It was finally Friday. Even though it was the weekend, it was still a busy day. Abi finishes the chore wheel. Today was going to be busy. They had canoeing, volleyball, the first DJ social. The campers were nervous about it. They could dress up and ask other campers to go with them as their date. The counselors were stuck wearing their uniforms and chaperoning. Dylan would be the DJ as always.
Izzy asks Emma if she can French braid her hair. Her long hair is down to her waist as if it'd never been cut. She was usually shy and carried a stuff rabbit with one eye everywhere and couldn't sleep without it.
Abi asked where she learned how to braid like that.
"The twins. My sisters. The half-lings over there."
Heather and Hannah, stood eerily in the corner of the room, eating a bag of twizlers. One of them was a snotty tattle-tale mean girl in training, the other was a quiet, reserved, bookworm. The complete opposite of what people expect twins to be.
The furniture in the lodge is moved to the side. The kids are dancing in the main hall and the older ones on the balconies. When they start to dance too suggestively Kaitlyn warns to spray cold water on them.
"There's little kids here."
The counselors take the glow sticks from under the DJ's station and make braclet's, necklaces and crowns out of them, even though they were meant for the kids.
Jacob comes over to where Kaitlyn and Emma are sitting on one of the orange sofas. "Anyone want some gummies?Dylan made them."
"You mean you stole them."
Jacob shrugs. "How do you know that."
"Something tells me that he didn't part from them willingly."
"None for me thanks. TBH messes with my stomach." Kaitlyn declines.
"C'mon they're only baby ones."
Emma says she's all set. She lifts up her water bottle.
As Dylan starts to come over, Jacob hides the bag. Dylan takes the bottle from her and takes a swig. Vodka.
"Ugg, jeez Emma. At least mix it with something."
"You know what, you're right." She leaves to find the punch bowl.
Dylan sees Ryan standing alone. He calls after Emma, "Hey Emma. Wait. Got anymore of that?"
"Seriously?"
"You owe me one. Remember? Here." He reaches in his pocket. "I'll trade you." He takes out the bag of gummies, the same one Jacob had.
"How'd you..."
"I never reveal my secrets."
Saturday is movie night. The campers and counselors grabbed their snacks and headed outside to the lake, where there would be a giant blow-up screen and a projector.
"Hey look, Takis!" Ryan nods to the purple bag.
Maybe Ryan does remember. Dylan thinks hopefully or was too embarrassed that he had forgotten and just recently remembered.
"what's your favorite movie?" Dylan asks Ryan instead.
"Avengers. End game."
"Endgame? That is such a straight guy movie." Nice way to redeem yourself Dylan. I hope he gets the hint now.
"Ok, not a regular movie but what's your favorite horror movie?" Ryan asks him.
"Titanic. "
"That's...That's not a horror movie." Ryan's trying not to laugh. The way his lips curve upward into a smile, makes Dylan feel warm inside.
"It totally is. It really happened. All those guys died."
"Would you be Jack on the floating door?"
"No." He didn't want to admit yes, And Ryan would be Rose in that situation. " I'd probably be that guy who hit the propeller on the way down."
"Ooh, ouch." They made their way out of the lodge, Ryan holding the door open for him. "Wait, you didn't actually suggest that we watch that?"
"I suggested Jaws while we sat in Canoes in the lake, but Mr H said that was too scary. Sounded like a pretty cool idea at the time." They almost reached the fire-pit down by the lake. "Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo."
Ryan stops. "What?"
"My favorite movie. Most people like Psycho or the Birds, or North by Northwest but I like that one. It's about toxic masculinity by the master of toxic masculinity himself. "
"Cool. Not the toxic masculinity part, of course."
"Maybe we can watch it together sometime. I can make you a flash-drive of all the classics when I get back home. I could mail it to you."
"Maybe."
July 16th -Kaitlyn
We're spending the night away from creature comforts. Which meant walking half the day. Setting up tents. The kids get extra marshmallows if they can set up their own but I bet Mr H will give them extra anyway.
I see Ryan and Kaylee setting up theirs. Kaylee hangs on every word he says. I wonder if she's the situation-ship Ryan was talking about.
Jacob is struggling with his tent. "Need a little help there, bud?
"I'm fine Kaitlyn. I know what I'm doing."
I walk by Nick and Dylan's tent. Dylan is bent down beside him, Nick doing most of the work. Being his lazy self as usual. His name suits him. It was Chech for lazy or something.
He watches as Nick hammers the stake hard into the ground with a flat rock.
"Man you're really in tents. Get it. In tents."
I roll my eyes. Sometimes his jokes don't land. Or maybe he's flirting. God, I hope not. I think he is. Shouldn't he know by know that he's barking up the wrong tree? The way he's looking at Abi as she walks over to them.
I focus on my own tent. It's starting to rain and it's cold. It doesn't help the whole setting up situation. I blame the tent stakes. "Flimsy peices of crap." I toss the rubber happer aside and it lands at someone's feet.
They pick it up. I lift up my gaze. I see that it's Dylan.
"Give me the hammer back.
"Why? I can hammer it in for ya."
"Just give it back, dumbass."
"Your loss." He shrugs, handing it back.
"Thank you."
Beside me, Emma shivers.
"Are you alright?"
"Just cold." Her eyes drift to the path behind up, to the line of trees. "I thought I just saw something. Hey, do you think there's some truth to Ryan's ghost stories. Like someone died out here?"
"Ryan's just trying to scare us. It's just an urban myth."
Weren't there like these hikers that went missing a while back? The night they got lost, do you think they died of hypothermia or something?"
"For me it might be the night I go to jail for shoving mud down Dylan's throat if he makes one more innuendo." I look in his direction. He and Jacob are arguing about something. Jacob pushes him and Dylan lands on his backside.
"Being pushed in the mud makes up for it."
Mr H breaks it up "Ok. Ok, that's enough. We have to set an example here..."
"Kaitlyn?"
"Yeah?"
"I know you and Jacob have a history."
"Whoa, let me stop you right there sister. We're just friends."
Dylan tries to stand up but he slips. At first I think it's because of the mud. He says he thought he saw something or someone through the trees. Ryan
He didn't act like he was dehydrated to me a few minutes ago when he was making jokes. We're ordered back to the lodge and we abandon our tents, which was meant with a lot of groans from the kids. But Mr H's promise of hot chocolate cheers them up.
July 17th-Abi
Abi was on cookie patrol. And asked Dylan if he would go with her. That meant taking the golf cart.
"Do want to drive?"
"I don't have my licenses."
"Oh." He was a year older than her. She just got hers before the summer started. "Are you waiting or..."
"I get too stressed out."
"It took me like four tries. Even though my uncle let me drive his tractor on his farm in Oklahoma. That's where my family's originally from. We really are Okies from Muskogee Don't laugh."
"I would never laugh."
"We moved to New York when I was five. My parents and I. we'd go back and visit in the summer. Once I took his truck out for a spin. With supervision of course. "
"Not this summer though?"
"No. My parents want me to have some fun and meet new people. So I can learn to talk to people better."
"Sounds fun."
"I guess it is. With you and Emma around. You know we have some time to kill. We don't have to take the cart back right away. I can show you the ropes if you want..."
"I'm good."
"Don't worry about it. Driving's not for everyone. Since we still don't know much about each other and we've go plenty of time on our hands...What's your favorite show?"
"Friends, hands down. My mom watched it when she was younger and she'd watch it from the beginning once every year on new years."
"Here I thought you were going to say Riverdale. You're like the spitting image of Jughead." She removed one hand from the wheel. Then placed it back at six.
"I wish. It's probably close second. Followed by Breaking Bad, Ru Paul's drag race and Downton Abbey. Matthews death was the saddest next to Dr McDreamy. What's yours?"
"The Walking Dead. "
He gave her a look that said, really? "I stopped watching like after episode 3,000."
Abi laughs. "It's not that bad."
"It is when they kill off Glen. They always kill off the hotest characters."
"Riverdale is also my second. Doctor Who, then Game of Thrones. Minus season eight. You should never get attached to characters."
"Gendry lived in the Game of Thrones. So it's not all bad. Do you know you can tour the city where it was filmed?"
"Croatia right?"
"We should go."
"Bit presumptuous to think I'll want to go on vacation with you, isn't it?"
"Who wouldn't want to go on a trip to Croatia. Eh, I'd rather go to Iceland."
"To see the Northern lights?"
"You could bring your telescope."
They come to stop outside the snack shed. "Hey, do you think Kaylee's ok?"
"No idea. Why?"
"I don't know. She seems weird. I mean, when you thought you saw someone in the woods. Like she saw something too or something."
He shrugs his shoulders causally. "She was pretty freaked out. No offense to her but she seems the type of person who freaks out about everything."
"Do you think we should be scared?"
"Of Kaylee?" He raises an eyebrow.
"No. I just feel like something is watching us. When no one else is around. Don't you?"
"No." Yes. "Mr H is probably right. The woods plays tricks on you. And I was dehydrated and it made me see things. That's probably why she was freaked out. "
On their hike yesterday morning, Dylan had sworn he had seen a pale figure in-between the rows or trees, a woman, no a boy.
It had made him feel unsteady on his feet he had to sit down but sort of collapsed. Ryan was by his side in an instant. "Whoa, Dylan. Are you ok?"
"I thought I saw something. Someone. It was a boy. "
"One of the campers?"
"Yeah but one of the older ones."
"Everyone's here. It was probably just one of the dead trees. Did you get enough to drink?"
"I had an apple and some coffee."
"See. There's your problem. I told you to eat more than just an apple. Coffee is a makes you dehydrated. Dehydration can make you see things."
"Well, there you go." Mr H. said. "Let's get back to camp and have a hot drink and let everyone know there's nothing there. Just the forest playing tricks on you. "
Dylan didn't know what made him look but he looked over at Kaylee. Their eyes met. Her eyes were wide with fear.
"Yeah. Probably. You're right. It was probably nothing. It just didn't seem like her. Like she was distant. I guess I don't know how she handles stressful situations. I forget we've only know each other a matter of weeks."
"Camp has that affect on you. Hey If you want, I can check on her tomorrow for you."
They were down by the lake after breakfast the next morning. Dylan was one of the last to arrive. Nick slowly walked over to him.
"Did you manage to speak to Kaylee?"
"Uh..."
" Abi mentioned you were going to check on her."
"Not yet. She got up late. She seems ok now." She looks completely normal, getting her girls ready for the canoe race.
"That's good. How are you?"
"Still slightly exhausted. I'm much better at helping other people with their problems than my own."
"You know it's good to talk." Nick noticed he still looked pretty pale and a bit shaky.
"I'm fine for now. Sometimes I just overthink things."
"Ah. My sister's the same. If I don't check in, she thinks I've drowned in the lake or something. Doesn't matter if I past the swim test and that I'm certified as a lifeguard."
"That sounds like me."
They were distracted by something else. Not a scream of playful laughter.
"Ew. it's a shoe." Heather sqawkes.
"Back away girls. I got this." Emma fishes it out with a pool net. "Well, it's green so it's definitely been here a while. I'll go get rid of this."
There was another scream. Izzy.
"There. Someone's there. There's someone there." She's pointing her finger toward the line of trees.
"Hey, it's ok." Dylan puts an arms around her small shaking frame. Kaitlyn comes up beside her on the other side.
"He was walking toward us."
"Toward us?" Kaitlyn asks.
"Kinda. I think I saw his face but he turned away so quick."
"Ok. Whoever you saw, they're not there now. I'm sure people go on hikes all the time out here." Kaitlyn reassured. "He must've got turned around and when he saw the signs saying this is private property, he turned back when he realized his mistake."
"Yeah." Dylan says, though he didn't believe it himself. "That's all it was sport."
"You never call me sport."
"Just your imagination."
July 19th
It was Dylan's birthday. He didn't plan of celebrating it. Nick was already in the kitchen before the staff. He already had the ingredients in various bowls.
"What are you making?"
"WE, are making a cake. Do you know how to bake?"
"No. I'm a pasta guy, remember? Everything else I microwave."
"It's no different than making pasta from scratch. Here, I can show you."
"So, why are we making a cake?"
" It's your birthday isn't it?"
"How did you know?"
"It's on the packet they gave us. And it's another camper's birthday too. It's real easy."
"Um, am I doing this right?"
"Almost. You need to be more gentle."
"You sound like one of my ex-boyfriends. Well, I only ever had one. It didn't end well."
"So you ever have a girlfriend?" Nick had wondered if he was bi. The way he flirted with everyone, even with him.
"There was...almost. Not really. It didn't work out that way." His voice had a hint of sadness behind it.
"Did you want it to work out that way or did she?"
"She did. But we're still friends."
"I notice you and Abi have been spending a lot of time together."
"Oh, God, no. We're just friends. She's more like a little sister to me. She's all yours, pal. "
"So, why didn't it work out?"
" I guess I was still a little bit confused and I was denying it."
"You seem sure of it now. Were you worried that...were your parent's not ok with it?"
" look. It's not something I like to talk about, man. It was just a very confusing time for me ok?"
"Yeah. No worries." That was a no. He can't imagine how tough that must have been. The very people who raised you and were supposed to love you, rejecting you. Especially your own father. No wonder bringing up his father was a sore spot for Dylan.
"Hey, I think it's working."
"Slow and steady wins the race. That's like the tenth commandment. On my blog."
"You have a blog?"
"Just like ten followers."
"Make that eleven when you get home."
"I'm going back to Australia before the semester starts but uh, I'll send you a post card."