♢ Laura ♢
School had finished. Forever. Lying in would become the norm and I could finally enjoy the summer without being around people I despised, which was around ninety percent of the school population so no complaints from me.
My lay in was short lived when my phone began ringing on my bed side table, seemingly making my whole room shake. Before even considering to see who it was, I glanced at my clock and groaned in annoyance when I saw that it was 7:30AM on a freakin' Saturday!
I answered my phone without looking at the caller I.D, knowing full well that it would be Katie, my best friend. She has always been an early bird.
"Whatever you are calling about, it better be worth waking me up for this early in the morning." I grumbled down the phone before she got a word in. My words were followed by her loud giggling with the occasional snort. I sat up and ran my free hand through my brown locks to get them away from my face. I looked awfully attractive in the morning. Not.
"You'll never guess what!!!" Katie proceeded to say in an excited tone.
"What?" I shook my head to myself, awaiting her next comment. This better have been good.
"The plane tickets arrived and we depart from the airport a week today. Our last year at camp is upon us."
I was suddenly more awake. A part of me had completely forgotten about camp.
Me and Katie have gone every summer together since we were about five. We started in the junior camp and when we moved to high school, we joined Tabara Summer Camp.
This year would be our last year as we would become too old to go, unless we wanted to go back as volunteers of course, which I had always wanted to do.
"Wow, is it really only a week away?" I asked, shocking myself in the process.
"Yeah, it is." Katie chimed back at me.
"Is that all you wanted to tell me? Because I'd very much like to get back to sleep." I chuckled down the phone to my best friend as I snuggled back up under my duvet.
"I'm afraid not. We are going shopping for camp supplies and I am about to enter your humble abode to get you out of bed."
---
When Katie finally got me out of my bedroom, it was nearly 9AM. I would always put up a fight in order to stay in bed as long as possible. Sleep was important.
We had successfully stuffed our faces with cookies and a milkshake from the food hall (best breakfast ever!) but we hadn't actually bought any clothes yet. On our way to find some clothes for camp, something caught my eye, and by something I mean someone. Two someone's in fact.
"Look, its Matt and Ryan!" I squealed excitedly as they walked through the entrance of the mall. I could almost hear Katie rolling her eyes as she stood next to me, trying to divert my attention away from the god-like brothers.
Matt and Ryan Lake were the most beautiful brothers in our school, most people think they are twins but they were born eleven months apart, Matt in September and Ryan in August.
They have matching dirty blonde hair which is always styled into a small quiff and they both make short back and sides look incredible.
What made them even better was the fact that they were both rugby players and were very well built in the muscle department. Most people drooled over Matt but there was something about Ryan that got my heart racing. Truth is, I've fancied Ryan since the first time I saw him, I mean who wouldn't?
"Yes they are gorgeous but you are overly obsessed. There's no point in worrying about them, we need to find you some clothes for camp this year." Katie moaned and continued to usher me towards a shop on our left.
"But they are so dreamyyyyy!" I whined, resisting against her subtly in an attempt to stop myself from making a scene in the mall.
"Come on, camp is in one week, and you don't need to be thinking about boys. You won't be around any for six weeks."
"That's exactly why I need to get my fix now." I protested against Katie as she tried to pull me up from the bench I had taken a seat on in order to get a good view point of the boys. She eventually gave in and slumped down next to me, folding her arms across her chest in the process.
"You're impossible." Katie tutted in defeat, pulling out her phone from her handbag. I couldn't help but give her a cheeky grin as I continued to stare at the boys as they walked side by side through the mall, laughing, chatting and looking incredibly hot as they always do.
Katie's my best friend. We had been close since the first week of high school. Both of us were from different schools and we didn't know anyone in any classes. Since then, we have been inseparable. Of course, Katie was the better looking one out of the two of us. Her long blonde hair and pale, clear skin was to die for. Not to mention her slim and tall physique, which made me look like humpty-dumptys sister. With her sky blue eyes, any sort of male attention that came in our direction would ALWAYS be directed towards her.
She was more outgoing compared to me, the nights where she would be at a house party, I would prefer to be tucked up in bed with a hot chocolate and a book. That never happened though because Katie would drag me with her to every single party. The only upside of going to these parties was the fact that Matt and Ryan would never miss one. So for me, there would always be a bit of eye candy.
The only problem with the Lake brothers, was the fact that they were both what you would call a stereotypical bad boy. Every girl in the school was chasing after them and I highly doubt either of them had their virginity intact.
That didn't put me off though, I was keen to learn more about them. The truth is, I've been trying to suss them out for years, with no luck of course. Being in the unpopular group in our School didn't help me much.
Ryan started smirking in my direction.
"Oh my god, is he smiling at me?" I grinned hopefully, yanking on my best friends arm to get her attention. Katie looked up from her phone and followed their gazes before turning to look behind us.
"Nope, they are smiling at Jane, Jess and Kayla. Soz."
I groaned in frustration and finally got up from the bench and stormed towards Topshop, my biggest savior and distraction at the time.
Jane was Ryan's on and off girlfriend for the past year or so. She was also a stereotypical mean girl, or I would just call her a walking STI. Jess and Kayla were her followers and worshiped her like a queen. They used to be nice girls once upon a time but then Jane reeled them in and made them into actual mean girls.
♢ One Week Later ♢
Today was the day. The day of the very long journey to camp. Katie's mum had just pulled up outside my house, indicating that it was time for me to go. My mum already looked emotional and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her.
I went to open the door with all my bags in hand. Almost as if she could hear my struggle, mum came running to me, leaving her coffee on the side table.
"Let me help you with those." She spoke whilst grabbing my suitcase from me, a look of motherly emotion in her eyes.
"Thank you ma." I gave her a smile in return and then opened the front door. Katie stood on the other side with a wide eyed grin. The excitement was evident on her face as she pounced on me for a hug, knocking my hand luggage out of my arms in the process.
"Hello Katie love, how are you?" Mum grinned as she hauled my massive suitcase out of the front door.
"Fine thank you Mrs Weller. I hope you are well too?"
"Glad to hear it, and I'm great thank you, I just hate saying goodbye to my little munchkin!" Mum turned her attention back towards me as her eyes began to well up.
"I'm going for six weeks, not six years, I'll be back before you know it." I reassured her.
Katie had her hair piled up on her hair in a messy bun, her RayBan's balancing on top of it. She was well and truly dressed for summer with blue denim shorts and a white spaghetti top.
Mum walked past us both with my luggage and began to converse with Katie's mum before exchanging a warm hug with each other.
"Today is the day!" Katie exclaimed, voicing my thoughts from earlier.
"I am so nervous yet so excited at the same time."
"You'll be fine when we get there." Katie rubbed my back in reassurance as we walked towards our parents chatting just outside the garden gate. My mum had already loaded all of my things into the boot of the car.
The chatting parents finally noticed our presence next to them.
"Aw, I'm going to miss you a lot, and please be good this year won't you, I don't want any phone calls from the camp staff!" My mum enveloped me into a cuddle, planting kisses all over my face, causing me to screw my face up in disgust. I hated it when she did that, but I am the youngest after all, so she treats me like I'm still seven years old. Add ten years to that and she would get the correct number.
"I don't know what you are talking about, I'm good every year."
"I will look out for her don't worry, she's in safe hands with me." Katie butted in with a wink in my direction to keep my mother from worrying.
Katie and her mum just laughed at our odd embrace. My mum was so damn soppy at times.
"That's enough mum." I laughed lightly, wiggling out of her arms. She was rather embarrassing at times.
"We better get going, our flight is in a few hours." Katie came to the rescue with that comment as mum gave me one last hug. "Have fun and message me or call me when you land."
"Bye mum, I will let you know as soon as we get there." I gave her one last glance and waved.
Me and Katie got in the back of the car whilst our mothers had a quick chat before we set off to the airport.
---
"Thank you for the lift mum!" Katie chimed as her mum stopped the car at the Airport drop off point.
"Yeah, thank you for taking us Mrs Hammond." We both smiled and said our goodbyes before retrieving our luggage from the boot of the car.
"It's so good to get away from England and meet new people." Katie smirked as we walked, pulling our much too big suitcases into the airport entrance.
"I know!" I smiled. "But, apparently there is something different about the camp this year. I was speaking to Rachel last night and she said that there was something going on but we would all have to find out when we get there." I explained, knotting my eyebrows together.
Rachel is our American friend who we met the first year we went to camp. We share the same cabin as her every year. But saying goodbye to her after these six weeks will be different as we all go our separate ways in October.
"Even my mum looked more nervous about us going this year. Maybe she knows about it?" We got our tickets and passports checked at the desk and waited in the seating area for our flight.
"Hmm, I suppose we will find out when we get there but, If it was really bad, your mum wouldn't have let you leave the house." Katie laughed a little.
"That is very true. I'll be back in a bit, I'm going to buy some gum for the flight."
"Oh yeah, Miss scared of flying." Katie said, evidently taking the piss. I just scowled at her and walked to the nearby shop in the airport.
Whilst browsing through the snacks in the shop I could have sworn that I heard some familiar voices from school, I brushed off the thought as I was probably imagining things and picked up a few packets of strawberry bubble gum, my favourite flavour.
---
I came back a short while later, Katie had a puzzled look on her face. "What's up with you?" I asked.
"Jane is coming to camp this year." She stated with disgust in her voice. My good mood disappeared.
"How do you know that?"
"I saw her walk past with her little gang to get on the flight which arrives in America about an hour before ours."
"Oh. Why would they want to come to a summer camp? It doesn't seem like their scene if you ask me." I starred towards the boarding gates.
"Their scene is drinking too much and getting laid." Katie laughed. "They must know something about camp this year." Her smile turned into a confused look again. "Jane was boasting about how excited she was to make some American friends."
I had a final check of my phone before switching it off for the flight. There was a text from my sister Eliza and a very recent whatsapp message from Rachel which read: "Oh my... I can't wait for you to get here so I can see your faces! Camp is going to be rather different this year! Ahaha! Love ya! xx"
I showed the message to Katie.
"That girl is such a wind up, of course she would be there early so she would get to find out before us!" Katie moaned and finished her milkshake.
"I think I know what it could be." I stated, feeling quite confident with my guess.
"And what's that then?" She asked, getting up to put her empty cup in the bin.
"Boys." I announced. "Why else would Jane be going?" It all made sense now.
"Hmm, true. I suppose Jane probably hasn't slept with an American guy yet." Katie laughed, lowering her tone. "But surely, they would tell us before camp if they were doing something as drastic as that?"
"You do remember that Rhi is camp leader now, she does come up with some crazy ideas." I reminded Katie about our camp leader. Rhi had done the job for the past two years since our old leader, Hannah, who was also Rhi's mother retired and passed the role down to her.
Rhi was amazing, she became one of the group and made us all feel welcome. She never talked down to us or set any strict rules. Although, you would really know about if you got on the wrong side of her.
---
After another hour of waiting, we finally boarded our flight.
"Just breathe Laura. In.... and out." Katie looked at me with a caring smile whilst gripping my hands. I gave her a weak smile in return and then the engine started roaring.
"Oh no!" I squealed and screwed my eyes shut whilst covering my ears. I couldn't stop shaking.
I could just about hear Katie's muffled voice.
"Stay calm, you are always fine when we get in the air, we do this every year!" She held my shoulders. My ears popped as we lifted off and I was forced to the back of my seat. The plane began to settle as it finally glided to the correct height.
"That is always the worst bit." I sighed and began to calm down. The seat belt light switched off, indicating that I could now relax, for now anyway.
"You are better than you were, you freaked out and puked everywhere the first time we went to camp." Katie laughed, patting me on the head like a puppy.
"Please don't remind me." I moaned shoving her hand away from my head. Katie had a habit of bringing up things that I really didn't want to remember.
I recall when she told my mum about my first kiss. I could have punched her because my mum went mad with questions and tried to give me the talk. Cringe.
We both finally settled down in preparation for the boring, eleven hour flight. Katie fell asleep within an hour of us boarding, but I couldn't get comfortable enough so I got square eyes and watched every film available on the small TV displayed in front of me, hoping that it would pass the time.
---
The seat belt light flickered on and the pilot's voice came on over the speakers.
"Good afternoon, we are now approaching Los Angeles international airport. Please fasten your seat belts for the landing. Thank you." This made Katie wake with a start.
"WE'RE HERE!" She screamed whilst shaking my shoulders vigorously. She got some strange looks from around the plane for that. I shook my head with amusement at her.
"Yep!" I said smiling as we put our seat belts on. I looked out of the window and could see the land below us getting closer. "But we still have a two hour taxi journey to the camp." I reminded Katie.
"Oh yeah..." Katie sulked into her chair. "I think after all this travelling we will definitely need a girly night in our cabin with Rachel."
"Hmm... I can just taste the classic Camp Tabara Pizza..." I said whilst closing my eyes, smiling smugly and licking my lips.
"Jeeze Laura, anyone would think you were romantically involved with an American pizza..." Katie said.
"I never said I wasn't." I said with a smirk. My best friend just rolled her eyes with a smile. She knew how crazy I was about the Pizza at camp. It was like my other best friend.
---
The taxi driver loaded our bags into the trunk.
"Where to ladies?" The driver said, peeping over his tinted sunglasses whilst looking into his rear view mirror towards us.
"Camp Tabara please." Katie smiled.
"Oooh, be careful there this year girls!" The driver laughed to himself.
"Um, why?" I asked in confusion.
"You'll see." He smirked.
"But nobody will tell us!" Katie whined. The taxi driver looked into his mirror again as we set off out of the airport.
"If I tell you, ya'll want to jump out of this cab and go home, so be prepared!" he said smugly.
Me and Katie gave each other a concerning look.
"What if it really is bad? What if Rhi is gone and we have a super strict leader who won't let us eat pizza and watch films all night!" Katie whispered to me so the driver couldn't hear.
"We've got each other, and Rachel will be there, they would have actually told us if it was THAT bad."
"Fair enough... bring it on bitches!" Katie said with sass in her tone as she sat up as far as the seat belt would allow, trying to make herself look important. All I could do was laugh.
"I'll hold you to that one Katie." I smirked at her.
---
I think we both fell asleep.
We did fall asleep.
We were now at Camp.
Shit.
"Wake up girls, we're here!" The taxi driver said. "WAKEY WAKEY" He said loudly in his strong American accent. I bet we sounded so posh to them.
We both jolted awake and saw the taxi driver messing with his billing machine to charge us.
"Sorry, long flight." I said yawning.
"Not a problem, I hope you both have a... interesting time." His tone concerned me because he definitely knew what had changed this year.
"I'm sure we will." Katie said digging out the correct money from her purse. The taxi driver took the money, got out of the car and opened the trunk to retrieve our suitcases.
"Thank you." we both said as he handed us our luggage.
"Not a problem ladies, seeya!" He saluted and got back into the taxi.
He sped off leaving us standing there with dust erupting all around us at the camp drop off point.
"I've really missed being here, it's like my second home!" I said spinning around and inhaling the air which smelt like freshly cut grass and pine tree's.
The tree's were blowing in the warm breeze and the sound of laughter and chatter echoed in the distance where old friends were seeing each other after nearly a year apart.
I loved everything about camp, it's rustic feel, the woodland that surrounded the whole campus, not to mention the massive lake on the edge where we spent many late evenings laughing and sharing stories.
Katie stopped me by grabbing me by both arms, bringing me back to reality.
"I know what it is." She said bluntly, staring into my eyes.
"What?" I said looking really puzzled.
"You were right Laura!"
"Right about what?" I asked her.
"Can't you smell it!?" She said leaning closer to my face. As she said this a rugby ball shot past both our heads and landed near our bags. From behind us we heard masculine laughter.
"Smell what?" I asked, frowning. Katie leaned in even more and whispered.
"Testosterone."