Sparks Fly

Chapter One

Natalie

Natalie stared out the window of her father's car at the huge log cabin. Josh, her soon-to-be stepbrother knocked on the other side of the glass and gestured for her to hurry up. She frowned and moved her gaze to the back of the headrest in front of her. How, exactly, had she let herself get talked into this?

Her father glanced back from the driver's seat. "Are you sure you want to do this? It's not too late to change your mind if you need to be at home."

Right. That was how. She had been determined to prove to her father- and herself- that she was better. "Yes, Dad. I'll be fine. It's only for six weeks. Besides, Josh said that a bunch of kids from his school come here. It'll be good for me to meet people."

He nodded and turned back around. "I bet you'll love it here. It's a beautiful camp. Did you notice the mountains? And the forest? You'll have so much to draw."

"Yeah." She tried to force enthusiasm into her voice. She took a deep breath and climbed out of the car.

"Finally!" Josh was practically bouncing. "Mom wouldn't let me get my cabin assignment until you were ready. Come on!"

"Josh, slow down," Emily said. "We haven't even gotten the bags out of the car yet."

"Why don't you and David do that while we go find out our cabins? He suggested. "Please, Mom? I need to meet my roommates- get a jumpstart to that friendship and bonding and whatever, right?"

Emily laughed and waved them off. Natalie followed Josh over to the crowd surrounding the counselors. Josh was only a few months younger than her, but those months may as well be years sometimes.

Josh glanced over at her as they joined the line. "Not going to lie, I'm actually shocked that you're still here. For a minute there, I thought you'd refuse to get out of the car."

"I was thinking about it." She admitted.

He let out a short laugh. "Sounds about right. Don't bail yet, though. At least give it a chance."

"I am." She replied. "That'd be why I haven't bailed yet."

They reached the front of the line before the conversation continued.

They gave the counselor their names in return for their cabin assignments and counselors- Bryan and Mike for Josh, and Rose and Lea for Natalie.

"I don't know a counselor Lea- she must be new," Josh mentioned as they headed back to the car. "But Rose has been here a few years. Be careful- she can be a hardass."

"Just my luck."

"Ugh."

She followed his gaze to find her father and Emily gazing into each other's eyes over the trunk of the car. As always, she felt like she was intruding on a private moment between the two of them, despite the dozens of families surrounding them. Aside from a few months last year when her mother had paid an extended visit from Toronto, and occasional holiday and weekend visits, it had just been Natalie and her dad for over a decade. Now it felt weird having anyone else in the picture, even if it was someone as great as Emily. She glanced back at Josh. "Upside of spending the summer here."

"Tell me about it." He said, a little louder than necessary.

Their parents jumped at the sound of his voice. "Oh, you're back." Her father said, looking slightly embarrassed. "What's the verdict?"

"Maple Cabin." She answered.

"Elm," Josh told his mother before she could ask.

Natalie's dad lifted the bigger of her bags and glanced around. "Alright, Josh, you're the expert here. Point me in the right direction."

"Girls' cabins are to the right of the Mess Hall." He directed as he grabbed his own bags. "Guys' are one the left."

Their parents exchanged looks. "Meet back here in twenty?" Emily suggested.

"Sounds good."

As she and her father set off towards the girls' cabins, he began speaking again. "Nat, are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? After everything last year... six weeks away just seems like a lot for you to handle."

"And I can handle it." She said firmly. "That was months ago, Dad. I'm doing better now- even Casey said that this was a good idea, remember?" She hoped that the reminder of her therapist's approval would ease his worries a little. She didn't need to give him any reason to worry about her. Besides, she could handle this.

"You sure?" He asked as they reached Maple Cabin. "I don't want to push you, or make you feel like you need to push yourself."

"You're not." She replied. "Don't worry. I'll do great here. Promise." She swung open the door and took in the narrow cabin. There were three sets of bunk beds against each of the two side walls, a door against the far wall, and another door in between bunks on the side wall.

"Well, if you insist." He agreed reluctantly. "Where do you want your bag?"

She led the way into the cabin. About half of the bunks had already been claimed. She decided on the empty bottom bunk in the back corner. Her father followed and dropped her duffel bag on the bed.

The door against the back wall swung open, revealing two older girls, one blonde and one brunette. "Hello!" The blonde greeted them. "I'm Lea, and this is Rose. We'll be your counselors this summer. You have about half an hour before everyone is meeting in the Mess Hall, but some of the girls were heading there early."

"It's a good way to meet people," Rose added, barely glancing up from her clipboard. "Can I get your name before you go?"

"Natalie Wilson."

"Wilson, Wilson... There you are! Great!"

"Have a blast meeting everyone! We'll see you back here after the Welcome Speech!" Lea chimed in.

"Thanks." Natalie left the cabin as quickly as she could. Their enthusiasm was actually intimidating.

The walk back to the parking lot was mostly quiet. Occasionally Natalie would try to further convince her dad- or herself- by pointing out something that she liked, or that could be fun, but, frankly, there wasn't much. Emily and Josh had beat them back, and Josh had already left to see a friend from home. Never mind that he lived half an hour away, and most of the campers their age were probably his "friends from home". Without him, it took the lovebirds all of five seconds to forget that she was there and start whispering to each other.

To distract herself, Natalie scanned around the rest of the campers and their families. It didn't take long to spot Josh- he was talking to the most conspicuous looking guy there. While most of the campers were in some combination of tee-shirts, tank tops, jeans, and/or shorts, he had to be sweltering in a leather jacket. Just looking at him made the late June day feel even warmer, and she felt incredibly grateful for her light sundress. She considered going over to join their conversation- almost anything was better than being the third wheel for her father- but before she decided, the speaker crackled to life. "All campers, please gather at the Mess Hall in five minutes."

That was all it took to remind her father and Emily that they weren't here on a date and start fussing over Natalie. A minute later, Josh rejoined them, and that was enough to distract Emily.

"Was that Luke you were talking to just now?" She asked. "How's he doing?"

"He's fine. He just got back yesterday."

Back from where? Natalie wondered, but they had already moved on from the topic.

"Have fun, you two," Emily said as she squeezed Natalie into a hug. She moved onto Josh. "And be good."

"Sure, Mom."

Natalie's dad hugged her gently. "Bye, Nat. If you change your mind at any time, just say the word. I can be back to get you in half an hour."

She was so tempted to cave in right then and there. She could- she knew that. She could go home with her dad and Emily and stay in her comfort zone. It would be so much easier than attempting to make it through this. She almost gave in to the familiar option when she noticed Josh watching her from over Emily's head. He looked... disappointed. Already. Like he already knew that she wasn't actually going to go through with this. She tried to straighten her shoulders. "Thanks, Dad. I'll keep that in mind."

"I'll see you in August for Parents' Weekend," He promised. "I love you, kiddo."

"Love you too."

Josh tapped her shoulder as he walked past. "The tour guide is going to the Mess Hall now. Hurry it up."

Her father laughed and pulled Josh into a half-handshake, half-hug thing. "Have a great summer, Josh."

"Thanks, David. I will." Josh said, then continued on his way to the Mess Hall. Once Natalie caught up to him, he glanced over at her. "You're really committed to giving this a chance, huh? I'm impressed."

"Um, thanks? By the way, what's the deal with your friend? The one who "just got back" or something?"

"Luke." He said. "He was away at military school for the last semester."

"Military school? People still send their kids there?"

He snorted. "Apparently. It's... complicated." He paused for a second, then sighed. "He'll kill me if he finds out I told you this, but before military school, he was in juvie. It's not as bad as it sounds. He's a great guy, he just-"

"He's a juvenile delinquent."

Josh had an extremely powerful side-eye. "He's a person. People make mistakes. Sometimes they have parts of their past- even their recent past- that they aren't particularly proud of. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

He'd got her. "Fine. I get it. Dialling back the judgment."

"Good."

He led her through the Mess Hall to one of the long, wooden tables. It only took a few minutes for the table to completely fill up with his friends. He gestured around lazily. "Guys, this is Natalie. Natalie, the guys. Oh, and Lucy."

The only other girl nearby, a pretty Latina, waved. "I'm actually just here to say hi. I'm meeting up with Kayla and Rylee in a minute."

Someone groaned behind Natalie and she glanced back to see Josh's delinquent friend.

"Chill, bro," Lucy said easily, smile still in place. "I can like people you don't."

Luke didn't reply to that and instead sandwiched himself onto the bench between Natalie and Josh. He looked at her. "Who are you again?"

"Dude," Josh said before she could answer. "That's Natalie. I told you about her."

"Right. The future stepsister." He nodded, then turned his attention to Josh.

"Hello, everyone!" One of the adults at the front yelled into his megaphone. "Welcome to Camp Great Oaks! I'm Mr. Simmons, the camp director. Next to me are all of your counselors for the summer. Now, I'm sure you're all very eager to get to your cabins, but first, we need to go over a couple of camp rules."

Almost everyone in the building groaned.

"I know, I know," Simmons said. "I'll make this quick. No leaving your cabins after lights out, no going off in the woods alone or without permission. Your bunks are expected to be kept tidy, and there will be weekly inspections to make sure that they're up to par. Your counselors will go over everything else when you meet in your cabins. Gather back here in one hour for dinner."

"That's it?" Natalie asked as everyone started to stand up. "That was only thirty seconds."

"Short and sweet," Josh confirmed. "They really should merge it with dinner or the campfire, but they don't want to risk anyone getting killed by a bear before then."

"That actually seems reasonable."

Luke scoffed. "Yeah, because we're all stupid enough to wander into a bear's den without that warning."

She raised her eyebrows at Josh, then turned to Luke. "What's your problem?"

"You." He replied bluntly. "Now why don't you do what you were told, and run along to your cabin?"

"Why don't you commit another crime so you get sent back to juvie?" She retorted before she thought better of it.

His smirk faltered, and his expression almost looked dangerous before he recovered. "That's not a bad idea. As shitty as juvie is, the people, well... they're a million times better than judgmental idiots like you."

He barely managed to finish his insult before he stormed off.

"Thanks, sis." Josh hissed before he hurried after him.

Excellent. She reflected as she started walking back to her cabin. Not even twenty minutes in, and she'd already pissed off the only two people she'd spoken to. She was off to a great start. She sped up- the last thing she needed was to further alienate herself by missing the cabin time or something. At least there were still other campers around, so she wasn't the last one.

Her relief was short-lived. As soon as she walked into the cabin, everyone turned to look at her. Apparently, for her cabin, she was the last one. Crap.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Grab a seat on your bunk, Natalie. We were just about to start going through camp rules."

The girls all stayed silent while she walked through the cabin. Lucy offered a smile from the bed next to her.

Rose waited until Natalie was seated to continue. "Now that you're in the oldest age group, you get a lot of freedom during the day, but we need you to follow the basic safety rules. Don't go out for a hike alone and definitely don't go without letting anyone know. Don't leave your cabin after lights out. Don't go out swimming without a lifeguard, and if you get in a boat, wear a lifejacket. Got it?"

Everyone nodded or murmured assent. Lea took over speaking. "The usual schedule has breakfast at nine, morning activities with your groups from ten to noon, an hour for lunch, afternoon activities of your choice- there's archery, arts and crafts, swimming, rock climbing, hiking, canoeing, and sports. That runs until three, then it's cabin clean up for half an hour, and free time until dinner at five. After dinner, there are group activities again. After that, there's the evening snack before cabin time at ten and lights out at eleven. Once a week, we have a campfire to end the day. Any questions?"

"Okay, so let's go around the cabin and introduce ourselves. Just say your name, how long you've been coming to camp, and something about yourself." Rose said after a long pause without questions. "I'm Rose, and this is my third year as a counselor here. I'm in college for journalism, and I'm pumped to be your counselor this year."

"I'm Lea." She said. "This is my first year as a counselor, and I'm a huge sports fan. And I'm so excited to get to know all of you this summer."

Lea gestured toward Natalie's bunk, and the girl above her spoke up immediately. "I'm Kayla, and this is my third year. I love swimming and canoeing."

"You love the lifeguard." The girl next to her corrected and the cabin burst into giggles.

As the laughter faded, Natalie picked at a hangnail. "I'm Natalie. This is my first summer here, and I love drawing."

By the time the rest of the girls in the cabin introduced themselves (Rylee, Lucy, Audrey, Bailey, Nicole, Lena, Jane, Katie, Sara, and Hannah), Natalie felt very new and very unprepared. With the exception of Bailey and Hannah, all of them had been coming to this camp for at least three years- some even four. Even Bailey and Hannah had two summers here, and the counselors had spent years as campers first. So, not only was Natalie the only new girl there, there wasn't even anyone else who was still new enough to relate.

Rose and Lea let them use the last half hour of "cabin bonding" to unpack. The side door in the cabin turned out to lead to a bathroom/locker room hybrid. A dozen fifteen and sixteen-year-old girls in one small room turned out to be just as loud and chaotic as Natalie expected. She just focused on getting her clothes put away with as few wrinkles as possible. She was halfway done by the time any of the other girls paid attention to her.

"Natalie, right?" Lucy crouched down next to her. "You're Josh's mom's fiance's daughter?"

"That's the long version, but yeah." She replied. "Are you a friend of Josh's?"

"I guess, by extension, I am. He's been best friends with my brother since birth, so he's basically a second brother. Like one wasn't enough." She rolled her eyes, but her smile didn't falter. "You've probably already met Luke, haven't you?"

Crap. Natalie tried to keep her voice neutral. "Yeah, we met at the welcome speech."

"Oh no." Lucy's smile dropped. "He was a jerk, wasn't he?"

"No- not really." She lied.

"I know that look. What did he do? No, never mind. I don't want to know." She sighed, then smoothed a smile back on. "Anyway, are you moving in with Josh and his mom? They live right across the street from us."

Great. Just great. "Yeah, my dad and Emily are doing all of the moving this summer."

"Oh, so you get to hang out here instead? That's awesome!"

"Yeah!" She tried to match Lucy's enthusiasm, but even she could tell that she wasn't even close.

"Luce," Rylee called. "Come here for a sec."

Lucy shot her an apologetic glance and headed across the room to Rylee. They whispered, but their frequent glances over to Natalie- Rylee's distrustful, Lucy's guilty- made it clear that they were talking about her. She tried to ignore it in favour of finishing unpacking.

She was the first of the girls to finish- probably because she didn't have anyone to talk to after Lucy got called away- and she made her bed in the main room, and pulled her sketchbook out from her backpack to work on a drawing she'd started last week.

She'd barely noticed the other girls drift in. In fact, she barely noticed anything until a bell rang across the camp.

"That's the dinner bell!" Rose explained. "Let's walk down together. Usually, we have breakfast as a cabin, and lunch and dinner with our activity groups, but since it's the first day, you can sit with whoever you'd like."

As they filed down to the Mess Hall, Natalie found herself wishing that there was assigned seating. At least then she'd have someone to sit with. Right now things were not looking good in the friend department. Or any department, really. If she had a little less pride, she would sneak off to call her dad and ask him to come get her. But there was no way she could give up this early- not right after she had convinced him that she could handle this.

When she entered the Mess Hall, she scanned the room for someone who at least looked mildly friendly. At this point, she would settle for not-unfriendly. Instead, she saw Josh waving her over wildly. Okay, she knew that he wasn't much for holding grudges, but it had only been an hour. Who got over anything that quickly?

When she sat down next to him, she was still half-expecting him to be at least annoyed, but he just grinned at her. "We good?"

"Um. Sure." She replied.

"Sweet." He immediately turned his attention back to the guy on his other side, and Natalie noticed that she had sat directly across from Luke. Who, apparently, did not get over things as quickly as Josh, judging by the glare he was sending her. Excellent.

"Haven't you made any friends of your own?" He asked, with more than a trace of hostility.

"Why do you care?"

"So that's a no." He rolled his eyes. "Are you planning on following Josh around like a pathetic little puppy all summer, or will you give up after a couple of weeks?"

She clenched her jaw at the dig. "You seem really focused on my life. Have I made friends, am I planning on doing this or that... I don't really see how it's any of your business."

"It's my business if I'm forced to hang out with you all summer just because Emily's marrying your dad."

Before she could say anything in response, Josh turned his attention towards them. "Play nice you two."

"Hey, I did nothing wrong." She protested. "It's your friend here who's rolling out the unwelcome wagon."

Luke scoffed. "Oh, come on-"

"Both of you. Cut it out." Josh sounded uncharacteristically stern.

Mr. Simmons stood up at the front of the hall. "Hello, campers! After dinner, we'll meet at the campfire pit to sort you into your activity groups. Be there by seven sharp. And now, let's eat!"

"Great," Josh muttered as everyone rose. "I forgot to warn you: the food here is almost bad enough to make you quit eating- again."

She jabbed her elbow into his ribs. "Shut up."

"Chill. Nobody heard me."

She ignored him and stalked over to the line. She heard him follow her but didn't turn around to check.

"I'm sorry, okay? Besides, nobody else could have heard me, even if they were listening."

She still didn't turn around to face him. "Doesn't matter. You still said it."

"I also said sorry. Doesn't that matter?"

"Not right now, no. I don't want your apologies."

He sighed. "Fine. If you want to be mad so badly, go ahead and stay mad. By the way, nice job with Luke. Well, other than the juvie comment."

She groaned.

"No, seriously. He was being a jerk and you weren't afraid to call him on it. He'll appreciate that once he gets over everything."

She spun around to face him. "I don't really care what he thinks of me. He's such an-"

"Language." Josh raised his eyebrows. "Listen, I know he hasn't exactly made the best first impression, but he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet."

She snorted. "God, I hope not."

"Once he's comfortable with you." He amended. "He's really defensive right now."

"Because that's promising." She muttered as she grabbed a tray. The food looked absolutely revolting and somehow smelled even worse.

"Welcome to Camp Great Oaks," Josh mumbled as he took his own tray.

"Some welcome." She grabbed a wilted salad, the added the smallest possible scoop of a casserole-like thing and a bowl of watery Jell-O to her tray. She had moved onto the beverage table and was pouring a glass of water when Josh cleared his throat and sent a pointed look to her tray. She sighed and set her water onto it. "What?"

"That's all you're eating?"

"Don't tell me you actually want to eat any of this."

"Of course not. But it's what you get for the next month and a half. You might want to try to get used to it."

"Pass." She started walking back to the table, but he blocked her way.

"Seriously," He said. "Your dad asked me to make sure that you were eating more than just enough to keep you alive."

Of course. Of freaking course, he didn't actually trust her. He'd just gotten Josh- the world's least sneaky spy- to spy for him. She narrowed her eyes. "If he's worried about my eating habits, he can talk to me about it. You have nothing to do with it."

Before he could reply, she sidestepped around him and stormed back to the table. Her tray landed with more force than she'd intended, and her water sloshed over the sides of the glass. She cursed quietly as she grabbed her napkin to wipe it up.

"Throwing a temper tantrum?" Luke commented without looking at her. "Good to see some brats never grow out of it."

"I have no interest in hearing your judgment."

Josh joined them. "Settle down, both of you. Man, for two people so much alike, you sure are at each other's throats."

"Alike?" Natalie repeated incredulously while Luke scoffed.

"Yeah, alike. If you'd stop sniping at each other, you'd be able to see it."

"We're nothing alike." Luke snapped.

"Sniping at each other?" Natalie said at the same time. "I've been perfectly civil."

"Right," Josh replied. "You're both equally frustrating, stubborn, and temperamental. And you have very similar death glares. I would know since you're both directing them at me right now. Practically identical."

"Sure, jackass. I'm nothing like her." Luke snarled.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, you need me to spell it out for you?" He challenged. "Fine. Being compared to you is the worst insult I've ever-"

"Luke." Josh's voice was sharper than Natalie had ever heard it. "Stop it."

"What?" He sneered. "Did I hurt Princess' feelings?"

"Of course not." She stood up and gathered her tray. "I'd have to care about your opinion for it to bother me."

Josh caught up to her while she was scraping her untouched food into the trash and sorting her dirty dishes into the right bins. "Sorry about Luke. If it's any consolation, it's not personal."

"Really?" She couldn't stop a sarcastic laugh from bubbling up. "It sounded pretty damn personal to me."

"I know. But it's not. He knows that I told you about the juvie thing, so he's pissed at me. He's just taking it out on you because he doesn't know you yet, and you know stuff about him that he doesn't want anyone to."

"Don't make excuses for him."

"Fine. Speaking of excuses, what's yours for not eating?"

She lifted her water to him in a toast, then chugged it instead of answering.

"Great." He replied. "Solid excuse, right there. I'll be sure to pass it on."

"Tell me," she said casually. "Are you at least getting paid to spend time with me and report to my father, or is it volunteer work?"

He looked stunned. "What? No, it's not like that-"

"Save it." She returned her tray to the pile and rushed out of the hall.