Camp Canoa // Luke Hemmings

The One With Too Much Meat

That lunchtime was spent with Danni and Nora, eating sandwiches and bitching about the children. I told them about the incident with Calum and they laughed uproariously, looking over at the boys' table. To my surprise, they responded by standing up and picking up their trays, walking over to our table and sinking down next to us.

"Hi." Michael said, as if it was completely normal for them to do this.

"Uh hi?" I said, laughing.

"Is it okay if we sit with you?" he asked, even though they were already sat down either side of us.

"I guess we don't really have a choice." Nora laughed.

"We're not that bad." Ashton said, pouting.

"I like your accents." Danni said.

"Perks of being Australian." Calum grinned. They had flown a long way to get here, I was impressed. 17 hour flights was the most I could manage.

"We were wondering if after this afternoon's activities you guys want to come and scope out the village nearby. I think it's called Alben." Michael said, opening a bag of crisps. It could be fun to get some time off and go and look around the place. Especially that beach, I want to go there again.

"Uh yeah sure, we have horse riding and ultimate Frisbee this afternoon." I said, half to Michael half to Calum. Calum responded by banging his head on the table.

"Luke I can't believe you got us into this job." He scowls.

"It's for the money dude, locate your chill." Luke said, leaning back in his seat.

"It's effort." Calum replied shortly.

"We heard that you totally kicked Calum's little Asian ass this morning." Michael smirked.

"Okay listen here you red haired fuck..." Calum started, making me laugh. I feel like we could have a really good summer with these guys.

***

That evening, I got ready to leave with the boys, Danni and Nora. I slipped on a grey t-shirt and pulled on some ripped black shorts. I laced up my converse and viciously attacked myself with deodorant. The heat is causing me to sweat more and I keep being self-conscious that I smell bad. I pull my hair up into a ponytail and wait for Nora and Danni to finish getting ready. We were almost done when there was a sharp knock at the door. I walked over and pulled it open.

"Your carriage awaits." Michael said, accompanied by Calum, Luke and Ashton who were each holding bikes. Michael and Luke both had their purple baseball hats on backwards.

"Hi guys, they're nearly done." I turned to Danni and Nora who had joined me at the door and grabbed my keys and money off the side, locking the door behind me.

"Let's go and explore." Calum said and we set off riding down the rocky path towards the town on our Camp Canoa bikes. We cycled down the rough paths and roads for fifteen minutes until we came to a small village with cobblestone streets and a sea front. We found a little ice cream shop and propped our bikes against the racks nearby, praying that they didn't get stolen. We strolled along the seafront, talking about everything from where they grew up to playing a hilarious game of would you rather. I found out that Luke and Michael are basically shipped together by everyone, because they argue like an old married couple about anything and everything. It's kind of adorable. We were sat on the stone sea front with our legs dangling over the edge, arms laced through the bars, eating ice cream from a tiny shop on the corner.

"We're in a band." Ashton said, licking his chocolate ice cream.

"What kind of band?" I say.

"We're called 5 Seconds of Summer. We're kind of like All Time Low I guess." Michael said, biting his ice cream.

"That's disgusting how could you chew it?" Luke says, looking over at him.

"I refuse to accept that you could chew ice cream," Ashton said.

"It gets the job done quicker." Michael said, sticking his dairy covered tongue out at Luke, causing him to make a face.

"You're gross." He muttered.

"Your face is gross." Michael retorted.

"Good one." I said sarcastically, making Luke giggle. He laughs in so many different ways, it's quite funny. He's one of those people that has an incredibly infectious laugh. I polished off the cone of my ice cream and dusted my hands off on my legs. I looked out at the sea and it looked so peaceful, the waves crashing against the sea front and the sun slowly setting over the top of this little town. It was nice... calm. 

Until Michael spoke again.

"Did you know that when bees have sex, their testicles explode?" he said absently and we all turned to look at him. Luke blinked slowly.

"That's pretty cool." Calum said finally.

"Did you know that female hyenas have balls?" I said and Michael looked at me with new respect.

"I did not know that." He said amazedly.

"I think you just found the animal mating fact that Mikey didn't know." Ashton said, rolling his eyes. Clearly this was a regular thing with Mikey. It was getting late, so we started to head back to camp. It was almost dark now and we took a 'shortcut'. At least that's what Michael told us it was.

"Dude if I get abducted by aliens right now I'm gonna kick your ass." Luke said, stepping over husks of corn.

"They wouldn't go for you first." I said. "Too much meat."

"You calling me fat?" Luke said, mock offended.

"Yeah they would definitely go for Luke or Calum." Danni agreed.

"They're not gonna go for me, I would put up a fight." Calum said.

"You're like a little puppy Calum you would not." Mikey said.

"Yeah true." Calum sighed.

"They would probably take the girls first." Michael said after a minute, rustling on ahead, pushing his bike along with him.

"Oh yeah why's that?" Danni scoffed.

"I don't know, because you have girl parts?"

"Maybe you should be attending the camp instead of volunteering at it Mikey." I laughed. It was so easy to get along with these guys.

"Okay whatever." He replied, stepping out of the maze of corn. "Race you back to the camp." He said, cycling quickly away.

"I'm totally gonna win Clifford!" Calum yelled and we all piled onto our bikes, peddling madly towards Camp Canoa. I laughed, my hair flying in the wind as I sped down a hill. We pulled up into the entrance of the camp and we were met with a completely silent site. 

Michael and Luke were shushing me as we all crept through the darkness towards the dorms. We finally got to the wooden hut and said our goodbyes, the boys heading down the veranda to split off into pairs to go into their separate cabins. We got inside and changed into our pyjamas and washed up. I fell onto my bed, lying there in the dark listening to Nora and Danni brush their teeth. The smell of the forest and humidity clung to my sheet as I pulled them out from underneath me, tucking myself up and checking my phone quickly. One text from my mother asking if everything was going okay. I replied and put my phone face down on the dresser, hearing Nora and Danni come out of the bathroom and get into their beds. We chorused our goodnights and I rolled over to face the window. The sky was clear and the stars were out, I could only barely see them through the gap in the curtains and I fell asleep to the sound of crickets.