I glanced up and down the grassy field of the baseball diamond, shielding my eyes as I stood in line. It was time for a baseball game. I was excited. If I messed up during swimming, I wouldn't mess up in this game. Amber was complaining about getting her hair messy, and Natalie looked so bored that she was yawning. But Caroline was excited, as usual.
The boys were playing tennis on the other field. I was standing in line to bat the ball, with my baseball cap tightly over my head. I watched Amber reluctantly step up. She raised the bat and swung it clumsily backwards as the ball came bouncing towards her. It both missed the ball and dropped from her hand.
All the girls burst out laughing. "I think Amber should sit out of all sports," one of them remarked.
Amber blushed, picking up the ball and handing it to me as she ran off. They yelled to her that she had three tries to hit the ball, but I threw it to the pitcher while positioning the bat. I hit it perfectly and sent it soaring across the diamond. Everyone cheered while the fielders ran after it.
"Way to go, Adelaide!" Rachel cheered.
As we continued playing, I started to relax as I hit the ball and ran around under the sun, hitting perfect strike after perfect strike to some players' jealousy. I began to forget all about the strange things I had seen and heard about the camp. That was, until something else frightening happened.
Ivy stepped up to bat, a determined look in her eyes. She had been staring at me in annoyance every time I hit a perfect strike. I felt a little bad for showing off, but it wasn't my fault I was so skilled. I watched her eyes narrow and shoulders hunch as the ball swung towards her. She raised the bat and sent it flying into the air. I was impressed. It was even higher than any of the balls I had sent, though that wasn't a good thing. It was too high. Nobody could catch it.
As it careened towards the ground, it connected with the head of a player running across the field. I let out a cry of shock, but I was the only one. Nobody else even blinked. I noticed the player was Amber. She was holding onto her head, the ball rolling across the field while the others tried to be the first to grab it.
"Oops," Ivy muttered. "Sorry about that, Amber."
"Amber! Are you okay?" I ran over to her, wincing in sympathy. That had happened to me a few times before, and I knew how it made my head throb.
She winced as she held onto her hair that was now sticking out to the left, likely from the ball. "As if getting my hair caught in the branch didn't damage it enough."
"At least it didn't hit you in the face," Caroline called. Amber glared at her.
"But... are you hurt?" I asked.
"No, but my hair is," Amber said, staring at her golden locks out of the corner of her eye with distaste. "This is why I hate playing out here."
"But—" I started, but Amber just headed across the field to the cabins. I was shocked. She was acting the same way she had when the rock hit her in the face – not pained, just annoyed.
"That's Amber for you," Caroline scoffed. "Only cares about her appearance."
"But—" I protested. "What about—"
"Hey, Adelaide, it's your turn to bat," said Rachel, passing the bat to me. "You're one of the best players we've had. I bet everyone else is jealous of you. You could totally be in the Olympics."
I thanked her, but I was still confused. Even I winced and stumbled in pain when a ball hit me from above, let alone the delicate, vain Amber. My next strikes were far less skillful and coordinated, and I bet Rachel wanted to take back her praise. My mind slipped as much as the bat did from my hands. Was everyone at this camp really so invulnerable?
"Adelaide, you won't believe this," David told me. He had left his table at the mess hall and taken a seat next to me at lunch. He beckoned me over near the wall so nobody could hear us talk. "While we were playing tennis, the boys started fighting. They started hitting each other with their racquets and wrestling. Celeste tried to separate them, but then one of them threw the tennis ball. It landed right on a boy's face, but he didn't even flinch. He just got mad."
"No way!" I gasped, almost choking on my sandwich. "The exact same thing happened to me. Well, not me. One of the girls got hit by the baseball, but she was just worried about her hair getting messed up."
"And did you see how the kids stayed under the lake for so long?" David continued, shuddering.
"Even longer than me," I said, with a hint of envy. "I didn't think anyone could stay underwater longer than me."
"Neither did I," David agreed. "Remember that time I tried to beat you and almost passed out?"
"Don't be so dramatic," I said. "You were fine. But yeah, I confronted the boys who were picking on you. I grabbed one of them and pulled him under the water. He wasn't expecting it at all."
David burst out laughing. "Way to go, Adelaide!"
"Then we had a competition," I continued. "He kept going on about how he could stay underwater longer than me, and I got so sick of it that I decided to prove him wrong."
"I bet you did," said David, staring hopefully at me.
"I'd love to say that," I said. "But I didn't. When I resurfaced, Russell was still under. Nobody noticed or panicked, except for me."
David shuddered. "I saw so many kids under the lake, but Celeste told me not to panic. She said they were just good at it since they had lots of practice at this camp."
"I don't think any amount of practice could turn you into a dolphin," I quipped.
"Dolphins can hold their breath for eight to ten minutes," said David automatically. I rolled my eyes. What a geek.
David lowered his voice as some girls sat next to us, speaking so quietly I had to lean next to him. His voice was meek and terrified. "Adelaide, I think something really weird is going on at this camp."
"I do as well," I agreed.
After lunch, we played more sports and games. They had been fun, but I could barely enjoy it. I got hit in the head by a ball once in my daze, and staggered backwards in shock. Nobody paid me any attention, as if it happened often. We had a campfire again that night. I was surprised to hear that. I thought they only happened once in a while.
"Oh, whenever there's new campers, we have a campfire every night, to welcome them," Amber hurriedly explained.
The hike through the woods seemed scarier than before, despite seeming less scary last night. I jumped at every branch and shadow. The kids weren't scared in the least. They were as excited as last night, running and pushing each other. Rachel and Celeste warned them to stop, but they didn't. At one point when we were nearing the opening to the campfire, I jumped as I spotted a red-haired girl up in one of the trees, grinning and waving.
I backed away into the open clearing. Nobody seemed too concerned, though Celeste yelled up at her. "Ivy! Get down this instant!"
I liked climbing trees as well, but I wouldn't be stupid enough to climb one in these woods. Ivy didn't look in the least bit nervous. She swung her legs up on the higher branches and hung her arms over them with her head tilted back. Watching her made even my heart race.
"You're like ivy on a tree," Amber joked. Everyone laughed.
I didn't, and neither did David. He stared at us with his mouth open. I managed to look less shocked, but I still was. I was just on edge after all the strange things I had seen at camp. Somehow, that seemed to comfort me. I wasn't too worried about her getting hurt, after what I had seen the campers do.
As if to answer my thought, Ivy lost her footing when trying to climb to the top and started to fall through the branches. Some of the campers yelled in surprise, but none were too worried. Celeste ran over to Ivy, scolding her without seeming concerned at all. Neither was Ivy. She didn't even land like a cat the way I did, but she got to her feet, laughing and brushing bits of leaves out of her red hair. Just like Natalie, she didn't have a scratch on her.
"You're just like Natalie," Caroline quipped. "You'd both sleep and live in trees if you could."
"Adelaide seems fond of climbing trees, too," Celeste announced. I blushed as I remembered how she had met me when I fell.
The campfire was as dreary and ominous as last night. I enjoyed its warmth, trying to get as close as possible without burning myself. It was even colder than last night, and I could feel the wind piercing through my clothes.
That night, Celeste had brought marshmallows and hot dogs, to my excitement. We lined up as she offered us each one. We fought to see who would sit around the campfire and get them roasted first. I thought they should've been more careful in case they burned themselves, but they practically threw each other into the fire. I gasped as I saw one of the kids fall into it.
The next moment, he picked himself up without wincing, continuing to squabble with the others for the closest seat. I blinked, rubbing my eyes. I guessed that I must've imagined him falling in. I was quite far away, after all. But after what I had seen of the campers, I wasn't so sure.
Celeste didn't tell a story, but we sang songs. Not the eerie starlight one, to my relief, but other, more cheerful ones. They sang it in a much more normal, cheerful tune as well. I sang along happily, munching on my hot dog even though it wasn't cooked.
When it was my turn to get them cooked, I held the stick with my marshmallow towards the fire. I watched it burn, my mouth almost watering from the smell. Just then, I yelped as I felt someone bump into me from behind. I let go of the stick, sending the marshmallow into the crackling flames. Thankfully, I managed to stop myself from stumbling forward further.
"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" the girl behind me apologized frantically. "I'm such a klutz!"
"It's fine," I assured, staring at the hot dog in my other hand. "At least I still have this."
"I can get that for you," said Caroline cheerfully. I stared at her as if she was crazy, and then let out a scream of shock as she dipped her hand into the blazing flames. I barely had time to process it before she pulled it out with both my stick and the marshmallow. Nobody around me reacted, including Caroline herself, and David was too far away to notice.
"Here you go," said Caroline, holding out the marshmallow to me. I just stared at it in shock, not feeling in the least bit hungry anymore. I was more worried about her hand. It wasn't burned in the slightest. It wasn't even reddened. It was as smooth and pale as before.
Caroline seemed to realize why I looked so shocked. "Oh, uh... if you're not hungry, I'll have it," she said, as if trying to change the subject.
"Go ahead," I said weakly, turning away as she gulped down the marshmallow. I almost dropped my hot dog as well. I could explain away everything else I had seen away, but that was crossing the line. There was no way to explain that.
I couldn't get to sleep that night. I kept tossing and turning in my bunk, risking falling off the edge. I bounced my baseball against the ceiling as I went over the events of the day in my mind. I imagined it all, or was I going crazy? Was there something weird about the campers, or the camp itself? In the middle of all the events of the day playing through in my mind, I remembered the campfire story from last night. It disturbed me even more than everything I had seen, even though it was the only thing that might be made up.
I tucked my fingers under the bracelet on my wrist. That always calmed me. It made me think about Jade. I was almost jealous of her. She was probably having a great time, not having to worry about anything like this. But I wasn't a wimpy worrier like her. She couldn't handle going to a regular summer camp, let alone one as weird as this one. She and my brother got along well, as you can probably guess.
I'm not a worrier, far from it. That's David and Jade's job. But I could tell there was something deeply strange going on at this camp, the same place I had been so excited to spend the summer.