Chapter 22 - Reunion

The days flew by, more contestants were leaving, and I noticed that these few weeks had gone far faster than I imagined, and by that, I mean lightning fast. It was like a time travelling spell had been cast on me and I had been whizzing through different days, which was most likely why I couldn't really remember a certain event happening on a certain day. It was crazy. What was a little disappointing was that I felt as if I hadn't had a lot of time to fully enjoy this experience, especially with Gracie. I so, so wanted to express my feelings to her and I just wanted us to be together forever, but deep down, I knew that there was no point because we were only going to be here for another couple of days before the show ended, therefore we all had to go home.

I imagined that Gracie lived somewhere far, far away from Dorset and that if we were to go our separate ways, I would never see her again. I had just taken a cold shower and washed my hair with an unscented shampoo and I was currently lying on my bed thinking about this and the more I thought about it, the sadder I became. The more I kept on looking at Gracie, the more I thought about it, thus causing my emotions to droop even lower.

"Hey Ludwig. Are you all right?"

Ooh, speak of the angel… Gracie suddenly walked up to me and sat down on my bed.

I immediately felt a twinge in my heart and I didn't know why. I sighed shakily. "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm just…thinking."

"Oh. What about?"

I turned my head and finally gave Gracie eye contact. "About…how close we are to the end. Call me crazy, but in a way…I don't really want to go home."

Just as I had expected, Gracie looked quite shocked. "Why not? Seriously, you must be getting tired of eating the same thing for meals consistently and you must be tired of how poor the hygiene restrictions are."

I nodded. "Yeah…those things may be the only downsides of this place, but what I'm trying to say is…" I swallowed a lump. "I've made lots of really good friends here and I feel like…I've grown such a huge bond with them that I don't want to leave them behind." I took a deep breath, for I needed all the courage I could gain for what I was going to say to Gracie next. I looked up into her eyes. "Especially you. I don't know why, but…I feel like our bond is the strongest and I don't want to go."

I was expecting that Gracie would one hundred percent be grossed out with what I had just said, but to my surprise, she smiled…and giggled…and blushed. No way. Could she…? No. Seriously not. "That's nice." she said. "To be honest, I actually feel the same. Yes, I want to be able to eat actual food and have a proper wash, but I don't want to leave you behind, or anyone else here for that matter."

For a moment, we both sat there on my bed staring at each other, half waiting for the other to do something or speak, but unfortunately, we were interrupted by a familiar distant voice shouting, "Hey guys!"

It was Jack and Lily coming back to Main Camp. I was partly disappointed that this tension had been destroyed but relieved because I felt so anxious and awkward during that moment that I found it difficult to breathe. Still though, I couldn't help but wonder. Did Gracie like me too? She had blushed when I had said to her that our bond was strong and she had giggled as well. I knew that giggling in a high pitched tone was something that some or most or all girls did if they were in love with someone. Oh god. Was it really true? Or was I being deceived? No, I didn't think Gracie was that type of person who would mess with your emotions, but…what did I know?

Nonetheless, I tried to make sure that I spent most of my time with Gracie before our time in the jungle drew to a close because it was obvious that we were both confident and carefree with each other, but I didn't think Gracie wanted to take it a step further with me, which was something that I wanted to do so, so badly. I wanted to do lots of things with her, such as dance around a ballroom, run along the sandy shore of a beach, and just hold her tight for as long as possible. I knew that back at home in the UK, this sort of thing was never going to happen to me, because in my world, all the girls around me didn't want anything to do with me, which made me think that love was never going to cross my path, so I didn't want to leave Gracie all alone in the dark. I didn't want to feel alone for the rest of my life…

Anyway, I knew that instead of obsessing over the problems, I had to focus on the positive, that being, I had to spend as much time with Gracie and all my friends as possible in order to make the most of these last few days, but inevitably, I even found that difficult. I thought that focusing on the positives would be easy for me to do, but obviously not. Of course not. The problem I was currently facing was as follows: I had grown a huge bond with all my friends and I didn't want to leave them behind when our time in the jungle came to a halt, but…I felt the same with Gracie, so therefore, I didn't know who to hang out with. Yes it would be amazing if Gracie hung out with me and my friends, but I felt like we wouldn't get as much time to ourselves. Oh, I guess that was something I had to deal with.

Suddenly, I heard the same unmistakable sound of the wooden bucket being lowered from the balcony, which made my mouth grow wide in disbelief. What?! Were the directors and staff having a bubble? Were they planning on setting trials for us every day now? Yes, I understood that we needed to be occupied so that the three weeks wouldn't move at snail's pace, but I was only getting about six hour's sleep every night now and all I was running on was little amounts of food and water and that was it. We couldn't persist with working our way through trials every single day because we were almost at the end and I half hoped that the directors would go easy on us.

Well, I supposed that my thoughts on that had been completely and utterly incorrect. I walked over to the bucket resting on the ground, picked up the piece of paper inside it and unfolded it. The moment I did though, my heart sank to the deepest, darkest depth of the ocean, but I didn't know why because what was written on the paper was absolutely what I was expecting. I looked around at my three remaining campmates, who were staring at me intently, curious to get a good look at my facial expression so that they could at least imply that something was wrong.

"Ludwig, what's up?" Lily asked.

I managed to sigh and groan at the same time. "It's another letter saying we have to do another-" I suddenly stopped. I looked further down the paper and my curiosity was briefly piqued. "Hold on. It says that we all have split up and go to different parts of Camp for a mystery trial."

There was a moment where all my campmates looked at each other, then let out a chorus of curious noises, which provoked me to walk over to the fire pit so they could get a closer look at the paper.

"Look." I said. "It says, "Ludwig, your trial will be set at the lake's edge, Jack, your trial will be set at the open tree area past the lake, Gracie, your trial will be set past the left pathway once out of Camp, and Lily, tour trial will be set at the open tree area past the waterfall."" When I looked up from the paper, my campmates were all staring at me with exasperated faces. "I know guys, being voted to do yet another trial is really disappointing and exhausting, but if we just make it through this one, then we'll earn lots of stars for a better quality dinner and it'll almost make us feel like we're home again."

For a moment, I thought, why the hell did I say that? I let out a soft, discreet sigh. Home. A place where I didn't know whether to be happy or sad upon thinking about it because…I wanted Gracie, but I also wanted to be in my proper comfort zone. All these negative thoughts began swimming around in my head and they just wouldn't let up. Come on, Ludwig! Just stick to one feeling! Try and think happy about home so when you leave, Larry won't be sad when you mention that you want to stay here with Gracie. Oh… I really, really didn't want to upset Larry in any way, but I loved Gracie like the world. I sighed and rested my chin on my hands. Ugh, why was it so hard to make decisions as a teenager?

"Lud, are you okay?" Gracie suddenly asked, putting a hand on my shoulder, which startled me quite a bit, for I had been stuck in a daydream.

I looked up at her before replying, "Yeah, I'm okay. I guess we should all get going to do these trials, huh?" My campmates all agreed with me and with that, we all split up and walked off in different directions, however, before I could walk away, I was stopped by Gracie, which made my heart pound in my ears because…well…she was talking to me and I adored her sweet voice.

"Hey, Ludwig?" she said, which caused me to turn around and what made me feel a little concerned was that she looked quite nervous. Her right leg was bouncing up and down and she was biting her nails.

"Yeah? What is it?" I asked, smiling.

"Um…good luck." she muttered, her eyes widening with what looked like a mixture of support and nerves.

Instantly, I felt my heart race with joy and excitement. Aww, she was wishing me luck… That was so lovely of her because what if I got hurt during this trial and Gracie wouldn't see me for absolutely ages due to me being treated and cared for? Well, at least I would leave the trial injured but happy that Gracie's last words to me were nothing short of positive.

I smiled back at her, even though every cell in my heart was shouting at me to wrap her up in a hug. "Thanks so much. Good luck to you too." and with that, I walked out of Camp with my hand on my chest and softly exhaled.

I had been so nervous talking to Gracie just then, but at the same time, it felt so good… I know I always felt nervous and anxious when talking to people I didn't know too well, but even just after three weeks, I felt as if Gracie was a childhood sweetheart who I had met right at the start of reception and we had been by each other's sides all the way up to year 8. I mean, obviously it was three weeks and I was still a little on edge when talking to Gracie, but during that time, I had grown so accustomed to feeling so giddy and nervous around her that it actually felt good. I never thought I'd find love like that, ever, but given my soft, lovey dovey behaviour, it seemed like I had, which I couldn't have been more thankful for.

At last, I reached the entrance to the lake, which, for some reason, looked a little…abandoned, I guess you could say with parts of branches fallen into the water. Oh, maybe it was because I was looking at the lake through trees, which was most likely why it looked that way. I brushed away all the branches before walking out towards the lake's edge, but I saw utterly nothing apart from trees, pebbles, twigs, and…oh my god. My eyes instantly darted over to the wooden bench near the water's edge and they would not leave it, for there was a boy sitting on it with his back to me and a backpack slumped up against him. I knew his appearance as if he were family and the moment I saw him, I thought I was going to cry with joy.

He sported a blue star birthmark on the left side of his face, a blue and white striped T-shirt that made him look like a sailor and he had sky blue hair that was brushed back in a mohawk. Oh my god… Was that…?

"Larry?" I called down to him, which caused him to turn round and stand up, his ocean eyes widening upon hearing my voice.

At once, he shouted, "Ludwig!" before opening up his arms. I rushed towards him and threw my arms around him. He returned the hug by gripping my shirt and rubbing his hands across my shoulders. "This feels so good…I've missed you so much, you have no idea!"

Once I had regained my composure and gotten over the fact that my best friend in all the world was actually here, I lifted up my head. "I've missed you too, but…what are you doing here? How did you get in here?"

"Me and Iggy received a letter from the I'm A Koopa staff saying that now is the time where the campmates can have a surprise by one of their loved ones or friends being in Camp with them and they can be reunited with each other for half an hour before they all have to separate." Larry replied, leading me to the bench and sitting down before wrapping himself around me again. "Well, I'm going to make sure that this half an hour is the slowest one I've ever been through." He rested his cheek on my hair, but after a while, he sat up, pointed his nose in my direction and sniffed the air.

"What are you doing?" I asked with a hint of amusement.

Judging by the grimace on Larry's face, it occurred to me that from having not washed properly for the past three weeks, I must've smelled bad. He straightened back up again and replied, "Is that really what fish guts, offal, and three weeks of sleeping in your clothes mixed together smells like?"

I felt my cheeks flushing and I meekly looked down at my feet. "Um…yes, unfortunately."

Larry offered me to lean on his shoulder and chuckled. "That's okay, I know you can't help it, I don't mind a bit." He rubbed my upper arm tenderly. "Oh, I'm so ready for you to come home…"

As these words sunk into my head, I felt a mile deep sense of guilt build up inside me, for I had just gone back over my thoughts. The thoughts that consisted of not knowing whether I wanted to stay in the jungle with Gracie or go home with Larry. I put a hand up to my mouth and chewed on my finger for a while as I felt my heart beating. Should I tell Larry how I was feeling or not? I knew how much he missed me and wanted me to come home again, but at the same time, I wanted to stay with Gracie forever. What was I going to do now?

"Lud, are you alright, man?" Larry asked, looking down at me. "Your heart's beating pretty fast…"

I sighed and looked back up at him. I knew full well that keeping my emotions all bottled up inside me wasn't going to help at all because if I waited until I was about to go home and I was reunited with Larry again during that time, my emotions that were tied to that specific situation would be much more robust and it would come to a certain point on time where I could no longer hide my feelings, thus causing an inevitable outburst. I wriggled away from Larry's embrace and sat up to face him.

"Um…can I be perfectly honest with you?" I asked, quietly.

"Of course you can! I won't judge what you have to say."

"Okay…" I heaved a great sigh before beginning. "I…I didn't know whether to laugh or start crying when I first saw you here. It's because…I don't really want to go home. I know how much you want to be with me but…I just feel like I'm not quite ready to leave." I bit my lip and rubbed my right forearm. "Please don't be mad…"

I was expecting Larry's brow to furrow, but instead, he stared back at me with understanding and solace in his blue eyes. "Oh, Lud. I'm not mad at all, but is the reason why you don't want to leave because you feel like you've made lots of new friends that you've grown tight bonds with and you don't want to leave them behind?"

I nodded and swallowed a lump. "Yeah, and I've grown a huge bond with somebody else as well…a girl to be exact, so much so that…I've fallen madly in love with her and I don't want to go away and leave her on her own…"

"Oh…" Larry bit his lip before asking, "Would that girl's name be…Gracie, by any chance?"

At that moment, my eyes widened and I became absolutely gobsmacked. "What?! How did you know that?"

Larry grinned sneakily and tapped the side of his nose with a finger. "I think you might've forgotten that I've been watching you every day and I've noticed your behaviour towards her and I've got the full impression that you wanna…" He wolf whistled before making a circle with his left thumb and index finger, then he poked the index finger on his right hand into the hole he had made, then in and out again, which caused me to open my mouth in mock horror.

"Right! I'm not at that point yet, thank you very much!"

Larry chuckled alongside me. "Okay, okay, I'll stop. So, what you're saying is that you don't really know whether you want to stay here or come home with me, right?"

I nodded.

"Right, well, I think I can solve your problem for you. Let's just say you and your campmates were just having a casual conversation and as much as you like them, you find the convo a little boring. Well, I'd say you should try and lighten the mood a bit and try and make fun out of absolutely anything when it comes to your campmates even if it's just a casual conversation. I know how funny you can be sometimes and I know you can do that. How does that sound?"

I took in what Larry had just suggested and my smile slowly began to spread across my face at his enthusiasm for trying to help me. "That's…that's actually a great idea, thanks so much."

Larry smiled. "No problem, man. Anything to give you any tips and wrinkles within this half an hour of seeing you. Now, I was meaning to give something to you…" He took the backpack beside him in his hands, zipped it open and pulled out a tupperware tub with what looked like cookies inside it. Larry unpopped the lid and wafted the tub under my nose, which made me lick my lips. "Want an M&M cookie? I know I'm not really meant to do this, but you look like you're starving."

My eyes instantly became bigger than my stomach and with trembling hands, I picked one up out of the tub, then took a large bite. I let out a small moan of pleasure as my jaw ached from tasting the amount of sugar packed into the delicacy. "Oh…that's so good…can I have another?"

Larry smiled and held the tub out of reach. "Nuh-uh! I'm saving these for later, for when you finally come out of the jungle!" But when I sighed and pouted mockingly, he said, "Oh, what the hell? Let's both have another one each!"

Me and Larry. Larry and me. There we were, sitting on a bench in the middle of the Australian jungle eating M&M cookies and talking with our mouths full about what we had done over the course of three weeks, even though I didn't really care if Larry spat crumbs all over me; I was already grubby enough so he might as well have carried on. Soon, too soon, the half an hour was up and it was time for Larry to leave. I almost felt a lump develop in my throat as he wrapped his arms around me.

"It'll be okay, Lud. I know it. You're a strong guy, I know you can make it through just these last few days…"

"Well, that's if I get voted off sooner." I replied.

"True, true, but I don't think that's really necessary. I mean, you've scored ten stars on all your trials and you're really kind and helpful to all your campmates, so I'd say you more than deserve to win this year!"

"You really think so?"

"I know so! Now, I really have to go. Remember what I said to you about having as much fun as possible and as soon as you come out of the jungle, most likely because you've won, I'll be right here hugging you and telling you how proud I am." Larry gave me one last squeeze on the shoulder before turning to walk off in the other direction, leaving me alone by the sparkling lake. He kept on stopping to look back at me and wave, which I did back, and after one final wriggle through the trees, he disappeared off into the outside world.