You're Already Mine

Chapter Fourteen

I sleepily trot down the stairs, Clover and our bags in tow. After the fireworks were over last night, Clover spent the rest of the night with me.

"Good morning, sleepyheads," Dad says, fixing up waffles. I can see the dark circles under his eyes and his hair is all wiry. He only gets a couple of tired grunts in response. Lucas is already in the living room and our other cousins are meeting us at the bus stop.

After breakfast, Dad drives us to the bus stop, where the shuttles are already waiting. It's still dark outside and there are at least fifty other teenagers waiting around.

"The front shuttle leaves in half an hour, which should be enough time for everyone to get aboard," he says, and everyone nods. I stand next to Clover. Our eyes meet and we smile at each other.

"You okay?" I whisper.

She nods.

"I'll let you sit next to me on the shuttle. How does that sound?"

"Okay," she says softly.

"Hey!" a young man shouts from the front shuttle. He gets out and jogs toward the middle bus, where the crowd is gathered. "I'm Mr. Parker, the lead counselor at North Coast. I'll be sorting you into shuttles today."

Whispers ripple throughout the crowd.

"Settle down, please," Mr. Parker calls, and everyone is suddenly quiet. He clears his throat. "Right. In the blue shuttle: Cameron and Lucas Peterson. Clover Hitchens. Kylie Hulls. Tyson and Jason Whitlock. Cheyenne Madden. Alyssa and Phoebe Hendrix."

We rush to the blue shuttle, and the woman there opens the door for us. The seats are booths, so you can talk to people on the ride. I can hear Mr. Parker faintly calling out names for the green shuttle: "Kai and Pearl Adler. Delta and Amphitrite Irving.."

The ride to North Coast Camp is relatively mundane. Chatter erupts everywhere on the shuttle as we enter the road and people get to know each other. About an hour later, we're turning down a gravel road that stretches for three miles until we arrive at the summer camp. Campers cheer when they see the buildings and stalls, and the shuttles finally park in a big gravel opening. It's still dark outside as everyone gets out of their assigned shuttles. Counselors assign campers to cabins, and then everyone is rushing to get to the log houses.

I'm sharing a cabin with the same people I rode in the shuttle with. As we walk in the front door, my cabinmates spread out and get to choosing rooms. The cabin is huge; the ground floor has an open-plan living room with a couch corner and fireplace off to the right, the staircase starting on the left and going to the back of the house, leading up to a balcony/hallway with the bedrooms.

I take a few steps forward. At the back is a kitchen and another hallway leading to the bathroom, utility room, and another bedroom.

"The rooms have two bunk beds each," Lucas announces, going in and out of each of the upstairs bedrooms. "There are two bedrooms up here and a master bedroom on the ground floor." He leans over the balcony, shouting to our cabin mates. "This is amazing!"

A knock on the door startles me out of my thoughts, and it's one of the camp counselors, Ms. Kendra.

"Hello," she says in her musical voice. "I'll be the counselor staying at Cabin Four."

The rest of us shyly say hello.

"I'll stay in the master bedroom. Have you all chosen your rooms?"

I look at my cabin mates, who all shake their heads. "No," I say.