To the one who made me smile

Chapter 2

"245 bottles of beer on the wall, 245 bottles of beer. You take one down you pass it around, 244 bottles of beer on the wall. 244 bottles of beer on the wall, 244 bottles of-"

Before you say anything, no, neither of us two were singing. And yes, I was joining in on Maria's thoughts of dropping out of school. About one hour ago the guys in the back decided what a prickling idea it would be to count down the beer song from 1000.

An hour later, I was contemplating if there are any other hobbies they entertain in life.

Which, apparently they don't.

"... 238 bottles of beer on the-" Maria sighed.

I turned back in my seat looking at the boys. To my surprise, it wasn't Theodor and his friends as I had expected. He was just there reading a book? Perhaps I was hallucinating.

But to be fair, I didn't know much about him, or his friends Henry and Jay in the first place. I only knew that they looked like Hawaiian surfers dressed in English golfer clothes (with polo and all that), and that they enjoyed golfing - what a surprise, right?

I also know that Theodor is pretty hot. Wavy, almost curly blond hair, freckles, splattered over his arms that appeared every time he rolled up his sleeves. He smelled of cloves and coriander, like Christmas mixed with the lemony zest of summer. I wonder if he spent much time in the kitchen, or if it was just his shampoo. From Henry and Jay I knew that apart from golfing, they did rowing too. I knew they were average students - too good to be considered bad and too bad to be considered good - and that their favourite subject was sports.

"Oi," I shouted at the group of guys that were actually singing. Destiny and Sarah, the two posh girls, chimed in. "... you take one down, you pass it around, 231 bottles of beer..."

"You're behaving like a flock of kindergarten children experiencing their first sugar rush. Just stop?" I raised an eyebrow at them.

"Don't worry, princess," one of the boys went, "only 231 more to go, right guys?" he laughed and the group joined in.

"Yeah right, stop being such a crybaby," another one belted.

I gave them a hard death stare when I saw Theodor looking up at me. "No, she's actually right," he turned to face them, "you're annoying the shit out of me too."

The group laughed again and Theodor turned back around. He glanced at me before lowering his head to continue reading. After that, there was no more singing.

I wished to have Theodor's power, but I believe his power was simply being a guy.

They never take a girl seriously, that's what I learned over the years. But not once did that hinder me of giving bullies a piece of my mind. A grueling one and a half hours later, we arrived in Hampshire. The bus came to a stop on the side of a rather muddy, foresty type path. 'Main camping site. New forest, Hampshire', I read the sign.

I shook Maria's arm vigorously "We're here," I said and she groaned in response.

Her head fell back on my shoulder. There wasn't much I could do, the decision had been made. Mr. Graham came rushing down the aisle "Gather your belongings," he said, "and line up outside the bus, our bus driver will let you to your suitcases.

Then, he proceeded to give us the well-known 'you are presenting our school from now on' talk, and 'there are other people on the campground'. As well as that he 'expects nothing other than our best manners'.

"Maria!" he exclaimed and she bolted into an upright position, "you too," Mr. Graham ordered sternly before walking away.

"I thought I was having a nightmare," Maria muttered, dozily, making me chuckle.

We got off the bus and snatched our suitcases, said a group-'thank you' to the bus driver, and headed towards the campground.

There weren't many people we could represent our school to. Not many eligible ones, anyway. Most of our tent neighbors were above the age of 65 enjoying the calm and quiet before a busy summer. I felt bad, as I could imagine if I were old I wouldn't necessarily want a group of loud teenagers ruining my retreat.

There was a lot of groaning and cheering when Miss Cavendar revealed the groups we'd share a tent within the next two weeks. Luckily, as for Maria and me, our special request had been approved and it was just us two.

"They could've just left the paper blank and I'd have the same amount of knowledge I have in me right now," Maria complained.

"Can I see?" She handed me the small sheet of paper.

"Wow, you're right," I confirmed. "The little stickmen aren't helping much."

Maria lifted a metal bar and laid it back down on the flat tent. Now the two bars were crossing each other. "So far, so good," she said.

"Let's do the outer tent first and then we can add the inner tent thingy," I exclaimed, using my best technical terms.

We struggled around and after five minutes, the tent was stable and standing.

"No storm blowing over our lovely home," Maria said proudly, rubbing the dirt off her hands.

"No chance of that," I agreed. We looked around and saw the group of guys was done with their tent as well. Only Destiny and Sarah were busy doing Destiny and Sarah-stuff.

We were free for the rest of the afternoon and therefore decided to go on a walk to make the most out of our cameras.