The Return to Summer Camp

Chapter Five: A Ghost in Cabin B

    The next day Jared was woken at 6 from Evan hitting him with a pillow.

    "Get up." Evan whined. "I've been yelling at you for like fifteen minutes."

    Jared sat up and stretched, yawning.

"Thank god I was beginning to think you were dead." Evan sighed, throwing the pillow back onto his bed.

    "Just needed my beauty sleep." Jared grinned, jumping off of the bed.

    "You look the same whether you've gotten two hours of sleep or twelve." Evan said, going to brush his hair.

    "Well you've obviously never seen me after pulling an all-nighter." Jared snorted, grabbing a fresh pair of boxers from his drawer. Jared noticed Connor was gone.

"What's the agenda for today?" Jared asked, throwing a pair of cargo shorts on. He didn't ask about Connor, he didn't want to seem like he was actually curious about him, even if he was. He quickly hit a cosmic brownie in one of the numerous pockets.

"I dunno, now hurry up I don't want to be late for breakfast."

When they arrived everyone was already packed into their groups, ready to start the day's activities. Luckily Zoe and Alana has saved them seats.

"How come you guys are always late?" Alana asked, finishing up her meal. Evan sat down next to Zoe and gave her a quick kiss.

Jared started to dig into his soggy bacon, "It's Evan's fault, it took him like fifteen minutes to get up."

"Hey!"

"Where's Connor?" Zoe asked. Jared had been wondering that as well, he figured he would've already been with Zoe and Alana.

    "I don't know, when I woke up this morning he was gone." Evan said. "It was weird."

    "That is weird." Alana looked concerned. "Do you think he's alright?"

    "Oh he's probably fine, most likely he decided to ditch us and the camp activities for the day, you know Connor." Zoe shrugged.

"I guess... You know, the weirdest thing happened last night." Alana said. "I was up late reading last night when the cabin door suddenly opened, it was terrifying!"

"Yeah, I had something weird happen last night too, I woke up in the middle of the night because I felt something fall on me! When I looked to see what it was, it was my shoes which I had taken off by the door!" Zoe told them.

Greg passed by, "Ohh, you girls are in cabin B, right? Word around camp is that cabin is haunted, supposedly the girls that stayed in it last year left early because of it."

"Haunted?" Evan said, his eyes wide.

"Ah, come on, ghosts aren't real, Ev." Jared assured him.

"Exactly, I'm sure there's a rational explanation for this." Alana agreed.

"Well if you weren't the one to throw my shoes onto me last night, I'd love to see your explanation." Zoe shook her head. "Something weird is going on in that cabin."

"Well then we're the people to investigate." Jared grinned. "Tonight Ev and I will sneak down to your cabin and see what's up."

"We will?" Evan asked.

    "Yes, I've already obligated you to do it." Jared said, throwing his arm around Evan. Evan looked uneasy.

    The day trudged by slowly and Connor still didn't appear. Connor seemed to be only thing on Jared's mind as he was instructed to play soccer and take a hike in the woods.

    Eventually it was late evening, it was still warm despite it becoming dark, and they still hadn't seen Connor.

    "Are we sure he's okay?" Alana asked as they were heading back to their cabins for some free time.

    Zoe hesitated, "We should probably find him, just to make sure. Evan and Jared, you go check around the cabins, Alana and I will go down by the rock formation and lake."

   "Well yoinks, looks like we got to split up, Scoob." Jared said, punching Evan lightly in the arm.

    "I would not be Scooby." Evan said, clutching his arm as they headed away from the girls.

    "Listen, you're as much of a Scooby as Alana is a Velma." Jared told him as they reached the cabin. Upon looking inside, Jared found exactly what he had expected.

    No Connor.

    "Okay, where do we think he would be?" Jared asked, standing on the porch of their cabin.

    "Maybe he just went into the woods to think?" Evan suggested. "Maybe climb trees?"

    "Evan, we're supposed to be thinking like Connor, not tree fucking losers." Jared said, pretending like that sentence wasn't at all aimed at Evan.

    Evan rolled his eyes, "Fine, maybe he went to visit Zoe and Alana's cabin."

    "Now you're gettin' it, Scoobs!" Jared said, taking off.

    "I'm not Scooby!" Evan yelled, following after him.

    Somehow in Jared's running, he lost Evan. He figured Evan probably mistook the trail to the lake with the trail to Zoe and Alana's cabin. Jared shrugged and kept going, figuring Evan would realize his mistake soon and catch up with him.

     However, before any of that could happen, Jared bumped into Connor.

    "Oh, sorry." Jared said, backing off. "Everyone was looking for you, they were wondering where you were."

    "None of your business." Connor said, continuing walking. Jared followed him.

    "You just disappeared for a whole day!" Jared said, walking the winding path.

    "So what?" Connor grunted.

    "Had it ever occurred to you that some of us might be worried?"

    Oh no, Jared had said too much.

    "It's not your job to be worried about me, Kleinman, you're not my boyfriend." Connor snapped.

    Jared flinched, "I know I'm not your boyfriend, but we're spending a summer together so I'd at least like to be your friend."

    Connor seemed to think this over. He nodded, "We can be friends."

    Jared smiled, "I'm glad."