CHAPTER 3
Ivy
Dancing with our hands tied – Taylor Swift
That night, I sleep the best I ever have in while.
I am not sure if it is because of the long flight, the late night or the memories I have just created.
It is extremely peaceful, and I do not think I have ever fallen asleep that fast in London.
In London, it is always loud with the traffic on the road outside my house and the parties the neighbours would have constantly.
I never have liked the loudness and here, at Camp Sylva, all I can hear are the crickets in the woodland surrounding me.
Despite being exhausted that night, as I fall asleep, no matter how hard I try, I cannot remove the image of that stupid boy and his stupid blue eyes from my memory. It’s been the same every night since.
The next six days are filled with training.
This includes bonding activities with other counsellors, learning basic care for the children and a few hours of fun.
Since Camp Sylva is not very large and doesn’t have many children, there is only eighteen counsellors and eight other staff within the camp.
This means that we can all easily get to know each other, which I do like.
I have found it hard to make friends before this and I have enjoyed getting to know a smaller group of people.
Monday is the first day of training and I wake up to the blasting sound of knocking on my door. I force myself out of my bed, shoving my childhood bear under the blanket and walk over to the door, swinging it open.
“Ivy c’mon. You used to wake up at like six back in London.” It is Bailey. She is wearing a small pink top with denim shorts and her hair in two braids.
“What time is it?” I yawn, rubbing my eyes and trying to readjust to the light pouring through the doorway.
“Seven thirty. Breakfast is in fifteen minutes,” she says smiling.
“I will be as quick as I can.” I shut the door quickly before rushing into my bathroom to shower and brush my teeth.
Once out of the shower, I run over to the set of drawers.
I had already neatly packed my clothes into the drawers last night, so it doesn’t take me long to grab a denim skort and a white shirt which has a pattern on it in pale blue.
I decide to run some product through my wet curls and leave them to dry out in the sun.
The clock on my dresser reads seven forty-eight, so I quickly put on my shoes and tie up my laces, before darting out of the door.
My original plan was to sprint to the dining hall so I could meet everyone but as soon as I am hit by the summer air and the view of all the trees, I decide to take my time to walk.
Furthermore, with the rising heat, I am not sure I could run right now without passing out.
My cabin is not very far from the dining hall, and I know it won’t take me that much longer if I walk.
The sky is a bright blue with a few white fluffy clouds within it.
While the sun is warm, the breeze from the direction of the lake is very relaxing as I walk.
Despite the camp being described to me constantly and Bailey sending me what feels like a thousand photos all year, it doesn’t feel how I expected it to be here.
The sun is blazing during the day, but the afternoons and mornings have the perfect temperature.
The shade from the trees and the cooler air feel extremely relaxing, but even the scorching sun can’t outdo the happiness this place brings .
The dining hall is large and has a supply room as well as Charlie’s office off to the side.
I walk into the building and instantly find Bailey waving me over to the table where her, Alec, Lucas, James and Abby are all sitting.
I walk over to them, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed that I am so late and sit down so I am next to Bailey and opposite Lucas.
His loose blonde waves are falling across his face a little but not so much that it is in his eyes.
Now, close to me, in this bright fluorescent light, I can see them much clearer than before.
They are much brighter now but at the beach they looked almost navy.
The same colour still covers the rim of his eyes in this lighting and the once sapphire blue is more aqua.
They are mesmerising, even with his attention away from me and glued to the table.
As soon as I sit down, his eyes lift to meet mine and a small smile reaches across his face.
I think he catches me staring. I feel my cheeks warm up a little and he shifts his focus away from my face to the side of me and then looks back down.
“What are we eating?” I ask before the subject of my late arrival can come up or even the subject of why I am blushing because I am not even sure I know. It happens far too often, and I can’t control it .
“They’ve got fruit, cereal, eggs and pancakes but the weirdo over here had all those options and chose the worst one.
Granola. Without fruit or anything else,” Abby says, with such distaste, you would think she had a personal vendetta against it.
Her focus is on Alec opposite her who is holding a spoon in his mouth and there’s a blue bowl in front of him.
“What?” he replies, and I think he is pretending to be offended but I can’t tell. “I have granola like every day at home, but I have it once here and suddenly I am weird.”
“There is no way you have granola every day!” I say in disbelief. I have never liked granola, and I pretty much stick to cereal covered in sugar most days, or maybe some plain toast, but that's only if I have time for breakfast before some of my course classes or work.
“Yeah, it's good and healthy. Do not judge me, I'm guessing this one,” he says pointing to James beside him, “has chocolate or let me guess, Oreos for breakfast every day.”
James, who has been quiet for the longest time since I met him yesterday, says, “First, Oreos are just elite, and you are not. Second, I do not have them for breakfast, I have pancakes most days and they are delicious.”Everyone laughs and my eyes meet the ones across from me.
“So, what are you having?” Lucas says with his arms crossed, leaning on the table and smiling up at me. His eyes are upon me once again and they continue to make my face go redder.
“I'm not sure.” I smile, before looking away. The hall is a little empty and quiet, but I assume it will get a lot busier when the children arrive on Sunday.
Lucas gets up abruptly from the bench and says, “Let's go look and see what you like then.”
Surprised, I follow him around the table and we both walk to the large area where all the food is.
It starts with colder food such as fruit and cereal, with a large jug for milk.
I notice the one cereal I actually recognise before skipping right over to it and grabbing a bowl.
All of the stacked dishes are mismatched with some block colours and some with odd patterns.
The one I pull out is bright yellow with baby pink polka dots.
“Are you seriously going to have cereal when you can have pancakes?” he says, smiling down at me. There was a selection of pancakes with many toppings and sauces, as well as eggs and a basket of bread with a small toaster right next to the cereal .
“Excuse me but I think Frosties are pretty delicious, and they are like coated in sugar so don’t judge me.
Your best friend over there is eating one percent pancake and ninety nine percent Nutella,” I say, putting some cereal in a bowl but before I could put more in, Lucas abruptly grabs my hand, stopping me.
“What the hell are Frosties?” He laughs, looking extremely confused.
Both his smile and laugh are extremely contagious because every time he laughs, I do too.
At the same moment we both realise his hand is still on top of mine.
He quickly moves his arm away from me and clears his throat.
It feels as though my heart is beating a thousand beats per minute.
I must have caught something on my flight over.
This paired with the number of times I have blushed, even in the air-conditioned dining hall and then the time I woke up this morning suggests I must be sick.
“Umm… Frosties are the food in my bowl?” I say, partly trying to change the subject but mostly still confused.
“You mean frosted flakes?”he asks.
“How do we both speak English but still manage to have different words for the same things?” We laugh together again, and I pour a lot of milk over the cereal and grab a spoon. I walk back to the table remembering the feeling of his hand on top of mine, as though it never left.
The first day of training is a site tour, a rundown of our daily schedules and any emergency procedures. After what felt like an hour of emergency drills at the main camp, we all stand in front of Charlie as he reads out our daily schedules.
“Wake up call is at seven for the kids, which means you have to get up before to wake them and then half an hour later you need to knock on their door to make sure they all go to breakfast. The latest they can leave their rooms is seven forty-five. Then morning activities will start at nine until twelve fifteen, which is when lunch starts,” he says looking around at us.
“Afternoon activities are on from one thirty until four thirty and dinner is at six. Sometimes there is an evening activity but sometimes there is not. It really depends. If there is, it is usually something everyone does together. They have to be in their rooms by eight, lights out at nine. Make sure this is the same every single day.”
I nod along, making sure I'm paying attention to the words here and not the blonde boy beside me. I don’t understand what is going on. I don’t even know him. We met yesterday .