When we finally reach the top of the hill we’ve barely spoken. I scan around the area searching for the cabin with the number thirteen posted on it. I spot it at the very top of the hill, an enormous amount of stairs leading up to it. Fantastic.
Once I open the door I’m awaiting a cool rush of cold air to greet me. Holy crap! Stepping inside, it’s hotter in my cabin than it is outside. The musty scent wafting through the large wooden room causes me to cough immediately. I can actually see dust floating in the stream of sunlight shining in through the door. “What did I do to myself?” I mutter under my breath.
“You okay?” Tucker asks from the doorway, the bright sun still glistens behind him making him one big orangey shadow. I’m still not even sure what he looks like.
“I’m good. It was so nice for you to help me. Thank you,” I say dismissing him.
“Tessa, been a pleasure meeting you. I’m sure I’ll see you later.” Just normal words but the way he says them, I don’t know, make it sound serious and sexy. He nods in my direction stepping from the room, closing the door behind him.
I look back over at my disgusting new living quarters. All I see is dirt covered wood and empty stained mattresses on metal frames. How am I going to spend the summer here? The three large tubs of Lysol wipes I have stashed away in my duffel bag are not going to cut it. I reach into my bag and grab my phone. No service. Take a deep breath, Tessa, you can do this.
Cassie
This is the mountains. This whole camp is one big continuous mountain. You can either go up or down. My cabin, of course, is up.
“Do you want me to help carry your stuff up?” Mark offers. Lucky for him, his cabin is down the steep hill. Girl’s cabins are on top of the hill, boy’s cabins on the bottom.
“No, you go, I’ll manage.” I grunt repositioning the duffel bag over my shoulder and start the trek up to cabin thirteen. “I’ll see you later.”
My bags get heavier with each step. I look up at the cabin I’ve been assigned. It’s set back the furthest and at least twenty old wooden stairs lead up to the door. Why? Why are there so many steps? It was hard enough lugging these bags up the bumpy steep hill but now I have to deal with this. I can hardly breathe hiking my way to the top and I still need to make a second trip to get the big fan I brought with me. Why didn’t I say yes when Mark offered to carry it up for me?
Sweaty and out of breath I finally reach the top step. Once the door is open I see a perky blonde sitting on one of the beds waiting for me.
“You must be Cassie.” Her ooey-gooey syrup voice matches the rest of her. Blonde curls come bouncing over to me and I drop my bag down to the floor. “I’m Tessa,” she introduces herself.
Oh wonderful, her name is just as sweet and perfect as the rest of her. How come girls who look like this always have cute names? She’s tiny, dressed in crisp navy shorts and a pink tank top. Her make-up is perfect and instantly I’m hit with a sweet fruity scent. She smells as pretty as she looks. I glance down at my faded jean shorts and equally faded black shirt and suddenly I feel like a big ole’ sweaty man standing next to her.
“Hi, nice to meet you.” I hold out my hand, but get hugged instead. Of course she’s a hugger.
“You’re so tan, I feel like a ghost next to you.” Tessa sticks her pale arm next to mine for comparison. A thick gold bracelet with a diamond T dangles from her wrist.
“I spend a lot of time outside I guess.” I eye Tessa up and down carefully, either I’m going to love this girl or hate her. By this time tomorrow I’m sure I’ll know.
“This is my first time here. I don’t know anyone yet, do you?”
Here we go, I smirk. I can try out my plan. “My brother is here, Mark. It’s our first summer as counselors too.”
“Oh, that’s awesome. How old is he?”
“My age, eighteen. We’re twins.”
Tessa’s face lights up excitedly when I say the word twins. This is fun already. People love twins.
I make the long second trip to Mark’s car and return lugging my fan up the obscene amount of stairs. By the end of the summer, I should be in the best shape of my life from all the walking and climbing I’ll be doing here.
Back at the cabin, I clunk the fan down and officially check this place out. The dingy log cabin is set up for ten campers in the main space with two counselor’s beds off to the side in an alcove. Tessa calls “heads” and gets the bed closest to the window. As we unpack we give each other the rundown of family, hometown, college plans and relationship status. We’re both single. I’m glad, that makes it more fun. A partner in crime.
“Alright, let’s go see how hot the guys here are,” I announce already sick of unpacking. “If we get to the counselor’s meeting early we can check everyone out as they come in.”
I get ready by tightening the rubber band around my ponytail, while Tessa gets ready applying fresh pink lip gloss, rubbing scented lotion on her arms and legs and finishes off applying some mist all over her body from a very fancy bottle. Once again I feel like a dude next to her. I kind of wish I had a fancy spray.
The hall where all the counselors are meeting is hot and muggy. Heat I can handle, but all this humidity is a whole other thing. I grab Tessa by the hand and sit us down in a prime spot next to the rusty dust covered fan so we can stay cool. Three days until camp actually starts and the kids begin arriving. The next few days are for orientation, training and hopefully a ton of partying.
Immediately, my eyes scan the room checking out the guys. Sorta cute, not as great as I hoped for. But maybe everyone still isn’t here yet.
“Which one’s your brother?” Tessa whispers leaning into me, her own eyes skimming the room.
I point at Mark, who’s sitting next to a stocky guy in a pair of tan shorts and a bright orange shirt. Mark flashes his amazing giant smile at me and waves.
“Wow, your brother is gorgeous,” Tessa giggles. “Not that I’m surprised or anything because you’re so pretty,” she adds quickly.
Oh yeah, sure, I totally believe her. I roll my eyes. Maybe I’m wrong but I get the feeling the only girl Tessa thinks is pretty…is Tessa.
But she is right about Mark. His dark features and light blue eyes do make him gorgeous. His skin and hair are so dark and then that pop of blue just…yeah, he’s good looking. Unfortunately so far, none of the guys here even come close to being as good looking as he is.
I turn towards Tessa ready to say something and I’m a little uncomfortable when I notice she is still staring in Mark’s direction. She’s eyeing him hungrily. I can see right through her Miss Innocent act. Mark doesn’t seem to notice her leering in his direction but the bright orange shirt guy next to him does. Ha! Good. Let the orange guy think she’s checking him out.
A guy and a girl burst into the room full of energy and clapping their hands together.
“I’m Julie!” the girl announces in a cheerful sing-song voice.
“And I’m Vinny!” the boy cheers. “We’re your camp guardians.”
My eyes dart across the room and meet Mark’s. We give each other the same knowing look. I know he’s thinking exactly what I’m thinking…What did we get ourselves into? I bite back a laugh and he actually lets his escape out. He makes a small cheer gesture and raises his eyebrows. I nod my head and shake an imaginary pom-pom causing Mark to bust out another laugh.
“Oh my God.” Tessa leans in and whispers. “How cute are you two with your own secret language. Is that a twin thing?”
“I guess.” I raise one shoulder and laugh. It’s so easy to fool people. I’m just close with Mark. We get each other is all.
The “camp guardians” ramble on about the camp philosophies for thirty minutes. The words safety and fun are repeated every few sentences. Camp rules come next, followed by counselor guidelines. Relationships of a romantic nature are frowned upon. A few people in the crowd snicker.
What? No summer fling? I start to grumble, one more glimpse around the room and I realize it isn�
��t that big a deal. Where are all the hot guys?
“Alright, let’s start off with a round of introductions. I know some of you have been here before and others are brand new. When I point to you stand up, tell everyone your name and give us a quick sentence or two to tell us a little about yourself.” Vinny pumps his fist in the air and gives a “woo-hoo!” He points his finger right at me.
Crap, no one likes going first. I stand up and face the circle. A quick smile from Mark eggs me on and I decide to go for it.
“Hi, I’m Cassie and I’m all about safety and fun. Yay, summer.” I squat down raising my leg to the side when I stand back up.
“Woo-hoo!” Mark yelps into the air applauding wildly. I smack my hands together, point at him and give him a woo-hoo right back.
“Excellent spirit guys!” Vinny encourages everyone to clap for us.
By the time we’re halfway through introductions my hands are sore and red from clapping, my enthusiasm inspiring others to do the same. Didn’t anyone catch on that I was joking? Anyone besides Mark?
A few more bored glances around the room and I’m still checking everyone out. Looks like I won’t be having a summer fling after all. Time is going so slow and it’s about a bazillion degrees in here. I hold back my laugh when I look over and see Tessa with her hands folded in her lap. She’s taking in every word as if she’s actually interested in all these boring details no one cares about.
The double wooden doors clunk open echoing through the sweltering room. Everyone turns to face the distraction clambering in.
“Sorry ’bout that,” says the hottest guy I have ever laid eyes on.
He’s tall, tan, dark hair with amazing blue eyes. HOT. My summer fling has arrived. I drag my eyes away from him for one second to notice Tessa checking him out too. Not good.
“Dibs,” I whisper to Tessa who looks at me funny.
Vinny waves him in to the circle. “No problem, come on in join us. We’re doing introductions. Tell everyone who you are.”
“Hello, I’m Sam Sawyer but everyone just calls me Sawyer.” He adjusts his bag slung diagonally over his slim well-built body. Damn. My summer fling is sex-y.
“Welcome back, Sawyer, take a seat we still got a few more minutes here.”
I wish I could knock Tessa from her seat so Sawyer could sit next to me. He takes a seat in the back, and I’m unable to peel my eyes away from him. He notices me staring and flashes a smile in my direction that makes my stomach tingle. This is going to be the best summer ever. Guaranteed. When I’m old and gray, these two months right here that I’m about to live, this is what I’ll reflect back on. Prickles of excitement cause the hair on my arms to stand up. If I had a notebook in front of me I would doodle his name all over it.
The meeting finally ends and everyone breaks out of the stale meeting room in to the fresh night air. I ditch Tessa immediately and completely forget about Mark altogether in order to find Sawyer. Face after face I search through the swarm of people, he couldn’t have gone far. I wander to the back of the building, it’s dark but I catch a whiff of cigarette smoke. Sawyer’s a smoker, not great but I can deal with a little smoke if I have to. Stepping closer I see it’s actually Vinny, not Sawyer.
“Hey,” he says in a completely different voice than the one he’d been using the last hour and a half in the meeting. “You smoke?” He holds out his pack of cigarettes towards me.
“No, I was just looking for someone.”
“Listen, in a few minutes everyone’s meeting at the lake. I’ll be giving the real run down without Julie hovering over me.” He stomps the cigarette butt into the ground. The way he says Julie’s name leads me to assume there’s some obvious tension there.
“Oh good, there’s a real run down. I was afraid it was going to be all cheerleading and rainbows. Especially after the ‘romance is frowned upon’ statement.”
Vinny takes out another cigarette out and lights up. “Sorry, this is the first time I could sneak away from Julie all day.” He apologizes for his chain smoking and puffs away. “The romance thing, it’s a joke. Every year everyone here hooks up, this place is hook up central. See over there?” He points to a dark rundown cabin with boards over the windows. “They call that the sex hut. You’ve been warned. If you’re invited to go there and that’s not what you have in mind, don’t go.”
“Got it,” I gulp. A hut for sex, um, that’s a little scary.
“Oh and I don’t really know anything about your roommate, but be careful of some of the girls here. Courtney, the redhead, she’s the one who named it.”
“Okay, thanks for the heads up.”
“No problem.” Vinny exhales a big cloud of smoke.
I can hear music coming through the trees and follow the sounds away from Vinny and back towards the others. Sitting on top of a huge boulder I see Tessa staring up at two guys, orange shirt guy and…Sawyer. Geez, I’m away for two stinkin’ minutes and Tessa is already sinking her claws into the hottest guy here.
“Hey, what are you guys talking about?” I come up behind the two guys fawning over my bunk mate.
“Tessa was just telling me she’s bunking with my sister.” Mark turns around.
Not Sawyer, it’s Mark. It’s dark. They have similar hair.
“We’re really doing this?” he mumbles through clenched teeth.
“Mmhm.” I punch his upper arm to shut him up. Good, now I can casually ask if they saw Sawyer anywhere. Before I get the chance, my body is pushed into the massive chest of a bright orange shirt.
“Sorry, Cass, I didn’t mean to push you so hard.” Mark lets out a chuckle. “Don’t tell Mom on me, okay.”
I ignore him. “I’m sorry,” I say to the substantial guy I was shoved into.
“This is Tucker.” Tessa introduces him. Orange guy gets a name.
“Nice to meet you.” Tucker gives me a nod. He has an accent, which normally I love, but in this case, not so much.
“What part of Jersey are you from?” I ask, unimpressed.
Tessa gasps and then squeals. “How did you know that? That’s crazy. He is from New Jersey and you’ll never guess.” More ear piercing squeals. “I’m going to the same school as him. Me and Tucker. I can’t believe it.”
I smile at the overexcited blonde and pretend for a second I care. “Then you guys have a lot to talk about. I’ll catch up with you later by the lake.”
“Yeah I want to check the lake out too. Maybe tomorrow morning we can fish?” Mark puts an arm around my shoulders.
I move my shoulders away from his touch. “No, you can go. I’m not doing that here.”
“Really? You don’t want to fish while we’re here?”
“No, this summer is about fun.” I don’t know why I said it like that. Fishing is fun. Right now I just have other things on my mind. Like finding my summer fling before someone else does.
Mark turns away bothered by my remark. I don’t have time right now, I’ll fix it later. I take the chance to escape away and keep searching for Sawyer. He has to be here somewhere, he couldn’t have just disappeared.
My eyes stay peeled, following a group of people down a trail I assume are heading for the lake. We finally reach the end of the path to an open area by the dark water. I still don’t see any sign of Sawyer. Vinny’s already crouched down, cigarette dangling from his lips, building a fire surrounded by a small circle of blackened stones. Beer cans are being popped open and someone walks over and shoves one in my hand. “Thanks,” I mutter to the back of whoever it was.
The bugs are everywhere. You can feel them, hear them, I’ve already slapped and killed at least six mosquitoes on my arms and legs in a matter of seconds. In my cabin I have bug spray and a sweat shirt. I need to decide what’s worse, bugs or the hike up to my cabin? Another mosquito latches on. The cabin, it is. If I go quickly I can get my bug armor and be back in ten minutes.
It’s so dark walking through the trees searching for the right path back up the mountain. Not as lit up as
I expected it would be around here. Once the sounds of everyone partying by the lake fade off in the distance, panic sets in. Okay this was a bad idea. I turn around. This place is too new and way too dark to go off on my own just yet. Something snaps behind me followed by the sound of crunching footsteps. Thankful for long legs I’m able to soar over the unfamiliar terrain away from whatever danger is approaching until a hidden vine takes hold of my sneaker sending me hurtling to the ground with a thud. Shit, I’m about to be the first teenager murdered at camp this summer. Too scared to scream, I close my eyes and wait for a man in a hockey mask to plunge a knife into me.
“Are you okay?” A guy asks, laughing, not too concerned about my fear or my fall.
I open my eyes to see none other, than the guy I’d been searching for. Who else would it be? Embarrassing fall in the woods automatically means hot guy there to witness it.
“I’m fine.” I stand up wiping the dirt and pine needles away from my leg. Ouch, it’s scraped and raw, probably bleeding. Ignore it, focus and be flirty. “I’m Cassie. I saw you walk in late to the meeting. Lucky you.”
“Well then you know I’m Sawyer,” he grins. “You’re new here?”
“Hi, Sawyer,” I say with a dumb laugh. It’s been a long time since I actually flirted with someone and I’m not good at it. “Yeah, are you?”
“Nah, this is my third year here being a counselor. I was late on purpose. I hate that pep talk speech Vinny gives every year. I make fun of his ass every chance I get. He’s not really like that. He’s actually pretty cool.”
“Yeah, I met him before, he was smoking.” Holy Mother of God my leg is killing me, if this good looking guy wasn’t standing here next to me I think I would cry.
“You headed down to the lake?”
“Yeah, I got to find out the real rules.” I take a step and wince at the pain.
“Ah, yes, the real rules.” Sawyer stops me. “I’ll tell you one right now. The first night of camp everyone has to kiss someone.” He lifts my chin and presses his lips to mine.
Tessa
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