Driving Force

chapter 37

Cameron Santiago POV:

"Can you guys just keep her company and hopefully your crazy activities distract her for a bit?" I tell Rose, Sonnet, Horan, and S. Mewis while grabbing lunch in one of the conference rooms.

"Of course! We would love to help her out wherever we can." Lindsey tells me confidently.

"Don't act differently and try to avoid bringing up the subject." I point to Sonnet, "And no pranks, it's too early of the camp to even start."

Sonnet smirks at me, "No promises."

"Why do I even try?" I shake my head as reasoning with Sonnet and her pranks go through one ear and out the other. I say my thanks as they decide to keep Madi distracted for the rest of our off day today. I head off to my usual table and take a seat next to Kelley.

"Hi, baby." I kiss her forehead as I go to sit down.

"Hi, beautiful." She smiles as she goes back to her salad. "Where have you been?"

"With Madi talking to lawyers. We just got all our papers finalized and the processing should be done by the end of the week if all goes well."

"That's good news!" Kelley says surprised.

"I know. It's the best news we've had in a while. I've just been feeling so useless with helping her through with the fact her mother is missing." I share.

"You've been doing a great job, ya know." She elbows me softly. "She's incredibly lucky to have you looking out for her. You even brought her to camp for a distraction."

"If you mean brought as in, more like forced, then yes." Kelley gives me a questionable look so I continue. "After the incident, I swore to keep her with me. She was going to places she shouldn't have been looking for her mom. I couldn't leave her there alone in case she got tempted to go searching again."

"Well, that sounds wise of you even if she doesn't see it that way."

"No, she understands. She's too aware though." I take a bite of my food as more teammates take their seats at our table.

"They're definitely planning something," Alex says pointing her fork to the younger group's table as they are huddled as close as can be whispering and looking around cautiously. I catch Madi looking entertained by whatever they had in store and, even though I may fall victim to one of their plans, it makes me happy.

"Oh for sure!" Ash says. "We have to prepare to get them back. This is the camp where we finally get our revenge."

"I already have a couple of ideas." Tobin jumps in.

The rest of lunch consists of Ash and Tobin spewing ideas as Alex and Kelley make adjustments to each one. Christen and I just sit leaving them to do all the hard work. As I head back to my room to change before going supply shopping, Christen and Tobin stop me and ask if we could talk in their room. Yup, the conversation I have been avoiding has arrived.

As we settle in their room each of us takes a separate piece of furniture to sit on. Tobin in a chair, Christen on one bed and me on the other.

"You could've called us to help you with Madi." Tobin starts. "We would have supported both of you."

"You both did so much for Madi after her TBI, we both decided to give you a break. We weren't trying to keep it a secret or anything. It just got overwhelming and it was just easier to handle it between us. But I do understand. I'm sorry we didn't tell you guys sooner." I drop my head knowing they feel bad we were dealing with things ourselves.

"But you told Ash and Ali," Christen speaks up. "We found out through a group text you sent the team the night before camp. I thought we were closer than that."

"It's my fault." I shake my head. "We are close, especially you guys and Madi. I'm sorry for not calling you guys sooner. I didn't mean to make you guys feel out of touch with us or closed off in any way. We really didn't know what to do half the time and just kept ourselves either distracting ourselves with self-training or work."

"Thanks for understanding. We just want to help." Tobin says standing up and moving to Christen to hold her hand.

"What happened to Madi's face?" Christen asks. "I know you when you texted the team not to bring it up, but it looks bad."

I pick at the blanket biting the inside of my cheeks wondering if I should lie or not. "She went looking for her mom in a dangerous area and people noticed her lurking. One guy came up to her and dragged a knife across her face as a warning not to come snooping around anymore."

"Oh, Madi." Both of them shake their heads.

"She learned her lesson for the most part. I think you guys should talk to her. She truly does take comfort in you guys but sometimes forgets how it feels for you guys to care for her."

As we conversate a little more, we get ready and meet in the lobby to go get our supplies. We all split up once we get to Dollar General and grab what we need.

...............

"AHHHHHHH, OH MY GOD," I hear Lindsey scream from her shared room with Sonnet. "EM, MOVEEEE!"

"OH MY GOD! That's huge!"

"Emily!!! Kill it!!!"

The veterans and I crack up as we hear the commotion coming from the room. It sounds like they are fighting about what they should do. "YOU KILL IT, LINDSEY!" We hear something hit and shatter. "WHERE IS IT?!"

"I really wish we set up a camera in there!" Ash speaks up laughing, "I'd pay to see their faces!"

"No need to wish. I set up a hidden GoPro and it should be catching everything as we speak," I say knowing this was going to have us dying from laughter the entire camp. This was our final revenge prank which included sticking a fake roach under a lamp to create a silhouette inside of it. It was the icing on the cake after sticking mayonnaise in Mal and Rose's "cream" filled donuts. That should teach them we are always ready to prank back.