Top Bunk

DAY 2

⌚ 6:00 AM ON THE DOT

El was hoping she'd never have to hear that stupid horn again in her life.

But she does and she wakes up with a jolt and so does Grace and Grace falls flat on her face from the top bunk.

Before El knows it, tears are flowing out of her eyes from laughing so hard because Grace totally did what she said she wouldn't do and it's fucking hilarious.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Grace spits, pulling herself up.

El deeply considers doing so, but instead she stretches, getting out of bed. She pulls on her shorts from yesterday under her too-big tee shirt, ignoring Grace's glare. "Well, mistress," she bows mockingly to Grace, who's now gotten up and is running a brush through her sleek hair. "I think you should be in the bathroom right now? Whilst you are doing that, I'm going to head out."

Grace rolls her eyes, depositing the brush in a drawer and pulling out a (thankfully not pink) outfit, consisting of a purple campfire-embellished Camp Ashwood tee shirt and very short shorts, from the only closet in the cabin which she'd claimed for herself. "I hope you drown in the lake."

El sneers as she slips her flip flops on and heads out the door. "Don't count on it!" she calls, slamming the rickety cabin door behind her. She's never felt happier at this hour in the morning, so she has Grace to thank for that.

The campers aren't going to be here for two more hours, so she figures that she might as well enjoy the fresh air and the peace and the quiet (and the bugs and the smell of animal feces). Cabin 5, El and Grace's cabin, is right beside the lake, so El only has to walk a few feet to sit by it. She plops down on a weird-looking clump of small leafy plants and watches the stillness of the day, with the sun just risen and the wind blowing calmly through the trees and the lake - wait, is that who she thinks it is?

"Finn?" El mutters, squinting at the kayak approaching her.

Eventually, the kayak rolls lazily onto the shore, Finn bearing a grin as he climbs his way out. "Hey, El."

El is merely delusional since it's 6 o'clock. Not because Finn is practically glowing in the sunlight or anything. "What were you doing?"

"I like to kayak," he shrugs. "Calms my nerves."

"You're nervous?"

Finn leaves the oar beside the boat and leans by a tree beside El's patch of plants. "Kinda. Not like last year, though."

And because of this, El is nervous. Fuck. Now her heart is threatening to claw itself out her throat and she's sweating through her tee shirt and it's a lot hotter than it already was. "Thanks a lot," she mumbles.

"Hm?"

"Nothing," she heaves a sigh. "I think - I think I better head back. Maybe Grace is done grooming herself."

Finn snorts. "You make her sound like a dog."

El plucks out a clump of the leaves from the little patch of the plants as she rises and grins at Finn. "She might as well be. Grace is a bitch."

⌚ 7:15 AM

Why is El feeling weird down...there?

Like pain. And itch. And pain.

She stops scrubbing at her legs and peers down at her genitals. Why are they red?

Oh dear god.

⌚ 8:03 AM

El can't sit properly, inconveniently in the bonfire pit where all one can sit on is a makeshift bench made from a log. She's managed to find some calamine lotion (of Grace's, but she doesn't need to know) and slathered it onto her crotch region, but it still itches and hurts and -