through the screen trying to find Naomi in the fading light. "You're on duty and patrol tonight, right?"
"Yup,"
"Fun, well I've got office duty tonight so I'll see you by the dock for the boat before close up."
"Brilliant."
"Hey was Lindsey there last night?" Effy added with a smirk.
"No," Naomi rolled her eyes, "shut up."
"Shame," Effy said, "though I'd have been sad to miss it if she was."
"Well it was a low key night, so you didn't miss anything."
Effy laughed taking a step forward. "Oh, hey Emily," she said looking closer through the screen. She looked between the two for a second. "Low key night?" she said turning her attention back to Naomi. "What you get drunk with Cook then stumble back to his?"
"Exactly."
"God you two are boring," she said, "When did that happen?"
Naomi shrugged. She heard the office phone ring in the distance.
"Fuck," Effy said. "I need to get that, later Campbell."
Naomi rolled her eyes again, "See you at the dock, Stonem."
"It's a date," Effy smirked before backing away from the screen. "Bye Emily," she added.
"Bye Effy."
"Sorry bout that," Naomi said, "You were about to tell me about your day off?"
"Yeah, right," Emily said turning her attention from the retreating Effy back to the blonde sitting next to her.
"I'm sorry," Emily said after a moment with the shake of her head. She was staring out the screen again. "This is probably going to sound stupid, but I have to ask. Is there something between you and Effy?"
Naomi's eyes bulged out of her head. "Sorry?"
"Has there ever been something between you and Effy? I duno, I just feel like there is a vibe or something…"
Naomi stared at Emily for a second before bursting out into laughter.
"Shut up," Emily laughed, relief in her tone. "I said it was stupid, I just had to ask, you have a sort of banter, flirty."
The word flirty caused Naomi to choke on her laugh. Once she had recovered her breath she met Emily's eyes.
"Emily," she said. "She's a mate, one of my best mates, but just that. I have never flirted with Effy," she laughed again, "I can't even…she's like sibling."
"Really?"
"Yeah," Naomi assured her, still surprised by the question. "We're just both sarcastic arseholes, that's why we get on so well."
"Okay," Emily said. She smiled and began to tell Naomi about her day off.
Not long later the two looked up to see campers begin to pour out of the lodge.
"Is it time already?" Naomi asked.
Emily looked out at her watch, "They got out early."
The both stood and Emily turned to Naomi, "You said you were on patrol tonight?"
Naomi nodded.
"I'll stop by then?" Emily said, "We can actually catch up?"
"Sounds good," Naomi smiled.
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Naomi heard the crunch of shoes on woodchips and turned to see Emily walking down the path. Camp was dark save the light above the bench Naomi sat on. She was by the end of the dock where Unit B's designated patrol was assigned to sit. Emily gave a small wave as she approached and Naomi smiled to herself as she marked her page in her book.
"Hi," Emily said as she took a seat next to Naomi on the wooden bench.
"Hi."
"Sorry I wasn't here sooner, we didn't get a first year and Sketch had some super important phone call she had to make, so we split the time."
Flashlights out was at nine-thirty for the older campers, nine for the youngest, and between nine-thirty and eleven the staff could leave their cabin for free time. The cabin had to be covered though, either one of the cabin counselors staying in or a first year staff coming to sit the cabin. But there were more cabins than first year staff so getting one wasn't a guarantee.
"No worries," Naomi shrugged, "I got some extra reading in. How's living with Sketch anyway?"
Emily mirrored Naomi's shrug moments before.
"Okay," Naomi laughed.
"No I mean…she's just…we're just really different," Emily said. "It's fine, really."
Naomi nodded, "So how was your do?" she asked changing the subject to something Emily might be a bit keener on.
"My what?"
"Your party."
"Right," Emily said with a laugh. "It was alright, it was more Nick's than mine."
"They actually help clean up this time?"
"Yes!" Emily said, "Liv threatened to make the guys walk back to the landing if they didn't."
Naomi laughed.
"She would have too."
"I have no doubt."
"I had fun, but I already told Nick he's going to have to convince Katie if he wants to hold another one. I'm more tired now than before my day off," Emily said, "Damn hangover."
"Multivitamin."
"What?"
"A multivitamin," Naomi repeated, "Take one before bed when you're completely pissed and the next morning you wake up feeling less like shit."
"Good to know."
Naomi smiled with a nod, "Surprising, the things you can learn from Cook."
Emily laughed, "If his reputation is at all true, I'm impressed you remember anything after drinking with Cook."
"The key is to leave the tablet and glass of water next to your bed before you start with the tequila shots."
"How very organized of you," Emily said with a smirk. "But there was nothing organized about this do," she said mimicking Naomi's words from earlier. "Some of us played drinking games, some of us went skinny dipping, some people disappeared and were totes hooking up. I spent most of the night frolicking around with Alo, do you know him?"
"Frolicking?" Naomi asked, eyebrow raised. She tried to bury the pang of jealousy at the thought of some guy getting all her attention for a night. "And yeah, ginger lad, he's a local like Cook."
"Oh I didn't know that," Emily said, "And yes frolicking, we basically drank and ran around singing show tunes."
Naomi laughed looking out over the dark water. That, she could see.
"He kept wanting to kiss me though," Emily said causing Naomi's attention to snap back to the girl next to her. Jealousy roared its ugly head again inside her. The two girls stared at each other. "I didn't though, we didn't I mean, I just didn't feel like kissing him...he's not person I want to kiss."
Naomi studied Emily's eyes that stared back honestly. The corner of Naomi's mouth twitched up into lopsided smirk. Naomi wasn't exactly what you would call a dancer but she was mentally dancing like bigger a fool than either Alo or Emily had the night in the lake house.
"He was good about it, we just went back to dancing around like maniacs. I mean," Emily continued, "He's a nice guy, but he's just not who I wanted to kiss, you know?"
"Yeah," Naomi said sitting bit taller, feeling a bit smug. "Yeah I know."
Despite her best efforts Naomi found the small smirk on her face growing as Emily smiled at her. If Emily kept looking at her like that, if she didn't look away soon, she was going to do something very stupid. But she didn't want Emily to ever stop looking at her like that, and she didn't want to look away, and she really felt like doing something very stupid.
There was the sound of shoes on the path again and Naomi blinked. Both girls turned to see who had inadvertently interrupted them. It was Effy, radio in hand. Naomi looked down at her watch, it was nearly ten past eleven. When the hell had that happened?
"Hey," Effy said approaching, "Sorry the boats a bit late." She looked over to Emily. "Emily you should probably go back to your cabin, it's past eleven."
Naomi never really noticed Effy's higher position at camp, Naomi being content in her roll as cabin counselor. But now watching her and Emily, who had only been a CIT the summer before, was suddenly very aware of it.
"Yeah," Emily said looking between Naomi and Effy. Her eyes fell back to Naomi, "Well, goodnight."
"Goodnight," Naomi said standing as well. She curbed the urge to hug her. She watched her red hair disappear in the dark.
"Having fun?" Effy asked.
"Pardon?" Naomi said turning back to Effy who was watching her. "Oh, yeah sure. I read some then Emily came by and we caught up a bit." She shrugged.
"Right," Effy said continuing onto the dock. Naomi followed. "Well Cookie should be here soon he radioed me round eleven."
Naomi stood at the end of the dock chatting with Effy. She watched the small green light that was the boat as it made its way towards them over the water that matched the dark night sky. That smirk fell across her face again thinking about what Emily had said, all jealousy she had felt earlier gone. He wasn't the person Emily had wanted to kiss. He wasn't the person Emily wanted to kiss now.
"What?" Effy asked noticing the look on Naomi's face.
"Nothing," Naomi said with the shake of her head, the Naomi in her mind still dancing away with abandonment.
