Camp || Under Construction

Seventeen||

•Kaila's POV•

I woke up with no one familiar around me, at first, I panicked until I saw Jane. I knew her face at least a little bit.

"Kaila, it's okay honey. You're safe." Her voice was calming. She sat just close enough to be comforting, but not daunting. There was a rag on my nose with some ice. I touched it gingerly.

"Is my nose, okay?" I asked, taking the ice pack off.

"It just was bleeding a little bit, honey."

I didn't even notice the immense pain in my ankle and back until now. It ached all the way down. I remember having these pains before whenever someone accidentally nudged me, but I thought I may have hit something sharp some time ago.

"Oh, it's been doing that a lot recently, and I don't really know why. I went to my doctor, and he said my nose might just be a little sensitive."

The nurse smiled, a concerned look behind her expression. "Okay, sweetie. How are you feeling?"

I took a moment to see if I needed anything. "Maybe some water?"

She smiled and went right away to get a little cup of water from the faucet. Handing me the cup, I sat up my hands shaking. I sipped the water, sitting up on the bed I was laying on.

Jane smiled at me. "I contacted your mom about your little accident. She was worried, but I insisted you were okay. Do you feel well?"

I smiled, nodding my head. "Yeah, I think so."

"Okay, dinner is finished now, but I had Zoey have the kitchen staff save you some food. I can go get it for you if you want."

I came here to get away from being pitied. I needed to show them I was strong, give my Mom a reason to believe that I am what I said I was. "No, it's okay, I can go with you. I feel better now."

She smiled. "Alright then." She stood from the bed, and I pulled the sheets off the bed. My leg hurt more than ever, but it was a good thing I had my crutches to help. I hadn't noticed that my armpits had hurt badly until I put them under my arms. It felt like my body was undergoing something, I was in a lot of pain, but I wasn't going to let it stop me.

I thanked the nurse as we exited the small building. I walked slowly to the dining hall, I saw they were cleaning, but there was one table they left open. We went over to it, and Jane helped me sit down. "I'll go grab your dinner."

I looked around, suddenly wanting Kallen and Ellen to be by my side. They were nowhere to be found. I wanted to cry, but I wasn't going to. I had to make it this week, I did. No matter how tough it was going to be.

Jane came back with our food, and we ate in silence. I didn't feel that hungry, I didn't want to eat. But I knew I had to, in order to not fall faint again. I needed to be strong.

"Where are you from, Kaila?" Jane asked, taking a sip of her water.

"I'm from Eau Claire." I smiled.

"Ah, very cool! My parents live there."

"Where are you from?"

"Right here in Waupaca. We don't have to travel very far, it's where my kids grew up, it's where our church is. It's home."

I never felt at home in Eau Claire. It was so far away from everything, my family only lived there because that's where Dad's job was. Kallen and Ellen were going to leave as soon as they got married, Kaleb didn't live with us anymore, and no one knows where Kambel went.

Mom wanted to move out to the country sometime, it was the whole reason why they wanted to move back to Wisconsin.

We finished up dinner and headed to the chapel. We walked in and people were still talking, but the band was on stage. They were going to start soon.

Jane helped me to sit next to our youth group. Jane sat at the end of the aisle, and me next to her. She shoved my crutches underneath the seats. I looked down the row, seeing Hunter sitting at the other end with an empty seat next to him. He looked around and saw me sitting at the other end. I smiled slightly, looking at him kinda helplessly. I shrugged. He stood and maneuvered his way around the youth group, scooting them down one by one, and made an extra seat right next to me.

"Hi." He smiled looking at me, I weakly smiled in return.

"Hi."

"I heard what happened, are you doing okay?"

"Um, I will be."

His kind heart looked at me with care, I'd barely met this boy, and yet he still cared so much about me. I heard a familiar voice approaching us, turning my head I saw Kallen standing next to Jane.

"Kallen!" I wanted to get up and hug him so tightly.

"Hi, Bug. How are you doing?" Jane moved out of the way so Kallen could sit down next to me. He wrapped his arm around me. I put my head on his shoulder wanting to cry.

"I'm okay, I just fell earlier."

"Yeah, I heard that." Did everyone just know? "Is your let hurt at all?"

"It's a little sore, but I'm sure it'll be okay later." I lied; it was excruciating. I'm not going to ruin this camp experience for Kallen under any circumstances. He planned this too heavily.

He smiled. "Promise?"

"Yes, I'm good."

The band started playing a little louder as the lights got dimmer. "Okay. I'll see you later, okay?"

A bunch of people, including Kallen, ran up to the front by the stage. Hunter just stood next to me. He looked down at me. "You don't need to stand." He spoke very loudly so I could hear him over the sound of the blaring music.

Jane stood too. Most of Jane's youth group left to go up front, but I stayed seated.

They began playing a really loud song with wild drums. Everyone was clapping really fast, and I was a bit overwhelmed by everything.

He's looking for you... A voice whispered in my head. He's coming for you.

I got very nervous, while the song was playing, I let my head hang, trying to calm down from the voices in my head. I wanted them to leave. I covered my ears to try and get them to go away.

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, I flinched slightly at the touch, but it remained. Then I felt Jane sit down next to me, she whispered into my ear. "Tell those voices to go away hon. They won't go away unless you tell them to."

How did she know? I looked over at her, her eyes smiled, it was like she was reading my mind. The hand that was on my shoulder lifted but the spot that it was at didn't hurt like it normally did.

I just nodded.

As they continued on to the next few songs, I sat in the chair, just telling the voices to go away.

I remembered something my Mom had told me when I was younger.

"Kaila, you know what we do when we're scared?" She would say.

"No. What?" I would say.

"When we're scared, we ask Jesus to come and hug us and protect us from all those scary things."

As I remembered, I whispered aloud to myself. "Jesus hug me and protect me from these voices."

It was like a wave of water that came and calmed my body. The voices died down, and there was a stillness as I heard the lyrics from the song singing. "We only wanna hear your voice, we wanna hear every word."

With those lyrics I cried out to God would show Himself to me. I was scared, I was in a new place, but I knew those words my mother would say. As I felt the warm hand again, I didn't flinch. There was a soft, faint word that was repeated in my mind "protected."

I broke down crying, I didn't know why. It could have been that touch, that word, or the stress of the day that made me cry. But I felt so much release from crying.

I felt Hunter sit down next to me, and then multiples of people moving past me and sitting down. I didn't look up, I just cried. I didn't want to, but I couldn't do anything else.