The Camp of Elements

The Campfire & The Drown Hut

I sit on the cold, hard stone with my elbows propped on my knees, leaning forward so my head rests in my palms. I stare blankly at the women with blonde hair, she's talking loudly to the campers. I've never been more bored in my whole life, and it's only been 5 minutes. The sky above me is turning a beautiful, dark crimson, the clouds start to fade away; they gently dot the brilliant sky, creating highlights in the red. The air smells of rich pine trees, which oddly reminds me of Christmas time. The sounds of quiet, distant crickets fill the air.

"Let's get to the rules, shall we?" The lady yells, the crowd cheers. When I say 'the crowd cheers', I mean cabins one, two, three, four, and five cheer; which are filled with children ten and younger.

"My name is Taylor!" The lady with blonde hair exclaims towards the crowd. Cabins one through five cheer again, I shoot daggers towards Taylor. "What's yours?" A bunch of random names come in a mix from the smaller cabins.

"Camila Cabello!" Camila yells from beside me, her hands are clamped around her mouth to make her voice louder. I glance at her, she notices my gazes and grins sheepishly at me. I swear I saw some hue rise to her cheeks but don't take my word for it.

I lift my head from my hands and to her ear, "Cabello?" I whisper to her, she smiles.

"Yeah, it's my last name." Camila admits, shrugging her shoulders gently.

"I like it, it's pretty." I tell her, grinning. Again, I swear the hue is back.

I avert my gaze from her and back towards Taylor, she beaming towards the younger campers. I glare at the peppy camp leader, she meets my gaze and her grin drops. I throw her a smirk and place my head back into my palms.

"T-the first rule is no lights on past nine!" Taylor shouts, ripping her eyes off mine.

I lean my body towards Dinah, "Too bad our cabin doesn't have any." I remark, Dinah laughs softly; stifling most of her laughter with her fist. I smile and adjust my body back to my normal 'glaring at Taylor' pose.

"Second rule; everyone in bed by nine!" Taylor yells, everyone seems fixed on her; I'd personally rather be fixed on the girl with peas in her jean pockets, sitting right next to me. I shake my head, trying to clear that thought from it. I feel and hand on my shoulder, I glance over towards it's direction.

"You okay?" Camila asks me, I smile at her.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just a—" I quickly rack my brain for any traces of believable stories, I land on one. "Mosquito. Just, it flew right past my face."

Camila nods, she cups her hand over her mouth and whispers, "I have bug spray in my bag. Together, with your head shaking skills and my bug spray, we can defeat all of the mosquitos!"

I laugh loudly, not going to even bother stifling it; the sudden burst of happiness overtaking the amount of hate I'm feeling towards Taylor right now. In the midst of laughing, I place my hand on her knee; thinking it's mine. My eyes widen in horror when my finger pads feel the soft materiel of Camila's jeans. I immediately pull my hand back, I glance up at Camila's face; it doesn't look like she noticed anything. Good thing.

"Sounds like a plan." I whisper back, after collecting myself from the whole hand-to-knee incident. Camila grins at me, then she turns her gaze back towards Taylor. The breathtaking sky reflects in her warm eyes, the flames of the fire tint the back of her eye color. I smile to myself, letting my gaze linger longer then it should.

I reluctantly rip my eyes from her's, I look back at Taylor. Something clicks in my brain. I can't hate peppy, camp Taylor because I have a sister named Taylor. If I think of my sister, I'll just immediately think of camp Taylor and the taste of bitterness will fill my mouth. I want to hate Taylor, not my sister Taylor but the peppy Taylor.