Taint, Time and Tangents✔️

≑ Chapter Twenty-Five

x U N E D I T E D x

To the sweetest birthday girl, CaraIsLife, hope you'll have a blast this day. Happy birthday! xx

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C H A P T E R    T W E N T Y - F I V E

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CALLIE

"Of all days, why now?"

Hearing that from a girl, her shoes sending sprays of water as she tiptoed under the sprinkle of rain, I couldn't totally blame her. This was supposedly our last day on the camp and many activities were lined up on the list and nothing actually materialized. We were awakened by grey clouds and rumbling sounds of the heavens. In such a split second, the should-have-been exciting day was morphed into a sluggish one with just a twirl of the weather's sly finger.

"Careful, my pants!" her friend said, obviously irritated, as she mindlessly painted her faded jeans with spots of mud. They were beside each other, cramped tightly under a single umbrella just like the others who scurried on their feet just to reach the bus on the other side of the camp.

"Nine, quick!"

Eight was waiting on the corner of our cottage, holding a leather jacket over his head which was, I strongly believe, our spur-of-the-moment make-shift umbrella. But seeing him, I doubt that it would even make a difference if we just walked leisurely under the rain.

He looked like a total mess with him just standing there - but still carelessly handsome- with his disheveled hair lying flat on his forehead, water dropping from its blond strands. To make it worse, his shirt was already drenched- it was starting to stick unto his body- it just made me think that our efforts to keep ourselves dry would just be futile.

"Come over here, Nine! Hurry!" he called again, his voice now laced with urgency. A second after though, his eyes widened a bit in realization as he noticed a girl glimpsing at him strangely. "Callie, I mean."

I stopped myself from smiling at his apparent mistake and hugged tightly my bloated bag against my chest, trying to salvage some part of it from the harsh whip of the rain, as I run towards Eight.

I almost slipped at the last step just to squeeze myself to the little space left on Eight's side. He immediately covered my head with the jacket, his arms tightening around my shoulders as he supported the thick cloth. "You sure that's all of your luggage?"

When I nodded, we took a deep breath and burst into a sprint, like our lives depended on that run. It was a little bit fun actually, but with the rain mercilessly drilling my eyes on the way, I almost stumbled forward a couple of times, making Eight curse plenty of times in extreme fright. He was so not cool with rain, it seems.

I was out of breath when we reached the parking lot but our struggle didn't stop there as we were suddenly thrown into a pool of students fighting to climb up the bus. It was perhaps a couple of minutes after, with all the pushing and little pinching here and there, that I finally managed to set my foot on the heavenly floor of the bus.

Brushing away the thick strands of my hair from my face, I looked around to see most of the students are obviously in chaos as they pushed themselves towards the sea of people lining the aisle just to look for a vacant seat. Apparently, there was some truth in the rumor that some of the students rushed here and joined the camp even if they were not initially listed.