Camp Starlight

Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I scowled as I scrutinize the spider crawl towards the white pillow. It's huge with a hairy body garbed in urticating hairs and red malicious eyes, making it look more terrifying than ever. My glare tightened at the disgusting insect, it just lay there. It's a tarantula or what other people call it, furry death. This is exactly how I saw it in Animal Planet. I grabbed the paddle that sat on the corner and used it to slam the spider off my bed. It crawled on the floor, towards me. Well this spider was amusing; I got to admit it had guts, too bad I had to splatter it all over the clean wooden floor. I crushed the arachnid and heard it's body get squished, I smirked at the removed hindrance.

I begin to unpack my things, organizing my shirts, shorts and underwear whilst I ask myself why I was in this camp in the first place. It all started with a phone call from my favorite uncle, Uncle Kevin.

**Flash Back**

"Claire would you like to have a summer job as a camp counselor?" my uncle asked with his usual friendly fatherly voice.

"But I don't even know a thing about counseling..." I refuted nervously, my grip on the phone tightened.

"You'll learn." He replied calmly.

"What would I be teaching anyway? It better be interesting." I asserted.

"I remember that you used to love camping when you were a kid. You loved roaming the forests and studying about animals. I think you'll make an excellent wilderness counselor."

"That's awesome, what about my secondary work?" I asked gaining more enthusiasm.

"Well, no other position is available but arts and crafts." He answered.

"What?! I completely suck at that! Can't it be archery instead?" I retorted in a frantic tone.

"Sorry, but that's the only one open." He apologized, upset at my disapproval.

"But-" before I could protest, my uncle asked if he could speak with my mom.

I watched my mom as I saw the crease of worry on her forehead. Then she closed the phone and faced me. I saw her emerald eyes glisten with concern.

"Kevin really needs your help, Claire. His camp is barely making it. Besides, it will good for you to be in the outdoors since you're always at home playing video games and searching the net." My mom said in her usual soft motherly voice. I wanted to object and explain that I'm in perfectly good shape since I always play sports and jog every week. But what's the point in complaining? I'd just end up going to the camp anyway.

Uncle Kevin had always been my favorite uncle; he's so generous and caring. But he always had problems running his camp that has been there for four years. The first year, an earthquake ruined mostly half of the whole camp. Second year, the "only 13 year old campers are allowed to join archery" rule was up due to that kid who lost an arm. Third year, a fire started and burned down a lot of cabins. Fourth year, the case of snake bites dramatically increased. And last year, sadly a camper died in a wilderness trip. As a result of all of those accidents, uncle Kev had such a hard time keeping the camp afloat. I'm surprised that he never gave up even through all the money that he lost.

Fearing the thought of guilt if I rejected this favor, I finally agreed. I called my best friends if they would like to join me. Dana really wanted to join but she had a lot of summer classes to attend to. Melissa was allowed to join which is awesome since she's my closest friend in the whole world! And the rest of my friends were either too busy or too lazy to join.

**Back to Reality**

Anyway here I am at Camp Starlight, my first day and I just arrived to see a big hairy tarantula on my bed. A good sign? Not. Finally finished unpacking, hoping I'll do great at this job.

"Hey Claire." A familiar voice said. "Hello? Anyone here?"

I turned to see my best friend, Melissa. She was laid back on the edge of the door frame with her arms crossed on her chest. Her black hair glistened on the sun light and her gold eyes lingered around my cabin. Melissa's appearance is that she's an indoors type. I mean, she starts complaining ever since we took one glance at the camp. I guess the thing she tells about her having a bit of British blood was true, affecting her features. I'm kind of the opposite. I'm the outdoors type, with my tanned skin, emerald eyes and messy light brown hair. My narrowed eyes show my little Asian genes. That and I totally love exploring nature and discovering new things. Animal Planet, Discovery and National Geographic are like my favorite channels ever since I was a kid.

"Hi Claire! So how are you enjoying camp so far?" I asked cheerfully with a big smile.

"Ugh, it's filthy and filled with disgusting insects." She said reluctantly.

"What else should a camp look like?" I replied rhetorically with a chuckle.

"Yeah right..." She commented sarcastically whilst dramatically rolling her eyes.

Since Melissa's reaction to our topic is pissing me off, I decided to change it.

"If you're not interested in Mother Nature, I know something that might intrigue you." I spoke carelessly.

"What?" Melissa asked eagerly.

"I bet there would be a lot of good looking guys as camp counselors."

"Really? Well look who's talking about boys." She sneered with an impish grin.

"Forget it, one of the reasons I even accepted to come to this camp is to have a vacation from boys."

"From boys? You mean from J." She teased again, her smirk growing bigger.

"Haha! And I'm guessing that's also one of your reasons." I scoffed back.

"Oh don't start the 'we were never together but he still broke my heart' emotional stuff. Last time we did, we cried."

"Yeah, but that's why we're writers dudette. Being emotional is our thing." I ridiculed.

"Yup, it's really---" before Melissa could finish her sentence someone was yelling.

"HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!"