14 || A camping we will go

A week later and my duffel bag was being loaded on the bus along with many others. My parents had no qualms about letting me go even though I desperately wanted them to say no. Even Britney was going. She'd told the cheer team it would be good for us to get out and relax so when we came back we'd be more focused for our performance.

"I think my mom went overboard," Nikole says. "She bought me so much camp gear that I'm probably not even gonna use."

"Yeah we're only going for the weekend," I pulled my ponytail tighter. "Do I look ok?" I had on leggings with an oversized pink flannel shirt and pink hiking boots. I'd even straightened my normally wavy hair and pulled it up into a high ponytail.

"You look hot," Chanel reassured me.

"Carter won't be able to resist you," Nikole winked. I rolled my eyes.

"Ok line up to board the bus!" Coach Reynolds yelled. Yep. Him along with Coach Brown would be supervising this trip.

Nikole went to go find Ryan so she could sit next to him. Trevor sat with Chanel, so I sat with Ivy.

"Maybe you'll get a tan," I joked as we sat down.

"Very funny," she replied dryly. I laughed but soon stopped when I heard a throat clear behind me. I looked over the seat to see Britney giving me the stink eye. Even worse Carter was sitting next to her. He had in earphones and his eyes were closed.

"Problem?" I raised a brow.

"Yeah could you maybe not talk so loud? The world doesn't want to hear your dumb conversations."

"That's why they have this great invention called earphones. So use some. Look an example next to you," I pointed at Carter.

"Or you could just shut up."

"Or you could kiss my ass," I smiled sweetly.

"Bite me," she sneered and closed her eyes leaning her head on Carter's shoulder. I turned around before I vomited at the sight.

"It's gonna be a long bus ride," Ivy sighed next to me.

🔥🔥🔥

"We're here!" Coach Brown boomed. My eyes shot open. I stretched and rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

"You're all going to get off the bus by seat order and grab your bags. Once everyone is off and has their stuff we'll proceed over to the campsite."

Ivy had slept through Coach Browns entire speech so I shook her awake.

"Huh?" She mumbled sleepily.

"We're here," I explained to her. "We're getting our stuff and heading over to the campsite."

"Oh," she wiped the crust from her mouth and popped a mint.

We shuffled off the bus like a herd of sheep and got our bags. Chanel, Trevor, Nikole, and Ryan came up to us.

"You know what camping means right?" Trevor grinned and Ryan grinned back.

"Pranks!" They slapped a high five.

"Ugh," Chanel rolled her eyes.

"You better not or I swear I'll get Sheila to come after you," I warned them.

They just smiled wickedly and went to catch up with Carter.

"Boys," Nikole sighed and we all nodded.

It felt like we'd been walking forever but finally, finally we reached the camp site. I dropped my duffel bag giving my poor shoulders a break.

"We're going to be setting up our tents before we go on a hike," Coach Reynolds explained.  "So get to it!"

"I don't know how to set up a tent!" I exclaimed.

"All you do is follow the instructions right? It can't be that hard," Ivy starts taking out our tent parts. So I stand back and watch the genius's that are my best friends try and fail to assemble our tent. 

"It can't be that hard," I mimic Ivy. "What's taking so long?"

"Maybe if you helped," she glared at me.

"How about I get some help?" I turned on my heel to find someone who knew what they were doing.

Most everyone was struggling with tent setup except lo and behold the King himself. Now Carter and the guys were just lounging around laughing at everyone else. I stormed up to them.

"Could you be anymore obnoxious?" I crossed my arms.

"My favorite cheerleader," Carter smirked. "What's the problem now?"

"Instead of sitting around laughing at everyone else maybe you can go and offer your assistance."

"Nah," Trevor said. "Too much work."

I turned to Ryan. He shook his head no.

"Let me guess, no?" I scowled at Carter.

"You guessed correct."

"Alright well maybe I wasn't clear enough. You're going to get your asses up right freaking now and help or so help me I will-"

"Ok, ok," Ryan held up his hands. "We'll help."

I smiled. "Good."

With their assistance the rest of the tents went up without a hitch. After that was all settled we started on our hike. Coach Brown promised us a surprise at the end.

"I hate hiking!" I complained. "So much walking uphill!"

"My hair is turning into a frizzball," Chanel whined with me. "This humidity is not helping."

"We're almost to the top," Coach Reynolds called. "Not much father now."

Britney actually convinced a guy to piggyback her the entire hike. Her feet hadn't even touched the ground.

"The surprise better be good," Nikole grumbled.

Only Ivy was in happy spirits, and she was way ahead of us with the guys.

Then at long last we reached the top.

Maybe it was worth it after all.

The view was spectacular. Like out of a post card spectacular. Tumblr worthy.

"Wow," I breathed out.

"Everyone gather around," Coach Brown motioned us forward. "As great as this view is this is not the surprise."

We all waited for her to speak.

"The surprise is...we're going to be zip lining from here!"

My stomach dropped.

Ivy looked positively nauseous.

"That's the surprise?" I blurted. "Zip lining to our deaths?"

"I assure you it's perfectly safe."

Safe my ass! The entire class was excited but I felt sick. Just looking at the drop made me want to faint.

The coaches went over the safety rules and instructions before handing us our gear. We all got in line and I happened to end up in front of Carter.

"Maybe you can go ahead of me," I said nervously watching as yet another student jumped off from the cliff and zipped down, down, down.

"What's wrong?" Carter laughed. "I thought you could do anything? What's a little zip lining?"

I started to feel dizzy and stumbled. Carter caught me by the wrist.

"Woah. You're really afraid aren't you?"

"Yes I'm really afraid," I snapped glaring at him. "I guess I'm not as fearless as you thought I was. You're probably eating this up and coming up with all the ways to make fun of me." I moved to get out of line but he stopped me.

"Hey I'm sorry, I didn't know you were really scared." I refused to look up at him.

"Aubrey look at me."

I reluctantly tilted my head up. His face was actually...sincere.

"It's ok to be afraid," he said softly. "I'm not a total dick, I'm not judging you."

I stared up at him. "Really?"

"Yes really," he smiled.

In the end Ivy and I sat out while everyone else zip lined. Roller coasters I could handle. This I could not.

"That was exhilarating!" Nikole shook out her hair. "You guys should've tried it."

Ivy and I looked at each other.

"No thanks."

🙅🙅🙅

After we hiked back down to the campsite we had free time. So everyone changed into swimsuits and we all headed to the lake.

"Cannonball!" Trevor swung into the lake. There was a line for the rope that swung you out into the lake.

"You can't zip line but you can do this?" Carter raised a brow at me.

I roll my eyes. "Every time I start to think you're a decent person you open your mouth and shit comes out."

"What can I say? I'm a talented shit talker," he laughs.

Feeling particularly evil when it's his turn to climb the ladder up to the rope I follow him. At the least second before he swings off I jump onto his back. It's too late to shake me off and we go flying into the lake.

"That was fun!" I surface grinning. He narrows his eyes at me. I splash him. He splashes me back. Then it turns into an all out splash war.

"Surrender!" I shriek covering my eyes from the spray of water. When he doesn't listen I slip under water and emerge behind him attacking him from the back.

"You're such a sneak," he lifts me up onto his shoulders with me protesting loudly.

"Hey put me down!"

"Gladly."

Then he tosses me back into the lake. I come back up to spew obscenities at him but I'm dragged off by Ivy and the girls.

"You guys are so obvious with your flirting it's sad," Chanel shakes her head at me.

"We were not flirting!" I argue.

"Just stay clear of Britney," Ivy warns. "She's livid."

"Over what? Our non existent relationship?"

The rest of the day I can literally feel Britney glaring a hole into my skull. I'm glad when we head back to the campsite and her tent is nowhere near mine.

"Bonfire!" Coach Brown calls out.

The coaches have created a huge fire that we can all sit around. Now that it's night time the air is chilly and I've  dressed warmly in sweats and a PINK hoodie.

"Let's sing campfire songs!" A girl suggests.

I press my lips together refusing to take part in this activity. Instead I sit and toast my marshmallow as my classmates annoyingly sing Down by the Bay.

"Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever you ever see a goose
kissing a moose?"
Down by the bay
Down by the bay
Where the watermelons grow
Back to my home
I dare not go
For if I do
My mother will say
"Did you ever see a whale
With a polka dot tail?"
Down by the bay"

"Sing," Carter nudges me.

"Bite me," I reply biting into my gooey marshmallow. He leans toward me and I frown.

"What're you-"

A surprised squeak comes out of my mouth when he nips at my neck.

"Are you crazy?!"

"You said bite me," he grins wickedly.

"I didn't really mean bite me you fool! What are you a vampire?"

When it's time for bed I'm absolutely pooped. I just want to crawl into my sleeping bag and drift off into never land.

"So you and Carter," Ivy whispers to me. Nikole and Chanel have already fallen asleep.

"Just stop with that already," I groan. "There is nothing between us."

"So you're telling me you feel absolutely nothing for him. Not even a smidgen?"

"Not even a smidgen. He just happens to be extremely attractive. That's it."

Ivy goes to bed pouting and soon I slip into oblivion.

🌜🌙🌛

"Pssst! Aubrey! Pssst!"

"Bow down you peasants," I mumble.

"Wake up!"

I am a angry dragon as I force my eyes open. "What?" I snap.

"Did you hear that?" Chanel whispers.

"The sound of me murdering you for disturbing my sleep? Yeah I hear it clearly."

"Listen," Nikole shushes me. I strain my ears and hear leaves rustling.

"Oh the wind blowing leaves, how scary," I pretend to shake.

"It's probably a racoon," Ivy says.

"Or Jason from Friday the thirteenth!" Chanel exclaims.

"No Michael Meyers!" Nikole adds.

"It's the killer from the Texas chainsaw!"

"Slenderman!"

"Shut up!" I hiss. "If you guys are so scared why don't you go investigate?"

"Are you crazy?" Chanel shakes me. "That's how you get killed!"

"Exactly. So just ignore it and go back to bed."

They switch off their flashlights and we all settle back into our sleeping bags. Then...

BANG!

We all sit up.

"A bear?" Ivy suggests.

Then we hear leaves crunching. Footsteps.

"Someone's outside!" I whisper.

"We're all gonna die!" Nikole wails. I cover her mouth.

"Shhhhh!"

It goes quiet.

"I'm gonna go see what it was," Ivy grabs her flashlight and slips outside.

"Ivy no!" We say but she's already gone. Terrified we reluctantly follow after her.

"Ivy!" I whisper yell. "Ivy! Where are you!"

"The killer got her!" Chanel cries. We hear a muffled shriek and turn toward each other with wide eyes.

"Ivy!" I take off toward the woods without thinking. That's when something yanks me back and blindfolds me. Before I can scream a hand covers my mouth. I thrash around wildly, fear searing my chest like a hot poker. This is how I'm going to die. Murdered in the woods. Will the police even find my body?

The killer lifts me like I'm nothing and starts carrying me. I scream into their hand and even bite it. They flinch but don't loosen their grip.

Suddenly I'm soaring.

Cold. Wet. I'm drowning. I furiously kick my way to the surface shivering like a maniac.

"Aubrey!" Ivy swims up to me.

"You're alive!" We hug. There's two more splashes. Chanel and Nikole come up sputtering.

"What the hell?"

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

We turn toward the loud laughter coming from the shore where Trevor, Ryan, and Carter are clutching their stomach laughing. My blood boils.

"I-can't-breath!" Ryan wheezes.

"Oh no the killers got Ivy!" Trevor guffaws.

"Aubrey to the rescue!" Carter wipes tears from his eyes.

I'm fuming. This was all just some dumb prank?

"You think this was funny!" Nikole yells. "You better hope Britney is still available Ryan because you are about to become one very single guy!"

"Awww baby don't be mad at me," he chuckles. "What's camping without a little pranking?"

"We did warn you guys," Trevor says.

Chanel sloshes her way out of the water and storms up to him. Without warning she knees him in the balls. He collapses holding his sack.

"You just broke my baby maker!"

"Serves you right!" Ivy finishes him off with a swift kick to his back.

"Carter help me," he pleads. He starts toward Trevor and I finally snap.

"DIE!" I shriek picking up the first thing I can get my hands on which happens to be a fallen tree branch. Carter's eyes widen and it takes him two seconds to realize what I'm about to do before he takes off.

I chase after him shaking my weapon like a mad woman.

"You're out of your mind!" Carter calls back over his shoulder.

"You'll be out of your mind once I'm finished with you!"

I'm just about to reach him when out of nowhere the ground opens up and swallows me. I don't even have time to scream.

Great. I'm cold, wet, miserable, and now I've fallen into a ditch. I check for any broken body parts. All good.

"Aubrey?" I look up at the sound of Carter's voice. "You ok?"

I'm too mad to answer him. He holds out his hand.

"Grab on and I'll pull you out."

I'm tempted to say no out of spite but spending the rest of my night in this ditch isn't appealing. So I grudgingly take his hand and let him haul me up. The force knocks him backward and I land on top of him. My face is inches from his.

"Well isn't this cliche," he says amusedly.

And it's at this moment that the girls, Ryan, and Trevor choose to find us. Nikole smirks.

"Are we interrupting something?"

"No!" I scramble off him. "This isn't what it looks like I swear! I fell!"

"On what his dick?"

I can hear him shaking with laughter beside me and it just pisses me off more.

"For your information I fell in a ditch. I'm ok by the way thanks for asking. I could've broken a bone or worse died. Then you'd have lost a valuable cheer member and the squad would have been ruined! Ruined I say!"

"I think I have a new nickname for you," Carter speaks. "Drama Queen."

"You shut up!"

Longest chapter in this book so far.

QOTD: favorite horror movie?

That's a hard one. I don't think I have a favorite.

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Stay pink🎀