The Almost Summer

Chapter 14: Invincible♥

What’s the most necessary item when you’re going camping? Dry Shampoo. Because God forbid you have to go anywhere near the mozzy-infested, ominously stained, ridiculously cramped freezing cold “showers”.

I mean, obviously there are other necessities, like tents, sleeping bags and gas cookers, which I pass from the boot of our car to my dad, who is holding a bag of tent pegs in one hand. Charlie stands beside him trying to piece together the metal poles that form the frame of the tent.

“You’re doing it wrong,” I inform him as I hand my dad a bag full of drink cans.

“That’s what she said!” My dad crows, earning a dirty look from the woman who is putting up her own tent next to us. He dumps the bag in the growing pile of general stuff we have about three feet away from the car where Charlie sits.

“Dad, act your age.” He says, not bothering to look up from the poles in his hands.

My dad just makes small hooks with his fingers and claws the air, mouthing meow. I bite back a laugh, grab the last bag from the boot and head over to Charlie, my aim being to help him with the tent poles.

“Need any help?” I ask him, stooping to pick up one of the poles and twirling it like a baton.

“Hang on, I’m about to make a breakthrough….” Charlie whispers, like speaking any louder will jinx it. Forehead creased in concentration and mouth curved into a frown, he delicately clicks two poles together, waits for a second and then lets out a sigh. “See Autumn? Progress!”

I raise my eyebrows.

“That was your breakthrough?”

“It’s early days yet.” He shrugs. Just then the two poles fall apart and fall to the ground with a loud clanking sound. We exchange a quick look, full of important twin-telepathy stuff.

“Mum!” We yell in unison. She sticks her head out the car door, from where she’s been slacking off and reading about the latest celebrity breakup.

“What do you want?” She yells back, even though we’re less than three metres away.

“You need to fix this!” I reply, gesturing to the mess of poles on the floor.

She grumbles something under her breath, but glumly emerges from the car and skulks over before flopping onto the floor and beginning to assemble the frame.

Now that I’m free, I realise I have no idea what to do with myself. We’re here for the next three days, and camping’s nowhere near as exciting as it seemed when I was younger.

I’ve been coming to The Plassey since I was about five, always with my family and Lucas’s. Honestly, I’m a little embarrassed at how long it took me to make the whole Lucas/Winther connection. I know Mr and Mrs Winther (commonly known as Trudy and Paul) so well they could be my own parents.

The only reason I hadn’t remembered camping was because I haven’t been since I was twelve, and I have no idea why my parents suddenly have the desire to come back.

And now I have a whole weekend full of being in close proximity to my parents and brother, a five-minute walk to the nearest toilet and entirely too much time to think about the whole Jake/Piper situation.

I try to think back to what I used to do here back when I was younger. Back then I was a lot more willing to spend time running around with my brother and Lucas, and I vaguely remember two girls I used to hang around with. One had a black bob and a pretty name (Silena? Serena? Sabrina?), the other a long red ponytail. I think she used to have a thing for Lucas, and I can remember her being very fast. I wonder if they still come here.