Flashback

"Woah! How did you get these?" JC asked. Leah who was duct taping the red firework (that looked a lot like dynamite) to her skateboard smiles.

It was about midnight and we were outside at the park. Alyssa had tons of flashlights on her. One attached to her pink cardigan, one from her wristwatch, a light on her head and two phone lights. It definitely helped us find her.

"My parents had them in the basement. They never used them. I'm pretty sure they brought them when they immigrated." JC was videotaping us on his camcorder for his YouTube channel, most of which contained him and Edith gaming and doing stupid stuff.

Candace and Edith were looking through the box of fireworks, seeing the various colors and labels as I tried to logically think of what could go wrong.

Everything...

"Alright! Let's do this! JC, light me up." JC takes the BBQ lighter from the ground and lights the firework. We regroup as we watch Leah take off. She held on tight to her board, bending down. We then see as she crashes into a wooden fence. Head first.

Immediately we run over. She is knocked out. Alyssa is panicking as Candace calls 911.

That was her concussion story, even after so many injuries she is still her reckless self.

Despite being small, she was somewhat vicious. She always had our backs which were nice. Edith and JC are surprised by her bravery. She always says she will sacrifice herself for us if a bear or something was after us. The fact we believe her, only makes us wonder.

"Kyrie, what do you want to do?" Leah asks me.

"Why don't we sing a song? Like the YMCA or something?"

"You're kidding," Leah says checking her phone.

"I've got an idea. Let's pretend to be cops and robbers. Who wants to be who?" Candace looks at us. JC, Alyssa and I raise our hands. "I guess you guys are cops?" We nod.

"Alright, that makes us, the robbers." We start to see people cleaning up, so we do too. Leah decides to make a bold move and stack as many glass plates in her tiny arms. She walks slowly, by eventually she places it on the counter for the camp instructors to clean.

We all get ready to head back into our cabin and discuss our plans for our skit.

As we arrive, we smell an intense fruity scent and see smoke coming out of the divider of the two cabins.

"Alyssa, stay outside," Leah says as she takes her t/shirt to cover her nose.

I fan my nose as I see Edith coughing. His lungs weren't good in these types of situations...

"Edith, you should go outside. Leah's gonna use the broom." He looks at me before nodding.

"You're right. Leah, get 'em!" Candace and JC follow Leah as she picks up the broom with her one hand and enters the other cabin.

"YAH! GO VAPE SOMEWHERE ELSE!" We see some of Gwen's members, Katie and Amber. They are on their beds looking quite high.

"We don't want to 'hurt the environment'," Amber says smirking.

"Well, you're hurting one of our friend's lungs!" Candace yells.

I hear our door open, followed by Alyssa's coughing and the door shutting again.

"Sacrificing one versus many, what are we gonna do?" Katie says blowing out smoke to her face.

"Leah," Candace mumbles looking at the broom.

"Don't make me have to beat you guys with this!" Leah shouts entering the room. The two seem unfazed. That's when we see through their door Edith looking worse than he was before.

"Oh shit!" JC mutters.

We run outside and see Edith coughing more. He and Alyssa are sitting on the porch. He's drinking out of Alyssa's water bottle, as she pats his back.

"Woah dude, you alright?" JC asks.

"I'm okay..." he coughs, hitting himself in the chest.

I remained quiet. He looked like he was in a lot of pain. I was starting to worry.

"I'll go find the teachers," Candace says running off. In normal circumstances we would've dealt with it, but this was Edith's health we were talking about. We would be known as tattletales, another reason for Gwen to be a nusiance. Leah opens both cabin doors and throws the broom in our cabin.

"Just in case we need it." She along with Alyssa go open the windows, trying to ventilate the area.

"I always knew you couldn't do well with strong smells and smoke, but I never knew it could be this bad," JC says checking Edith's condition.

"You should rest up." I say.

Candace brings in some of the administrators who looked laid back till now.

"Katie, Amber, you know the rules. No smoking in the cabins. If you need to, do it outside. Realistically you shouldn't be smoking at this age. Either you do that or you hand over your vape pens." Both of them sit up and glare at us.

"Fine, we'll do it outside," Katie says staring at us as she stomps off.

The teachers check up on Edith who is now doing a lot better. I see Leah and Alyssa come back out.

"You guys let us know if they are giving you any trouble. After all, if their behaviour is inappropriate, we can send them home." The teachers leave us after that comment. It was now our chance to create our skit.

Candace and I decided to go and get supplies for our skit. Edith and JC would write the script (with minor alterations from Leah) and Leah and Alyssa will plan the props and acting.

We leave the cabin off to the fellow camp counsellors by the eatery.

"I could see it." Candace says out of the blue.

"What are you talking about?"

"You looked so concerned about Edith's condition. I swear I had a premonition a week ago about this." Candace looks over to me. "There are a lot of things I've had a déjà vu moment about. But I learned that it's actually destiny."

I thought deeply about what she had to say. Maybe it was the anxious me talking. I wondered what our future would be like... would we still be friends?

We find some of the camp counsellors. Candace pulls out her list.

"Hello, do you have any coloured paper, tape, cardboard, burritos...?" I look over at her. She was confused. "JC's car keys and Alyssa's V.I.Poo spray?"

"Let's just stop there," I say.

Apparently, Leah wrote that list. They give us our supplies, minus the burrito, keys and spray.

"We got the... majority of what you need."

When we get back we see Edith running out of the cabin, having JC and Alyssa doing the same after. I see as Edith hides behind me, putting his hands on my shoulders and pretending I'm a meat shield.

"What's going on?" I whisper to him.

"Leah..." He replies.

She comes outside holding a piece of paper. She walks close to the grassy field area, nearby the water. She leaves the paper then walks back into the cabin.

"You guys can come back in."

"What happened?" Candace asked.

"There was a huge bug in the cabin," Alyssa says.

I shake my head, it must've been tarantula sized if it made Edith and JC terrified. We all enter back into the cabin and everyone gets to their tasks. Candace had looked up how to make origami guns. We made three of them with white paper and some signs that you hold when you get mug shots done.

"We're done!" JC says holding his script. We sit in a circle and start to practice our lines and acting. This was going to be a weird performance.

-

We get to the stage and start. I narrate the scene.

"On the streets of Chungus, three criminals enter a store." I start. Candace, Edith and Leah pretend to break in with their paper guns.

"Hurry, get the money!" Candace says to the others.

Then JC, Alyssa and I break in.

"Put your hands up!" JC yells.

"No or I'll shoot!" Leah smirks.

"Not if I do this..." I start before we all break into dance.

We all started to dance. In the back I saw someone film us. I hoped they weren't going to post it.

"And done!" We finish happily before sitting down in our seats.

-

Everyone had finished their performances and we were now going back into the cabin.

"It's pitch black out there." I say as the door opened.

"And Kyrie's afraid of the dark." Candace says. I'm startled when someone touches my shoulder. I turn around to see Edith.

"Don't worry, we can use my phone flashlight. We'll stick close together."

"Oh, thanks." I mumble before we are off our way.

We follow the crew through a path that Leah said she memorized. As I'm walking my foot catches a root of a tree.

"Kyrie!" Alyssa calls.

Before I fall onto the rough dirt, Edith catches my hand and pulls me backward.

"Are you okay?" Edith asks.

"I'm fine thanks. I'm clumsy..." He chuckles quietly.

"You should've seen Edith during the grocery store that one time. He knocked over the whole fruit section." JC says as I look to Edith.

"At least I didn't have to pay for it." He retorts.

We get to the cabin and put our shoes and towels outside.

Us girls leave the cabin to the bathroom with our things to change and wash up. Candace decides to chat with me.

"Kyrie, do you believe in fate?" She held her flashlight towards the ground.

"Depends on the situation. Sometimes I think us meeting was supposed to happen."

"Me too..."

Candace and I have been friends since kindergarten. I was a quiet kid. We met from playing in the sand together, she let me use her tools and we created a sand castle that was 2 feet tall. From there we became friends. Every birthday, school assignment, sleepover-we were together.

We get to the bathroom where we see girls brushing their teeth and others talking smack about each other. Us four go and change into shorts, T-shirt's, hoodies and sweatpants. Leah attempts to wash up super fast then dash back into the cabin, it was chilly by the water and shorts were not a smart idea. By the time I finish brushing my teeth she is gone. Alyssa sighs and catches up with her, leaving her brush on the counter by accident.

"I'll bring this back with us." I say to Candace who dried her face with a towel.

We go into the cabin and see Leah along with the boys chilling out on the floor, JC sharing some chocolates he bought for the trip.

We settle into the cabin and lock the door, shutting all the windows and closing the blinds.

"Is everyone toasty and well?" Alyssa asks standing in the middle of the room. She was the mom JC never had (correction: his mom was around, but the past few years has been overseas for periods of time for work.) She looks towards the boys who were comfortable (JC's legs hanging over the bed.) She checks on Leah who is ready to snore once her head hits the pillow. She looks towards Candace and gives her some water. Then she heads to me. "Is this all you brought?" She refers to my blanket.

"My mom said it would be warm here. But I guess not." Alyssa heads over to Leah's bed.

"Mind if Kyrie's uses this?" Leah shrugs.

"I can sleep naked if I wanted too." Everyone reacts grossed out.

"TMI Leah..." JC says before setting his phone alarm. Alyssa puts another blanket on me before hearing a loud slam in the room beside us.

"Thanks Alyssa." She smiles before checking on Edith. We start to hear loud talking. It was Gwen and her crew. We start to see smoke form on the ceiling. Candace is already out the door to report them, what else could we do?

I hear hacking from Edith and Leah jumps down from her bunk to run and get the broom.

"I freaking told you idiots to quit your smoking and to be quiet!" Leah yells. Alyssa peeps in from the backroom while I stay put. JC groans and gets up knowing he'll probably have to separate Leah and the other girls. I get up and walk over to Edith.

"Hey, we should go outside." I cover my nose with my hoodie sleeve and we walk out together.

I see Edith's eyes are somewhat bloodshot. He looked quite tired.

"Do you think you'll be alright?" Edith nods.

"Yeah, I just really need some sleep. All the travel and such is exhausting. I can't wait till those girls leave..."

"Me too, Gwen can be..." Abrasive? Annoying?

"She tried to convince me to leave you and the crew. She's bad. Obviously she doesn't know who I like to hang out with." I laugh.

"We should probably go back in, let's go." We go inside and see teachers dealing with the students. They took away their vapes and somewhat threatened them again keeping them quiet. Everyone comes back into our room and we finally get some rest.

-

Very early in the morning...

Alyssa awakes first, she sees the sun rise and smiles in content. She really wanted her friends to enjoy the trip. For each of them it would benefit them in a different way. Alyssa being the mom and doctor of the group. She knew what to do and how to care for her friends. They were like her second family.

She gets out of bed and heads out to wash up. She changes into a cozy creme sweater and jeans. Taking care of house, she brings in all of the towels.

I wake up and see Alyssa sweeping.

"Candace is still snoring..." Alyssa says giggling. "You should go wash up. No one is awake right now." She whispers quietly.

I do as she is asked and as I enter back into the cabin my friends awaking. The boys however are quite asleep. Leah chucks and water bottle at JC, where he wakes up in pain.

"Ow! Really?" He rasps at Leah. JC gets up and pokes at Edith. When he wakes I try to keep my composure. I notice the dark circles under his eyes.

"Edith... did you get enough sleep?" I ask.

"I think I got 6 hours... I couldn't stop thinking last night..." He climbs down his bunk and yawns. He looked ready to pass out on the floor.

"Well everyone, wash up, get dressed so we can go eat!" Alyssa says. Everyone disperses as I make my bed and open the windows to ventilate the air. I check the schedule for what we would be doing today. Most activities were hard for me. I couldn't swim, I never knew how to ride a bike standing up and I hated so many people in my activity group.

Edith finds the floor as the new bed and falls asleep on it. Leah and Kyrie try lifting him to his bunk and others walk in thinking they killed him.

As almost everyone is gone I sit on my bed. I look at Alyssa who was done cleaning.

"Can we talk?" I ask. She nods. "It's just about me and Edith. We were taking about..." I gesture my head towards the next room. "And it made me think the type of person he would like. I wonder if it would be me, but I don't want to risk our friendship..."

"I say, you find as much information you can before making a conclusion. Emotions and human behaviour isn't something you can just add like math. You can make inferences and theories based upon your findings."

"So I should find more information on Edith before thinking of what to do next?"

"Precisely."