I'd been at this camp for only two hours, but the decision was already made.
I hated this place. I had friends back at home, who I would've preferred to spend my summer with over a bunch of trees in the middle of...let's check...nowhere.
So far, I'd been sitting in my tent, listening to music. I had tried to find a signal, but that was useless. There wasn't going to be four bars of data in the middle of the damn woods, right?
The worst part was that my mother didn't even have a solid reason for me coming here. She'd first seen an advertisement for this camp when we were online shopping together, something we did every Sunday that I wasn't so happy about. (She claimed it was mother and daughter bonding, but I claimed it was Sadie and hell bonding.) She had clicked into the advertisement, and seeing the words "Jasmine Lake", decided that it would be a good idea to go there. She then closed down the computer, and concluded that the only reason I was at this place was because we shared a name.
Now, for those that are uninformed, my full name is Sadie Jasmine Lake. So this was just creepy and unexplained.
As I thought about my middle name and the lake's name, someone knocked on the front of the tent. I yanked my headphones off and pulled open the tent flap, thinking it was that bitch Maria here to piss me off with more of her icebreaker games. "What the hell do you...oh."
It was Jax.
He gazed at me with a judging expression. "Alright then." He cleared his throat. "Dinner's ready."
I nodded awkwardly. "Um, thanks."
"No problem." He ran a hand through his light brown hair awkwardly.
I stepped out of my tent and walked over to the big cabin next to the lake. There was a room with four cafeteria tables spread out in it. Maria and Duncan were sitting at a table with the hippy girls, probably having a nice long talk about flowers and sunshine. The two younger pests, Flash and Diesel, I think, were sitting at a table with the annoying girls, or the Trilly Trio, as I liked to call them. The nineteen year-old boy, Wyatt, was at a table on his own, not making eye contact with anyone. At the last table, there were two plates, both filled with spaghetti. Jax sat down by one of them and started eating.
I grimaced. "Do I have to sit with you?"
What? I get straight to the point. You'd think that's a good thing.
Jax shrugged. "You don't, you're right. But your other options are a fearsome foursome of hippies and newlyweds, being stuck at a crossfire between future fuckboys and dumb bitches, or sitting with a guy who's about as talkative as a wall. Take your pick."
I felt the corner my mouth lift in amusement and sat across from Jax. "You know, you don't seem to be that bad."
Jax's eyes widened. "That's rich. You do know that's the last thing anyone would say to me."
I took a bite of spaghetti. It didn't taste that bad. "What? Do they call you...let me guess...a bad boy?"
Jax's mouth twisted into a smile. "They do, actually."
I opened my mouth to say something, but I saw Jax's eyes flicker to something behind me. I turned, expecting to see Michael Myers or some other reincarnation of the devil.
I was pretty close. It turned out to be Flash and Diesel. Spawn of the devil, but like they say, like father like son.
Flash winked at me. "Enjoying your time here so far? Because I can make it much better if you want."
This kid needed to up his game.
I pasted a fake smile on my face. "Thanks, but I'd rather get laid by a turtle. Not much different in the size, am I right?"
Jax choked on his pasta. I heard someone snicker, and glanced behind me to see two of the girls laughing silently. Alice and Tori. The other girl, Britt, had her arms crossed, and was watching me enviously.
Not much to be jealous of.
"In other words, it means you can go and try to get into Britt's pants instead," I continued.
I was disgusted to see Britt's face brighten up.
After the boys left, I turned back to Jax. "You weren't wrong when you called them future fuckboys."
"I'm never wrong." Jax flashed a grin.
"Alright everyone!" I swore under my breath when I realized it was Maria. Honestly, the day she got hit by a car and was finally silenced, I would rejoice. "We've decided to put up a movie after dinner. Let's take a vote. We've got, let's see..." She glanced at a Post-It on her hand. "Fast and Furious, the first Harry Potter, and Scream. Wyatt, what do you want to watch?"
Wyatt looked up for a split second, and averted his gaze directly after. "I don't care."
"Alright, Alice, Tori, Britt, what about you guys?"
"Harry Potter," said Britt. "Who doesn't want to watch that?"
Alice and Tori gave Britt doubtful looks. Alice scoffed and Tori rolled her eyes mockingly. "We want to watch Scream."
Britt blinked in surprise. I got the feeling that Alice and Tori were purposefully excluding Britt. They clearly didn't particularly like her. I didn't either, but it still wasn't very nice.
"Right." Maria smiled brightly. I hated it when she smiled. It made me want to punch her. More than usual anyway.
"What about you guys? Flash? Diesel?"
"Scream," they said simultaneously. Tori and Alice flashed each other grins.
"And Jax and Sadie." When it came to us, Maria had to force a smile. It made me proud of myself, to see that I was inflicting such torture upon the one that I loathed...
Calm the hell down, Sadie.
"Fast and Furious, obviously," Jax and I muttered at the same time. We grinned at each other. Maybe we'd get along after all.
"Right, well, Scream wins," concluded Maria. "Be in the movie room in five minutes. Try to be on time." She flashed me a pointed look, and I resisted the urge to flash my middle finger.
"Can't guarantee I'll try," I murmured sarcastically.
"What about we sit here and take our sweet time?" suggested Jax.
"That seems like a sound idea," I agreed. Before I could say anything else, my phone rang in my back pocket. The sound of Charli XCX filled the room. "I don't wanna go to school, I just wanna break the rules..."
I grabbed my phone and answered the face chat call immediately. "Anna?" Anna was my cousin. She was only six years older than me, but already had two children with her hubby Zach. I'd met the older one during a family reunion two years ago, when he was only a baby.
"Hey Sadie!" Anna's smiling face came on the screen. "Your mother told me to call. She wants you to know that you're going to have to stay at camp for a night longer."
My heart dropped. "Alright. Why doesn't she just call me herself?"
"She's at a family reunion, they're doing grace right now with the older adults."
"Wait, what? There's a family reunion and my mother didn't tell me?" I felt rage burn in me. Family reunions were supposed to be the family in union. The family couldn't be in union without one of their members... but this time, I guess it was different.
Anna winced. "Sorry. I didn't know that you didn't know."
"It's not your fault." I forced a smile. "Say hi to Zach for me."
"No, he's right here, you can do it yourself." Anna waved at someone offscreen. "Zach! Come here!"
Zach appeared on the screen, carrying a little baby. The sight made my heart melt. Zach had always been good with kids, including me. He was at Anna's thirteenth birthday, and I was seven back then. He was the only person who didn't ignore me completely.
"Anna, Sadie, hi." Zach and Madison, the baby girl in his arms, had a lot in common, from their naturally bronze skin to their multicolored eyes. He shot Anna a guilty look. "Something bad happened."
"Liam got to the cake," guessed Anna, her instincts on point. Zach nodded sadly. "I've got to go now, Sadie. The guy behind you is hot, make sure your chances are high!" She ended the call. I frowned, and glanced behind me. Jax was standing there, his arms folded.
"Jax, that's violation of privacy to eavesdrop on my call, I hope you realize," I said, rolling my eyes.
"Sadie, that was violation of politeness to have a call while we were talking, I hope you realize," mocked Jax.
I sat silently for a few seconds before making up my mind.
First, my mother had dumped me at a camp with a shitload of strangers. Now, she was going to a family reunion without me.
I was pissed off, and I honestly didn't care about anything anymore.
"I'm going to go."
Jax nodded. "I have no idea what the hell you mean by that, but I'll go with you."