Every Summer Has A Story

Ch. 16 - The Camp Rumor Mill

A week later Eve and Auden were rocking on the on the porch spring of the lodge's front deck with matching sour expressions.

"I can't believe they're back it." Auden huffed.

"I can't believe Nathanael was right." Eve grimaced.

They exchanged irritated looks as a trio of female counselors approached. Staff training had wrapped up the day before and Thea, Aviana, and Ellison were already wreaking havoc on their fellow staff members.

"Apparently Greyson and I hooked up on the water trampoline Wednesday night," Auden mumbled, crossing her arms over her white Camp Wabanaki staff tee shirt.

"Fascinating!" Eve exclaimed, "Especially because you and I were together Wednesday night."

Once the actual training started, Eve immediately felt like a fish out of water. 

By Wednesday evening, Eve had found herself overwhelmed by all of the information, ridiculous traditions, and complicated camp relationships. She was ready to run for the hills of Ann Arbor.

"I can't do this," Eve had announced, flopping down onto Auden's bunk dejectedly.

Auden was been folding her clothes and putting them away in the armoire.

She paused with a hoodie in her hands,

"You can," she soothed, "training week is always overwhelming, even for the returning staff."

Eve vividly recalled burying her face into Auden's scratchy comforter.

"I can't tie knots," she'd lamented into the fabric.

That part was true. Eve struggled mightily with knot tying when they had high ropes training.

"So?" Auden countered, "that's what Maverick is for."

Eve had lifted her face up at that point with a small smile,

"I can't make him tie my knots for me all summer long."

Auden had assured her she could most certainly do just that.

"Did you hear that Maverick broke up with Lennon because you two did the dirty on the playing field?" Auden asked, breaking into Eve's memory.

She snorted and snapped back into the present.

"Yes, I am such a home wrecker..." she trailed off as the Unholy Trinity reached the front porch and exchanged a cool look with Ellison.

Clad in the same white Camp Wabanaki staff shirts and matching denim shorts, the girls couldn't be more diverse physically. Aviana had the same high cheek bones and straight black hair as her older brother, though that's where the similarities ended. While Zayne was generally easy going, albeit somewhat mercurial when it came to the fairer sex, Aviana oozed entitlement. She was of average height and build, but she looked like a giant standing next to Thea, her polar opposite. 

"Skinny bitch," Eve thought bitterly, eyeing Thea's tiny frame.

She felt an instant twinge of guilt at the awful thought and switched her gaze to her sister, trying to derail that particular downward spiral. Ellison and Eve shared the same exotic Brazilian features and were unmistakably related. Eve had noticed that Ellison was beginning to get the curvy hips she distinctly remembered waking up with one morning after her 17th birthday thanks to some late working puberty.

"Where are we meeting?" Ellison asked, squinting into the sun and breaking an uncomfortable silence.

Eve raised a single perfectly groomed brow.