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Well, I had to face facts here, Eden had fallen asleep on me! 

Her head rested against my shoulder and it wasn't as if I could shrug her off me, that would be sure to wake her up and, in truth, after what she had said to me, when we had first boarded the bus, I wasn't sure I wanted to speak to her right now. 

That was assuming, of course, that she even wanted to speak to me. So far, at least, it hadn't seemed that way. Maybe I could sacrifice one of my chocolate bars and bribe Mr. King with it. Maybe then he would change my partner. I would have taken Ren Grey over Eden Thorne at this point, honestly. 

Alright, that was a little mean. Ren actually was okay. She was strange but she was all-around friendly to people. On the other hand, Eden was not very friendly to other people, or at least, she hadn't been friendly to me. She had this cold exterior that I was convinced if I reached out to touch her skin, I would move away with pale fingers. I couldn't say that I hadn't tried to break down her barriers and become her friend because I really had. She had just never seemed interested and it had been this way since the two of us were preteens. I don't think I realised, back then, that things would never really change much, between the two of us. 

I supposed all I could really do now was hope that when Eden did eventually wake up, she didn't realise what she had been doing while she was sleeping. That is, of course, leaving stray blonde hairs on my shoulder and yawning profusely. She really was tired. It seemed as though she hadn't slept all that well the previous evening and I couldn't help but wonder, if only for a moment, whether she had trouble sleeping due to her worries about the camping trip, too. Either way, what was I thinking? Was I actually sympathising with her? Well, if that was the case, I needed to get rid of those thoughts as soon as possible. 

Fortunately, the bus soon came to a quick stop and jolted Eden awake. She rapidly removed her head from my shoulder and pulled her sleeping mask off her face, mussing her hair up a little in the process. She smoothed it down as she tried to become familiar with her surroundings again. 

Mr. King soon stood up and called back to us, "We're here!" he said. 

Eden met my gaze momentarily with a slightly curious expression. "I didn't fall asleep on you, did I?" she asked me. 

I couldn't lie to her. 

"Yes, you did. You drool," I said, wiping at my shoulder. 

Eden rolled her eyes at me, "Oh, ha-ha. Very funny, Hazel," she said, though her voice was without amusement. 

Mr. King led the way off the bus and the students followed suit. 

Eden and I practically wrestled on the way down the aisle of the coach.

"I'll go first!" I said. 

"No, me!" Eden said, pushing her way past me and yanking her pink holdall after her. 

Soon enough, we emerged from the bus alive and well. At least, that much could be said for now. I was just glad that she hadn't dropped her bag onto me. That could have happened, thinking about how clumsy she had been recently. Was she always this way? I supposed that, up until now, I hadn't had much reason to pay attention to her, besides the obvious.

 Eden always found a way of getting people's attention, so I tried to not spare her much of mine. 

I was glad to be out in the cold night air- it settled my anxieties a little. 

"Beatrice Marie Hazel!" Mr. King called out, as he began to go down the class list. 

Did he really have to call out my whole name? 

"Yes, sir!" I called back. 

He continued to go down the list and eventually got to Eden, who responded with an eloquent, "Here, sir." 

I nudged Eden slightly so I could get a closer look at what Mr. King and what he needed to say. 

"Now, we're going to make our way to the main camp site. Stay close," he said. 

Some of the students murmured in agreement, and then we began to follow him towards the camp site. 

Once we were there, we found a bunch of tents in need of setting up. 

I could remember how to do that from the times that I had gone camping with Axel. 

Eden's eyes shone with some concern. She looked as though she felt a little out of her element. 

Fortunately for the both of us, I had some idea as to what I was doing. 

"Alright, guys. Pair up and go and set up your tents. That's your responsibility but I'll come over and help if you get stuck. Then, you can go to sleep for the night. Good luck!" he said. 

We made our way towards the tents and Eden looked towards it as though it was a pile of trash she didn't want to go towards. 

"Now, we need to pitch the tent, unless you want to sleep out here on the grass," I said. 

She raised an eyebrow at me, looking completely unamused. 

"Don't," she said, as she moved forward and grabbed one of the tent pegs, moving it around as she tried to figure out what she needed to do with it. 

"Do you need some help-" I started to say, but she interrupted me. 

"I know what I'm doing," she responded, with a little impatience. 

I felt my forehead crease. 

"I mean...are you sure? Don't impale yourself with it," I said. 

Though her eyes widened slightly at the comment, she gave a shake of her head. 

"I'm not stupid," she said. 

"You're right. You're just careless, frappe girl," I said, as I began to set the tent up for the both of us. 

Eden and Bea (LGBT+)Where stories live. Discover now