As it turned out, the camping trip wasn't too hard to plan. The parents were easy to convince - some were bought by the educational aspect, others just didn't seem to want their children home at all. The boys also planned a trip over the break, coincidentally at the same time and place, something they neglected to tell their parents, so the whole group was excited. Twenty of them were going- Elise, Amy, Lzzy, Tay, Taylor, Jenna, Hayley, Megan, Josh, Dan, Oli, Jack, Alex, Rian, Zack, James, and Carter, plus Lisa, Cassadee, and their friend Jess.
The last week of the half-term was an onslaught of homework, quizzes, and tests, so planning the trip was a great lunch-time distraction. True to her word, Jenna had borrowed a whole host of camping equipment from her dad for the girls, and some of the boy's parents had come through for them. They planned food and how they'd keep things cold, how they'd keep their phones charged and what they'd been doing. They'd agreed to complete a project together, to fulfill the educational aspect, so they planned what materials they needed to take for that. They'd be away from Saturday to Saturday, and the Thursday was Halloween so they were planning a party of sorts. The campsite had agreed to give them a secluded space at the back of the site, supposedly because they wanted somewhere dark to stargaze for their project, but they suspected it was also so they didn't disturb the other campers.
Naturally, Taylor had been put in charge of alcohol. Quite literally, as Amy and Lzzy had utilised a spiral-bound notebook to keep track of everything and written down tasks for everything. Elise, still trying to make up for thinking so harshly of Megan for her first month, had offered to go food shopping with her, along with Dan and Josh.
"Strong men to carry the bags," She laughed and patted Dan's muscular arms. Jenna was bringing plenty of cool boxes and a camping stove, they just needed to buy food and maybe some disposable barbecues.
It was now the end of the day on the last Friday of half term, and half the group were lounging in a free period. Some of the others were in their last test, impatiently watching the clock. Elise had yet to start packing, but she was waiting for everyone to finish their lessons first. She wanted to see if Tay would let her borrow some tops, and she needed to know what the costume situation would be for Halloween.
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"We're FREE!!," Tay came skidding into the common room, their friends following closely behind. A few people looked up from their conversations and laughed, and some guys cheered.
"Come on come on we need to pack!" Tay continued, dragging Elise off the chair where she was quite happily sat. She laughed, climbing to her feet, "Let's go,"
Packing turned their room into chaos.
"Which top?" Lzzy was asking, shouting above the music and holding up two tops that Elise couldn't even tell the difference between. They were packing a duffel bag of clothes each, containing enough clothes for the week including day clothes for going out and about, clothes for the evenings, and things to keep warm enough.
"I don't know what to wear," Tay cried, throwing a pair of jeans down onto her bed, "I want to go for something sexy for Jack, but I need something warm,"
"Tay, Jack has seen you in your pyjamas every morning for the past seven years, he's seen you in your uniform and in those dorky t-shirts you wore when you were younger, I don't think he's going to be turned off by you keeping warm," Amy reasoned with a sigh. She'd already finished most of her own packing, and was just choosing between a few last tops. Elise noted that despite her supposed exasperation, she was weighing up two different tops that showed a lot of skin. "And anyway, with what I've planned for Halloween, you'll want to wrap up warm," She wiggled her eyebrows and threw both t-shirts into her bag.
"Please tell us what your plan is," Hayley asked from her place near the doorway. She'd come in to ask a question and then never left, despite having her own packing to be doing. Elise wasn't really sure what had happened between her and Megan, but they'd seemed to go back to normal after a few awkward days. What drunkenly happened in the dorms, stayed in the dorms, she guessed, and wondered what Josh would do if she told him. Not that she was going to, but with everyone staying even closer than usual for a week, plus the alcohol, she did wonder what drama was going to occur. There was bound to be some.
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"It's perfect," Tay sighed, spinning in a circle in the middle of the empty patch of grass. The campsite backed onto some woods not that far from the back of the school, and the plots they'd been shown to were in a clearing nestled in the trees. Jenna's dad had driven them over in a minibus with all of the stuff, and under his instruction they got to setting it all up. Through a lot of teamwork, and very little input from Taylor, they managed to erect five tents in a semi circle. They put a big tent in the middle - tall enough to stand in and big enough for all of them to sleep in if they had no bags. As it was, they had a lot of stuff, so the four smaller tents were useful for storage and sleeping some people.
As Jenna's dad left them to it, they set up eating and sleeping spaces. One of the smallest tents was good for keeping all the food in, with some snacks tucked in the big tent too. The biggest tent had three different compartments so they filled the outer two with blankets, cushions, and sleeping bags, making it cosy and warm. The two next tents had two smaller compartments, so they blanketed those too, making space for their bags and clothes. As Amy had predicted, the days were warm, especially for the end of October, but the nights would still probably be very cold. It was best to be prepared.
The boys arrived mid-afternoon, and set up their tents in an opposite semi-circle. While they sorted their things, the girls hung out in their big tent with the partitions open, talking about the project they were going to complete. They were all to complete sections, and then the arty people would put it all together. It was only meant to be a way to convince their parents to let them come, but they'd ended up actually quite excited about it.
"Okay, the plan for today," Amy said, pen in hand as some of the boys finished setting up and joined them, "is to just get settled, and also BARBECUE," She grinned, "While the weather is still nice,"
"I can be in charge of cooking!" Dan offered, wiggling into a space next to Elise.
"Sure," Amy nodded, "everything is in the end tent, please cook as much halloumi as humanly possible,".
"I brought pre-mixed cocktails especially for today," Taylor smouldered, looking pleased with herself, "there's plenty to go around,".
"Psssh cocktails," Josh grumbled, "men drink BEER," He dropped a crate of beer into the middle of the tent and smirked at Taylor.
"You have a choice to drink either nice drinks or gross fizzy pee-water but go off I guess," She laughed and reached into the bag in her hand, "Who wants a girly drink?"
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Guess who's done no work still!! It's me!! I've written over 2400 words of this instead of 1200 words of essay!! woo!!
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Song Of Myself
FanfictionMeghan Hampton is once again starting a new boarding school. Thrown into what she thought was familiar territory, she begins the struggle to fit into a group where everyone has known each other for years. Elise Wood has been in the same school since...
