Sparks Fly

Chapter Three

Natalie

Over the next few days, Natalie fell into a routine: wake up, get ready, eat breakfast, clean up while avoiding the neanderthal she shared that punishment with, morning activity, lunch, lunch clean up, ignoring the asshole yelling at her to go faster, etc. She had gotten friendlier with her group members- the rumoured drug addict thing had blown over surprisingly quickly. Josh might have even moved past his grudge, judging by his presence behind her in the lunch line.

"I'm assuming you're eating." He said quietly, his voice missing all of its usual humour. "I really don't want to tell your dad that you've passed out. Again."

Okay, so he definitely wasn't over it. She dropped an extra spoonful of the chicken casserole onto her plate. At least, she hoped it was chicken. "I'm eating."

He nudged her and raised his eyebrows at her tray. "Look at all those calories. And you're not even being bribed."

Shit. She knew that he didn't mean anything- or not anything more serious than a light jab- by his comment, but it would probably take her days to stop herself from trying to figure out the calorie content of everything she ate. She had barely managed to force herself to stop speculating what else could be in the casserole when the second half of his comment clicked. "Wait. You're right."

"Um, I am?" His expression switched from smug to worried incredibly fast. "About what?"

"I should be bribed! Thanks." She grabbed her tray and headed to her table as she tried to banish all thoughts of calories from her mind.

"That's not quite my point." He said, but she didn't slow down. It didn't matter what he meant; she might have figured out a way to regain her dad's trust without having to give anything up. Josh making a comment to be an asshole didn't matter anymore.

The next few hours passed in a rush of anticipation until it was finally the campers' free time- the only time they had access to the camp phone. Natalie dialled her dad's number and waited while it rang.

"David Wilson."

As soon as she heard his voice, her nerves kicked into overdrive. Why did she think that she could get away with this? "Hey, Dad."

"Nat!" His voice brightened. "How's camp? Do you need me to come to get you?"

"No. Camp's good- great, actually!" She tried to quench the guilt at her white lie. She planned her next words carefully. "I just wish that Josh had warned me about the food."

He lost all enthusiasm. "What about the food?"

"It's gross." She chewed on a nail. "Even Josh thinks so, and he's practically a human garbage disposal."

Her father was silent on the other end. When he spoke, his voice was filled with worry. "But you're still eating, right?"

"Yes. I told you, I'm committed to getting better. I know I scared you, and I'm sorry. When I said it wouldn't happen again, I meant it. It's just..." She picked at the peeling skin at her cuticles and wished that she had something better to distract her from her less-than-honest intentions and way too true words. "If I make it through the summer without losing weight- you know, without anyone monitoring my eating, and the gross food- I think that I can be trusted to go back to ballet on a trial basis."

He fell silent again, and she resisted the urge to beg. After a long minute, he sighed. "I just don't know, Nat. Dancing put so much pressure on you-"

"I put the pressure on myself." She interrupted. "I'm healthier now, physically and mentally. I could go back to doing weigh-ins if that would make you feel more at ease." Weigh-ins were mortifying, but if it meant getting to dance again, it would be worth it. "Please, Dad."

"Weekly weigh-ins." He decided. "And you need to gain weight while you're at camp. I know that once school starts, we won't be able to tell if you're eating lunch anymore, so you'll have to eat all of your breakfast and dinner at home every day."

Maybe she should just take the deal and be grateful, but she had a feeling that this would come up again if she didn't say anything now. "You know, Dad, most people don't constantly gain weight. I'm at a healthy weight now. If I stay there, it says more about my mental health than gaining weight does."

"That's a very well-researched point." He allowed. "And I'll take it into account later, but if I'm going to trust you to dance again, you need to weigh more than "barely healthy" first."

"Deal." She said before he could change his mind. "Thanks, Dad!"

"Don't thank me. All of this rests on you."

She felt the bulk of his high expectations settle on her. It was almost a reassuring weight after all of the disappointment and worry that she'd been carrying for the last six months. It said a lot. He wasn't treating her as though she'd crack under the smallest amount of pressure anymore. It was a lot easier to keep from screwing up in the first place than it was to recover from her father's disappointment. She would know, after all. She'd managed to keep her streak of not screwing up last almost fifteen years. "I promise I won't let you down again."

"I know, sweetheart. Have fun. I love you."

"Love you too, Dad." She reluctantly hung up and rounded the corner to leave, but she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a familiar face. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for the phone." Luke glanced over to her, his face completely blank.

Her heartbeat sped up. Why, of all people, did it have to be him who needed the phone right after her? "Did you hear anything?"

He didn't answer, just tilted his head slightly and directed his gaze to her right.

"How much?" She asked, already dreading the answer.

He shrugged and looked at her again. "Not much. Listen, I've been meaning to- I'm sorry about the whole rehab thing."

A part of her just wanted to accept the apology and move on, but she couldn't stop the other part from speaking first. "Why? Did eavesdropping make it a little too real for you? Or did you finally realize I was telling the truth about not being in rehab?"

His eyes narrowed, and she mentally berated herself for antagonizing him. Especially now, if he knew the truth. At least drugs were addictive. Starving yourself was the exact opposite for at least 90% of the human race. Even animals were too smart for that.

"I'm apologizing because it was an asshole move, not because I overheard what I'm sure was a thoroughly heartwarming conversation with daddy dearest."

She glared at him. "And this conversation isn't an asshole move?"

"I never said I wasn't an asshole." He defended. "I'm just not that much of an asshole. Besides, I just apologized. You're the one who's being kind of an asshole right now."

She shook her head. She needed to get far away from him before she said or did something that Josh would never forgive her for. She took off from the Mess Hall, and made it all the way back to her cabin before she calmed down enough to realize that she had indeed been the asshole in that conversation- and, more importantly, that she had been this close to having everything solved with Josh, and had rejected it. Crap. She reluctantly turned away from the door of her cabin and dragged herself back to the Mess Hall. Time to see if it was too late to accept Luke's apology, and (ugh) offer her own.

"You don't have to lie, Mom. I can hear him." Luke's voice carried through the empty hall as soon as she opened the door. "I get it- he still doesn't want to talk to me."

Natalie was almost tempted to return the favour and listen in on his conversation, but the last time she had fought fire with fire hadn't ended well. She closed the door a little bit louder than necessary.

Luke leaned around the corner, raised his eyebrows at her, then switched languages to what sounded like Spanish.

A minute later, he walked around the corner towards her. "Back already? Forgot something you wanted to ask daddy dearest for?"

Jesus Christ. Why did he have to make being around him so difficult? "Actually, I wanted to apologize. You were..." She couldn't quite bring herself to fully admit that he was right. "Well, sorry for being the asshole earlier. And for the whole criminal thing. That was wrong, even if you had it coming."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah, great apology. Very meaningful."

"Don't accept it then." She retorted as she started back to the door.

"Fine." He called after her. "I accept your crappy apology."

She turned around. "Okay. So... what now? Are we like friends or something?"

He snorted. "No way."

"I thought as much."

"For the record, I still don't like you." He said. "I just don't hate you enough to lose my best friend over it."

"I'm not exactly your biggest fan either."

"Good." He brushed past her and strode out the door.

She waited a minute before she was sure that he was far enough away that she wouldn't run into him, then left the hall to find a quiet place to draw until dinner.

The fire pit turned out to be a great place to hide out during the day- she had set up half on the bleachers so that she could use the seats as a table, and she got close to an hour of uninterrupted drawing in before she heard a noise behind her. She glanced over to see Josh a few feet away, and Luke hovering around the edges of the bleachers behind him.

"Hey," Josh sat down next to her. "You're going to miss dinner if you aren't careful."

She set her pencil down and lightly drummed her fingers on her thigh to keep from chewing her nails or picking at the worn skin. "Oh, yeah. I must have lost track of time."

He studied her skeptically. "Right. You hungry?"

She sighed and lowered her voice to be sure that Luke wouldn't hear. "Not really, but that's not the right answer, so sure. Starving."

"Sarcasm, huh?" He shook his head slightly and stood up. "Come on, we'll walk you to the Mess Hall since you and Luke can pretend to get along now."

She slipped her book and pencils into her backpack. "Don't you think it's a little soon for that? Give us some time to practice being civil, at least."

Luke strode over the bleachers towards them. "You need to practice? Rookie."

"Hey," She turned to Josh. "I would like to point out that it was your friend who started the name-calling mere hours after calling a truce."

Luke frowned. "You're kidding, right?"

"We're supposed to be nice to each other, for Josh's sake."

"I was being nice, Princess."

"In that case, you definitely need more practice, Criminal."

Luke started to say something, then glanced at Josh and rolled his eyes. "Can we just go to eat now?"

Josh gave them both a pointed, disapproving look. "As long as you chill out. Both of you."

The walk to the hall was almost okay- Luke and Josh fell into an easy conversation that made it clear exactly how long they'd known each other, and she had lagged behind slightly, but when the left the buffet line and Josh's group called him over, the conversation left with him.

"So, uh..." She searched for a non-offensive topic. "This has been some good camp weather, right?"

He half-scoffed, half-laughed. "Don't bother."

"I was just trying to make conversation." She defended.

"Exactly." He turned to face her just before they reached their table. "We need to play nice for Josh. We don't need to be friends or "make conversation" when he's not around."

She bristled at his tone, but the idea of not having to make painful small talk was too tempting for her to be offended. "Sounds good to me."

He flashed her a smirk, then made a beeline for an empty seat at the other end of the table. She set her tray down and started picking at the obscene amount of food on her plate. Josh had been watching her portion sizes annoyingly closely at the buffet, so she had piled on extra food to get him off her back, and now she was really regretting it. She forced herself to take a bite, then another, before she glanced around. Despite the lively conversation surrounding him, Josh was watching her intently. She met his eyes as she deliberately took another bite, and he turned his attention back to his friends. Good.