Cabin Fever

2

I'm all packed and ready to go, I double check everything to make sure I'm all good. My grandma comes in because my door is open and looks at my bags. "Leaving already?" She asks even thought I told her 2 days ago. "Yes ma'am. I'm all packed and rests to go" I tell her and she nods.

She gives me a hug and walks me outside where my grandpa is doing work on the house. "Love you papa" I say giving him a kiss on the cheek and a quick hug before he waved to me. I pack my stuff in the car and hop in before turning it on. I give a honk if my horn as my last goodbye and they wave as I back out the driveway.

I hop on the interstate and blast my music to help pass the time. I drive quite fast so the 3 hr drive became more like 2. I also chose the time I would leave carefully so there wouldn't be much traffic. I pulled into an unmarked spot on the dirt parking lot and turned the car off.

I took a deep breath and hopped out with a smile to get my things. I put my duffel bag on my arm while I hold my suitcase in the other hand. I connect my keys to my belt loop with the hook and walk further into the camp. I come upon a big building which I think would be considered the mess hall.

I walk through the doors hoping to find someone since the lights are on. A lady walks out from behind the counter upon hearing the door close I suppose. "Can I help you?" She asks in a somewhat neutral tone. "Hi, I'm Alicia. I'm a new counsellor here and was just hoping you could point me in the right direction possibly" I say reaching out my hand.

"Iris. Just go out and to the right, it's pretty much a circle so just walk all the way back until you see your cabin number" she says flatly. I'm not really sure what my cabin number is but I didn't want to bother her anymore so I just politely nodded and left. I walked in the direction she said, confused as I tried to look for someone else to help me.

All of a sudden I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned around quickly, dropping my bags in the process. "Sorry! I didn't mean to startle you" a blonde woman says, "sneaking up on someone and touching them before saying anything... certainly doesn't seem like behavior that would startle someone" I say chuckling nervously.

"Yeah... I probably should've thought that one through more" she says giggling nervously. "You're the woman who talked to me on the phone" I say certainly but with a questioning lilt to my voice. "Yeah... how did you know?" She asks, "well your voice of course, but also your laugh" I say absentmindedly as I dust the dirt off my bag. I paid a lot of money for this damn bag, man.

"Oh. Well umm... I can show you to your cabin. You're in number 5 which is on the other side" she says offering her hand to take one of my bags. I give her the suitcase as it's lighter and she smiles softly before leading the way. "You never did mention your name though" I point out and she shakes her head chuckling to herself. "Of course. My name's Cordelia" she says sweetly and I nod continuing to follow her.

"The cabins go from the right end of the semicircle to the left" she explains as we walk. "Funny. Iris sent me in the opposite direction" I say and she laughs. "Yeah Iris is... well she likes to mess with newbies. Usually we do assign new counselors to cabins 1-3 because they're older. The cabins go by age group for the most part but we set it up differently this year" she says.

"Are they co-ed?" I ask, "no. We have a side for boys and a side for girls. The boys are across the lake, we do bring them together for group things but they sleep separately. We also have male counselors for the boys and female for the girls, just makes it easier" she explains. I nod taking in all the information and soon we're at cabin 5. She opens the door and shows me where my bed will be.

It's at the very back while the other beds are spread on either side in the opposite direction. This way I'll be able to see all the girls, but they also have curtains around their bed for privacy. "I'll show you were my cabin is and tell you all the other counselors and things like that. You can get unpacked first though" she says seeming to shift nervously on her feet. Maybe she just doesn't usually do this for new comers.

"Nah I'd rather put it off" I joke and jump a little bit rocking on my feet signaling my slight impatience. "Well alright let's get going then" she says not questioning it and walking out the cabin letting me exit first. She closes the door behind us, stopping in front of the cabin. "So in cabin 6 is Audrey, she's nice but reserved for the most part. She's been volunteering here for a while, I've never really got her to talk much but when she does she's really polite" she says.

We walk past my cabin and stop in front of 4. "In cabin 4 is Billie... she's been here for a while too, almost as long as me. She's really friendly and will most likely be showing you around when I can't. She's also the head counselor for cabins 4-6" she says moving on. "I'm in cabin 3" she says once again walking, "in cabin 2 we have Lana, she's super sweet and she mostly just volunteers cause she's bored. She's a writer so she also gets inspiration from being here, at least I think that's what it is" she says.

"Cabin 1 is Wilhemina but she likes to be called Ms.Venable. Don't ask me why, cause I have no clue" she chuckles. "So that's about it, I'm head of cabins 1-3 but you can also come to me if you need anything of course" she says with a wide smile. "Uh you've seen the mess hall. I can show you the classrooms though" she starts walking and we make small talk until we get to the building.

"So this is where we have 'classes'. It's really just like activity rooms. We have an art room here" she opens a door and closes it after I peak around. "Then we have the recreation room" she opens to show a full size gym with basketball goals that are in a folded position. "And this is pretty much a multipurpose room for all different types of things. We meet here for morning gathering because it's like a middle point. All the kids come in and we go over the schedules for the day and things like that" she explains.

We exit the building and walk back towards the cabins. "So today you can just settle in, we don't really do much yet. We're going to meet today for an hour to start setting up the schedules for next week. We do that on Sunday every week because it's a free day for the kids to roam the grounds. It's mainly just the heads of the cabins, Iris, and Ally. Ally is the owner of the camp, she's here all summer and can usually be found in her office. She'll be here a day before the kids start and we all have a group chat so we can communicate when we need each other" she says.

We stop in front of mine and she folds her hands in front of her. "You can give me your number and I'll add you to it. I think that's it... I'll be in my cabin if you need me" she says. I nod and thank her before entering the cabin and watching her walk off through the window.

She looks back and I hide peaking my head out just enough to see her but so she can't see me. She tripped just before making it to her cabin making me giggle. I turn around and sigh realizing I have nothing to do but unpack. Once I'm finished I go on my phone for a bit being surprised by how good the service is.