me and you - isaac garcia

part eleven: camp walter

We drove for about two hours and the whole time I was tormented.

I was kicked, yelled at, got water spilled on me, serenaded with stupid rock music form Isaac, and had my earphone yanked from my ear when I tried to tune him out.

But nevertheless, we arrived, and thank God we did.

"We're here." Katherine said cheerfully from the passenger seat. Immediately, everyone started to scramble out of the car, pushing and shoving their way through.

"Ow!" I rubbed my stomach where Benny had kicked me. Alex stopped and offered me his hand to help me out, which I was grateful for.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

I finally stood outside the car and smoothed down my clothes. It was cold, even colder than it was back at the house making me pull my jacket around me tighter. But when I looked around, my jaw dropped.

We were surrounded by tall trees with thick branches and leaves. To my right, a pretty big lake lay still as a statue, not a single ripple in sight. Where I stood, there was pure dirt and rocks beneath my feet. Still, it was beautiful, the only sound being a few birds chirping in the distance.

"Kids, go help your dad with the trailer." Katherine ordered. Each of the kids went to help, except for Lee and Isaac, to which Katherine gave them a funny look. "Go help your uncle boys."

Lee groaned, "Fine."

Katherine laughed at the two boys who grudgingly did as they were told. She went over to me, nudging my arm.

"So, what do you think?"

"I think it's beautiful." I said, "I've never seen anything like this before."

Which was true. In New York, we obviously didn't have woods and lakes, and even though I'd been to a few parties here with them, nothing compared to this.

"I'm glad you decided to come." Katherine smiled, "This is one of the kids' favorite things we do every year. Usually we come out here on Friday and don't leave until Sunday but I couldn't get the day off. Still, we'll make it work."

"What do we even do out here?"

"Well usually we just hang out. The kids brought some of their toys and games, we've got the canoe for the lake, George barbecues, and we've got s'mores to end off the day." she said, "We usually pick this weekend since no one's ever here at this time of the year."

At this, a breeze flew by, making me shiver, "Yeah, I wonder why."

Soon the trailer was set in place and the kids immediately started to bring out their balls, some toys, and some chairs to sit in.

"I call first on the canoe." Nathan said.

"I call going with him." Jordan raised his hand.

"Remember everyone gets a turn, no hogging this year — Lee, I'm talking to you." George pointed a finger at the boy.

"Relax, Uncle G." Lee said, holding up a soccer ball.

I looked around, unsure of what to do. Usually at the house, I stayed up in my room and talked to Jackie when she wasn't with Alex. If not, I was talking to Cole about the function happening this weekend.

But the two of them weren't here right now, and while I could say I was on good terms with most of them, I still couldn't really find my place.

Katherine and George stood together by the lake, talking, Nathan and Jordan were at the truck trying to take down the canoe, Parker and Benny were pulling out their toys, and Lee Isaac, and Alex all kicked around a soccer ball.