Learning A Lake ✔

- Nineteen -

♢ Laura ♢

It turns out Jane wasn't very good at covering her tracks. A rucksack was found in the bins containing more tape, some rope and dark clothing, it also conveniently had her name embroidered onto the material of the bag. After this she eventually gave up and admitted it.

I still don't know if her friends were involved but they got to stay at camp while Jane was removed from the premises. She had later been sent back to the UK where she could be officially charged for her crimes. I will have to make a court appearance when I get back home. A lot of the camp staff will have to fly over too, in order to give evidence.

The whole experience still gave me nightmares and I think it has scarred me for life. So, my final year at camp had not been as positive as I'd hoped so far. We still had a few weeks to go and I'm hoping that now Jane was gone, I could finally get closer to Ryan without being disturbed. 

Ryan would not leave my side once they had taken Jane away, he was so worried because I was completely isolated while everyone was being questioned. Anyone in camp was being treated as a suspect because CCTV showed no external visitors or intruders, meaning it was definitely someone within the camp. We all knew who it was from the start. I'm rather glad Jane was caught out in the end. 

Ryan has stayed in our cabin with us every night, he hasn't been caught yet thankfully and he refused to stay in my bed with me and chose the floor instead. I am really grateful for him at the moment, along with my friends who have done nothing but comfort and spoil me while I've not been allowed to do activities. Although, staying in bed most days has become boring and I have finished the two books I brought along with me. I would go for short walks some days to take my mind away from things. Staying in the cabin just made my mind wonder to places I didn't want it to go. 

I don't know where my relationship with Ryan is going if I'm honest. He holds my hand and occasional kisses my cheek or forehead. I suppose he's probably trying to not scare me away and he may be waiting for me to feel a lot better before taking things further? I don't know, I've just got to wait and see, but I can't avoid or escape the swarm of butterflies in my stomach when I see him look at me.

A week had passed since the incident and I was finally allowed to go back to activities today. 

---

"You guys." Rhi pointed towards our group which now contained all of my friends. Rhi had been making sure I was safe ever since. "Will be going canoeing with Harley on the river. Please go follow him." And with that Harley started to lead us out of the building and towards the river.

As we walked, Ryan gently put his arm around my waste and I tried my best not to show my extreme excitement as he did this. It was a simple gesture but it meant everything to me and more.

"I want to get to know more about you." He said quietly as we walked.
"What do you mean?" I looked up at him next to me.

"Well, yes, we've gone to the same school but we've only really been speaking to each other for the past few weeks, we don't know much about each other and I'm rather intrigued to find out more about you, Miss Weller." He gave me a grin.
"Well, we'd have to get away from these lot." I gestured towards Rachel, Katie, Matt and Oscar before laughing softly. Ryan nodded in return before knotting his eyebrows together and thinking.

After what seemed like a lifetime of thinking, He finally spoke again.
"How about... a date. You and me. In the tree house. At seven?" He looked at me with hope in his eyes.

Woah, a date. I don't think I've even been on a proper date before. My butterflies were fist bumping each other in my tummy. I couldn't help but smile to myself before replying to him.
"Okay then, a date." I said confidently.

"Awesome." He pulled me closer and kissed the side of my head. We had reached the river now.

"Right guys, for canoeing I need you in pairs." Harley announced as he got the equipment we needed out.

Katie looked to me with a desperate look. I didn't know how Katie and Oscar had been getting on lately but I knew they needed some time to get to know each other too.

I shook my head towards her with an evil smile. She knew what I was implying and reluctantly stood a bit closer to Oscar.

We got our lifejackets on and collected our paddles. Getting in the boat was difficult as I was already clumsy, but putting me on water was ten times worse.
"Careful Laura!" Rachel called out to me with a laugh, she was already in her boat with Matt.

I looked towards her and got distracted from standing and started to loose balance. Ryan grabbed me by the waist to steady me.
"You're so clumsy." He smirked at me and helped me get into the boat.

We both finally got settled and I was no longer able to fall out, I hoped.

"I'll let you all get used to sitting in the boat with your partners and you can have some time to adjust to steering the boat before we play some games and have some races." Harley spoke loudly before we all set off down the river.

I could feel Ryan's eyes on me the whole time, I sat at the front of the boat and he was at the back.
"Use your paddle on the left to steer right and vice versa." He seemed to know a lot about this, me on the other hand, I was completely clueless. "If we want to go straight forwards one of us paddles on the left and the other on the right. We have to keep the rhythm the same though." He continued.
"Got it." I said in reply.

After we got used to the boat and how to steer it we had a race down the river, Matt and Rachel won, which wasn't much of a surprise as I felt as though I had lost some of my muscles from not doing much for the past week. 

We also played a duck catching game. Harley put loads of rubber ducks into the river and we had to collect as many as possible. The only catch was that if another team managed to tap on your boat three times with their paddle you had to chuck out all of your ducks.

We didn't win that game either. Poor Ryan wasn't allowed to be as competitive as he would have liked. He definitely wouldn't win with me as a team mate, for sure. 

---

It was 6:55PM and I was stood at the edge of the woods. I could see the tree house in the distance. It was dimly lit with some lanterns and candles. I didn't know what to wear for this date so I settled for white jeans with a black silky tank top and black sandals. I didn't know what Ryan had planned, but all I hoped for was something peaceful and quiet, some sort of distraction. 

I took a deep breath and walked towards the tree house. There was around thirty steps up to the tree house, the steps stopped at little platforms that changed direction until I finally reached the top. I tensed up a little as the floorboards creaked beneath my feet. 

My heart beat was so loud, that's all I could hear thumping right out of my chest. The door of the tree house was shut. Do I knock or just go straight in? My instincts told me to knock so I gently tapped my knuckles on the door before turning the handle to let myself in. 

The whole room was filled with candles, which I'm pretty sure is a huge fire risk seeing as the building is made entirely out of wood.

The next thing I noticed was Ryan smiling at me. He was sat on a double bed which was the centre piece of the room. There were two little chairs and a table at the end of the bed. The table was covered with all different types of food, chocolate, strawberries and crisps etc. 

He had done this perfectly. He didn't know much about me but he had gotten something right. I loved a cosy evening indoors with a variety of snacks. 

"Hello." Ryan said sheepishly as I walked in and shut the door.
"I didn't realise this was a slumber party." I replied with a giggle.