Just The Girl

Chapter Nine

The airplane ride took five long hours.

Of course, I've been in an airplane far longer. A trip to Europe or Asia takes longer than that. But I still wasn't happy I wasted five hours sitting on a plane when I could've been shopping or doing something else.

Oh well. At least we were at the camp's venue already.

The venue was very pretty. Trees were abundant, and flowers grew in every colour and everywhere. The air smelled clean, unlike the polluted air in the city.

We still had a free hour to roam around the place, but Lana and I decided to stay at our cabin.

The cabin was kind of neat. It was made of wood, but it had two soft beds, a couple of drawers for our stuff, and a shower with hot water. As a plus, the temperature inside was perfect. There was no need for a heater or an air conditioner.

"What's that?" I asked, lying on my bed. I watched Lana as she fiddled with a small white envelope.

She shrugged. "I have no idea."

After a second, she had the envelope open, and a small piece of paper was in her hands. I jumped off my bed and went to her, my curiosity getting the best of me. Maybe it was a letter from the camp director?

"What does it say?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing. I could see the letters etched on the paper, but I couldn't understand it. It seemed like another language.

Lana just stared at it. "I think it's in code."

"And?"

"I don't think the letter is for us." She looked at me, her eyes twinkling.

I nodded in understanding. "So we need to return it."

"Wrong." Her lips curled into a sly smile. "We need to decode it."

I sat beside her, trying my best to come up with a dozen reasons why we should not do that. "That's an invasion of someone's privacy, Lana."

The smile was still on her face. "Not my fault they left it at the wrong cabin."

"That's wrong." I was sure Lana wouldn't listen to me. She's pretty stubborn when she wants to be.

She stood up, walking to the big wooden table and grabbing a pen. "Come on, Ria. This'll be fun. So what if it's not for us? It's not like it holds the key to unlocking a dark secret. Maybe it's just a stupid prank. Who knows?"

I sighed. Better get this over with. "Fine."

We spent the next two hours lying on her bed and trying to translate the carefully written lines into a bunch of words. We had tons of theories, but as we tried them, none worked. They only translated into a combination of ridiculous words that had no real meaning if you read them aloud.

We were so engrossed that we didn't hear someone knocking until she finally said, "Is anyone inside?"

"Of course!" Lana said while I hurried to unlock the door.

I pulled the door open, and a woman wearing a blazer and knee-length skirt is in front of me. She looked like an official. I blinked twice before I said, "Sorry. We were kind of busy. What is it?"

Pointing outside, she said with an accent I can't identify, "You girls better go to the main hall. The orientation is about to start. "

I nodded and then thanked her. Closing the door carefully, I walked to Lana's bed, where she was still deeply engrossed in breaking the code. She was almost biting the eraser tip of her pencil.

"Lana, the woman said the orientation will begin soon."

She didn't even look up from the paper. I didn't think she actually heard what I said. "What?"