Chapter Two: Friends and surprises
Cabin number nine was located only a minute and a half walk down to the boathouse. It was the newest of the cabins at Pawa, and one of the more envious cabins that anyone could be assigned to. It was done in a radical styled designed concept which was donated to Pawa a few years back, one style of building that probably had never been thought of before in a camp type of setting.
The place was large and long, much like a small dining hall might be, but with a big difference. Along each side of the cabin, was built six individual cubical styled cubbyhole rooms, with a long drape at the open end that could be closed. This cabin was known for giving people a little more privacy that normally one would get at camp. For that reason, it was strictly a Senior Camper’s cabin.
Each little place had a relatively soft looking bed, a heavy wood closet that was bolted straight to the wall and had a small personal light over the head of the bed. A few brass hooks for clothes finished off what was there. It was not much to really look at, but it was better than the dormitory style of other cabins.
Mandy was sort of happy to get this cabin assignment, as the cabin was known as the ultimate best that Camp Pawa could offer. She noticed that the little ’nook’ with her name on it was at the very end on the right hand side of the cabin, right next to the door that was marked already as the councilor’s room.
The girl stored her things away, finding that she had more than enough room for everything and then some as she went to task. She finished off unpacking by putting out a beloved picture of her and CC straight on the headboard of the bed, giving it a soft kiss before she placed it with great reverence.
Miss Olivia peeked around the corner of the little wall, and saw the girl standing there. She saw the picture up, and knew what she was doing already.
" Unpacked already?" The woman asked.
" Yeah... I am..." Said Mandy, breaking her vacant stare to look at the councilor.
" Your quick..." Smirked the councilor. " I’ve been here a couple of days, and I have not even did that yet.
Mandy giggled, as the woman played up her words by making a playful pouting face.
" The others will be trickling in the next while... You know it might take all day for them to all to finally straggle in the way those buses rolled along...." Said Olivia. " Why don’t you get a coffee or something... get acquainted with Pawa again there might be others you know already here."
" Can I help any?" Mandy asked.
" Nah..." The woman said. " I might need your help now and then... you are a senior now." She sighed and turned. " Just go and have some time to look around."
Mandy looked at the woman and nodded. Councilor Olivia hurried off to her own little room area, leaving the girl to what she may or may not do.
Mandy fished a pack of cigarettes from her backpack and hustled herself out of the cabin. She wanted to go and have a smoke, while she had a chance to. She thought of when she had done the exact things with CC, that fateful evening, when the two talked for the very first time. She smiled a little with the memory, and hurried to their spot.
Sitting on the limb of the same tree, Mandy puffed away on her smoke. She felt a little sad being here again, but at the same time, felt a little bit of peace also flooding her heart.. as if CC was there with her. Sending a exhale of smoke to the soft breezes, she just let her self enjoy this small moment, reminiscing with herself with the many memories that now dominated her mind.
A voice calling out to her broke her train of thought abruptly. She glanced over in the direction of the voice and was more than just shocked to find out the shouters identity. She nearly fell over when that realization came.
In a very pretty looking white and off powder blue flowing sundress, that was topped off by a very over the top floppy hat, stood one Lori Casper. Mandy was very shocked with seeing the girl, and her shock was being intensified by what two years had really done. The time had really did something to this girl.
By what Mandy was seeing, this was not the so intensely shy girl that she had known over the years. The way Lori was dressed, her body language and just the way the girl was actually being vocal as she raced up to Mandy, this was not the Lori of old. This model that had showed up for this Camp time was new and very much looked fully improved.
The very thin girl raced up to Mandy, the new bubbly personality was literally bursting out of her. The very crippling shyness she knew Lori for was now a thing of the past, here stood a totally different girl than she had known two years earlier.
" Well, well Lori!" Said Mandy, looking at the girl.
Lori smirked at the dark tressed girl, a small smile plastered all over the small features of the once very introverted gal..
" Your back at Pawa I see, Mandy.." She said.
" Seems so...." Giggled Mandy, still not quite getting over the changes in the girl before her. " It has been a while since I have been here..."
" Miss Olivia told me that you were..." Said the girl, as she stood there and rocked on her bare feet. " I was actually quite happy to hear that you had came back to Pawa again."
Mandy looked at the girl with awe, not fully grasping this new Lori that had bounced up to her. She leaned towards the girl and smiled back
" You are... so different..." She said bluntly, as that was the only thing her mind could come out to say.
Lori shrugged her shoulders, then give a playful wink to Mandy..
" My mom said I was a butterfly back then, and had to burst out of that cocoon that I was in..." She said, the giggled loudly and hopped on her feet a little. " My mom loves that poetic type of crud."
" Looks like you sure did change, regardless of how your mother’s poetic tendencies put it...." Mandy said back, with a small giggle. ".. that shy, untalkative girl I knew before... is really not there anymore."
" Lets just say... I ended up finding myself in that silence..." Smiled the blond girl, looking at Mandy. " And I owe some of this to both you and that goth girl that was in our cabin ... uh... CC was her name, I think..."
Mandy raised a eyebrow, she was unsure of exactly what the girl was getting at with the statement.
" You owe CC and Me for your change?" She said. looking at the girl.
" Yep... you both!" Said Lori, her smile now was both happy, and very assured as she spoke.
Mandy was going to ask Lori what that actually was, but Lori was being called out to by a group of girls who were walking passed one of the cabins nearby. The girl turned around at the sounds, as Mandy waited..
" Oh gotta go... my friends are callin’ me." Said the girl spinning on her bare feet like a jackrabbit getting away from a fox. " we’ll talk later about it...K?."
" Uh, sure..." Said Mandy, not really knowing just what else to say to the girl.
With that, the girl raced off like the wind. Mandy sat puffing away on her smoke. She was very curious at just what she had done to get the girl to come out of her self so dramatically. It was a change like night and day. She giggled to herself, and continued to just sit there and smoke. Whatever it was that the girl had eluded to that she did with CC... it apparently had a remarkable change with young Lori.
******
Mandy got back to her assigned cabin after finishing her cigarette leisurely, enjoying the silence of her little hiding spot. She end up finding a few more girls had finally arrived, dragging with them mountains of luggage with them. Mandy did not know any of the girls personally, but she did know a small bit about each one she saw inside of the cabin... although it was more by name and the reputations she had heard over the years..
A dark skinned girl called Brandy Lester was the first girl Mandy saw once she had stepped in to the cabin. She was the same age as Mandy, but she knew her as one of the popular girls at Pawa. Brandy was smart and beautiful and also known to have a very streak of being a sort of prankster as well. Brandy was one of the more interesting people that made up the ‘in’ crowd, the only one that really was liked by others.
Isis Mackay was also there, another member of the ‘Pretty four’ as they were referred as. Being tall, blonde, thin and full of attitude, this girl made Tracy MacDonald look like a wallflower, a real bitchy type of girl who shunned anyone who was not like her, or would not follow her. Mandy had a feeling that with Isis there, there could be more than a few ruffled feathers on occasion..
Mandy noticed another girl, and sighed as she figured out who it was. It was Isis’s best friend, one Megan Ann Williams, who had also been assigned to the cabin. This girl was also blond and tall as Isis, and she was more than equal to the bitch role that her best friend was known by. The two of them were called, although behind their backs, the snooty twins, a name they had both earned.
The thing about Morgan though, was that the attitude and mannerisms did seemed to be more of an act rather than a personality trait she had. This was something that Mandy had noticed over the years. She thought that she acted like this to be in the popular people, and hiding a much nicer person inside. Whether or not that was true, Mandy would always wonder.
The other girl that had arrived, was known a real outsider, not unlike what she always was classed as. Allison Grey was a rather plain looking girl, seemingly locked behind those thick glasses she always wore. With simple chestnut colored brown hair that always was held back by a basic hairband and her somewhat quiet way about her, Allison seemed to hide who she really was behind large books that she constantly had her nose in. This girl could not be totally explained as a shy person or being antisocial, but the girl was one who generally would keep to herself nine times out of ten.
Mandy looked finally took a serious look at every name that would make up the twelve girls that would share the cabin. The only name that she actually knew personally, Was Lori’s, whose little cubbyhole room was one over from hers. Other names posted outside the other slots were not recognizable at this point of time for Mandy, but she thought once seeing the girls, they might pop into her mind.
Letting out a long sigh, Mandy went into her little cubbyhole room. Being at cam brought out the loneliness she had been feeling for months now.
" This summer looks like it’s gonna be somethin else." She told herself, full of sarcasm, as the summer did not look promising
This summer was one of change and difference, and Mandy already knew that. Her friend Donna was not going to be at camp this year, another thing that was making this year really bad. The girl had gone on a vacation with her Mom and Dad rather than come to camp... a decision that she wished Donna would not have made. It was the first camp in many years for Mandy that Donna did not attend Pawa with her.
Mandy drifted back in her mind a little. Donna had ended up being a great comfort for her, right after CC had passed away, as was the girl’s whole family. Donna had become a even better friend than she had been, something that made the grief and sadness seem just a little more bearable than it could have been.
Now, here she was at Camp, there was no Donna... CC was gone.. and her mind reminded her there was no Lacy either. Thinking back, since her friend had moved away, she has heard nothing, not even getting one single letter from a friend she had called ‘her sister’. This was another one of those unwanted changes in her life.
With a long sigh of grudging acceptance, Mandy just shook her head and made herself hope that something would come out of Camp this year, to help. Anything would be nice right now, she thought to herself, anything at all..
The long haired girl’s thoughts were abruptly broken, when Councilor Olivia poked her head through the curtain of the little living quarters.
" Could you do me a little favor, Mandy?" The woman asked.
Mandy turned and nodded, thankful that something had pulled her out of this funk she was in. With her thoughts being like they were moments ago, she was more than eager for some sort of interruption
" Sure." She said
The woman stepped in to the small space and held out a stack of small yellow colored cardboard cards.
" These are cards noting all of the girls that have arrived on the first wave of buses... like you did..." The woman explained. " I need to meet the other buses when they pull in to camp, but the new administration wants us to put in each card in as you girl’s all arrive.... it’s a pain in the ass, if you ask me."
" So what is the favor?" Quizzed the young girl.
" Could you be a doll and run these over to the main office for me?" She said with raised eyebrows. " That would make all of this a little less complicated for me than they are going."
" That’s all..."
" Pretty simple, Mandy." Smiled the lady.
Mandy was more than happy to help. She thought she might be able to sneak off for another smoke just before lunch would be served. She was really savoring just thinking about it.
" I could do it..." She nodded.
" Oh, thank god..." Sighed the woman. " Hurry over then, ‘cause I will have more to come."
" I’ll be back soon..." She said as she left the little cubical, agreeing to lend a hand to the lady..
" Thanks again, Mandy." Said the woman with a sigh, seemingly relieved that the girl was going to help her out like this.
As the dark haired made her way to the cabin door, she could hear the others in her cabin whispering really low between one another. They were not aware of it, but Mandy was picking up on the ‘topic’ they all seemed to be discussing.
" Is that the girl that’s a dyke?" Said one in a hushed voice, turning her head as Mandy passed them all..
" I think it is the one we heard about a few years ago..." Said the dark skinned girl." The one that was attacked by that crazy gal..."
" I thought she was raped by some boy..." Said the first.
" That was another girl...." Corrected the dark skinned girl. " Not her..."
" But is she the lezzie or not?" Said the first one.
" With our luck, it is her..." Said Isis, her words were sharp and not made to be silent.
Mandy simply left, ignoring the three gossiping girls to their suspicions. She was not going to give them any information, or the satisfaction of letting them know anything at all
" Their right..." She said to herself, then she chuckled at her thoughts. " Hell if I am going to verify it though!"
It seemed that nothing had changed here, especially the attitudes that abounded here. It seemed as if she had traded Tracy’s attitude for this ones larger attitude. They were interchangeable between them both.
She sighed and decided to let herself enjoy the little walk across camp, she would have more than enough time to keep on ignore the three later... and have many more times over the next month as well to do that. She knew that it would not be the first time she was going to have to ‘tune out’ someone.
Yep, nothing had changed one damned bit.