Story: Camp Pawa: The lake of diamonds and memories (chapter 8)

Authors: Jdwheels

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Chapter 8

Title: Chapter 8 - Enlightened

[Author's notes: Do you know people, after so many years. That is a question everyone seems to wrestle with at one point in time or another.]

Chapter Eight - Enlightened

With a start, Mandy shot straight up in bed, feeling a lump sitting in her throat. Her own ears caught the sound of her very own loud gasp, as she fought for a breath as her whole body felt so cold. In the darkness of her little cubbyhole room, she found herself alone and her body was bathed in a heavy sheen of cold sweat ... dispite the heat that hung in the air.

With her heart pounding in her chest wildly, her mind quickly figured out that she had been having a seriously bad dream... one that bolted her out of one sound sleep. She gasped and was very thankful for the fact that she was still tucked in her bed and not anywhere near the scary place that her mind had went into when she was asleep. She looked around the small space, assuring herself as she did.

The girl fought to calm herself down, as her mind still was so jammed with what the dream had been all about in the first place. The dream had been so realistic, so very realistic that she had to keep remind herself that she actually was alone and safe in her bed... And what that dream had been was that, just a dream. She knew that, but she was telling her racing heartbeat that little piece of information.

Mandy swung her legs out of bed and sat on the edge of the mattress to try and quell her head.. She could finally feel her heartbeat starting to slow down to a near normal rate, and the cold sweat that had covered her bare body now was drying rapidly, thanks to the heat brought by the summer night. With a few shuttering breaths in, she felt so very thankful that her dream was not real.

She wiped her streaked face off with the back of one hand and sat there for a moment, taking a few more moments to assure herself that she was quite safe. She took a long look at the picture of her and CC she had stuck to the headboard, and that seemed to help bring more calm to her dream-jangled nerves.
“ Oh, man!” She whispered to herself, as the dream faded a little... at least the fear part of it had. “ That was one mother of a dream!”

Even though the dream was now fading, and her heart was basically back to normal working order, she found that she had a problem of being so wide awake. The girl grumbled a little and shook her head, knowing that there was way more night left at the moment. She knew her own body, knowing that for the time being... if she layed down, sleep would not come no matt3er how much she wanted it.

Grabbing her robe from where it hung on a hook straight across from her bed, she shoved her pack of cigarettes into one of the pockets before putting it on, opting to not put on anything else for the few minutes she was going to leave for. She was wanting to have a quick smoke and just try to separated herself from this dream. She hurried off to have that little break, before trying to get herself back to sleep.

She just decided to go just behind her group’s cabin to have a smoke, feeling a little afraid that Miss Ashfield would be standing on the end of the docks again for a nocturnal smoke. She did not want to chance that the woman would end up seeing her as she went out there. After what the woman had done in the shower room to her, she was not wanting to see Miss Ashfield at this point of time.

Her dream, actually it had been her nightmare, had been about the tall woman. One that had been so vivid in it’s way, that it had literally scared the living crap out of her. Even being awake, Mandy could not fully shake it’s tendrils of fear from her shaken mind... it had made her fears even deeper.

The warm air was soft on her cheek, as Mandy lit one of her smokes. She listened to the crickets and other sounds that made up the nightlife serenade of the lakeshore. She found these sounds of nature so soothing, as she blew a plume of smoke out. It was almost a perfect reason to be out this late.

From where she stood, she could see quite a bit of the camp area, thanks to the fullness of the moon. There were no lights on in any of the cabins that she could see, and there was no movement of any kind outside as well. All of Camp Pawa’s campers were tucked away in their beds for the night, so the camp was blissfully serine under the cloaking of darkness. She leaned up against the outside of the cabin to enjoy this quiet moment.

A movement caught her eye, and she jumped a little. The person there was not very tall, so her instant thought that it was Miss Ashfield again vanished. She looked again, and saw it was the brainy girl who had appeared. She smiled, as Allison neared.

The very smart girl looked at Mandy for a moment. There was a very interested glint in Mandy’s face, one that came with her unexpected appearance in the darkness of the night.
“ I did not know that you smoked.” Allison said with a small grin.
“ Bad habit.” The long dark haired girl said.
“ I know...” Nodded Allison. “ I have that bad habit also... so could I borrow one from you?”

Mandy gave a very odd sideways glance at Allison, as her question shocked her. It was something that she never envisioned the very intelligent girl doing, yet the question blew that up all to hell.
“ You smoke?” She finally asked, assured that the girl was not bluffing her in any way.
“ Hey... I may be a brain, that is what I’m known as anyways...” Allison said calmly. “ ... But yes, I do smoke.”
“ I did not know...” Mandy said with a laugh.
“ Not too many do know...” Smirked the smart girl, with a playful point at her face. “ Guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover...eh?”
“ I’m guilty of that...” Mandy admitted, knowing that she had a somewhat clouded view of the girl.

The long haired girl handed Allison a cigarette and nodded. The brainy girl produced a lighter from under the billowy made nightgown... which was obviously void of any pockets, and lit the smoke.
“ Where in the hell did you have that?” Quizzed Mandy, unsure of where the girl had brought out the lighter.
“ I had it stuck in the top part of my underwear...” Smirked the girl, seemingly not as shy as she seemed she always was. “ It was the best place to carry it.”

Mandy watched as Allison puffed away on the smoke. She thought that she knew the girl quite well after all the years she had known her.... she knew squat about her in the end, it was apparent. It had been that way since coming to camp... she noted that people changed. The brain girl she knew, really did have a very different side to her altogether... one that she had never even thought she had up to now.

The two girls had half finished their smokes, when Allison looked at her cabin mate. She blew out what she had in her lungs, then fixed on to Mandy.
“ So you couldn’t sleep?” She asked.
“ No...” Mandy shook her head. “ Couldn’t”
“ You think you might be suffering a little from insomnia or something?” Allison asked.
“ It’s not that...” Said Mandy, shaking her head.
“ Then its... what?“ Asked the brainy girl, trying to think on the answer as she spoke.
“ A bad dream is more like it.” Mandy informed back.

Allison looked at the girl, and saw that Mandy had answered it without wit or sarcasm. She read the girl’s facial features.
“ Bad dreams, hu?”
“ Yeah...” Nodded Mandy, not wanting to really go into it. “ It was a good one at that.”
“ Did the bad dreams perhaps stem from that list, I gave you?” Allison said, her mind coming to a conclusion.

Mandy was going to discount the question posed to her, but stopped herself. The question had hit some nerve deep inside of her. Even though the dream had been mainly about Miss Ashfield and the sexual advances she had made to her, it seemed that also seemed to have played a little part of her scary nocturnal movie. She contemplated about that for a second, and saw that it actually was in part... the reason for her bad dream.
“ Partly, I guess...” Mandy admitted.

Allison saw the girl face was telling that was the truth, and was quick to nod.
“ That damned note...It has also been bothering me a great deal also... more than what I had expected it to.” He girl said flatly.
“ It did?” Said Mandy, a little shocked at the feeling behind the girl’s statement.
“ It really has...” Allison said, sighing deep. “ It hit me hard, when I was shown that vial thing... I was thoroughly repulsed.”
“ It made me sick almost.” Mandy said

The smart gal nodded, then paused for a moment. Mandy could se that something was mulling around in the smart lass’s mind.
“ It seems that it has really bothered you.” She commented
“ More than I have ever admitted to.” Allison voiced, her eyes lifting to stare right at the smaller girl. “ That contemptuous piece of writing was the most horrid thing I have ever had the unpleasure of reading... created by a sick and opinionated minds belonging to Isis and her band of merry followers”
“ You know that for sure?”
“ I saw her writing... and it was the same that was on the note.” Boldly said Allison. “ No doubt about it.”

Mandy saw the girl’s eyes seem a little down at the moment, but she waited for the girl to say whatever it was, knowing the gravity of what the were talking about.
“ Being honest about the reasons it bothers me... I have not actually been open about that reason yet. It is...” She said, pausing to look at Mandy with a nervous stare. “ You see... I have always been attracted to girls as well.”

Mandy blinked, as the girl admitted her secret to her. It was the second admission she had gotten since coming to camp.
“ You think your gay?” Asked Mandy.
“ More than just think that I am...” Said Allison firmly. “ Searching myself..I have found that out.”
“ So... You have found that your attracted to girls?”
“ I guess I knew in a way all my life... I knew I was just different for years, and not just because that I was smart and read all the time either...” Conceded the girl, with a sigh like she was relieved with getting that out. She paused, and looked at Mandy.“ I seem to also remember you had that exact same look for years as well.. so knowing your gay as well, did not surprise me too much.”

The shorter girl nodded, as she could not disagree with the girl’s observations. As far back as she could remember, she always had felt different like that... it was CC that had helped her find herself.. or maybe simply help her discover it. Either way it had came about, she understood the feeling being different.. and about seeing that revelation about who she was in the end.

She looked at Allison, and nodded. Mandy was finding that she was understanding the girl more than ever before, even after the many years she had known Allison. She studied the girl’s simple un-makeup wearing, yet so pretty face and saw that Allison was at ease with her admission to her.. and found herself surprisingly feeling proud for the girl.
“ So...” Allison sighed, taking the last drag from her smoke. “ What do we do about Isis’s little hate letter?”
“ I don’t know what to do about that letter though.” Admitted Mandy. “ I have had some ideas... but nothing really set.”

Allison seemed to be pondering the problem, looking up into the clear night sky as she did. The bright girl’s face seemed to already hold one idea.
“ Perhaps hand it in to Miss. Ashfield...” The smart girl suggested. “ I should have done that first, and not taken it to you first... but I was shocked at the despicable content of that letter right off.
“ I was thinking about Councilor Olivia first...” Stated Mandy, afraid of Miss Ashfield still.
“ Could do that too...” Allison agreed. “ This vial act needs to be delt with... who knows how many homosexuals go to camp... do they need to be violated like this. We need to make sure that this does not go on any further... after what happened to you two years ago.”

Allison nodded her head, as she seemed to already know that plan of action as well. She tossed the now died butt away.
“ Let’s get some sleep on it then...” The girl suggested. “ A good sleep with help us make that decision more clearly if we do that.”
“ Smart Idea.” Mandy agreed.
“ That is what I’m known for, Mandy.” Said the girl, her eyes sparkling with a imp like fire.

The brainy girl had already turned to head back inside, then she stopped even before turning the corner of the building. Allison turned around and went back to where Mandy stood. She stopped close to the smaller girl and leaned in to Mandy. The girl planted a small peck of a kiss on Mandy’s cheek, then giggled as she stood up again
“ What was that for?” Giggled Mandy, feeling her face turning a shade of red she had forgotten it could change into..
“ That was for you... being you...” Plainly said the brainy gal, adding with a sly little wink. “ and I think that you are a little more than cute as well... as if you had not guessed that already.”
“ You do?” Said a now very shy feeling Mandy.

The girl smiled with a very meek nod of her head, but her eyes seemed to hold on to Mandy’s.
“ In truth... I always thought so.” Allison said, her face lit by the glow of the moon... showing her to be blushing as well.

Allison waved and hurried around the building. Mandy snickered lightly, as she threw away her burned out cigarette into a pile of rocks near the cabin wall. Taking out another smoke, she had decided to stay out for a little while longer, then try her had at getting some sleep. With talking things out, she was seeing she just might be able to.

Her mind wandering a little, Mandy had to admit that behind those thick glasses, the plain looking Allison always seemed so pretty... now knowing her more than before, the girl really seemed even more pretty. She felt a little bad at not noticing Allison before, but she was feeling glad that she had anyways.

Shifting a little so the light breeze of the night would not go up her robe, Mandy stood and enjoyed the smoke, as she went back to listening to the crickets chirp off somewhere in the darkness.

It had been another day of great discoveries. Some had been good, some not. In whole, this was a normal day, when you were at Camp Pawa. Her confusion with the advances from the camp’s headwoman still hung in her mind... but it now was put into focus some how.

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