Marshmallows and Marshed Hearts pt 2

SUNDAY. 7:58 PM.

That's when Madison notices me. "Kinsley?"

"Yeah. Kinsley." Adrian murmurs, finally remembering my name.

I put on an awkward smile and wave at her as she continues staring wide eyed at me. "Hi"

She gasps with a surprised smile on her face, turns to Adrian for a moment and back to me. "It's so amazing to see you here. How did you come here? I had no idea you were coming."

I open my mouth to say something but close it back up. I suddenly don't feel like socializing anymore.

"Because Scamping is not a thing." Adrian says with a joking smile and I try to return his smile. Madison frowns at him then shakes her head, looking back at me.

"Oh bloody hell! I honestly had no idea the school allows Sophomores on this trip." Madison exclaims with a smile and that catches Adrian's attention. "I'm so happy for you Kinsley."

"Wait. What do you mean by that?" Adrian asks her and she gives him a dumbfounded look.

"I'm just surprised the school let Kinsley come." she murmurs, a little confused.

Adrian turns to face me with a serious look. This is exactly why I didn't want Jenny to say that I'm a Sophomore. Adrian's the Golden Boy of Brice Worth; does everything perfectly, gets good grades, perfect attendance, has great looks, plays lacrosse so well, abides by the rules, loved by teachers, I can go on. He is perfect and somehow hates imperfections. He respects the rules so much that it irritates him whenever someone goes against it.

And I just went against it by coming here.

"You're a sophomore?" He asks me.

"Uhh…" I trail not knowing what to say.

"Who let you come?" he asks as he takes a step forward and Madison's hand slips off. Maybe it's intentional or she feels that he's getting intense.

"Mr. Sprayberry." I answer.

He frowns, clearly annoyed. "Sprayberry?"

Shi— aargh! Really should have learnt his real name.

"Come on, Kinsley! What are you doing? Get over here." I hear Benji shout and I turn to see Jenny scolding him for interrupting 'my moment' but she has no idea he just saved me from this.

"Benji? You're here too?" Adrian questions.

He shrugs, "My dad let us."

Adrian sighs, running a hand through his dark hair. "But it isn't supposed to be so. This is meant for Juniors and Seniors only, why would he do this?" He looks at me then back at Benji, seated about two feet away. "Or you're lying to me about this."

I quickly interject, "No, he really let us come."

Adrian sighs once again. "You shouldn't be here." He says and I look away from him. "I'll go talk to him to see if I can get a bus to move you guys back to New Oleen first thing tomorrow morning."

With that he walks past me.

"Dude!" Benji yells after him.

"Madison, you coming?" I hear Adrian say behind me.

I look up to see her staring at me with a nervous expression. "Oh I am." She quickly scurries off to Adrian.

I stand there for a moment, looking down at my shoes. My eyes sting with tears. Oh my, I really want to let some good profanities out of my mouth right now. I came here because of him but looks like he doesn't want me here.

"Kinsley." I hear Lennon's voice.

I quickly wipe the tears with the back of my hand and turn to him. I find out he's sitting with Benji and Jenny, and they're all giving me sympathetic looks.

I force a smile at them. "I'll join you guys later."

I run off to our tent -to avoid further stares and interrogations- walking in immediately but stop when I see an unknown girl with huge black rimmed glasses sitting on a third bed, which wasn't there before. Her short wavy light brown hair up in a bun, legs sprawled all over the bed. This is I and Jenny's tent only or did I walk into the wrong one?

"Who are you?"

She stares at me for two seconds, pushing down her glasses a little bit then looks back at the book in her hands. "As the week goes by you'd get to know who I am."

I roll my eyes at her. I'm not in the mood for this.

"Wow, from that look on your face, something tells me this camp is going to be one hell of a week." she pauses and I can tell she's smirking. "Promises to be interesting." She completes.

Well, I won't get to see the interesting parts since I'll be leaving tomorrow.

___

MONDAY. 6:50 AM.

A long ear-piercing whistle-like sound splits through my consciousness, causing me to jolt up from bed. I quickly grab my ears and squeeze my eyes shut in irritation.

"Ah," I groan. "That sound. The fuc—"

"Good morning to you too Kinsley." Jenny's voice cuts in.

I open up my eyes to stare at her, letting go of my irritated ears as the whistle sound stops. It takes about a second for my brain to register the environment— A large red colored tent, rock hard beds, our luggage at one side, shoes at another side, a flashlight hung above us. And I sigh, shaking my head lightly.

Jenny lets out a nervous chuckle. "Wooh, you kinda scared me for a second there. I thought you've forgotten about our deal."

I inwardly sigh, I still don't know why yet but I feel a little weird this morning. Then the loud whistle sounds again and I quickly grab my ears, face scrunched up in pure irritation. "Argh! What is that!" I yell at the closed tent opening; the direction the noise's coming from.

"Oh, that's Benji's dad. Since he's the coach he's kinda used to blowing the whistle."

"Well he should stop already! We can clearly hear him." I push my hands into my hair frustratedly.

"Well he would if you get up. That's obviously the reason he's blowing the whistle." Jenny says with a hint of liveliness in her voice and I look at her. Seated on her bed with fresh new clothes on, hair brushed whilst she folds other clothes and tries to put hers and my things in order.

"You've been awake?" I ask then notice the whistle stops.

"Yup!" She says as she smiles brightly at me. "Since 5am. After doing this for so long, my brain's kind of adapted to it to the extent I can wake up without an alarm." She says, almost like she's proud of it.

Of course, how can I forget. Jenny's dad has always made her wake up really early for reasons I still don't understand. I think it has to do with a 5 am study section. Even on weekends, she still wakes up so early that's why she always comes over to my home and wake me up even before my alarm rings. Never a day has she slept in. Always up on time. I sometimes wonder if she even gets enough sleep but she never really likes to talk much about herself.

The whistle blows again.

"Ah! I fucking hate that thing!" I yell and go under the covers trying to get more sleep but Jenny gasps loudly.

"Okay I'll give you three chances. One's already gone." She says in a rigid tone. "Kinsley please, no cursing. He could hear you."

I groan again. I'm starting to hate this place. Just a few hours ago, I was really looking forward to this event, I was getting closer to him then it all got flushed down the almighty toilet.

"Come on, don't be lazy. I won't let you." Jenny says and I can see her playful smile through the transparent covers as she slowly walks towards me. "Let's go. I heard today's agenda is Sports and workout. How about we do some warm ups first?"

I slowly take the covers off me and stare at Jenny's bright face. She has no idea?

"Do you know that we're going back to New Oleen this morning?" I ask in a monotone.

Her eyes widen a little then she frowns. "What?"

Someone suddenly yawns loudly and we both snap our heads to the end of the tent to see a body moving under the blankets. We both stare at it with wide eyes, scared that someone could have crawled in while we were asleep. It is the woods we are in after all.

Then that same girl from last night comes up from the bed. Fixes her glasses, stares straight ahead, rolls up her sleeves and stands up– in a weird, psychotic way.

"When you're done chatting irrelevants, come meet me outside." With that she walks out leaving the tent open. That's when I notice it's still slightly dark out. I stare at the unknown girl with a disgusted look as she walks out in a funny manner. If she has been awake the whole time, why stay under the sheets and listen to our 'irrelevants'? Who the fuck is she even?

"You cursed again. Come on Kinsley." Jen sighs.

I snap my head to her, surprised how she knew that.

"The look on your face." She says in a bored voice. I smile at her, realizing how super close we are and she shoots me a serious look.

"Would you please stop letting out profanities?"

I sit up right on my bed and turn to fully face her. "How can I not? Because everything on this camp is just annoying!"

She stares at me for a moment probably not knowing how to deal with me right now. I felt bad-sort of, just a few seconds ago she was excited for today and now I'm telling her I hated it here. After all, I'm the one who pushed her into coming.

I just got her hopes up for nothing.

I sigh, not wanting to stay here a second longer.

"Let's just pack our bags and get ready to leave. Campeek! wasn't meant for us anyways."