The New Camp Counselor [n.h au] [EDITING]

Chapter Six

Niall

I roll over from my back to my side, due to the feeling of little fingers tapping on my shoulder. Chances are one of the kids woke up in the middle of the night, needing something. However, when I open my eyes, there's the bright sun shining in through the windows and a little girl standing in front of me with a teddy bear stuffed under her arm.

“Mr. Niall, are you and Miss Morgan dating?” Ashley asks after moving her bear in front of her chest, hugging it and hiding her face behide its head. 

“Why did you get out of bed to ask me that?” I begin to sit up and lean back on my pillows, so I'm not talking to her at an awkward level. Although, she takes it as an invitation, sitting right beside me, almost in my lap. 

“I couldn’t sleep. So tell me about you and Miss Morgan. Did you ask her to be your girlfriend?”  

“No, sweetie, I didn't. I’m sorry.” The frown on her lips makes me feel guilty, so I rub the small of her back with my hand to hopefully comfort her. I would have never guessed that the topic of Morgan and I not being together would make her so upset.

“But…I saw you two last night during the movie. She was laying on your shoulder. I don’t know much about love and dating, but you looked like you liked each other.”  

“She was just a little tired, so I let her rest on my shoulder.  We're just friends, okay?”  I give her a reassuring smile.

“Okay!”  That seems to do the trick, she's satisfied with my answer. Giving me a small hug, she then runs off back to her bed. 

The old beat up alarm clock the counselors get for the cabins shows that it's about nine-thirty in the morning, which means this lazy butt gets thirty minutes more of sleep. Within seconds of closing my eyes, I drift off to sleep, and strangley I end up having a dream about a certain freckled counselor. 

What seems like only a minute later, that stupid alarm goes off, scaring the crap out of me. I feels as if I just closed my eyes, but when I glance over at the time, it actually says ten. Dang it. 

“Time to get up, Cabin four! Don’t make me come tickle you!”  That all it really takes for six little heads to perk up in the air. I knew that would work quick.  “You guys want some breakfast?  I hear that there are pancakes!”

“PANCAKES?!” I hear a few of them shout in unison. Each one of the kids rush to get dressed and head to the dining hall.  I have never seen so many people get excited about pancakes. Even my brother and I never got that excited when we were younger. 

___

“Can I sit here?”  I pull out the seat next to Ryan, a kid I really haven’t gotten to know yet. He is the one that I always see around camp, not really including himself with any of the other kids, and I figured I should talk to him about it. 

“Chure!” He says with a mouth full of pancakes. 

“Awesome! Hey, is it okay if I ask you a question, buddy?”  He nods his head up and down as he takes another bite of his pancakes.  “Are you feeling a bit lonely here?” 

His head faces up towards me while he chews on a bite of food. I can tell just by the look on his face what the answer will be.

“Well, kind of.  I just moved here from Georgia, and I don’t really know anyone. I think my parents heard about this place from a friend and thought it would help me make some friends,”  His words are replaced with the slurping of his orange juice. 

“Oh man, that sucks.  I’m sorry, and I know exactly how you feel too because I moved here from Ireland when I was seven, which much further away than Georgia.  I definitely didn’t know anyone then, and it’s the same reason I came here for the first time.  After the first summer here, I was so happy my parents sent me because this is where I met my best friend.”