Camp YouTent

Who Dun It?

When Drew opened his eyes the next morning he was almost certain it had all been a terrible dream. That was, until Kurtis awoke with a gasp, most likely dreaming of Scott's waterlogged body floating in the lake. Drew certainly had. He laid there, staring at the wood planks above him. DG.

Hot tears pushed at his eyes. This was supposed to be his summer. He wasn't supposed to be worrying about whether a counselor killed his friend. Whether he'd kill again. Drew felt sick, like the pit in his stomach was so big it had to reach into his esophagus for more room, or else his abdomen would burst open.

Suddenly the morning bell rang out across the camp site to signal for campers to wake up. A sound that had once woken Drew up with excitement for the day sent dread down his spine. He got up anyways.

The bunk creaked as Danny climbed down and their eyes met. Danny quickly looked away and the pit in Drew's stomach grew.

They got ready in silence aside from the occasional sniffle from Danny. As bad as Drew felt, he felt worse for Danny. Drew wasn't the one who stood over Scott's body. Any image of Scott was just his mind trying to fill in the gaps, but Danny didn't need to imagine.

Drew forced himself to get up and get dressed. He waited until the warning bell rang. No more delaying the inevitable. He reached for the door knob but stopped when Kurtis said "Hey, um, are we going to tell anyone?" Drew glanced at Danny and watched as his blank face dropped in devastation. "Let's get some food in us first and come up with a plan later," he said.

They walked to the cafeteria in silence. None of them went through the line. They weren't hungry.

Drew looked around the cafeteria, trying to distract himself. For a moment everything seemed so normal. The tables were still filled with campers eating and chatting as if nothing was different.

Except, not really. He quickly realized that what seemed like idle chatter was underlined by hurried whispers coming from the red table. They were all leaned in, sharing hurried sentences and worried faces.

Jarvis was the first to notice Drew staring. Their eyes met, Jarvis said something to his table, then walked towards the trio. Nick and Chad Chad followed quickly behind.

"Hey, guys," Jarvis said slowly as he reached the table. "Can we ask you something?" The three boys looked up at him. "Sure," Drew said. The three Red campers slid into the empty seats. "You haven't seen Scott by chance, have you?" Jarvis asked.

Drew tensed. Danny excused himself. "Why are you asking? Is everything okay?" Drew asked, fighting the urge to admit everything right then. "Yeah, probably. It's probably nothing. But no one seems to know where Scott is," Jarvis said. Drew did his best to keep his breathing steady. "He's probably just in the showers or something, but, you know, he wasn't in the cabin this morning and we just want to be sure," Chad Chad added.

Drew looked at Kurtis. His head was down and his hands were shaking from how tightly he was clenching them under the table. Drew couldn't see his face but he'd bet anything he was scared out of his mind. Drew cleared his throat. "Well-" he began before Link's voice carried through the room.

"Everyone have a seat. We have something very important to discuss," he said. Drew had never seen the administrator so somber at a morning meeting.

Link leaned on the counselor's table and stared into the wood's grain for a moment before saying, "Unfortunately, one of our campers, Scott Cramer, passed away last night." The air grew still. Drew's head buzzed. He shouldn't have felt relieved, but he did. It was better that an authority figure broke it to everyone. And now he knew that they knew. Someone more capable could take over. Yeah. This was a good thing.