Armed with wings - WIP

What is hiding in the woods? And how has it kept itself hidden for so long?

Paige Barton got a briliant summerjob at Camp Southwoods in the state of New York. She though she was just going to play with the children that summer but soon she will meet a special little boy and his mysterious best friend. 

Chapter 1

I was really glad I got the job at the summer camp. Not that is was a dreamjob, but I really needed the money. It’s really boring to be a young adult with no money and still going to college. Maybe after this summer I can buy myself a car. It could be totally rad to drive into campus instead of taking the 15 minutes fight with the lock on my bicycle every morning.
My dad was so nice to drive me all the way from our little house in Cortland to the other end of the state New York, so I could save some of the money I didn’t have on a long busdrive. It was a tree and a half hour long drive with shitty country music and my dad singing along. And my dad was not a country singer. He was a plumber. A soon to be fifty guy who though he was a cool dad. He told the lames jokes ever and was not shy to take a drink with me and my old friends at home without being invited. My mom was calmer and gave me my space when I was home. She knew I wanted to see my old friends without being interrupted by a bad dad-joke or something worse. She was a nurse at the local school. She was a loving and warm lady. I was lucky I got her dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. We looked a lot alike actually. She always understood me and I could tell her everything. No pun intended, I still loved my dad, but he was beyond embarrassing. He was so different to my mom. Light grey hair, a rough moustache and deep blue eyes. I wonder how they found each other.

As we drove though the spruce forest I knew we were nearing us the camp. I turned off the radio before we turned down the narrow gravel road. I didn’t want to be the girl who blasted out She thinks my tractor’s sexy when she arrived.
“Are you exited?” My dad asked me.
“I guess. I have never been to a summer camp before, so I only have the bad teen movies to refer to.” I sighed. I looked out of the window on the trees going by. It was really out In the middle of nowhere. Only trees and bushes with poison barriers I was sure I had to tell some kid not to eat during the next two months.
“I’m sorry.” My dad said. I looked at him surprised. His grey eyes looked sadly at the road.
“I didn’t mean it like that dad. I never wanted to go to a summer camp when I was younger. Now I can go, and be paid for it.” I tried to save my last bad comment. I knew my mom and dad never could afford to send me on a summer camp like this. I have known that since I was very little and therefor I never asked for it. I could not ask them to be indebted for my sake.  My dad tried to smile but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Now you can bully the other kids and they can’t do anything about it, because you are the authority.” My dad joked.
“Dad!” I sighed again but smiled out of the window. A beautiful blue lake was in sighted now. There wasn’t much wind, so the spruce trees were reflected in the surface. Once in a while a little fish would splash in the surface making small ripples which soon became bigger and bigger. It was truly a lovely place.

We parked outside the main building and an elder man came out to greet us. He was dressed like what I assumed the scouts were dressed back in the old days. Light brown shorts and matching button-up with short sleeves. His hair was short and he had big wrinkles under the brown eyes. He looked like one who was hundred percent done with kids.
“Welcome to the camp. You must be Paige Barton, ey?” The dude spoke with at southern accent.
“Yeah. I’m ready to start immediately.” I said and shook his hand.
“That’s my girl!” My dad said loudly from the trunk, taking care of my luggage. The man sent my dad a blank look.
“well, my name is Jacob and I’m the owner of this place. If you and your – I assume he is your dad – takes your belongings with you I will show you the way to your cabin.” My dad took the biggest of my bags and I took the smaller one and we headed after Jacob around the main building. Behind the building was the rest of the camp. It was bigger than I imagined. The main building and the forest was hiding away a paradise for children. Along the beautiful lake were small cabins in a long row. Bigger Cabins was placed a bit further away and a lot of wooden signs told me what way to go if I wanted to sing, dance, paint or even try the canoes.

“It’s over here.” Jacob led us to one of the first cabins. Number three to be exact. It was a small wooden cabin with a big blue number under the roof that said tree. He opened the door without a key and we all walked in. An Asian girl with long black hair was already in there. She was unpacking her bags into a closet made out of the same wood as the cabin.
“We are here. Paige, this is your co-worker Victoria. I hope you will get along because every cabin is reserved this year, so you can’t move to another.” He said coldly. The Victoria girl smiled at me, said hi and continued to fold her clothes.
“I don’t think there will be any problems sir.” I said as calm as possible but his glare made me nervous.
“There is always a problem in one of the cabin. Every year. Oh well, here is your key for the cabin. The toilet building is down the path to the left. We will have a meeting in the dining building you can see on your right when you walk outside. Seven o’clock. Don’t be late. Your uniforms are on the bed.” And with that information Jacob leaves the cabin.
“What a nice guy.” My dad said with sarcasm in his voice. Victoria laughed a little but didn’t say anything.
“I guess I will start unpacking as well dad.” He sat my bag near the bed to the left and looked around.
“Well I guess I have to go so you can get some friends without your embarrassing dad hanging around.” He spread out his arms for a hug.
“Please.” I teased him but gave him a hug anyway.
“It’s here you say no dad you are not embarrassing.”
“Growing up you told me not to lie.”
“Ouch. Well. Have fun kid!” He nuzzled my hair with his big hand before leaving the cabin. I turned around to see Victoria trying to keep a laugh in.
“Well that was my dad.” I said and laughed myself.
“You two are close?” She came over and shook my hand.
“Well yeah. I’m not home that often because of college but I guess we are pretty close.”
“I wish my dad was like that.” She said and helped me to lift my bag onto my bed, so I could unpack too.
“You wish your dad was embarrassing you?”
“I’m on tis camp to get away from my parents. They are very snobbish and never hear of the invention of the hug.”
“I’m sorry.” I said. It must be hard not being somehow close to your own parents. But she just smiled. I unpacked my clothes and found my smaller bag, where I kept all my not so necessary stuff. I found some folded poster I had with me from home. The few I did have space for in my campus room. I started to hang them up above my bed and put my computer in the charger. Now I’m home!

Victoria and I walked around the campsite to get an idea on where we were going to work. Victoria was still in college as wall studying drama, so she was going to be teaching the children some singing and acting. I was an art student so I had the painting duty. All the cabins looked amazing. They were all made out of rough wood and they all had large windows so the cabins were lighted up by the sun. The creative cabin house was filled with colours on the walls and artwork of paper mache made by the children from year of summer camps stood around on tables and floor. Shelf after shelf was filled with crafting items and pencils. It was paradise for an art student.

At 6pm we went to the dining building to get something to eat before the meeting. Other co-workers were already there and were sitting at the staff table. The canteen workers didn’t have much to do now that we were the only one here, so they we sat at another table and ate themselves. We went up to the small buffet they made for us, but the size of the buffet tables told me that tomorrow there would be a lot more. Not that there wasn’t a lot to choose from. It was much better than the canteen on campus and it looked much fresher. I guess all the children here had some very rich parents since they could afford a dinner like this every day all summer. I got some chicken with pasta and sat down next to a blond haired dude with Victoria on my other side. He looked up from his soon to be empty plate and smiled.
“Hey there. Welcome on board. The name is Andrew.” On the way he sat bending over his plate I could tell he was really tall and very skinny. He already had the camp shirt on that said staff.
“My name is Paige and this is my roommate Victoria.” I pointed at Victoria and she simply waved because she had her mouth full.
“This is the third year I’m a part of the staff so if you get into trouble then just come to me.” He said proudly.
“I will have that in mind.”
“What kind of trouble can you get at a summer camp?” Victoria asked surprised. Andrew shrugged.
“The kinds here are often spoiled now that they all come from somehow rich families. If you challenge some of them too much they will tell the boss. Most of them are sweet of course but there are always some rotten eggs.” He seemed calm about it so I didn’t think it would be that big of a problem.

At seven sharp the boss Jacob came through the doors. He clearly didn’t eat with his employees. He stood at the end of the table and we all went quiet.
“Now that we all are here I want to say welcome. Some of you are new here and some of you have been here before. I suggest that the newcomers talk with the once who have been here before, so I don’t have to keep an eye on you all the time and I can get my own work done. I will gladly answer your questions if the former employees can’t answer you. You all got an e-mail with your duties here and the program for the summer. You have to stick to these programs now that the children got the same mailed to them. I need a few the former employees to greet the children tomorrow while the newest members of our staff will get the keys to your new working places and get to know the place. Learn to know each other tonight and work with a smile tomorrow. That’s all I have.” He stood and looked at us one by one. He nod and went out of the dinging building as fast as he came. Everyone was quiet for a bit before Andrew laughed nervously.
“A joker like always.” We laughed a bit.
“He doesn’t make it sound fun at all.” Victoria cried out.
“Don’t listen to much to him. If you are lucky you will only see him a few times this summer. He stays inside most of the time and makes paperwork. He is there to the bigger events like talent competitions and the big campfire and stuff. Don’t worry.” Andrew winked at her and she blushed like crazy. We sat the rest of the night talking with each other and those who had been there before gave us some great tips. The next day the children would come and I couldn’t wait. 

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