Wonder Lost

Military Camp

Leo was wrong. The minutes seemed like hours and the hours seemed like days. She was the only female in the entire camp and Leo wasn’t even with her: he was in an entirely different building

Of course, being the only female had its perks: she had her own bedroom, small but private, and her own bathroom. But the cons overruled the pros: she was constantly being rushed, the sat alone in the corner during lunch because she didn’t have the same schedule as Leo, and some of the males were sexist, as were most in the late 1850s, and didn’t think that she could do anything, but that only made her more determined to be the best.

After the first couple of days, Isabella managed to get used to her schedule: wake up at five, get ready, eat breakfast, condition, practice archery, sword fight, eat lunch, do parkour, a mile run, a sport of her choice, eat dinner, and get ready for bed. She remembered her first day training. Isabella only got bullseyes, and was moved into the advanced class. She managed to defeat most of her opponents in sword fighting, until she versed Elijah who disarmed her after a couple moments of fighting.

When she got to parkour, however, she was eliminated in the second round, with many snickers around her. The mile run wasn’t hard, but she struggled with basketball, the sport she signed up for. She only signed up for it was because two eighteen-year-olds made a bet on which one she would choose.

“I bet she’ll pick soccer,” one said.

“I bet she’ll pick lacrosse,” the other smirked. She chose basketball because she saw that it was a very popular sport. The only struggles she had were getting the ball, but once she got it, she could throw a half court shot and make it in. Lots of the other campers cheered her on. The dinner was a regular or vegetarian hot dog and broccoli. She ate with Elijah and some of his other friends, who were surprisingly very friendly.

When Isabella got to her room, she briskly got ready for bed; sitting on the squeaky, dusty mattress and untying her sneakers. She lied down and drifted off into sleep.

“Will, no!” Isabella screeched. Her family was at the beach, and Will had picked her up with a grip like iron, carrying her to the freezing water. It was September, and winter had already taken a toll on the water. He waded into the ankle deep water and walked until the water reached his waist. He dropped her.

She woke up dripping wet and screaming. She heard laughter in front of her. Isabella looked around and saw a large group of campers at the foot of her bed, holding an empty bucket.

“What are you doing?” she demanded. She would have loved the comfort of Leo’s arms around her, like he did on the space shuttle. Thinking about it made her warm, as if she wasn’t shivering. Wait, she thought, how did I remember that? She gasped.

“Thank you!” she exclaimed, jumping out of bed. The line of boys shifted, giving her space to run to the bathroom and dry herself off quickly, putting on shoes and heading out the door. One of the boys stopped her.

“Are you serious? We just dumped water on you while you slept and you’re thanking us?” he questioned. Isabella smiled mockingly.

“Yes.” She bolted out of the door, but after she ran for a few moments, she had no idea where Leo was. Isabella went back to her room, hoping that the boys had left so she didn’t look foolish.

Luckily, they had. Isabella was alone in her bedroom, heading into the bathroom to get ready. Her clothes were soaked and her hair was dripping, despite her drying it. She changed out of her wet clothes and dried herself, doing a more efficient job than before. She put on some leggings and a t-shirt, tying her white Nike’s and putting her damp hair into a high bun.

Isabella thought about her memory from earlier, and what it had caused her to think about. She couldn’t believe that she wanted Leo’s comfort and warmth surrounding her. Just thinking about it made her eyes redden with embarrassment. Would he even want her? Had he gotten over her? Did he think that he didn’t have a chance with her?

Stop, Isabella thought. It was weird to be thinking these thoughts. She headed into the cafeteria where the boys snickered at her. She was fifteen minutes late. Most of the food was gone, but she grabbed a bagel and sat down, devouring it quickly without tasting it. She realized that she had been lost in thought and that she was the only one left in the cafeteria. She threw out her trash and started running to the archery room.

“Miss Jacobs?” a voice called. She stopped running and turned around. A large man with gray hair and wrinkles approached her.

“Yes?” she answered. He stopped walking when he was five feet from her.

“I take it you are aware that you were late to breakfast and are late to archery?” She nodded, her eyes blushing again. “We’re going to have to punish you for that.”

“Please, sir, you don’t understand!” she exclaimed. “I woke up this morning drenched in cold water because some boys poured it on me. Luckily, though, I managed to recover some faint memories of my past.”

“What do you mean, recover memories?”

“Well, I was in a coma for three months and when I woke up, I had lost all of my memory except for a couple of people.” The man nodded.

“Excuse my interruption, Miss Jacobs. You’re free to go,” he said lightheartedly. She walked back to archery, using her conversation with the man as an excuse for being late.

The next 28 days dragged on, always the same, but had gone faster than usual because Isabella made new friends and was able to exceed in all of her classes. She had worried about her relationship with Leo, or what had become of it anyway, for the first few weeks, and after August 18, they had become more painful and harder to bear. She and Elijah were apparently valedictorians and had won dessert after dinner.

On September 10, the day she was leaving camp, Isabella got a letter. She was called down from dinner, her day dragging by because she knew she would be able to see Leo sooner. She had gotten so excited when Mr. Tompston, the man who had stopped her in the hallway that day, called her down.

“You have a letter, Miss Jacobs,” he explained. Her smile wavered but she was still positive. They’re probably just late, she thought. When she got to the main office, the camp director, Mr. Kurte, gave her a letter. A memory surfaced: she remembered Leo writing on her map, his neat handwriting dotting i's and crossing t’s perfectly. His handwriting on the map matched the one on the envelope.

To: Isabella Jacobs

Open immediately

From: The Oasis

She opened the envelope and pulled out the letter, which was in Leo’s handwriting, too.

Isabella,

Gray apologizes. He said that you have to stay in the camp for another month, because we suspect that Liam is up to something. I tried to convince him otherwise, but he finally persuaded me. Please don’t try to come back, because that will only ruin our surprise. I will pick you up on October 10th right after breakfast. If anything happens before then, please call 869-455-727-8211. Gray warns you to only call in emergencies. Lov Sorry.

-Leo

Isabella couldn’t believe what she read. They weren’t picking her up? Are they expecting her to sit here and hope for the best? She couldn’t. She had to go back to the Oasis. She read the note again, her hands shaking. What surprise was he talking about? She thought hard. Oh, the fact that I’m not dead, she thought.

Isabella looked at the note a third time, noticing details. Leo’s note made her smile, a piece of him was with her. And he had almost written Love you! She assumed that he didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by writing it. But she wouldn’t be uncomfortable. In fact, she wanted to hear him say it to her. She wanted him to be right there, waiting to drive back to the Oasis to fight Liam.

“Miss Jacobs?” Mr. Tompston said. “I’ll give you a free day tomorrow and for the rest of today. You can head back to your room.”

“Thank you,” she muttered, walking but still focusing on Leo. She held the note in her hand and headed down the hallway. Suddenly, someone bumped into her.

“Sorry,” he said. The first thing she noticed was that he had soft blue eyes that looked… hindered by years of suffering. He backed away from her. “Sorry,” he said again.

“That’s okay,” she said almost immediately. “It’s my fault. I wasn’t paying attention.” He ran off, and she went into her room, where a cloud of green gas enveloped her. It smelled like grape flavored medicine and her stomach felt bad. She walked to the bed, not sure what was going on. Her hand passed over a piece of paper: another letter.

We heard that there was a person from the Oasis here. There is no antidote to this, we wanted to test it out on you. It should only hurt your stomach. Sorry not sorry! Good luck.

-Liam Aroh and Giorgio Casella

Isabella coughed, trying to get the gas out, but it was too late. She stumbled out of the room and back down the hallway.

“Mr. Tompston, can I make a phone call, please?” Isabella asked. He led her to a phone. She dialed the thirteen digits and pressed send. It rang four times until Simon answered.

“Hello?” he said.

“Simon? Can you come pick me up? I don’t think Liam is going to be attacking you guys.” Silence.

“Why?” he finally asked. “What do you know?”

“Well, one of his servants gassed my room with this kind of sickness and my stomach’s killing me. Can you just drive here and pick me up?”

“Wait, he knows you’re alive?” Simon asked anxiously.

“No, all he knows is that I’m from the Oasis. He doesn’t know who he is, from the letter.”

“Save the letter!” he warned.

“Planning on it. Now, are you coming or not?”

“Bella, if you’re lying I’m going to get in big trouble for even talking to you.”

“I’m not lying!” she exclaimed, a little too loud. Mr. Tompston looked at her but she ignored him.

“Okay, okay. I’m coming,” Simon said. She smiled. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Go pack.”

“Thank you!” Isabella said before he hung up.

“What’s going on?” Mr. Tompston asked.

“I’m getting picked up.” She slowly walked out of the room, her stomach pain getting worse. When she got to her room, she packed her backpack with all of her clothes and then clutched the walls as she walked to the exit. She sat down at one of the waiting chairs and waited for Simon. He arrived five minutes later.

“Simon!” Isabella exclaimed. They hugged and she gave him the letter as they walked to the car.

“Where’s Leo?” she asked anxiously. Simon slowed his pace and casually increased it again, his face reddening. “Simon?”

“Um…” Simon stammered.

“Simon, tell me where Leo is,” she said.

“He was… captured by Liam. We wanted to surprise him by attacking, but he was ready for it. Gray is trying to help get him back but we don’t have enough people. Tony just came back, but we aren’t sure if he’ll be strong enough to fight him.” Isabella had stopped walking. “Are you okay?”

“Why didn’t you come get me?” Isabella demanded. “I was going to this camp for a month and I missed Leo, and then I get a letter saying that I have to be here for another month because we don’t want to ruin the surprise!”

“Bella, don’t yell at me or Leo, when he comes back of course, because this was all Gray! He made us promise not to pick you up and yet I disobeyed him by coming here because of Liam’s gas. How are you, anyway?” Isabella was walking very slowly now, and was falling behind.

“Not well,” she said. “Can you slow down? I can’t walk fast.”

“Sorry,” Simon said. He offered her his arm, and she gladly took it, leaning on him for help.

“Is he okay?” she whispered.

“We don’t know. The communication device we gave to him was confiscated.” Isabella’s stomach filled with worry. They got to the car and she dropped her bag in the trunk. She sank into the passenger seat and rested her head on the closed door. Simon got inside the car, starting the engine and pulling out of his parking spot. They rode in silence for a while.

“I’m going to go away for a while,” Simon said. Isabella opened her eyes.

“Why? Where?” Isabella asked, sitting up.

“Calm down, I just want to train, too. I’m going kind of far, so that’s why I wanted to tell you. Leo and Gray agree. I’m leaving tomorrow.”

“Okay…” she said slowly. She paused. “So… what happened during the last month?”

“Not much. We just trained until Leo came back two weeks ago with news that Liam was planning on attacking one of us.” They arrived at the Oasis. She steadily got out of the car and Simon stepped into the headquarters, stopping when he got inside. She went inside to see why he stopped.

“Leo,” she breathed.