Have We Been Here Before? 《Experimental Story》

Chapter Three.

The first night at camp had passed in a blur, almost not seeming real. When Thea woke on the bottom of her bunk in the assigned cabin she was given the evening before, it took her a moment to realise that she technically wasn’t in her bed. She could hear her new bunk mates getting ready for the day. Thea was lucky enough to be put with some really nice girls, but they were already accustomed to each other and the camp, having been going for a while and she couldn’t help but feel like an outsider because of it.
  “Josie, we’ve talked about this.” She heard one girl sigh, Maya, as another huffed in response.
  “I just want to try it!” she guessed it was Josie who was talking, as she sat up in her bunk. She pushed her hair away from her face, spotting the three girls outside of the cabin on the porch, the screen door letting her see them.
  “Let's just go, we want to get to the hall really early, remember?” a third voice said, Leah, as Thea heard them go down the steps.
  Pulling herself from her covers, she made her way over to her bag not far from her bed. She grabbed her clothes for the day, simple jean shorts and a navy blue t-shirt. She also grabbed her brush and smoothed out her hair before putting it back. Just as she went to close the main door of the cabin to change, Joey thumped up the steps and Thea paused. He looked up and smiled at her and she opened the door to where it was before.
  “I told you I’d find you.” He grinned even wider, as he approached the door.
  “So you did.” She nodded, humming her words a bit.
  “How was your first night?” he asked as she came out onto the porch.
  “It was alright, bunk mates are nice.” she shrugged as she leaned against the wall of the cabin.
  “Yeah?”
  “Yeah, there's only four, so we have two extra bunks.” Thea tried to keep the conversation going, the only way she really knew how, which was to keep adding information to previous statements.
  “Oh nice.” he nodded. “Who did you end up with? Maybe I know them?”
  “Oh maybe!” Thea smiled half heartedly, a part of her wished he didn’t seem so interested in who she was sharing a cabin with. “Um, so there's Josie, Leah and Maya..”
  Thea could feel her stomach turn as she immediately noticed that he seemed interested again in the conversation when she mentioned Maya.
  “Maya? Like Maya Riley?” Joey asked.
  “I don’t know her last name.” Thea’s arms went from casually crossed over her stomach, to hugging her middle like she was trying to protect herself.
  “Curly brown hair and tan?” she nodded at the description.
  “I know her older brother! Alex is a cop in town.” Joey smiled and Thea felt the tension in her shoulders and stomach relax. So that's why he was interested..
  “Um.. Well I know you wouldn’t come find me just to talk about my bunk mates. Is there something you wanted to talk about or do?” she asked, trying to act a little confident, but she was unsure. Seeing his smile still stand, she smiled back but it was much smaller.
  “You're right.” Joey chuckled slightly. “I wanted to ask if you would go swimming in the lake with me? I know there are probably a lot of activities and all-” he started to ramble and Thea didn’t feel as nervous as before.
  “I’d love to go.” she smiled widely.
  “Yeah? I figured that you’d be doing something with your sisters?” He put his hands in his pockets.
  “Oh, well Jill is off with her friends I’m sure, but I don’t know about Charlotte.” she scanned the area like Charlotte was gonna pop out any moment just by mention.
  “Maybe you could invite her?”
  “O-oh.” Thea blinked hard, not having expected him to invite her sister. “Are you sure?”
   “Yeah, why not?” he shrugged.
  “Okay.” she nodded, and he nodded as well.
  “Meet me by the kayaks, after breakfast?”
  “Yeah, sure.” she nodded once more, before turning back to go into the cabin as Joey went down the stairs. She felt that same dorky smile creep up onto her face and it dipped down as she tried not to have an audible reaction. She had never been asked by a boy to hang out, this was really the first time that one had spent so much effort to stay talking to her. Joey must really be different. She closed the door to the cabin fully and locked it as she changed quickly, but this time slipping a swimsuit under it.
  She left the cabin a few moments later and double checked the text Charlotte had sent telling her what her cabin number was. Once she found it, not far from hers, she knocked on the door and was relieved to find that it was Charlotte who opened the door.

  “Wait, so you, who never shuts up-” Charlotte set her fork down, and Thea snorted.
  “Says you, but go on.” Charlotte playfully glared at her.
  “You met a guy and never said anything to me?”
   “While, I met him yesterday and I’m telling you now.” Thea shrugged, before taking a bit of her eggo waffle. “And, he wanted you to come with us.” Charlotte hummed in response.
  “Will you? Just swim with us for a little, please?” she asked, not used to being the one to ask another to do something. Normally, Charlotte was asking Thea to do things, not the other way around.
“Sure.. but you're getting food by yourself during lunch.” she hummed and Thea’s shoulders saged in relief.
  “Deal!” she nodded and got up to clear her tray.

   “Joey!” Thea called as she and Charlotte reached the sandy area surrounding the lake, relieved to find that he was waiting alone. The boy turned and smiled at her, the same charming one that made her weak in the knees.
  “Thea! This must be Charlotte?” he looked to her sister for confirmation and Charlotte nodded.  “It’s nice to meet you.” he said as Thea put their towels on two chairs to claim them.
  “Nice to meet you as well.” Charlotte smiled excitedly, always happy to meet new people. Thea walked over to the two of them, glad that their mother had bought new swimsuits for them, her old one being rather worn in.
  “Shall we?” she smiled as stood beside them. They smiled back and it wasn’t long before the three of them were chatting as they swam.