A Travelyn Camping Trip

Chapter 2: The Illuminated Lake

The camping trip was going great so far. In the last couple of days, Lucinda, Nicole, and Cadenza had joined the other campers. Everybody was having a grand time while camping. The activities were fun, the company was great, and while canoeing Garroth and Laurance got swarmed by a giant flock of geese that stole their boat. Garroth's screams could be heard all the way from the campgrounds.

It seemed like everything was going swell, and everybody was having a great time. Except for Katelyn. She was worried and confused. Just a couple nights ago, Travis has rolled over in his sleep and had hugged her close. That was the night Katelyn contemplated on her feelings for him and had decided that she wanted to stop pushing him away so much. That seemed like it would be the moment everything changed, but for some reason she just didn't seem to have the courage to approach Travis and give him any signals.

That's not what worried Katelyn though. Recently she was noticing that Travis was starting to grow distant from her, and he was obviously becoming more and more discouraged. She couldn't help but feel guilty for that.

"You alright Katelyn?" a voice suddenly spoke up. Katelyn sat up from her blanket in the sand and shielded her eyes from the sun. The person squatting over her was her friend Aphmau, who wore a concerned expression on her face.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Katelyn questioned. Aphamu raised her eyebrow, clearly not convinced.

"You've got that expression on that shows you're worried about something. Or someone!" she giggled.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Aphmau" Katelyn said.

"Oh really? So it has nothing to do with Trav..." Katelyn tackled her friend and covered her mouth, quickly looking around the beach. Garroth and Laurence were sitting across the beach with Cadenza, Aaron was doing flips off the dock out in the middle of the lake with Dante while Nicole watched, Lucinda was swimming back and forth for exercise, and Kawaii-Chan was sitting far enough away with a pair of binoculars. She appeared to be watching a canoe floating around the lake piled high with geese, loudly quacking as if laughing with evil intent.

Katelyn looked back at her friend with anger. "Don't say that around here Aphmau! You know how I feel about that!" She took her hand off Aphmau's mouth, who giggled like a schoolgirl.

"I think it's cute! Why don't you like it?" Aphmau asked. Katelyn blushed and looked away, looking grumpy but feeling like she might explode with glee inside. "I just don't want anybody hearing about it, that's what!"

Aphmau looked at her friend and thought for a while. "You know, Travis has been very quiet lately. I'm sure he could use someone to comfort him."

Katelyn looked around the beach again for Travis and saw him the second time. He must have been under the water when she looked, because he was now seen sitting on the dock with Nicole. It was pretty clear that he was down, and it looked like Nicole was trying to cheer him up.

Katelyn looked distraught, obviously feeling bad for Travis, so Aphmau thought up a way to make Katelyn feel better. "Hey, how about this!" She whispered her idea to Katelyn, who's eyes lit up at the idea.

Aphmau got up and brushed the sand off the back of her shirt, and looked out at the beach. "Hey everybody! Come on over! I've got tonight's activity planned out!" Everybody perked up and started to come over, except Nicole and Dante, who could hear perfectly fine from the dock.

The group gathered around Aphmau, who announced, "Tonight, we're going on a midnight canoe trip!"

Most of the group perked up at the idea except for Garroth and Laurence, who looked at each other with a look of fear in each other's eyes.