The Best Of Both: Camp Cretaceous OC

Super Rock Climbing Adventure

The next day, Roxie led us on a small path that stretched away from the camp and continued into the jungle. We weren't taking the Jeep this time. Roxie was being very cryptic about what she was leading us to. The other campers were casually talking to each other. I wanted to join in but I didn't really know how, all the times at dinner or breakfast, it felt a lot easier just because we were kind of busy with our food and there was less talking. Although Kenji, Darius and I had probably bonded over the Carnotaurus chase, we had all agreed to forget about it, so technically, it never happened.

Kenji and Sammy were chatting the most, and also being the loudest. I seriously wondered how he would be able to keep his mouth shut about the Carnotaurus.

I looked behind me, analysing everyone in the group. Now that I was actually looking at them, I realised that not everyone was in on the conversations. Yasmina was trailing behind the group, she had a book and pencil in hand and looked like she was writing, or drawing. She seemed to have her attention in the book but somehow she didn't walk into a tree on her way, how she did that I have no idea. 

I decided to trail back and see if we could talk about what she was drawing. Hey, I seemed to have done pretty well with Darius and Kenji, maybe I could talk with her too. The rest of the group blew past me, as I began walking next to Yasmina, I opened my mouth to speak, but then all of a sudden, my brain shut down. I suddenly remembered that I had never had a proper conversation with this girl the entire time we had been here yet. Not to mention I hadn't spoken a lot to begin with. To her I must be like some random guy who she had never spoken too before who just dropped out of the sky and decided to bother her.

I had no words to say and I was left there like an idiot. What made it worse is that Yasmina looked up from her book and was staring at me weirdly, of course she had every right to. "So-so," I stammered. "What, uh, what are you drawing, or writing?"

She looked at me a little longer, narrowing her eyes at me a little bit. "What's it to you?" She said. I expected her to say as much, but I couldn't just leave, that would be even more awkward.

"Well, you know", I said, scrambling for words, hoping I was saying the right thing. "I'm something of a writer myself, and I just thought it would be cool if we talked about what we liked to write or draw about". That, of course, was a lie, I couldn't draw to save my life and any chance of writing was blown out to the window thanks to my lack of motivaton for anything. but I certainly had idea's, I just...struggled to get them down on paper.

Yasmina's eyes softened for a moment, I thought maybe I had said the right thing but then she must have found some way to twist my words around, because the next thing she says is:

"I'm not writing," she said. "I'm drawing and if you think that somehow makes us like some kind of author and illustrator team, then you're out of your mind! I have no reason to like you and you had no reason to talk to me, I'm not your friend and I don't need you to be!" My eyes widened at the harshness she had been able to summon from nowhere. 

All I had wanted to do was talk to her because I felt a bit lonely. Then I realised the mistake I had made. She probably liked being alone most of the time, which is way she had a smile on her face while she was drawing and then it switched to a frown when I began talking. But how was I to know that? She's a girl, girls are impossible to read. But still she didn't have to come down so hard.

"I-I just...," I stammered, then I simply gave up. It was clear nothing I would try to say would change anything, so I sped up my pace away from her and walked on my own. I continued the walk not talking to anyone.

We emerged into a clearing about a minute later. Before us stood huge stone column, it had small coloured hand holds dotted all around it. At the bottom, there were other employees, they were holding harness and untangling ropes that went from the top to bottom. Today, we were doing rock-climbing.