Camp Redwood ( book one )

Bonus: Miles's POV

Miles felt beter now. He has always wanted to tell Rue about it, but he didn't know if she could understand. Why did he doubt her like that? At least she knows now. His parents didn't know either but maybe that was for the best. They never really understood him. Always telling him to stay away from Rue, that she is a bad influence and she is distracting him from his education. 

But he had always thought he was a bad influence. Stealing, obsessed with magic tricks. Rue was actually trying to get him to stop doing that, but he couldn't. It was his escape from the world. He knew hers was reading so he needed one too. And holding those little objects he was stealing was making him happy, and he also said that these things made his life a little more interesting. He got caught the first three times, but each time he improved his technique and then he got away for his first time, and since then, no one was able to hold him back.
Of course, he wasn't a bad person. Or, that's what Rue said. He just liked to stop thinking about his mom who was stressing him about his grades.

"I already know a lot of things about how the world works mom!" he had told her "Grades don't matter."
"You don't know a thing about what matters or not!" she had replied him "You need to get them up, or you can't see Rue anymore. She has always been a bad influence anyway."

He had sighed and walked away. He didn't like arguments. Especially with his mom. But when he looks back at those fights, maybe she was right. Maybe he should have stayed out of trouble. Because now he is covering for a murder for someone he hates. Brandon, the perfect guy. Why do I hate him so much? He wasn't a bully. Then he used to shake his head You can hate someone even if they don't bully you, MIles. He is a bad person, that's it. And he knew he was right. His blood was boiling everytime he looked at him laughing with his other friends. Or how he started crying after his darkness got away from him. Just to get their sympathy. 

But of course, then there's him thinking it was all his fault. He convinced Rue to come to the camp. He agreed on stealing clothes with Brandon. Because he just can't deny a stealing opportunity. He put his bestfriend through all of this. And she had to protect him, no matter what, and that was on him. He could have just say "no" to Brandon's idea. Or "no" to the secret party in the woods. 

Or he could kill Brandon himself and get it over with. Nope, I'm thinking like him. Be the bigger person, Miles. He has always wondered how the others got their powers. Brandon's seemed to appear after he killed that person. He hoped it was a curse, and it sure did look like one. And Eleanor controlling the weather, that was just amazing. Maybe she was born with it? Or... another reality! Yeah, that one's defintely it.

Because he remembered vividly how had gotten his. He was out in the woods, looking for Rue's bow so he could play around a bit with it. He liked to pretend that he can shoot arrows and knows how everything aboyt them works, but in reality, his friend was the master and she had never really bothered to teach him. It's her cool thing, so I get it. One of the trees behind which was the boy should have a bit different. It had a very badly scratched heart with an " R+M" inside of it. They had done it so they could mark their friendship forever. "Trees are the oldest and most beautiful things out there. And our friendship will last even in our next lives." Rue had said, and he had believed. He finally spotted the tree but he couldn't find the bow anywhere. Is Rue practicing somehwerere? He looked around the other trees too but he just didn't see it. He panicked, because Rue loved that bow and losing it would be a horrible thing for her and he didn't want to see her sad. 

Her smile was the only thing keeping him sane sometimes. Miles started running through the forest but as he got deeper in it, it started feeling like there was no way out anymore. He passed his and Rue's tree thousand of times and he saw the same bird more than once, sitting in the same spot each time. He couldn't breathe and he started to feel like the tall dark figures with leaved and sky were pressing on him, everything started spinning around his head. The croaking of the bird, filling his ears, as he tried to put his palms around them so he wouldn't hear those painful sounds because that was defintely not the beautiful song of a little bird.