Before the Never After

Chapter Four

Aria's POV

"Hey, dude wake up." I moaned from the streaks of sunlight against my face and squeezed my eyes shut. Someone harshly prodded my shoulder and I rubbed my eyes.

"Piss off Thalia, just leave me to sleep." I mumbled, before hearing a light snoring next to me. I slowly opened an eye and found myself resting my head on Thalia's shoulder, and that she was still asleep. I heard a deep chuckle from behind me and knitted my eyebrows in confusion. My eyes were still adjusted to the darkness, so I had to squint as I spun around in the seat, to find a guy sat behind me, leaning over my chair.

"Last time I checked, I wasn't a girl." He looked himself down and shrugged, as if having to double check, before grinning widely. His thick dark brown hair had been gelled slightly upwards, to give it a spiky look. I recognised him as I had seen him get on the coach with Tom, and glanced to the side to find Tom sat next to him, smiling sheepishly.

"Sorry about my idiot of a friend, but we're here." Tom said apologetically, and pointed out the window. I craned my neck to see above Thalia's head and get a view of the campsite. Everyone on the coach turned to the windows, and many began cheering. All I managed to see was an empty large field, and I tilted my head.

"You might want to wake your mate up," Tom's friend said to me. "She's gonna start drooling on the window soon." Although he didn't see, I rolled my eyes and shook Thalia's shoulder. It took several attempts, and I had to shout her name for her to wake up.

Thalia woke up with a start and groaned. "I can't believe we slept the entire journey. That was like, what, four hours?" The coach soon pulled up in the car park and everyone burst into loud conversation, excitedly pushing their way off the coach. Thalia followed as I got off, and I had to slightly jump from the last step to reach the ground.

When we were all off and had collected our suitcases, the leaders led us to the campsite. The two leaders with us wore matching pale blue hoodies, imprinted with the name of the campsite, Camp Woodward. The large empty field I saw on the coach turned out to not be so empty - several small green tents circled the field, with a larger white tent on the edge.

"It smells like horse crap." Thalia complained, rubbing her nose. I nodded, glancing around in attempt to find a stables, but found nothing.

"I think that's just you." A familiarly annoying voice said behind us. Tom's friend smirked. "You know, you drool in your sleep."

"You know, you're an asshole." Thalia snapped back, before her lips twitched into a smile. 

"You've only just met me, you can't judge me that quickly."

"It's your lucky day, you just broke the record mate." I looked at Tom next to him and he shook his head in disbelief, smiling to himself. The leaders stopped in front of the white tent.

Everyone piled around the leaders, forming a circle. There were at least fifty of us here. Tom and his friend joined Thalia and I, and I rested against my suitcase, still exhausted. One of the leaders, who looked like he was in his early twenties, held his hands up and the loud conversation quickly died down. All eyes were on him and he smiled, resting his hands on his hips.

"Welcome to Camp Woodward," A couple of people sniggered behind us at the name, and the leader chortled. "Yes, the pun was intended in the name. My name is Luke, I'm twenty one and I will be running the next week here. As you know, this summer camp is exclusive for sixteen year olds, as you have now all finished your exams and get a longer summer break than younger students. We have planned many activities for you this week, and if you follow the rules, you and I will get along fine." He said loudly, continuing to introduce us to the campsite. He listed the rules, all of which were based on common-sense.

"Now, each tent fits four people. To the left are the tents for the girls, and to the right the boys. Please quickly find three people to share a tent with you." The camp suddenly erupted in conversation as everyone scuttled around in a hurry. 

Thalia and I instantly paired up, and the two of us walked around awkwardly to try and find two more girls. The majority of the girls had already sorted themselves into groups, and fortunately we found two standing next to each other. One girl had mid-length ginger hair with bright green eyes, the other had short wavy brown hair. 

"Hi, I'm Charlie," The ginger girl smiled in relief as we walked over. "This is Emily." She gestured to the other girl, who waved shyly. Thalia and I introduced ourselves, and a leader came over to send us to our tent. 

The closer we got, the smaller our tent appeared. I dragged my suitcase and struggled as it got stuck in some grass. I looked over at Thalia, whose jaw dropped in shock when we reached the tent. It was a simple khaki green tent, with a small zipped up door. 

"Sure it's a four-man tent," I said slowly, inspecting the tent. "But do they think we're hobbits?!" Thalia scoffed and I mentally facepalmed myself. How were we supposed to live in there for a week when there was no space to breathe? The leader said we had half an hour to sort out the tent and get to know each other, before having to meet back at the main white tent.

After many attempts, we all managed to fit our sleeping bags in. Since the tent was so small, our sleeping bags were all squished together, so there was no room for movement. However, as I was the last one, my sleeping bag was placed right by the door, meaning I would be getting the draft during the night. I sighed. Thalia noticed and held back a laugh. "You snooze, you lose."

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A/N what do you think of this chapter? Any opinions on Tom's friend?