《Camp Wisahickon》Chapter Forty

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Okay guys, this is it! Sorry for the wait, but I hope you enjoyed :)

*****

"Hey!" I shout at Hyde, a younger camper. Although he was only eight, he had just as much mischief in his bones as me, Poppy and Carter combined. "Put down the can of paint."

Hyde turns around innocently with a paintbrush drenched in blue paint in his left hand and the can in his right. "Why?" He pouts. "I'm not done my masterpiece."

I eye his 'masterpiece' on the side of the dining hall and hold back a smirk. "That's the point," I tell him as I approach. "If you're going to pull a prank, you have to be a little more creative. Painting your name on the side of the building makes it a little obvious whose fault it is."

Hyde looks between me and his name, a huge painted "H-Y-D-E R-O-C-K" on the side of the building. He was halfway through the 'S' when I had ordered him to stop. The kid looks back at me and shrugs.

"I don't see the problem," He says.

I take a deep breath and try again. "To keep yourself from getting caught, maybe don't sign your name," I explain. "Instead, write something funny or draw a funny picture."

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Marcus, the camp director, walk over to us with a perplexed expression. As Hyde opens his mouth to keep brainstorming new ideas with me, I put my hands on my hips and pretend I'm furious.

"You can't deface camp property, Hyde!" I scold extra-loudly, to make sure Marcus hears me. "This isn't funny. You're going to have to stay to wash this off."

"Is everything okay over here?" Marcus asks as he eyes Hyde's masterpiece. "What's going on?"

I turn to Marcus and feign disappointment. "Hyde thought it would be funny to paint on the building. But don't worry Marcus, I'm handling it."

Marcus regards me, mildly impressed, and nods once. "Thanks, Amelia."

"Of course," I tell him with a responsible smile, and when he walks away, I look at Hyde to see him giving me a look. I just shrug. "Sorry, man. Can't let the boss know I'm trying to help the quality of your prank."

"Thanks a lot," Hyde mutters.

I grin at him. "No problem. Now go inside and grab a bucket with soapy water and a sponge. See if the paint is wet enough to wash off."

Hyde mutters something under his breath as he trails inside, and I hear a disappointed sigh from behind me. I spin around, an apology on the tip of my tongue for Marcus, but instead I see Poppy standing there shaking her head.

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"We really were the last good generation of prankers," She sighs. "This stuff is child's play."

I nod in agreement. "Give him a few years. Maybe his technique will improve by the time he's a teenager."

"Don't be so hard on him," A new voice adds, and I glance behind Poppy to see Joey approach. He slings an arm around Poppy's shoulder and grins at us. "He's still learning."

A beam of light slices through my gaze, and I look behind Joey, off in the distance, to see Carter by the trees, bouncing the sunlight off his phone to get my attention. When he realizes he's got it, he waves me over to the tree line.

"Joey, I'm glad you're here," I say, barely paying attention to him. "Make sure Hyde cleans up his bad prank."

I start walking away before I finish talking, but I can still hear Joey cry, "Why do I have to do it?"

And Poppy coos, "Because you're the newbie here, babe. Just accept it."

I glance back in time to see her give him a supportive kiss, and I smile to myself. Carter's plan to get them together worked like a charm and, honestly, I've never seen Poppy so committed to one boy before.

I keep heading in Carter's direction to see him leaning against a tree, watching me approach him. A tiny smile pulls at his lips and I can't help but mirror it. It doesn't matter if he hasn't said anything yet— seeing him smile instantly makes me smile.

"Remember this tree?" He asks with a fond smile but mischievous glint in his eye.

I furrow my brow in confusion and say, "No..." slowly, because his smirk just grows, and suddenly I remember. "It was this tree?"

When he senses my recognition, he smirks wider. "This very one."

The tree I pretended to fall out of but then really did fall out of, and Carter caught me. I can't help but giggle a little to myself— something I never do— and Carter's smirk morphs into a fond smile.

"Come on," He says as he pushes off the tree and holds his hand out to me. "I want to show you something."

I have a feeling that I know where he's bringing me when we start walking, but I'm not sure why he's bringing me to the Water Hole. I'd been there hundreds of times over the years. I figured he had to have been taking me somewhere else, somewhere farther off than that, but we got right on the regular trail and headed that way.

We didn't say much on the walk, but there wasn't much to say. It was like there was an aura around us, something only we could feel. That comfort of words not needing to be said. Comfort in just looking back at me every now again and giving me a smile. It was like, as it had been with Carter for the past few months, like I was floating on air.

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It wasn't until we actually saw the Water Hole that I realized what he wanted to show me. It was the same old waterfall, except the area around it had changed. There were golden ribbons and bulb lights strung through the canopy of the trees, which seemed to get brighter as the sun continued to set.

Blankets lay on the ground, some tattered and worn and some new and stiff, beckoning us to join them. A wooden box sat in the middle of the blankets, and a familiar guitar case was propped up against a rock a few feet away from the box. I hadn't realized it, but at some point in between looking around in wonder, my jaw had dropped in amazement.

My gaze shifts to Carter, who stands there with a big smile and eyes wandering all over my face to take in my reaction. Wordlessly, he grabs my hand and puts his lips to my ear. "You're going to catch a lot of flies if you keep your mouth open like that."

He pulls back with a self satisfied smirk when he watches me promptly clamp my mouth shut and give him a dry look. Then, he slips his hand into mine and tugs me to the blanket.

"Come on," He says excitedly. "You haven't even seen the best part."

As I let him drag me, I ask in awe, "What can be better than this?"

He walks us to the blanket and gestures for me to sit, and when I do, I'm pleased to notice that the hard ground didn't feel that hard at all. In fact, he must've layered blankets on top of blankets to make sure we were comfortable. I look over at him to make sure he's actually real, and I catch him opening the top of the wooden basket.

"Pizza!" I cry before he can, and my heart skips a beat. "You're right, that was definitely the best part."

He shoots me a sideways grin and continues pulling a bottle of wine out of the box, and two plastic cups.

"Got anything else in there, Mary Poppins?" I ask excitedly.

And, to my surprise, he pulls out two paper plates and a stack of napkins I'm surprised even fit in there. Carter grins brighter. "Now I'm all out of tricks."

As I sit there beneath the string lights and beautifully decorated trees, with the whir of a waterfall cascading behind me, beside the one boy who managed to turn my life completely upside down within a year, I feel an overwhelming surge of love.

Carter takes matters into his own hands and continues to move the pizza onto two plates and pour us tall cups of wine in our Dixie cups. And then he holds a cup out for me with glittering eyes and a smile so big I was immediately sad when he straightened his expression.

"For you," He draws slowly, and I take the cup without breaking eye contact. And then he raises his cup a little and says, "A year from now, I would've laughed if you told me that I'd be here, spending three hours setting lights up in trees and planning a picnic just because of a girl. I'd probably punch you in the face for even thinking I could be that soft." I snorted at this, and he cracked a bit of the smile that I was sad to see leave before. "But then I met you," His voice softens, as do his eyes, as they scan my inevitable smile. "And things changed."

My heart skips a beat. And then another.

"I had no idea how much could change in just a few months, and I never thought it would be a girl who was able to get me to do all the changing without even asking. I changed myself because I wanted to be better for you, Amelia. I wanted you to be proud of me," I see the vulnerability swimming in his eyes as he looks at me seriously. "I wanted to feel like I deserve you."

Carter gulps, like he was swallowing a big pill, and I sit absolutely still in amazement, worried that if I breathed too hard or moved too quickly, this entire moment would disappear.

"I can honestly say that I've never been this fucking happy before," He continues again after a short pause. "And I know my dad, wherever he is, is happy too." At this, I use my free hand to find his, and he squeezes it with a small smile. "So I propose a toast. We have a crazy adventure waiting for us in New York after the summer ends, Mina, and hopefully an even crazier life together long after that." My grin breaks out and his follows suit as he lifts his cup a little. "To us."

I lift my cup a bit higher too, feeling the warmth of sunshine and his loving gaze on my skin. And, with a full heart, I repeat, "To us."

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