After lunch at the dining hall, our authorized heads gave us thirty minutes to rest. William fled to the Sports Wing Complex to play some basketball while Luna and I had a nap at the cabin.
I changed in my sweatpants and white shirt, cropped just above my belly button. I took the top bunk since I found out Luna fears prominent places.
It’s been five minutes of laying down on my bunk. All I ever do is switch to both sides from time to time, put my hands at the back of my head, and stare at the ceiling fan running circles.
I peek through Luna’s bunk. She’s asleep, but I suppose she hasn’t been yet in deep slumber because it’s been only five minutes. So, I climbed down from my bunk to wake her, hoping that she might change her mind into going outside instead of sleeping.
“Luna.” I hissed at her. She just switches sides and so I went to the other side.
I looked at Luna sleeping in the most harmonious way. I never wanted to disturb her slumber. I can even go outside on my own, but how can I when there are two guys outside who want to kill me. Hence, I tap Luna’s cheek softly.
I am sorry, Luna.
She stretched her legs and spoke with her groggy voice, “Go to sleep, Ellie.”
To her I whispered, “I can’t. I want to go outside.”
“Then go outside,” she told me with her eyes closed.
She must have sensed my reason I needed her to come with me, so she opened her eyes and propped her elbows.
“Look, if you’re worried about Ace or the milk boy, William is at the Sports Wing Complex. You can just scream or run to him if Ace harasses you. And milk guy, he probably wouldn’t recognize you because you changed your hair color,” she said and immediately unpropped her elbows and sleep again.
I am uncertain if the milk boy wouldn’t recognize me because of my hair. How could a person forget a stranger who stomped on his foot and threw milk at him? As for Ace, I am not positive either. I know he wouldn’t let me get away from humiliating him in the school hall. And I am not sure William can help me, because Ace knows when to take an opportunity.
Basically, I haven’t been certain about everything at all lately and it ****** me off that I still do things even though I am not sure about anything at all.
Like at this moment. I am not sure if I can make it back here at the cabin without at least even a minor scratch on my skin from those people. But here I am, letting Luna sleep in peace and me at the front door, far away from feeling peace, but still continued to walk away from the cabin.
Our cabin was five blocks away from the Common Grounds and luckily, I made it to the Common Grounds without catching sight of the two guys I was trying to hide from.
The Common Grounds, as what I said, is a spacious place with its length is from the right side of the cabin up to its left side. There are three pathways at the Common Grounds that lead to the other facilities of the campsite.
The pathway on the right side leads to Citadel Lake. The left pathway takes you to the Sports Wing Complex and Activity Area and straight ahead, to your right, is the Citadel Dining Hall, wherein on the left side of it are woods.
I made my way towards the Sports Wing Complex. It was an extensive complex. There’s a soccer, a basketball and volleyball court where I glimpsed William playing basketball with someone from school and others from the other groups. There’s also a track and field and bleachers.
The right side of the Sports Wing Complex entrance gate is a pathway that leads to the Activity Area. According to the camp house rules, Activity Area is prohibited unless activities are occurring.
Since I have nothing to do on this site, I went to the lake. The first thing that greeted me at the lake was its wooden bridge that leads to the body of water. Beside that was the shore filled with stones. Nothing much is in here asides from the lake and the woods.
Few campers were sitting by the shore. Some were throwing stones at the lake and some were chilling as they put a cloth on the ground to lie on top.
I walked towards the end of the wooden bridge where the lake water was. I sat by it with the railings supporting my back and my feet on the other side.
I took my time to savor the scenery around me as I wait for free time to end. Somewhere beyond the place, I heard cars passing by despite it being surrounded by trees and woods.
My attention switched to a piece of paper that flew at my feet, disconnecting my thoughts from the sounds of cars passing by.
I caught it at the exact time with my right foot and reached for it with my hand; it was an empty piece of paper wherein at its back was the camp house rules written.
I flipped the paper again at the blank side and I remembered Ms. Beaumont. Maybe trying that essay scholarship for college is not a terrible idea at all. And since my surroundings at the moment are peaceful, it’s a perfect place to write an essay.
I took the ball pen I used for checking my attendance at the dining hall a while ago from my pocket. I put on my earphones and positioned myself comfortably for writing. It took a few strumming of my ball pen on the piece of paper before I could think of something to write.
As I was in the second paragraph of my essay, a huge hand grabbed my shoulders and pushed me off the bridge. It was just when I felt my body hung from the air and then the next thing I found myself underneath the lake’s water with bubbles blocking my face.
I spread my legs and hands to push myself to the surface. The lake must have been so deep because it feels like forever before my head peeked at the surface of the water.
The first thing my eyes saw as my head appeared at the top of the water was my phone; I grabbed my soaked cell phone instantly as someone also pulled me up from the lake.
My feet landed on the wooden bridge and I fell onto my knees, coughing so hard as droplets of water continuously dripped from my hair.
“You all right?” someone grabbed my arm and put me in a standing position.
“I am fine. Than–” I was cut off by what I am about to say when my eyes landed on a guy with mesmerizing hazel brown eyes.
“Have I seen you somewhere?” He asked me.
I bowed my head down, avoiding him to see my face. I can feel the anxiety eating me as my heart beat so fast and wished I stayed under the lake and drowned, but then the idea of drowning and killing me was also not my type of way of dying.
“I don’t think so. Thank you, by the way. Bye.” I said urgently, my head still bowed down. I was about to pass by him and walk away when he held my shoulders, keeping me in front of him.
He let go of my right shoulder and used it to drag my chin up so that he can see my face. I immediately bowed down again when he already saw my face and removed his hands from my shoulder.
“Huh, what a small world it is.” He said with an amusing tone, “I knew you look so familiar when I first saw you stepped at this campsite. God! Look at how the tables have turned. Just a few weeks ago I was the one soaking in front of you and now it’s you, but you’re in a white shirt and not in black color like mine that doesn’t make it see-through when I get soaked,” He let out a low whistle.
I forgot I was wearing a white shirt that clings to my body, making it see-through. I cross my arms to cover my chest.
“Is this how you always say sorry to people? In a see-through shirt? Cause, if it is, apology accepted.” He said, grinning.
I closed my eyes, pissed off. This is why I never felt sorry for throwing milk at his face. He’s fucking annoying. I let out a deep breath and looked up at him, and gave him a fake smile.
“Get out of my way, asshole.” My face instantly dropped from my fake smile as I pushed him aside and walked out.
“Woah! You’re welcome and it’s Nico, by the way. Not asshole.” His scream echoed through the lake. I flipped him off. “Nice to see you too.” He screamed again; his voice full of amusement.
I followed the pathway back to the Common Grounds, soaking to go back to my cabin. I saw Ace and his teammates laughing at one of the table picnics at the Common Grounds.
“Had a pleasant swim?” Lucas yelled to me as I made my way back to the cabin. I once again flipped them off, and they just laughed.
~~~
I ran a bit late for the first activity, but fortunately, when I got to the Activity Area, the Bakersfield High school students were still outside the gate. I caught sight of Luna and ran behind her.
“Where have you been?” she asked over her shoulders.
“Took a bath.” She faced me, surprised.
“What? You will sweat up again,” she said.
“It’s a long story.” Luna sensed my annoyance and just shrugged and ended the conversation.
The first activity was Capture the Flag. There were about thirty students who joined the camp, so they divided us into two groups. Team A and Team B. The three of us were in Team B whilst Ace and his teammates were in Team A.
The Activity Area is surrounded by woods and trees. Team A’s territory was on the right side of the woods whilst our team was on the left side. Our flags were bandannas based on our color reference. Ours was mustard yellow, and the other team was red.
There were no rules about how you will hide your flags. You can hide it anywhere you want and any way you want.
William, who was the acting leader of our team, assigned me to be a guard. Being the most inexperienced girl from sports, I was glad I will just stand and guard instead of running and sneaking. Both the cousins were attackers.
It’s been forty-five minutes of playing and the only thing the attackers carry when they go back to our base was a teammate from the other team.
And sadly, no sign of Ace, but Lucas was here. A boy guard, who I believed was in my biology class, tagged him when he tried to steal our flag. And watching him push-up for forty times and being told to do things amuses me.
Luna came back again breathless and informed us that the other team got William.
“Their flag is out of sight. We don’t know where it is.” A boy who I believe was Collins from my Home Economics last year said between breaths.
“What do we do now?” One guard asked.
“Keep your eyes open. They already knew where our flag is. Come on!” Luna said, and commanded the other attackers.
I walked back and forth in my position, chewing on my nails. We already lost six members and there were only four members of them being held captured in our base. I will not let Ace win.
The flags can be hidden anywhere or anyway we want. If it’s nowhere in sight, then they hid it any way they want… That’s right! The flag must be in the hands of one member.
“Keep your eyes open,” I told the other guards and walked to the woods that connect to the other side.
“Where are you going?” someone hissed.
“I’ll be back.”
I made it to the base of Team A. I hid in among the tree as I observed the positions of Team A’s members. Ace was among of the guards, but there was nothing inside the positions of the guards’ sides from our captured members. William caught sight of me and mouthed that I should go back. I just told him to “shh”
I looked closely at the guards and noticed that Ace was a little farther from the other guards. The rules said that you can hide the flag anywhere or anyway you want as long as you keep three feet from it, and out of the guards, Ace is the odd one out.
Knowing my target, I readied myself to run, not as sneakingly as possible, but obviously as possible. I made myself a bait to Ace, for I know he will do anything to inflict me and get his way to me.
“Attacker!” one guard screamed.
And with that, Ace ran after me and clashed with my body so hard that we were both at the ground. My face hit a log with a great impact that caused my forehead scratches of wounds and my nose to bleed. My body was still on the floor, and my face was buried in my hands. A whistle blew.
“Too violent, Team A!” the facilitator told Ace.
“What the fuck, Ace! She’s a girl, and it’s just a fucking game!” I was surprised when I heard William’s voice cursing. He is not the cursing type. I heard several screeches on the ground. Maybe other students avoiding William and Ace to fight.
“My God, Ellie, are you all right? For God’s sake, look at me.” Instead of looking at Luna. I raised my other hand and revealed a red flag, Team A’s flag. A whistle blew.
“Team B wins!” Cheers were heard from Team B, while the other group were groaning.
“And you, young man, will clean bleachers.” The facilitator said to Ace.
One of the camp house rules was that for any violations campers make like violence will be punished by cleaning facilities of the campsite. William gave me a handkerchief for my nose bleed and Luna flipped Ace off.
I refused to go to the clinic and just have Luna to take care of my face. We were both looking for a first aid kit in our bags and did not find any.
So, Luna texted William to borrow his first aid kit while I put back the other stuff in my bag when a piece of paper fell on the ground.
I looked at the paper with puzzlement on my face. How this paper ended up in my bag when I was the one who packed it and I don’t recall putting this paper inside.
I stood on my feet and told Luna that I need some fresh air and I’ll come back for my face.
She let me go.
I walked outside with the paper in my hands, and once again looked at it. I read the words above it that were tinted with black ink.
Ellie Blythe and Dad’s Travel Bucket List