Camp Hansen

Chapter 9

"Can I have everyone's attention, please?" Dinah clapped her hands and the rest of the girls stopped talking among themselves. "Now that we are all fed thanks to The Crusher  and Laurmani who have shown amazing stabbing skills – remind me to never piss them off ever again – it is time for..." Dinah nodded to Ally who made a quick drum roll. "The talk."

Lauren, Normani, and Camila rolled their eyes.

"Could you stop making jokes about that poor fish? It's not funny," Camila whined with a grimace. "I'll never be able to wear those shorts again!"

"It was kind of disgusting," Normani agreed. "But it surprised me, I thought it would look more gross than that."

"You weren't the one who had to gut them," Lauren said, shuddering slightly as she thought back to the task. While she had volunteered to do it, simply because the other girls didn't even want to be near the dead fish, being forced to actually look into the dead eyes and cut the belly open... she could have lived without that experience. Not that she would tell the others, though. She had a reputation to uphold. "It was messy."

"And I hope our talk will be less messy than that," Dinah steered them back to the topic and the other three groaned. "Stop whining! This is for our group. This, this... whatever this stupidity  is, it has to stop. I like being in a girl group. I like having group mates. I like having four  group mates. I'm not giving up on that because of a few misunderstandings." She glanced between Normani and Camila. "Or because of silly rumors." Dinah looked pointedly at Lauren. "So we will talk. And we're doing it now. Am I understood?"

There was steel in her voice and the three girls winced. When her family was involved – and she counted the group as part of her family – Dinah was a force to be reckoned with. "Yes, Ma'am."

"Good. First order of business... let's start with the most ridiculous one. Camren."

"It's not rid-"

Dinah glared at Lauren who immediately fell silent. "Alright, then tell us what exactly our fans have to do with your and Mila's friendship."

"You know very well what they have to do with it!"

"No, I actually do not," Dinah shot back as Lauren glared at her. "So please enlighten me."

"They make me feel uncomfortable. Every interaction of ours gets scrutinized and interpreted as something romantic and they comment on everything with that stupid name and..."

"And they're not doing it with the rest of us?" Dinah asked. "They're writing stuff about us too. What would you do, if I suddenly distanced myself from you because they keep asking about Laurinah? If I told everyone how weird and ridiculous it is to even consider you in that way? How would that make you feel?"

"That's different," Lauren muttered and glanced down to the grass. "Camren shippers are much more intense."

"No, the only difference is that you never wrote several Twitlongers about us or made snide comments in interviews about it. Don't you think that maybe  our fans are blowing every touch and every glance out of proportion because they never see you guys truly interacting anymore? When was the last time you hugged Mila in public? Heck, when was the last time you did it in private? Most of them think that your ship sunk to the bottom of the ocean – and I'm not talking about your possible relationship, but about your friendship."

Lauren's head shot up and she glared at the youngest group member, but Dinah only calmly met her eyes. "Don't make me sound like a heartless bitch, Dinah! Of course I care about Camila and she knows that! So what if I don't do shit in front of others? I don't owe them anything. I have the right  to feel uncomfortable about their comments! I'm – not – gay!"