Summer Love

I

"Jenna! Come help me with the tents," my twin brother shouts from across our camping area. I push myself up from the fold out chair I was sitting in and walk over to where he is standing.

Nick tells me to hold the tent up while he slips the pole into the fabric opening. He wipes his brow, unconsciously spreading dirt over his freckled face.

People say Nick and I look a lot alike. We both have light brown hair, freckles, the same tall body, the same nose that bends up slightly at the end. But the only difference is our eyes. He got our mother's ocean blue ones, while I got our father's dark brown ones.

"God. This is a lot harder than it looks. Jen, hand me the instructions, would you?" He holds out his hand and I let go of the tent to go get the booklet.

"No, don't let go! Argh," he runs his hand through his hair as the tent falls to the ground. I grimace.

"Sorry."

"Just- just hand me the instruction book please." I walk over to the ugly green picnic table covered in bird poop stains and grab the booklet.

Our family is staying here for the summer. It wasn't my choice, trust me. I would much rather be at home with air conditioning hanging out with my friends.

We drove all the way here from Florida in a sliver mini van with 3 tents; one for me, one for my brother, one for my mom and my dad. My parents left to go get food for lunch, leaving Nick and I set up.

We manage to set up our own tents and move on to the last one. Unfortunately, this one is different kind, made to hold two adults, aka our parents. I hold the tent up while Nick tries to get the poles in, but it's not working well.

"Jenna, is there an instruction booklet in the car somewhere?"

"Nick, mom and dad took the car," I roll my eyes at him.

"Well is there one in the tent bag?" He asks.

I make my way over at the discarded bag laying by the bushes. I see a bit of paper sticking out and bend over to pick it up, brushing off the dirt.

"Got it!" I shout to him. He motions for me to bring it over.

He takes the booklet from me and flips through it.

"The instructions are in French. Can you read French?" He asks me. I shake my head.

"Well what are we gonna do?" Nick sits down on the blue tarp and I sit next to him cross-legged.

"Some people say the French is a lot like Spanish," I say, trying to be helpful.

We sit there trying to decode the words. So far we have 'bend' 'insert' and 'hello.'

"When are mom and dad gonna get back?" I ask, playing with my shoelace. He shrugs.

"I don't know. They said around 1."

"Well it's 12:30 now. How far away is the grocery store?"

"I think it's like 45 minutes."

"Wow."

We sit in silence for a moment.

"Do you need help?" Someone asks and I look up. Standing in our lot is a blonde haired, blue eyed boy. He's wearing a white muscle shirt with an 'a' on the front and jeans. He's really attractive, too. The boy smiles at me, showing a set of pearly white teeth.

"Oh. Uh, sure. Thanks," Nick says, handing him the booklet. "Can you read french?" He asks.

"Kind of. But I don't need it. My family owns the same one, we've had it forever. I just set it up for them," he says with an accent- I think it's Irish. He bends down and put the tent together in about 30 seconds flat.

"I'm Niall, by the way," he says when he's finished with the tent.

"I'm Nick. And this is my little sister Jenna," Nick says. I roll my eyes at him.

"Only by 7 minutes," I tell him.

"Ah. You guys are twins?" Niall asks. We nod. "I've always wanted a twin," he says dreamily.

"Yeah, well it's not as fun as it seems," Nick mutters.

"How old are you two?" Niall asks me.

"We're 17, turning 18 in July," I tell him.

"Oh, cool! I'm turning 18 in September," Niall says enthusiastically.

"Where are you staying?" Nick asks.

"A couple lots down," he points to the left. "I was just taking a walk."

"Cool. We should hang out sometime," Nick says.

"We could go swimming later," Niall suggests.

"Sure. Our parents should be back soon and we are going to have lunch. Then we can swim."

"Okay. You should come too, Jenna. I mean, if you have nothing better to do," Niall plays with a bit of hair on the side of his head.

"Sounds fun," I smile at him.

"Okay. Bye," Niall waves and turns around. My eyes follow him until he disappears around the hedge.

"What do you think of him?" Nick asks as soon as he's gone.

"What?" I blush, looking away.

"I saw the way you looked at him. I know you like him," Nick teases.

"No! Nick, shut up, he'll hear you," I say through gritted teeth.

"Admit it! Say you like him or I'll go over there and tell him myself!"

"I barely know him! But I think he's cute, okay?" I huff.

"Okay," Nick says in a sing song voice.

"Nick, drop it," I tell him sternly.

"Here they are," he says as my parents drive in.

"Oh, the tents look great. I'm surprised you two actually could do it. Last time, it took me a whole hour just to do mine and your moms," my dad says when he gets out of the car. Nick and I walk over to the back of the car to help unload groceries.

"We had some help," Nick admits, putting the groceries in the mini camper we had incase it rained.

"From who?" My mother asks.

"This guy, I think he's from Ireland? Anyway, he came over and helped," I tell her. She wiggles her eyebrows but says no more.

"Yeah, we're going swimming later today with him. His name is Niall," Nick adds.

"Oh. . . Okay. Fun," my dad says, giving me a look.

"Let's eat!" My mom says and we plop down on the picnic table, eating the chips and sandwiches our parents got.

Once we're all done, I go to change into my bathing suit. I take it out of the suitcase and go into the mini camper to change.

I pull the teal colored bikini top on over my head and put on the boy shorts that came with it. Then, I put on my white cover-up and push open the door, where Nick is waiting for me in his swim trunks.

"You ready?" He asks. I nod.

"Jenna?" My dad says, poking his head around the tent.

"Yeah?"

"Don't do anything you don't want to do," my dad reminds me. My face heats up and I nod.

"I know," I tell him. He smiles and gives me a thumbs up.

"Have fun!" My mom waves. Nick and I turn around and starting walking to his campsite.