Surviving Camp Cedar

Chapter Ten

Elsa counted her breaths as she waited for Ursula to reply, hoping and almost praying that the girl would and could actually help her. She had waited her whole life for this moment, the moment when she would truly be free from the fear and anger her parents ahd had for her for her entire life. Free from the distance she had to keep from her sister. Free from the worry constantly weighing on her shoulders.

"Anything?" Asked Ursula, looking up and down Elsa's body. She felt exposed, but she didn't move to cover herself up. Ursula was willing to help her, and Elsa was willing to do anything for that. 

"Anything," Elsa breathed, nodding to emphasize her statement. Her heart was pounding, her palms sweating, in anticipation of Ursula's next words.

"I want Jack." She answered simply. Elsa felt as though the air had been sucked out from her body, fear and dread and hope all bubbling in her stomach and making it hard to concentrate. Jack? She thought. What could Ursula want with Jack?

"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, suddenly feeling cold in the warm summer air. Her throat felt dry as she tried to swallow, making her even more on edge than she was. She couldn't explain the feeling coming over her, an intense mixture of terror and relaxation as Ursula's dark eyes met her own blue.

"I want Jack's soul," Ursula explained, as if it were the simplest thing. "and you'll be able to be with your sister again. Just like you've always wanted." She shrugged, her tone indicating clearly that this was her final offer. Elsa chewed the inside of her cheek, tears prickling her eyes as she deliberated. Giving Ursula Jack's soul would make Elsa not only give up her first love, but also giuve her a heavy burden of guilt for the rest of her life. Although, she knew, if she didn't give her that, she would probably never get to be around Anna again. She would continue to live her life as miserable as she had always been, and she didn't know if she could live knowing she had once had the oppurtunity to change that. She swallowed again as Ursula tapped her wrist where an imaginary watch rested.

Rapunzel laid next to Flynn on the blanket, her side pressed against his and his strong arm around her waist. He was warm, smelling of body spray and pine and something so inexplicably him that she found herself inhaling a little too deeply and blushed as she tried to calm her breathing. She didn't know when exactly her mind had changed and she had let herself admit her feelings for him, but with that last kiss their relationship had shifted tremendously in a direction she had once been nauseated to think of. Still, she was pretty happy it had.

"Seriously, Flynn, I can't thank you enough for this." She told him, so sincere it almost burnt the back of her throat on the way up. Her own mother had never been home for an entire day, much less spent her daughter's birthday with her. She knew her mother had her own life, but she often resented the way she was so easily pushed aside for whatever agenda was on her matriach's plate. 

"I could say the same," He replied warmly, brown eyes sparkling. She smiled, snuggling closer into his strong side.

"Do you think I should get back? Myra might-" He cut her off.

"Yeah, wouldn't want the girls to wonder." He joked lightly, packing up the leftovers and the blanket before grabbing her hand and leading back the way they'd come. She stared around at the trees, the early morning sunlight filtering through them in a beautiful and almost nostalgic way. It made her yearn to stay in this moment forever, his warm thumb tracing circles into the back of her own as her bare feet sank into the warm and damp earth, the smell of life and sound of birds all around them. It was almost like a movie, the single most perfect moment she had ever been lucky enough to live in.

She easily hopped back in through her window, snuggling under her blankets that, while warm, would never be as comforting as Flynn. She drifted into an easy sleep, visions of stolen kisses and chocolate cake dancing through her happy mind.

Flynn made his way back to his cabin, a spring in his step that hadn't been there when her left. He couldn't believe the way the morning had turned out, and it was barely dawn. He loved every moment he spent with Rapunzel, her sweet sense of humor, her tiny dirty feet, even the goofy way she crinkled her nose up when she laughed. He was infinitely thankful that his parents had sent him here this summer, otherwise he would never have met the beautiful blonde he was growing so quickly fond of.

He got back into the cabin, flopping into bed and just laying there. He was too wired to sleep, but a shower would wake the rest of the guys up. He could read, but nothing in the small bookshelf sounded even close to good. Instead, he opted for laying there and daydreaming about all kinds of things, from Rapunzel and him, to Rapunzel, to what would come at the end of the summer, to what they might be doing five years from now. IT was crazy to think that maybe they would get married. He shook the thought of, terrified that he was thinking about marriage. As a principle, he rejected marriage under any circumstance. Marriages ended in divorce or death or cheating, and those were things he didn't want to have to deal with. All three of those things had ended his parents marriage, and he swore to himself he would never get married.

Still, if Rapunzel want a wedding, he would give her one. He knew already that he would go to the ends of the earth for her, and that terrified him. In his mind, girls were the ones who were supposed to fall first and daydream of weddings and babies and all that other junk. It was completely unlike him to not only have real feelings for a girl but to have gotten these feelings so quickly. It honestly worried him to the point of wondering if he should even continue with her. He shook his head, knowing he couldn't leave her if he tried.

Jack was still sleeping when the sun shining in from his window woke him up once again. He thought to himself, not for the first time, that he should really get some curtains or tack up a blanket so he could actually sleep in once in a while. He rolled over, sighing happily as he remembered everything he had been thinking about when he fell asleep.

Elsa was just across the courtyard, probably sleeping like an angel, and the two of them would soon be together again doing one of the hundreds of things available here at Camp Cedar. He smiled. HE had never actually been this happy before, and it was strangely exhilarating. He could see why people talked so highly of love, and he wondered why he had foolishly discredited the feeling before. He reasoned that it was only because he had never fully understood it, but he was certainly glad he finally did.

Pulling on a pair of khaki shorts, some black socks, and his trusty Nikes, Jack walked out of the cabin and headed for the lake. He loved sitting there in the mornings when not many people were awake yet, listening to the sounds of nature and the clamor of early risers who gave no regard to their sleeping peers. He like the cool morning temperature, before the sun was so high in the sky that you needed some kind of water activity to keep you from passing out. Mostly, he liked seeing the happiness on every face around him as they took in the vitamin C and lived up their summer. He had always enjoyed people watching, never having may friends to talk with, and he had become quite a good reader of expressions in doing so. He could tell which smiles were fake and who really didn't want to be somewhere with nothing more than a simple glance. Though he had had a lot of time to do that, his favorite way to pass the time was making up stories. Even as a child, he had had an imagination bigger than anyone else's. He could weave a tale in a few seconds and it would still be as good as one that took years. His fairy tales always had little kids begging him for 'just one more', his horror stories making friends around a campfire look uneasily over their shoulders. Even the stories he wrote simply to write them made him feel accomplished and proud, like he had something special hidden deep within him. It was something no one else could fully appreciate.