Planning Your Future

We'll Go Camping (Part 4)

June 24, 1992

Veronica's POV

I arrive at camp and sign in. The next week is going to be great. Alyssa is setting up her cabin as I pass by. I sneak up behind her and hug her. She yells, then she sees it's me. We stand next to the door where no one can see us from outside. "Are you excited?" I have my hands on her hips. "Definitely. I think I have Lydia and Emma in my cabin this year. You're getting two from Natalie." She informs me. "Do you know who they are?" I want to know who they are just in case I remember them from last year. "Hope and Nichole." I vaguely remember Hope but I don't remember Nichole.

"The other counselors should be here. And the kids will probably be here soon." Alyssa observes, looking at the clock. "Then I better do this now," I kiss her. "Hey!" Ryan pops his head inside. Shit! I quickly back away from her. "Relax. I was the first person she told." He sits on Alyssa's bed. "What?" I look at Alyssa. "I'm gay too. Of course Alyssa told me." He says.  Huh... Their friendship makes sense now. "I've been telling my mom we're dating since we met two years ago. He did the same with his family." That's actually really smart.

Natalie comes in with JD and a new guy. "Everyone, this is Luke." Luke waves, "Hey." He seems nervous. "This is Alyssa, Veronica, and Ryan." Natalie points to each of us. "Nice to meet you." I shake his hand.

We get to know Luke until the kids get here. As I'm leaving to go back to my cabin, Lydia comes to the door. "Miss Veronica." She doesn't hug me, the most she does is acknowledge me. But to be fair, she was like this last year too. At least she's Alyssa's problem now. "How have you been?" I ask. "Ugh. Kill me." She walks inside. "Good talk, Lydia." Hopefully she  isn't all Wednesday Addams the whole time. She's sure dressed like her.

Hannah is the first one of my campers to arrive. "Hey Hannah! How was your year?" I hug her. "It was okay." She quietly says. "Glad to hear it! We're going to have fun this year, I promise." I pat her on the back. "Okay banana, I'll see you on the 8th." Her sister pulls her in for a hug.

Then Hope shows up. "Hi Hope. I'm Veronica, I'm not sure if you remember me from last year." She probably doesn't. "I do. Your cabin won ga-ga ball last year." Oh yeah. I didn't help them very much, but we did win. Which I plan to do again as long as Annabeth comes back.

Brooke and Chloe get here. They are their usual chatty selves. Apparently they started dating Shane and Jeremy from JD's cabin. I was a little surprised but only because I thought they were already dating them. Luckily Annabeth walks in so I can exit the conversation. "Hey Annabeth! You ready to crush everyone in ga-ga?" She immediately gets excited, "I'm so ready!" I high-five her, "I'm looking forward to it." She goes to start unpacking.

Finally Nichole comes in. "Hi you must be Nichole! I'm Veronica." She seems a little nervous. Her and Hannah would be good friends. I allow her to start unpacking. "Okay, like last year we are going to go around the room and say something about ourselves. I know four of you already know each other but since we have new kids, we should let them get to know us better. I will go first: I'm Veronica, I'm twenty years old, I go to Harvard, and I'm from Sherwood, Ohio." I keep the same facts I said from last year. "She's also an amazing singer." Brooke says. "You should sing for us tonight at the campfire." Chloe suggests. "I haven't really written any new songs since then." That's a lie. I have written some new songs but they're private. And a lot of them are either about Alyssa or there's a ton of songs about Aaron. Those are very passive-aggressive. "But I happen to know that JD writes music. Maybe he'll do it for you." I've seen some songs on his desk before. Heather also told me that she found one that he wrote about his mom. The girls get excited. "Alright let's settle down and tell our facts."

When it's time, we go to the mess hall for this year's orientation. George introduces himself and reads the rules. This time around, the PDA rule feels different. Probably because Alyssa and I couldn't do that even if it wasn't a rule.

We line up for breakfast then sit at the counselors table. "Hey Luke! Over here!" Natalie yells. Luke comes over and sits beside Natalie. "Thanks." He says. "You're welcome." Natalie smiles. It seems like she already has a crush on him. I thought she was with Dan but I guess I was wrong. Alyssa is sitting beside me and she grabs my hand under the table. I try not to look at her so it isn't obvious. She strokes my hand a little.

During activities, I sit on the bench, watching my girls do archery. They're all participating except for Hannah. She's sitting against a tree, staring at one of the arrows. "At least she's holding an arrow." Alyssa leans on the back of the bench. "Yeah, it's definitely an improvement. She's already doing better than this time last year." She's much more sociable. "I'm glad. She doesn't seem to have a good home life. Her mom is an alcoholic and her sister works all the time. That is bound to leave an impact on a kid that young." I feel bad for her sister as well. Having to raise your sister at a young age and deal with your mother. I can't imagine what that's like.

After lunch and dinner, we sit around the campfire. "JD, Miss Veronica says you write music." Chloe giggles. JD shoots me a glare. "I do." He admits. "Then play something for us." Brooke demands. "I would but Dan was the one with the guitar." That's true. At least that means I won't have to sing for them this year. "Actually, Dan let me bring his guitar to camp." Natalie stands up. She runs back to her cabin and brings it back. "Great." JD sighs. "Who knows how to play?" I ask. JD raises his hand. "You play guitar?" I've never seen him play. "Yeah it's been a while." Natalie hands him the guitar. "The only song I know on the guitar is Take On Me." He states. He plays the song for us. His voice is actually pretty good. When he stops, everyone claps. "I think you should give up the sax and take up guitar." I tell him. "I agree." Alyssa nods. "Maybe." JD starts to hand the guitar back to Natalie. "You can keep that this week. I'm sure Dan won't mind." Natalie pushes it back towards him.

We all go back to the cabin. "You know the drill, girls! Lights out in 30 minutes and you can talk in bed. Quietly." Brooke and Chloe are very chatty. I wish Emma was here to tell them to shut up and go to sleep. Annabeth eventually shushes them and rolls over. Thank fucking god. I sit on my bed until I can tell them to be quiet. None of them object.

We gather outside Alyssa's cabin. Alyssa and I sit on the porch swing but with distance between us. JD has a clipboard and is writing something. "What are you doing?" Ryan tries to look but JD puts it against his chest. "Nothing." I had seen him mouthing words so I know what it is. "I know you're writing music." I tease him in a sing-songy voice. He rolls his eyes and continues writing. "So Veronica, do you know how to play any instruments?" Ryan asks. "I played piano for a while. I played until my junior year of high school. Then I lost the motivation." My mom also stopped paying for lessons when I wanted to quit National Honors Society because of it. So I just stopped. My dad kept the piano in the attic. "You two should become a duo! You know, write songs together and perform them." Luke says. "I don't know. JD's trying to get to law school, he doesn't really have time to be in a musical duo." He also wouldn't want to do it with me after everything that's happened between us.

Slowly, everyone starts going back to their cabins. Once it's just Alyssa and me, Alyssa grabs my face and kisses me. "I've been wanting to do that all day." She smiles. "Same." I kiss her back. We're making out and then I stop after a few minutes. "We should probably get back. I'll see you tomorrow." I give her a quick peck, then go to my cabin.

So I hope you enjoyed! The second to last paragraph was a little tease for something I have planned. Also (not so) fun fact: Ryan is named after a guy I did theater with. Now keep in mind that the camp chapters came out in March. Well sadly the real Ryan died in a car crash in September. So that's sad. So now every time I write the name, I get a little sad. I'm not gonna write him off or anything, I just thought I'd share that. Anyways, bye!