Day Dreaming (DreamNotFound)

8. Hooked

I woke up with my arms loosely wrapped around my pillow, cuddling it. Sighing, I restored it to its normal position at the head of my sleeping bag and checked the time on my phone. 8:30. Great. I was an hour early.

I tried moving my foot around to see how my ankle felt. Surprisingly, it felt almost normal - just slightly stiff. I could definitely walk on it now. Feeling a little bit better, I pulled my bag towards me and rummaged through it, seeing if anything was interesting I could do. My phone didn't get any cell reception here and the camp Wi-Fi was pitifully weak this far out, so I couldn't do much online.

I searched for a while until I eventually found my sketchbook. It was mostly full of landscapes since I wasn't very good at drawing anything else, but I also had a few sketches of my cat of varying completeness. Smiling, I flipped to a new page.

I pulled out a pencil and placed it against the paper thoughtfully. I went over ideas of what I could draw in my head for a while. Last night's scene kept popping up, so I decided to just do it. A moonlit lake reflecting the starry sky in the woods. Or something like that.

I kept drawing until my two sleeping friends started to stir. Checking my phone, it was about 9:20, meaning I had been drawing for almost an hour. I put away my sketchbook and pencil before grabbing some day clothes out of my bag. Yawning, I crawled out of the tent flap and left towards the bathrooms in the center of the three campsites.

I entered the male side and saw that only one of the stalls was occupied. Respectfully, I took the one farthest from it and began changing. When I finished, the other guy had left, so I just took a good look at myself in the mirror. I looked well-rested, something that I hadn't looked like in the morning for months. 

I washed my hands and left the bathroom, returning to the tent. Clay and Nick were both up, though the latter looked like he would rather still be asleep.

Clay looked up at me. "There you are, George. We were wondering where you were."

"I just went out to change. It's almost time for breakfast." I put away my pajamas and zipped up my bag.

"Why are you always the one who wakes up first?" Nick groaned, reaching for his bag lazily.

I shrugged. "I guess I'm just a morning person."

"Never took you like one," Clay chuckled, holding his clothes over his arm. "Anyway, I'm gonna go change. Meet you guys there." 

Clay and I left out the tent flap, Nick staying behind to change. I kept in the same direction to go to the camp building, but Clay split off, heading towards the bathrooms. 

When I arrived, Bad's trio was already at our usual table, eating their breakfast. I grabbed a plate and filled it with food, taking mostly eggs and waffles, and sat down across from Bad, whose mouth was full of bacon.

"Good morning!" he greeted, swallowing. "How are you?"

"I'm good." I started shoveling down scrambled eggs. 

He smiled politely. "That's good." 

We talked a little bit more until Clay and Nick showed up, about 5 minutes late. They were far from last, but the teachers got extra pissed at the kids who didn't finish eating by the time announcements were made yesterday, so it seemed best to be punctual. 

"I still don't get why they make us get up this early," Nick sighed, sitting down with his plate.

"Don't you get up earlier than this for school normally, though?" I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

"Not by myself," he said defensively.

"Well, that's why George is here," Clay giggled. I blushed slightly.