Thanks to everyone who has read already x
The kids were more than excitable about the prospect of heading off in to the woods. Danny also seemed rather enthusiastic, already talking about team plans and roles. Clara left him to it, watching and vaguely listening to what he was saying. She was more than aware that Courtney was watching her every move and trying to find something to entertain her mates with so she was making sure to stick to the book.
"Everyone know what they're doing?" There was an enthusiastic response as they all took the maps and sheets from him. "Brilliant, let's go!" She had to admit he seemed to know what he was doing, but he was still grating on her and it made the idea of the rest of this week less fun than it had originally seemed. Nevertheless, she followed as they walked off towards the wood, watching as the group worked together to follow the map. "This should be fun," he had appeared beside her while she hadn't been focussing and it made her jump a little.
Clara quickly composed herself before replying. "If you say so, they seem excited anyway that's the most important thing. Working pretty well together too," she went to congratulate him on organising them but couldn't quite manage it. "Brave decision putting Courtney in charge," she added.
"Seems like a born leader to me, should be good at it," he replied. Clara had to stifle a laugh, "what? And you would know better?"
"I see that girl 4 times a week, I'm well aware of her personality and I'm not sure born leader would be my first thought, but we'll roll with it. She's very observant, that should help her out here at the very least. Just watch her closely; honestly don't take your eye off." Clara warned him, jogging forward a little to walk along with Pierce and Amy.
"Is Courtney right? Do you two not like each other?" Pierce asked and Clara rolled her eyes at him.
"We only met this morning Pierce; I'm not sure how anyone could make that conclusion just now. Danny and I are your leaders, nothing more. Now, how's it going here?" She asked, looking over at their sheets and maps.
"Good, Courtney knows where we're going; I think we're nearly at the first one it should be just around the next corner. How come you're here then Clara? I thought teachers just went on holiday all summer" This kid asked a lot of questions, but she had to give it to him – he seemed innocent enough.
"Well some of us have got nothing better to do," she smiled, "nah I just fancied helping that's all. Have you guys been before?" Clara asked, looking up a little to see Courtney studying the map.
"I came 2 years ago," Amy told her, "it's really good fun, everyone has a really good time."
"It's my first time," Pierce responded, "my Mum sort of made me come but I'm actually pretty excited now."
"Found it!" Courtney shouted from the front and the two kids immediately ran off to see. Clara followed slowly as Danny sped by her to see how they were doing. She had to confess orienteering mostly confused her, so it was better left to them. They wrote down what was needed and immediately headed off again.
Clara walked behind the group for a while, enjoying the fresh air. This area was full of beautiful green trees and lovely flowers and the whole thing was somewhat relaxing. Having come straight from work to here she'd not really had a chance to cool down from the madness that was term time. Finally she could take 2 minutes to breathe and appreciate the beautiful sights around her. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she quickly glanced at it, laughing at the picture of Adrian with his little niece along with a message asking how things were going. She slipped it away for now, deciding to reply once they were done here.
"Boyfriend?" Clara jumped at Danny's voice having not realised he had come back to her.
"None of your business," she replied, but when he gave her another look she added, "just a colleague, if you must know. Are you not needed further forward?"
"They're managing fine and you looked lonely," he told her, to which she scoffed.
"Whatever, I'm fine thanks," she told him, and they didn't speak again for a good while.
It was only after 15 minutes where they hadn't found anything that Clara started questioning the route. She grabbed the map from Danny's hand and had a look, tracing back in her mind the route they had taken. "Courtney hold up!" she called and they all stopped, looking round "Are you sure about where we're going?" Clara asked, walking over to her. "Are you sure we're heading the right way?" She asked.
"Of course, you know Geography is my best subject," she told her somewhat obnoxiously. "We're just here look," she pointed out somewhere, "the next post should be just after this corner," Clara stared at the map.
"I'm really not convinced that's where we are," she told her, looking to Danny.
"Just let her lead us, you haven't exactly been paying much attention," he nodded to Courtney to carry on, to which she lead the others off. Clara stopped Danny from moving off straight away. "Clara for goodness sake just let me handle this will you?" she went to say something, but stopped herself, just shaking her head and following after the young people.
It didn't take long before they all realised she had been right. Danny gathered them together to take another look at the map. Clara kept back for a while, listening to them discuss it before she glances at her watch.
"Look guys, we're miles away from camp and we've only got half an hour before dinner. Might I suggest we let Danny guide us back as he seems to have experience," she resisted adding how he'd ignored that fact they were going in the wrong direction. Courtney relented, and Danny quickly took charge and led them back.
They were on track again soon enough, and this time he stuck with them to get them quickly through the rest of the course before dinner. They arrived back at the dining hall in the nick of time and the group ran in to join the dinner line, leaving Clara and Danny outside.
"There was no need to undermine me like that!" Clara told him the moment they were alone, "I was right and you knew that the moment I pointed it out, so why do that?!" Danny took a step back.
"Wow chill out, I just wanted them to realise their own mistake that's all," he told her, "teaches them more."
"Right but you could have at least got them to realise it earlier if you're that clever," she scowled, but he didn't look impressed.
"You know what, Miss Oswald; you could really do with taking a chill pill. This isn't school, this isn't a competition between us, and we're not going to be inspected by Ofsted tomorrow, so for goodness sake go and get something to eat because we have the rest of the evening where we're meant to be getting to know each other better, and I'd really rather it not be a slagging match," he immediately walked off when he finished speaking and Clara went in the opposite direction, deciding she really wasn't hungry.
"Clara come on now, I'm sure he's not that bad you've only known him a few hours and you know nothing about him," Adrian told her. She was always grateful for his listening ear; he knew her better than anyone and definitely knew how to handle her in this mood.
"Oh believe me I know enough. He's just so arrogant! Undermining me like that was just…" she kicked out at the wall.
"Woah Clara stop destroying the place for goodness sake and just think, I know maybe he should have spotted you were lost before, but you didn't realise either did you? Not really. You say you've got to talk tonight? Maybe you should give him a chance, get to know him. It's not going to do your group any good if you spend the week arguing with each other." Ridiculously calm, Clara knew she was right to call him.
"You're probably right," she sighed,
"Aren't I always?" Adrian replied quickly, making her chuckle. "That's better love, now I'm afraid I need to go and cook dinner before Niamh gets grumpy. I'll have her in bed by 8 though so please feel free to call me later if you need to. Enjoy the rest of your evening," he told her and she said her goodbyes, hanging up. After a few deep breaths Clara stood up, making her way to the dining hall to grab a quick something before dinner ended.
The teenagers were essentially left to their devices in the games room with only the main leaders for company. The other leaders were told to find somewhere in their pairs to chat. Danny had come over to her as dinner ended, suggesting they take a walk up the hill to which she agreed, hoping the open air would calm her a little in his presence. The walk up was essentially in silence until they made it to the top where they found a bench and sat down.
"It's nice up here," she spoke, looking out at the view, "I used to walk a lot, spend time looking out at beautiful countryside."
"What changed?" Danny asked.
"A lot of things, work got busy, circumstances changed, just real life. It's not all dreams and fairy tales you know?" she couldn't resist the sarcastic tone.
"Believe me, I know," he replied quite quietly.
"Mmm I'm sure," she shrugged and looked out.
"What exactly is that meant to mean?" he asked, suddenly getting defensive.
"Well you obviously think you know all, you've probably had a perfect childhood and everything go right for you. Perfect grades perfect teacher nothing to worry about. Well good for you Danny Pink, I'm sure it was fabulous," she stood up as she finished, walking forward.
"You have no idea what my life has been like! How dare you make judgements like that, what gives you the right? This is supposed to be us learning about each other, not making judgements based on knowing each other for a few hours! One thing I can see with you is that you're not going to be easy to deal with this week. Clearly we're not going to leave here as best friends, but we are going to have to work together but we cannot possibly do that if you're going to be like this all week! Whatever the hell it is you're angry about please don't take it out on me, it can't be that bad that you're so desperate to fight!" Danny found himself getting incredibly angry, something he hated.
"Like I'd ever tell you that," she spoke almost venomously, "I'm not telling you anything, you don't need to know anything. All you need to know is that we're going to get through this week speaking as little as needed. Professional, that's it."
"For the last time, this is not a school Clara, this is a camp. This is meant to be friendly, get out of teacher mode for goodness sake!" He shouted at her, standing up now. Clara spun around and looked at him.
"Stop telling me what to do, like you're anymore of an expert. Just leave me alone, like I said, professional." Clara turned back away and started walking back down the hill, but he followed, "do you not understand the words leave me alone?" Danny didn't respond, just followed her back to their building. Thankfully there didn't seem to be anyone around as she walked in, he quickly following. Clara was just about to open her door when he spoke.
"Clara," Danny reached out, grabbing her arm. She quickly pulled back.
"Do you not understand leave me alone?!" Clara pushed him away and walked in to her room, slamming the door. Danny looked astonished as the door shut in his face, she had reacted very strangely. There was definitely something else going on there, he just couldn't work out what.
Clara leant back against the door as she shut it, sliding down and placing her head in her hands. Her phone buzzed in her pocket again and she pulled it out, Adrian was asking how it was going. She almost laughed at the question, but dialled his number instead, explaining what had happened.
"Wow Clara, you really know how to make an impression don't you?" He had listened to everything before speaking, but his response had been fairly accurate. "You need to do something about this sooner rather than later."
"Like what? He won't listen to me, we can't have a conversation without arguing, the only way we're going to get through this week is by dealing with each other as little as physically possible. Ade what the hell have I let myself in for this week?" she sighed, rubbing her forehead a little. "I'm sorry, you're just listening to my problems. Have you had a good day with Niamh?" she asked, standing up and going to sit on her bed.
"Clara don't change the subject, but yes it's been good, not sure how I'm going to cope looking after her all week – remind me not to have children please, it's good to be able to give them back," he laughed, "but back to your situation. Let it cool off tonight, talk to him tomorrow. You need to, it can't go on like this. Clara you're such a lovely person, I know that, everyone at work knows that, but you need to start transferring that outside of work. I know you've been through so much, more than anyone deserves to go through and I hate that I can't help more but fighting everyone who starts asking about your past just isn't going to help," Clara sighed as he finished, he was always right. She suddenly noticed her cheeks were damp and she sniffled a little. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah I think I'm just tired. I'm sorry for all this, I don't mean to lay it all on you I just don't know who else to talk to," she leaned over and grabbed a tissue, wiping at her eyes.
"Hey, that's what best friends are here for right? I'm here for you whenever you need me. Right now I reckon you should clean up and then head down and join in with the teens, you'll be in your element there," Adrian used his good old reassuring tone.
"You're probably right, thanks. I'll let you enjoy your evening now, speak soon," she told him, "night Ade," Clara said before hanging up. Quickly checking her face in the mirror she made her way down, spending the rest of the evening getting involved in various video games and board games – a decent distraction for now.