Sweater Weather

Picking Teams

Author's Note:

...

Anotha one.

We walk into the cafeteria and I go straight for the food as the girls all go to look for a table and put their things down.

"You sitting with us Amber?" calls Sam over her shoulder.

"Uh, yeah. Save me a spot, yeah?" I answer, and go get my food.

Do not pig out, I tell myself.

My phone buzzes. I reach into my pocket and take it out.

Mom:

Hey hon, miss you! Hope you're not pigging out...

Oh mom, such faith in me.

I start walking again. I'm looking at my phone and I'm about to text her back when I accidently run into someone.

"Oh! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." I say, but then I realize who it is.

"Oh." I frown. "Never mind."

"Maybe you should watch where you're going." says Dylan with a scowl.

"Yeah, sure." I say. "As soon as you get your head out of your a-"

I stop mid word as soon as I see that Dylan is no longer looking at me but right over my shoulder. I turn around to see an awkward looking adult that's about my height with a fedora and a Mr. Cringles mustache looking at us with his arms crossed.

"Hey Uncle Dean." says Dylan.

"Dylan." He nods. "Who's this young lady you're talking to?" he asks and looks at me.

Dylan looks a little thrown off guard and irritated as he answers, "Her name's Amberly."

"Hello, Amberly." He smiles. "I'm Dylan's uncle and the head of this camp, Dean Keppel."

I probably seem awkward at first, but hopefully I cover it up well. "Hi, nice to meet you." I try to smile.

"You're new here, aren't you?" he asks.

"Umm, yeah. It's my first year." I answer.

"Oh?" he raises his eyebrows. "And how do you like it so far?" he asks.

"Everyone is nice." Lie. "I really enjoy the weather up here.." Ha! Lie. "and your nephew has been pretty cool, too." La-la-la LIE.

I shoot a look at Dylan and he raises an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Really?" asks Mr. Keppel. I don't know if he believed that last one or not. "Well, maybe Dylan can show you around the camp a little more." He looks between the two of us.

"I-uh-umm." I stutter.

"You can take her to the tire swing and show her how to really jump into a lake." He tells Dylan. "Doesn't that sound like fun Dyl?"

Dylan looks away. "Yeah, sure." He says flatly.

It's quiet for a while and Mr. Keppel looks at both of us again and smiles.

"Well, I'll be sure to put you guys on the same team this year. Just so you have a friend Amber."

NO!

"Oh, you don't have to do that, sir. Really." I say, nervously. Please, please, please don't do that.

"Nonsense." He waves my comment away. "You guys are going to be together all the time, so you won't have to worry about being lonely." he smiles. "We haven't had a newcomer in a long while, you know?"