Listen to Your Heart

Chapter 2

"Wow she seems like a bitch," Julia says.

"Yeah, I'm sorry you had to see all of that. She's part of the reason I stopped coming back," I reply.

"So why are you back now?"

"My mom is friends with Sarah, one of the owners, and she got me the job and I wasn't allowed to say no."

"Aw that sucks. Well now I know how much Jaime sucks so you have me as a friend. We'll have a great summer together."

"Thanks Julia. I'm sorry for pulling you into all of my drama."

"Lauren it's really fine. I just hope there aren't many more girls like Jaime."

"Yeah me too," I say as my stomach rumbles. "What time is it?" I ask.

"12:15," Julia replies, "I think we have lunch soon."

"Do you wanna head up to the dining hall now?" I ask.

"Yeah, sure. It's a good thing you went here because otherwise I would have no idea how to get there. I was told that everyone is eating in the girls dining hall during pre-camp."

"It's pretty close but the annoying thing is you have to walk up this giant hill to get there," I reply.

Julia and I walk to the dining hall mainly in silence. We walk inside and see a few counsellors. I'm about to ask where she wants to sit when I hear my name being shouted. "Oh my god, Lauren Lopez!" says a girl as she pulls me into a hug.

"Meredith!" I exclaim. "Hi! It's been so long."

"I know too long. What bunk do you have?"

"7A, juniors, what about you?"

"8A so we should be in the same division! Yay this will be just like old times, except we won't get pushed around by the bitches anymore."

I laugh and say, "I'm sorry I've been so rude, Meredith this is Julia, my co-counselor." I look and Julia and say, "Meredith and I were in the same bunk for all six summers here."

"More than that, we were best friends!"

Julia laughs and says, "it's nice to meet you."

"Do you guys want to sit with me? You can meet my co-counselor, Denise."

We start to walk over to a table when I pull Meredith aside and say, "wait Mer is this the same Denise from when we were younger? Jaime's follower?"

"She's changed now, give her a chance."

I say, "okay," put on a smile and sit down at the table.

"Hey Lauren it's good to see you again," Denise says.

"You too," I reply with a smile. "So I'm guessing Mer is the general counselor for your bunk, so what's your speciality."

"I'm the dance counselor."

"Ah yes, you were always so talented with coming up with dances. We used to always win the talent shows thanks to you." Meredith says.

"Were you all in the same bunk?" Julia asks.

"Yeah but I came two years after these guys," Denise replies.

Suddenly a bell rings.

"We serve ourselves," Meredith says. "Well at least until camp starts."

The four of us get in line behind a group of guys. "No Nick we can't give our campers High School Musical nicknames," I overhear.

One of the guys frowns and says, "why not Joey?"

Oh shit it's Joey Richter. I haven't seen him since my horrible camp run in at the mall and I probably look so bad. Wait why do I care? Yeah sure he was one of the cutest guys at camp but he's a jerk.

*two years earlier*

It was my first summer not going back to camp. Emily and I were leaving for her family's beach house in a few days and I wanted to go to the outlets with my mom to get some new clothes.

On the way home from the outlets my mom said, "Let's stop at the big mall, there's this bag I want that's on sale."

"Ugh okay mom," I said. I just wanted to go home and hang out with my friends.

We walked into the mall and are greeted with hundreds of people wearing blue shirts with the Camp Blue Brook symbol on it. My mom was oblivious to it all. We made our way to the store with the bag and she buys it. As soon as we walked out of the store I heard an all too familiar voice that I never wanted to hear again.

"Look guys it's LoLo Lopez!" Jaime shouted. "LoLo you should come over here."

"Go say hi to your friends," my mom suggested, "I need to run into DSW for a new pair of flip flops anyways."

I reluctantly walked over to Jaime and her group when I noticed that he was there too. "Joey you remember LoLo, right?"

"Uh sure Jaime." Joey said, avoiding eye contact with me.

"How's your summer? It probably sucks not being at camp," Jaime asked.

"No um it's good," I murmured back.

"Hmm what was that? I can't hear you LoLo. Did you say it sucks because you haven't been getting to see Joey?"

"No that's not what I said!" I protested but it didn't matter. Jaime always got her way.

"I think you and Joey should go on a little walk," Jaime sayid with wink, shoving Joey and I over to a bench.

"Uh hi," I said.

"Why do you let her walk all over you?" He asked me.

"I don't do that."

"Yes you do. Look I don't know why you decided not to come back to camp but take it as your chance. You're away from Jaime and her bitchiness," he said. That was the first time I ever heard someone my age call someone else a bitch, which was so naive considering I was 14. I was surprised that he was being nice to me. I thought he thought I was a loser. I thought he was just like Jaime.

"She doesn't push me around."

"Keep telling yourself that kid," Joey said while standing up. He patted me on the back and walked back over to the group.

I stormed out of the mall and didn't look back.

I'm pulled back into reality when Meredith says, "Lauren what are you gonna get?"

"Oh uh I'll probably just have some of the Caesar salad."

"Wow no pizza for LoLo? That's surprising," says a bitchy voice.

I turn around and see the owner of the bitchy voice, Jaime. I wonder how long she's been behind us.

Before I can even defend myself, Joey turns around and says, "oh grow up Jaime." He looks at me, smiles, and says, "hey Lauren, long time no see."