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A blessing came in the form of a stomach virus later that morning. Of course, a stomach virus is hardly the blessing you'd hope for, but it wasn't me who got sick. It was Mrs. Brady, who then canceled piano for the next three days, because she needed time to recover. So, even though unfortunate, the sickness did end up being a blessing that I was in desperate need of.

After Carter and I talked by the lake for hours, we split up again so I could head back to my cabin and shower to rid myself of dirt I had acquired in my hair from sleeping outside. When I was finished, I had gone to the auditorium to get the blessed news about my lack of practice, and went on a mission to hunt down Poppy.

I caught a glimpse of wild brown curls in the window of the Recreation Center, and pushed through the front doors to see my best friend sitting at a table. Her feet were up on the table, her chair leaned back, and a smirk on her lips as she effortlessly annoyed the living daylights out of Martino, our least favorite counselor.

"Tell me, Tino, how to do you keep your hair so greasy?" Poppy asks in mock interest.

Martino is just about fuming at this point, sitting down at his desk glaring at her fiercely. The camp counselors weren't supposed to indulge in the campers when they acted like this- Marcus' orders- but Poppy had a knack for testing their limits. I stifle my laughter as I approach the scene, giving Poppy a silent nod when I slide in the seat beside her. Clearly, she was in the middle of something, so I let her continue.

"How many times a week do you shower? I can smell the B.O. from over here," Poppy wrinkles her nose. "Seriously, how do you expect to find a girlfriend if you don't wash yourself?"

Finally, Martino snaps, his fists coming down on the table. "Listen here, you little-"

He stops speaking when he tries to stand up, but can't. His legs extend and he stands, but the seat is still firmly pressed against his butt. I watch his face turn from red to redder, and can no longer hold back my laughter when I realize Poppy had pranked him.

In the middle of my laughter, I turn to her and ask, "Superglue?"

She smirks. "All over the chair."

"I'm going to tell Marcus about this, you brat," Martino spat, fuming at the both of us.

Poppy rolls her eyes. "You're going to tell a grown man that you, another grown man, let some teenage 'brat' glue your butt to a chair?" She raises her eyebrows at him. "I'm shaking."

Martino bares his teeth at her in an unattractive snarl, and I can't help myself from laughing at his desperate attempt to intimidate Poppy. She apparently feels the same, because she chuckles and stands up, then turns to me as if there wasn't an angry camp counselor glued to his chair a few feet away.

"Want to go to the lake?" She asks casually.

I nod happily. "Sure."

We leave Martino behind, ignoring his shouts of protests from the Recreation Center as we let the door slam behind us. As we walk back to our cabin, there are a lot of campers walking around, in a flurry of excitement, and I understood why. Today was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and a slight breeze to make up for the seventy five degree heat.

I changed into my favorite peach bikini and tied my hair into a ponytail, securing my distressed blue hat on my head before tugging on an oversized band tee. When I was done, I turned to find Poppy struggling to tie the black bikini behind her back, and she looked at me desperately, pouting her lips and giving me puppy dog eyes.

I laughed as I tied it, saying, "All you had to do was ask."

"Or I could give you my best puppy dog face and hope you'll do it for me," Poppy says in a sing song voice, and I shook my head.

Once I was done tying her bathing suit, we left the cabin to venture toward the lake. As she relayed the act of oozing globs of glue onto the chair moments before Martino sat down, I laughed wildly, the greatness of the prank softening the blow that I wasn't there to help.

I was so wrapped up in her magnificent story telling, I hardly noticed that she had sobered up as we approached the lake. When I looked up, I noticed Teddy standing by the shoreline, a football that was meant for Zach in his hands, but his eyes were focused on me.

Just as quickly as Poppy, I sobered up, but sent him a small smile. One corner of his mouth turned up in a smile, even smaller than mine, before he averted his attention back to Zach and threw him the ball. I sighed and turned to Poppy, already aware she was watching the interaction.

"I talked to Teddy last night," I tell her quietly, meeting her surprised gaze. "We talked about everything."

Her eyebrows shoot up as she lowers her voice, "What did you say?"

I glance around to be sure nobody is listening, and divulge, "That I only like him as a friend, and I didn't want anything more."

"Wow," She breathes. "How did he take it?"

I shrug, casting a glance at Teddy, watching him as he catches the football. "He was upset, but I think he's going to be okay." I look back at Poppy and offer her a small smile. "I mean, I am just a girl. He'll get over me."

Poppy returns the smile, and then her eyes scan the water before mischief lights up in her green orbs, and she nudges my shoulder. "Speaking of getting over people..."

I glance at the direction she had just been looking and see Carter standing in the water with the twins, his eyes locked on me. When he sees me look at him, a small smirk tugs on his lips, and he tosses me a wink. I can't help the smile that grows on my lips before I look away, back at Poppy, who was grinning at me widely.

"I also talked to Carter last night," More like this morning at an ungodly hour. "We're good again."

"I knew you wouldn't last long without him," Poppy gloats, a smug smile on her lips. "You guys are too good together. You make each other happy, I can just tell."

I look at her in mock hurt. "I am perfectly capable of being alone, you know."

She rolls her eyes. "You know that's not what I meant. Besides, why would you want to be alone when you can have that hot piece of-"

"Hey ladies," Carter's voice suddenly cuts in.

My head whips up as I look at him with wide eyes, and my cheeks blaze in embarrassment when I see his smug grin. His eyes are alight in boyish amusement, per usual, confirming that he had heard the last bit of our conversation. I give Poppy a sideways glare, hoping that she felt half as embarrassed as I, but this was Poppy we were talking about; she doesn't get embarrassed.

"Good afternoon, Carter," Poppy greets smoothly. "How are you?"

"I'm doing great, and you?" The bastard looked too happy with himself.

"Likewise," Poppy glances at me and sees my flush before smirking a little, then reverting her gaze back to Carter. "If you two will excuse me, I have to tell the twins about my prank earlier."

And just like that, Poppy breezed past us and into the water, leaving me alone with Carter. I glanced at him to see him still grinning widely at me, clearly enjoying my embarrassment, as I tried to push the blush off my cheeks. In an attempt to regain some type of composure, I smiled and tried to make conversation.

"Hey," I greet. "Does your back hurt, because mine feels like I slept on bricks last night."

But this is Carter, and he ignores my lame attempt at a normal conversation and smirks widely at me. "So, do you want to finish what Poppy was saying? I believe her last words were, a hot piece of..."

My friendly smile drops and I narrow my eyes at him. "Shut up, Carter. You don't need your ego inflated any more than it already is."

He chuckles, reaching out for my hand to pull me into him, but I pull away, my eyes still set in a glare at him. Carter switches his amused demeanor to a pout as he tugs on my hand. "Come on, princess, I want to take you somewhere."

Despite my previous annoyance, I couldn't stay mad at him for long, and quickly stopped struggling and let him pull me toward the shoreline. Carter grinned widely at me, his eyes sparkling in the sunshine, and his fingers tangled in mine as we walked. I could feel the stares from just about everyone burning a hole through our conjoined hands and smiling faces, but chose to ignore them.

I could tell that people were surprised. I mean, Carter Miller was the talk of the camp since the second he step foot on camp grounds. And, even though I'm not quite known as the good girl here, people were still surprised to see that I was the one to tame him, so to speak. I mean, when I was at camp, I was never one for summer flings and hookups. I was either in a relationship at home or alone, and it was fine that way.

But something about Carter made my insides all tingly and made me smile more than I've ever smiled before. He may have appeared arrogant and dangerous to everyone else, but he was so much different to me. Around me, Carter was sweet, said just about anything to make me laugh, and made sure I was happy; which wasn't hard, considering being around him, for the most part, just made me happy.

"You can kayak, right?" Carter asks, stopping in his tracks when we reached a double person kayak.

I look at him and roll my eyes. "I grew up on the river in Maine. Yes, I know how to kayak."

He chuckles, dropping my hand so he can pull the kayak in the water. Carter pushes the kayak into the lake until the water is up to his calf, and then he glances back at me with the same boyish grin he's been wearing all afternoon.

"Hop in," Carter instructs.

I oblige, grabbing both oars from the ground by the shoreline before I climb into the kayak, careful not to tip it over. Once I'm in, Carter walks it out a few more feet before hauling himself into the boat expertly, taking one of the oars from my hand. My back is toward him as I begin paddling, looking at the beautiful water, shimmering against the sunlight.

We paddle out into the water effortlessly, talking about small things, like the first time we went swimming and how we loved being in the water. Talking about meaningless things like that made me realize Carter and I have a lot more in common than I thought. Eventually, we get tired of paddling and stop, and I turn around in the kayak so I'm facing him.

"So," I look around at the open lake surrounding us and then back at Carter with a grin. "This is where you wanted to take me?"

He grins, too. "So we can talk without being interrupted."

"Or so you can kill me and dump my body," I counter in a teasing tone, a light smile on my lips.

"That too," Carter gives me a wry smile.

"I always knew you were the murdering type," I say casually, my voice light. "Ever since I saw your blue hair, I knew you were a wild card."

At the mention of his blue hair, Carter's smile drops and he scowls at me instead. "Don't bring that up ever again."

Of course, I decided not to listen to him.

"Why? Are you still embarrassed that you managed to prank yourself?" I mock him with a sickly sweet smile on my face. "It's okay to be embarrassed, Carter. It was a rookie mistake."

Carter's eyes narrowed into slits as I spoke. "It was an accident."

"Don't make excuses," I continue. "Just admit it, Miller. I am the superior pranker, and your poor execution skills-"

My merciless criticism of Carter's inferior pranking ability came to an abrupt halt when said inferior pranker violently thrashed his body to the side and made the kayak tip over. In the middle of my teasing, my eyes widened and the last thing I saw was Carter's stupid smirk before being engulfed by the lake water.

The water was surprisingly chilly on such a nice day, but my body adjusted somewhat quickly to the temperature change. I kicked underwater until I surfaced, glaring in Carter's direction, but he was still somewhere underwater. I look around feverishly, beginning to feel worry creep into me.

He was going to try to sneak up on me and scare me, I just knew it. But after a few moments passed and he didn't come up, my paranoia promptly switched to panicking as I swam in circles calling his name. Why wasn't he coming up yet? Did he know how to swim? Was he drowning?

I suddenly feel hands on my ankles and let out a scream, surprised by the sensation. Seconds later, Carter's head bobbed up over the water, his eyes gleaming as he laughed heartily.

"I could hear that from under water," Carter managed in between his laughter, then smirks cockily at me. "How's that for poor execution skills?"

I, however, was glaring at him, trying to hold back the bits of a smile that wanted to come out. "You're such a prick, Carter."

He sobered up but kept the boyish smile on his lips as he looked at me, swimming closer to me. I realized I still had the band tee stuck on my body thanks to my unplanned swim, and the kayak was bobbing in the water a few feet away. I narrowed my eyes as I watched Carter near me, standing in the shallow water mere inches away.

"But you like me anyway," Carter says matter-of-factly, his tone as smug as his smile.

Well, he had me there and, unfortunately, he knew it. When I didn't spout my usual remark without hesitation, Carter's lips twitched up even further, and I felt his hands slide onto my waist underneath the water. My lips parted in shock when I felt his touch, his hands warmer than the cool water surrounding us.

His body drifted closer to mine, his usually light eyes darkened, his amused expression fading into lust. My eyes darted around his face, from his dark wet hair sticking in multiple directions to full lips. When my gaze drifted back to Carter's eyes, I saw them glued to my lips, clearly thinking the same as I was.

And I was thinking about how much I wanted to kiss every inch of his sexy body.

So, because dirty thoughts were clouding my mind by the second, I closed the distance and smashed my lips against his. My hands wrapped around his neck and I pulled him closer to me, my fingers tangling the ends of his hair, my entire body pressing against his, below and above the water.

Carter's lips move with mine feverishly, one of his hands moving slowly up the side of my body until it wraps around the back of my neck. His lips disconnect mine and start trailing hot kisses down my neck, leaving my stomach doing backflips as I bit my lip hard, trying to suppress a moan.

Despite this attempt to suppress a moan, there was no stopping my breathy voice when he ground his hips against mine. "Carter..."

The sound of my voice brought Carter's lips back to mine as he kissed me hard on the lips, knocking the breath out of me even further. My heart was pounding violently against my chest and my mind was mush. Unable to control myself, my legs wrap around Carter's waist underwater, and he effortlessly holds me up with his hands under my butt.

"Fuck, Mina," Carter moans against my lips, his breathing just as heavy as mine.

I can't help but grin against his lips, happy that I made him feel as good as he made me feel. I pull back a little, eager to catch my breath so we could continue. My eyes fluttered open and out of my peripheral vision, I saw the kayak drifting fifteen yards in the distance.

My eyes widened and I leaned back further to get out of Carter's grasp, but his grip on my behind tightened as he drew me closer. I glance back at him and see his eyes are narrowed at me for trying to escape, still darkened with lust.

"Where do you think you're going?" Carter asked me, his voice husky and sexy.

My body screamed at me to ignore the kayak, which was our only mode of transportation that would eventually drift into the middle of the lake, and continue kissing him senseless. However, my mind was more rationally telling me to go swim out and retrieve our kayak before we got stuck a mile away from camp.

"The kayak," I breathe, and then try to regain my composure as I say more confidently, "We have to make sure it doesn't float away."

Carter looks confused for a moment before his eyes finally leave my face to glance around. I could see he was regaining his surroundings after we got a little... distracted. Finally, realization dawned on him when his eyes zero in on the kayak floating away.

"The kayak," Carter mutters. "Right."

My cheeks begin to burn when he shifts me a little in the water, reminding me that: one, my legs were wrapped around his waist and two, because of that fact, I could also feel him hard against me.

"Carter," I say calmly, in an effort to act nonchalant, but I felt the exact opposite when his gaze focused on me. "You can let go of me."

Unsurprisingly, a boyish smirk appears on his lips. "I think I quite like this position, thank you."

To make his point, his hands squeezed my bottom, making me jump up in his arms a little. Carter laughs heartily as I battle the blush on my lips, trying to keep a steady glare aimed at his stupidly good looking face.

"Put me down, Miller," I manage to command.

My legs unwrap from his waist and his hands rest on my waist as he sets me down for good measure. I can feel the fire in the pit of my stomach just from his nearness, and his touch on my bare skin underwater was enough to send me aflame.

"There you go, princess," Carter says cheekily. "Is that all? Maybe I can help with something else."

"The kayak," I remind, but I'm not sure if it was a reminder for him or me.

He smirks, taking a step back in the water before he winks at me. "I'll go take care of that."

The second he swims away, I can finally feel relieved. I let out a breath and comb a hand through my damp hair as I will my racing heart to return to a normal speed. It was concerning that his presence effected me that much, considering I never this way before, not even about Jake.

And, as I watch as Carter's tanned figure effortlessly swims to retrieve the kayak, I think, I'm in too deep with this boy.