A/N: Short but just a fill in. Thanks everyone for all the reads, comments and votes.
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Chapter 41
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I couldn't believe the generosity of some people. There are people that do good and there are people that do bad. Armstrong had contacted the shops in the surrounding suburbs, asking for a supply of suits for the funeral and they were glad to give them for free. However, there wasn't a large amount of kids going to the funeral, only Jack's closest friends and Josh who, for reasons known, stayed rather far from him. I suppose they now knew it wasn't Josh's fault whatsoever, but I bet they didn't know that guy was payed to do it, so they would still have their doubts.
Josh looked rather handsome in a suit. Something new to my eyes. For once through this whole Jack situation, he didn't look upset the way he did when he blamed himself for it. He was still saddened at the fact he was going to a funeral but it wasn't affecting his mind anymore. Or so it seemed.
"Just come back to me as soon as you can," I laugh, giving him a hug.
He wraps his arms around me and squeezes. "Sure will."
I was a bit nervous for today, I had no idea what sort of things we'd be doing with this instructor. But I think I had a pretty good idea of what it may consist of.
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Addie, Riley and I walked Josh to the office where the boys and other staff members including Armstrong, Mrs. Wilson and Martha were waiting. The boys didn't give Josh any eye contact but I suppose that was better than them staring him down. I recognise one of them to be that kid, Tucker, that I first saw on the bus from the airport. I never talked to him, even when I was with Jack, but he seemed so depressed, he might have been so close with him.
The screech of the tyres caused everyone to turn their heads to the door on the opposite side of the office that lead out to the driveway. A black range rover, one that you would see on the car ads, pulled up out the front. The windows were so tinted you couldn't see through. The door is opened and out steps what I'd call a beast. This really muscly man wearing camo pants and a black singlet, black ray bans shading his eyes. It's obvious who that is.
"That's Rambo,' Armstrong says, 'come on you three." He points to Addie, Riley and I.
I look at Josh. "I'll come back and say g'bye."
He only nods and I follow Addie and Riley out the door, Mr. Armstrong behind us, waiting for 'Rambo.'
Everyone is gathered at the top. The staff must have called them in. Armstrong walks straight over to the microphone and the three of us, stand at the side of the crowd.
"Good morning everyone, as you know today is Jack Fosters funeral and like I said yesterday, a good friend of mine, Rambo, will be taking care of you for the day. He turned to Rambo who was just walking over towards Armstrong. He reached his hand out to retrieve the microphone.
"Thanks Armstrong,' he says, turning to the crowd of kids. At first I thought he was going to start speaking immediately, but instead, his eyebrows narrow and he stars down at us with a frown. 'I don't know if Armstrong has told you about me yet,' he continues, 'but I'm a leader of an Army camp, I train to fight, I'm strict and I don't tolerate any crap. I expect respect, and I will do the same for you. You will all listen to my orders, I shouldn't have to repeat any, you should have been listening to the first lot of instructions. You will go through with what I have planned for the day. And lastly, this is just a scare for you, I am nice." He grins.
I'm not so sure about the last bit however.
"Oh and I also want to thank Mr. Armstrong for letting me help plan the activities for your Cormac Day Marathon, you will definitely have fun."
He says the last bit sarcastically. I know it will just be difficult. If he has planned todays and the marathons activites, then they will both be boring and hard work.
Rambo hands the microphone back to Armstrong. "Alright thanks everyone, and see the this afternoon."
He now gives it back to Rambo, while shaking his hand and slapping his back. I quickly jog off to the side, following Armstrong. He hears my footsteps and turns back to see who it is.
"I just wanna say bye to Josh," I say, slightly smiing.
He nods and pushes the door open, letting me through first. Josh turns around and smiles when he sees me coming in and he walks over.
"Well I'm back I say."
He just remains smiling and stares into my eyes. Three cars were putting themselves into park, making Josh's eyes gaze outside. A driver hops out of the first car, dressed formally, and comes towards the office.
"That's the transportation,' Armstrong says, 'we'll divide into three cars."
Josh turns back to me. I don't know what to say, so instead I lean closer to him and kiss him softly on his right cheek and wrap my arms around his back. I feel his arms around mine too, the material of his suit against my back. We pull out and he heads over towards the other door, leading out to the cars. He raises his hand and waves.
To be honest, I thought having relationships during the camp wouldn't be allowed. It probably wasn't but maybe Armstrong doesn't really care about us since we're the ones that know him better than a lot of the other kids here.
I turn around and head out the other door and back to the crowd of kids where Rambo is going on about instructions for the day.
"So remember, I don't like repeating my instructions but I want to clarify it with you anyway, we are going back in the original cabin groups, to do these activties."
I turn to Addie. "We'll have a fair few kids missing and Martha isn't here either I say."
She shrugs. "I dunno what we're doing then."
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It turns out Rambo was saving the hard work for the marathon, in two days time. So today, we were ordered into our original camp groups that we first started off with when activites were more organised instead of turning into nothing towards the end. So, this means we are back with Brittney and her group.
We have an extra staff member with us that I've never really seen much around, though I have seen him around. I don't even know his name, but I know he's young and I suppose, he's rather attractive but not really my type. He's hair is too light for me and he's eyes are too light in colour. I'm just picky and Molly knows that very well. I have so much to tell her. So much in fact. I suppose I will have to miss a lot of details, being here so many weeks. Half the things I've experienced here don't sound real, like I'm lying. She'll be heart broken when I tell her we can't go boy spotting anymore.
Today we are doing something different than usual. I didn't even know they had a volleyball court located on the land but apparently Armstrong wanted to start using it again so he told Rambo to start us on it. Another original camp group was joining us, a boy group though it seems Brittney and her friends weren’t interessted ina ny of them this time. They all probably missed Jack and even Josh maybe but I wouldn’t now, I don’t know if Josh ever had a past with her but I didn’t want to know. I have him, not her and she was usually all over Jack anyway, though she misses out on that now.
The volleyball patch is located at the back of the camp, behind the buildings, more towards the fields behind. The sand was more like soil and dust, causing it to make a more grey colour than a white, thought after all, Armstrong wants to start using it again. he might get the sand replaced. The poles were starting to rust and there were a couple of holes in the net but I’d rather this than repeating anymore activities. They need to add more things to do, especially if you’re here for so long. Too be honest, I have to sort of be thankful to Michelle for sending me to Cormac with Armstrong rather than going to Rambo’s camp. I’m surprised Cormac hasn’t been shut down. This is supposed to be a behaviour camp, not a holiday camp. I bet Rambo’s camp would involve really difficult training, early nights and early morning’s, no sympathy, no enjoyment. I wondered why Cormac would have enjoyable things, and not hard work? Whatever the reason was, it didn’t bother me much at all. I was glad to have such easy and caring people here.
Rambo had sent us off first to come and see the condition of the volleyball court. He didn’t seem happy at all for us to be playing a “game” of volleyball but he was in no position to complain about the way Cormac was run. Armstrong did say they were friends. He stood with his arms crossed as the staff member inspected the frays in the net. I soon learned his name was Liam, he was twenty two, not many years older than me.
"You should be fine to play, Liam, the ball is located in the shed I'm told," Rambo says, gruffly, knocking his head in the direction of the shed. "I gotta get off and check out the other groups, I'll see ya later." And he walks off.
Liam nods and turns around to face us. "Alright guys, we're gonna play some volleyball. We'll mix up the teams, boys and girls, both, whatever you want."
He points to one of the boys. "Can you go get the ball for me and I'll set up the teams, learn some names."
So just as Martha had done when she first visited the cabins, he went around and got everyone's names, as well as the boy group. Suddenly, I see Morgan heading down. I had completely forgotten about her, though she is still in the other cabin. I wondered where she had been. Her and Liam exchange a look.
"Uh . . . ' he pauses. 'And your name?" He asks awkwardly, as if he was nervous.
"Morgan," she quietly speaks. She stands a couple of meters from Brittney's group, by herself.
Finally, the kid he sent to get the ball returns and we start off with cabin vs cabin, well in this case, boy vs girls, as we were a separate cabin. We stand in position and Liam, kindly, lets us serve first. It annoys me the way the girls play though, laughing like they were on a helium and prancing around like a reindeer. Addie and I just hang out in the middle area, and we still participate. I thought making an effort could still make it enjoyable, and we found it was. Though, when I look Morgan, she's standing there, one of her arms rubbing the other. I don't blame her for feeling left out, she's got no one now. It was her fault, she brought it on herself.
By the end of this game, the boys had one with four more points ahead of us. Liam let us have a break so we sat down on the grass. He cleared his throat before he spoke.
"So well done to the boys, great game and it's good to see everyone getting involved. But as we have this break, I want you all to remember this is a . . . a very sad day, we have to remember and respect the loss of Jack Foster."
I suddenly move my eyes over to Brittney and her "group" who have suddenly began sobbing. I swallow down a scoff. I know that seems bad but first of all, if they haven't even been here before, than what are they sobbing over? Did they even know him? Obviously all these girls had gotten close with him. But I sit there, still feeling bad for Jack. He still didn't deserve what he got, and I'm so happy for Josh that he went to his funeral. He felt so terrible. Liam didn't say anything to the girls, but he looked at them with pity.
"I know it's hard everyone but we need to keep going so come on, we'll get up and play another round of boys vs girls, however I'll be playing on the girls side," he winks.
The girls wiped away at their trail of liquid mascara, causing deep, dark bags to form under the eyes. They still had to wear make up, of course.
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I was more than excited for this volleyball session to end. There's nothing more uncomfortable than watching Liam flirt with the girls. If Armstrong saw this, Liam would be fired, straight away. I glance at Addie, who gives me the same look. It was disgusting and we weren't the only ones finding this annoying, Morgan also seethed at the sight and I don't blame her. He's trying to get as close to Brittney as possible while he grins and jokes around with them, it's just the way he looks at them too. Though they don't seem to be pushing him away, which is even more distrubing and still, Morgan continues to seeth.
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Soon, after a couple more hours of hanging down at the sand patch, well more like volleyball soil patch, we headed for the top for lunch. Rambo was going to make sure we were definitely keeping order and being organised with everything we did. We entered and his eyes gazed over the hall as if we were looking out for something poisonous entering the building but other than that, it was only kids.
"That was so wrong," Addie mentions, as we line up for lunch. Rambo is making it too difficult and making sure things are taken at a good pace that is not messy and can cause chaos but we were fine every other day. I have to definitely agree with Addie though.
"I know,' I say, 'he'd be fired if anyone else saw what he was doing. " It was probably a good thing I hadn't really known Liam before.
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Addie and I are able to sit at a table with just herself, Riley and I. I suppose because some of those boys were missing. We tell Riley about what happened and at first, I thought he was tempted to report it but he thought better, he wasn't there. But if it was worse than it probably should have been heard about. We don't bring it up after that though.
Later that day, we did canoeing again but this time, we had fun activities to do as well, like races and obstacle courses. I think Rambo is really helping make the camp more fun, which seems strange. I thought he'd be making it worse, a lot more strict but then again, he's saving hard work for tomorrow. Tomorrow. I sigh, it's the second last day. Though everything had lifted from my mind as I laughed with Addie as we raced the canoes through the water, capsizing and going under the cold, icy water occasionally. The water was strange actually, it was so warm towards the top where the suns heat hit the water but just one centimeter lower, your feet would reach icy, dark waters. I wish this sort of thing was added earlier into the camp but yet I still enjoyed most of it, especially when Addie and Riley came a long and when I got to know the real Josh.
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We're sitting here, eating afternoon tea, when all of a sudden, a staff member bursts through the door. Everyone looks up and straight in her direction, waiting for words. She swallows before she starts.
"T-The news!' She cries, 'they said something about a car accident with cars coming back from a funeral, one full of men!" Straight away, the butterflies huddled around my heart and flew around my stomach.
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Addie hugs me tightly and I pray, hoping that Josh is okay, that everyone is okay, Martha, Armstrong. I just couldn't deal with losing Josh, not when there's only tomorrow and the day after to go, not when I only got to kiss his cheek before he left. He'd been through enough pain and I just want him to come back alive. Everyone had to remain in the hall while Rambo went up to the front office to try and get onto Armstrong but he couldn't. He returned and told us, he wasn't able to contact Armstrong. It would just ring until no one picked up. I took deep breaths just as Addie told me but I couldn't stop the panic. Rambo returned to the office to try again. We waited . . .
The negative thoughts should be kept out but they are the first to arrive in my mind. Naturally, you think of all the bad possiblities but you hoped no one of them were right. They were late, they should have been back, it's their car. They're dead, or in hospital. We see Rambo, yet again, walking toward the food hall before coming through the doors. He let's out a deep breath.
"There's no need to panic everyone, they're here, in the office," he says.
A massive wave of relief washes over me and then, everyone looks through the windows to see all the attenders coming towards the food hall. Josh's eyes meet mine. I automatically rise and speed over to him, hugging him tightly.
"I-I- . . I was so worried Josh!" I cry, hugging him tighter. He slightly chuckles.
"You have no need to worry,' he says, smoothing the back of my head gently, 'it wasn't our car, it was a totally different group to a different funeral, but no one died."
I let out a deep breath. I was so glad to hear everyone was safe, including those poor other people.
"Thank god," I whisper.
Josh wraps his arms around my back. I thank God. I was so glad to see him there. To finally relax and know he's safe.
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It's been a couple of hours since and dinner will be on soon. I've settled now, as has everyone else. Everyone is just hanging around outside tonight. They have a lolly buffet for dessert with soft drinks and other desserts on a table outside, which apparently Rambo organised. I would have had my doubts when I first saw him but now I realise, maybe he's actually quite nice.
Josh tells us about the funeral. No one knew he had been suspected first, except for the boys from the camp and Fosters parents who weren't horrible to Josh, for they knew he had tried to help him and they were thankful he attended the funeral. Josh asked us about today, in which we had positive feedback, not including the afternoon when the woman burst through the door.
"I'm actually excited for tomorrow then," he says.
I laugh. "I'm not."
"Well, as long as I have you there, it shouldn't be a problem," he smiles, kissing my forehead.
I smiled. And he was right for me too, as long as he was there, with Addie and Riley, it shouldn't be a problem.
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Sorry for a late upload, hope you enjoyed! Please give me as many *VOTES* as possible, I'm really aiming to get to the 5000 mark on this story over all so I need as many as possible! And *COMMENTS*, I'd love to know what you think! Just remember this camp is almost over which means so is the book! *CORMAC MARATHON IN 1 DAY! :O *