Camp Koradel

As soon as Galvin heard the police sirens, he knew something was wrong with the girls. “Rosette: stay in here, keep the doors locked, and if you see anything that looks fishy, call me. Or the police if it’s really that bad.”

She giggled uneasily, but nodded her agreement as he slammed the door and sprinted into the mall. All the commotion was obviously in one specific place, so he headed towards the noise, wondering what he’d do if something catastrophic happened to them. Sophie was truly different to him, and he knew that if she got hurt, he could never live with himself. He had already hurt her at least three times in the three days she’d been at his camp so far. First, he made her angry when he tried to help her. Her tears had twisted something deep inside of him, and he had to try to console her.

The second time was when he hit Allison. It wasn’t necessarily his fault, but it still hurt her. That was something he’d never forget: he killed a sixteen year old girl who was probably planning on killing herself anyway.

The third thing he had done to hurt her was kiss her. He never should have done it, but he just couldn’t help it. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever known, and just remembering when she had shot that arrow had made him want her even more. When they were alone, he felt a need to comfort her because of what he had done. Allison wasn’t coming back, and they both knew that.

The kiss had been more than he would ever admit. He couldn’t tell her he’d never felt a kiss like that before, because he was much older than her, and he doubted she had felt anything important. She had almost a gravitational pull to her, so when he saw the two girls outside the clothes store, surrounded by cops and looking tired and terrified, he had to fight the urge to sprint towards her.

As he walked calmly towards them, Sophie looked up. Her dark brown eyes widened at him, and as she bent slightly to whisper in Erin’s ear, her light brown hair fell over her shoulder. She flipped it behind her again, and Erin looked up at him, offering a shy, half smile. Erin was a pretty girl, too, but Sophie was absolutely extraordinary. The girl’s nose was small, but not too little, and her smile was perfect: straight teeth, and even the way her lips curved upward was adorable. “Officers, they’re with me.”

“Are these your children?”

Galvin looked at them, and surprisingly, they hugged him, answering yes to the officer. He hugged them back hesitantly, and the officer asked for names. “Galvin, Erin, and Sophie…Wellman.” It wasn’t an easy thing to say. They weren’t young enough to be his daughters, thankfully, but the idea of Sophie with his last name had him thinking…

“Sir? Your address?”

He gave him the cabin’s address, and the officer told them they could leave. “Wait, what happened?”

The officer glared at him. “I’m sure your daughters are able to tell you—”

“Let me go!” Two officers were struggling to keep a man still as he screamed and swung at them. He looked strangely familiar, and Galvin could just barely hear the officers telling him he was going to jail as another one was cuffing him from behind.

“Yeah, we’ll explain. Let’s go,” Sophie said, and Galvin turned around, flanked by both of the girls. He randomly realized he was very tall. The girls only barely came up to his shoulder, and the officer had only come up to about the middle of his neck. He wondered if this was flattering to Sophie, and that was why she was initially attracted to him.

“So—”

“Not yet,” Sophie interrupted calmly. She was now in front of the two of them. Not by far, but just a few feet ahead. The girl was doing a good job of hiding her fear. Erin, meanwhile, walked silently by his side, looking scared stiff, so he wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

“It’s alright, Erin.”

She actually smiled at him. “I know.” He smiled too, because he wasn’t sure if she’d ever smiled at him. It was nice to know she didn’t truly hate him with her entire being.

When they finally reached his old truck, Galvin started it up, and as they drove through the parking lot, no one spoke.

Finally, Madame Rosette asked, “So what do your bathing suits look like?” Erin chuckled behind Galvin and he grinned a little as well, but when he looked through the rearview mirror at Sophie, she was glaring out the window. Erin stuck a bag out from the back seat so that Rosette could see their little striped bikinis.

“Girls, explain what happened.” He couldn’t handle the suspicion anymore, and even though Sophie glared at him in the mirror, he waited for an explanation.

“My dad was there.”

“That… was your dad?”

“Yes, and he was following us, and when the worker tried to ask if he was bothering us, he punched him.”

“Your father punched a mall employee.”

“Yes,” Sophie answered Galvin, though it wasn’t really a question. Her voice sounded bored and exhausted, like she just needed a day if rest. It was the first time Galvin had ever considered giving it one of his campers, but he had to pretend he didn’t care, or at least act like she was normal to him. He hated having to do this, but he’d rather it be him, someone who would fight with them, rather than them having to go without a leader. And not just that, them heading out without the proper training. That was the main reason he had taken the job from the state. He didn’t get paid, but he did get a free house and the cabin was paid for as well.

The rest of the drive to the YMCA was silent and tense. Sophie and Galvin made sure to keep their eyes from darting to the rearview mirror so they wouldn’t be forced to lock eyes for even a fraction of a second.

Trying to keep her mind off of Galvin, Sophie let her mind drift to Scott as she stared out the window. The boy was adorable, but she had only seen him that one day. He was at her camp then, and she suddenly wished she was there for some reason. She just wanted to be able to talk to him, look at him, or anything else they wanted to do. Perhaps she just wanted to be around a person whom she actually had a possibility with.

What was she doing thinking about being with someone? She had just told Galvin two days before that she didn’t want a relationship, and she hadn’t been lying.

He pulled into the parking lot, searching for a close spot. When he found one, the girls jumped out, bathing suits in hand and fake smiles on their faces. “Hey,” Sophie said to Erin as they walked ahead of the two adults. “We’re going to make this fun, right? Are you okay?”

“I’m actually really worried about you. Are you okay?”

“I can be for the rest of the day if you can be, too.”

“Of course,” Erin agreed. They interlocked arms and entered the YMCA double doors like that, grinning and all. They didn’t even care that they probably looked like freaks together.

“Sophie,” Galvin said, “you’re with me, and Erin is with Rosette.”

They parted and Sophie stood beside Galvin while Erin walked behind her to stand with Madame Rosette. Galvin showed the woman at the front counter his membership card and said he had one guest with him. Madame Rosette did the same, and then the two girls headed for the locker rooms together.

Inside the changing stall, Sophie put on her first bikini. It felt odd in the beginning, but as she studied herself in the mirror, she admired the way it fitted her body and made her look possibly sexy, except the long scars on her right leg. Her leg wasn’t as bad as her arm, though.

Erin came out of her stall at the same time as Sophie, both self-consciously holding a towel over their bodies. They giggled shyly at each other and kept the towels for coverage as they left the locker room.

They were both happy when they met their teacher and found that she was a girl. Actually, it seemed to be an all-girl class of about 7. That was the maximum the class could have without placing more than one girl in a lane, so they each possessed their own lane. Sophie chose the very right lane, and Erin dived into the lane directly to the left of her choice. The water was a light, clean blue, which satisfied Erin’s OCD issues. She glared at Sophie, knowing that’s what she referred to it as.

As they learned a few things, Sophie and Erin laughed about nothing and excelled with every little technique. The first challenge Erin faced was the flips. Sophie’s hardest to learn was the butterfly stroke.

“I am not graceful enough for this!”

Galvin and Madame Rosette were sitting on two benches next to the pool, and Galvin was smiling. They were closest to Sophie and Erin, and watching Sophie struggle with the butterfly stroke kept the grin on his face. She looked simple, innocent, and basically anything but graceful.

“Are you enjoying this?” Rosette asked him.

“Of course, ma’am,” he answered simply

She laughed. “Boys will be boys, I suppose.”

“You asked.”