"Just relaxing in the water, with how crowded it is," Charlie replied honestly, not seeing any reason not to. "I just wish that I'd have gotten here early enough to swim a lap or two."
Shirley laughed. "You'd have needed to have your swimsuit on before you got here if that was the case," she replied after she finished laughing, amusement clear in her voice.
"What do you mean?" Charlie asked, confused at the statement.
"If you look to the side of the group, you can see the bags of several people. Meaning that a good number of the idiots in the pool haven't even been to where they'll be staying. Some of them might not have even shown up at the orientation before coming here," Shirley answered.
Charlie looked and at various places, she saw the bags of someone who clearly had left them there while they hopped in the pool. She saw a couple girls sunbathing on towels next to bags that had to belong to them. In all, she couldn't come up with anything else to say about it.
"With that crowd, do you want to try and get in the water?" Shirley asked.
"Yeah, I'd like to still at least spend a little time in the water," Charlie replied, looking for a calmer spot in the pool where she could stay for a short period, if nothing else.
"You might have to wait a while," Shirley commented. "I know a few of these people and I have little doubt others are their friends. Which means that they're probably going to be a while. Though, if you want, you can wait here with everyone else, go to dinner with your swimsuit on, then maybe afterwards, this party might die down a little."
Charlie digested that information. "Will this be this way every night?" Charlie asked. She wasn't sure how she'd feel if that was the case.
"Doubtful. First thing, if any of them do this any time later this week, my uncle will come down on them like a nuclear missile. Meaning, people who are merely in the proximity of them, could get kicked out altogether," Shirley replied. "Then, next week, they'll have to be looking after the campers. They won't have time to do this then."
"During those times, would it be a problem if I relaxed in the pool, like I mentioned?" Charlie asked, hoping that it could be acceptable. Especially if it turned out that she wouldn't be able to this afternoon. Though, a part of her wanted to ask about who Shirley's uncle was, if he had that much influence, while a part of her started to wonder if Heathcliff was her uncle. However, she didn't want to get into that subject.
"Maybe. Depends on what reason or excuse you can come up with. If there's a camper who needs help with swimming, you might have an easier time if you can convince them to try then. Though, I can't say how much relaxation you can get in that scenario," Shirley said.
Charlie nodded absently. It looked like a group of the guys in the pool were heading away as they arrived at the pool. Charlie took this as her chance to take a dip, even if it was a short one.
Charlie laid her towel flat on the ground, roughly ten feet from the pool before walking towards the water.
"I'll keep an eye on your towel for you," Shirley called after her.
"Thanks," Charlie replied, turning enough so she could look at Shirley, before focusing on the pool again.
Rather than slowly getting herself used to the water, Charlie let herself slide into the water all at once, not jumping in like Cherie tended to do as Charlie didn't like trying to create a big splash. Once, she was in the water, Charlie dunked her head under the water for a moment, before resting her head against the side of the pool, letting the rest of her body just float. Charlie sighed, letting her eyes close as she enjoyed the felling the water against her, despite others still having their party in the pool, the noise and moving water preventing the sense of serenity Charlie often tried to find when relaxing in a pool.
"How're you doing so far?" a voice said right next to Charlie. Charlie opened her eyes to see who it was that was speaking by her and to whom. It didn't help her relax when she saw that it was the same teenager that had spoken to her when she first got there. It was also apparent that he was talking to her.
"Okay, just trying to relax," Charlie replied, hoping he would leave her alone. In that hope, she closed her eyes again.
"Is there anything you'd like?" he asked.
"To be left alone to just relax," Charlie answered, starting to doubt that she'd be able to relax the way she had wanted to.
Charlie felt the water ripple as she heard him sit down next to her at the edge of the pool, clearly having put his feet in the pool. "Not a very big pool, is it," he commented.
Charlie didn't respond, hoping he would get the hint.
"At least the temperature in it is nice," he continued, not seeming to be put off by Charlie's silence. "Would be nice if there was a cooler with drinks nearby."
Charlie let her body sink in the water, her relaxing peace shattered and recognizing that it wasn't going to return. Not with this guy nearby. After she had been fully immersed for a few seconds, she opened her eyes and pulled herself to the surface and started climbing out of the pool.
"I never told my name, did I?" he asked as Charlie stood up.
Charlie glanced at him and saw that he was looking up at her. Charlie was thankful that he didn't show any signs of standing up but wasn't going to say anything about that. "No, you didn't," Charlie replied curtly as she started to walk towards where she left her towel, Shirley still near it.
"It's Nick," he called after her.
Charlie didn't show any signs that she heard him. She didn't know why, just that the feeling she got around him just made her feel like taking a shower. She tried to tell herself that he was just being weird but couldn't help but feel like he might be looking at her as a possible conquest or something.
"I see you've met Nick," Shirley commented as Charlie approached her towel, still dripping water.
"Unfortunately," Charlie replied, as she picked up her towel.
"Don't like him much?" Shirley asked, the look in her eyes making Charlie feel like she was talking with Beth.
"I don't know. He seems like he's nice, but whenever he talks I can't help but feel like he's up to something. I can't explain why, but it just feels like listening to him talk makes me need to take a shower," Charlie replied, wrapping her towel around her body, partly from a sudden chill she felt and partly from needing to dry off, after drying her face and removing most of the water from the rest of her, including her hair.
"Let's walk back to the dorm, okay?" Shirley offered.
Charlie smiled and fell into step next to her. "Sounds good," Charlie replied. "Might take a shower anyway."
"If you don't mind, I could join you," Shirley offered.
"Umm…" Charlie wasn't sure how to put her sudden unease.
Shirley laughed. "Relax, we have individual shower stalls. It's not going to be a locker room shower," Shirley assured Charlie.
"Okay," Charlie replied, not sure if that would make it any better. Even when she was a camper, she typically waited for everyone else to finish their showers before taking hers, unless she wore her swimsuit the entire time.
"How about this, if you still feel uncomfortable with the stalls, you can wait for me to finish before you take yours, and I'll stand guard outside the showers until you're done," Shirley offered, putting a comforting arm around Charlie's shoulders.
Charlie shrugged Shirley's arm off and agreed to the offer. Probably would be the best offer that I can get in these circumstances, Charlie told herself.
_
Charlie didn't care to keep her hair in a towel, but since she knew it wouldn't be a good idea to bring her hair dryer, she preferred having the towel over her hair than just letting it dry and possibly drip into whatever she was wearing or wherever she might rest her head against.
So, she had her hair wrapped in a towel as she left the shower stall, wearing the clothes she'd been wearing before her dip in the pool. The stalls were close enough to the kind Charlie was used to at school in the locker rooms for gym class, so she didn't mind if others were in the stall next to hers, but Charlie still was uneasy in them. For one thing, she always felt worried that someone would leave their stall without anything on or be entering one as Charlie was leaving. She couldn't explain why nudity bothered her so much, especially when Cherie didn't find it as bothersome. It was another item Charlie wished she had someone she was comfortable talking about, but aside from being a subject so embarrassing as to be mortifying, Charlie wasn't sure if the subject would make her out to be more weird than she sometimes wondered if she was.
Shirley had finished her shower before Charlie and true to her word, Charlie found her standing guard at the door to the showers.
"Thanks," Charlie said, as she left.
"No problem, short stuff," Shirley replied.
Charlie groaned inwardly. It would seem like the 'short' nicknames were likely to follow her through the camp. Or at least for the first week she was there at the very least. Of course, it also might just be Shirley that calls her that, but Charlie doubted that she'd be the only one. On the other hand, she could always get a nickname that would be much, much worse.
Then, while Charlie returned to rest on the bunk she'd chosen, Shirley put away her shower stuff and left. She was about to pull out the book that Beth had been pushing her into reading, and had finally relented when the gardening book that Charlie had thought she'd been working on and thought she'd brought had disappeared. She suspected Beth had something to do with that, but without proof, there wasn't much she could do about it and given Beth, there likely wouldn't be any that Charlie would be able to find.
She settled down and had just gotten comfortable when the girl who had chosen the bunk below her stood up and turned to her. Immediately, she knew the girl was going to bother her. She had the same look in her eyes when Beth wasn't going to let her be. The girl had red-brown hair, blue eyes, freckles that seemed to disappear depending on the angle of the light and stood around six inches higher than Charlie.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Emily," she said, not seeming to be aware of the book that Charlie had just opened in front of her.
"I'm Charlie," Charlie replied politely, hoping that Emily would let it go at that. After all, she rarely had any luck with merely ignoring others whom she wished would just leave her alone.
"How old are you? I'm fifteen. I'll be sixteen in November," Emily continued, leaning against the bunk and resting her chin on her hands.
"Fourteen," Charlie said, wanting this conversation to end, but doubting she'd be that lucky.
"How'd you get to be a junior counselor being so young?" Emily asked, her enthusiasm in the conversation letting Charlie know she wasn't likely to go anywhere on her own any time soon.
"Not sure, I was merely asked, and I have my own reasons why I accepted," Charlie replied, hoping giving a disinterested tone would dampen Emily's energy and get her to bother someone else. Anyone else.
"How do you know Heathcliff?" she asked, either immune to Charlie's lack of interest or not even noticing it. Charlie assumed that 'being asked' meant that she knew Heathcliff to this girl, and she could accept that logic, but that didn't help her enjoy the whole situation any more.
"My dad's company is bidding on a security contract with Heathcliff's," Charlie answered, accepting the girl probably wasn't going to let her be, no matter what Charlie tried. "I met Heathcliff at a business dinner."
"Oooh, you're lucky," Emily gushed. "I haven't met Heathcliff like that before."
Charlie was getting a little weirded out. It almost felt like everyone here had some sort of connection to Heathcliff, not that it was all that surprising given Heathcliff had started the camp, but it almost seemed like everyone saw him almost like one of the 'cool kids' for lack of a better term. Charlie had a feeling something else was going on here than just the camp.
"I guess," Charlie returned, hoping this might be the end.
It wasn't. "He must think highly of you to have chosen you as young as you are," Emily said.
Charlie closed the book. She certainly wasn't going to get any reading done with Emily as she was, so she might as well see if there was anything that she might learn from Emily. "I can't say," Charlie replied, sitting up on her bunk. "I only met him that one time before today."
"You have to tell me about that," Emily demanded. "You must have done something that caught his interest."
That last sentence gave Charlie pause. Was there something that she'd done that piqued Heathcliff's interest? "Can't say what," Charlie replied, shelving the thought away for later. "I had dinner, went to the restroom, and when I got back I was so worn out that I don't even remember leaving that night."
Charlie felt a small amount of satisfaction with how crestfallen Emily looked, given how much she would like Emily to leave her alone for the moment. "That's all?" Emily whined before perking up right after, much to Charlie's annoyance. "How about you tell me what you do remember? Maybe there was something else that he liked about you that you might not realize caught his interest."
I doubt it, Charlie said to herself. "I guess," Charlie said, putting the book away. Maybe she could work on reading it later.
Charlie climbed down from her bunk and as she reached the bottom, she suddenly felt weird. It was almost as if everything was muted, even though she could hear and see just fine still, more like her mind was suddenly moving slowly.
She walked with Emily and didn't notice where they were going. Charlie was vaguely aware of telling Emily what had happened on the night of the business dinner when she first met Heathcliff, but even though she felt she should tell Emily about the Heart of the Forest, she didn't have any trouble avoiding it, like she had planned on if it ever came up.
Charlie wasn't sure how long she talked with Emily, but was vaguely aware of them standing in a dry shower stall when Shirley yelled at Emily. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" she yelled, startling Charlie back into full alertness.
Emily was standing before Charlie wearing only her underwear, her hands behind her, looking like she was unfastening her bra. She merely sighed in annoyance when Shirley yelled. She put her hands on her hips as she turned to face Shirley, her bra still securely on. "What's the problem? I'm not doing anything wrong," Emily replied, her annoyance clear in her voice.
Charlie was busy taking stock of her situation, realizing she herself was in her underwear, her clothing in a pile on the floor next to her and the towel still around her hair. She couldn't figure out why she'd be in her underwear around another person, especially since it was too revealing for Charlie's tastes. However, she couldn't find the strength to move just yet. It felt like she needed to do something else first but couldn't think what it was. Almost like she was waiting for something else to happen first.
"You know what my uncle told all of us about doing what you were doing," Shirley replied, anger resounding through her voice.
"He never said not to have any fun," Emily retorted.
Shirley glared at Emily. "You know what you were doing and what I'm talking about," she stated flatly. "You know I'm going to have to report this."
"Go ahead," Emily shot back. "It's not like Charlie will be able to tell him anything, so it'll be your word against mine."
"You're really not aware of the big picture here," Shirley commented. "Besides, you should be aware of what my uncle is trying to do and what your attempt today would do to that if you slipped up in any way."
"So, if it didn't affect Charlie in a negative way, it wouldn't matter?" Emily replied, the smugness in her voice telling Charlie what she thought of the whole situation.
Shirley glanced at Charlie as she hesitated making her next statement, which made Charlie confused. Why would Shirley care what Charlie heard herself? Was there something going on that she didn't know about?
"Let's take this outside," Shirley replied. "We will need to take this talk to my uncle eventually, but until then we need to discuss a few matters that you apparently don't know yet."
"Fine," Emily said, reaching down and picking up her own clothing. "But I'm sure he'll let you know you're overreacting."
Charlie just watched them leave, still unable to move or remember what she should be doing, which she still felt she had to do before anything else and couldn't figure out what it was.
Emily left first, and Shirley turned to Charlie before leaving. "Oh, Charlie, you should get dressed. Everyone will be having dinner in about five minutes."
After a full minute after they left, Charlie felt her arms move behind her without her telling them to and her hands unhook her bra and letting it fall to the ground. As soon as she heard the fabric land on the floor, she fully became in control of herself. She quickly picked her bra up and put it back on.
Then as she started to get dressed, she couldn't help but wonder why she felt she needed to do that. Never had she done anything like that before. She was getting the feeling that she might need to use her magic to listen to the thoughts of others in order to find out what exactly was happening or she might find herself in situations like this or worse later on. That listening to the thoughts of others here should be part of her first line of self-defense. It gave her chills to consider just how dangerous this place could be.
She also had the feeling that if Shirley hadn't interrupted them, Emily might have done more than end up alone with Charlie in the showers with both of them in just their underwear. While part of Charlie told her that she should feel violated, she couldn't help but not care and as she started to leave the showers after finishing getting dressed, she also realized that she hadn't felt anything about being in her underwear in front of a girl she'd just met. The more Charlie thought about it, the more she realized this camp might be more dangerous than she originally thought. She already had thought there would be some danger, but certainly not from just anyone.
She'd need to watch her step and be more careful. While at the same time, doing what she could to learn what was going on so she could prepare herself for anything that was happening around her.
_
Charlie's eyes snapped open. She could see the early morning light starting to shine through the windows. She rarely woke up this early, even when she'd been at camp in the past. However, she knew exactly what had woken her up. It was a dream that just increased the level of weirdness in the camp for her.
The dream was that she first found herself in Nick's dream where he was dreaming of doing her, then when she woke from that, she went to a sink by the toilet stalls to look in the mirror where she encountered Shirley. They soon started making out and when Charlie realized their clothing was fading away, did she wake up. While she wouldn't mind making out with Shirley, she didn't expect Shirley to be interested in someone so much younger than her. That's also aside from Charlie not being comfortable with the idea of not having any clothing on around others. She'd endure it if she didn't have any choice in the matter, but she certainly wouldn't be happy about it.
The prior night, she tested the waters on looking into the thoughts of others, mostly Emily, Shirley, and Nick. She didn't get much from Nick, but Shirley's thoughts made it clear that she was supposed to guard her. From what, she couldn't say. Emily, however, was almost a gold mine of information. Emily's thoughts let her know that she had used magic to put a sort of enchantment on her. She also had in mind to try again but was wary of Shirley.
Charlie was aware Emily and Shirley would be talking with Heathcliff about what had happened with Emily enchanting Charlie in the showers. Charlie wasn't really sure exactly what would happen, but was aware Emily wasn't worried about what would happen. It was also clear that both Shirley and Emily were aware of something that was coming up. What that 'something' was, Charlie couldn't say but had the feeling that Charlie herself was part of it, based on the focus Shirley's and Emily's thoughts focused on Charlie when they thought about the 'something.'
Even though the crystal had advised Charlie against communicating with it while she was at camp, Charlie conversed with it about what she'd learned, as she felt she needed some advice on how to proceed with this new information. The crystal accepted the reasons Charlie had for communicating with it and told Charlie that she might have more success if she bided her time and act like she hadn't noticed anything, but at the same time, be ready to use her magic to put up a shield against anything that may occur. Plus, if she feels weird in any way, to pull on her magic and raise her defenses, just in case magic is being used on her. It wouldn't be a sure defense, but it might be all she would have.
Charlie climbed out of her bunk and started to make her way to the toilets, when she passed close to a window and heard Shirley talking to someone. Her tone made Charlie stop and listen intently.
"…try. You know what you're supposed to be doing, but from what I see, all you're doing is making her feel like you're probably trying to get in her pants than anything else. Use a lighter touch and you might make more progress," Shirley said.
Charlie hears whoever Shirley was talking to snort in laughter. "You don't know the game I'm playing," the response came and Charlie immediately recognized Nick's voice. "I'll have her eating out of the palm of my hand soon. I know girls and women. Charlie Rivers isn't any different."
Charlie felt a cold sensation crawl up her back. There was clearly something going on with her in the center of it. What it was, she couldn't say yet and even using her magic she couldn't read in their thoughts what the plot might be.
Shirley laughed. "Not all girls or women are the same. I get the feeling that Charlie is as different from me as she is from Emily."
"Emily is just a slut who will go after anyone who she thinks is vulnerable. If I wanted her, she'd be easy to get," Nick replied.
"You just tell yourself that," Shirley said. "I don't think you realize how much of a creep Charlie thinks you are, with the few encounters she's had with you."
"She doesn't think that," Nick protested. "I'm growing on her. She'll soon see what kind of guy I am. Charlie is a girl who's just like any other: insecure and open to attention from someone older who will boost their social status."
"Whatever you do, you better not do anything that ruins what you're supposed to be doing. I mean, what little she said to me about let me know she's suspicious of you. She doesn't know what you're about, but that you're up to something," Shirley returned. "You know what Heathcliff will do if you fail in this, right?"
Nick laughed. "Even if she said that, I know for a fact that she didn't mean it like that," he said.
Charlie moved on before she heard more. Partly because their voices were fading, indicating they were walking farther away and partly because she didn't want to hear more. The little she did hear made her feel like she needed to shower again as well as more than a little nauseated. However, she did at least get some useful information. Heathcliff clearly was involved in whatever Nick was up to. She just needed to figure out if she should confront him or pretend like she didn't know anything was going on. She wondered if she should confront Heathcliff directly in his office. In essence, lay all her cards on the table, or at least most of them.
She had a feeling that the reason she'd accepted to be a junior counselor at this camp was what everything here was revolving around. The Heart of the Forest.