5 new friends

"Hi Lilly!" She stopped herself before she introduced herself.

"Come on in and get a look around," Lilly said brightly. Paige did in fact look around noticing cute little knick knacks around the big open room. There was a little squirrel statue that had a very weird facial expression, like it was smiling but also about to bite someone's head off. A little wooden duck sat on one of the end tables. She turned to her left and then to her right. There seemed to be a pattern of bunk beds and two cots sat near to the door "those are ours," lilly interrupted her thoughts. Lily walked over to the one that was unoccupied. "Here's yours. Feel free to unpack whenever but this is probably a good time."

"Thanks." Paige smiled, dragging her suitcase under her bed, finally sighing in relief. She plopped the duffel bag on the bed and pulled out her blue sheets. She had brought her pink blanket as well and she made her bed putting that on top. There were little cubbies right next to the bed on the wall. She put her clothes in those as neatly as she could but it wasn't perfect. She groaned as the last shirt unfolded itself almost immediately as she put it in the cubby.

Finally she unpacked everything else and put those things away. Luckily her cabin had a bathroom so she put her toiletries there. All done, she thought, smiling at what she thought looked pretty neat. She sat down on her bed staring at the clouds wondering if it was going to rain later.

"So tell me about yourself,"Llilly said, sitting next to Paige on her bed.aige hadn't even noticed that Lilly had walked over.

"Well,m Paige, obviously. I'm 15 and I'm pretty shy if you haven't noticed."

"Jaha! Nice! I meant what do you like to do, stuff about your life." " I don't really know," Paige laughed nervously. "My life's pretty boring."

"Ah, you're good. I'll tell you about myself then."Lilly smiled, putting a serious look on her face. "I'm 16. I have 7 siblings and I'm really interested in band and film.

"Oh, cool. Now that I think about it, I love to skate and draw."

"That's nice!"I would draw if I could draw well," Lilly frowned.

"Well, it's really all about practice honestly."

"Maybe you could show me sometime. Lilly turned towards the door. "It's time," Lilly said, moving across the room.

iIt took Paige a second, but then she realized the campers had arrived. Trying to put on a good smile, she waited for the first camper to come in. Lilly gave her a thumbs up. Soon enough the first camper put her face up to the window, nearly scaring Paige. She was a little blonde girl that resembled a little model or maybe a pageant girl.

"Hi, m Sam!" the little girl shouted, walking through the door, letting it slam. hopefully not purposefully since there was another girl behind her.

"Welcome, Sam.We're happy you're here," Lilly said in her chipperest voice.

Paige tried to copy it, as the next girl came stumbling in. "Welcome!" paige said

" Th- thank you," the little girl stuttered, looking like Paige had frightened her. She definitely looked more shy than the first girl. Camper after camper arrived. Lilly and Paige took turns greeting them. Soon all of them had arrived and Paige took a break, tired of all the interaction.

"Hey! First, activity before dinner," Lilly said to Paige. "You're not required to come though, but I'd love it if you met my friends."

"Sure, why not?" Paige got up from her bed almost regretting leaving as she had just started a good book. But she definitely wanted to meet more counselors. The more people she knew around here the better, especially since she would run into Cal and Zoe eventually. It was super weird she hadn't seen them yet. But then again, they didn't live in the cabins. They lived down the hill in the estate. She put on her sneakers quickly, fumbling to get her foot into the shoe.

"Come on this way," Lilly said, lightly. She sounded excited. Honestly, Paige was super excited too. They herded the campers down a different path. Then Paige had come to the barn where the first activity was. It was an easy activity, watching the kids, since the staff at the barn just had a presentation. Then they would let the kids have a petting zoo type thing. The path was pretty narrow and it went a short way through the forest. She figured the camp managers tried to conserve as many trees as possible. The clouds were now all around and she really hoped it didn't rain since she remembered what fun things happened the first night. They got to the barn and a couple of the adult staff were waiting for them. The kids ran off in the direction of the presentation in a big gazebo nearby.

"Ah, the sweet sound of silence," Lilly whispered to Paige.

"I know. Right! And it's only been an hour."

"An hour is enough to make anyone go crazy." Lilly spun her hands in the air making the crazy sign. They laughed, as they watched the last kid go into the gazebo. "So we have some free time. I wanted you to meet my friends." Lilly pointed to two dots on the horizon coming towards them. "I think they'll like you" she winked. They sat down on a nearby bench to wait for them as they got closer. Paige could make out their faces one was definitely a girl and one was a boy

"Ay over here!" Lilly shouted, waving them over. The girl looked to be tall but as she got closer Paige realized she was actually pretty short. "Hi, I'm Grey." She smiled at Paige.

"I'm Paige, she volunteered, as she walked up in front of the boy.

"Nice to meet you. You must be Lilly's co-counselor."

"Yep!"

"Oh scooch!" the boy said coming up behind Grey, nudging her out of the way, so he could say hi to Paige.

"Hey, I'm Noah." Paige got distracted for a second in his piercing green eyes before she responded quickly.

"Hi I'm..."

"Yeah, you're Paige right?" he interrupted.

She frowned. "Uh huh," her face brightened.

"Well nice to meet you. Glad you decided to show up," he winked. She tried to figure out where she knew him from. He seemed so familiar. Before she could figure it out she turned to see Lilly and Grey walking off.

"We better get going. They're letting us into the petting zoo."

Cute little animals put a bright smile on Paige's face, as she chatted with Noah on the way to the animal pens. She got lost talking to him and she almost bumped into the gate.

"Careful there." He gave her a gleaming white smile. She was tempted to pinch herself to make sure this was real but she didn't want to seem weird.

"Look at the little goat," she swooned, looking at a little white and grey baby goat. Everyone turned and her attempt at changing the subject worked.

"It's a goat!" Grey laughed.

"A cute goat," Noah chimed in.

"Fine, but I think goats look old and crusty," Grey said, pointing at the food crumbs in the goat's beard.

"Oh lighten up.'' Noah clapped his hands, looking off at another pen. Paige quickly looked to see what he was looking at when a magnificent looking white horse trotted up to the edge of its fence. She turned back to see that Noah had gone and he ran towards the horse. Grey giggled. Lilly rolled her eyes playfully.

"What?" page said, confused.

"He has a thing for horses," Grey responded. "He loves them more than life."

"He thinks they're angelic," Lilly chimed in. "I think he could stare at them all day. One time he got to ride this horse. You should have seen his face!We better go tear him away before the petting zoo starts or he'll never leave," Lilly said, walking towards Noah, trying to coax him away from the horse. "Well that's Noah for you, still a little boy at heart."

Paige thought this was very sweet.

"Alright! Time for the petting zoo to start!" a loud voice shouted over all the campers. A man came out of the gazebo herding the kids into the huge fenced area where they were keeping some baby animals. He walked over to the group of counselors just as Lilly retrieved Noah.

"Hello, Mr. Trak," Grey said."

"Howdy," he said in the same loud tone. "How are ya findin' camp so far?"

"Great!" they all responded.

"Ah, you must be new." He looked at Paige. "I'm Mr. Trak, the farmer. But I work here over the summer to watch over the animals.""Nice to meet you." Paige shook his hand.

"Well ya'll best get over there. Wouldn't want you to miss seeing the animals."

"Thank you, sir." They waved as he walked towards the other animal enclosures.

"Look! A pony!" Noah ran off, followed by the rest of them. The children were eagerly waiting in a long line to see and pet the pony. "Why are there so many people?" Noah whined, scuffing his foot in the dirt, obviously impatient, wanting to see the pony himself.

"You're acting like a child!" Grey sing-songed, playfully punching Noah in the arm.

"Ow!" Noah said, coming back to reality. ��Just kidding. That felt like a butterfly kiss," he added, looking at Grey.

"I'm not that weak," grey growled.

"I don't know about that. Felt pretty light to me."

Grey gave him a look like she wanted to kill him, when Lilly decided to break it up.

"Ahem," she pointed at the pony, as they were now in the front of the line. Noah's eyes lit up and Grey quickly forgot all about the incident when they were able to pet the pony. This pony was so precious, like a stuffed animal. Next they went to see the goat they had admired earlier. They left the goat, as it tried to bite Paige.

"Bad goat!" Lilly said, frowning at it. Its little face just looked so innocent and she let it go. They went to sit down on some flat rocks, watching the kids have fun, making sure they didn't get in any trouble. Paige spotted a little girl trying to set one of the lambs free. She gave her a look and the girl guiltily put the lamb back. Paige, Grey, Noah and Lilly chatted for about thirty minutes before it was time to go. They laughed at new inside jokes when they walked back through the path to get to the cabins before dinner. The little girl Paige recognized as Sam ran up to her.

"Miss Paige, can I have a tissue?"

"Sure," Paige responded. Then looking down at her, she noticed blood was dripping down her nose and all over her clothes. Paige grabbed the camp medical supply kit from Lilly's backpack, showing the girl how to hold her nose with the tissue.

"Eww, glad that's not me," she heard Grey murmur to Noah.

Lilly took her to the nurses office up the hill as Paige took the rest of the campers to the cabin.

What an eventful day, Paige thought, as she relaxed or at least tried to over the kids screaming voices.

First she drove in the car for a million years. Then she got here, and ate burning coffee cake, not to mention that she met a boy named Arson. And then she met a ton of new people, went to a petting zoo and had to deal with a bloody nose. That was a lot of events for one day.

As she picked up her book she realized how she knew Noah. It had been so obvious, she groaned. They had been friends once. Like many people at the camp, he had been going here since he was a child. She must have forgotten him somehow. Flashbacks of him and her racing

kayaks in the lake came back to her. That's right. They weren't close or anything, but they were buddies. They usually tried to outdo each other in everything. Sometimes Paige was better at something; sometimes Noah was. Usually it was anybody's guess. She remembered how he used to be way shorter than her but now he towered above her. Wow! Had things changed.

Before she could get any more sentimental, a loud crashing noise caught her attention. She turned her head as she felt a headache coming on. A little girl who's name she couldn't remember, came running towards her. She looked all around trying to figure out what had crashed, when she realized it wasn't her cabin. She sighed the biggest sigh of relief and her heart went back to normal speed.

"Excuse me, but Liv stole my stuffed animal." The girl looked to be the youngest in the cabin. She pointed towards a big girl who was extremely tall and built like a wrestler, definitely bully material. She did not want to deal with this today. What day did she ever want to deal with this. Yeah, never! she sighed. Without Lilly here she would have to deal with this. She deescalated the situation as quickly as possible. When she was finished as referee, she thought there was minimal crying and figured it was a job well done. Lilly came in with Sam who looked all cleaned up. She even got a new shirt.

"Alright everyone. Time to head to dinner," Lilly said, as everyone got quiet to listen. "Then we have a special surprise!" Everyone cheered even Paige was excited because she knew what the surprise was and it was a good one.