My Camp Love

Nathan's Game

When we all sat down, I asked Nathan if he had a dance competition plan yet.

"Yeah, my roommate is my partner. You know, Malvern." He said with a sign of doubt. "Our theme is 'the 90's'."

"Who's Malvern..." I asked with a weird questionable look on my face.

Zack and Nathan both looked at each other and laughed. I furrowed my my eyebrows. Their laughter came to an end when I shook my head and shoved macaroni in my face. "Malvern is a cool nerdy tech guy. We should bring you to meet him after lunch." Zack explained.

I sighed. I need some girlfriends in my life. I'm used to having men around since I have three older brothers. Josh is the oldest, Park, the second oldest, and Roger the second youngest. Two of which have moved out (Josh and Park of course). Yes, my family is old, but it's nice to have peace. For example, there's less arguing about who gets to play what video game. I understand the criteria of boys... I guess. That's probably the reason why I have more guys as friends rather than girls. Plus Roger is only a year older than me, so his friends are my friends basically. Why doesn't he have to go to camp? He plays baseball during the summer. Lucky me, I don't have to go to those games. I'm not a big fan of sports.
"Hale... why don't you tell me about yourself?" Nathan insisted.
I looked at Zack with a questionable face. "Uh, ok?" I took a drink of water and begun with the basics. "I like video games, purple, nature, I have no father, three brothers plus one mom, a pet doggo, and I'm practically weird in general."
"Mm, you are pretty interesting." Nathan said as if it were a compliment. "Pretty..." I could barely hear him whisper under his breath. I just sort of ignored the fact that Nathan has a "thing" for me. Well, actually it's pretty obvious. I think Zack is jealous.

Lunch was over soon enough. It was actually awkward because it seems like Zack could identify Nathan's signals, and the tone in his voice. Nathan started to lead us to wherever "Malvern" was. Nathan kind of seems cute, but I wouldn't count on boys right now. It's almost been an entire week here at Camp Waterson's. I don't think I should really look into dating at camp, I don't even know if Zack lives close to me. I questioned myself if I should tell him... but he might take it the wrong way. I just decided to keep quiet.

"I think you'll like Malvern, Hale." Nathan smirked.

I looked at him a blank face. Why is this kid so important or great? I don't know, and I'm not sure if want to know. "Do we always have to talk about him?" I asked.

"Just wait til' you meet him." Zack laughed.

We got back to Nathan's cabin. It was actually nicer than all of the other cabins. I asked Nathan why that is so. He said that his family owns a lot of money and they spoil him. What is a rich kid doing st a camp? Maybe he loves nature like I do. I'm a city girl, but people are just the way they are I guess.

I noticed a short boy sitting at a desk against a side of their cabin. He heard us open the door to walk in, and he immediately jumped out of the chair.

"Well well well, who do we have here?" Malvern asked as he looked straight into my eyes.

He was very short, shortet than me! I'm only 5'4 too.

I looked around the room with an awkward expression. "I'm Hale, I've heard a lot about you..."

"You seem chill." He says as he takes my hand and leads me to all of the technology stuff on the desk.

Zack and Nathan follow over. They both smirked. Malvern started typing a bunch on the keyboard.

I looked at Nathan. "What is he doing?"

"Just watch." He said. His eyes glistened from the light's reflection.

All of the sudden a bunch of views came on the screen. It looked like views of... security cameras?

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"I'm a hacker, but I don't abuse the power." Malvern said as if I should be impressed. "We're going to spy on the headmaster, he keeps hiding something from Jones, a camp worker."

"Interesting." Zack complimented.

We watched the screen for a few minutes. We saw the headmaster writing something on a piece of paper, but couldn't make out what it was. I noticed a wall filled with pictures of all the camp staff. There was a red x on a few of them. I pointed that out.

"What the heck..." Nathan said.

I started to get a bad feeling.

I looked at Zack. "I think we should leave. We still need to practice the second half of our dance some more."

"Yeah, I guess so." Zack said, wishing we had more free time.

It's almost 3:30. We still have 3 and a half hours until the show starts. Zack and I headed out and said bye to Nathan and Malvern.

"So what do you think?" Zack asked.

I looked at him oddly. "Of what?"

"Malvern, silly!" He says as he nudges my shoulder.

"Oh..." I said. "He's... talented?"

Zack gave me a side smile. "You don't seem very amused."

"I am!" I remarked, "Just sort of tired."

"You can't be tired! We still have a lot of practice left to do." Zack exclaimed.

I said, "I know, but can't I just lie down for twenty minutes?"

"Fine." Zack agreed.

We walked back to my cabin. It was surprising that my roommate wasn't there. Maybe she left to go practice her dance with her group. We walked inside my cabin slowly. I looks around the room and found my fuzzy green blanket on the floor. I usually kick it off of me in my sleep.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Zack asked as I sat down on my bed.

I smiled. "Sure."

Zack sat next to me on my bed and took my blanket out of my hand. He wrapped me in it. His presence already gave me enough warmth. I re-positioned myself so that I'm actually lying on my bed.

I closed my eyes. "You can lie down too you know."

Zack raised his eyebrows as if he were surprised. "Oh..."

I really don't mind anyways since my brothers would always have parties and their friends would sleep over. I could feel Zack lying next to me. I smiled until he poked me.

"Hey, uh... can you not hog all of the blankets." Zack said with a soft voice.

I opened my eyes and sat up to throw some blanket over him. His body was facing upwards, and he was looking up at the ceiling. I turned over to face him.