Camp Canoa // Luke Hemmings

The One With Ping Pong

[Day +62]

It was early afternoon and Nora and I were in the stables cleaning out the horses while Ashton and Calum were taking the new kids around the campsite. I hauled a saddle onto my lap, dipping my cloth into the wax and rubbing it in vigorously. Nora was standing nearby brushing the horses down and raking out their hay.

"So... Ashton?" Nora began casually.

"I know you like him." I said and Nora chuckled nervously.

"What? No I don't, why would you think that?" She said quickly, focusing intently on the horse.

"Yes you do. I know you and I know when you like someone." I said smugly, rubbing the worn leather.

"Okay, so what if I do?" Nora said, blushing.

"Well it's kind of obvious he likes you back." I said and Nora looked up quickly.

"He- he does?" She asked. They had spent yesterday afternoon with Ashton's head in her lap as she leant against the tree, sunglasses pushed up onto her head. She caught up on her social media while he slept.

"Um yes... definitely." I said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it was.

"Oh. Well, Luke clearly likes you. I've been waiting for you two to fuck in front of us all with the amount of sexual tension between the two of you." Nora said and I choked.

"What?" I said, trying my hardest not to blush. I really liked Luke but he was just a friend.

"Don't lie to me, you like him." Nora said.

"No, I like Sam Peters." I corrected, moving the saddle off my lap.

"Grace, he's like the most popular guy in school, he's screwed 90% of the girls in our year."

"So? I still like him, are you saying that I don't have a chance? That was the whole reason I came here wasn't it?" I said, hurt that she thought these things.

"Grace, let's be real. Your plan to marry him wasn't ever serious, was it? You've liked him since like Year Eight!" she said.

"Of course it's serious! I came here to get the money to put the plan into action didn't I?" I said exasperatedly.

"You only came here for the money? But we are all having such a good time and I don't think you should just brush aside Luke for some jock-" Nora said, clearly getting annoyed.

"There's nothing going on with me and Luke!" I half yelled. "And don't talk about Sam like that!" I said, standing up.

"You don't even know him! You know Luke and he's actually a good person, who cares about you and you're gonna end up hurting him! I actually care about him a lot you know!" She said angrily.

"You're supposed to be my best friend." I said, hurt. I turned around and stormed out, throwing my waxy cloth on the floor. I can't believe she's acting like this, she knows how long I've liked Sam for. I needed time to breathe.

***

The next time I saw Nora was later on, when Calum suggested that we had a friendly competitive game of ping pong while the kids ate dinner. Luke was still being his usual cute, dopey self so there was no opportunity for Nora to yell at me more as she narrowed her eyes from across the room at me as I talked to Luke.

This lack of opportunity meant that Nora had to resort to taking it out on me during the intense game of ping pong. The sharp, slicing smack of the bat against the ball sounds like a threat with every strike and the icy glare from Nora wasn't any less intimidating. We had been playing for 2 minutes when the guys suggested a one on one Norace game. Great. After a minute of angrily smacking the ball to me as I tried to avoid being bruised, Nora spoke up.

"Are you ready to give up yet?" Nora snapped. "Or are you just going to keep being a stubborn cow?"

I ignored her, I had learnt over the years, even though we barely argued, that retorting only made it worse, and she could sass me to no end and the situation could rapidly deteriorate from there.

Luke was sat on the sidelines with the rest of the guys, watching the game with rapt obliviousness, and the thought of him finding out what I had said to Nora earlier made my stomach pitch nervously. In the couple of seconds that I was distracted with Luke smiling at me, Nora slammed the ball and it hit me hard on the arm, leaving a stinging red mark.

"Okay fine, you win." I said, rubbing the sore patch on my arm. Nora straightened up, pushing her hair out of her face.

"I know." She said, slamming the paddle on the table and stalking off to sit next to Ashton who high fived her on her game.

"Okay, my turn." Luke said, standing up and approaching the table. He took the bat from where it lay on the table and the rest of the guys snickered from where they sat. He flexed one arm in excessive preparation for the game. "Are you ready?"

"Baby, I was born ready." I joked, smirking at the pale pink blush that crept up his neck at the endearment.

The game commenced. Danni cheered for me and Luke fumbled a lot; whenever he drops the ball, it takes him an age to retrieve it from wherever it rolled to, and sometimes I would walk over to get it, even if it was basically next to him.

Once Luke tripped while trying to hit it and whacked his hip on the corner of the table, and several times he flailed so widely to hit the ball that he just missed it altogether, making it bounce on the table again.

"Do you want to stop? This is just embarrassing." I said, teasing him. He looked over at the rest of the boys and smirked.

"Yeah, you don't want to hurt yourself Luke." Danni laughed.

"No I think we should at least finish." Luke said innocently.

I inevitably won fifteen-nil, and Luke demanded a rematch, offering 3 more massages – or the other way round, should he magically win – and idiotically, I agree.

In hindsight, it was a bad move.

The moment we shake hands on it and the boys start laughing, we return to our respective positions either side of the table. Instantly, Luke's blundering clumsiness dissolves and is replaced by startling professionalism, and as soon as I serve the ball, it gets sliced back with a spin on it that I could never recover from, and I realise that I have been fooled.

"You little bitch." I said, filled with reluctant awe as the boys howl with laughter. Luke shrugs innocently. I turn to fetch the ball, recognising at this early stage that I've been hustled.

From then on, there is no return and no hope for recovery. The brutality of a startling ping-pong talent that I would never have believed possible beyond Forrest Gump and the raucous laughter of Ashton, Calum, Michael, Nora and Danni practically wetting themselves with laughter as I got absolutely destroyed.

I didn't just lose; I got massacred, dismembered and the broken shards of my pride scattered to the four corners of the earth as Luke smirks confidently.

The game ends fifteen-nil again and I fell to my knees in mock agony. Nora looks temporarily satisfied and Ashton and Michael wipe tears of laughter from their eyes. Luke walks over to me, taking my hand and helping me up, apologetically kissing it. I ruffle his hair and half-heartedly attempt to give him a dead arm.

"You guys knew about this then?" I said, turning to the boys.

"Yep, we've learned not to go against Luke at ping pong anymore since the great ping pong disaster of '09." Ashton says solemnly, and we all laugh at that. Nora seems to have slightly let go of the argument as we walk to the canteen to get dinner. She sidles up to me.

"Sorry for trying to force Luke onto you. Just don't hurt him." She said, giving me a stern look.

"I don't want to." I said honestly.