B`east I`n Y`our O`de.: December 2008

Chapter One - Girl

I felt like the room was closing me in, seriously. As much as I loved my friends, surely the ‘shoes’ topic would be exhausted one day?

That day couldn’t come soon enough.

“Look at his nose!” I heard Meliss sigh as I zoned back into their conversation again.

“It’s so cute!”

I mimed gagging. That was so wrong. Honestly. It’s a nose, you dope, I thought to myself. And what’s inside probably ain’t as cute as the outside. I laughed to myself; sometimes I just found myself too hilarious for my own good.

“Don’t you think he’s like, almost a god, Addie?” Um, like, NO!

“Sure,” I said. Whatever.

“Oh come on, Ads.” Stacey looked exasperated. “Even you aren’t immune to those kind of looks!”

“Aren’t I?” I turned slightly in my seat and aimed the ups towards the guy they were all swooning over. Lucky for me, I guess, he was facing the other way. A chorus of gasps enveloped me.

“Addie!”

I bit back my grin and shrugged.

“Definitely not immune.”

Kirra shook her head in disgust, then turned back to the others. Sometimes it was a curse that I was probably the only female on the planet that didn’t fall for the nearest cute guy; I felt so alone most of the time. I also felt slightly guilty; I couldn’t seem to stop teasing my friends about their crushes. No wonder they never tell me about them any more.

I buried so deep in my thoughts that I only just heard the next round of gasps, from every girl in the room this time. I looked up: every head was turned to watch him walk towards our group. I pushed myself further into the corner as Kirra squealed softly.

“Oh my God, Ellie! I think Luke is going to talk to you.” She looked envious as she carefully fluffed up her shiny blonde curls.

Of course it’s Ellie, couldn’t be Stacey could it? All the guys seemed to go for the same types, and Ellie – ‘lucky’ Ellie – was always their first choice. I think I’d die a painful death if I had to put up with all that crap over and over again. But… each to their own, I guess.

We all watched him – Luke – stroll casually over to us. He had longish, brown-blonde hair that fell in his eyes, which happened to be blue by the way. Of course. How cliché can you get?

As he neared us, he flicked back the little strand of hair that was draped over his ‘oh so cute’ nose. I mean, what the hell? I still didn’t get the appeal. I mean, sure, he was cute.

Just cute.

And extremely up himself, I decided as he pasted a sickly smile onto his face and twinkled his eyes at Ellie.

“Hey,” Oh my God, did he just coo at her? Sick! Wrong! Help me!

Ellie, shaking slightly, turned around to face him.

“H-Hi.” Breathe, El, I silently reminded her. “I’m Ellie.”

“Ellie,” he appeared to be pondering. “A pretty name for a pretty girl.”

I only just restrained from choking, and had to make do with snorting as loud as I could, hoping he would hear it.

He did, and he looked sideways at me. I was happy to see the surprise in his eyes as he realized that there was at least one girl that wasn’t so easily captured. Recovering from his shock, he glared at me. I bit my lip to keep my traitorous tongue from poking out at him.

Stupid, idiotic freak! I spat inside my head. Grr.

“So,” the idiot in question continued, undeterred. “What do you like to do around here?”

What the hell? Lame flirting techniques alert!

“Umm, I kind of just, walk around, I guess.” Good job Ellie, soo interesting.

I mentally berated myself; I’d never been in that sort of situation, I shouldn’t be so horrible. I waited for Luke’s reply to that.

“Do you want to walk around with me?” he said softly, and smiled. I swear his teeth were so white they almost sparkled. He could probably do a Colgate add, or something. I felt my concentration slipping as I wondered what toothpaste he used…

“Um, sure.”

That was better, I guess. Wasn’t quite hard-to-get, but… alright it still sucked. I needed to give her some tips in interesting answers.

He stretched out his hand and picked up Ellie’s. She blushed profusely, and let him help her up. Kirra and Meliss twittered, giggling like dumb pigeons. Stacey watched me as I stood up, warning me with her big brown eyes.

Don’t you dare, Addie!

I pretended I hadn’t quite caught that and continued walking over to Ellie and him.

He was still staring into her eyes, probably thinking that it was sexy. If you asked me, it was plain creepy.

When neither person acknowledged my presence, I cleared my throat loudly. Luke turned his head slowly. Whoa, his glare is soo much more affective than that cheesy grin, I snickered.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked, straining to make my voice friendly. It came out sort of mangled, and his glare intensified, so I assumed it didn’t work. “In private?” I added just to make sure. He nodded curtly, and Ellie – sensing her cue – stepped away.

“I swear,” I began, lowering my voice. “If you hurt her in any way, mental or otherwise, I will kill you.”

I was actually getting better at these death threats. Considering I had to say them every time some dude tried to hook up with my girls, I would hope so.

“I’ll do what I want, wolf girl.” What the hell? I raised my eyebrows slightly.

“Yeah… okay… Listen, buddy, do what you will, but know that if I am less than happy with how you return her, I will slap you. Been wanting to do that from the moment I laid eyes on you.”

It was his turn to raise him eyebrows. Fine by me; I would love to slap him.

I turned around quickly and walked back to my seat in the corner. Three pairs of eyes were staring at me anxiously. I looked at all of them for a moment, then sighed.

“Aw, come on guys, calm down. I didn’t scare him away. Geez.” I pointed over to the new ‘couple’. Sure enough, Luke was bending down slightly and kissing Ellie’s hand. Ugh. Yummy; I hope she’s happy.

I folded my arms and waited.

This camp was going to go as slowly as hell.

Yippee.