Listen to Your Heart

Chapter 4

Meredith, Julia, Denise, and I walk outside of the girl's dining hall. We start to walk towards girl's campus when a guy's voice calls out, "Excuse me! Can one of you help me with something?"

We walk over to him and Meredith says, "What do you need help with?"

"I have no idea how to get to my bunk, can you show me?"

"No," Meredith says, "but my friend Lauren can."

"Mer!" I exclaim.

She winks at me and says, "Come on Lauren, we'll see you later." I mean he is pretty attractive and I'll gladly walk him to his bunk but I feel awkward being put on the spot like that.

I smile at him and say, "hi I'm Lauren."

"Hi I'm Joe. Joe Walker," he says while sticking out his hand for a handshake.

I shake his hand and say, "your name is Joe-Joe Walker?"

"No uh my name is just Joe Walker, but you can call me Walker, all my friends do."

"Oh so we're friends now?" I ask.

"I mean I hope so. I'm new and I need friends."

I laugh and say, "Okay well we can be friends. So what did you need help finding?"

"My bunk," he says and looks down at a piece of paper. He continues, "boy's bunk 7B. Juniors."

"Okay I know where that is," I say and we begin our walk to boy's camp. "I also have juniors."

"Oh cool, what's your specialty?" He asks.

"I'm a general counselor."

"Okay right, right," he pauses, "What's that?"

I laugh and say, "I take campers in my division to their activities and stay there with them. What's your specialty?"

"I'm the sports fitness guy."

"So I guess you're really into working out?" I ask.

"Yeah, I lift," he says while flexing his arm muscles.

I laugh as we approach his bunk and say, "Okay bunk 7B is the one on the left side of the building."

"Kay cool thanks."

I turn to leave when Walker says, "Lauren?"

"Yeah," I respond.

"Do you wanna go out? On like a date."

"Sure, I'd love to. I'm off tomorrow night."

"Okay cool, umm I think I am too."

"Okay well I'll see you around," I say and turn back towards girl's camp.

I smile as I approach my bunk, but sadly my happiness cannot last because Jaime runs up to me.

"Ooh LoLo why are you so happy?"

"That's none of your business."

"Why do you hate me so much?"

I can't believe she has the actual nerve to ask why I don't like her. "Are you kidding me Jaime? Why would I like you? You've bullied me for years and even when we're older you can't stop."

"I'm sorry."

"Are you though? Because you sure don't act like it," I say.

"I know I was awful to you. And I know that you have no reason to be nice to me but I just wanted to know if we could maybe try to be friends? Like you said, were older now."

"I don't know Jaime." She looks at me with begging eyes and I say, "okay. We can try to be friends." She squeals. "But wait," I say. "I have a few conditions."

"Okay, what are they?" She asks.

"First, no more calling me LoLo, I hated that name when we were younger and I hate it now. Secondly, you have to be nice to me and don't worry I'll be nice right back. And finally, you can't expect me to worship you like I did back then, I'm different now."

"Okay thank you so much for giving me this chance, Lauren!" She exclaims.

I smile and head into my bunk.

"So how was your little walk?" Julia asks me while sweeping the floor.

"It was good, he's really cute."

"Yeah he is, what does he do? General counselor?" She asks.

Nope, he's the sports fitness guy," I say while grabbing the dustpan. "He asked me on a date."

"Aww Lauren that's great. I'm so excited for you!"

"Thanks Julia! I'm so nervous for it but I know it will be great. It's tomorrow; you'll have to help me figure out what to wear."

"Of course," she says and we continue to clean the bunk.