Holiday Camp Romance

Chapter 1: Initiation

Dear Miss Brown,

Thank you for your application for the position of Rides Assistant at our Butlins Bognor Regis Holiday Resort. We were very impressed with your submission and are delighted to offer you the role. We look forward to you joining our team. Please email staff@butlinsbognor.co.uk for any queries regarding your position.

The Butlins Team

"Mum! Mum! I got it!" I ran down the stairs, phone in hand with the email lit up on the screen.

"Got what, Lottie?" she replied, eyes flicking up from her laptop.

"The job! At Butlins!" I panted out, there was a lot of stairs I just ran down.

"Well congratulations, darling. When do you start?" Mums face could have looked a little bit more excited for me, or a little bit more upset I wouldn't be at home the whole summer.

"Next week, Monday. But I'll go down at the weekend to unpack and get settled in to meet all the other people."

"Well, sounds exciting. You can take the car down there since neither me or your dad will be able to drive you as we're working that week." Her eyes flicked back down to the laptop.

"I can have the car the whole summer?" I was surprised, I'd always have to share it with my brother in the holidays when he was back from Uni.

Mum smiled "Yes, but you're paying for your own petrol."

"Thanks Mum!" I turned around and ran back up the stairs, I only had a few days to pack now and had to make sure I didn't forget anything.

Once in the upstairs hallway, I reached for the ceiling door, leading to the atik and opened it, pulling the ladder down. I climbed the metal stairs and searched around for my suitcase, right at the back since it hadn't been used for years, the last time being 2 summers ago when we went on a cruise. I hurled it down the stairs, closing the ladder and hatch with difficulty, wiping the odd cobweb off me as I went. Wheeling it into my room, I huffed down on my bed, unzipping the suitcase.

"Right...what do I need?" I muttered.

Pants: Check

Bras: Check

Tops: Check

Nice Tops: Check

Pyjamas: Check

Skirts: Check

Jeans/Trousers: Check

Dress: Check

Washbag: Check

Socks: Check

Sunglasses: Check

Shoes: Check

Chargers: Check

Coat: Check

I heaved the lid of my suitcase shut, having to sit on it with all my weight to push the contents down. All I needed to do now was chuck it in my boot and fill the car up with petrol and I was on my way.

I glanced around my room, realizing I only had 2 more nights left in my own bed. When I finish at Butlins I was going straight to Uni. It was a bittersweet moment, I knew I couldn't survive another summer stuck at home in my small town. All my friends working in supermarkets, only meeting up once every fortnight, and me going back to working the same shit retail job I had for the last 2 years, recommending useless products to customers with made up problems.

I needed to do something worthwhile this summer, something exciting. I figured that working at Butlins would be like a holiday anyway, I'd been there enough times on family holidays as a kid and knew pretty much everything about where everything was on the resort, I'd been going for a solid decade.