"You've got to be kidding!" Cori stared at her mother in horror.
"Honey, the company wants me in China to close this business deal by Monday," Cori's mom told her. "I'll be gone a week, so it'll work out perfectly."
"You really want me to go to summer camp," Cori eyed her mom incredulously.
"I'm sorry, sweetie. I'd take you with me if I could," her mother answered apologetically.
"But summer camp is so uncool," Cori whined. "Why can't I just stay home? I'm almost 18. I'll be fine."
"I'd feel better knowing you weren't all alone," said her mom. "Besides, you always had fun when you went to camp before."
"Yeah, when I was a kid," sighed Cori. "Anyone in high school that still goes is a total nerd. I can't believe they even have a program for anyone over 12."
"Come on," her mom pleaded. "It'll be fun!"
"But mom, they don't even get cell service out there!" Cori grimaced. "What if Miracle 10 has a live broadcast and I miss it because I can't access the streaming app!"
"You'll survive," said her mother. "Besides, it'll do you some good to interact with some real people. You act like you're in a relationship with that band."
"Not 'that band'. Just Tanner. And Miracle 10 are real people!" Cori argued. "Are you seriously going to make me go?"
Clearly the answer was yes- and Cori was soon lugging her duffel bag onto the tribal-designed bus.
"This is going to be the worst week ever," she thought as she moped down the aisle.
The bus was already pretty full. The crowd was mostly made up of a ton of kids younger than her who were shouting rowdily, but Cori did recognize a handful of girls from her class who were chatting together in the seats near the back. However, these were girls she never talked to at school. The kind of girls she hung out with would never willingly go to a summer camp- they'd be ridiculed.
Sitting down alone in the very last seat, Cori pulled out her phone and looked at the screen, checking her signal.
"Please stay full," she begged the service bars, but her hoping was fruitless.
The farther the bus rolled towards the camp, the less signal she had, and soon, she knew she had absolutely no chance of watching any streams of Miracle 10.
"Goodbye, life," she sighed, shoving her cell back into her bag and staring out the window.
Her hometown was long behind and the bus was now surrounded by nothing but green.
"We're here!" one of the girls in front of her cheered when they at last pulled through the gates. A large sign read 'Camp Cobo'.
"Wow, I haven't been here in years," Cori thought as she stepped off of the bus and looked around. "It hasn't changed at all."
A row of old wooden cabins sat in front of the tree line, a large mess hall stood opposite, and a long, wooden dock led out to the enormous lake.
"Well, maybe I can at least work on my tan," she tried to think positive, but at that moment, a blonde girl wearing a blue polo appeared.
"Welcome, everyone! I'm Dezarae, Camp Cobo's #1 counselor. Now let's get you your bunk assignments!" she grinned, and with a look at her clipboard made her way over to the youngest campers first.
"Dezarae?" Cori watched in horror as the girl directed a couple of kids to their cabin. "Of all people, Dezarae, the most popular girl in school, is a counselor? This is so embarrassing!"
"Let's see," Dezarae consulted her list when she finally reached the other girls from Cori's grade. "Mindy, Morgan and Lindsay. You'll be in Bunk Daffodil, okay?," she instructed them, speaking as though they were kindergartners.
The girls didn't seem to take notice, clearly just excited by their assigned cabin, and made their way happily towards the wooden building.
"Okay, so that leaves..." Dezarae ran a finger over her clipboard. "Cori Jay. Cori Jay?" she looked up in surprise. "I didn't know you were going to be here," she smiled. "I thought I was only going to be in charge of the geek girl trio, but this is too good. Now you're here- and you're under my rule." Dezarae grinned evilly. "You're in Bunk Daffodil, too. Good luck," she added before flouncing away.
The Daffodil cabin was small, and filled with two bunks and one twin bed. The other girls had already claimed spots on the bunks, but Lindsay waved Cori over kindly.
"You can have the top of my bunk if you want," she offered.
"That's okay," Cori declined, flopping down onto the twin bed. "I think I'll just sleep here."
"But you can't," Mindy gasped.
"Why not?" frowned Cori.
"Because that bed belongs to the Daffodil Bunk's counselor," Morgan told her.
"And who's that?" Cori asked.
"Me," came a voice and Cori spun around to see Dezarae standing in the doorway.
~~~
"This is even worse than I thought," Cori sighed that night. The taste of nasty, frozen chicken nuggets was still in her mouth from dinner, and all she wanted was for the day to be over.
"It's only for a week," she told herself. "It's only for a week."
Searching through her duffel for her toothbrush, Cori spotted her phone.
"Just in case..." she held her breath and picked it up, but she still had no service. Sliding it into her back pocket and resuming her toothbrush search, she suddenly remembered what else she had packed.
"Oh yeah!" she excitedly tore through her luggage, pulling out a stack of magazines.
"At least I can still see Tanner this way!" she grinned, tossing them up to her bunk and climbing to the top.
"Ahh, this is better," she sighed happily, flipping through the pages of glossy Miracle 10 pictures.
"What's that?" Lindsay asked from below.
"Just some magazines," she told her. "There's some really good interviews with Miracle 10."
"Miracle 10?" Mindy asked curiously. "Is that that boy band?"
"Yeah," Cori knit her brows, not knowing how any girl could be unsure.
"Are they the ones who sing that song, 'All In All'?" Morgan wondered.
"No. That's by the female group, Sidney Sunshine," Cori grimaced. What was wrong with these girls?
"Oh, well then what do they look like? Maybe I've seen them before," Morgan climbed the ladder to Cori's bunk and adjusted her glasses to look at the magazine page.
"Recognize them now?" asked Cori. "That's Tanner, Axel, Kole, JM and Nicky U."
Morgan stared at her blankly.
"Come on! You have to have heard of them!" Cori was completely bewildered.
"I've seen them before," Mindy was now leaning across from her top bunk to peer at the page. "I don't really see what the big deal is."
"Then apparently you haven't seen them!" Cori cried. "They're only the best musicians around! And they're gorgeous!"
"Eh," Mindy leaned back onto her bunk and shrugged.
"You guys are crazy!" Cori was getting worked up. "How can you not see it? Tanner is the hottest guy in the world!"
"Tanner Lee?" Dezarae had just entered the cabin.
"Finally! Someone who knows who I'm talking about!" Cori was glad even if it was her nemesis.
"Of course I know who Tanner is," Dezarae walked over and grabbed one of the magazines from Cori's bunk. "But Nicky U's the cute one."
"Excuse me?" Cori felt personally offended.
"No need to get all upset," Dezarae opened the magazine and turned to a pin-up of Nicky. "It's not like I just dissed your boyfriend or something. Of course, that would be pretty hard," she added, ripping out the photo and throwing down the rest of the magazine. "You'd actually have to have a boyfriend first."
"You-" Cori growled, jumping down from the bunk and scooping up her ruined magazine.
"Yeah, cling to your little pictures," Dezarae smirked. "It's as close as you'll ever get to Miracle 10. Besides, even if you did get close enough, Tanner Lee and you would never work."
"That's it!" Cori huffed, making for the door. "I'm out of here!"
"And where are you going to go?" Dezarae laughed. "All the bunks are full and the bus won't be back until the end of the week."
"Then I'll sleep in the woods," Cori narrowed her eyes. "There's probably less snakes out there than there are in here," she added angrily.
"Don't go, Cori!" Lindsay shouted. "The sky looked dark earlier. I think it's going to storm tonight."
"Anything's better than this," Cori snarled and left the cabin.
~~~
"Ugh," Cori stomped across the camp, still grasping her magazine. "This is just great. What am I going to do? I certainly can't go back after that scene."
Making her way along the dock, Cori sat down at the edge.
"Ouch," she had sat down on the cell phone in her back pocket. "Great," she sighed again, placing it next to her. "Nowhere to go, and all I've got with me is a magazine and a phone that doesn't work."
Dangling her feet over the water, she flipped open the magazine.
"At least I have you, Tanner," she smiled down at the page. "But where can I go?" she helplessly asked the picture. "Hmm."
Cori looked over the interview on the next page.
"'What do you like to do in your spare time?'" she read. "'When we have free time, the guys and I love to be outdoors. Hiking, boating, things like that'. That's it!" Cori gasped, jumping up. "I can take a boat across the lake. Maybe there's some place over there where I can stay tonight. Or at least someone who has a phone so I can call for a cab."
She squinted into the distance but couldn't see much.
"Well, it's worth a shot if I don't have to go back to the Daffodil Bunk," she decided, climbing into a small boat near the dock.
~~~
"It didn't look this far from the other side," Cori groaned as she rowed across the vast lake.
By the time she reached the shore, she was tired, sore and to top it off, it was really dark out.
"Well, at least it didn't storm," she thought as she dragged herself out of the boat. "Now just to find someone who can help me."
Cori squinted into the darkness ahead. To her dismay, all she could see were trees, and a worrisome idea began to form in her head.
"What if there's nothing on this side of the lake?" she thought, her stomach suddenly dropping. "Or what if there is- but it's something bad, like a bear- or a psychotic killer.?
Cori gulped and turned on the light on her phone.
"Good thing this doesn't require a signal to use," she sighed and began to make her way into the trees.
The woods were creepy at night and every noise sounded threatening.
"What was that?" Cori cried when a branch snapped under her foot. "Oh, haha... just me," she took a breath to calm herself, but another sound broke out just ahead of her.
Staring with all her might into the shadows, she thought she saw a large shape coming closer.
"No, no, no, it's a bear!" she thought, too frozen with fear to move.
The figure continued to approach, but as it did, she realized it wasn't big enough to be a bear.
"No, no, no, it's a psychotic killer!" she panicked, still completely paralyzed as the being stepped right up to her.
"Please don't hurt me!" she cried, shielding her face, but she was met with a voice rather than an assault.
"What are you doing here?" she heard the voice ask and when Cori looked, she was even more shocked than if she had seen a machete-wielding maniac.
She was standing in the middle of the dark woods, staring up at Tanner Lee.