Love On The Lake

part 1 - arrival

Stepping off the bus into the cool mountain air, I inhaled, my lungs being filled with the fresh, cold oxygen. It smelled, cold? Was that possible? Well, it was today. My backpack hung loosely on my shoulders, holding all the valuable things. A flashlight, my ID, some money, my picture book, my camera, my phone, stuff like that. I heard shoes hit the gravel beneath me and turned to see my best friend Veva, standing there, looking about. 

"This is so exciting!" She said when she saw me. 

"I know! Washington, it's beautiful," I said, looking at the tall pine trees looming above, the deep blue glittering lake just steps away, and the pretty log cabins that sat waiting for us to inhabit them. A heard some grunts from behind me. Arianna stepped off the bus and looked at nature in front of her. "Ew," escaped from her mouth. 

"Ew?" Veva exclaimed. "How could you say ew? It's so pretty!"

"Nature isn't pretty," Arianna said, stepping off. 

The rest of our group got off the bright yellow bus and marveled at the amazing scenery. Washington, man. 

Our group was all from Colorado. We came from the Cabin Camp, where we go around the country visiting states and cabins and camps in different environments. This month we took a trip up to Washington. Our leader, Ms. Brunet, split us into four groups. In my group, was Veva, Jesse, Jeni, Arianna, Jenna, and Cayla. A wonderful group. Ms. Burnet leads us on a gravel path deeper into the forest to a small cabin. It was triangle-shaped, with the most beautiful wildflowers surrounding the steps to the door. 

"Alrighty girls," Ms, Brunet said. "You are Cabin 4. There are other groups here, doing the camp with us. There will be time to interact with them. But no visitors after-hours, ya hear me? There are some fella's out there, and I don't want yall mingling with 'em. " Her accent was unclear, Irish, Southern, English maybe, defiantly hard to understand, and focus on the actual words. "If there are any fellas in your cabin after hours, we will put you on that bus and ship ya home. And don't even think about going into one of the boys' cabins. Alrighty then. Unpack your bags, they are already in the cabin. Get washed up, take a shower. You stink," she said with a playful smirk. "Dinner begins at 6:00." With that, she turned on her heel and walked back on the path and towards the lake. 

Giddy, we turned and went into the cabin. It was bigger on the inside than it looked, with 4 bunk beds. I ran towards the middle and threw my backpack at the top bunk. Veva hopped on the bunk across the room from me. I heard the bed creak and saw Cayla struggling onto the green mattress on the bottom. 

"This is very exciting," Jeni said from the bunk next to mine. Her hair was a bright yellow, definitely attention-grabbing. It startled me to see it under the yellow lamp that hung above. 

"I know," Arianna said. "And you heard what Ms. Brunet said. There are fella's here." The way she said fella's made me laugh. I hopped off my bed and began to unpack my toiletries. The bathroom was large, with a full bath and shower. There were two closets. We decided to use one for our jackets and the other for our suitcases. Out backpacks lived on some hooks we found next to the door. I took a shower and put on some less sweaty clothes. I combed my hair and put on my favorite cap. Not waiting for my friends, at 6:00 I ran out of the cabin and passed the lake towards a log cabin where Ms. Brunet told us to meet her for dinner. My stomach turned to butterflies when I saw the amount of tall teenage boys that stood waiting to go into the doors for dinner. We weren't the only girl group there, but the males outnumbered us, females, easily. I heard Jeni's footsteps plummet behind me as she caught up. 
"Dang, look at these fella's," Jeni says mockingly. She elbowed my arm and we got in line behind some other girls. A couple of the guys looked at us. Oooh, they looked fine. I moved the thought of boys out of my head and focused on the literal patch of clovers we were standing in. 

The line moved quickly and once we got inside my cabin mates were in with us too. The dinner was steaming hot chicken wings and salad. Ms. Brunet lead us to a small circle table next to a window. The clouds began to cover the sun. I hoped the rain would come. 

I sat on the uncomfortable bench that went around the circle table. Veva and Jenna sat next to me, chowing down on our saucy wings. We chatted about how miserable the bus ride was, how beautiful Washington was, and what we were going to do this week. I knew that the idea of boys hung over our heads but it felt too awkward to talk about it here. 

"Whats our curfew?" Jesse asked Ms. Brunet. 

"10:00 sharp, girls," she said, not looking at us. She stood against the wall with the other teachers and stood forbearingly, with her arms crossed and eyes closed. Arianna almost pounded her fist on the wooden table.  

"I'm not going to sleep at 10," she whispered. We all leaned in like it was a secret meeting. "I'm staying up." We all nodded in agreement. It's not like we had a choice. If Arianna was up, we were too. "So it's settled then." Arianna bit into a wing, the sauce smearing onto her face. I rolled my eyes, then smiled. This was going to be a fun week.