Cabin of Dreams

chapter 12

Day 6: Saturday

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"Well, spin agai-", April told her boyfriend. The group was ending the day with a game of spin the bottle, when suddenly somebody kept knocking on the door. "Amelia, wait!", she warned her friend, afraid of who could be on the other side.

"Hi...", the brunette said after ignoring the redhead and once she had opened the door. "Who are you?", she asked a little girl that was crying and couldn't be older than eight. "Come here.", she said, embracing the child gently.

"I am Anna.", the small girl sobbed. "I lo...lost my parents.", she cried, holding on to the teenager for dear life. "We were do...doing a late night walk a...and suddenly, I lost everyone.", she said. "The...then I saw this cabin wi...with its lights on."

"Okay, Anna, I am Amelia.", the Shepherd introduced herself to the crying kid. "Those are my friends. And together, we'll find your parents, alright?", she promised, watching the child nod as she continued to sniffle. "Are you cold?"

"Yeah.", Anna mumbled before she reached for the sweater that Arizona handed her. "Tha...thank you.", she said, grabbing Amelia's hand. "What if...if we don't find them?", she worried.

"We will.", Owen smiled at the little girl. "We won't leave you until we have found your family.", he reassured her. "Do you remember where you came from, Anna?", he softly wondered.

"We are camping here.", the kid answered, finally having calmed down, but still holding Amelia's hand tightly. She didn't plan on letting go of the brunette anytime soon. "But I can't remember where our spot is."

"That's a great start.", Mark informed Anna. "We can all go to the campsite and split into groups of three or four and there we'll definitely find your parents.", he shared the plan, causing all his friends to get ready to leave together.

"Owen, are you coming with us?", Amelia asked her boyfriend, who nodded and smiled as he joined her and Anna. "And this is Jo.", she explained to the little girl once her friend walked over to them as well.

The others split into groups too before all of them left the cabin to go find Anna's parents. They were probably already worried and searching for their daughter. Mark guided them to the campsite, where the teenagers went into different directions.

"Amelia?", Anna mumbled cutely. She and her new friend were walking in front of Owen and Jo. "Is Owen your boyfriend? Is that why you asked him to come with us?", she curiously wondered, causing the brunette to chuckle before she smiled and nodded. "So, you love him? Like the princesses in the books always love the prince?"

"Well, it is kind of like that.", the teenager answered, not wanting to shatter the child's dreams. "But sometimes, loving another person isn't as easy as in the books. There are certain obstacles that Owen and I overcome together instead of me waiting for him to save me."

"Wow, that sounds much more beautiful than in the books.", the girl realized. "Doing something together is always better than doing it alone.", she wisely added. "I think-", she began, but stopped upon hearing her father shout her name.

"Anna?", he yelled. "Anna?", he tried again, sounding very upset. "Where are you?", he asked. His daughter started pulling Amelia towards her dad, closely followed by the other two teenagers.

"Daddy!", Anna shouted. "Daddy, I am here!", she screamed again, causing her father to turn towards where he could hear her voice. Since it was dark, he couldn't really see her yet. "Daddy!", she repeated and finally felt the brunette let go of her hand because they were close enough to her dad and she could run into his arms.

"Oh my God, you're okay.", her father started crying and hugged his child tightly, before he looked up at the three people who brought her back to him. "Thank you so so much for finding her and bringing her back."

"Actually, she found us.", Jo shared. "She knocked on the door of our cabin and told us she had lost you, so we started searching for you. We are so glad to have found you now.", she smiled at the man.

"That was very brave of you, Honey.", Anna's dad praised her softly. "Can I give you anything? Money maybe? You know, as a thank you.", he said to the teenagers. He only knew irresponsible teenagers, so it surprised him that those strangers had taken the time to take care of his daughter and he was extremely grateful.

"No, no, thank you.", Amelia replied. "We didn't bring Anna back to get something out of it. We just wanted to get her home safely.", she told him. "Have a good night. Bye, Anna. It was nice meeting you."

"Bye Amelia, bye Jo and Owen.", the little girl beamed at them and waved sweetly. "I hope you two stay together forever.", she told the couple, making them smile. "Good night.", Anna said.

"She is such a cute kid.", Owen pointed out once they had texted their friends and were on their way back to the cabin. Since Anna was gone, he decided to take Amelia's hand now. "You were really good with her. Always considered you the kind of person who finds children annoying.", he informed his girlfriend, once they merged with some of their friends. Jo went straight to Alex.

"Depends.", Amelia chuckled. "Anna was really sweet and in distress. I would always help such a young child if it needs help. What annoys me is when kids are way too loud and whiny for no reason.", she explained. "But she had a reason. If I hadn't found my mom when I was eight...I would have cried the whole night. Maybe I wouldn't have been brave enough to knock on somebody's door for help."

"Yeah, fair.", her boyfriend agreed. "You seemed so confident in what you were doing, it was both, sweet and unbelievably sexy.", he winked at her, making her laugh. "I love you.", he said to her for the first time after stopping and grasping her other hand as well.

"Really?", the brunette wondered, and he nodded, causing her face to light up. "I love you too.", she told him. She had already told Tyler and Anna about her love for Owen, but he had only heard her say that she liked him. That was until now.