Burn | 5sos and 1D AU

1.) Long Way Home

| take me back to the middle of nowhere; back to the place only you and I share. |

Elsie

I've lived in New York my whole life. The Big Apple, Downtown, Times Square, Central Park, it's all a part of me. All those places have a piece of my heart. But there's another place a little farther away that has an even bigger piece of my heart. Camp Arbre, in Augusta, Maine. The musky scent of the woods, the summer breeze over the lake, the god awful food... all of it. Every little piece of Camp Arbre is buried in my heart. Especially the three pieces that made me love the camp in the first place.

Gwen, Haven and Savannah.

On our first day, we had orientation, which is an official camp event. But then, we had Initiation.

Initiation is the 'assignment' placed on the new freshmans during their first summer. We'd already done two assignments, and our shitty senior was freaking giving us another one. Haven stood up, cussed him out and left. I followed her, Gwen and Savannah followed me. We were the only remaining freshman for the rest of the summer. The eight other freshman who stayed to do the challenge were caught after curfew with a nearly empty bottle of vodka that night. They were sent home the next day.

The four of us learned a valuable lesson that day, and we've never screwed up since then. The lesson we learned was that we don't need anyone else to make our summer fun. We have each other, and that's all we need.

Haven is our spitfire. She's got a potty mouth, and you definitely don't want to make her mad. She would protect the rest of us to the death if she had to.

Gwennie is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She's adorable and tiny and you just want to put her in your pocket. She's kind of boy crazy, but we love her for it.

Savannah is quiet at first, but when you get her on sugar, she's pretty fucking crazy. She always looks for the best in people, even if all they see is the worst in her. And trust me, there's not a lot of 'worst' to see in her. She's amazing and beautiful.

I smile now, and look down the road. The bus should be getting here any minute and I'm ready for this summer break. Four weeks in isolation sounds like torture to most people, but it's heaven to me.
The eight hour bus ride though, that's a completely different story.

The bus I ride on to Camp picks up kids from New York City, (where I'm from.) and then Boston, Massachusetts. By the time the Boston kids squeeze into the bus, there's hardly room to breathe, much less, have your own seat. I used to sit with a girl named Claire, but she was a senior last year. So this year, I'm prepared to tell off any freshman boy that tries to sit next to me. That is so not happening.

• • •

By the time we make it to Boston, I've kicked three boys out of the seat next to me. The bus driver stops and kids start piling on.
"I refuse to suffer the humiliation of sitting next to a freshman." I mutter under my breath as another one bites the dust.
"Well then, how about letting me sit next to you? I might be just as bad as a freshman though." Brown eyes greet me when I look up. I shrug, "Sure. I just don't want to be humiliated twice in the first day." The second part was not meant to be heard by anyone other than me.

"What was the first 'humiliation', as you call it?" He asks, shoving his navy blue backpack under the seat and placing his butt on the brown leather cushion.

I sigh, "It hasn't happened yet." I say, examining my chewed off fingernails.

"What is it?"

I sigh again and look at him, "My friends and I didn't complete freshman initiation our first year. So we're not invited to any of the camper events, including opening day party."