The Campgrounds
Chapter 1
My eyes darted around the room, quickly scanning through every visible surface. No flash of color leapt out, nothing was out of place. Yet, I still couldn't find it. Annoyance was creeping into my head, flushing my face. Being the rather meticulous person I was, I knew I needed to find the last puzzle piece.
It was a corner piece, I knew that much by looking at my nearly complete picture. It was preferably a darker blue, as it was part of the lower quadrant of the sea landscape I was now failing to put together.
"Wow, Em, wow. You can manage to keep track of everything in your life, except for a puzzle piece? How pathetic can you get." I murmured to myself, a little bit peeved. Rarely I had gotten angry over such a small thing, but I had been particulary stressed out over the past few days.
It was final exams, which was signifying the end of the school year. Math had been a tough subject for me all of my life, so I had been trying to get in an hour of studying every night for the past two weeks. Unfortunately, sports and family had prevented this. So, as a last minute cramming, I had spent five hours, from seven to midnight, studying. Luckily, the test seemed easy enough. Although it had the appearance of being a piece of cake, what I discovered was when I said this, I had an uncanny ability of failing that test. I shook these troubling thoughts away and focused back on the puzzle.
I shook out the contents of the puzzle box, only discovering a piece of paper demonstrating hazards and advertising a few of the brand's other products.
"Hey Embry, have you seen the dusting stuff?" My mom walked into the room, wiping her hands on a dish towel. I had alwayds admired my mom for how much she could clean the house, and how much willpower she had for it.
"It's up in the loft. I'm pretty sure Erik left it up there last night." Erik was my older brother. Protective, the It guy, loved by everyone, including his teachers. I was just lucky to be his sister.
"Thanks, hon. By the way, I got a call today." She set down the towel. The first emotion that came to mind was fear. ****. I was in trouble.
"Don't worry, you're not in trouble." Instant sigh of relief. "But you're going camping this weekend." Her words were slow, but they sent chills rushing down my spine. Camping. The last time we went camping, I had dropped my flip flops in the lake and had suceeded in knocking over a table full of buffet items at the campground wide festivites.
"Oh. Well ok." It was hard to hide the disappointment in my voice. Camping was definitley not my first choice. "Well, where are we going?" I heard a mumbled reply, but since I was focusing, once again, on the puzzle piece I didn't hear her.
"Say that one more time." I repeated, giving up. It was nowhere to be found.
"Justin." She whispered quietly. I stopped, dead in my tracks, as horror began to seep through my veins.
"Justin?" I asked, almost silentley. Fresh pain began to rupture in my chest as I realized what she said. Justin. Justin. Justin, Justin, Justin. Justin!
Before I could say anything, she opened her mouth to speak.
"You're going. It would be good." She told me, firmly, even though she was biting her lip as if she was still deciding if I should go or not. I couldn't describe what I felt. It was kind of like I had gone into a haze of anger and sadness, rolled into one big ol' bundle of 'happiness'.
"No." I let my fist float gently down to the table. But by the slapping noise, I could tell it wasn't gentle. "I won't go." I tried to sound defiant, but my lip began to tremble. By the look on my mom's face, I could tell three things.
1. I was going.
2. I couldn't change her mind.
3. When I unsucessfully changed her mind, I would be in trouble. Big time.
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