after the death of her mother, leighton's father sends her to a boarding school halfway across the world to be taught a lesson. she knows no one and no one knows her.
but the cherry on top is who her roommate is.
#2 in ptsdawareness
#2 in anxiety
#...
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"yeah you're beautiful don't have to try. darling you look divine. eyes don't lie"
-eyes don't lie by isabel larosa
⎯⎯⎯
The sun hangs low in the sky, casting long shadows as we pull into the campsite near the beach. The salty breeze carries the sound of the waves, and I feel a rush of excitement. This is going to be an amazing trip.
"Alright, let's get everything set up," Bailey says, clapping her hands together. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and soon we're all unloading the car and setting up our tents.
Luca immediately takes charge of the tent, pulling out the instructions with the confidence of someone who's done this a million times.
Eli, on the other hand, is already distracted by the sight of a squirrel nearby.
"Eli, get your butt in focus!" Bailey laughs, shaking her head. "We need to set up the tent first."
"But look at it! It's so fluffy!" Eli protests, still watching the squirrel intently. "C'mere, squirrel. Be my friend!"
I grab the tent poles and start sorting them out. "Come on, Eli, help us out here. The squirrel will still be there after we've set up."
"Aw fine," Eli pouts and walks over.
Kai stands off to the side, arms crossed, looking more like he's supervising rather than helping. "You're going to put the poles in the wrong places," he says dryly.
"Then why don't you do it?" I retort, rolling my eyes.
Where did that confidence come from?
Eli spreads the tent fabric on the ground, already muttering to himself about the complicated instructions. "Why do they make these things so difficult? It's like they want us to fail."
"Maybe it's a test of our friendship," Bailey says, winking. "If we can set this tent up without killing each other, we can probably do other things."
Kai snorts. "Or maybe it's just a poorly designed tent."
I hand a pole to Eli, who finally decides to join us. "Lets do this!"
As we try to assemble the tent, it quickly becomes apparent that none of us really know what we're doing.
Eli is holding the instructions upside down, Luca is wrestling with a particularly stubborn pole, and Bailey and I are trying to figure out which pieces go where.
"Are you sure this is right?" I ask, holding two poles that clearly don't fit together.
"Positive," Eli says, though he sounds anything but. "See."
