Summer Camp Sweethearts

Chapter 4

"Come on, guys, we are almost there." Mr. Newman says. Early the following day, even before breakfast, we were told that we needed to be ready at 5 in the morning because we were going hiking. The second thing I don't like about camping. Hiking. I am not the fittest person you would ever meet. I do like the outdoors, though, believe it or not. It's just... exercise is not my thing. I stare straight ahead, admiring the counselor we were assigned to. He is not that bad-looking. His chestnut brown hair, quiffed hairstyle, and amber eyes make him look like he came straight out of a novel. Picture perfect.

"Our camp counselor is handsome," I say to Sofia, still looking at him, not registering what is coming from my mouth.

"Do not talk like that; otherwise, there will be trouble between you and Kyle," whispers Sofia urgently. My head whips in her direction, and I realize what I have just said. I suddenly walk into a rock-hard body in front of me.

"Watch where you're-," the hard body speaks. The rock-hard body turns around and smiles. "Sorry, but you need to look where you are going."

I walk back to where Sofia is standing and grinding at me. I realize that Mr. Newman came to a halt. I look up at him and smile apologetically.

"Okay, guys. This is the place to do birdwatching." I raise my hand, very reluctant.

"Yes. That girl with the white t-shirt and Alice band."

"Sir, what kind of birds are we likely to see here?" I ask, and I can feel my cheeks starting to get hot.

"Here, we can see many different kinds of birds. It is too many to name now, but you can look them up on the internet. There you will be able to find your answer." The group counselor says while he turns around to walk further.

"Who will go on the internet in the middle of nowhere? There isn't even any signal here." I say to myself while I look at my phone, holding it up, trying to get some signal. Nothing.

"You're the one who is supposed to be on the internet," says Kyle. "I'm not going anywhere," I say, but he doesn't listen and walks away from me. He's gone for a while when Sofia comes up to me.

"Melissa, are you okay?" she asks with concern.

"Do you want to go home? We can go back if you want." She says quietly as she looks at my face.

"No! No, it's fine!" I say quickly before turning around and walking towards Mr. Newman.

"Hey, Mr. Newman," I say as I walk up and stand in front of him. "I'm sorry I interrupted you." He looks at me with a smile on his face.

"No problem, Melissa." He says before he turns around and starts walking again. I follow behind him, trying to keep up with his pace, while Sofia walks beside me, looking worriedly at my face. When we return to the group, everyone talks about something else, but they stop when they see us. Kyle comes over and stands next to me.

"What's wrong?" he asks with concern in his voice.

"Nothing," I say as I look at him and then back down at the ground. He looks at me for a moment before walking away from me and towards Piper.

#

"There is dirt everywhere!" I hear one of the cheerleading girls from our team say who is walking right in front of me. I roll my eyes because they are moaning about small things like this. I need to hear this.

"We're hiking. That's kind of the point," I recognize their high-pitched voices as Madison, the cheerleading captain, and Olivia, also on the cheer team. My ears pique up again as I hear Kyle's name mentioned in their conversation. For the rest of the chatter, I could not quite make out what they were talking about as the noise was muffled by the surroundings of the bush.

"What do I hear about Piper's relationship with Kyle?" The one looks at the other. Their heads turn around, and their eyes stare back at me in a playful way. There's dead silence in the air.

"So, are you going to answer my question, or must I strangle it out of you?" I ask again as I look at the group of girls.

"If you want to know, go and ask Piper yourself," Madison says with an attitude.

"Yes, go and ask her yourself." Olivia copycats. I look at them in disappointment. I turn around and walk away in the direction of the camp.

"She is bossy," Madison says in the distance.

"Yeah, she is," Olivia says. I stop and turn around to look at them. They're still talking about Piper and Kyle's relationship.

"I'm not bossy," I say. They look at me in surprise. "But, I am curious about what you're talking about."

"Well, Piper and Kyle are a couple now, so they have to be together for the rest of their lives, or else it's bad luck," Olivia says with an attitude.

"Yeah, I know that," I say. "But what do you mean by bad luck?"

"Well, it's like if they break up, then their relationship will be over, and Kyle will have to go back home," Madison says with a look of concern. I'm not sure about this, but I don't want to ask Piper because she'll probably tell me the same thing as Olivia did.

"Well, I'm not sure about this, but it sounds like a lot of trouble to go through just for some bad luck," I say.

"Why don't you ask Piper yourself?"

"Yeah, why don't we do that?" Olivia says with an attitude. She turns around and walks away in the direction of the camp. Madison follows her. They both walk off without saying goodbye to me or anything else, for that matter. What did they mean by bad luck? I have no idea. I walk off in the direction of Piper.

"Hey, Piper," I say. "I was wondering if you could tell me what Olivia and Madison were talking about."

"What do you mean?" she says with a look of confusion on her face. She's acting like she doesn't know what I'm talking about, but that can't be true because we've been together for the past few days. She knows everything there is to know about me, so why would she not know?

"Well, they said something about bad luck and how Kyle will have to return home if he breaks up with me."

"Oh, that," she says. "I don't know what they were talking about."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "Kyle is going to break up with me? Why would he do that?"

"I don't know," she says. "Maybe Kyle is not as into you as you thought."

"Well, that's ridiculous," I say. "He is so into me, and there is no way he would break up with me because of something like this."

"I'm sorry to hear that," she says. "It must be hard for you to deal with all of this alone." She looks at the ground and sighs a little before looking back at me again. I can see a slight smirk playing on her lips.

"I'm sorry," she says. "It's just that I don't know what to say."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "You've been saying the same thing for the past few days now."

"Well, it's not like this is a new situation or anything," she says.

"That doesn't make any sense at all," I say as my voice starts to rise slightly. "Kyle has never cheated on me before. He's never even been with another girl." she shrugs her shoulders and walks off.