Camp Pining Hearts

Chapter 1

The second the van rolled off the highway, the passenger-side window—upon which Peridot's cheek was leaning—cracked open and began to slide down her face. Peridot's steady mouth-breathing had made the glass sticky, but it wasn't the peeling sensation of the window parting from her skin that woke her up. What woke her up, in fact, was a sharp screech of breaks and Peridot's forehead, pitching forward from the force of the stop, colliding with the dashboard.

"Jasper!" she shouted as she snapped back into her seat. Peridot was so sure she had cracked her skull that her right hand automatically flew to her forehead to keep her brains from spilling out. Peridot's left hand, meanwhile, balled itself into a fist and crashed down onto the thigh of the driver, who chuckled. "Are you trying to kill me?"

The bulky woman sitting beside her flicked her eyesight towards Peridot for a moment before staring again at the red light at which they had stopped. Her teeth were bared in a wide grin. "Maybe you should've kept your seatbelt buckled, huh? You'd think you would've learned by now."

"That's not funny," Peridot said briskly. After determining that not even the skin of her forehead had broken, let alone her skull, she felt her glasses to see if they had suffered from the collision. Figuring that all was well, she proceeded to prop her crossed arms on the ledge of the open window and to turn her face away from her friend—although, not before covertly pulling her seatbelt across her chest and clicking it in place.

She felt her friend stiffen slightly beside her. "Sorry," was all that Jasper managed to say before a thick, awkward silence enveloped them. When the light eventually turned green, Jasper maneuvered the car down a small, paved road to their right. "Smell the air, though. We're here! Finally."

Despite the residual pounding in her forehead, Peridot couldn't help but smile a little. "Yeah. Finally."

The salty wind coming off the ocean spilled onto Peridot's face and she sighed into it, grateful that Jasper had rolled down her window after all. As they drove, a blur of trees whizzed past them to their left. To their right, the ocean and its rocky shoreline was broken only for a moment by a peninsula, upon which rested a small city.

Jasper spoke up again. "Wait. Did I miss the turn?"

"What?" Peridot glanced at her friend, who was studying the rearview mirror. She looked back out the passenger-side window at the city. "Are you serious?"

"Yes," Jasper growled. "Did I miss it or not?"

"Of course you didn't, you clod." Peridot pointed at the collection of houses and boardwalks that were just distinguishable. "It's past Beach City. We've been here every year since we were basically born, how do you not know how to get there?"

"I mean—" Peridot noticed Jasper's grip tighten on the steering wheel. "—our moms drove us here until we were sixteen."

"Yeah, and you've been driving us here since."

"Whatever, I know where I'm going now." While Jasper's face was red, lips pressed tightly together, Peridot was suddenly feeling cheerier.

"Does your girlfriend know that you're a blockhead or have you managed to distract her enough with your—" Peridot rested her hand on Jasper's bicep and made a show of batting her eyelashes. "—rippling physique."

Jasper pushed her hand away with a rough roll of her shoulder, but she was smiling again. "You're not allowed to talk to her, just so you know."

The car bumped along for an extra minute after passing Beach City before a wooden arch appeared at their left. Large white paint spelled out "CAMP HIDDEN GEM" above a dirt road.