You Still Have All My Heart

Today was the day that Cass would be able to embark on her first camping adventure. She was extremely excited for it since she loved to try new things. Everyone had to wake up early that day since it would take a couple hours to get to the camping grounds. They were all supposed to meet a Garrett and Jenn’s house at five that morning to have what Jenn called a ‘quick but nourishing breakfast’.

It was around four o’clock in the morning when Cassandra was woken up by Jordan, who was woken up by Jenn. “Cass! Jenn told me to tell you to get dressed and bring your duffel bag downstairs,” Jordan informed her sleepy friend.

Cass just nodded to indicate that she was indeed awake and that she had heard her friend’s message. Jordan left the room, leaving Cass to lay in the bed for a couple minutes longer. After laying in her bed and enjoying the coziness of her pillow for a few more moments, Cass decided that it was time she got out of bed and start to be productive. She slowly sat up and swung her legs to the side of the bed and stretched. She could feel various joints popping and then grabbed the clothes she had laid out for the day. As she made her way to the bathroom she could smell the wonderful aroma of bacon, pancakes, and eggs. She quickly got dressed and then went back into the room she was sharing with Jordan and grabbed her duffel bag. She made her way downstairs and headed into the kitchen.

“It smells so good in here,” Cass said when she walked into the room.

“Trust me, it tastes even better,” Garrett said stuffing his face.

“Yeah, he’s right, I’m totally grabbing seconds,” Jordan said, throwing a smile towards the cook.

Cass grabbed a plate from the stack on the counter and loaded it up with various foods on the stove. She sat down and took a bite. “Ohmygod. This is delicious Jenn! This is soooo good. Man, Garrett, you sure are lucky to be able to eat this food all the time,” Cass said.

“Tell me about it. Jenn’s the best. No one’s taking her away from me. She’s a keeper,” he said smiling. Jenn was blushing because of all of the compliments her friends were giving her. She took a plate, put some food on it and sat down next to Garrett. They all ate in silence, enjoying the perfection of Jenn’s breakfast.

Their enjoyment was disrupted when they heard the other guys enter. They were all joking and smiling and being their usual selves, despite the time of day.

“Food’s on the counter,” Jenn told them.

“It smells delicious,” Pat said with a big smile. The guys and the two girls that accompanied them each grabbed a plate and sat down with their food.

“Oh Jordan, Cass you haven’t met Kennedy and Jared’s girls right?” John asked them.

“No, I’m Cassandra but everyone calls me Cass,” Cass introduced herself.

“Yeah, and I’m Jordan.” Jordan told the two girls.

“It’s nice to meet you guys. I’m Gabi,” said the brunette girl sitting next to Kennedy.

“And I’m Tessa. IT’s really nice to meet you,” a blonde girl said; she was sitting next to Jared. While enjoying their breakfast, Jordan and Cass got to know Gabi and Tessa and they really seemed to like each other.

Once everyone was full, Garrett and Jenn cleaned the kitchen while everyone else helped pack the cars. They were going to bring five tents, a ton of snacks, pillows, blankets, bug spray, a cooler, a portable stove, three boxes of matches, a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, walkie talkies, and more. They were only taking two cars for the trip so that they could save on gas. They were taking Jenn and Garrett’s car, which could hold six people, and John’s car, which could hold five people. Garrett, Jenn, Jared, Tessa, Kennedy, and Gabi would be taking Jenn’s car and John, Jordan, Cass, and Pat would be in John’s car. Once everyone was ready to go they all piled into the cars and started their journey.

“So Jordan, I’m looking forward to sharing a tent with you,” John looked over to the girl sitting next to him with a smirk on his face. Jordan just rolled her eyes in annoyance. She was definitely not happy with sharing a tent with John. Normally she wouldn’t mind sharing something with the singer but he just couldn’t get it through his head that she wasn’t interested in him that way anymore. Cassandra had tried to help her friend from sharing with John but he was just so damn persistent. Cass did promise that if John seriously pissed her off that she would try to knock some sense into him. Cass knew that it probably be successful if that’s what it came down to but Jordan said that it was the thought that counted.

“What do you guys usually do when you go camping?” Cass asked the guys.

“Well, we usually set up camp and then half of us go hiking while the other half watch camp and do whatever they want and then when everyone’s back at camp we eat and have a campfire and then we’re going to play a huge game of manhunt. It’s going to be epic,” John explained.

“That sounds like fun,” Jordan said with a smile.

“Yeah, and I can’t wait to take some nature pictures,” Cass said with a smile.

John and Jordan started talking about something in the front so Cassandra took out her phone and plugged in her headphones and started listening to some of her music. She was in the middle of enjoying some Ryan Adams when Pat poked her. She took out one of her headphones and looked at Pat. He quickly retracted his hand and went back into the position he was in before. Cassandra just stared at him for a while before putt in the headphone again. A couple seconds later she felt someone poke her again. She looked towards Pat but he just started whistling innocently. She knew what he was trying to do so she increased the volume on her phone and continued to listen to her music. A couple seconds later she felt Pat poking her again but she ignored him. That would annoy him. He was a child like that. He would annoy you just to get a reaction out of you and if you ignored him long enough he got bored and stopped doing it. Pat poked her a couple more times but she looked as if it had never happened. He soon got bored and started drumming his fingers on his knees. It seemed as if he was really into it because he had his eyes closed and he was banging his head around. Cassandra took this chance to poke her finger hard into his side. She quickly went back to the position she was in before so it wouldn’t look like she moved. Two can play at that game she thought to herself. A couple seconds later she felt a bony finger stab her into her side. She looked over and saw Pat whistling again. She smirked and jammed her finger into his ribs which made him squeak out in surprise and pain. He turned to her and frowned.

“That hurt,” he pouted and rubbed his side.

“Awww, I’m sorry Pattycakes. I didn’t mean for it to be that hard. I brought some Skittles. Do you want to share?” Cass asked him. She hoped that the candy would make him feel better. When Pat heard the mention of his favorite candy his expression immediately brightened. He immediately nodded his head and held out his hands. Cassandra chucked at the boy’s actions and grabbed the backpack she borrowed from Jenn and took out the candy. She ripped it opened and poured a handful into the drummer’s hands. They both happily ate the candy and before they knew it they had arrived to the camp site.

“And we have arrived!” John announced to them.

They all got out of the car and stretched their bodies out. They started unpacking their stuff from the cars and headed over to their camp grounds. They saw a cleared area that had a picnic table and a fire pit. They started unpacking and started to set up their tents. Cassandra and Pat brought their tent to the spot where they were going to set up and started taking out the tent and the poles that would hold it up. Cass flattened out the tent so that Pat could put the poles through it. It seemed as if he was having a little bit of trouble with connecting the pole and Cassandra tried to help him but she knew nothing about setting up a tent. John saw his friend struggling and since he was already almost done setting up his tent he decided to help his friend.

“Pat, do you need help?” he asked when he saw his friend struggling.

“I’m good,” Pat told him staring down at the poles in his hand. John watched his friend struggle for a couple more minutes before walking over to Pat and taking the poles from his hands. He quickly connected them and then handed it back to his younger friend. “Thanks,” Pat thanked John. John just smiled and walked over to his tent and finished setting it up. Cassandra and Pat took a little longer than the others to set the tent up but when they did they were satisfied with it.

After the tents were set up they ate some lunch. Jenn had packed them all some sandwiches to eat along with a couple bags of chips and to drink they had soda, water, and beer. They all joked around while eating and drinking, they were just having a great time. When they were done they threw their trash away in a nearby garbage can and started doing their own things and that’s when Jared asked them if they wanted to go hiking.

“Tessa and I want to go hiking, who wants to come?” Jared asked them.

“Me!” Jenn said running to get her camera and her backpack from inside her tent.

“I’m going!” Cass said grabbing her camera bag and backpack.

“Gabi and I will go!” Kennedy told his friend.

“Anyone else?” Jared asked his friends. The rest of them shook their heads no.

When everyone was ready they started walking along the hiking trail. Cassandra immediately started taking pictures of all of the trees and at the occasional appearances of the blue sky from in between the trees. She took pictures of Kennedy and Gabi and Jared and Tessa walking hand in hand. She also took pictures of Jenn and herself. It was so beautiful out in the woods. Cassandra had never seen something more beautiful and pure than the wildlife that she saw in the woods. This was definitely something she was not used to seeing since she was a city girl. It was so calming to hear all of the birds chirping and to see how the world looked like before man touched it. However, the most beautiful thing that Cassandra ever saw was the waterfall at the end of the path. She heard rushing water when they were close to it but she never imagined that it was so beautiful and picturesque. She took quite a few pictures of the waterfall.

“Do you wanna put your feet in?” Jenn asked pointing to the little pool that the waterfall poured into.

“Of course!” Cass said with a smile. They ran over to the area and took off their shoes and stuck their feet in the cold water.

“Ahhh, this feels so good,” Jenn said reveling in how good her feet felt in the water.

“I know. It feels sooo good,” Cass agreed with her friend. Her feet had started to get sore from all of the walking they did so to be able to put her feet in the nice water it was like heaven. Cassandra started to take more pictures with her camera from where she was sitting. She took a photo of Jenn, without her noticing, looking down at her feet in the water. She took countless photos of the waterfall, her friends, and all of the beautiful trees. They spent an hour or two at the waterfall, just having fun.

“Guys, we should be heading back soon since it’s going to get dark in a little bit,” Kennedy told them all. The girls put their shoes back on and everyone made their way back to the camp site.

When they arrived back Cassandra was starving again. She was relieved to see that Jenn was cooking some food over their little stove top that they brought. She walked over to her friend to see what she was cooking.

“What are you making?” Cass asked her friend.

“Mac and cheese,” she replied.

“Yummy, when do you think it’ll be ready?” Cass asked.

“In about five minutes…why? Are you that hungry?” Jenn asked her friend.

Cassandra’s stomach took that moment to growl loudly which seemed to answer the question. Jenn laughed and stirred the macaroni around. Cassandra decided to leave her to her cooking and find Jordan. She went over to Jordan and John’s tent and found her inside reading a book.

“I took some great pictures,” Cass said to her best friend when she crawled into the tent.

“Really? That’s great. Where’d you guy go?” Jordan looked up from her book so she could talk to her friend.

“Well, we were walking along this nice path and you could hear all of these birds chirping and it was so serene,” Cass told her friend.

“That sounds great, but didn’t your feet hurt?” Jordan asked her friend.

“Yeah, but it was all worth it when we got to the end of the trail and we saw this beautiful waterfall. I took pictures if you wanna see it,” Cass told her friend with a smile.

“I’d love to,” Jordan said excitedly. Cassandra took her camera from around her neck and showed Jordan some of the pictures. “Oh God, the water looks perfect,” Jordan said when she came across the photos of it.

“Yeah, you should’ve gone. Jenn and I had a lot of fun,” Cass told her.

“I would’ve but I’m not really the outdoorsy type, y’know? I would’ve been whining and complaining the whole way,” Jordan told her friend honestly.

Before Cass could respond Jenn yelled, “Time for dinner!”

“Good, I’m starving,” Cass said and the two girls crawled out of the tent and walked over towards the picnic table, grabbed a bowl of mac and cheese and sat down at the table.

“Jenn, I hope we’re having more than just this for dinner,” Kennedy said, “we’re growing boys!”

“Don’t worry we’re going to roast hot dogs and other meats along with some veggies. Then for dessert we’re making s’mores!” Jenn announced.

“That sounds delicious,” Pat said rubbing his stomach hungrily.

“Garrett and I gathered some stick so let’s roast some meat and veggies!” Jenn cheered. The guys ran over towards the roaring fire. They grabbed the meat and vegetables of their choosing and started roasting their food.

“This is so much fun,” Cass said to Jordan who was sitting next to her.

“It is. We’d never be able to do this back in Baltimore,” Jordan said rotating her stick so that her little piece of steak would cook evenly.

“Does it look cooked enough?” Cass asked the girl to her right, showing her hot dog.

“It looks pretty well done to me,” Jenn said laughing a little when she saw Cassandra’s hot burnt hot dog. “I mean, it’s burnt to a crisp!” Jenn told her friend.

“That’s how I like it!” Cass defended her hot dog. She blew on her hot dog to try and cool it down so she could eat it.

“How’s your steak?” Cass asked the girl to her left.

“Delicious. This is great. WE should totally try doing this at home,” Jordan said biting into the meat.

“That would be great,” Cass said before taking another bite.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying their time with each other. They were all telling stories and laughing. John was even singing some camp fire songs. Everyone was having a blast and Cass decided to quickly grab her camera and take a couple pictures. Everybody was smiling and laughing, it was like a Kodak moment. She brought the camera up to her eye and took a picture. She got up and walked around to capture some perfect pictures of her friends. She always loved to take these types of pictures. She loved the way the camera seemed to capture and immortalize the feelings that people felt and all of the memories they had. She snapped a few more photos and then Jenn announced that it was time for s’mores.

“Guys, just use the other end of your sticks for the marshmallows but first everyone needs to sanitize their hands. I don’t want any of you getting sick because of cross contamination,” Jenn told everyone. She gave everyone a squirt of the liquid and they cleaned their hands. Then she put out he chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows. Everybody took a marshmallow and started roasting their white balls of sugar.

“Ahhh! Mine caught on fire!” Cass said when she saw the flames engulf her sweet treat.

“Quick! Blow it out!” Jordan told her friend while laughing. Cass did just that and grabbed a graham cracker and some chocolate to make her delectable treat.

“Yummmmmmm,” Cass moaned in delight when she tasted it. “It’s sooooo good,” she said closing her eyes, concentrating on the sweet goodness in her mouth.

“Ahh, I’m going to make mine now,” Jordan said, taking her graham cracker and chocolate. She squished them all together and bit off a corner of her dessert. “Oh my God. It’s like I’m eating sex. Ahh, it’s so fucking good but so fucking bad for you,” Jordan said while eating her treat.

“I would make another one but I’m sure I’d feel sick if I ate it,” Cass said sadly staring at the fire.

“Same, maybe we could make one for the guys?” Jordan suggested.

“Or, we could make marshmallows explode in the fire!” Cassandra said with a huge smile on her face.

“Yesss, let’s do that,” Jordan said liking the idea. They each took another marshmallow and stuck it on their stick. They put their sticks directly in the flames and watched their marshmallows slide off of the sticks and fall onto the ground. Then, they stared at their marshmallows, they watched them bubble and become bigger and bigger until they popped and became a disgusting gooey mess.

“Who’s in the mood for a little bit of manhunt?!” John asked his friends when he finished his third s’more.

“ME!!!!” Kennedy yelled at his friend, “you’re going down O’Callaghan.”

“Okay, let’s break up into two teams of five. Who wants to be team captain?” Jenn asked them.

“Me!” John and Kennedy said at the same time. They seemed to have a little competition going on.

“Okay, then John and Kennedy are the team captains,” Jenn said. They played rocks, paper, scissors to decide who could pick first. Kennedy won and started to pick.

“I choose Jared,” Kennedy said first.

“Awww, no fair!” John whined, “he’s the smart one! Fine, I pick, uhhh, Gabi.” John smirked when he saw Kennedy’s face fall.

“Hey! That’s totally not fair! Whatever, you’re still going down. I’m sorry baby but I can’t go easy on you,” Kennedy told his girlfriend.

“Who said I was going to go easy on you?” she questioned with a smirk.

“Well, if we’re playing that way, John, then I pick Jordan!” Kennedy said with a smirk.

“Whatever, Jordan, baby, I’m sorry you have to be on the losing team. Don’t worry, baby, I’ll make you feel better tonight,” John told the blonde with a wink. Jordan just rolled her eyes and walked over towards Kenney and Jared.

“Uhhh, I pick Garrett!” John said pointing to his friend. Garrett walked over and stood next to Gabi.

“Well, then I pick Pat!” Kennedy said glaring at the tall lanky boy across from him.

“Oh yeah? Well, I pick Tessa!” John yelled back at him. Tessa walked over to John’s side and blew a kiss over towards her boyfriend who was standing opposite of her.

“Jenn! You’re on my team!” Kennedy told her, waving her over to his side.

“Then, Cass I choose you!” John said with a smile. Cassandra smiled and walked over towards the singer.

“So, who wants to be the hunters?” Jenn asked them.

“I call we hide!” Kennedy said quickly.

“Okay, ready, set, start!” Jenn announced.

“Wait! We have to think of codenames!” John told her.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. You guys have five minutes to think of codenames. While you guys think of them I’ll get the walkie talkies out,” she told them.

“So, what are our codenames going to be?” Tessa asked her group.

“Well, John’s obviously going to be Giraffe Boy,” Garrett said.

“Yeah, and Tessa could be T-Money,” John suggested.

“Gabi could be Brown Bunny?” Tessa suggested, “since she likes bunnies and her hair is brown?”

“Yeah, that sounds good, Garrett can be Ryan Adams since he’s obsessed with him,” John said.

“And Cass can be Teddy? ‘Cause she’s all warm and comforting like a teddy bear,” John said with a smile.

“So we have all the codenames down?” Garrett asked the group. They all nodded in response. Okay, let’s grab our walkie talkies and then we’ll start counting,” he said.

They walked over towards where Jenn placed the walkie talkies grabbed one each. They also grabbed a flashlight each since it was dark out and nobody was in the mood to get lost.

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…”John’s team started counting with their eyes closed. They finally got to one hundred and then they opened their eyes and started looking for the other team.

“Cass, Tessa you guys go look over there, Garrett and I will look over there and Gabi you be the jail keeper,” John gave their assigned positions. Cassandra and Tessa started walking quietly towards where John had pointed and started looking around with their flashlights.

“What was that over there?” Tessa whispered to Cass, looking towards her right.

“What? Where?” Cass whispered back. Tessa pointed to where she saw the moving thing. The girls slowly walked towards the bush that was rustling. They slowly looked behind the bush and found Pat hiding behind. “We found you Pattycakes!” Cassandra announced quietly to the drummer.

“Awww, fuck, why did I have to be the first to be found?” Pat whined when he saw that he was captured.

“Awww, boo hoo for you, now let’s get you to jail,” Cass said with fake sympathy. “Tessa would you mind tell John and the others that we found Pat?” Cassandra asked her new friend.

“Yeah, no problem,” Tessa unclipped her walkie talkie from her belt loop, pressed a button and held it up to her mouth. “Giraffe Boy, Ryan Adams, Brown Bunny this is T-Money. Teddy and I have captured Pat. We’re going to bring him to jail,” Tessa said into the toy. The girls walked back towards camp holding each of Pat’s arms so that he couldn’t try to escape. Once they reached camp they saw Gabi standing in the area where they labeled jail.

“Brown Bunny, we’re here to deliver Pat. Make sure that no one tries to come over here and set him free,” Cass told her team mate.

“Of course,” Gabi replied. She took Pat’s arm and brought him over to where she wanted him to stand and kept watch over him.

Cass and Tessa went back towards the woods to look for some more members of the opposing team. They were walking around when someone started to speak over their walkie talkies.

“Teddy, T-Money, Brown Bunny this is Giraffe Boy. Ryan Adams and I have successfully captured Jordan. We’re on our way to Brown Bunny,” John’s voice came from the walkie talkies.

The girls continued to walk around and look. They suddenly saw some movement by a tree. They slowly walked over towards the tree and looked behind it. There was nothing there. They continued to look for someone when another voice came through the walkie talkie.

“Giraffe Boy, Ryan Adams, T-Money, Teddy this is Brown Bunny! Kennedy and Jared came by the jail and got Jordan out! I repeat Kennedy and Jared freed Jordan from jail. Be on the lookout,” was heard.

They played the game for a couple more hours until everyone decided to wrap it up since they were all covered in mosquito bites and they were exhausted. They all retired to their tents and quickly fell asleep. Cassandra had a blast on her first day of camping and she couldn’t wait for the next day. Hopefully it would be even more fun.