Breathe

The Camp By the Quarry

Mel awoke to a near blinding light, which opening her eyes didn't help her either, since she closed them again and groan. She felt the RV moving, the terrain not as smooth as the highway, and judging by the sound, it was gravel and loose pebbles. She sat up, glaring through the pain that had settled behind her eye sockets. Cynthia saw her sit up and turned in her chair to smile brightly, ignoring her daughter's narrowed eyes.

"Good morning darling, you sleep well?," Cynthia chirped. The more Mel's eyes adjusted to the light, the more of the scenery became visible. They were driving up a mountain, behind the other RV from the night before. Mel looked back at her mother, locking in at the growing dark circles and blotchy marks on her cheeks.

"I slept fine. Obviously you didn't. Where the hell are we?," Mel groaned again, running a hand through the tangles in her hair that had accumulated over night.

"There's a clearing a ways up. The man I was talking to last night suggested we tag along in this caravan. We've been driving the majority of the night," Allen spoke from the drivers seat, looking at his daughter through the rear view mirror. She nodded, still disoriented from her awakening.

Mel leaned back, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and yawning loudly, before sighing and pulling back out her copy of Sophie's Choice and dove back to where she stopped the evening before.

Minutes passed until the RV wasn't going in an incline and straitened out. Mel looked up at the sudden change to see that they had in fact reached a rather large clearing. Allen parked the RV behind the other and smiled into the rear view mirror to himself. Cynthia stood up, stretching as she did so, and walked towards the door, opening it and jumping out. Allen stood up as well, getting ready to follow after his wife, stopping when he saw his daughter not even making the attempt to stand up.

"You okay Mel? Usually you're the first one out of this old thing," Allen said, causing Mel to break her attention from the group of people congregating in the center. She bit down on her lip before nodding slowly. Allen was the only one who had ever taken notice of his child's reluctance to join large groups of people. She had nothing wrong with her, anxiety wise, but she never liked groups. Even in school, she tended to stay in the library and be alone than have a huge groups of friends. Cynthia had tried to shove her daughter into the social life that she herself lived for at the expensive club house they were members of, but that had made Mel dislike gatherings even more. "Well, come on then, I'll be right next to you the whole time,"Allen smiled softly, holding his arm out. He seemed to have always been the one who saw the shyer side of Mel. The side that wasn't the confident front which made her ten feet tall and bulletproof.

Mel smiled back, reluctantly, but stood up and grasped his arm. They walked out of the RV, side by side and joined Cynthia, who waited to the side. She smiled gently and patted her daughters back, before leading them to the back of the group. The only thing Mel heard over the blood rushing from her head was people small introductions and waiting for another family to join the group. Mel looked through the group and paused when she saw the man from the night before, Shane, and the woman and child standing near him. 'His family?', Mel thought to herself. She continued to look around, locking gazes with a few before moving on. She saw the other woman, standing with a young girl and a tall fat man, who stood a few feet behind her. She stopped on two men who stood several feet back, almost out of place. She didn't feel like getting caught staring so she continued her gazing. 'What a diverse group of people," She thought suddenly, looking from an Asian man to a couple black people, and the family that finally joined being Hispanic, however, the majority of the group was white.

"Alright, now that we're all gathered, we should have a little meet and greet and then figure out what we're going to do for the time being till this is all fixed up," Shane spoke, stepping into the center. His voice held authority, and his body language matched.