9 Love & Camp

SUNDAY. 2:38 PM.

Campeek!— actually spelt with an exclamation mark, is the school's annual camping trip meant exclusively for Juniors and Seniors. The idea's of our Ethics teacher, she figured that the outgoing teenagers who are soon to become adults need to be trained under difficult and unpleasant conditions to show them what the real world is like. So taking them from their homes and away from their parents to live in an unfamiliar environment -where everything isn't how they'd want it- for a whole week will definitely teach them how to survive in this world.

Sounds like hell to me, I wonder why people say it's fun. Guess I'm about to find out.

I turn my head to the right, deciding to stop the rambling in my head because I have no fracking idea to whom I'm speaking to.

I notice some senior girls chatting and whispering among themselves with Lara and Rachel at the center of the gossip as they drag their luggage behind them. I sigh, allowing a smile creep up my face as I look down at my glowing white sneakers. I made sure I prepared well for this trip, I'm dressed in a white top, black jeans, appropriate makeup and my blonde hair in a loose ponytail with some strands freed.

"Ahh, when is she going to get here?" I ask myself. I pull out a mirror from my backpack to check my face one last time; the lipstick I apply makes my lips look a little red. Content with my image, I put down the mirror and what comes to my sight is Jenny walking towards me from the parking lot as a car drives away.

"Good morning Mr. Scott!" I yell after the car but it's already gone. Huh. He didn't even wait to say a hi. And I thought I'd set him up with my mum.

I look back at a frowning Jenny as she drags a load of her luggage towards me.

"Woah, Jen. It's just one week." I chuckle at her.

"That's exactly what I told my dad but no." She says and courtesy of her tone, I know she isn't too happy about carrying a lot of bags on this trip. "He insisted that since I wasn't going to be home, I should take most of my things so that I won't fall sick and ensure I'm in a good mental and physical state. But he still doesn't get that that's the whole point of camping. It's supposed to take you away from comfort."

I nod at her, "So what's up with the glasses?" I gesture to the black rimmed glasses she's currently wearing.

She sighs heavily, dropping one of her big bags onto the ground. "Even though my vision is 100 percent okay, he still insisted I wear glasses to prevent me from tripping over a tree branch or falling off a cliff." She pauses. "His words."

I smile at her, "He loves you."

"A little too much. If we had a second child at least his love would be divided." She grumbles as she removes the glasses and tosses it into her bag.

"We could always put him on a date, that way he'd have something else to focus on and we'd become sisters," I smile excitedly. "And live together."

Jenny heavily sighs, "But that won't work, my dad's not interested in dating."

I put my lips into a tight straight line. Every time I try to put Jenny's dad and my mum on a date, Jenny will always come back saying her dad's busy or her dad's simply not interested. I guess Mr. Scott's actually more strict minded than I imagined, even towards dating?

"You look dashing Kinsley." Jenny smiles at me, taking my mind off the topic.

I smile at her. "What do you mean? If I look dashing, you also look dashing because we're wearing the same thing." I say and we both laugh. Earlier, we had decided that we wanted to wear the same thing. So now, we are both dressed in white fancy tops, black jeans and white sneakers with our hair in messy ponytails.

"So have you seen your man?" Jenny asks. "Or your man's England friend?"

I sigh, "Nope but I'm sure if I see one of them, the other will probably be two feet away and that's because they'd come together and that's also because they live together, because…" I trail. "Get this, the Price family is Madison's host family for the exchange program. Just overhead that from Lara and Rachel about a minute ago."

"Of course they'd be." Jenny says as she snap her fingers, probably wondering why she didn't think of that.

"But doesn't matter!" I say as I raise my head higher. "Because this camping trip is my chance. From now on, it's going to be all about Adrian and Kinsley and not about Adrian and Madison. I'm going to try as much as possible to get with Adrian and make him fall for me and I won't stop even if the universe tries to pull me away." I complete.

It shouldn't be hard to get your crush to like you back, right?

"Woah, Kinsley," I look back at Jenny to see her giving me a freaked out look then she frowns at me. "Wait, I thought you said you weren't going on this camping trip because of Adrian or Madison."

"No, I'm not." I shrug.

Yes, I am going on this trip because of Adrian. I'm not going because I'm freaked out about Campeek! like Jen is, I can always go when I get to my Junior year or I can just go when I'm in my senior year if I don't want to attend in my Junior year but I need to go now because something's changed.

I need to step up my game because there's another girl.

I've never felt threatened about other girls with Adrian, he never really gets himself into deep situations with them and he's single. But now, there's a girl who he has already gotten into deep situations with, spent weeks with her in a foreign land, a girl who already has a place in his heart, a girl who he cares about -judging by the way he smiles at her. So I'm going to give it a shot. Then I won't have any regrets and I can at least say to myself that I tried, his heart just didn't turn to me.

Jenny continues to give me disapproving looks, knowing that I'm lying to her.

"Good morning Jenny babe!" Benji suddenly grabs Jenny from behind and slightly lifts her up, causing her to scream.

"You scared me!" She yells once he lets her go. At least he got her attention off me. "And stop with that nickname, someone might hear you and report to my dad." She says as she looks frantically around.

"I still don't care." He says and she sighs tiredly. He looks towards me, "Morning Kinsley."

"Thank you again Benji for talking to your dad and allowing us come on Campeek!" I say to him.

"It was no problem. I'll do anything for my Jenny babe."

"Please!" She complains as she looks around once more, hoping nobody heard.

Benji suddenly grabs Jenny's arm, jerking her to his side, "Come on, I want to show you something."

"Hey!" I say loudly, which causes him to stop smiling at Jenny and turn to me. "You can't just come and take my best friend whenever you please." I say to him. I move towards them and detach Jenny's hand from Benji. "She's not going anywhere with you. She's staying here with me."

He looks me in the eye for a moment and then grabs Jenny's hand and runs away with her screaming loudly. I try to run after them but he's already gone.

"Son of a bitch!" I yell.

I turn back around to stare at all of our bags. I only brought my backpack and a travelling box but Jenny has one backpack, two other duffel bags and three travelling boxes with a lunch pack. I sigh.

Benji always does this. Most times during lunch, he'd just walk up to us, grab Jenny and take her somewhere, leaving me to sit through lunch alone.

"Guess I'm on my own again." I look towards the parking lot to see more cars have arrived and more students were now at school. Some arrive with their parents or guardians who are now hugging or kissing them goodbye while others came alone in their cars, disturbing the whole area with loud music– for example; Ben. I glare at him as he drives into the school. Then I notice the camping busses, arriving.

"What the hell are you doing?"

I stiffen as the air knocks out of my lungs. That voice and that same sentence. I swore that if I ever see him again I would—

I turn around to face the voice to see that same freak ass Friday dude, with dark blonde hair, green eyes and annoyingly smooth skin!

I scoff, "You again?" I watch as his eyes stay glued to my face but I don't flinch. "What are you even doing here? Are you following me?" I ask.