Eden and Bea (LGBT+)

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The tent was soon set up, but Eden was still gazing at me with narrowed eyes. 

Clearly, she hadn't taken so lightly to the whole 'frappe girl' comment. Eden Ida Thorne may have been better at me when it came to English, but I remained the camping expert. 

"What're you thinking about, Edie? Something you'd like to share with the class? You know, maybe you should take a picture, it might last longer," I said. I knew that it was going to annoy her and I was correct. 

She soon rolled her eyes at me and then she wandered past me, to get a closer look at the tent. "This is not ideal," she said, "For starters, I feel completely out of my element." She then glanced down towards her phone and sighed. "There's no Wi-Fi here because we're in the middle of nowhere! And last but certainly not least, I'm stuck here with you." 

"That's a pity. I was planning on getting you a camping kit, for your birthday next month," I said. I knew that I probably could have helped myself by trying to be civil, but I had to admit it- this was far more entertaining. I observed as Eden's face flushed with colours that I had previously never seen it be. She was eighteen and she was getting this worked up over a little camping trip, seriously? 

Then again, I hadn't exactly wanted to spend the trip with her, either. So, in that respect, I supposed that I couldn't judge her too harshly. Thinking on it for a couple more moments, though, I decided that I could. Ultimately, she hadn't been kind to me during my years of school. Why did I need to suddenly try to be kind to her? It hadn't worked out or me the past several times that I had done so. She had spread those rumours, sure, but that was only the start of it. In all honesty, I wasn't too sure what she had planned next. 

Soon enough, Eden came to stand beside me and I was reminded of the fact that we were about the same height, annoyingly enough. Actually, she was a little taller than me, which was even more annoying. Nevertheless, there was nothing that I could do about that, not unless I somehow conjured up a shrink ray. I tried to not appear too amused as I thought about a tiny, infuriated-looking Eden. As I observed her, she looked around the camping field for a couple of seconds, as though worried that a monster would jump out of the trees any second now. I wasn't sure what she was so afraid of. 

"Well, I'm tired. I don't know about you, Edie," I said. 

"Don't call me that," she said abruptly, "Beatrice." 

"Eden," I replied. 

She sighed with discontent and then stormed into the tent. 

Well, that didn't take as much convincing as I thought it was going to. 

I guessed that Eden really was tired, after all. 

As the air around me grew colder, I decided that it was about time I made my way inside, too. 

When I settled into the tent, I saw that Eden was already brushing through her hair and dressed in her pyjamas. 

"I can't believe that I have to go camping," she said. 

"Hey, it'll be fun," I replied. It came out sounding genuine, though I had probably meant for it to sound sarcastic. "Besides, cooking food on fires and everything...that's how we evolved." 

"Exactly," Eden said, looking entirely offended, "I'm not some Neanderthal." 

Right, almost forgot. She probably had her servants make up all of her meals. 

"You always enjoyed stuff like this," she went on, then, as she settled into her, appropriately pink, sleeping bag. 

"Huh?" I asked. 

She looked tempted to roll her eyes at my question, but refrained from doing so. 

"What I mean to say is that you always enjoyed spending time out in nature. You were always top of gym class. That sort of thing..." her voice faded slightly, until she continued, "Not that I was paying much attention to you." 

I couldn't help but smirk at that. 

She totally was. 

Perhaps, she didn't ignore me quite as much as I had previously believed that she had. 

Before I could even respond to her statement, we heard a voice outside of our tent. 

"Girls!" he said. 

It was Mr. King. 

I went to move the tent entrance, so that I could meet his gaze. 

He was holding a flashlight in his hand, so I blinked a few times before I spoke again. 

"Uh, yes sir? What is it?" I asked him. 

"It's dinner time!" he said. 

I quickly took a moment to look at my watch. It wasn't too late, in all honesty- nine in the evening- and I couldn't deny that I was hungry. My stomach felt a little empty. 

"What?" Eden said from behind me, her tone of voice incredulous. "Now?" she asked. 

Mr. King looked a little irritated. 

"Yes, now, Miss Thorne. Let's go," he said. 

So, we followed him and the rest of the students further out into the field and towards a land space that had been illuminated by lanterns on lampposts. We may have been camping, but at least we weren't plunged into darkness. 

The empty feeling in my stomach only grew more apparent when I smelt the delicious scent of burgers, which a few members of the student ambassadors had cooked up for us, along with some of the other staff members that had come on the trip with us. 

"Queue up everyone!" Mr. King said and so we did. 

One by one, we got a chance to grab a burger. 

We were then able to move further into the field to sit down to eat them. 

Eden turned to me and frowned. 

"Come sit, partner," I said, as I sat down on the ground on top of my jacket, and pointed to the free patch of grass beside me.