The Camp Story (Part I)

She checked one more time if she had packed everything. Toothbrush – very important! – underwear, all that crappy medicine and of course, a couple books and her laptop. She knew that eventually she was going to get bored, but still hoped it wasn’t gonna happen. Yeah, everything seemed right so she zipped her bag, grabbed all the stuff and left. She was right on time.

It was the first time she was going on a retreat with the soccer team. They had played together for a semester now and yet their contact outside soccer-related activities remained little. Part of it was because she somewhat despised most of them. Even though she tried to fit in and talk their talks, she knew it wasn’t for her. And yet she insisted. She told herself that the weekend was going to be fun and it was an opportunity for her to possibly bond with some of the girls. Despite her girlfriend’s claims that she was going to go crazy and do stupid shit – as previously – she absolutely no intentions of doing anything inappropriate. The truth is that Hannah was bored out of her mind and only agreed to go on the trip because Mary Jane had insisted so much and eventually convinced her it was going to be fun.

“Hello?” she answered the phone.

“Hey beautiful. Are you there yet?” the sweet voice of her girlfriend on the other side.

“Nah, not yet. I’m just leaving actually, why?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to say that I love you”

“Awww. You’re a cutie. I love you too”

“I’ll miss you so much” her girlfriend didn’t even try to hide her insecurity anymore.

“It’s only a couple of days, baby. And I’ll hate it anyway, wanna bet?”

“No, you’ll come back bragging about how much fun it was”

“Whatever. I’ll be back in less than 48 hours and…I’ll think of you all the time anyway. I love you” she sounded sweet.

“I love you. Bye”.

It was good to know that she cared to much. But at the same time Hannah was looking forward to being away from Tarin for a little bit. She was convinced that Tarin was taking too much of her time and energy and it’s not that she didn’t want to dedicate all that time and energy to her. She was certainly worthy of it. But she was also jealous of Tarin’s boyfriend and that was killing her inside. She thought about that for a couple of minutes and then quickly parked in front of Vivian’s place, where they were all supposed to meet up.

“Hey! Am I late?” Hannah asked.

“Nah, don’t worry. Lucy’s not here yet” Vivian answered.

“Argh, I can’t believe these girls!”

“And oh, guess what. Anne isn’t coming anymore”

“What the hell? How come?”

“Apparently she had a sequence of really bad days and now she just doesn’t feel like going”

“But….we have a freaking match! We need her help!”

“Don’t worry, Brennda will be there and I’m back at playing again”

“Damn, this sucks!” her bad mood started to show.

They packed all their stuff in the cars and left. As they moved away from the city and the girls chatted, Hannah kept her mouth shut. She had Vivaldi playing on her iPod and she did not intend to be disturbed. But of course that was impossible. The vigorous happiness emanating from the girls chat was absolutely impossible to deny. She thought of joining them but then again…. What would she talk about? She hadn’t watched the latest Big Brother version yet nor seen the last chapter of GossipGirl, therefore she would just listen. As usual. So she would rather stick with Vivaldi.

At one point Vivian, someone Hannah had much respect for, came up and started chatting.

“Hey, what’s up? Are you alright?” Vivian asked.

“Yeah, I’m good. I love Vivaldi, it’s my favorite composer”

“Yeah, I like it too. Reminds me of when I did balet”

“Oh, that’s right. But seriously, don’t worry about me, I’m good”

“Of course I worry about you. Besides they’re just being stupid anyway and I’m tired”

“Right…. Busy week at work?”

“Kind of, yeah…”

And their chat moved on from there. In the following hour they talked about a lot…from how cheese was made to more heart-to-heart things such as Vivian’s mom’s death. And Hannah felt like they had bonded in a very unique way.