Chapter Seven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It became obvious quickly that we had an amazing group of campers. It didn’t take any of us long to acclimate to one another and I loved learning more about each girl as time went on. They were full of teenage angst that I would certainly be sick of by the time the summer was over but it felt good to be able to give them advice on their petty problems.

They were also a ton of fun to do activities with. We didn’t spend all day with our girls as we manned different stations but most of our time was spent with them. The more we were together, the more comfortable they became with us, and I was sad when our first week came to an end so quickly.

We led them down to the weekly bonfire on Saturday night after dinner and our cabin of girls immediately sat with the Cabin Seven boys. They had formed friendships with them after everything they’d done together that week.

Hannah and I walked to where Jordan and Drew were helping set up the snack table and Jordan’s eyes lit up when he caught sight of my friend. The attraction between the two of them was obviously mutual and I knew that we’d be spending our first night off the following week with Jordan in some way.

“Did you survive your first week okay, ladies?” Drew asked as he leaned against the table with his arms crossed over his chest. I nodded and offered him a smirk as I stopped in front of him.

“You guys are lucky points don’t start tallying until tomorrow. Seems our girls are quite the athletes and wiped the floor with your boys during soccer yesterday.”

Drew chuckled before leaning in so our faces were a few inches apart. Again. “We’re just lulling you into a false sense of security.”

I couldn’t help the laugh that fell from my lips and Hannah linked her arm through mine in support.

“We’ll see, won’t we?”

“It’s going to be fun,” Jordan said as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his shorts. “We’ve decided on our wager. Have you picked?”

I glanced at Hannah and we both grinned before I nodded my head. “We have. You propose yours first.”

“If we win,” Drew said slowly, letting his eyes run down my body purposely, alerting me that ours was going to involve nudity. “You ladies will give us lap dances in the comfort of our cabin in those bikinis you were wearing our first week.”

So, not nudity but close enough. I raised my eyebrows before speaking again. “Traditional rules of lap dances say that there isn’t any touching permitted by the recipient. Can we assume that these are the same rules?”

“Of course,” Drew replied with a nod. “No touching, just looking. Two songs and we’ll even let you ladies pick them.”

Hannah and I looked over at each other. We weren’t planning on losing but even if we did, it wasn’t too terrible. The thought of being almost naked and in Drew’s lap caused a flurry of emotions to run through my body. Shyness, irritation, anticipation, and most annoyingly… arousal. Damn him.

I gave her a small nod and Hannah grinned before looking back at the guys. “We accept but it can only be repaid after the campers have left on the last Sunday.”

“Deal.” Jordan looked like a kid in a candy store and I knew he was picturing Hannah half-naked in his lap. I was pretty certain he’d have her completely naked and in his lap well before that point, though.

“When we win,” I drawled with a taunting smile. “You boys will be forced to wear a pair of our underwear from morning bell to lights out. We pick what pair and we reserve the right to confirm they’re in place multiple times throughout the day.”

“And it has to be on the last Saturday of camp, forcing you to wear them through activities and the final bonfire,” Hannah interjected and I nodded in agreement.

“Seriously?” Drew looked surprised and I just smirked at him without replying. Hannah and I watched as the guys exchanged a look and Jordan finally focused his attention back on us.

“Okay. We accept with one condition. Even though you won’t win, you need to order a larger pair of the intended underwear to have on hand so it fits around our waists.”

“But feel free to wear it first,” Drew added on with a grin, causing me to roll my eyes.

“Deal.”

All four of us shook on it just as Howard called attention to end of week fire. He praised the campers for having such a great week and reiterated a lot of rules that seemed to be forgotten or toed more often than others.

The four of us stood in the back silently during the announcements and then split up once the sing-a-longs began to assist campers with their snacks. The younger cabins needed the most help assembling s’mores and it was about twenty minutes later before Hannah and I could stuff our faces with our own gooey goodness.

“You should ask Jordan out,” I told my friend as we stood at the back, licking melted marshmallows off of our fingers. Her eyes flickered to where Jordan was helping a younger camper and then met mine.

“I don’t know. What if he rejects me? That’s seven more weeks of humiliation I’d have to deal with in the meantime.”

I rolled my eyes and cracked open a bottle of water. “He won’t reject you, Han. The chemistry between to the two of you is so thick that it’s practically combustible.”

“Yeah?” She reached out to steal my water from me. “So is yours and Drew’s but that doesn’t mean you two are going to do anything about it, are you?”

I cringed slightly and took my bottle back once she’d drained half of it. “Comparing two people who have chemistry and actually like each other to two people who have chemistry and live to make each other miserable isn’t really hard evidence.”

“There’s a fine line between love and hate, Shay.” She arched her brows, daring me to say more, and I was really thankful when Howard chose that time to dismiss the campers.

We counted all ten of our girls and led them back to the cabin so everyone could shower the smoke off of them. I hung out in the main area of the cabin while Hannah showered, too, and spent my time chatting with the girls.

All of our campers were at an awkward time in their lives. Since they would be starting ninth grade at the end of the summer, most of them were heading to the high school for the first time and would be at the bottom of the food chain. They were at a point where they were no longer kids but not quite adults. Hormones ran rampant, curiosity emanated from each of them, and I had spent the past week fielding questions about young adulthood. It wasn’t until that night that someone brought up sex.

“How old were you when you lost your virginity, Shaylee?”

I had been sitting on the floor playing Uno with Maria and Robbie when September had asked. I looked up from my cards and raised my eyebrows. “What makes you think I’m not still a virgin?”

Some of the girls laughed while a couple of them rolled their eyes. It was Robbie who answered, though.

“You’re not a virgin. Come on.”

“She could be,” Jenny replied in my defense. “And there wouldn’t be anything wrong with that.”

“Exactly.” I flashed Jenny a smile before playing a red three. I tried to remember back to whether or not these questions were posed to my counselors when I was a camper. “I’m not sure that this is a conversation we should be having. I will tell you that I feel like fourteen and fifteen is far too young, guys. Don’t feel like you need to rush it.”

Hannah had joined us somewhere during my speech and she nodded her head in agreement. “Listen to Shay’s wise words, ladies.”

I helped clean up the game we’d been playing and the two of us stood back while the girls got into bed. As soon as they were ready, we turned off the lights and headed into our room. I blew out a breath as soon as the door was closed.

“That was awkward as hell.”

Hannah laughed and grabbed the journal she wrote in every night while I changed into my running clothes. “You handled it better than I would have.”

“They’re like sharks,” I grumbled, tying my hair up into a ponytail. “I don’t think they will give up now that they’ve smelled blood.”

I waved to Hannah and stepped out of the cabin. The night air was cool and muggy, something I was still adjusting to. I figured that I’d be used to running in the humidity just in time to head back home to the dry desert heat.

Drew hadn’t joined me since he’d run next to me the weekend before but I hadn’t figured that he would. A couple of nights before, however, my eyes had caught his as I ran by the staff lounge one night. He had just smiled and kept his gaze trained on me until I passed by him.

My lap around the lake was made solo and the only person I saw was a security guard that I knew was named Paul. He waved to me as I ran by and I returned it with a smile. It wasn’t until I made it to the Holcomb’s house that I saw anyone else.

Two figures were down by the lake’s edge, lying on the sand. The way their bodies were entwined, they were either having a heavy make-out session or doing even more. I didn’t bother to stop and find out and they were both so lost in their own activity that they didn’t hear me running on the path.

I had gone about fifteen feet past them when I heard a throaty, female moan. It was followed by a “Yes. God, don’t stop!”

My steps faltered when I realized that the person calling out in pleasure was Christy. I caught myself when I tripped over my own feet and forced my legs to keep moving. I didn’t want to hear anything else that Christy and Drew might be doing.

The fact that my stomach hurt at the thought of the two of them together on the beach pissed me off. I did not like Drew. I did not want to feel any way towards Drew Moore other than indifference. So what if he was messing around with Christy by the lake? That was their prerogative. I would not be jealous.

I wouldn’t.

Forcing my mind to leave those thoughts behind, I started singing the lyrics to an Ed Sheeran song under my breath. Trying to concentrate on the words without music and keep my breathing under control did the trick. Before I knew it, I was back at the camp and dropping down to a walk to cool down.

I was almost to my cabin when I heard someone call my name. I stopped and turned my head towards the voice, squinting in the darkness to try and see the person coming towards me. To my surprise, it was Drew.

He was coming from the direction of the boy’s cabins, not the lake, and he looked completely composed. If he had been on the other side of the lake, he would have had to run a lot faster than me to be in the position he was now. The man in front of me had obviously not been running.

The realization that Drew wasn’t rolling around in the sand with Christy made my slowing heart pick back up. I mentally chastised myself and kept a neutral expression on my face.

“What’s up? Are you stalking me?”

He chuckled with a slight nod before holding out a clipboard for me to take. “Kind of. Hannah told me you went for a run. Here are the Cabin Wars tally sheets. This is your first summer keeping track of points, right?”

“Yeah.” I nodded and forced my eyes from his so I could look at the paper in front of me. “What happens if our point sheet doesn’t match yours?”

“We’ll reconcile them at the end of each week with one alternate from the male side and one from the female. Mike and Joanne will be out tally keepers this year. Just write down what you achieved throughout the week and we’ll meet with the other two on Sundays to have point values assigned. Pranks can earn anywhere from one to five points depending on cleverness and people affected. Our tally keepers will help us assign values to them.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

He flashed me a smile that sent an unwelcome flutter through my stomach. “Night, Shay.”

I watched him walk back towards the boy’s cabins, the darkness swallowing him while I stood there.

I could admit that I was attracted to Drew. He was a really good looking guy. When he wasn’t being a total jackass or acting like an immature co-ed, he was actually really decent. That didn’t mean anything, though. He and I didn’t mesh well as it was. Besides, he had a girlfriend.

A girlfriend that was hanging out on the beach with someone else, my subconscious subtly reminded me as I continued walking towards my cabin.

By the time I was showering off my run, I’d decided that it might not have been Christy I heard, just someone that sounded similar to her. I needed to push all thoughts of Drew Moore out of my mind. Completely.

 

Our second week was even better than the first. We’d really fallen into a great pattern with the girls and were learning their different personalities and quirks quickly. Cate was our people pleaser. Lizzy our dreamer. September and Thalia were both boy crazy and going to give us grey hair before the summer was over. Jenny was shyer than the others and Nicole was a daredevil. The other four all had something that made them unique and I was really proud to be their counselor.

On Thursday afternoon, I had to run back to the cabin after dinner to change my shorts. Robbie had been talking animatedly with her hands and her lemonade had ended up in my lap. I made it to the field at the edge of camp just as our nature lesson with Cabins Fourteen and Sixteen was beginning.

I went to stand with Hannah, who was with the other counselors. Tammi and Joanne were covering Cabin Fourteen for the night so I immediately hugged them both and took a seat on the grass next to Hannah.

The wildlife expert was going over the different edible plants in the area when I noticed the sour look on Han’s face. I nudged her with my elbow and furrowed my brow.

“What’s wrong?”

She sighed and shook her head. “So, I was going to ask Jordan about tomorrow night at dinner, right?”

I nodded. She had finally built up the courage to ask him out and I knew she’d been nervous.

“Well, before I could talk to him, Alison from Cabin Ten told me that Jordan had asked Angie out tomorrow.”

“Angie?” My jaw dropped open and I shook my head quickly. Angie and Alison shared the same cabin. “Setting aside the fact that Jordan obviously likes you, she doesn’t even have tomorrow off. Why would he ask her that?”

Hannah shrugged her shoulders and I could see the defeat on her beautiful face. “I don’t even care. Whatever. It’s not like I need some summer fling anyway.”

Joanne leaned into Hannah at the same time I did and none of us said anything else as we watched the presentation. We didn’t speak again until the end, when the girls were squealing about eating the dandelions that were being handed to them. It was Hannah who broke our silence.

“I’m getting so drunk tomorrow.”

I groaned, causing Tammi to laugh quietly. She peered past Joanne so she could meet my eyes. “Just get drunk, too, Shay. You won’t have to hold anyone’s hair if you’re too busy worrying about your own.

“Oh, you definitely need to.” Hannah turned her hazel eyes on me. “I’ll pay for the room if you’ll drink, too.”

I watched Nicole take another mouthful of dandelion with a grin and chuckled before looking back at my friends. “Deal. Let’s do it.”