A Camping For Two

Trip 3 (Sebastian Russel)

Sebastian

After the meeting with the unknown camper girl—I called her camper girl because I hadn’t gotten the chance to ask her name—which ended in me calling my older brother to retrieve me, a month passed by.

The chilly autumn wind that seeped through my neck and sending chills down my body made me think that all that happened in the Minnewaska State Park Reserve was all an illusion of my mind. Believe me, I tried to reaffirm it, and guess what, it’s not an illusion. I’m happy that it’s real, but my two group members weren’t happy at all. They complained that I was ungentlemanly, leaving two poor girls alone having to drive all the way back from the campgrounds to New York.

WOW!

I’m astounded by how much slanders these girls threw on me. Although from the outside, my close buddies—which consists of five guys having the same interest of photography like me—believed what Helen and Mary told them, in reality they really didn’t. Mary and Helen, as well as the other two members of the annoying so called ‘mean girls’ group is known for their impulsive slanders that they threw onto people, like an immature child not wanting to admit their fault. The five of us knew them pretty well, and was mindful of them. I remember Hans—one of my group members—comforting me because I got to be in a group with those two mean girls.

“Be tough.” Adrian, also one of my group members, said and patted me with his unnaturally big hands. Since the beginning of my college days, I couldn’t help thinking of him like some kind of forest guardian, or maybe a reincarnation of a Viking (look at me, my wild imagination has started). He stood with a height of 6’7 but trust me, he’s not a basketball player or not even a quarterback of the college’s football team. He’s just some kindred spirit who likes taking photos, and I can tell you animals favour him anywhere he goes.

Oh no, he might REALLY be a forest guardian.

Back to the present time, I was spending the last few days of the assignment with my group in a reserved woods located at the college’s backyard. My group members even kindly lending me their cameras for me to finish my devilish lecturer’s assignment. Luckily, the marks for this assignment are counted separately between each member, I would have hated it if I passed those bastards.

I started the first few shots of some random trees with awkward snaps. I just couldn’t help it. Most of my members used the same model as I do, D3500 because of its versatility, yet I swear each one of them functions different from one another. It’s like you’re lending your Pokémon—which you’ve been together with them for a long time—to other Pokémon trainers.

“…You’re thinking about something strange again, aren’t you?”

I pursed my lips when the forest giant- I mean, Adrian exposed my thoughts. I tell you; he CAN read minds.

“…I have an inkling that you just labelled me with something rude.” He narrowed his hawk shaped eyes while shooting me a scrutinizing look. That expression doesn’t suit his kindred spirit image at all. “Like what, a kindred spirit?” Oops, did I say that out loud?

“I told you I’m not a kindred spirit!” He suddenly roared angrily, which as a response, I cackled to his retorts.

We’re about to start a game of tag when Oliver—also my group member, and the calmest and collected among us all, as if he’s the father of the group—told us off.

“Focus, you two. You guys are the only ones stuck with your assignment. Don’t come crying to me if you fail Sir Parel’s assignment.” Sir Parel, the devilish lecturer I talked about.

The two of us immediately scrambled from each other in opposite direction and returned our focus in taking photos.

The nightfall came, along with the cold temperature. Though tonight felt more chilly than usual, it didn’t stop me from resuming my nightly routine at home—which is stargazing. I did tell you that I’m not that attracted to outdoor activities, but I guess activities related to outdoors ran continuously in my family’s blood; ending into me and Robert, my big brother who’s three years older than me. Our age distance is quite big, so as our personality. He is a cold, expressionless humanoid yet camping and hiking is his favourite, while I’m cheerful and expressive, but I like outdoor activities only as much as backyard BBQ and stargazing from inside my room through the huge window—which was installed to the roof of my bedroom. More than that is going overboard.

I made myself comfortable on the bed just beneath the 4x4 square window—on my right side is a round wooden tray of assortment of grilled nuts, smoked meat, cheese and some homemade wine that my cooking-lover mom prepared for me.

The first few seconds, I tried to ascertain any stars I could find appearing in the grim city sky. Because of how polluted the city sky is, a clear night sky is like looking out for four leaves clover amongst the three leaves ones. Simply put, it is extremely rare. But then, why am I still gazing at the night sky even though I know about the sky condition? That’s because the neighbourhood I lived in is located in the suburban area where I can see clear night sky like how I encounter rain in summer—it’s quite easy but it’s still rare.

My focus wavered when I saw a faint sparkle of a single star in the sky. I gasped in awe of that little sparkle, staring at the sky again to record that sparkling, which I deemed as a great phenomenon that boost my mood. I suddenly recalled the time I spent with the camper girl in Minnewaska. The ungodly amount of stars sparkling there overwhelmed me, that I spent most of the time tilting my head up, the camper girl literally had to set up a mat for me to lay down and gaze the sky all I want. That’s also the reason… Why I failed in asking her name.

I scrunched my lips and rolled to my left side, while occasionally peeked my head to the other side to make sure the wooden tray didn’t flip. Then I curled in embarrassment.

My wailing didn’t last long when my phone bleeped. I sat up and darted my eyes to every corner of my room, because I’m not sure where I put my phone in my dark, picture infested room. After scanning the room for several seconds, my eyes caught a green bleeping light from none other than my smartphone—which I put on the study table. I slowly crawled away from the bed and went to the study table to pick the phone.

My brows creased when I saw an unknown ID texting me. Shortly after that, I started chortling.

“Is this another scam?” I remarked, remembering all those moments where some random unknown people texted and called me just to say something nonsense. For instance, how can I have government loan when I’m still a student? It did come to me that maybe they got mistaken about my student loan but unfortunately, they don’t. I hung up the call the moment they asked for my private data.

Thinking back about those thoughts got me wary of this incoming text messages. Even so, I still unlocked my phone to at least read the text message albeit reluctant of its contents.

My eyes immediately widened when I read those texts.

GREETINGS.

It’s me, the girl you met back in Minnewaska. Although I’m a bit late in introducing myself, my name is Maya Akatsuki, a high school student from Q high school. I want to discuss with you about the work we’ve talked about before. Please reply if you agree. And please save this number.

I sucked a gasp of shock. Instead of panicking—because she literally just contacted me when I didn’t even give her my contact number, plus the fact that I just spend a night alone with a high school kid—I was more interested in her background, that could make her able to do things like this (Tracking people’s number down).

I started with a short laugh before I tap the message bubble to save her number. It might be a random scammer; it might be not. But if I’s not, and it’s really is the camper girl called Akatsuki Maya, then believe me I’m getting even more intrigued to know her.