Virgin Camp

Natalie's POV

“You’d think that for a camp where you go to lose your virginity, they’d have nicer beds,” I grumbled as I sat up, making sure not to bump my head on Ryan’s bunk above me.

“Why?” she asked, jumping down to the ground and landing on her bare feet. “That would be logical, Nat. This is Virgin Camp, where nothing anyone does is ever logical.”

“How do you think it’s going to happen?” Daisy interjected suddenly, peeking at us from her top bunk.

“What are you talking about now?” Ryan snapped, rubbing her eyes and running her fingers through her blonde hair, erasing all traces of sleep.

“It,” Daisy elaborated. “You know… what’s it going to be like to actually… do it?”

“It hurts like fucking hell and there’s a fifty percent chance you get pregnant with a mutant freak,” Ryan deadpanned.

“And if you’re no good they kill you and use your body parts for scientific purposes,” I added.

“You guys,” Daisy said, giving us disapproving looks. “I’m serious here. They didn’t tell us anything about how we’re going to do it. Where will it be? How? Will it be quick? What happens after?” Her words tumbled out of her mouth faster than she could say them.

“I’ve been wondering that too,” Holly mumbled, playing with a corner of her blanket.

“I guess you’ll just have to wait and see!” Ryan said with fake enthusiasm. She turned to me and mumbled under her breath, “Good thing we won’t have to worry about that, right?”

My eyes met hers and I lifted a corner of my mouth just enough to show that I was still on her side. It was weird going from not trusting Ryan at all to suddenly being on the same team, with the same goal. It was actually kind of nice. Life was a lot easier when I didn’t have to worry about her.

She walked over to the stacks of clothes that were carefully placed on our lone dresser and groaned. “These are awful.” She held up a pale pink dress that looked like it had once been a pillowcase. “We have to do something about them.”

“They’re not that bad,” Daisy said. “And you don’t have a choice. It’s mandatory. The counselors know what they’re doing.”

“Do you ever shut up?” Ryan glared at her, throwing the pillowcase dress in a musty corner.

Daisy blanched, retreating further into her bed like she thought Ryan might eat her.

“Let’s just get dressed,” I said, getting out of my bed and walking over to the dresser to examine my pile of clothing. “What are we doing today?”

Before anyone could answer, there was a loud knock on the door. It creaked open, and revealed our Whitie. “There’s a meeting in the dining cabin in ten minutes. Your attendance is greatly appreciated,” she said monotonously, before slamming the door shut.

“Well, I guess that settles that,” I said.

Daisy and Holly hurriedly grabbed their things and changed. As soon as they were out the door, Ryan turned to me. “We should skip.”

I contemplated it, but then shook my head. “We have to at least pretend to play by the rules.”

“Why?” she asked incredulously. “I thought we agreed to fuck shit up?”

“Yeah. But if we generate too much attention, they’ll put us under lockdown or something. They’ll have a Whitie trailing us twenty-four seven. How’re we going to do anything if that happens?”

She groaned. “I guess.”

We changed, and I convinced Ryan not to alter her pillowcase dress in any way. We had to lay low.

“We can stir up trouble from out of the spotlight. We have to be unsuspecting campers from here on out,” I told her as we walked out of our cabin. “It’ll be easier that way.”

She complained about it, but I stood my ground. She knew I was right, she just wanted to be difficult about it. The night before, we had made a simple agreement to not only leave with our virginities, but also make things as difficult as possible for the people running the camp. Who goes off to summer camp and actually behaves anyway?

It’d be easier if they didn’t suspect us. Of course Ryan would be a target right away because of the pain in the ass she generally was, but I was determined not to let Pat or the Whities have any more reason to think her guilty of anything but being a little resistant.

“So… who was that guy you were sitting with at lunch yesterday?” Ryan asked with a smirk. “Huh?” She nudged me in the side and raised her eyebrows suggestively.

I continued walking down the path toward the dining cabin, fighting off an unexpected smile. Then I realized how crazy it was. I couldn’t believe I had actually kissed him. Who does that? Who goes and kisses someone they’ve only known for five minutes? Really?

“What’s wrong with me?” I grumbled, running a hand over my face.

Ryan looked at me oddly. “What?”

“I don’t even know him. All I know is that his name is Owen and he’s a virgin and I kissed him.”

She stopped walking altogether, putting a hand over her mouth to cover up her laugh. She must have realized it was futile, because she took her hand away and let out the biggest laugh I’d ever head come out of anyone, including Trish when I told her I was still a virgin.

“Was that your first kiss, sweetie?” she asked, her eyes lit up with amusement.

I gave her a blank stare and started walking toward the dining cabin again. When I heard her catch up behind me, I said, “No, that was not my first kiss, you condescending little—” I cut myself off and took a deep breath. “I just—I’m not usually that forward.”

I had done a lot of crazy shit in high school, but this was completely different. Yes, it was kind of crazy. But not in a bad way at all. It felt good. Usually when I did stupid things, I looked back on them with a pang of regret or at least a small frown. But this… as embarrassed as I was, it just felt good.

“This place is beginning to work its magic on you,” Ryan said as she opened the cabin door for me.

“Magic?”

“Yep. Read it in the pamphlet. Remember?” She led us to an empty table in the middle of the room and sat down.

I remembered her freaking Daisy out by talking about the so-called “myths” of Virgin Camp. That was obviously stupid, but Ryan was kind of right in one aspect. If I hadn’t been here, if I’d been at home but in the same situation, with the same guy, I wouldn’t have kissed him. I would have made him go away. But in this goddamn camp everything was different and I was starting to forget what normal life was like and what normal Nat was like.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you with nerd boy,” Ryan said with an annoying air of confidence.

“I don’t need your help,” I mumbled as Pat appeared in front of the fireplace just like she had that first day, looking at everyone expectantly. The room quieted.

“It’s good to see you all again! I hope you’re enjoying your stay so far.” She looked at us happily, folding her hands in front of her and standing tall. “However, it seems a few of you are slower than others to take hold of the rules here.”

She paused, a dissatisfied look on her face.

“Your counselors should have informed you that there is to be no sexual contact between campers until further notice. Some of you seem to have forgotten that particular rule.” Her eyes miraculously landed on me, three seconds that dragged on for at least ten minutes.

“Many of you are not ready and still need guidance. There is a right way and a wrong way to do these things and we will be more than happy to help you! We want our campers to have the pleasure of doing these things right way. It is important to follow this program completely, in order to ensure that everything goes smoothly for every single one of you. I emphasize, we only want the best, for all of you.”

She finished with a smile, and exited the cabin through a backdoor.

“Good job, Nat,” Ryan said, patting me on the back. “Laying low. Real nice.”

I looked around the room until my eyes found Owen’s. He was sitting at a table with a few other guys, but he was looking at me. “Well,” I said to Ryan. “I guess I’ll just have to be a little more discrete.”

Holly and Daisy joined us at our table after we got our breakfasts. I mulled over Pat’s words as we ate, trying to find some sense in them, but I just didn’t get it.

“Why wouldn’t they allow ‘sexual contact’ between campers?” I asked finally. “Isn’t that kind of what we’re here for?”

“Who knows. Everyone here is a fucking lunatic,” Ryan said, poking at the food on her plate.

Holly sighed. “It’s like Pat said—there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things. We shouldn’t be doing stuff like that until we know how to do it.”

Daisy nodded. “That makes sense. I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about doing it the wrong way,” she said, talking with her mouth full of food. It was all over her metal braces and it made me cringe.

“Everyone else in the real world did it without being professionally trained first,” I pointed out, handing Daisy a napkin.

“Well… I don’t know,” Holly said uncertainly. “This is their camp. They just like to keep everything in order.”

I pushed my plate of food away from me. “You’re completely right,” I said in a serious tone. “I mean, what if I kissed someone the wrong way? I could get pregnant and die.”

“Exactly,” Ryan said, going along with it. “We can’t have all these horny little virgins going around humping every unsuspecting camper here. There must be rules. Rule, rules, rules!”

Daisy and Holly stared at her, trying to determine if she was being serious or not. I laughed, probably louder than I should have. We were attracting the attention of a few nearby campers. I stared at one of them.

“Hear that, Johnny?” I asked. He looked like a Johnny. “No unsupervised humping!”

Ryan stood, and I followed her out the cabin door. Everyone was watching with wide eyes, the entire cabin silent.

“I’ll never get sick of doing shit like that,” Ryan said once we were outside, breathing in the sunlight.

I grinned. We could still lie low. We just didn’t have to act like robots.