Starlight (Book 1)

11: Nothing Bad Happens During This One, I Promise

The morning came quickly: sleeping was an impossible task with three other chatty teenagers in the room. It had taken Alaina knocking on the thin door separating us and shouting in order to get us to quiet down.

I woke to the smell of waffles wafting through the tiny camper. Something also smelt burnt, too, but as I climbed out of my bunk and got dressed, Lily and Eleni began to get up as well. I hadn't managed to get much sleep; the bunk was stiff and as I sat up, my neck ached and the side I slept on felt like it was made of static.

Once ready, we all filed from the back bedroom and entered the main section once more. Jax was asleep on the couch, since the girls had kicked him out, and somehow he managed to still be snoring through the incessant beeping of the waffle iron.

"Good morning!" called Alaina, a plastered smile on her rose gold face. Something told me she shared my desire to go back to bed and stay there. She and my dad were sharing the task of making breakfast, and for once it seemed (although I was suspicious) that nothing had been horribly burned.

Either way, the waffles were covered in whipped cream and strawberries and that was an invitation for me to forgo anything else. I headed for Kieran, accepted my plate, and let Alaina pour me some lemonade in a rather fancy looking clear plastic glass. She began to set everything out on the small table, shaking Jax's shoulder as she passed. He merely grunted and then continued to snore.

The lemonade was sour. I pursed my lips and tried to forge onwards, and at some point, Kieran silently dumped a handful of ice cubes into my cup.

"Aren't you going to wake him?" he asked, nodding towards Jax, who I was trying not to bother by positioning myself in a place where I wasn't touching him and he couldn't kick me. It was a delicate balance.

"He could sleep through the apocalypse," Lily said. "You're better off not bothering the beast."

From the front of the camper, Alaina came, slapping a map down on the table. "All right. I spoke to those weirdos at reception and got some places we might want to check out."

If I thought she was going to let us rest for the day I was, unfortunately, wronger than wrong. In the span of five minutes, she'd gotten a trip planned out down to the last second. The lines were highlighted with arrows pointing in every direction.

"First we want to check out the hiking trail—"

"Wait, back up," said Eleni. "What was that about the receptionist?"

Alaina then failed to elaborate. "—past this road. It leads to somewhere really nice, apparently."

And off we went. She drove us all the way towards the forest, and at that point, the camper hit a bump. Jax woke with a start, bumping his head on the side of the table and spent the next five minutes blaming me for laughing at him.

Not being the sort of person who liked hikes, I stayed at the back with Dad. We hadn't yet gotten the chance to talk about what had happened at Sleeping Lake and I didn't think he would bring it up either.

"Did you call Papa?" I asked finally, hoping he would at least tell me they talked.

Slowly, he nodded. "He would call you, but he got busy with work. It was a quick conversation. I wouldn't worry about it, though, all right? Your father knows what he's doing."

Up ahead, the path forked off into two different directions. Alaina had taken the one covered in moss and thick grass. Over the noise of crunching boots, I could hear the waterlogged sound of voices, though I couldn't pinpoint any specific words.