Love On The Lake

part 2 - the unofficial party

I sat on my bunk, holding my pillow close, staring Veva in the eye. The girls around me giggled. A couple of people whisper chanted Veva's name. Gee thanks, guys. My eyes stung, and tears brimmed. But I wouldn't blink. Blinking is for losers. And I was a loser. My eyes defied what My brain willed them to do and a blinked aggressively. Everyone quietly cheered Veva and gave me pitiful congratulations on losing the most intense staring competitions ever. I looked out the little window by the head of the bed and saw the glittering lake on the path, the dark and scary forest, and billions of glinting stars shining above. 

"Cayla," I whispered. "What time is it?" Her face was lit up by a white light as she looked at her watch. 

"11:43 pm" she whispered, showing Jesse, her bunkmate. "So we gotta be extra quiet." And of course, as soon as she said that an eruption of giggles. I looked around at all my friends, sitting on their beds looking up and down at one another. 

"Ok," I said. "Never have I ever... kissed a girl." I looked and saw three hands raise up. Jeni, Jesse and Arianna. "What? Do tell."

"It was my friend on a middle school field trip. We did it on a dare..." Jesse said, striking. "What a strange day."

"I kiss my friends all the time," Jeni said, laughing. 

"Yeah and I've kissed Jeni," Ariana said, disgusted. "I don't know why but Jeni you arent the best kisser." That brought laughs. I could tell that Cayla was going to continue it when we heard a faint knock on the door. Nervously, we looked at each other in the dim light. "Come in," Jenna whispered. The door handle creaked, and about 7 teenage boys walked through the doors. My eyes widened in surprise. But defiantly not disappointed. 

"Mind if we come in?" one of them asked. I shook my head.

"Mind, no please come in." They all walked in, whispering and looking at us. 

"We heard there were other girls here," a blonde one said. "And our teacher never said anything about mingling." Jeni rolled her eyes. "May we sit?"

"You may," Arianna said. The boys sat next to girls on bunks, and on the floor. There were about 7 of them, all individually, different. As we sat and stared, one of them spoke up. 

"Shall we introduce ourselves? I'm Dylan," he said. He looked at the boy sitting next to him on the dusty floor. 

"Oh right. I'm Aiden. Aiden Collins," he said. He fidgeted nervously with his white shoelaces. They went around the circle, introducing themselves. Leo, who caught my eyes, with his brown and black hair and a Mexican accent. Jack, who kept looking at me funny. Nick, who was beautiful. Aiden Niche, who was handsome and funny. Tom, who had the prettiest sandy blonde hair. And then we began to go around our circle. Cayla, the redhead. Jenna, the shortie. Veva, the oldest. Jeni, the spunky one. Arianna, the blondie who caught everyone's eye. Jesse, the red-neck. And me, Cora, the only one with short hair. We sat in silence for a second, kinda awkward. All admiring each other. 

"So, where are you from?" Veva asked. 

"Oh, we came from the Oregon group," Nick said. "Tom said he thought there was a party and Cabin 4 but really he' here-" Nick was shut up by Tom punching him on the shoulder. 

"Yeah, we can keep that to ourselves, alright?" He said, in that lovely accent. Not English, but Irish maybe? So nice. "You're the Colorado gal's, right?" We all nodded. I hoped they couldn't see my face, ripe as a raspberry. 

"Oh my goodness you guys," Jenna said, hopping up and heading to her suitcase. "I packed something just for this." I looked at Veva, and we rolled our eyes and smirked together. Jenna came out with a piece of paper with a lot of colors on it, and... a bottle. 

Jenna's eyes were wide. "Who wants to play my version of spin the bottle?"