A Silver Summer

Chapter 2

Chapter two 

 Anika's heart thumped loudly in her ears as she came back to her senses and in turn an annoying beeping sound sped up as well. Flashing her crystal grey eyes open, she turned her head enough to glare at the machine contraption. For a brief moment, she wondered why she was in the hospital to begin with but gave up as she found it actually hurt to think.  

"Well now look who is awake." a friendly voice drawled. Anika's gaze snapped to a slightly heavyset nurse with greying brown hair and warm twinkling hazel eyes. The edges around her eyes crinkled with a smile as she waited for Anika to take everything in. 

 "How are you feeling hun? How's the noggin'?" she asked, worry now clearly swimming in the deep hazel eyes.  

"Now that you mention it," Anika groaned, lifting a hand to caress her forehead where a painful throbbing laid under her skull, "it feels like I challenged a ram to a head butting contest and lost terribly." she cringed.  

"Oh dear." the nurse quickly fluttered about the room until she found what she was looking for on the side table beside the bed. "This'll take away the pain." She explained as she pressed a few buttons on one of the machines.  

"Um, thanks." Anika settled into the pillows and laid back comfortably as she relished the feeling of sleeping in an actual bed for the first time in the last year. Whenever she didn't follow up on Greg's offer to take the couch he had in his room, she found herself at one of the many parks in the neighborhood.  

"Oh good, you're awake." Anika winced slightly as the cheery voice rattled around in her head making the fading pain return. 

 "Hello Anika, I'm Genevieve and this is Larry." Anika took her time studying the new pair of people in the room. The lady looked to be in her mid thirties while the man was well into retirement but still looked fit and she was sure she had never seen them before in her life. The woman, Genevieve, was wearing a professional skirted suit with a wide smile. In fact, Anika thought she just might split her face open if she kept smiling. Her pale blond hair was pulled back into a tight bun and must have pulled her forehead back too because the lady did not have even one slight indentation anywhere above her finely shaped brows. Genevieve's shining light green eyes met Anika's cool, grey ones as she continued her scrutinizing. A small, slightly upturned nose puckered out of the lady's face and casted a shadow over her full upturned lips. Next was the man, Larry. His tall stature and wide shoulder immediately had Anika picturing him as some sort of body guard in his younger years or bouncer like they have outside some of the clubs down town. The military buzz cut he wore along with the blank face had her thinking otherwise. He was quite intimidating but Anika knew he had to have some sort of weakness. Everybody did. His hands were fisted by his sides as he stood rigid, staring back at Anika with smoldering black eyes that were as dark as his hair and the slight shadow over his chin and neck. The crook in his nose and the scar over one of his cheeks led her to believe that he'd seen his fair share of fights. 

 "Hi." Anika stared at the two strangers as an awkward tension filled the air. She swore that Larry didn't lift his beady eyes off of her for one second. 

 "First off, do you know why we're here?" Genevieve chirped again.  

"No?" Anika wracked her brain once again to see if she could remember their faces but came up with nothing but another headache.  

"Oh." the lady's face fell slightly as her expression did a complete change and now she looked like she was going to deliver a life ending diagnostic.  

"Do you remember why you're here?" 

"Lady-" 

"Genevieve." she corrected, a slight disapproving look replaced some of the seriousness as her bottom lip pouted a little. Anika glanced over to Larry to see him watching her like a hawk still. Like she would get up and run away any second. Then it dawn on her.  

"Is this about the whole running from the shouting cop thing?" Anika glanced around the room, anywhere but the strangers' eyes as they both held a certain distaste in them, Larry more than Genevieve.  

"Yes this is about how you were caught vandalizing town property and then resisting arrest." Anika didn't need to look at her to hear the frown in her tone.  

"Well, you look too professional to be an officer. Him? Definitely. But you, I don't see it. So who are you people?" Anika switched her stare between them. 

 "We are members of the Silver Lake Summer Camp for troubled youth and young adults." she recited.  

"Ooh, catchy." Anika mumbled and rolled her eyes.  

"Members like ourselves travel all around the United States and offer kids like yourself a better solution than the path you're on now." she continued, ignoring Anika's dark raised brow. 

 "Wow, they have you trained well. What about you big guy? Does Sargent want a cracker too?" Anika asked Larry who curled his lip at her.  

Leaning over to Genevieve, Anika whispered but Larry could still hear what she had to say. "I think they need to train him in more than just reciting that whole talk you've probably been going over in your head since I've been here. Is he rabid?" Genevieve's patience waved slightly as she quickly covered the irritated look on her dainty features.  

"Anika, what we're trying to do is help you." she said completely ignoring Anika's little comment and Larry's growling. 

 "Help me? With what?" Anika finally dragged her gaze away from Larry and stared at Genevieve with disbelieving eyes.  

"We know you're a trouble young adult with many secrets, but you can talk about those in group therapy if you'd like-" 

"Group therapy? What kind of joke is this? I'm not crazy or sick or troubled. What does adding a little art to the side of an abandoned building have to do with therapy?" Anika yelled, now sitting up in bed. 

 "You ran from the police and vandalized town property and now money will have to be spent to clean up what you've done." she talked like she was explaining to a five year old why he had to sit in the corner.  

"And since there is no contact with your father, you're mother's drug addiction and recent death-" 

"Just stop." Anika held her hands up as she forced down tears. "You think I might use drugs just because I paint of the sides of buildings?" she asked quickly losing control on her anger; one emotion that she hasn't ever been able to control.  

"A new trend has been released that kids try to inhale spray paint fumes to get high, yes." 

 "This is ridiculous!" 

 "Denial is the first sign of lying." Genevieve said in the same disapproving manner as before.  

"Or telling the truth so you're not blamed for something you didn't do." Anika snapped at her.  

"No one's blaming you for anything Anika, we just want to help." 

 "I don't need help like that. I'm not some crazy psychopath." Anika hissed.  

"Of course not-" 

"Then why are you here?" Anika glared at the two of them.  

"To help you make the right decision. Now, you can either face the charges and go to court or spend the summer at Silver Lake." Genevieve struggled to contain her own rising voice. 

 "I have to leave here? I don't think so." Anika shook her head, forcing her curls to fly through the air. 

 "Why not? It's not like you have anything left here. Why not get a new start at Silver Lake." she cheered, her mood changing in the blink of an eye again. Anika shrank back into her pillow when she said that. Of course she had something here. She had her family. The only family she knew since after her actual blood related family left her high and dry, resorting to a life of drugs instead. She couldn't leave now. Not just to spend the whole summer in a camp full of crazy teenagers. 

 "The choice is yours." Genevieve said grimly.