Raven Hills

Chapter 10

After a short while, we finally reached the forest premises. It was around 4:30 PM  and so the darkness of the night was creeping in slowly, giving everyone present a reality check that the whole idea was not exactly a good one.

I was not really enthusiastic about the whole thing so I just kept on, lethargically, dragging myself around the entire place. After all the students had finally reached the location, Emma spoke up.

Okay so everyone, since it's already late in the evening now and it's dangerous to enter the forest in the dark. We'll be spending the night in the cabin of the summer camp houses that we had built last semester near the lake region. The necessities are being brought by Professor Dorian and meanwhile each of you will be assigned some tasks to carry out.

After the announcement was made by Emma, majority of the students felt bothersome but still, since the professors had come up with this idea, no one could actually refute.

Thereafter, Emma led us to the camping houses and to everyone's surprise, the houses were beautifully maintained. There were all total three houses which were quite spacious from within. It seemed as if everyone had been triggered by something as, everyone seemed more enthusiastic than earlier.

The boys were assigned the house on the left, while the girls were assigned the house on the right. The house in the centre was chosen by the professors who were planning to settle down all the commodities there. And so, everyone just  headed towards their assigned accommodation.

When we all entered the house, that is, the one assigned to the boys, many were gawking with surprise and amusement since, as I had thought, the house was indeed spacious. The area was divided into two parts via the staircase, one on the first floor while the other on the ground floor. The area within screamed the aspect of antique. Everything seemed exquisite and also there was a fireplace to maintain the temperature inside. Inspite of being a house for camping, the aesthetics signified luxury.

All of the boys seemed totally hyped about everything as everyone was now busy choosing their sleeping place. While I, on the other hand, was not that picky about anything so I just thought that I would choose whichever sleeping spot would be left. Rather than wasting my time by deciding about these silly things, I thought that I needed to help out the professors. But before that, one thing was necessary to be done and that was, to not let the atmosphere be awkward.

While standing near the entrance pillar, I searched through my eyes to see where he was but to my surprise, he was chattering away with his other mates. I mean technically he was the reason for my sour mood but there he was near the window sill, chatting and laughing with the others, as if he had no worries in the world. He in this context was none other than, Louis.

I thought that since we needed to spend the whole school year together, leaving things on an awkward note would not benefit both of us, but the way things were going and how Louis seemed so nonchalant about the fact that things were awkward between us, my efforts to mend our relationship would only be wasted. Thereby, I decided that I should just ignore him, and focus on the things that are important to me. Yep, that was the attitude that I needed to adopt.

Before the boys could drift off to dreamland, there was knocking on the door, such that everyone got alerted. Since I was near the door, I went to open it. On the other side was none other than Hope. I gestured in a questioning manner as if asking her what exactly she was doing by coming to the house allotted to the boys, but before I could even ask her, she spoke up.

Professor Dorian has reached with the necessities and Emma asked me to call the guys to help us with the dinner and everything.

At that, all the boys started to nod at each other and the ones on the first floor climbed down the stairs, while the guys on the ground floor were ready to go outside the house. I, too, was about to follow behind the others, when Hope called out my name, and when I turned back to look, she caught up to me and then started to speak.

Lucas, you should help me out in carrying the water from the lake. We'll be requiring water for both cooking as well as for us to freshen up.

After hearing that, I just nodded and both of us headed towards the lake. Before we even reached the lake, I could make out from the shadows that there were already some other students who were carrying buckets to fill them up with the water from the lake and then as we were approaching near the lake, I saw that those students were none other than Lizzie, Jo, Milton and Penelope. Among whom Lizzie and Penelope were constantly bickering with each other along with Jo siding with Lizzie and Milton or rather MG was trying to stop their so-called proxy war.

Even before reaching near them, it seemed I was already sighing with exhaustion, that Hope suddenly asked me.

You okay? I mean, you look tired.

I just shook my head to assure her but she looked at me doubtfully. So to avoid any further conversation about my sour mood or something, I just ran up to MG and put my arms upon his shoulders and asked with a smile,

So what's going on? You guys talking about something interesting?

But even before MG could speak, Lizzie interrupted and spoke in an annoyed tone and a sarcastic smile,

What do you think is going on, Lucas? Of course, it is the fact that, since reaching the camp site, an annoying fly started to interrupt in all our plans to have fun. And the so-called annoying fly is so persistent that we are unable to get rid of HER. Don't you agree, Penelope Park?

To this direct provocation, Penelope, just, as usual, smirked and made her way out of the group. Before she left, she just winked at Jo and started heading towards the area where the food was being prepared for dinner.

When Jo received the wink from Penelope, she just expressed her discomfort by looking at a different direction and then thanks to my bad luck, I was caught staring at them from the sidelines. After getting caught, I just scratched my head and smiled in a faint manner. Jo didn't exactly react, and she, along with the others, just started to carry the buckets full of water. And so, I too hurriedly decided to help them out.